Ubuntu Server, contd.

Step one is completed.  I was actually feeling lazy about backing up some of my config files that I had running on Suse on my server, so when I decided to install Ubuntu, instead of wiping the Suse partition, I remembered that for some reason I still had my old Windows Server 2003 partition floating around on there, so I went ahead and nuked that one in favor of Ubuntu.  The idea being that in case Ubuntu doesn’t immediately see my LVM groups, I can revert to Suse to back up the config files.  It turns out that Ubuntu was smart enough to see them and only a simple setup was needed and they are back up with no problems.  I’ll probably leave Suse on there out of sheer laziness, even though I probably won’t be using it again on that box.

So I went ahead and downloaded and installed the Ubuntu Server version, which went flawlessly and only took about 20 minutes on my 733 Mhz machine as opposed to Suse’s 1-hour install and 45 minute update routine.  So far, so good.  And here it is:  Boot the system and I get a command line login prompt! Sweet!!  Next, check what is running… Absolutely nothing.  Excellent!  Ubuntu Server knows it’s a server, so it doesn’t automatically start countless unneeded services.  I like that.  And the apt-get thing is already growing on me.  It really beats adding a dozen sources to YaST’s software management module and waiting an hour for them all to refresh before I can start browsing for (sometimes outdated) packages.  apt-get actually works how I would want it to.  And since my residence is on the University’s campus network, apt-get is configurable to look at the mirror on the University’s Open Source Lab servers.  So I am basically downloading packages from a local repository at very high speeds.  Awesome!  Well, that’s about as far as I got tonight, since I had to take care of some other stuff.  Fred will be back over tomorrow to help me get everything up and running.  But judging by the painless and seamless initial setup, I think I will be happy with this OS.  Soon, I think, I will give Kubuntu a shot on my laptop, if I can figure out how to boot over the network to get the installer going.  The CD drive in my laptop has pretty much given up on me.  But that will be a future project.  Maybe next week, if the server setup goes as planned.