This Kool-Aid Tastes Funny 
Since it seems that I am the only Linux user who hasn't drunk the Ubuntu Kool-Aid yet, I thought I'd give a whirl this weekend. I downloaded the ISO for 6.10 (I prefer numbers to names) and pulled out the old Sony Vaio; a PII 96 MB of RAM. I immediately stuck a 64 MB stick in there just to make sure it would run X.

I burned the CD and then began the install. The first error I got was a prompt identifying itself as an I/O error - "error reading boot CD." Ok, maybe the CD is bad. I rebooted and ran the CD test check and that froze up. Figuring I just made a coaster instead of a CD, I went and downloaded a beta release Kubuntu 7.04. This time, the errors were "unknown keyboard in config file" and then another during the another step was "ACPI: unable to locate RSDP." I also go a screen of errors displayed sequentially for several minutes starting at 0.0000 with unreadable and constantly scrolling text and going to something like 124.xxxxx something before I gave up and pulled the plug.

The error from 6.10 seemed easy enough to research ("error reading boot CD”). Some Allthewebbing indicated that upgrading the firmware of the CDROM might help. The heck with that. It was easier to try another CDROM. So I did. I tried two more. I got some different errors and a freeze-up or two. I then took the Kubuntu disk and ran the CD check on it on another PC and it passed. I know some of my stuff is older but why wouldn't K/Ubuntu take to it? The old axiom that Linux runs on older hardware is still valid. The same machine with the same parts can take Slackware and Arch without a hitch. I guess it's just Ubuntu that doesn't work on older hardware. Yeah, maybe it's a tad old being a PII and all but it's not like I have vacuum tubes in the thing.

So much for the drinking the Ubuntu Kool-Aid. I'll stick with what tastes great and has less filling.

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