Having 2 MacBook Pros for a week allowed me to experiment with Ubuntu.

Every year I try out linux to see if it has reached a level I can live with.

I gave Ubuntu 6 a try over the last few days and it came close, but not close enough.

Show stoppers:

• No support for the microphone (for skype or gizmo project)
• Abysmal full screen DVD playback
• No built-in support for firewire (needed a kernel recompile)

Dissuaders:

• Time consuming hacking for simple things like keyboard configuration, audio and video support
• No support for iTunes (Apple need to release iTunes and Quicktime for Linux)
• Dated interface – even with the latest version of Gnome or KDE

All in all I found Ubuntu nice. It has come a long way since last year.

I don’t mind terribly having to go through the process of downloading and installing various packages to get something working.

But after reading so much about how the Mach kernel, used in Mac OS X, sucks, and the Linux kernel is superior, I was amazed that normal end-users have to recompile the kernel to get something like firewire working.

When Linux can be installed on most modern hardware without requiring the end-user to compile source code to get common functionality working it will have graduated from pre-school in my opinion.

Maybe when Edgy Eft is available it will be happy day.

Ubuntu 6 on MacBook Pro – close but no go.