Ubuntu: package management at its best

I have been working with Ubuntu exclusively for the last 2 years. I switched because I was sure there was something better than Windows out there and I was willing to try to find it. It has been one of the most satisfying changes in my desktop experience since I can remember. I am going to have a hard time to give you a tangible feeling for what I mean, but in this post I will do my best.

I think one of the best ways to approach this discussion is by doing a sort of compare and contrast with some of the things that really bother me about a Windows operating system. By sharing some of my user experiences in contrast with the same functionality in Windows, I feel that you may be able to appreciate my love for this OS.

So the big question, where to start. Lets look at some of the core functionality differences in terms of package management and usability. This is a rather large topic I know, but I will not be covering it in depth. In Ubuntu you have a command line call of 'apt-get' which does so much magic its incredible, but lets not really look at it, but the applications built on this concept. Ubuntu has repositories where a vast amount of software can be accessed. By adding a line in your 'sources.list' or configuring it in your GUI, you will be given access to a whole new repository of software. Now this is exciting, but I don't think you understand the beauty behind this. Because you have access to the real time versions of all the software available, you also have access to all the updates that they release. So Ubuntu's Automatic Update feature does not just keep your OS up to date, but it also KEEPS EVERY PROGRAM YOU HAVE INSTALLED UP TO DATE TOO. Wow, that is something that has been missing in every OS that I can think of. This goes to a level that I only recently realized.

I recently bought a Thinkpad laptop for business and pleasure. About an hour after it was out of the box it had a working version of Ubuntu on it with a second boot for Windows (since I still use it for 2 operations in my life; resume for all those windows people and to reformat my iPod when it needs it). I have a pretty solid collection of media, so I wanted to hook my laptop up to my TV using S-Video so I would have access to it on my TV. After looking at a few instruction sites online (I will come back the be benefits of a community in a later post), I was pretty much finished getting my TV set up as a second monitor on my machine. My last step was to change the driver I was using in my 'xorg.conf' file from 'ati' to 'fglrx' and to reboot and hope that I had some form of that driver on my system. I probably should have downloaded it first and installed it and then used it, but I was feeling lazy at that point. Well regardless, my machine came up beautifully and my TV-Out worked perfectly, but check this out. About 2 minutes later my Ubuntu package manager popped up to tell me that I had updates available. I was like, "ok cool, I will check that out". To my surprise it had recognized that I was using a driver that was not installed on my system (or at least not the latest version) and it had already gone and gotten all of the dependencies for that driver from the repository and it was ready for me to update. Now someone try to tell me that they have had an experience like that with Windows. I don't think I ever have.