FOSSwire

Historically, installing Flash Player, and therefore getting access to much of the internet's video content, on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions has been a right pain.

You can download the archive from Adobe and run through the text-based installer, but Ubuntu Hardy Heron actually makes it a whole lot easier than previous releases (if you're using Firefox at least).

Here's how.

Launch Firefox 3 Beta 5, and browse to any site where you know that Flash is used (YouTube is a good one, but you need to be on an actual video page, not just the home page).

Click the Install Missing Plugins button, and in the next window, select the top option for the Adobe Flash Player installer.

There will be a couple of confirmation dialogues you will need to accept, including enabling the multiverse software repository for non-open source software.

The installer then downloads the package and gets installing. The installation process might appear to sit there for a while doing nothing, but really that is just the Flash Player installer doing its stuff behind the scenes, just not feeding its progress back to you.

Once that is done, however, you click Finish, the page reloads and the Flash Player works!

It really is a great improvement to the old installation method, and makes getting Flash up and running on your new Ubuntu system pretty painless!

So Ubuntu Hardy Heron has now arrived, and you can download the new release from the Ubuntu site.

The main desktop release tends to overshadow the other projects that are official variants of Ubuntu. If you're new to the distro, new to Linux in general, or just want a refresher, here's what is available as well as the standard desktop product.

Ubuntu Server Edition

Server Edition, is, quite obviously, the version of Ubuntu tailored for running servers. Instead of being a graphical live CD, the Server version boots straight into a text-based installer, then sets up a system optimised for common server tasks.

You do have full access to the Ubuntu software repositories, so it is easy to then customise it to do whatever you need it to do.

Hardy Heron Server Edition is a Long Term Support (LTS) release, and it will be supported until 2013.

Kubuntu

Kubuntu is the official Ubuntu derivative which ships with the KDE desktop environment, rather than the GNOME desktop which comes with the standard version. I personally run this KDE variant on my desktop, although I also work with GNOME a fair bit too.

Hardy Heron actually brings two different Kubuntu releases to the table. The standard desktop PC version features KDE 3.5.9 which is less bleeding edge and is more tried-and-tested technology. There is also a 'KDE 4 Remix' disc available which features the same Ubuntu base with the newer, but less stable KDE 4 desktop. I plan to be looking at this KDE 4 Remix disc in more detail in an upcoming post.

Unlike its GNOME counterpart, the Kubuntu distro does not have the LTS tag, meaning it will only be supported for 18 months.

Xubuntu

Xubuntu uses the more lightweight Xfce desktop environment, which makes it ideally suited to lower-spec computers that might be sluggish running the main edition, or the KDE variant.

Xubuntu does have Long Term Support, and because it is a desktop release, Hardy Heron Xubuntu will be supported until 2011.

Edubuntu

Edubuntu is a derivative specially designed for use in education and schools. It is preinstalled with many educational applications and other specialised software such as the iTalc classroom management system.

Edubuntu does not have Long Term Support at this release, so it only has the standard 18 month support cycle.

Gobuntu

There are some elements of Ubuntu that aren't 100% free software/open source. Mostly these are 'restricted' drivers that are used in certain hardware configurations, that make Ubuntu able to support hardware for which there isn't a free driver available.

However, some people prefer to run an operating system that is 100% free software and open source, and Gobuntu is the official Ubuntu derivative that offers that.

Right now it is still quite early days for Gobuntu, and there is only a text-based installer. "Please note that because running Gobuntu on most laptops and many desktops will be difficult, Gobuntu is intended for experienced Linux enthusiasts at this time."

Still, if going pure is your thing, Gobuntu is worth a try.

Others

This list only encompasses the official derivatives that are part of the Ubuntu project. In reality, there are many more distros that have used Ubuntu as a base and built on top of them, but which have diverged from the Ubuntu project itself.

There is also one more that I haven't mentioned in this list - Ubuntu Mobile Edition. Its focus is more towards specific mobile devices and so I didn't include it directly here.

Hopefully this clears up the inevitable confusion as to which 'buntu is which. Most people will probably just want to try the standard desktop version, which you can always grab a copy of at this page. For the more adventurous, and those with specific requirements, however, some of these versions could be a perfect fit.

It's April, which means that it is the month of a new release of Ubuntu. Hardy Heron (8.04) is going to be the eighth release of the distribution, which has enjoyed enormous popularity in recent times.

I use the KDE variant, Kubuntu as one of my main desktop operating systems, but I haven't yet tried out the beta of Hardy Heron. I'm putting the standard Ubuntu desktop disc through its paces.

The first thing you notice after booting off the CD is that the boot menu has new options. Instead of just booting into the live CD environment only, you now have the option to boot in and 'Try without change', or to jump straight into the installer.

In the normal mode, it boots fairly quickly, considering it's a live CD and you can get up and running straight away and play with all the default applications as much as you like. If you do then decide after a quick play to install, you can use the Installer icon on the desktop, just like previous versions of the Ubuntu Live environment.

Hardy features some visual changes from its predecessor. The GNOME theme has been subtly altered - menus now have an orange coloured bar on their left and some gradients and colours on buttons and other core widgets have been slightly changed too.

There is also a new default desktop background, which features an artistic rendering of a heron in the Ubuntu colour scheme. I personally think it looks professional and makes a nice backdrop to the new distro.

Going over to your other option on the boot menu now, choosing the install-only mode is slightly quicker, but really only cuts out the extra time it takes to load the desktop and double-click the icon.

The installer is very much like its predecessor. It is reasonably simple to understand, minus the usual, unavoidable confusion that partitioning will cause. I managed to do a full install on the disk easy and quickly, and had no issues with the installer that has happened on occasion in previous Ubuntu releases.

Stability is a big issue here - Hardy Heron is planned to be the second release of Ubuntu given the Long Time Support (LTS) moniker, which means it will be officially supported for three years on the desktop, and five on the server.

I didn't experience any major issues in my brief play, although one application I did launch crashed (it was the Screens and Graphics control panel application listed under Other). The fact that it crashed was handled with admirable grace, with a balloon popup appearing in the top right of the screen.

Clicking the icon gives a dialogue with some more information.

Also, the wired network connection that was available to Ubuntu didn't work straight out of the box. Granted that enabling it is simply a matter of clicking the network icon in the top right and clicking Wired Network, but in my opinion this should have been automatic and not required any user input at all.

From the brief look I've had, Hardy Heron looks very promising. There are plenty of changes to the architecture underneath the distro that bring it up to date with some of the developments in other distributions (PulseAudio, for example), but the experience from the user's point of view remains one of the best and easiest of any Linux distribution available.

If you want to have a play around with the Hardy Heron beta, you can download it from the Ubuntu site.