Review of Ubuntu 11.04

So I've installed Ubuntu 11.04 and played with a bit so far. While its generally the same deal as the previous version. (a user friendly yet full scale operating system) I have to say I am disappointed in the new unity desktop environment.

I personally find the unity desktop to be less user friendly then Gnome (my choice) or XFCE. It reminds of Mac OS-X with all the rolly, moving icons and strange menu set-up's. Now maybe as a linux and BSD guy, I have a bias against mac, but I've always found Mac overly complex to use. Further, all this fancy animated desktop requires something...things like RAM and processor power and a decent GPU. That to me is taking away from the essential things about linux. The fact it can generally be run on computers with very low system resources. I guess it still can, one could boot into gnome or Xterm, if gnome is heavy, Xterm and install XFCE. But I see no reason for the new desktop, Gnome was very functional, easy to use and is still my, and many of my fellow's, choice of a desktop.

Aside from that, its good, solid OS, as ubuntu always tends to be. It has a few bugs, but that's expected with any new release. Indeed, most of them have already been fixed with updates.

So overall, I think its a good solid release. I dislike unity, but hey, others might love it as a desktop, and you still get gnome installed incase you hate it. So it's hard to loose.

How to obtain an IPVv6 tunnel on debian and ubuntu and windows with minial effort.

he.nethttp://gogonet.gogo6.com/page/freenet6-servicesSo, you've probably heard about IPv6. If not, I suggest reading the article at Wikipedia as short primer. Wikipedias ipv6 page In short, IPv6 is the emerging standard for Internet protocol addresses. (currently we mostly use the 32 bit IPv4 address, the all so familiar "145.67.123.74" as an example) However, the pool of IPv4 address's has run dry, and now what is coming out is the IPv6 address, which provides for 128bit addresses that look like "2001:0:53aa:64c:2c91:c387:ba5a:505f"  Expressed in hexadecimal and having many more unique address's to choose from.

Okay so you want to use IPv6 but your ISP does not offer it yet. Well don't let that stop you. There services called tunnel brokers, who will give you a "tunnel" over IPv4 to carry IPv6 packets. For both Debian and Ubuntu Linux, this is an easy task.

You can go to freenet6 if you have if you have Microsoft windows, follow the on screen instructions, download their client program, and volia! you have IPv6 connectivity. If you have Debian or Ubuntu Linux, obtain the package "gogoc" either though snypatic package manager, or by using the command line "sudo apt-get install gogos" That package will automatically make a tunnel between you and their IPv6 tunnels. Another tunnel broker is Hurricane Electric Their tunnels however, require more technical know how to configure, so if your just new to this, I suggest gogo6/freenet6. However, Hurricane offers you a routed /48 block of addresses, which if you know how to use, is quite the gift... Now to check your IPv6 connectivity try using IPv6 version of google. If the page loads, congratulations, you are now part of the IPv6 collection of interconnected networks, also termed an Internet!

If it does not load or there is no obvious manner to set up a 6in4udp tunnel, try searching the Internet for the specifics of configuring your operating system to allow IPv6 connectivity.  

I hope you found this post informative and useful.