I really like uBuntu but

I have been having a field day with Ubuntu until lately. I can't install java and numerous other packages. I'm a newb user and without these esentials being easily installable people will not stick around. People are stubborn and set in their ways, I used to run my own ISP, I know.

I am going to stick around and see if the problems get resolved, it's almost like no one is listening...

I'm sure it will get taken care of soon. I've been using ubuntu since the start of the summer so I'm still fairly newbish myself. This is the first time I've ran into problems like this, so I don't think its a common occurrence. And there is always the option to download and compile from source.

Cyrix, you're killing me. I look at your post history and it's nothing but blasting Ubuntu because you can't install a java package and recent server changes have caused a small hiccup. The majority of your post count is negative.

Before you start flaming and recreating the same bantor over and over, how about using the search feature. In 15 seconds, I have a solution to the j2re1.5 installation issue.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=318829&highlight=j2re#post318829 and it works.

Seriously, c'mon man.

It does seem a shame that there appears to be no liaison between the developers and these forums. I went through this with lindows some 3-4 years ago. We are the frontline of the help desk. I only wish that I had more time available to understand gnome. I might then be able to offer fixes instead of just work arounds or advice. They have set such a difficult release schedule for themselves that there is probably no one left to help clean up the previous release. I admire their lofty goals and understand that pushing the limit will eventually include tested versions of all available packages for both software and hardware. This is clearly several release down the road, but, it makes support for a point release difficult and the responsibility of the installing administrator (where I suppose it belongs).

In the meantime, several subsystems seem buggy, are difficult to configure or fail to work at all. I don't use ubuntu as my personal OS. I do keep it around for testing, and am happy to be able to advise others in its use (while learning a considerable amount myself), but, anybody who updates and/or upgrades regularly must understand that the newest is not necessarily the best and is more than somewhat likely to require reconfiguration or repair.