Evan’s Debugger is a Linux replacement for OllyDbg.

You can install it by downloading the .tar.gz and doing the following:

$ sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev
$ sudo apt-get install libboost1.40-all-dev
$ tar zxvf debugger-0.9.15.tgz
$ mv debugger /usr/local/src/
$ cd /usr/local/src/debugger
$ qmake -makefile DEFAULT_PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/lib/edb/"
$ make
$ sudo make INSTALL_ROOT=/usr install

I just got a laptop loaded with Lucid Lynx and have had a bit of a mixed experience adjusting.  I’ve actually used Ubuntu a bit in the past, but only minimally and never as my primary computer until now.

First reactions

• I like the default background.
• Have the fonts improved?  Fonts have always looked bad on Linux distros I’ve used in the past, but the Ubuntu font seems to be pretty clear.
• Why is the window close button in the top left?  Every computer I’ve ever used it’s been in the top right.  I hate that its anywhere else in Ubuntu.  It’s annoying because it goes against convention.  It’s also frustrating because it’s not uniform.  E.g. when closing tabs or windows in Chrome, the x is still in the top right.
• I’m going to have to get used to the menu bar being on the top as opposed to being on the bottom on XP.  I think I like the change though.
• OMG.  Why is it so hard to change anything on the menu bar?  To move anything I have to right click every single icon on the menu bar and uncheck “Lock to Panel”.  Then I need to specifically select the Move option to be able to move the icon.  It’s very annoying that this is so difficult.  A much better UI would be a global lock/unlock for the panel instead of the per-icon mechanism and drag and drop support without having to first go into move mode.
• Finally!!!  You fixed the menus!!  The menus in every other Linux distro I’ve ever used have been super cluttered and unorganized.  I LOVE that they don’t suck anymore.  Do not underestimate how important this is.
• The menus themselves are even harder to change than the menu bar.  I had to do a Google search to figure it out.  Who was the genius that decided you need to go to System > Preferences > Main Menu?  Why the hell can’t I just drag icons and around and right click icons to edit their properties?

Nice surprises

• The pop up that appears when you change the volume or connect to Wi-Fi is beautiful and super friendly.  This is the one place where usability is hands down better than XP!  The volume bars in XP were really ugly.  And I hated having to x out of the Wi-Fi connection pop-up in XP.  The Ubuntu one nicely fades out after a second or so.  Kudos to that UI designer.  Can he be in charge of the rest of the UI?
• Wow does the Wi-Fi connect fast after startup
• Making Windows+L lock the screen on my computer was surprisingly easy.  The Keyboard Shortcuts window itself was really difficult to use, but I was really happy how easy it was to find.
• Hulu Desktop is a savior.  It kept me from defenestrating my computer when the website was totally broken in Linux.
• I was able to use KeePass 2.x eventhough it’s a Windows program.  I just needed to install libmono-winforms2.0-cil and xdotool.  No I can type “mono KeyPass.exe” to run the program.  Awesome!
• I was able to run Internet Explorer fairly easily by using PlayOnLinux

Frustrations

• Why is there no volume control?!!!
• Using NX shadowing requires disabling Compiz.
• The jar command is missing by default (fix with sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk)
• It seems that by default there is no GUI installed for controlling the firewall in Ubuntu?  Can that really be true?
• There are completely different panel buttons for logging out and shutting down.  These two buttons/menus should be merged into one.
• I’m having a lot of trouble renaming mounted network shares so that they show up with a nice name.
• It’d be nice if I didn’t have to install an extension to make backspace work in Chrome.
• I wanted to see what Kubuntu was like so I installed KDE.  I’ve always preferred KDE in the past, but it was just awful on Ubuntu.  The menus were so cluttered I didn’t know where to go for anything.  When I switched back to Gnome now all of my menus were now cluttered there too with a bunch of KDE crap!  I uninstalled the KDE Plasma Desktop library that I checked to install KDE, but it left all of it’s dependencies (i.e. everything).  It was quite an ordeal to uninstall.  I uninstalled a couple of the base libraries and that got most the garbage off my system.

Nagging throw my chair through the window frustrations

• Ubuntu has managed to take Flash on Linux to a whole new low.  It works worse than on any other Linux distribution I’ve ever used, which is saying a lot.  I realize it’s not totally their fault and hope that this will become a non issue with WebM, but right now it’s an enormous frustration.
• Please, please, please make Ctrl+Y redo in gedit.  Redo is Ctrl+Y in every other program I use in Ubuntu (Eclipse, Gimp, Chrome, Firefox, Open Office, Scribes, Geany, etc).  If you want to keep Ctrl+Shift+Z as redo that’s fine, just add a second key binding for Ctrl+Y.  I might have to finally plunk down the money to try the new Linux version of UltraEdit.

Necessary fixes

• Put the x, minimize, and maximize buttons back in the top right corner of the windows.  Big thanks to gdi2k for pointing out a solution in the comments.  I first tried to fix this by changing to a different theme, which solved the problem, but made everything super ugly.
• Add a volume slider by adding the “Notification Area” to the panel and running gnome-volume-control-applet
• Get a text editor where Ctrl+Y works.  Download scribes and then change the default text editor.

Installing NX for remote desktop support

Overall I rather like Ubuntu.  OpenSUSE 11.2 left me feeling rather frustrated, so I’ve now switched to Ubuntu on my home machine as well.