Final Thoughts & Who Should Use It
Clearly anybody who is a faithful Christian that is in the market for a faith-based distribution should check out Ubuntu CE. I regard this release as a new beginning for this distribution and, hopefully, a harbinger of even better things to come. I’d like to see more aesthetically pleasing additions to this distribution in future releases including more Christian wallpaper as well as some Christian-themed music and perhaps even an original Christian theme.
Non-Christians that are not interested in exploring Christianity should probably stick with regular Ubuntu.
Summary Table:
| Product: | Ubuntu Christian Edition 5.0 |
| Web Site: | http://ubuntuce.com/ |
| Price: | Free |
| Pros: | New DansGuardian GUI, new E-Sword installer. OpenSong added. Christian themed wallpaper and religious popups. |
| Cons: | Doesn’t quite match the beauty of the Muslim version of Ubuntu. |
| Suitable For: | Beginner, intermediate or advanced Christian users or those who might be interested in learning about Christianity. |
| Summary: | This release is a new beginning for the Christian edition of Ubuntu. It now has a new development lead (David Kuntadi) and some nice updates to some of its earlier features. |
| Rating: | 3.5/5 |
(11 votes, average: 3.36 out of 5)
Loading ...
It may have been me that commented on UbuntuCE 9.04 regarding Dan’s Guardian. You do have to loosen it up a bit if you intend to use Beehive software. Since I was testing this one in the Virtualbox OSE, I did just that.
I happen to love that picture, and I also enjoy having convenient Bible verses and tools available to me. I install some, but not all, of the same tools on my main system.
I found this particular release to be a bit rough around the edges; nothing terrible, just not quite up to the refinement that I enjoyed in the previous release before Jerome took a break to work on other projects.
I think this particular release is OK, but I really liked the last one, old as it had become. I finally replaced it not too long ago on my old Compaq/HP D530 test system.
I think this one could be a keeper for those who already like Ubuntu systems. For me, I will wait to install it until the guys have refined it a bit more once again; meanwhile, I will play with it in Virtualbox OSE.
One other thing, Jim. Since the last time you reviewed UbuntuCE at ET, Jerome has added a lot of graphics and MANY cool tools. In his last release before the sabbatical to work on the Jesus TV project, Jerome added some cool apps that he had spread across the Firefox toolbar, and he also had GodTube hooked up, which is now Tangle.
The Bible Trivia is new; that is pretty cool. I love being able to read a quick verse as soon as I login, and if I am ready for more right then, I can dig in with one of the study tools, or I can start up the study tools when I can specifically set aside some quiet time for study.
Overall, this system is worthwhile for someone who wants a readily prepared desktop system with Christian based software tools. The addition of Dan’s Guardian, in spite of the over zealous default settings, is a great thing to have available. You can shut off the filtering if you need access and do not have the time to fool around with it, then you can enable the filtering and/or tune it up when you have the time to hone it. You can also filter at certain times of day and not others, so it is a handy tool if you invest a little time in it.
I applaud this project, as there are many Christian FLOSS users/enthusiasts, who get to feel lonely as such a project was missing/discontinued… Kudos to David Kuntadi !
As of Dansguardian behaving “not so well”… One has to tweak the whitelist in “advanced settings”… Or disable it if it is too much of a burden…
Very good Xiphos & very good Wine e-Sword !
One of the saddest things I have ever seen.
I guess I’m pleased that the CE found a new developer after the project was crippled for a year after the police seized the original developer’s computer during a child pr0n investigation: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=685387
Personally, I prefer the Ubuntu Satanic Edition, myself, Linux for the damned.
http://ubuntusatanic.org/news/
Check out their latest release, Ubuntu Satanic Edition 666.6 (Jesus’ Jugular).
I understand the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is working on a release, as well, all hail his noodly appendages.
Thank Dog I’m an atheist.
@ Master:
You must have a very happy and joyful life if this is the saddest thing you have ever seen.
[...] New Ubuntu CE available now! http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2009/07/20/ubuntu-christian-edition-5/ [...]
Extra popups? Are you sure this distro is not the workings of Satan himself?
As a Christian and a Linux hobbyist, I was hopeful that CE 5.0 would be the answer to my yearning, but not quite. I would like to see a little more, like maybe some good church administration software, Open Office pre-packaged vice Abiword, and some other things.
Hopefully, in time it will be something Christians can really rally around. I would like to see it to be honest. We’d have less technology outlays in the church if we could get a solid Linux system up and running. CE just isn’t quite there yet without the administration software. I’m hopeful though!
I should say that despite these comments, I am running CE on my desktop at home and I’m enjoying it.
Praxis, I did a review of Ubuntu Satanic Edition for ExtremeTech a while back. Google and you should find it. I will look at it again when it has another major upgrade.
Let me get this straight – Linux Christian Edition features an app called Evolution? This can’t be a very well thought out distro…
Nice review jim.I appreciate you in selecting distros which are nice and at the same time different for reviewing.One such distro is PARDUS linux.A new version of it is released in this july 18.Please do a review of PARDUS 2009.
@ Master: haha, oh come on! I can’t wait for the “spanish inquisition” version! complete with racks and iron maidens…
I ran it, I like it. It is a keeper, and I am not *bumtu fan <
Just have to learn to tweak the "Guardian".
quote: “. I would like to see a little more, like maybe some good church administration software, Open Office pre-packaged vice Abiword, and some other things.”
Yes, that is correction, in addition to the default customization and applications it would be also important to include lyrics projection software like Openlp( openlp.org ), the version 2 of the project was under development and was based on QT thus cross-platform. Church administration software would be great. I really love E-sword, unfortunately no native Linux version. Current version of wine cannot run e-sword. A show-stopper if you used e-sword heavily.