Ubuntu and Eclipse don’t like each other

As easy as installing Eclipse was on Windows XP a few weeks ago, it’s proving to be hell on Ubuntu 5.10. I use the Add Applications menu and chose Eclipse from the Development Tools list. That when well. Since then, it’s been downhill.Here are some of the issues, most of which are still unresolved:

• Java 5.0 is not available in repositories, unless you make many changes and use some brute force to repackage Sun’s SDK download
• Using Eclipse’s Update Manager to move to 3.1.2 requires me to add a new Remote Site, since the hardcoded value for the one in there isn’t valid
• Trying to add plugins through the Update Manager is impossible, due to some permission problems with the locations where the plugins need to be installed
• Impossible to add the Web Tools Project until I get to 3.1.2 (see above)

While I want to use Ubuntu because it’s easy, I have to say it sometimes feels like minor rocket science. Installing the VMware Tools is never obvious and requires some hacking, editing and a bunch of apt-get’s.

I haven’t finished building my environment yet, and I certainly hope installing/configuring Subversion, MySQL, Apache, PHP, Ruby On Rails and OpenLaszlo will be easier.

Once it’s all done, you can be sure I’ll take a VMware snapshot and/or zip a copy of my VMware, just in case…