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This is the same problem I had - my RAlink card automagically worked on the 10.04 release, but broke on the 10.10 development version. I didn't have time to look into it so I put aside using 10.10 for a few months. A few weeks ago I had some time, so I looked into it and saw that the rt2860sta and rt2800pci modules conflicted, so I blacklisted rt2800pci. This was the biggest problem I encountered, and it is still there.

That is useful tip, thank you. I'll give it a try.

Some comments here say that there are still issues with WPA, once you get that going on a basic level. We'll see.

The real headache there is that I've also got wired Ethernet card broken in Linux (Realtek 8186c, which gives me this), so I end up with no networking whatsoever. And manually downloading the required packages on the laptop and copying them over on a USB stick gets really annoying.

The fix for that one is known, at least - manually compile and install a third-party driver. Not a problem as such, but it'll break on every kernel update if I don't remember to recompile, and the reason I want Ubuntu there in the first place is to not have to muck around with such things.

That's probably this bug in the flash plugin:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flashplugin-nonfree/+bug/410407

https://launchpad.net/bambam keyboard mashing game for babies for linux :)

I use Avant Window Navigator or AWN.

https://launchpad.net/awn

AWN works quite nicely now on Ubuntu 10.04. See the AWN wiki for more information. If you're into bash scripting you can even create custom launchers but it's not exactly convenient. Useful for adding Wine launchers to the dock though.

Avant Window Navigator - Standard in a new install on my system

I use Avant Window Navigator or AWN.
https://launchpad.net/awn

I like it because it's very simple and just sits there and doesn't do any special launching stuff. It has a nice "squish" animation and handles custom icons nicely. More than anything else it was the main one around when I first got one and I've stuck with it, Docky didn't offer enough benefit for me to make the transition.

It's more akin to OSX than Windows, here's what my desktop looks like...
http://stepdown.deviantart.com/#/d2te728

oh, and if anyone out there is interested in this idea, be sure to check out project epidermis

which was released in 2007. There is also the separate issue of binary compatibility between distro versions.

There is no 10 year stable API anywhere in the system. Even kernel tree drivers get broken.

Google "wireless broke by kernel update" to see this wonderful system at work.

As for upgrades distros routinely ditch 2 year old releases when it comes to updated packages. Ubuntu even does this with their "LTS" versions. Want the latest version of a browser that includes security improvements? Well that requires packages x,y and z which require a full system update!

Printer broke after update:
The problem described here can also occur for non-HP USB printers, in general when the printer is accessed via libusb. This does not only happen when the printer is accessed through the "hp" CUPS backend of HPLIP but also via the "usb" backend of CUPS when the "usblp" kernel module is blacklisted or via manufacturer-supplied libusb-based CUPS backends. In any case do a full system-update to get the updated libusb. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hplip/+bug/595650

https://launchpad.net/bugs/+bugs?field.searchtext=remote+code+execution&search=Search+Bug+Reports&field.scope=all&field.scope.target=
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2009-1252
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Critical-Vulnerability-Silently-Patched-in-Linux-Kernel-152678.shtml
http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/MOAB-20-01-2007.html
http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/MOAB-14-01-2007.html
http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/MOAB-01-01-2007.html
http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/MOAB-01-01-2007.html

Race?

The most popular distros already patched it days ago and others are currently in testing.

Redhat patched it 2 days ago.
Ubuntu patched it 2 days ago.
Fedora is currently testing the patches. Not sure if it's already live.
Debian Lenny has patched it.

So I read the PDF...

The Linux kernel versions that include the commit 320b2b8de12698082609ebbc1a17165727f4c893 from Linus tree are fixed.

which is the patch.. "Patch "mm: keep a guard page below a grow-down stack segment" has been added to the 2.6.32-stable tree"

and meanwhile my ubuntu update managaer pops up and shows an update for the kernel and gives the following link to the changelog...
http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/2.6.32-24.41/+changelog

* mm: keep a guard page below a grow-down stack segment - CVE-2010-2240

Nice to see people are on the ball with security updates, even if it shouldn't have been happened in the first place.

Yep.

On Linux input devices are now moved into the kernel. The only complex thing remaining is modesetting and hardware acceleration. But they are being fixed as well.

In fact, you can run 'rootless X' on Fedora ( http://lwn.net/Articles/341033/ ) and soon on Ubuntu ( https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-maverick-rootless-x ). Here 'rootless' means that the server doesn't require root privileges to work.

Memory leaks, behavioral inconsistencies from app to app from one release to another, apparent lack of testing..

Here are 4,270 bug reports listing a segmentation fault: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=sigsegv&orderby=-number_of_duplicates&search=Search&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=TRIAGED&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

5,000+ around Firefox: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=firefox&orderby=-number_of_duplicates&search=Search&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=TRIAGED&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

~149 containing memory leaks, and pages and pages of GNOME-related high or critical level bugs..

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.has_no_package=&field.has_patch=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.searchtext=gnome&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=TRIAGED&orderby=-importance&search=Search&start=75

Memory leaks, behavioral inconsistencies from app to app from one release to another, apparent lack of testing..

Here are 4,270 bug reports listing a segmentation fault: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=sigsegv&orderby=-number_of_duplicates&search=Search&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=TRIAGED&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

5,000+ around Firefox: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=firefox&orderby=-number_of_duplicates&search=Search&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=TRIAGED&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

~149 containing memory leaks, and pages and pages of GNOME-related high or critical level bugs..

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.has_no_package=&field.has_patch=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.searchtext=gnome&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=TRIAGED&orderby=-importance&search=Search&start=75

Memory leaks, behavioral inconsistencies from app to app from one release to another, apparent lack of testing..

Here are 4,270 bug reports listing a segmentation fault: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=sigsegv&orderby=-number_of_duplicates&search=Search&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=TRIAGED&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

5,000+ around Firefox: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=firefox&orderby=-number_of_duplicates&search=Search&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=TRIAGED&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

~149 containing memory leaks, and pages and pages of GNOME-related high or critical level bugs..

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.has_no_package=&field.has_patch=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.searchtext=gnome&field.status:list=CONFIRMED&field.status:list=FIXCOMMITTED&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status:list=INPROGRESS&field.status:list=NEW&field.status:list=TRIAGED&orderby=-importance&search=Search&start=75

A little patience, please... Getting Webkit in is a big first step; the rest will come, in time, and quickly, I'm sure. I would expect to see a fully functional Konq+Webkit by this year's end.

A WebKit kpart is not new; there's been one for some time -- I made a package of it in October '09 because the one in the kubuntu repositories was out of date, so it must have been around for some time before that. Many things didn't work back then. For example it didn't integrate with KDE's password saving system. It looks like that's related to the fourth bullet on the list xiando posted -- so that _still_ may not be fixed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see that they're making progress. However, this has been a long time in coming, and I wouldn't be surprised if these problems last past years end. I got tired of waiting and moved to Chrome some time ago.

It appears there isn't a package for the backend in Ubuntu Lucid currently. But I'm actually using it, using a package I made and store in my KDE-related PPA. I also have a package for the MPlayer backend. Here's the link, if anyone is interested:

https://launchpad.net/~pxc/+archive/pxc-kde

that noone has posted this yet: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/partner/+files/canonical-census_0.1.tar.gz
It is a simple bash script with the following comments:

#!/bin/bash
# Send an "I am alive" ping to Canonical. This is used for surveying how many
# original OEM installs are still existing on real machines. Note that this
# does not send any user specific data; it only transmits the operating system
# version (/var/lib/ubuntu_dist_channel), the machine product name, and a
# counter how many pings were sent.
#
# (C) 2010 Canonical Ltd.
# License: GPL v2 or later

simply unpack the tar.gz file and see for yourself what info it is transmitting. IMHO the whole thing i harmless.

That's your job of installing the proper cron package:

apt-cache show anacron
[...]
  Anacron (like `anac(h)ronistic') is a periodic command scheduler. It
  executes commands at intervals specified in days. Unlike cron, it
  does not assume that the system is running continuously. It can
  therefore be used to control the execution of daily, weekly and
  monthly jobs (or anything with a period of n days), on systems that
  don't run 24 hours a day. When installed and configured properly,
  Anacron will make sure that the commands are run at the specified
  intervals as closely as machine-uptime permits.
  .
  This package is pre-configured to execute the daily jobs of the Debian
  system. You should install this program if your system isn't powered on 24 hours a day to make sure the maintenance jobs of other Debian packages
[...]

And one important note about canonical-sensus:

"The package can easily be removed and only applies to the OEM installed versions of Ubuntu."

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/canonical-census/+question/120594

I already see people up in arms about this https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/canonical-census/+question/120594 But, I think in the open source community -- assuming the package is open source -- an honest method can be created to give the vendor (Canonical) information they need to help them provide much better service and attention to platforms based on usage. The package can be removed as well, so I think Canonical is doing this in a pretty non-intrusive way. We can't expect the greatest achievements be made when all you have to go on is the wind in your own home town.

...which you can see before you install it?

From the source package web page, opening the 0.1 release, we see:

Built packages

canonical-census send "I am alive" ping to Canonical

What did you think it might have done?

Seriously, this is a story? What's next, "ZOMG, popcon!"?

That issue was fixed in 9.10. The MySQL daemon wasn't fully converted over to Upstart.

I'm currently still seeing it in 10.04LTS, after doing something very simple and reasonable that selinux would have been able to handle with no problem. So the "solution" of apparmor being easier still didn't solve anything - I just lost the power of Selinux, and traded it for something that hangs updates. Because hey, after all, if I'm installing mysql-server then OBVIOUSLY i want it to start during the install process, right? And replacing init with Upstart, when it is no where near ready for production use even now several releases later, was a bad move. Mysql is a very basic thing to want to have working on a average, run-of-the-mill, lowend server; ie, the Ubuntu Server target audience. What sort of testing occurred?

And it was also just an example. Maybe you can explain why this bug still exists? Does Canonical think that using ldaps to auth a machine is unimportant? And that's as a *client*, so that means Ubuntu can't be used as a workstation OS where ldaps is in use, unless you do something like I suggested in comment #91. This is the sort of thing that happens when people do feature updates downstream without submitting upstream; Canonical has intentionally fostered a culture of people not doing the right thing (kudos for you for not being among them) with code changes, and as a result has created their own divergent forks that they now have to continuously spend time remerging with their proprietary changes. RedHat does a feature freeze with only bug updates per release; that's *reasonable* because it creates a reliable basis for people to develop upon. How much do they change basic things like apache, mysql, etc - without submitting things upstream? Almost none at all.

I could go on. The point is merely that Shuttleworth is whining about a problem he created; people aren't being unfair to him. He tried to change too much, had too big an ego, and that might have worked anyway (like it does for many others in the OSS community)...if so many basic things weren't broken. Wanting a laptop to start faster (hence Upstart) is no reason to break servers. Solutions should solve the problems they're aimed to; in many cases with Ubuntu tools, the "solution" mainly just makes new problems.

But, they can still turn it around. They do have a large base, after all...and they did hop on the Cloud sooner than others, so they've got a head start there.

Check out the Desktop Widget "i HATE the Cashew!", available at this PPA:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/samrog131/ppa/ubuntu lucid main

I completely agree about Akonadi though.

Confirmed, Handbrake has come a long way in the last 9 months, and now offers every option (I believe) available from x264, the encoding lib it uses. It also has picked up speed a fair amount (though I think that's more from improvements in x264 than Handbrake).

I've found the nightly builds (in spite of the disclaimers to the contrary) to be very stable, and if you're on an *buntu (or can spin up an Ubuntu VM), you can install from the PPA quite easily.

Here for instructions on installing from PPA; here's some info from the Ubuntu wiki on using Handbrake to encode for Android.

A feature just now gaining support in the nightly builds, which I look forward to, is a "preview" mode, so you can check the effect of settings changes on the resulting video quality.

In any event, this side argument fails to demonstrate Ubuntu's alleged shortcomings in terms of web browsing.

Oh, I realize you thought I was eldavojohn... Using linux (and even FreeBSD), I have never ran into problems browsing the web, I would never say that... Neither would I say that desktop linux has "big problems". I would say that desktop linux has many, many small problems, that projects like a thousand papercuts try to address. Tiny interface quirks that would never even give pause to your average slashdotter can confuse and frustrate many less able users.

From personal experiece (yes I know, anecdotes are not data), I am a linux/windows dual booter. I do most things in linux, but keep a windows partition for games. Whenever someone I know, mostly uni students non-CS fields (like medicine, biology, etc) , wants to use my PC, I'll let them use it, often leaving them to use it alone. When I come back to them, they've booted into windows to continue reading/watching/listening to whatever it is. When asked, they usually mention some small irritation or surprise (e.g the screensaver coming on while a movie is playing, or the web browser not supporting some windows feature like middle-scrolling).

Often a lot of interest is shown, but this falls sharply upon encountering a "missing" feature, or a little quirk.It may be true that 80% of users use 20% of an app's features, but this seems to be a different 20% for different users...

https://code.launchpad.net/openstack

Have fun!

> If the user is able to make and run executable, send and receive over the network, create and delete files, then malware is also going to have that ability.

Why should it necessarily be so?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693

Well, after my initial problems with Vent I found Mangler and decided to give it a shot. I spent a couple hours trying to get it to even install, then decided figuring out my problems with Wine would be easier. Which it was.

If you were using Ubuntu it would be as simple as going to the Mangler PPA and copying the lines it shows into Software Sources. Granted, that's still more work than it should be - it should just be in Software Center in the first place.

I'm guessing that most of the intelligent, technically knowledgeable people have left Microsoft. So now non-technical employees are pretending to run a technological company.

Filing for patents like this has absolutely nothing to do with technical people. What probably happened is something like:

1. Engineer designs cool interface with gestures and page animations
2. He shows his project manager neat interface
3. Project manager like it, sends it up the chain to see what higher ups think
4. VP over section likes the idea, sends it to legal (like everything else) to make sure it won't be a problem
5. Legal drone sees no prior patent filings for the interface idea. Sends idea to his boss.
6. Legal over-drone notes no existing patents and thus automatically files a patent for the interface idea.
7. ???
8. Profit!

The software patents filed by a company have little or no bearing on the quality of the engineers working there.

One indication that the smart people have left is when a company brings out a new version of software, and the big change is in the menus. Menu changes are something people who don't care about technology can do.

You don't say?.

(The Microsoft Vista operating system was, it is said, not a failure, but an intentional method of getting people to pay for two operating systems, by deliberately releasing an unfinished one.)

Said by somebody who almost certainly never even ran Vista. Vista's real problems were:

• Hardware companies didn't want to adopt the new driver model (which they had years to plan for). Instead they released half-assed drivers, in part to make Microsoft look bad (for creating work for them).
• The huge amount of third-party software available for Windows was filled with poorly-designed programs that required users to be administrators. Microsoft pushed UAC and limited-user rights to try and get this to start changing. There was absolutely no way to make this any easier on people than they did.
• Vista did have higher hardware requirements than XP, and people were installing it expecting it to run well on their 256MB of RAM and Pentium 3. The "designed for Vista" logo/sticker just made things worse (and honestly, I think this is the biggest place Microsoft screwed up Vista. They should have been much clearer with regards to hardware requirements).

The way software patents work right now is every company is trying to get as many as possible. It's basically the Cold War all over again, except instead of nuclear weapons it's software patents. Microsoft is doing it for the same reasons Google, Apple, Palm, etc are: Mutual Assured Destruction.

then the problem can be effectively communicated to whichever developer wishes to tackle it.

Or your bug will simply get market as "WONT FIX" and disappear into the bug tracker history, which I have seen numerous times, even on rather obvious and simple to fix bugs. Need an example? Firefox: Difficult to find out how to use multiple profiles at the same time.

For mesh generation (surface+volume meshing, boundary layer creation, etc):
enGrid: http://engits.eu/cms/index.php?id=4
netgen (used as a library in enGrid): http://www.hpfem.jku.at/netgen/

For the CFD simulations:
http://www.openfoam.com/

Debian/Ubuntu packages:
https://launchpad.net/~cae-team/+archive/ppa

Which is why importing tags and other data from F-Spot is in Ubuntu's plan for replacing F-Spot with Shotwell. Also see the related bug report

Which is why importing tags and other data from F-Spot is in Ubuntu's plan for replacing F-Spot with Shotwell. Also see the related bug report

Not sure it answers the OP needs, but a short googling returns :

Back In Time

DéjaDup

TimeVault (not maintained anymore it seems)

Not sure it answers the OP needs, but a short googling returns :

Back In Time

DéjaDup

TimeVault (not maintained anymore it seems)

Yes, the 32-bit flash version running on 64-bit Ubuntu would crash very often. I switched to the 64-bit packages provided by kees in his ppa http://launchpad.net/~kees/ years ago but since Adobe has now dropped 64-bit Flash for Linux it will probably not be installable anymore. The 64-bit version was much more reliable at least as reliable as Flash ever is, of course it still ate CPU like crazy as it does on every platform.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one.

the blog entry you link to says:

We’ve carefully placed all the panel indicators on the right, and we’ve carefully put the window controls and window title on the left. So now we have all this space on the right. As a pattern, it would fit to put the window indicators there.

can you point out to me that part which tells the reason why they moved the window controls to the left. as far as i understand it they just did it because they want useless, irrational change for the sake of change. they could have let the window controls stay where they are and place the new fangled (imo, unnecessary) panel icons at the left. why make the users change their habit?
also, it might have taken an hour for you, but i simply can't get used to it. every time i try to use it, it irritates me to rage.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

are you a moron? try and remove the indicator applet. volume, bluetooth, and power are also gone. please try it before sounding off on someone who knows more about the topic.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

i don't care. i can remove individual icons from the taskbar in any version of windows without changing anything else. i cannot do it in 10.04 ubuntu with the envelope icon. that makes it less customizable.
from your quoted shuttleworth:

There aren't any good reasons for that

enough said.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one. If you don't want to, it's trivial to revert to the previous setup.

there is also the envelope icon that takes up space on the top bar that you can't remove without also removing volume and bluetooth etc.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

windows is more customizable than this.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

gnome needs to die.

Ah, so you're just trolling?

kde is going in a much better direction

"There is only one right direction. That is to wherever I am. What other users might prefer is irrelevant.

they did not bother to give a single reason for this fucking change.

Mark Shuttleworth comments on the bug report and writes a blog.

shuttleworth and co have shown tremendous disregard for the community

"This is a difference between Ubuntu and several other community distributions. It may feel less democratic, but it's more meritocratic, and most importantly it means (a) we should have the best people making any given decision, and (b) it's worth investing your time to become the best person to make certain decisions, because you should have that competence recognised and rewarded with the freedom to make hard decisions and not get second-guessed all the time.

"It's fair comment that this was a big change, and landed without warning. There aren't any good reasons for that, but it's also true that no amount of warning would produce consensus about a decision like this."

(Shuttleworth, see also 202, 218, 388 and 410)

the notification system is utter crap. for example [...] wtf! [...] it should give you [...]

"Bugs in my OS? Unheard of!"

i have stopped using ubuntu because of irrational, stupid

This part of the sentence is true.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one. If you don't want to, it's trivial to revert to the previous setup.

there is also the envelope icon that takes up space on the top bar that you can't remove without also removing volume and bluetooth etc.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

windows is more customizable than this.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

gnome needs to die.

Ah, so you're just trolling?

kde is going in a much better direction

"There is only one right direction. That is to wherever I am. What other users might prefer is irrelevant.

they did not bother to give a single reason for this fucking change.

Mark Shuttleworth comments on the bug report and writes a blog.

shuttleworth and co have shown tremendous disregard for the community

"This is a difference between Ubuntu and several other community distributions. It may feel less democratic, but it's more meritocratic, and most importantly it means (a) we should have the best people making any given decision, and (b) it's worth investing your time to become the best person to make certain decisions, because you should have that competence recognised and rewarded with the freedom to make hard decisions and not get second-guessed all the time.

"It's fair comment that this was a big change, and landed without warning. There aren't any good reasons for that, but it's also true that no amount of warning would produce consensus about a decision like this."

(Shuttleworth, see also 202, 218, 388 and 410)

the notification system is utter crap. for example [...] wtf! [...] it should give you [...]

"Bugs in my OS? Unheard of!"

i have stopped using ubuntu because of irrational, stupid

This part of the sentence is true.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one. If you don't want to, it's trivial to revert to the previous setup.

there is also the envelope icon that takes up space on the top bar that you can't remove without also removing volume and bluetooth etc.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

windows is more customizable than this.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

gnome needs to die.

Ah, so you're just trolling?

kde is going in a much better direction

"There is only one right direction. That is to wherever I am. What other users might prefer is irrelevant.

they did not bother to give a single reason for this fucking change.

Mark Shuttleworth comments on the bug report and writes a blog.

shuttleworth and co have shown tremendous disregard for the community

"This is a difference between Ubuntu and several other community distributions. It may feel less democratic, but it's more meritocratic, and most importantly it means (a) we should have the best people making any given decision, and (b) it's worth investing your time to become the best person to make certain decisions, because you should have that competence recognised and rewarded with the freedom to make hard decisions and not get second-guessed all the time.

"It's fair comment that this was a big change, and landed without warning. There aren't any good reasons for that, but it's also true that no amount of warning would produce consensus about a decision like this."

(Shuttleworth, see also 202, 218, 388 and 410)

the notification system is utter crap. for example [...] wtf! [...] it should give you [...]

"Bugs in my OS? Unheard of!"

i have stopped using ubuntu because of irrational, stupid

This part of the sentence is true.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one. If you don't want to, it's trivial to revert to the previous setup.

there is also the envelope icon that takes up space on the top bar that you can't remove without also removing volume and bluetooth etc.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

windows is more customizable than this.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

gnome needs to die.

Ah, so you're just trolling?

kde is going in a much better direction

"There is only one right direction. That is to wherever I am. What other users might prefer is irrelevant.

they did not bother to give a single reason for this fucking change.

Mark Shuttleworth comments on the bug report and writes a blog.

shuttleworth and co have shown tremendous disregard for the community

"This is a difference between Ubuntu and several other community distributions. It may feel less democratic, but it's more meritocratic, and most importantly it means (a) we should have the best people making any given decision, and (b) it's worth investing your time to become the best person to make certain decisions, because you should have that competence recognised and rewarded with the freedom to make hard decisions and not get second-guessed all the time.

"It's fair comment that this was a big change, and landed without warning. There aren't any good reasons for that, but it's also true that no amount of warning would produce consensus about a decision like this."

(Shuttleworth, see also 202, 218, 388 and 410)

the notification system is utter crap. for example [...] wtf! [...] it should give you [...]

"Bugs in my OS? Unheard of!"

i have stopped using ubuntu because of irrational, stupid

This part of the sentence is true.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one. If you don't want to, it's trivial to revert to the previous setup.

there is also the envelope icon that takes up space on the top bar that you can't remove without also removing volume and bluetooth etc.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

windows is more customizable than this.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

gnome needs to die.

Ah, so you're just trolling?

kde is going in a much better direction

"There is only one right direction. That is to wherever I am. What other users might prefer is irrelevant.

they did not bother to give a single reason for this fucking change.

Mark Shuttleworth comments on the bug report and writes a blog.

shuttleworth and co have shown tremendous disregard for the community

"This is a difference between Ubuntu and several other community distributions. It may feel less democratic, but it's more meritocratic, and most importantly it means (a) we should have the best people making any given decision, and (b) it's worth investing your time to become the best person to make certain decisions, because you should have that competence recognised and rewarded with the freedom to make hard decisions and not get second-guessed all the time.

"It's fair comment that this was a big change, and landed without warning. There aren't any good reasons for that, but it's also true that no amount of warning would produce consensus about a decision like this."

(Shuttleworth, see also 202, 218, 388 and 410)

the notification system is utter crap. for example [...] wtf! [...] it should give you [...]

"Bugs in my OS? Unheard of!"

i have stopped using ubuntu because of irrational, stupid

This part of the sentence is true.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one. If you don't want to, it's trivial to revert to the previous setup.

there is also the envelope icon that takes up space on the top bar that you can't remove without also removing volume and bluetooth etc.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

windows is more customizable than this.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

gnome needs to die.

Ah, so you're just trolling?

kde is going in a much better direction

"There is only one right direction. That is to wherever I am. What other users might prefer is irrelevant.

they did not bother to give a single reason for this fucking change.

Mark Shuttleworth comments on the bug report and writes a blog.

shuttleworth and co have shown tremendous disregard for the community

"This is a difference between Ubuntu and several other community distributions. It may feel less democratic, but it's more meritocratic, and most importantly it means (a) we should have the best people making any given decision, and (b) it's worth investing your time to become the best person to make certain decisions, because you should have that competence recognised and rewarded with the freedom to make hard decisions and not get second-guessed all the time.

"It's fair comment that this was a big change, and landed without warning. There aren't any good reasons for that, but it's also true that no amount of warning would produce consensus about a decision like this."

(Shuttleworth, see also 202, 218, 388 and 410)

the notification system is utter crap. for example [...] wtf! [...] it should give you [...]

"Bugs in my OS? Unheard of!"

i have stopped using ubuntu because of irrational, stupid

This part of the sentence is true.

A lot of changes happen for a reason. It takes about an hour to get used to this one. If you don't want to, it's trivial to revert to the previous setup.

there is also the envelope icon that takes up space on the top bar that you can't remove without also removing volume and bluetooth etc.

This is wrong. That's "indicator-applet". If you remove it from the panel, nothing else goes missing.

windows is more customizable than this.

Right. You call a system which offers several layers of customization (from top to bottom: GUI menus -> configuration files -> interpreted scripts -> recompilable source) less customizable than monolithic windows. Your world seems to be a strange but simple one.

gnome needs to die.

Ah, so you're just trolling?

kde is going in a much better direction

"There is only one right direction. That is to wherever I am. What other users might prefer is irrelevant.

they did not bother to give a single reason for this fucking change.

Mark Shuttleworth comments on the bug report and writes a blog.

shuttleworth and co have shown tremendous disregard for the community

"This is a difference between Ubuntu and several other community distributions. It may feel less democratic, but it's more meritocratic, and most importantly it means (a) we should have the best people making any given decision, and (b) it's worth investing your time to become the best person to make certain decisions, because you should have that competence recognised and rewarded with the freedom to make hard decisions and not get second-guessed all the time.

"It's fair comment that this was a big change, and landed without warning. There aren't any good reasons for that, but it's also true that no amount of warning would produce consensus about a decision like this."

(Shuttleworth, see also 202, 218, 388 and 410)

the notification system is utter crap. for example [...] wtf! [...] it should give you [...]

"Bugs in my OS? Unheard of!"

i have stopped using ubuntu because of irrational, stupid

This part of the sentence is true.

Hear hear.

I switched away from Ubuntu when they decided to pull this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ia32-libs/+bug/431091

I don't think it was the distribution itself that was causing the problem. What you described sounds similar to what I and others experienced with the latest ubuntu release. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/573557 What was found is that it was a problem with the vga arbitter

You can use gdebi for that.

https://launchpad.net/gdebi

It has a command line, KDE, and Gnome interface.

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-wine/+archive/ppa Synaptic, third party, add:
ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa

And it's for all 9 Ubuntu releases.

That's where something like my other suggestion might be helpful:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693

Basically instead of requiring users to try to solve something harder[1] than the "halting problem" by deciding whether a program will "halt or not" (evil or not), you have the program state up-front the maximum limits of what it will do, and if the user agrees (or the proposed limits are signed by a trusted party) the operating system will run the program while enforcing those limits. Yes most users won't be good at auditing the limits, but some people can do it, it's much easier to audit a sandbox than to figure out whether a program is a trojan or not. It's not 100%, nothing ever will be, but it's definitely better than UAC, or SELinux.

I doubt I'm the first person to propose this. But it's hard to implement on current entrenched operating systems - won't be backward compatible and secure.

However, if there's a new operating system for this thought stuff, then why not have something like this?

It's not like people should be running Microsoft Office etc directly in their mind-augmenters. A better way to do it would be to have your mind-augmenter being a ThoughtOS on some dedicated "superPDA" hardware. You can then connect it to a normal computer, and your mind-augmenter is appears like another keyboard+mouse (HID). So you can control the normal computer via your brain computer.

[1] Even though in theory it is impossible to generally solve the halting problem, in practice there will be a few cases which are solvable. In contrast deciding whether some program is a trojan or not is harder since you usually do not have all the inputs or a true description of the program (which you have for the halting problem).

Presuming, of course, it's available from that repository..

True, however, in this case, it definitely is. Not only that but in my experience, it is very likely that whatever you are looking for will be in the repository. At last count there were something like 20,000 packages for Ubuntu and close to 30,000 for Debian. And if what you are looking for isn't in there, when you do find the program, you can make an installer for it and submit it for inclusion for the future so that when you upgrade, and you look for it, it'll be there. Also, if a program isn't in the repos, as a next step, as opposed to hunting around on downloads.com or whatever people use, you can just cruise over to this website which is run by Canonical the distributors of Ubuntu and offers a very large additional selection of apps that you can install that of course will auto-update along with the rest of your system. Now, of course, if all of this fails, you are back to square 1 but, I've had this fail very few times.

Is it perfect? No. But it is pretty good and one of the primary reasons I switched many moons ago.