Slashdot Mirror

Kubuntu fans can check the release notes here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu
Browsing through them, I got the feeling of tired, haggard Kubuntu maintainers congratulating themselves for surviving, but not excelling in, the production of this version which still has many issues. If you read between the lines, you see that there are still quite a number of issues. "The NetworkManager applet has received some loving from its creators, and offers a more robust networking experience than it did in Kubuntu 9.04."

I went to the Feedback page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu/Feedback to see how KDE would do in this version. This is where you get the honest criticism that tells you what problems you might encounter. Generally people are offering encouragement but the fact is that this version of Kubuntu is still not cutting it. Comments usually start with "Great release! However ... " and then a list of bugs. These are bugs from before. One person says: "all bugs I noticed are still there: broken knetworkmanager, no sending via bluetooth, preview file in dolphin's context menu not working. I tried 9.10 in hope they were corrected, but they weren't."

I myself have been staying with 8.04 since that is the last version that officially supported KDE 3. (I hear that you can now get KDE 3 versions of 8.10 or 9.04, but I don't think those are official.) If I'm going to retrain myself on KDE 4, I might as well wait an extra half year and get the 10.04 Long-Term Support edition --if ever Kubuntu gets around to doing one. (8.04 was LTS for GNOME Ubuntu only, not for Kubuntu.)

I think the Kubuntu developers need to be strongly encouraged to fix existing bugs instead of putting in new features.

As an aside, regarding the "Known Issues" list for standard GNOME Ubuntu:
Release notes http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910
Does anyone else think that there are more and more bugs now, and that Ubuntu simply is not the "install and use defaults" user-friendly distro that it used to be?

Kubuntu fans can check the release notes here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu
Browsing through them, I got the feeling of tired, haggard Kubuntu maintainers congratulating themselves for surviving, but not excelling in, the production of this version which still has many issues. If you read between the lines, you see that there are still quite a number of issues. "The NetworkManager applet has received some loving from its creators, and offers a more robust networking experience than it did in Kubuntu 9.04."

I went to the Feedback page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu/Feedback to see how KDE would do in this version. This is where you get the honest criticism that tells you what problems you might encounter. Generally people are offering encouragement but the fact is that this version of Kubuntu is still not cutting it. Comments usually start with "Great release! However ... " and then a list of bugs. These are bugs from before. One person says: "all bugs I noticed are still there: broken knetworkmanager, no sending via bluetooth, preview file in dolphin's context menu not working. I tried 9.10 in hope they were corrected, but they weren't."

I myself have been staying with 8.04 since that is the last version that officially supported KDE 3. (I hear that you can now get KDE 3 versions of 8.10 or 9.04, but I don't think those are official.) If I'm going to retrain myself on KDE 4, I might as well wait an extra half year and get the 10.04 Long-Term Support edition --if ever Kubuntu gets around to doing one. (8.04 was LTS for GNOME Ubuntu only, not for Kubuntu.)

I think the Kubuntu developers need to be strongly encouraged to fix existing bugs instead of putting in new features.

As an aside, regarding the "Known Issues" list for standard GNOME Ubuntu:
Release notes http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910
Does anyone else think that there are more and more bugs now, and that Ubuntu simply is not the "install and use defaults" user-friendly distro that it used to be?

And here is the torrent: http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso.torrent

Canonical has updated their home page http://www.ubuntu.com/

Amazingly, if you click on the release notes link all the way down at the bottom of the "cool new features" page, and read about 2/3 of the way down that page, oh yeah by the way:

Possible corruption of large files with ext4 filesystem

There have been some reports of data corruption with fresh (not upgraded) ext4 file systems using the Ubuntu 9.10 kernel when writing to large files (over 512MB). The issue is under investigation, and if confirmed will be resolved in a post-release update. Users who routinely manipulate large files may want to consider using ext3 file systems until this issue is resolved. (453579)

What... the... fuck... are these morons thinking. They make ext4 their default filesystem, and release to the world with a bug like this open. I don't care whether they charge for this, give it away for free, or pay people to use it. This is not a release, it's an ugly prank. A giant fuck you to the entire world. "Hey, here's an awesome free OS! Just kidding it eats your files, lulz!!!!"

How hard is it to put a giant warning label ("MAY EAT YOUR FILES, TBD") on the front page? Why not just say, whoops the release will be late, sorry? What is it about their ego that makes it more important than peoples' data? You don't have to do work for free, just don't fucking trick people!

Between the increasing mess of 8.10 and 9.04, and this debacle, I am just losing all respect for Canonical.

Also, btw, the whole story is wrong and 9.10 is not available for download yet. Thank god.

You can create a USB stick version from the CD after you boot it. If you know what you're doing you can even use the ISO to create a USB stick version directly. Slashdot isn't a great support forum and one of the one mentioned on http://www.ubuntu.com/support/communitysupport will probably be better but https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick may be of use to you.

You can create a USB stick version from the CD after you boot it. If you know what you're doing you can even use the ISO to create a USB stick version directly. Slashdot isn't a great support forum and one of the one mentioned on http://www.ubuntu.com/support/communitysupport will probably be better but https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick may be of use to you.

I don't understand why the Ubuntu team has never simplified the setup process for Samba. It is simple enough to share a folder with unlimited access, but as soon as you want to create users and passwords, it becomes rather complex. I've had to set it up a couple of times, and I never seem to get it to work quite right.

Many Ubuntu users are also going to be running a Windows machine on their local network. If the goal is to give them a positive experience with Linux, then setting up the connections on the local network should be brain-dead easy. Imagine sending a novice user to this page! They would soon be throwing away their Ubuntu disk and installing Windows.

Making an easy GUI for this configuration process shouldn't be that difficult. I hope that it will be addressed sometime soon.

From the Release Notes.

Possible corruption of large files with ext4 filesystem

There have been some reports of data corruption with fresh (not upgraded) ext4 file systems using the Ubuntu 9.10 kernel when writing to large files (over 512MB). The issue is under investigation, and if confirmed will be resolved in a post-release update. Users who routinely manipulate large files may want to consider using ext3 file systems until this issue is resolved. (453579)

Ubuntu One client requires post-install upgrade

A serious bug in the Ubuntu One client software included in Ubuntu 9.10 that could potentially result in loss of data has led to disabling file syncing access for this client version on the Ubuntu One servers as a precaution. Users who see a "Capabilities Mismatch" error when trying to use Ubuntu One should install the post-release upgrade of the client that will be made available immediately after release, fixing the original bug and restoring file syncing access to the Ubuntu One servers. Files are still available via the web interface at http://one.ubuntu.com./

Contact syncing and tomboy syncing services are not affected by this issue.

Package list must be manually refreshed before installing drivers

The "Hardware Drivers" tool (Jockey) requires up to date package lists before it detects and advertises necessary driver packages. Immediately after a new installation, these package lists will not be present. Before running Jockey for the first time, update the package lists using System->Administration->Software->Update Manager (on Ubuntu) or "KPackageKit" (on Kubuntu). (462704)

From the Release Notes.

Possible corruption of large files with ext4 filesystem

There have been some reports of data corruption with fresh (not upgraded) ext4 file systems using the Ubuntu 9.10 kernel when writing to large files (over 512MB). The issue is under investigation, and if confirmed will be resolved in a post-release update. Users who routinely manipulate large files may want to consider using ext3 file systems until this issue is resolved. (453579)

Ubuntu One client requires post-install upgrade

A serious bug in the Ubuntu One client software included in Ubuntu 9.10 that could potentially result in loss of data has led to disabling file syncing access for this client version on the Ubuntu One servers as a precaution. Users who see a "Capabilities Mismatch" error when trying to use Ubuntu One should install the post-release upgrade of the client that will be made available immediately after release, fixing the original bug and restoring file syncing access to the Ubuntu One servers. Files are still available via the web interface at http://one.ubuntu.com./

Contact syncing and tomboy syncing services are not affected by this issue.

Package list must be manually refreshed before installing drivers

The "Hardware Drivers" tool (Jockey) requires up to date package lists before it detects and advertises necessary driver packages. Immediately after a new installation, these package lists will not be present. Before running Jockey for the first time, update the package lists using System->Administration->Software->Update Manager (on Ubuntu) or "KPackageKit" (on Kubuntu). (462704)

I'm guessing you had some particular problem or were looking for out of the box support. I've been able to have in browser Flash support since at least 2005 regardless of Linux distro.

Slashdot isn't a great support forum though (just because I say it works for me doesn't mean it didn't work for you nor will I follow up on this. You will find better advice on http://www.ubuntu.com/support/communitysupport ) but for what it's worth you might want to take a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/Flash . Another hint is to install the libflashsupport package too (but as always some people say that makes things much worse whereas others say that makes things better).

I'm guessing you had some particular problem or were looking for out of the box support. I've been able to have in browser Flash support since at least 2005 regardless of Linux distro.

Slashdot isn't a great support forum though (just because I say it works for me doesn't mean it didn't work for you nor will I follow up on this. You will find better advice on http://www.ubuntu.com/support/communitysupport ) but for what it's worth you might want to take a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/Flash . Another hint is to install the libflashsupport package too (but as always some people say that makes things much worse whereas others say that makes things better).

Actually the 256MB is the requirement for running the graphical installer, 64MB is listed as the bare minimum for running a desktop install(which you'd have to install using the alternate cd), while the recommended minimum for running a desktop reasonably well is listed as 384MB.
Jaunty runs fine for me with 512MB, only getting a bit sluggish when running openoffice+lotsa firefox tabs(+some more apps that don't eat much memory, but do add up).

Ext4 in Ubuntu 9.10 is specially problematic, as there are reports of corruption when writing large files:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910#Switching%20to%20ext4%20requires%20manually%20updating%20grub

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/453579

The files are there and can be downloaded goto http://noncdn.releases.ubuntu.com//karmic/ and see for yourself

The main page may not say so, but check the mirrors. It's there.

You can skip from one LTS release to another. eg: 8.04 to 10.04

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes

The main page may not say so, but check the mirrors. It's there.

The main page may not say so, but check the mirrors. It's there.

Check out the mirrors http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#dvd. Most of them have it up. I'm torrenting it now.

Just try it. My gut feeling says it should be possible to do it in steps if it is 8.10. Otherwise, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

See http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading for instructions.

I mean seriously, how hard is it to go look at http://www.ubuntu.com/ to check?

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
http://releases.ubuntu.com/

My only question is, who's out of a job where because Canonical has decided to pinch off a few budding livelihoods? You could ship the whole operation to Nauru and give 15,000 dead broke former potash farmers something to live for.
Canonical had lots of competition, including Red Hat and Slackware, that I've used and enjoyed. I went with Canonical's Ubuntu because of the mystical, up-with-people vibe. Disappointing news.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
http://releases.ubuntu.com/

My only question is, who's out of a job where because Canonical has decided to pinch off a few budding livelihoods? You could ship the whole operation to Nauru and give 15,000 dead broke former potash farmers something to live for.
Canonical had lots of competition, including Red Hat and Slackware, that I've used and enjoyed. I went with Canonical's Ubuntu because of the mystical, up-with-people vibe. Disappointing news.

What a good idea. Maybe you should post it on http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/? There's a "submit your idea" link.

Ask your LoCo team if they can provide you with a disc (it'll likely be burned, but that doesn't matter). They can even ship you an alternate CD, so you can upgrade instead of reinstall every six months/two years.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamList

Warty Warthog was apparently an in-joke amongst Shuttleworth + friends. "Hoary Hedgehog" was a continuation of that same joke. Then they decided to start at B, and for some reason, skipped C. However, now it's fixed (it's a good metaphor for most F/OSS projects - bumpy beginnings before smooth sailing ;)). Read more at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DevelopmentCodeNames

It's Lucid Lynx.

Yeah, those 10 years of security updates Microsoft provides are really poor. It would be much better if they could do it for five years like Ubuntu.

I switched from Debian to Ubuntu because:

1. I was sick of the rolling upgrade of running testing/sid, and Debian's stable releases were too far apart.

2. I got a new PC which needed the latest kernel for support. The Debian kernel packages in experimental were a version behind, but Ubuntu's were up to date. Also, there's always fresh kernels at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/.

Basically Ubuntu is Debian stable with more frequent releases. If you don't need that, nope, there's no reason to switch.

Right, because 8.04LTS has been out as long as XP, and it also will be supported as long as XP ...

wait ...
wait ...

No, XP was out first and XP will be supported for longer than Ubuntu 8.04LTS ... 8.04 was released 5 years later and support ends nearly 3 years earlier for the desktop version and at least 6 months earlier than XP.

If you want to install 10.x LTS, which isn't anywhere release, and isn't planned to be for at least another 6 months, then you can get support for the server version for about a year and a half after XP support ends. Desktop support STILL ends at least 6 months before XP does.

The 'long term' part of LTS is a freaking joke.

Source:
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/serveredition/benefits/lifecycle

The MS mentality of everyone must always run the newest version of everything or else you won't be protected or get new features is pure crap. That doesn't have to happen in open source, when they aren't trying to force you to constantly upgrade to help their revenue cycle.

Really, 8.04 supports the newest features? So what does 9.x have that 8.x doesn't? Let me give you a dose of reality, Ubuntu may support some things for a little while, but nothing in Linux has long term support, it is a CONSTANT upgrade cycle. Just because you don't 'pay for upgraded software' doesn't mean there is no cost. When will you people get that?

I'm sorry, what was your point again, I was so blown away by how disconnected from reality you are that I forgot.

I guess Ubuntu will have to cope with the other 6 releases before Windows Vista III the terminal. Ubuntu unashamedly release is timed to contain the latest Gnome, http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.28/ of course it includes its own release notes as well http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910. I'm sure your probably aware of good stuff in EXT4; GRUB2; Empathy; Software Centre that have been heavily documented everywhere including serious numbers of Application Improvements in Firefox and OpenOffice. Linux itself continues on spewing greater and improved hardware support which include the usual greatness http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux26Changes Check out 2.26.28 - 2.26.31 oh and X and Mesa and... Oh is that a Win 7 cry for attention I know whats new and Better Vista don't cut it!

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910overview

The 2009-10-29 release date was chosen over 8 months ago, several months before Microsoft announced their release date for Windows 7.

The KarmicReleaseSchedule shows that 10/22/2009 was the scheduled date for releasing a Release Candidate, so the project is on schedule. But what do the colors in the Status column mean? Just escalating "hotness" (excitement) as the final release date approaches?

There is a workaround for that.
http://icrontic.com/articles/upgrade-the-windows-7-rc-to-retail

Indeed there is. You can find it here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

- There are two separate clipboards, a mouse one and a keyboard one. Middle-click will often paste something different to ctrl-v. In this day and age, I'm sorry, I can't be generous - this is fucking retarded. Fix it, Canonical.

That's a feature of X that's been around for about ever, people would rise up and raise hell if they did that. I'm sorry you can't deal with that.

- Sometimes selection copies stuff, sometimes it doesn't. Be consistent. I'd say make it never copy stuff.

See above, this is the same problem you're having with the middle click. Here's how it works, highlighting text puts it in the middle click copy buffer, that's it. There's a keyboard buffer, and a mouse buffer, and never do the two meet.

- This bug meant that I had to hack an init.d script by adding 'sleep 5', just to get a DHCP server working on the Ubuntu box because of the way dhcp3-server assumes interfaces will be immediately available and NetworkManager makes them available asynchronously. Ubuntu enthusiasts tell me NetworkManager is pretty much only good for wireless, and disable it for wired connections. Utterly pathetic. We desperately need Canonical to get this done - and competently.

If you can't set the wired connection up by hand you've got bigger issues to deal with. It's unix, right tool, right job.

- Make up your mind as to what one should use to install packages. There's an add/remove software GUI, but there's also Synaptic Package Manager. Make up your mind, Canonical!!!!!

Again, right tool, right job. If you're a mouth breather that doesn't understand packages stick to the kiddie pool (add/remove), if you understand that some programs are split in to multiple packages and understand that libraries exist, then use synaptic. If you need a quick and dirty install of a single package (and dependencies) use apt-get. Right tool, right job, it can't be repeated enough.

- Better firewall configuration. I know I've been told a million times that you can't make a GUI for iptables because it's too complex, but I beg to differ - at least you can make a GUI for it that implements a decent swathe of its functionality. No, ufw doesn't cut it, it sucks. Not enough functionality.

Firestarter

And how about a firewall that scans app binaries, and gives access on a per-binary basis?

That functionality just doesn't exist. IPTables doesn't know jack about which binary opened a socket, just the ports and IPs involved. SELinux/AppArmor might be a good place to start looking for that level of control, but frankly I don't know enough about either to say definitively.

"Coworker of mine wanted to use Ubuntu as the main OS on his work machine. Installed it, got it up and running at home. Then when he brought it in and popped it into the docking station, it wouldn't work (X didn't seem to work, I didn't troubleshoot and neither did he) and so he just got a copy of Windows 7 and installed it instead"

Curiously enough there are references to this on the Ubuntu mailing list

Basic email and office apps, what more do you need?

I dunno about need, but there's a hell of a lot of stuff that wouild be desirable. I knew Ubuntu wasn't really finished, but I decided to check just how far along it had gotten by installing it a couple of months ago to function as my home network's router. It could do with huge improvement, to say the lease. Here's just a tip of the iceberg:

- There are two separate clipboards, a mouse one and a keyboard one. Middle-click will often paste something different to ctrl-v. In this day and age, I'm sorry, I can't be generous - this is fucking retarded. Fix it, Canonical.
- Sometimes selection copies stuff, sometimes it doesn't. Be consistent. I'd say make it never copy stuff.
- This bug meant that I had to hack an init.d script by adding 'sleep 5', just to get a DHCP server working on the Ubuntu box because of the way dhcp3-server assumes interfaces will be immediately available and NetworkManager makes them available asynchronously. Ubuntu enthusiasts tell me NetworkManager is pretty much only good for wireless, and disable it for wired connections. Utterly pathetic. We desperately need Canonical to get this done - and competently.
- Make up your mind as to what one should use to install packages. There's an add/remove software GUI, but there's also Synaptic Package Manager. Make up your mind, Canonical!!!!!
- Better firewall configuration. I know I've been told a million times that you can't make a GUI for iptables because it's too complex, but I beg to differ - at least you can make a GUI for it that implements a decent swathe of its functionality. No, ufw doesn't cut it, it sucks. Not enough functionality. And how about a firewall that scans app binaries, and gives access on a per-binary basis?

These are just some of the problems I've noticed, off the top of my head. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Linux be a viable alternative, but it can't beat Windows 7 yet... and TBH I was amazed that some of these problems still existed, given how long Canonical had been at it.

It's news to me that Linux requires admin privileges to install software.

"Once you've finished choosing, click the Apply button at the bottom of the window. Another window will pop up, showing all of the packages you've selected and asking if you'd like to apply the changes. To install the packages, click Apply. You'll then be asked to type in your super-user/administrator password. Once you've entered it, another window will appear informing you of the installation progress. Once this has finished, click Close. Your new programs are installed, ready to use!"

"Most software packages come with one or more preformatted man pages. As root".

Installing Software
"The process of installing software is very simple. Start YaST by selecting it from the menu under System, or by using the run command dialog (press Alt+F2) and typing yast. You will be required to enter your root password. Start the Software Management-module by selecting it from the Software tab in the YaST Control Center."

That's just a quick look but all three say an admin, root, or superuser password is needed.

Falcon

0.5 percent well if thats the only matrix they go by,then every distro should make you download it from there each time you install.

Dont include it any more.

This is how Flash is installed on Ubuntu, and presumably other distributions too. See their flash install package info: http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/flashplugin-installer

This probably wouldn't work well enough for graphics drivers though as they may need to be kept in much closer step with X and/or the kernel which would mean coordinating updates to those with nvidia's release schedule.

Perhaps the distributions that have "popularity" tracking (such as http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/popularity-contest and http://packages.debian.org/lenny/popularity-contest) could derive some useful figures to pass on to the manufacturers. OK, only a subset of users have this installer & active and some of those won't have their sytem configured so it can send the mail messages needed, but there must be enough info to come up with an estimate of the number of people actively using (as opposed to "installed it to try and took it off later") the nvidia binary driver packages that you are happy is not astronomically wide of the mark.

0.5 percent well if thats the only matrix they go by,then every distro should make you download it from there each time you install.

Dont include it any more.

This is how Flash is installed on Ubuntu, and presumably other distributions too. See their flash install package info: http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/flashplugin-installer

This probably wouldn't work well enough for graphics drivers though as they may need to be kept in much closer step with X and/or the kernel which would mean coordinating updates to those with nvidia's release schedule.

Perhaps the distributions that have "popularity" tracking (such as http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/popularity-contest and http://packages.debian.org/lenny/popularity-contest) could derive some useful figures to pass on to the manufacturers. OK, only a subset of users have this installer & active and some of those won't have their sytem configured so it can send the mail messages needed, but there must be enough info to come up with an estimate of the number of people actively using (as opposed to "installed it to try and took it off later") the nvidia binary driver packages that you are happy is not astronomically wide of the mark.

Where's the documentation on GRUB 2?

Depends. There are a bunch of man pages on the grub commands, and there's /etc/grub.d/README and /etc/default/grub for the menu configuration. There's also Google.

Upstart?

http://upstart.ubuntu.com/

UEC?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEC

Building your own repository?

Apt supports file:/, so you can use that if it's just for personal use. Otherwise, you apparently just replicate the directory structure of an existing repository on your server and generate the necessary files. (Google produced many quick guides on how to do this.)

Setting up mass deployment via Kickstart/preseeding?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
https://help.ubuntu.com/7.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-using.html

All except GRUB and "building your own repository" were found in less than a minute on Google.

Remember that Ubuntu is mostly an amalgam of discrete software packages, all bundled up nice and neat. The best place to look for documentation is usually the origin.

Where's the documentation on GRUB 2?

Depends. There are a bunch of man pages on the grub commands, and there's /etc/grub.d/README and /etc/default/grub for the menu configuration. There's also Google.

Upstart?

http://upstart.ubuntu.com/

UEC?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEC

Building your own repository?

Apt supports file:/, so you can use that if it's just for personal use. Otherwise, you apparently just replicate the directory structure of an existing repository on your server and generate the necessary files. (Google produced many quick guides on how to do this.)

Setting up mass deployment via Kickstart/preseeding?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
https://help.ubuntu.com/7.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-using.html

All except GRUB and "building your own repository" were found in less than a minute on Google.

Remember that Ubuntu is mostly an amalgam of discrete software packages, all bundled up nice and neat. The best place to look for documentation is usually the origin.

Where's the documentation on GRUB 2?

Depends. There are a bunch of man pages on the grub commands, and there's /etc/grub.d/README and /etc/default/grub for the menu configuration. There's also Google.

Upstart?

http://upstart.ubuntu.com/

UEC?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEC

Building your own repository?

Apt supports file:/, so you can use that if it's just for personal use. Otherwise, you apparently just replicate the directory structure of an existing repository on your server and generate the necessary files. (Google produced many quick guides on how to do this.)

Setting up mass deployment via Kickstart/preseeding?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
https://help.ubuntu.com/7.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-using.html

All except GRUB and "building your own repository" were found in less than a minute on Google.

Remember that Ubuntu is mostly an amalgam of discrete software packages, all bundled up nice and neat. The best place to look for documentation is usually the origin.

Where's the documentation on GRUB 2?

Depends. There are a bunch of man pages on the grub commands, and there's /etc/grub.d/README and /etc/default/grub for the menu configuration. There's also Google.

Upstart?

http://upstart.ubuntu.com/

UEC?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEC

Building your own repository?

Apt supports file:/, so you can use that if it's just for personal use. Otherwise, you apparently just replicate the directory structure of an existing repository on your server and generate the necessary files. (Google produced many quick guides on how to do this.)

Setting up mass deployment via Kickstart/preseeding?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
https://help.ubuntu.com/7.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-using.html

All except GRUB and "building your own repository" were found in less than a minute on Google.

Remember that Ubuntu is mostly an amalgam of discrete software packages, all bundled up nice and neat. The best place to look for documentation is usually the origin.

The MS machines I run are all virtual on Linux except for a gaming machine. I don't need Wine at all.

You need Windows then.

If I have an issue with any particular machine I can just revert to a clean VM, and for some I use snapshots

That's a good thing about VMs. However starting with Windows XP if not 2000, Windows needs to be activated. That specifically was one of the reasons I switched from MS Windows to first Linux then OS X.

Unless you think IBM is going to offer Ubuntu with WINE pre-installed??

Ubuntu can install WINE, it's in the repositories.

Falcon

I might not have seen it, but I think Ubuntu's server area needs professional, detailed, Ubuntu-specific (if needed) DOCUMENTATION on everything an Ubuntu admin would need to use. http://doc.ubuntu.com/ has the most up-to-date version of the Ubuntu Server Guide, which is a decent start. It pales in comparison, however, to the FreeBSD handbook.

You know, there could be a hint in there somewhere. ;)

Just use FreeBSD. Trying to get anything meaningful done with Ubuntu is like playing with a Rubik's cube while having your head stuck with one of those steel amputation traps that Jigsaw uses in the Saw movies.

I swear, some people can't be helped

Yeah, those folks need to go back to Windows where such a simple task is easy to accomplish in the control panel and doesn't require all that nasty editting of krb.conf and smb.conf.