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"Don't get me wrong, I like Ubuntu and have it running on a home system. But unless a major manufacturer starts preinstalling it it's going to be confined to the Linux enthusiast and the hobbyist market."

Dell.

From wikipedia...
Total assets US$ 27.561 billion (2008)[1]

Not major enough?

Not preinstalled enough.

1. Dell doesn't preinstall anything in the sense that they build to order. How many times do you read about something like the Dell mini 9 for $99 that people won't see for 6 months after they paid for it before you realize they aren't "just in time" they are "after they should have done it".

2. The statement about "a major manufacturer starts preinstalling it" implies that they do so for the majority of their products or do so in a way that it is the default choice when ordering a system. Until Joe sixpack orders a Dell without thinking "Hey, I want Ubuntu on that" and actually gets Ubuntu on it you can't call it preinstalled as though it has any significance

3. You can't even get Ubuntu from Dell on most systems. Take the Optiplex 740. Say I want to support AMD and still get Ubuntu preloaded. My choices when I buy that PC today are

Genuine Windows Vista® Business Service Pack 1, with media, 32, ENG [add $99 $38]
        Dell Recommended - Includes Windows Vista Business Assurance

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1, With media, 32, ENG [Included in Price]

Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Service Pack 1, with media, 32, ENG [add $115]

Genuine Windows Vista Business Bonus-Windows XP Professional downgrade [add $99 $38]

Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate Bonus-Windows XP Professional downgrade [add $115]

I'm not seeing a lot of love for Ubuntu in those choices. Given it's a business PC I'm not happy they are charging extra for the XP downgrade that was/is supposed to be free downgrade for Corporate users. I'm not happy they are playing bait and switch with a professional line of PCs that defaults to a home OS. Sure I can take whichever silly choice is in the list and format the drive. I have CD-Rs laying in plain site in my office with the last 3 major Ubuntu releases but anything I do with those ISO downloads I got from http://www.ubuntu.com/ is way far removed from the concept of "preinstalled".

The big advantage of Microsoft is that you can buy it on a disk.

The big advantage of Ubuntu is that Canonical will send you, free of charge, an entire Operating System, complete with application stacks, on a DVD if you ask.

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Who in their right mind still uses dial-up these days? How are you even on Slashdot? Oh, I see, that's why it took you three hours to post your nonsense. BTW, if you paid for an Ubuntu disk, you're a fool. Canonical's ShipIt program sends out free disks if you request them.

Yes it is. Kernel hacking and running Linux.com aren't mutually exclusive activities are done by different people.

No it isn't. I'm referring to the money spent on employing people to build the new Linux.com. It would have been better spent on paying people to work on fixing suspend and hibernate. Even if that money wasn't enough to fix the problem entirely, we do not need another tech aggregator site, but we do need sleep/hibernate working properly.

How do you know they aren't doing that already?

Because the pointless site at Linux.com exists, and cost money.

BWAHAHAHA. Biggest problem? Exaggerate much?

See: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/most_popular_ever/ the biggest issue there is a tool to manage network connections, this has been pretty-much fixed by NetworkManager. So, the biggest issue facing GNU/Linux adoption today is: 'Fix Suspend and Hibernate'.

It is impossible to underestimate how important it is that this shit 'just works' for the average user. It's not a false dichotomy to say that we're all wasting our time, waving our dicks in the wind, with this Linux.com rubbish while basic functionality of the OS we're evangelising doesn't even work.

I can run Ubuntu for as long as I want, and just keep upgrading to the latest version. Linux runs well on old hardware, so there's no upgrade treadmill.

Well, that's just not true. One example:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810#nVidia%20%22legacy%22%20video%20support

A lot of otherwise fine equipment is running 8.04 as its last Ubuntu, and some of it won't even run 8.04 entirely -- no 3D. You won't care much about games at the college, but you'll have no GoogleEarth either. (Same hardware runs GoogleEarth fine in XP, which is kinda frustrating.)

"Linux" may run well on old hardware, but any modern desktop distro has hardware requirements that move forward in an upgrade treadmill.

I completely agree it's generally not as bad as with Microsoft and Apple, but broad statements of faith like yours can leave you with egg on your face. Ubuntu et al do have moving hardware requirements, and your IT department will have to monitor, plan, and budget for them.

There's not much difference between Ubuntu and Windows besides Ubuntu always having the advantage of free. Even LTS releases only have support for 3 years on the desktop. Meanwhile Windows 2000 is on it's 10th year or so? That's not bad.

You say there's no upgrade treadmill on Linux but there is...it just happens to be free.

/Devil's advocate

Maybe that says something about the platforms that you cite, rather than that the users need to be part of an elitist club. People use Mac because its fast, easy to use, the hardware is nice, and it doesn't get shitty over time unlike windows, AND I don't need to know how to sudo apt-get an old graphics driver because of all the regressions in my new one like ubuntu.

Let me correct that above statement for you.

1. Having discovered a few simple free tools like CCleaner and JKDefrag that I run on a regular basis, I have Windows XP machines that were built by me more than 18 months ago that I use daily, install and deinstall games and software on but have not suffered any noticeable slowdown. Yes, I prefer Linux but I must say that for an inherently flawed OS by design, XP has finally dispelled the "rebuild every 6 months" Windows myth for me.

2. I use "emerge" not "sudo apt-get" as a Gentoo, not Ubuntu, user. However, just like Apple designs its Macs with great care and attention, using only specific manufacturers of chipsets for graphics, network cards, etc., I too select my PC hardware for Linux machines with equal care. Ultimately, what that means is that every Linux box I build has kernel support for all of the hardware without any need to download or install external drivers - the only exception to that is if I'm building a Linux desktop machine, in which case I will "emerge nvidia-drivers" or "emerge ati-drivers" to support 3D acceleration on the appropriate graphics card inside the machine. Incidentally, the only reason I need to do that is because the graphics cards manufacturers refuse to publish their specifications openly meaning that an accelerated driver cannot be directly incorporated directly into the Linux kernel.

@1: I don't care what extra steps you have to take to keep whatever OS you use working properly. The fact is, I don't have to take them. It doesn't matter if they are free or easy or FOSS, its time I don't have to waste, period.

@2: I apologize if I have insulted your delicate sensibilities by implying you apt-get. But the point stands, as emerge is effectively the same as apt-get, which is effectively the same as rpm, which is effectively the same as yum, which is effectively the same as pacman, ad infinitum. A package manager by any other name is still a package manager. And frankly, time spent checking to make sure a potential GPU, CPU, mobo, monitor, printer, wifi chipset, or whatever works with my particular kernel/xorg configuration does not appeal to me. I would rather buy a computer that doesn't require any finagling just to make sure it works.

Also, since you don't seem to get the reference:

- http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_904_intel&num=1
- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReinhardTartler/X/RevertingIntelDriverTo2.4

It just works. I know how to manage a windows computer without it getting all virus ridden and slow over time, and I know how to keep wifi/audio/video running on linux through updates and upgrades. I just don't want to. That's why I use a mac.

In that case, you have just confirmed my suspicions - namely that some Apple users are stupid enough to believe that they don't need to perform basic security & administration tasks on their machines, meaning that if and when Mac malware starts appearing in any great volume, they will almost certainly get it on their machines.

I actually laughed at this. Just as you really don't need to do any basic security and administration tasks on a Linux machine because there is no malware for the platform besides the ever so rare trojan, you really don't need to do any basic security and administration

I dug around on Ubuntu launchpad blueprints and found this. If someone has time to deal with it then please, do step up. It's in my opinion the one thing that is missing from Ubuntu and that is standing in the way of it becoming a good alternative for Windows for the common folk.

Playing commercial DVDs is a particular licensing issue -- and the sole hassle for non-tech users on Ubuntu -- but still, it's a 3-line installation affair, and not hard to find. Installing DVD playback support is fully documented on a single Ubuntu page. Finding and installing those wierd Windows codecs is hard? Codec installation is on the same page, and it's a one command line. Sure, I wish there was a big red button on the middle of the screen to help the helpless, but four command lines to gobble up and recreate the media experience of an entirely separate operating system and dozens of media formats ain't bad, especially given the legal prohibitions surrounding it.

Not sure what your URL issues was -- dvd:// is about as standard as donutandcoffee:// (IANA says the proper URI for what you want is file://)-- if you want a particular shortcut or alias to have an os-specific or personal name, then you need to take care of that yourself. While you're at it, why not rename "Trash" to "Recycle Bin"? Makes about as much sense.

Look, I know I'm teetering on the edge of becoming an Ubuntu evangelist, but not without good reason. Someone already commented above that the Lenovo wonk saying "Linux, even if you've got a great distribution and you can argue which one is better or not, still requires a lot more hands-on than somebody who is using Windows" is dope-smoking nonsense. Many (5+) years ago that was so, but now you run into this only if you're using particularly weird hardware, and even then, chances of long-tail support are better with Linux. I recently picked up a top-end Lenovo Thinkpad, a laptop with the latest high-end graphics, and oddities like a built-in card reader, and it all worked *flawlessly* in the default installation. Nothing on Windows even comes close to the Linux experience using Sane for my high-speed scanner: I plugged in the USB cable, and the app figured it out and gave me a read-to-scan interface without a single keystroke or mouse click. With the same installation, I walked into my brother's house, plugged in his scanner to continue working... and I didn't have to download a 260MB driver package from HP as all Windows users must. This is the kind of Windows hassle that literally makes novice users cry, and in Linux.. it just works.

That said, XP ain't bad, and I don't recommend people change things that ain't too broken. But I'm not seeing any compelling reason to use newer versions of Windows, other than an overarching phobia of minor changes and nonexistent problems.

Playing commercial DVDs is a particular licensing issue -- and the sole hassle for non-tech users on Ubuntu -- but still, it's a 3-line installation affair, and not hard to find. Installing DVD playback support is fully documented on a single Ubuntu page. Finding and installing those wierd Windows codecs is hard? Codec installation is on the same page, and it's a one command line. Sure, I wish there was a big red button on the middle of the screen to help the helpless, but four command lines to gobble up and recreate the media experience of an entirely separate operating system and dozens of media formats ain't bad, especially given the legal prohibitions surrounding it.

Not sure what your URL issues was -- dvd:// is about as standard as donutandcoffee:// (IANA says the proper URI for what you want is file://)-- if you want a particular shortcut or alias to have an os-specific or personal name, then you need to take care of that yourself. While you're at it, why not rename "Trash" to "Recycle Bin"? Makes about as much sense.

Look, I know I'm teetering on the edge of becoming an Ubuntu evangelist, but not without good reason. Someone already commented above that the Lenovo wonk saying "Linux, even if you've got a great distribution and you can argue which one is better or not, still requires a lot more hands-on than somebody who is using Windows" is dope-smoking nonsense. Many (5+) years ago that was so, but now you run into this only if you're using particularly weird hardware, and even then, chances of long-tail support are better with Linux. I recently picked up a top-end Lenovo Thinkpad, a laptop with the latest high-end graphics, and oddities like a built-in card reader, and it all worked *flawlessly* in the default installation. Nothing on Windows even comes close to the Linux experience using Sane for my high-speed scanner: I plugged in the USB cable, and the app figured it out and gave me a read-to-scan interface without a single keystroke or mouse click. With the same installation, I walked into my brother's house, plugged in his scanner to continue working... and I didn't have to download a 260MB driver package from HP as all Windows users must. This is the kind of Windows hassle that literally makes novice users cry, and in Linux.. it just works.

That said, XP ain't bad, and I don't recommend people change things that ain't too broken. But I'm not seeing any compelling reason to use newer versions of Windows, other than an overarching phobia of minor changes and nonexistent problems.

If you want a Linux compatible machine a good place to start is http://webapps.ubuntu.com/certification/. Buying the certified machines gives the vendors a sign that there is interest and might motivate other vendors to certify hardware or offer Linux directly.

All versions of windows are affected by this self-destruct bug, BY DEFAULT!!!! There are many series of commands that can make your [Windows] machine unwillingly self destruct...

Apparently there's also a set of commands on a special CD-ROM that once inserted can close all these vulnerabilities.

Look at all the other distros
Pick Ubuntu out of all the others

Pretty well solved. Dell ships Ubuntu. Everyone on Slashdot, even if they use other Distros, will immeditately tell you Ubuntu. Chances are, they may hear about Ubuntu without even hearing about Linux.

Wait and wait and wait for the download

As if you never waited for any other download?

Read a book. Watch TV. Browse the web, check email, or otherwise use your computer.

Or http://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Burn it to a disc
Wait let me find a disc

Because regular people have never burned Music CDs. Right.

How do I burn it?

Right there on the download page is a great big header that says "Need help?"

The very first item there links to instructions on burning it.

Ok so I reboot and put the cd in?

Or you can double-click on the Windows installer. It's called Wubi.

Ok my desktop is back
No I didn't get a message asking me to boot from the disc
I have to hit what when the computer is beeping? ... ... ...

The vast majority of new computers are shipped set to boot from the CD, by default.

Ok my internet doesn't work, do I need to get a new email now?
Yeah, it's wireless.

Most wireless now just works.

The wireless that doesn't, can still be made to work -- granted, no user should ever have to know about firmware, but it's still quite possible.

This is somewhat easier on Windows, but still way beyond most users' threshold. That's why they buy a new computer that's already set up for wireless. Let's compare apples to apples.

What about my printer? That's not working.

Really?

I tend to plug in a printer and have it detected and ready to go. If not, it's about as easy to set up as it is on Windows -- System Settings -> Advanced -> Printer configuration, follow the instructions on the screen.

That goes double for cameras. I have yet to see a digital camera that, when I plug it in, doesn't automatically appear, either as a mass storage device (so all your pictures are there), or a photo application.

Linux is NOT for regular people and it NEVER will be.

Based on your knowledge of modern Linux, if it ever is ready for regular people, you'll never notice -- just keep dragging out these arguments that were old in 2005.

Look at all the other distros
Pick Ubuntu out of all the others

Pretty well solved. Dell ships Ubuntu. Everyone on Slashdot, even if they use other Distros, will immeditately tell you Ubuntu. Chances are, they may hear about Ubuntu without even hearing about Linux.

Wait and wait and wait for the download

As if you never waited for any other download?

Read a book. Watch TV. Browse the web, check email, or otherwise use your computer.

Or http://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Burn it to a disc
Wait let me find a disc

Because regular people have never burned Music CDs. Right.

How do I burn it?

Right there on the download page is a great big header that says "Need help?"

The very first item there links to instructions on burning it.

Ok so I reboot and put the cd in?

Or you can double-click on the Windows installer. It's called Wubi.

Ok my desktop is back
No I didn't get a message asking me to boot from the disc
I have to hit what when the computer is beeping? ... ... ...

The vast majority of new computers are shipped set to boot from the CD, by default.

Ok my internet doesn't work, do I need to get a new email now?
Yeah, it's wireless.

Most wireless now just works.

The wireless that doesn't, can still be made to work -- granted, no user should ever have to know about firmware, but it's still quite possible.

This is somewhat easier on Windows, but still way beyond most users' threshold. That's why they buy a new computer that's already set up for wireless. Let's compare apples to apples.

What about my printer? That's not working.

Really?

I tend to plug in a printer and have it detected and ready to go. If not, it's about as easy to set up as it is on Windows -- System Settings -> Advanced -> Printer configuration, follow the instructions on the screen.

That goes double for cameras. I have yet to see a digital camera that, when I plug it in, doesn't automatically appear, either as a mass storage device (so all your pictures are there), or a photo application.

Linux is NOT for regular people and it NEVER will be.

Based on your knowledge of modern Linux, if it ever is ready for regular people, you'll never notice -- just keep dragging out these arguments that were old in 2005.

Is that you, Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth, shilling for your products offer of free snail mail shipping?

the problem isn't that non-nerds don't know how to burn ISOs or order free Ubuntu CDs.
the problem is most people have no idea what Ubuntu, linux or GNU is. they have never heard about it.
when you say, 'its free' they assume you mean 'the illegal kind of free' not the beer kind of free, which they care about, or the freedom kind of free that we care about.

when the next virus hits the internet, the news reporters don't say "this only affects computers windows, if you use linux, a completely free operating system, you will be completely immune"
At best we hear 'it doesn't affect macs'
linux needs an advertising campaign, not free snail mail installation CDs

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Ubuntu will send you a FREE CD! Does take about 6 weeks. https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Where does Joe get his Ubuntu Live CD?

Download it

Buy it

Get it for free

Windows can't burn ISOs out of the box (or XP can't) and he likely doesn't know what a "ISO" is anyway.

Joe can always make a bootable USB. Joe has options.

Where does Joe get his Ubuntu Live CD?

Download it

Buy it

Get it for free

Windows can't burn ISOs out of the box (or XP can't) and he likely doesn't know what a "ISO" is anyway.

Joe can always make a bootable USB. Joe has options.

Where does Joe get his Ubuntu Live CD?

Download it

Buy it

Get it for free

Windows can't burn ISOs out of the box (or XP can't) and he likely doesn't know what a "ISO" is anyway.

Joe can always make a bootable USB. Joe has options.

Where does Joe get his Ubuntu Live CD?

Download it

Buy it

Get it for free

Windows can't burn ISOs out of the box (or XP can't) and he likely doesn't know what a "ISO" is anyway.

Joe can always make a bootable USB. Joe has options.

I'm not going to argue that Ubuntu is good for "Joe", but getting it isn't exactly difficult.

Even if he's a total retard and can't burn the ISO... even if he's an impatient mofo and can't wait for the free disk to come in the mail... he can still use the Wubi installer, which can be installed from right inside Windows.

Is that you, Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth, shilling for your products offer of free snail mail shipping?

Especially on the SSD version of the Acer Aspire One, where you want to avoid unnecessary disk reads if possible. The SSD is just dog slow. Before I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I tested it by running the live version right off the USB pen drive. Get this: UNR actually ran faster off the pen drive than it does off the SSD. It's still usable installed to the SSD, but again, you will want to avoid hitting the disk more than necessary. Once everything is loaded into memory it's fine.

On a side note, I am quite impressed by UNR 9.04. They have made some major progress with this release, and now that they have the official flash image it's a snap to install. Everything just worked: sound, video, wireless, usb -- I didn't have to touch a thing. My only complaint is that the battery life is slightly less than what the original OS (Linpus) could squeeze out. But it's still worth it, and I understand they're working on improving battery life for 9.10.

I explain what I think, in terms a layman can apprehend.

Ladies and gentlemen I bring forth the evidence that this is probably a fallacy.

Bruce said http://perens.com/blog/2009/01/31/13/
"Build kernel 2.6.28 or later. Earlier kernels won't help. Enable MTRR cleanup in the kernel configuration, setting Enable=1 and Spare MTRRs=1. You end up with 4 spare MTRRs, as it condenses the 8 used to just 4, and they have the same effect as far as I can tell."

However this was took to mean
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
Pass enable_mtrr_cleanup to kernel in /boot/grub/menu.lst. (Explanation of problem at: http://perens.com/blog/2009/01/31/13/)

I can only say thanks to bruce I built my first kernel successfully ,however clearly theres a difference between what he said and what some people thought he said.
I don't know why but I finished up 2 free mtrrs not 4.

I mean that it's still a bad idea to try to push new users into Linux

I agree however...

when you have to do something not exposed by pretty control panels you need a level of understanding far beyond that of the average user. In the words of above commenters, "hand holding."

Windows , and Macs, require hand holding too. How many people even know about control panels? If they do know then Linux distros like Ubuntu have their own versions. Go System Administration or System Preferences. About 2 1/2 years ago I got a new PC with Linux preinstalled. When I first booted up the desktop reminded me of and looked like a Windows desktop. Plugging in and using external and flask drives was just as easy as with Windows, plug them in and within a few seconds an icon appeared on the desktop. Double clicked and they open and can be used. Plug in a printer and it asks if you want to install a driver.

Falcon

Maybe its been a while since you looked at it, according to their page it looks like debian and ubuntu are supported.

CinePaint has not been in Ubuntu since 8.10 intrepid. Search Ubuntu Studio and it returns no results for CinePaint. If CinePaint is part of it why doesn't it return anything? Now the CinePaint website does have a link to a .deb package but Debian has not supported it for years. According to CinePaint "CinePaint was removed from Debian lenny (testing) because Debian has dropped support for GTK1." The Debian people who worked on CinePaint are no longer there. And the .deb available is experimental.

I did my research to see if Ubuntu would do what I wanted.

Falcon

According to the release schedule https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicReleaseSchedule that is a day after the Karmic release candidate. Karmic will be released on October 29th and I don't expect slippage on that. Mark was talking about distros getting release dates aligned, I didn't expect Microsoft to be the first to respond.

Ubuntu 9.10 is currently slated to be released six days later.

Could it possibly be worth advancing Ubuntu's release date by about 10 days, just to steel Microsoft's thunder?

Please don't buy an Apple or upgrade from XP to Ubuntu :)

HW: Dell D430 Latitude (not the best test case, but a common business machine) I've been running Intrepid for a while now without too many issues. Sure, there's your usual "gotta find the latest drivers after install" for some things such as the wireless. However, "upgrading" to Jaunty has caused MANY regressions for this hardware. I had to downgrade the video card driver thanks to this bug: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReinhardTartler/X/RevertingIntelDriverTo2.4 I have yet to get bluetooth audio working through Pulse even though, while a bit sketchy, I could actually use my BT headphones on Intrepid. Docking with multiple monitors always required disabling and then re-enabling one of them to get it to show and that hasn't changed. All in all, while I like the improvements, I am debating reverting to Intrepid. I'm not terribly keen on the format/reinstall option, but it may end up being my only option if I want these features back. I love Ubuntu. I really like Intrepid and Jaunty was interesting enough to make me want to upgrade right away. I was led to believe the HW support would be better in it. It's definitely a regression for my system...

I use one box [Mine] to administrate [a lot off] other boxes.

Those other boxes have an account xxx to administer them, and during setup install sshd and allow for passwordless login, generate the necessary ssh PKI keys (ssh-keygen) and publish the public key to my [Mine] (ssh-copy-id).

Now I can log in to [a lot off] boxes from [Mine] with xxx without a password for xxx@somebox

There is a very decent article for Ubuntu: AutomatedNodeDeployment#SSH

I think GP was more aiming at the "don't sell software, sell services and support" thing.

Difficult to 'sell support' if your enthusiastic users are providing it for free to the other users.

Unless, of course, your project's big, popular even with corporations, etc. Then you can sell because a manager will throw money at you rather than have his underlings 'waste time' trolling forums for the exact same answers;
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid

Applications Like Boxee are a chance for Linux to make major inroads to becoming more widespread.

How do you figure? This "Killer App" you speak of has Windows and OSX versions. There is little reason to use Linux. To add insult to injury, the Linux version is the one that lags behind in features and development. So where is the "Linux" advantage again?

Oh, right, MythTV. Are you serious? Do you think the average person wants to go through this much hastle just to watch TV? SQL Database required. That takes the cake right there.

Never use ssh+password. Always use ssh+PKI. I think you missed "key" and focused on "[no] password"

From Ubuntu wiki SSHHowto:

If your SSH server is visible over the Internet, you should use public key authentication instead of passwords if at all possible.

Ubuntu is so all a complete replacement for Windows and OSX that Ubuntu's designs are all so made on OSX with Photoshop.

See below:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-wallpapers/+bug/357218

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Jaunty/Colors%20of%20Ubuntu%20-%20wallpaper

This page: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile says Ubuntu MID has touchscreen support. I think the project is still early, so I'm not sure how good it is, but work is being done in that direction. So most of the applications of touch will be covered soon enough.

sam@littleguy:~$ apt-cache show gtk-recordMyDesktop
Package: gtk-recordmydesktop
Priority: optional
Section: universe/graphics
Installed-Size: 564
Maintainer: Ubuntu MOTU Developers
Original-Maintainer: José L. Redrejo RodrÃguez
Architecture: all
Version: 0.3.7.2-2
Depends: python, python-support (>= 0.7.1), recordmydesktop (>= 0.3.7), python-gtk2
Filename: pool/universe/g/gtk-recordmydesktop/gtk-recordmydesktop_0.3.7.2-2_all.deb
Size: 80778
MD5sum: a9746b8d28cdce4a6d3ef8be63810d7b
SHA1: fea3b5aea3cbcb3fd3ba065276e4d76a8e382fdf
SHA256: 1845eade7ed59bd2855baa5f79768f96d163802dada9c502e27b3303e1ee7de7
Description: Graphical frontend for recordmydesktop
  Adds an easy to use graphical icon on the GNOME toolbar
  to make a pleasure use and configure the audio and video
  capture application recordMyDestkop
Homepage: http://recordmydesktop.iovar.org/
Bugs: mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com
Origin: Ubuntu

Anyway, what is the correct procedure in jaunty for installing java (compiler, runtime, and applet support) and flash 10 (including x64 support)?

apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

(and optionally, for your full Java, install sun-java6-jdk — only the JRE is depended upon by the above package.)

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

All ubuntu installations use the main mirrors by default. Follow the instructions there and have everything downloaded and installed in 30-45 minutes.

What about these ones? They work fine for me.

How old? 8.10 jetisoned support for older Nvidia cards:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810#nVidia%20%22legacy%22%20video%20support

No such mention in the 9.04 notes, but that seems addressed to people who could go to 8.10.
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904

Anyone already in-the-know on this? There's a lot of otherwise fine machines running 8.04LTS as their 'last Ubuntu' because of this, which was a PITA frankly. If you didn't dig out and understand the release notes, there was no warning. The 8.10 LiveCD worked fine, then you got a new install that failed to install. Much tearing of hair and unanswered forum posts from people before that one was sorted.

Sorry I'm a non-expert, but that's why I went with Ubuntu. Does the X.Org of 9.04 work with GeForce4? How do we find out? The card works great with 8.04 and of course Windows.

How old? 8.10 jetisoned support for older Nvidia cards:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810#nVidia%20%22legacy%22%20video%20support

No such mention in the 9.04 notes, but that seems addressed to people who could go to 8.10.
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904

Anyone already in-the-know on this? There's a lot of otherwise fine machines running 8.04LTS as their 'last Ubuntu' because of this, which was a PITA frankly. If you didn't dig out and understand the release notes, there was no warning. The 8.10 LiveCD worked fine, then you got a new install that failed to install. Much tearing of hair and unanswered forum posts from people before that one was sorted.

Sorry I'm a non-expert, but that's why I went with Ubuntu. Does the X.Org of 9.04 work with GeForce4? How do we find out? The card works great with 8.04 and of course Windows.

"The Ubuntu people are the same, if not worse (by this I refer to Canonical). They protect their trademarks aggressively. They stop websites, or spin off projects, unless they're strictly non-profit (this includes advertising)" Where, can you provide a list of citations where Canonical caused web sites or spin off projects to be canceled.

you may use the Trademarks in association with the software product provided:

* the changes are minimal and unsubstantial, as described above ..

* there is no commercial intent associated with the new product ..

* the Trademark is used in a way that makes it clear that your project is a development effort related to the Ubuntu source, but that the software you are working upon is not in fact Ubuntu as distributed by the Ubuntu project ..

* there is no suggestion (through words or appearance) that your project is approved, sponsored, or affiliated with Ubuntu ..

Performance regressions on Intel graphics cards

Users of Intel video chipsets have reported performance regressions in Ubuntu 8.10 compared with previous releases (252094). Many of the issues have been resolved in Ubuntu 9.04, but some remain.

• Some users have found improved performance by using the "greedy" migration heuristic. This can be done by running "sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf", and adding Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy" to the Device section of your xorg.conf.
• Alternatively, a new experimental acceleration architecture option, "DRI2/UXA", is available for Intel graphics users which our testing has found provides significant performance improvements in some cases, but has also shown risk of severe stability problems. You can opt-in to enable this by running "sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf", and adding Option "AccelMethod" "UXA" to the Device section of your xorg.conf. Users wishing to maximize stability should stay with the standard default acceleration method, "EXA". In some cases this will lead to the graphical environment not starting at all or becoming entirely unusable. In that case, start into rescue mode or press Ctrl+Alt+F2 and log into the text console, and use sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf to revert the UXA option.
• If none of the above helps, some users reported success with using an older driver version.

Display freezes with Intel graphics cards

Users of various Intel video chipsets reported freezes under various conditions (e. g. a few minutes after suspend on the i945, see 339091). In many cases, switching off desktop effects in System â' Preferences â' Appearance was reported to help. If it still happens without desktop effects, you can add Option "DRI" "off" to the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, as described above. This will disable 3D acceleration and desktop effects, but makes suspend work reliably again and also avoid many types of crashes. These freezes happen particularly often on the i965 chips (359392). For that reason, desktop effects were disabled by default on this chipset in the final release. They will be re-enabled in a 9.04 Update once the problem has been fixed.

It's things like this that must make vendors question the value of opening their drivers. Despite the (perhaps theoretical) advantages you'd expect from being as open as Intel is with their graphics hardware the end result in this particular version of Ubuntu seems well short.

Release notes

Personally I find this very disappointing. I specifically bought an Intel based laptop and desktop because their drivers are open.

It seems strange that a distro that sometimes bends over backwards to make binary blobs easily installable hasn't put more effort into getting the Intel issues sorted out.

How many newbies are going to be bitten by the:

In some cases this will lead to the graphical environment not starting at all or becoming entirely unusable.

hidden halfway through the release notes?

It's seems borderline unprofessional that a release can be made with such a known issue on a pretty common piece of hardware.

WTF?
Could you possibly look more like a moron with that statement?

Hint(from the link):

This document provides instructions and notes on upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 (code name "Jaunty Jackalope"), the most recent release of Ubuntu, released on the 23rd of April 2009.

This is not the first time it has been mentioned here.

They mentioned this in the release notes, along with some other new fun behaviors.
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904
"Change in notifications of available updates

Ubuntu 9.04 introduces a change to the handling of package updates, launching update-manager directly instead of displaying a notification icon in the GNOME panel. Users will still be notified of security updates on a daily basis, but for updates that are not security-related, users will only be prompted once a week.

Users who wish to continue receiving update notifications in the previous manner can restore the earlier behavior using the following command:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false
"

Results have been mixed. I, for one, have page tearing now that I didn't have before (GMA965). Worst case, you can revert to the Intrepid driver: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReinhardTartler/X/RevertingIntelDriverTo2.4 But before doing that, you might want to look at a troubleshooting guide: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/IntelPerformance And people's descriptions of how UXA (the new/future render) has been working: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/UxaTesting

Results have been mixed. I, for one, have page tearing now that I didn't have before (GMA965). Worst case, you can revert to the Intrepid driver: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReinhardTartler/X/RevertingIntelDriverTo2.4 But before doing that, you might want to look at a troubleshooting guide: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/IntelPerformance And people's descriptions of how UXA (the new/future render) has been working: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/UxaTesting