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It's nice to know that the Ubuntu update I ran this morning for passwd 1:4.0.13-7ubuntu3.2, was based on a real security notice: SEE HERE, and not some hacker installing a backdoor.

dapper drake uses the http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/base/linux-image -3862.6.15.xx kernel so it wouldn't be affected

If joe wants to play his mp3s, he'll need to take it up with the people asking for cold hard cash for the privledge of listening to his music. This is what happens when Joe User allows the people who disrespect intellectual property entirely (aka The Scene) dictate technological choices.

Enabling mp3 support could hurt them in a number of very real senses. If they choose to purchase a licscence for every user (and subsequent user as possible under the GPL) they'd be out serious dough. If they choose to distribute such software without paying, they've exposed themselves to legal liability above that cost. If they use the recently created legal gstreamer-mp3 plugin, they cannot fully comply with the spirit of Open Source and the GPL. And by supporting mp3 they also implicitly support software patents.

It's unfortunate that this problem exists, and it's all because a piracy group or two started releasing mp3s to the public, instead of carefully investigating and developing their own solution. Essentially, the public has bought into disreguarding intellectual property and they'll have to dig themselves out of this mess one way or another eventually. I think the current RestrictedFormats system is burying one's head in the sand and won't solve any problems in the long run.

The only good news here is that the first of the mp3 patents (and only?) is expected to expire in 2010. But even then, the argument only shifts from how awful it is that mp3s don't work to how awful h264 playback is, and why various movie files people have don't play on Ubuntu.

I ran Linux in a much more constrained environment back in 1993 (4MB RAM with ample swap, 40MB Disk, 386, laptop) and it ran at a decent speed with a decent set of applications (yes, even back then).

I'd be *really* surprised if Linux today couldn't fit in your environment. But you'll likely have to forget KDE/GNOME. They're *nice* but not necessary. My old system used FVWM which is still perfectly capable (I was used it last year on Solaris -- there's even a Win95-like config), although now there are slicker alternatives like XFCE and IceWM which are also available and better supported by default on many distros.

Here are a few alternatives to consider which are more targetted to your needs. You might want to them all out and see which one you like best:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu
http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_i d=1
http://www.vectorlinux.com/
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

I've yet to see an end-user-directed advert for Linux in any medium.

Get Ubuntu for your desktop!

Ubuntu Linux - Linux for Human Beings.

There ya go, one Linux advert targetted specifically for you! I'm not expected a very high click-through rate thogh.

I know this will sound as the same old troll but there is, at least with Ubuntu, a long way to go for the Linux desktop mass "takeover".

I just installed Ubuntu in a Pentium 3 400mhz that I found in the trash (I love UK) which had Windows 2000. Unfortunately I do not have an internet connection with that machine.

I configured an account for my flatmate, he is a decent computer literate guy, biologist but he likes technology (he is something like 36 yrold and used to make small BASIC programs in the past).

I am doing an experiment, the first thing he ased when he started using the machine was "but, does it plays MP3"?, I explained him all the situation (he is a "freedom" [in a broad sense, not in libre software as a lot of people is here] activist so, he understands about copyrights and all that shit) and told him about OGG, and showed him that there was support for OGG out of the box.

Of course, I also told him I would install the MP3 support, here is where te problems began, I went to the UBUNTU site, and looked for what was necessary to provide MP3 support, then I downloaded the specified software and tried to installed via USB. None of it installed as every program needed some other program (aka unsatisfied dependency). Even the mp321 needed the id3tag-whatever library. As I didnt wanted to bother I just installed realplayer, and this is what he is using NOW to play mp3 (unfortunatley it does not have a playlist functionality so my friend has to open each file, and there is no way to configure the gnome file manager to make realplayer the default player when you dobule click, it keeps opening in Totem who says that the mp3 is not a multimedia format).

Then, he opened OpenOffice (I told him about how it would be the equivalent for Microsoft Office for his needs). After he opened I went to do something else, and when I returned, he had OO.org in full screen mode and the program was kind of paralyzed. After looking a bit he told me he tried to customize the FullScreen Toolbar (the one that has the "FullScreen" button in it), I just pressed ALT-f4 and then tried again, it seems, the Fullscreen mode in OpenOffice gets "always on top" mode, and then when you try to open the customize screen the window sits under the document window WITH focus, the document window wont get focus unless you close that other window that is behind it. Bad program.

Ok, then I told him about OpenOffice Draw, I use it a lot (it exports to EPS which I use with LaTex). I told him about the Vector graphics format and explained about the SVG and WMF (told him that SVG is the open and standard equivalent to the windows WMF). I made a fast drawing, selected all the elements and exported as SVG. Then I tried to import that image in a DOCUMENT (Open Office Writer Inert/Image/FromFile) and to my surprise THERE IS NO SUPPORT FOR IMPORTING SVG. There is SGV which is I believe a staroffice format, but it is another thing. I tried chaning the extension to whatever (SGV) without success. it was funny that just two minutes before I had told my friend that Linux was cool because it "recognizes the format from the file content and not from the extension", but then it seems OpenOffice.org expects the files to have a specific extension. Bad bad program.

Then I exported the same drawing to WMF (THE WINDOWS PROPIETARY FORMAT) and to my surprise I could import it to OpenOffice Writer without problem (WTF).

Another annoyance, that is of course a RealPlayer problem is that, there is no way to select which soundcard to use. The motherboard has an integraded soundcard and a Soundblaster live (darn Britons, I cant believe I found it in the trash in a rainy day =o). I configured the SoundBlaster live as the default device (in the Ubuntu menu) but the REalPlayer ignored that. What I had to do is connect the speakers to the integraded soundcard jack and then just selected it as the default sound card.

O

Ubuntu is supposedly "Linux for human beings", not "Linux for open source zealots who refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of proprietary software."

The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

These freedoms make Ubuntu fundamentally different from traditional proprietary software: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you have the right to modify your software until it works the way you want it to.

GNU should focus on making better software, not pursuing an ideology.

The best consumer-friendly anti-spyware, anti-virus program you can get is FREE! you can get it here.

Do you really believe the majority would accept that they could not use the most popular OS in the world?

Better order some Ubuntu cds for the EU.

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

No, I'm attempting to use an OS that promotes itself as one that "Just Works" (their words, not mine):

Ubuntu offers you a complete Linux-based operating system, including all the major applications you need to play and work. With a strong focus on a desktop that Just Works, Ubuntu is a great choice for home or the office. The base system and all included software is free, and support is available from the community or by professional support providers.

( http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop )

Errors corrected below: Windows is crippled by default. You need the patch here to restore functionality.

Here's a better article on removing WGA. :)

(I actually prefer this article on removing WGA, or this one, but I freely admit that they're not for newbies.) ;)

"Windows will stop working, so you might as well install WGA now"

Windows will stop working, so you might as well install Ubuntu now.

There, that's better...

If someone could hack the warning so it says "you have 30 days to switch to Ubuntu".. that'd be great.

But seriously. Each one of you will know of someone who this is going to hurt. Download Ubuntu iso tonight and have the disk ready for D-Day, or get them switched over beforehand. Every time M$ make it harder for people to use 'that copy of Windows they found', is another opportunity to have them ditch Windows altogether. Usually the only question is: "what is the alternative"

Now we have one: http://www.ubuntu.com/download

meh Disclaimer: I have it installed on two of my machines at home, but still have a xp machine for CS:S... (i wish i could give up CS:S so I could ditch Windows altogether...)

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Trouble following a narrative? NemosomeN's story barely parses as coherent, much less true (asked who? where? admin? mod? sure..) If NemosomeN is smart enough to know what 'kernel source' means, he would have been smart enough to find the images in the time it took him to log into the Ubuntu forums: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/dapper/release/ source/. Had he though you would have lost the opportunity to demonstate your superiority over the 'dicks' who work so hard to give us Ubuntu for free. You sound like one of those mug, selfish pricks who expect the world to hand everything to them, no matter how otherwise trivially attained. Want a Coke with that too? Cookies maybe?

Oh, bullshit. If you go around and act nasty and accuse people blindly of "not being compliant" because your head is too far up your ass to see what's going on around you, you should expect to be told to fuck off, and deservedly so.

There is a prominent link on their download page. So you can obtain the source code from the same place they distribute the binaries. This seems to be perfectly compliant with the GPL. Or go type "Ubuntu source code" into Google - it took me 10 seconds to find archive.ubuntu.com.

Nothing mandates coddling of morons. There will always be some self-righteous asshole who thinks the world owes him a hand-holding. To him and those like him, a resounding "fuck you". Learn to treat people with respect and basic decency, and you'll get much farther in life.

Have you ever used Debian, Ubuntu or a distribution derived from either of those? Are you aware of the fact that apt-get and Synaptic allow for obtaining source packages with little hassle?

If you havn't used it then you're a fool ranting about things you don't know at all (It would be like me making the same accusation of Linspire, having never used their distribution in the least) and should really just leave the discussion to the people who actually are in the know. If you have used it then you're a fool that doesn't seem to have any idea how things work in the distribution. How much more obvious a location for the source packages than the very goddamn repository that contains every other package for the distribution? Pull your head out of your ass.

Quite frankly the first thing a troll does is say that the proof, the evidence that their malcontent is justified, is not really important, it's the big picture, a pathetic attempt to dispell their attempts at rabblerousing. That is exactly what's happened here. If the guy would have proved to us that hey these Ubuntu devs (Nevermind that simply having someone respond to you in a negative fashion in a distributions forums does not mean that the developers of the distribution are endorsing someone being a jackoff to you) are being a bunch of jerks, then he would have had the support of every rationally-minded individual here. Hell, I would have removed the Ubuntu installation I recently helped a friend of mine obtain and recommended him a different one. I would have lost interest in the project myself and stopped recommending it over others. The fact of the matter is that he has no proof of this altercation because it never happened, looking only to get a rise out of people. That, my friend, is trolling at it's finest.

Nevermind that this entire case seems entirely rediculous assuming he is telling the truth. If he had no network access how was he making the inquiries? If he had no network access how were the Ubuntu devs supposed to get the source available to him? Ah but wait they've already thought of that much like every other major Linux distributor! If you need the source code on CD for anything in Ubuntu, you can contact Canonical themselves and have them send you physical media with the sources, for the cost of shipping and handling.

If he was paraphrasing, that's a really nice way to do so. I could paraphrase by saying my mother told me to fuck off by not getting me the toy I asked for in the store, when in fact she really said something entirely different but to the same overall effect in my eyes. Anyways, this is stupid. Take a look at the Download page for Ubuntu Linux at the official website. Or if you're too lazy, here's the snippet that's important with slight modification to make it post right in HTML formatting:

Source code

In accordance with our philosophy and licensing guidelines, source code is made available for all packages in Ubuntu. It can be browsed and downloaded from our archive. Alternatively, one can easily retrieve source code from an networked Ubuntu system by using a terminal to run the command "apt-get source package" where package is the name of the source package that you would like to download and unpack.

Have you ever used Debian, Ubuntu or a distribution derived from either of those? Are you aware of the fact that apt-get and Synaptic allow for obtaining source packages with little hassle?

If you havn't used it then you're a fool ranting about things you don't know at all (It would be like me making the same accusation of Linspire, having never used their distribution in the least) and should really just leave the discussion to the people who actually are in the know. If you have used it then you're a fool that doesn't seem to have any idea how things work in the distribution. How much more obvious a location for the source packages than the very goddamn repository that contains every other package for the distribution? Pull your head out of your ass.

Quite frankly the first thing a troll does is say that the proof, the evidence that their malcontent is justified, is not really important, it's the big picture, a pathetic attempt to dispell their attempts at rabblerousing. That is exactly what's happened here. If the guy would have proved to us that hey these Ubuntu devs (Nevermind that simply having someone respond to you in a negative fashion in a distributions forums does not mean that the developers of the distribution are endorsing someone being a jackoff to you) are being a bunch of jerks, then he would have had the support of every rationally-minded individual here. Hell, I would have removed the Ubuntu installation I recently helped a friend of mine obtain and recommended him a different one. I would have lost interest in the project myself and stopped recommending it over others. The fact of the matter is that he has no proof of this altercation because it never happened, looking only to get a rise out of people. That, my friend, is trolling at it's finest.

Nevermind that this entire case seems entirely rediculous assuming he is telling the truth. If he had no network access how was he making the inquiries? If he had no network access how were the Ubuntu devs supposed to get the source available to him? Ah but wait they've already thought of that much like every other major Linux distributor! If you need the source code on CD for anything in Ubuntu, you can contact Canonical themselves and have them send you physical media with the sources, for the cost of shipping and handling.

If he was paraphrasing, that's a really nice way to do so. I could paraphrase by saying my mother told me to fuck off by not getting me the toy I asked for in the store, when in fact she really said something entirely different but to the same overall effect in my eyes. Anyways, this is stupid. Take a look at the Download page for Ubuntu Linux at the official website. Or if you're too lazy, here's the snippet that's important with slight modification to make it post right in HTML formatting:

Source code

In accordance with our philosophy and licensing guidelines, source code is made available for all packages in Ubuntu. It can be browsed and downloaded from our archive. Alternatively, one can easily retrieve source code from an networked Ubuntu system by using a terminal to run the command "apt-get source package" where package is the name of the source package that you would like to download and unpack.

Have you ever used Debian, Ubuntu or a distribution derived from either of those? Are you aware of the fact that apt-get and Synaptic allow for obtaining source packages with little hassle?

If you havn't used it then you're a fool ranting about things you don't know at all (It would be like me making the same accusation of Linspire, having never used their distribution in the least) and should really just leave the discussion to the people who actually are in the know. If you have used it then you're a fool that doesn't seem to have any idea how things work in the distribution. How much more obvious a location for the source packages than the very goddamn repository that contains every other package for the distribution? Pull your head out of your ass.

Quite frankly the first thing a troll does is say that the proof, the evidence that their malcontent is justified, is not really important, it's the big picture, a pathetic attempt to dispell their attempts at rabblerousing. That is exactly what's happened here. If the guy would have proved to us that hey these Ubuntu devs (Nevermind that simply having someone respond to you in a negative fashion in a distributions forums does not mean that the developers of the distribution are endorsing someone being a jackoff to you) are being a bunch of jerks, then he would have had the support of every rationally-minded individual here. Hell, I would have removed the Ubuntu installation I recently helped a friend of mine obtain and recommended him a different one. I would have lost interest in the project myself and stopped recommending it over others. The fact of the matter is that he has no proof of this altercation because it never happened, looking only to get a rise out of people. That, my friend, is trolling at it's finest.

Nevermind that this entire case seems entirely rediculous assuming he is telling the truth. If he had no network access how was he making the inquiries? If he had no network access how were the Ubuntu devs supposed to get the source available to him? Ah but wait they've already thought of that much like every other major Linux distributor! If you need the source code on CD for anything in Ubuntu, you can contact Canonical themselves and have them send you physical media with the sources, for the cost of shipping and handling.

If he was paraphrasing, that's a really nice way to do so. I could paraphrase by saying my mother told me to fuck off by not getting me the toy I asked for in the store, when in fact she really said something entirely different but to the same overall effect in my eyes. Anyways, this is stupid. Take a look at the Download page for Ubuntu Linux at the official website. Or if you're too lazy, here's the snippet that's important with slight modification to make it post right in HTML formatting:

Source code

In accordance with our philosophy and licensing guidelines, source code is made available for all packages in Ubuntu. It can be browsed and downloaded from our archive. Alternatively, one can easily retrieve source code from an networked Ubuntu system by using a terminal to run the command "apt-get source package" where package is the name of the source package that you would like to download and unpack.

He's already replied to this but yes if you don't have a working network.

Then that's his problem, not Ubuntu's. They satisfied the legal requirement under section 3a of the GPL by making the source available on the same website that they distribute the object code from (with an easy automatic command, no less). If he can't connect with a particular machine, Ubuntu has no obligation to fix his problem for him.

And if he happened to get the distro on a CD, the Ubuntu FAQ has this to say:

We do not normally distribute source CDs and you cannot order them through shipit. That said, in order to comply with the GPL, we are happy to distribute source code on CD to anybody we give a binary CD. More information is written in fine print on the back of each CD. Source for everything on the CD is always available at http://archive.ubuntu.com/ or can be ordered from Canonical for them cost of the media plus shipping.

Ubuntu? It's years behind Fedora in case of security... *sigh*

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Security/Features
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-hardened/ 2006-June/000150.html

On the Ubuntu wiki's RestrictedFormats page there is information pertaining to getting stuff from iTMS: here

You're right. Instead you get "How to use firefox to access windows update from your pirated Windows install" or "How to schedule nightly defrags," or "how to optimize your internet settings." Not to mention that Sun's Java is now installable from multiverse / non-free (or will be eventually if the current Sun PR is to believed, I'm not sure where Debian + java currently stands).

Saying that nobody is busy addressing the "stuff like this" is a lie. The FSF and plenty of other OSS organizations join up to fight software patents, the primary cause that you can't play DVDs, listen to mp3s, or any other potentially patented function in the future with open source software legally. And plenty of other people are finding ways to work with existing patent holders to come to a workable agreement between them. For example, Fluendo recently worked with the MP3 people to join in on mp3 support. There's even more people working on alternatives to restricted software, like Vorbis and gcj. And there are people "trying to fix stuff like this," like Automatix or EasyUbunbtu; they just don't personally advertise on Slashdot where you might read it. I dislike that their solution is an addon program rather than solving the deficiencies within Ubuntu, but that's a personal opinion and there are at least some fixes that are justifiably unmergable with Ubuntu. So it is being solved, by a number of people, in a number of ways. It's just not done yet.

One of the biggest problems I see surrounding the Ubuntu support and help forums is that the "howto foo" authors are all heavily experienced in the command line, so where a GUI tool would suffice they instead jump to console. For you and I, synaptic may provide little value (perhaps that itself is a bug) over apt-get, but it represents a good improvement for the unindoctrinated. The things it does are generally unsurprising, and the features it directly presents to the users are very suitable for their needs (searching, upgrading, descriptions). Of course it isn't perfect yet, but it's far from unusable. I think if the howto authors spent some time using the GUI tools with a focus on their documentation, they'd be able to contribute some insightful advice to developers on improving it, sort of an "eat your own dogfood" scenario.

For the record Dapper is running 1.5.4. The main problem revolved around whether it was appropariate to break people's plugins or not. So far they've already pushed one upgrade to Firefox through, from 1.5.3 to 1.5.4. And it was always feasible to install firefox to your homedir (right click to extract, right click to run), if you were willing to take an adventure on plugins.

In other words, "there's lots of cool stuff you can do if you know how, but it's not always immediately obvious how". So... you want it spelled out for you or what? Except... wait... that's just what's already been done in this book. Except... wait... apparently the simple fact that this book is potentially useful is "what's wrong with Linux". Linux should make it blindingly obvious how to handle the "special case of configuring a seven button mouse with a tilted scroll wheel to work properly". (Does Windows, yet?)

I haven't seen the book but I've used (K)ubuntu and most of the stuff sounds like information that's already pretty freely available -- for instance, "know how to enable audio and video applications bundled with Ubuntu to play these restricted media files" turns out to be covered very nicely on the Ubuntu support wiki. Dunno how much extra this book adds to that info, but the wiki already includes the "takes the prize" tip on how to get stuff from iTMS.

In other words -- don't complain that people are working hard to make it much easier for "non-techy" users to do "oridinary" tasks (like spelling).

The broadcom driver that came with ubuntu(same sources, maybe earlier version) has somesort of issues with my BCM4318 :( , so it just doesn't work,

It's interesting to see you say that you're a 'fairly competent *nix user' when other people who are completely new to linux have gotten MP3 support practically right after installing ubuntu, have you checked the wiki by any chance? MP3 Support

I thought that was Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is an end-user distribution, Redhat doesn't even sell to end-users anymore.

Just thought I would point out that Ubuntu does have paid support. http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid

Kubuntu == Ubuntu, just KDE and KDE apps installed by default instead of Gnome, but it's still the same underlying distribution. Same package repositories etc., and for the Gnome experience in Kubuntu only ubuntu-desktop needs to be installed. And I'm fairly sure you can't play mp3's out of the box, because it's a patent encumbered format. Anyway, more information about this can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RestrictedFormats

I guess you should have spent your ten minutes installing EasyUbuntu to get your mp3's working. There's a reason why they don't play "out of the box".

I haven't seen much about Ubuntu being used for clusters, though, but I'm sure its possible to do. I wonder why they brought it up in the article?

For an OS you say is focused on the desktop Ubuntu has certainly making moves towards server space.

For an OS you say is focused on the desktop Ubuntu has certainly making moves towards server space.

For an OS you say is focused on the desktop Ubuntu has certainly making moves towards server space.

For an OS you say is focused on the desktop Ubuntu has certainly making moves towards server space.

Paid support you say ???

Sounds like that is exactly where they are going

http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid

just like say

Fedora / CentOS --> RHEL

or

OpenSUSE --> SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

or

OpenSolaris --> Solaris

, seems like they are all working on the

"here try our stuff for free!" approach , closely followed by the "but if you want business/ enterprise support, well you can pay for that"

no such thing as a free lunch , but there is nothing like free advertising.

Note : yes i know CentOS isnt fedora, but you get the idea.

This is exactly the problem that i faced when using fedora. I went through Fedora 2 - 4 and they all ran like trash. I had a NEW toshiba laptop that had a NEW intel wireless card and finding the driver that worked with the specific kernel that fedora installed was impossible(even when i found one that claimed to work the RPM's had some obnoxious dependenct that wasnt available anymore).

I got tired of that crap. I had a Ubuntu CD that someone gave to me and i knew that it was based in debian so I installed it. I found apt-get and I never looked back. Did i mention everything worked perfectly.

Red Hat needs to fix their S**t. I'm never using their stuff again.

The solution to your problems......within reason.

That's funny, I think mine got this update on June 1!

Hey, the Ubuntu project has an all-libre version of the distribution as well. But if you've got hardware you can't support without some restricted stuff that makes you feel icky... I'm not sure what distribution developers are expected to do. Tell users what hardware they should buy so that their distros will work?

And no I can't switch to Linux untill I get a new modem since mines a Winmodem

I generally agree with your post, old OSes & hardware are useful to people & should be supported. But consider ordering a free Ubuntu Live CD - delivered to your door.

It might be overkill (ie slow) on your old PC (and as someone in this thread's pointed out, xubuntu is probably more appropriate), but you'll be able to boot from the live CD, check if your modem's supported & then decide it's worth installing linux

Firefox 3.0 is a long way away, and there's still Firefox 2.0 along with its security releases through Firefox 3.0's early lifetime as well. By the time 3.0 is absolutely necessary, the pre-2K computers could have already upgraded to Ubuntu.

I dunno, it's what people said when they found out IE7 wouldn't support 98.

I guess it's a little mean to the 98 people, but I think it's reasonable. It's hard to support a lot of platforms, and with Vista coming out that would have been 4+ Windows platforms to support without dropping 9x. Also, since it's open-source, there's plenty of opportunity for people to make a fork designed just for Win9x if there's enough interest. 9x people should really upgrade though. Win2k, FYI, is one of the easiest Windows to pirate. There's a hack that someone found to make the CD not even ask you for a key to install. I'm sure most of the ISOs at http://www.isohunt.com/ have it, if anyone needs it. Or here's another place to get your upgrade.

I've discovered a patch which disables Windows' "phone home" reporting. It's a fairly large download, but it seems to work.

Great to see that the Debian developers start to break free from the strangulation of debian-legal and their overly religious OSS zealotry. It is usually debian-legal who pretends to act "in the name of the user" whereas the opposite is true and explains in large parts the success of Ubuntu.

The reason that Ubuntu has success on the desktop is that they're trying to be exactly what Debian is not - Debian on the desktop. Almost nothing about Debian is desktop-oriented... "unstable, testing, stable" "hmm, I want a stable desktop, what do I choose? stable?" "oh sorry that's old super-stable packages for 24/7 servers, use testing". The whole release cycle is based around a server OS, 18 months is too long for a desktop and there's no "point releases" matching a desktop. Being on testing is a rollercoaster with tons of changes right after a release, and glazier slow before a release.

Ubuntu is doing this perfectly correct for a desktop system - the releases match the Gnome releases, meaning every new version brings "the latest and greatest" and some new eyecandy. The last Debian stable doesn't even have a splash screen, as far as I can tell. You can't really claim it's a compatibility issue when it's set up to boot into X anyway. From what I've understood, the last Ubuntu as of breezy will also recognize my widescreen properly, something Debian does not (but I did it myself instead).

I mean, none of these are really big issues, but they've marketed themselves completely different. Plus a few cheap marketing stunts like changing from orange to brown default theme. Seriously, does it matter? It does get press, forum talk and of course a new round of screenshots though. I wonder what slashdot would say if the new "feature" of WMP11 was a new skin... Or something as trivial as comparing Debian's and Ubuntu's homepages, which looks most like a "for geeks" server OS with no pictures and a really square layout? (yes, this is a leading question)

Let me give you a typical language example:
Debian: "Debian GNU/Linux provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over 15490 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine."
Ubuntu: "Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, (...) Ubuntu includes more than 16,000 pieces of software,"

Most people wouldn't know what a "pure OS" is if you beat them with a stick, Ubuntu simply smooths over the details and says "whatever you understand by operating system, Ubuntu has it all". Debian spends a full sentence introducing the concept package, which it explains using words like "precompiled" where 99% of normal computer users who've never touched a compiler has fallen off already.

I could go on all day but there's no point. Ubuntu acts and communicates better in relation to desktop users than Debian does, and it's absolutely no surprise to me that Ubuntu is a success. Debian has this great potential but there nobody seems to be "trying", if you understand what I mean.

Ubuntu is a free, open source operating system that starts with the breadth of Debian and adds regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should "Just Work", TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release.

I was having the same problem. The ones mentioned above from http://help.ubuntu.com/ work just fine though.

...are available without creating an account at http://help.ubuntu.com/.

I certainly am thinking twice about buying my Raven X60 notebook, which is just a Lenovo X60 Thinkpad renamed to 'Raven' and with Linux (ubuntu Dapper Drake in my case) pre-installed.

The ONLY reason I am not cancelling this order, is that I don't want to mess up the Emperor Linux folks who have already had to order the laptop on my behalf. They're good people and I don't want to jerk them around. However, if this had happened last week, I'd have saved myself a bundle and bought one of the cheaper 12.1" notebooks instead. When paying a premium for a luxury notebook, I don't want to be supporting a company (Lenovo) that has such a poor opinion of their customers choices. This will likely be my LAST Thinkpad purchase. Maybe I'll put a Tux sticker over the Thinkpad logo to hide my shame ;)

This turn of events is really surprising to me because, I thought that, part of the reason that IBM, sold off this division was because there was a conflict of interest with their Linux software consulting and the pressure that they had from Microsoft. I thought that a major part of the issue was that Lenovo would be immune to this pressure and be working in a country where the local consumers were more likely to purchase linux boxen than elsewhere because of the strong Linux push in China. Of course, this could be looked at another way by realizing that, while IBM couldn't knuckle under to the pressure from Microsoft without losing face, Lenovo could.

So, where are the IBM linux consultants supposed to get their Linux laptops from now?

From the Ubuntu front page:
"The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

These freedoms make Ubuntu fundamentally different from traditional proprietary software: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you have the right to modify your software until it works the way you want it to."
emphasis added