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Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition", we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.

So you're saying that no-one is going to ever have to type

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eft main restricted

and so on into their sources.list?

Ubutnu

It's Ubu-n-t-u. Not that it's any better ;)

Ogg Vorbis sounds sweet. Now GIMP, not so much. My .02

Yes, Ubuntu, we get it. I mean, I know version numbers in press releases are so corporate and everything, but but some day (say, when they're releasing Zoroastrian Zebra or whatever) they'll look back on this little phase and feel a little silly.

The Dapper quality releases will be strongly tied to future corporate plans. Plus in every release announcement they will clearly state that the Dapper quality releases get extra long support.

Yet the overall quality of the other Ubuntu releases will never hopefully lower to a point where they are unusable by lay persons. I would hope that the kinds of people that a Dapper release was made for (IT managers) would be able to figure out which releases to use where.

Also, I didn't realize that ONLY this release was going to have the extended support. I thought it was from now on they were making releases that would get the longer support. So the in-between, risky, releases will use the breezy support model?

Every two years will bring a Dapper quality release. The way Mark has described it before, its as if the releases in between those two years are basically building up to these Dapper quality releases:

Our current plan is that the Dapper Drake (Ubuntu 6.06 if we hit our June 2006 release date goal) will be the last of this first "set" of releases. So post-Dapper we have the opportunity to define a new "feel" or overarching theme. It would be unlikely to be... blue. But it might be substantially different to the current Human theme.

Each of these in between releases will get the same level of support as all the Ubuntus before Dapper.

I personally have been excited about Edgy long before it was announced. Once you get the hang of it, its easy to spot which Ubuntu releases are for you.

The first releases after the two year major releases will have changes in styles and will be very distinct and maybe a little crazy- just like Warty was when it hit back in the day. All the exciting things the major release had to skip during the year can be added to this release. Mark has already said that Edgy will bring a new color scheme- exciting!

The second release after the major release will be the best of the in betweens- the craziness of the previous release will be polished down some and the time when these releases will come (Spring) is after all the major releases at the end of the previous year. Hoary was really great for this reason.

The third release after a major release will be the most compromised- many new things might be dumped on this release so the Dapper quality release can use the release as development time for its more boring platform. Long before Breezy came out I was scared because it in a bad time of the year for a distro release (right before the new Open Office, Xorg and Firefox were released) and because it had to take on large bites (modular Xorg before Xorg was ready, GCC transition for PART of the system, etc.) to make life easier for Dapper. As a result Breezy seems to be the most buggy release (yet many of these problems - like floppies not working and an unstable OpenOffice- has been fixed post release).

Then we have another Dapper quality release and the IT managers of the world can pay attention again. Long live Ubuntu.

Just wait till they get to Inebriated Iguana and Vomiting Vixen. They're all possible, according to the list.

From the Ubuntu wiki:

"For all of our sanity we are going to try to keep these names alphabetical after Breezy. We might skip letters, and we'll have to wrap eventually. But the naming convention is here for a while longer, at least."

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DevelopmentCodeNames

It's a long list!

A great community for new Linux users is Ubuntu. Just ask a question in the n00b section and somebody will be happy to answer. Just remember to do a search first prior to asking, and to read any posts that says "Read this before posting" before posting a question. Even pm'ing someone would be ok.

Other sibling posts in this thread have mentioned the unofficial Ubuntu Guide, but you should probably look at the official documentation since the unofficial guide has been known to do harmful things to your computer. All of the official documentation, including a sanitized version of the unofficial guide, can be found at help.ubuntu.com.

Other sibling posts in this thread have mentioned the unofficial Ubuntu Guide, but you should probably look at the official documentation since the unofficial guide has been known to do harmful things to your computer. All of the official documentation, including a sanitized version of the unofficial guide, can be found at help.ubuntu.com.

Let's clear up the misrepresentation.

Breezy (5.10) uses hotplug and udev. This is the nice, comfortable way with which most people using Linux 2.6 are probably at least vaguely familiar. Dapper (6.06) has ditched hotplug and uses udev. Why? Linux 2.6.15 and udev perform everything that the older 2.6.12 kernel, udev, and hotplug performed. Read more here [0].

Next, Dapper currently has v1.1.1 of the ipw2200 driver, and it supports "wardriving" just fine.

[0] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-ann ounce/2005-December/000028.html

Well, the mount thing is actually pretty nice. The /media directory has the distinction of containing removable media, on behalf of users via pmount and hal. The benefits are twofold: you can't accidently kill off another predefined mount in /mnt, and if you're looking to create a list of available media sort of like My Computer, you've got an directory containing em. I suppose it can be confusing for people most comfortable with the command line, but I always liked puzzles ;)

Screenshot 6 is just another member of the "lets ditch the 70s terminal concept where possible" parade. I'm sure you know that reboots are required to get a new kernel running. This is all that is. It's been around since at least breezy, and its as equally as non threatening as the reminders in the console to "run lilo before you reboot, and by the way, reboot soon!"

Personally, I'm much more scared of the Orangification. I better remember to save the current theme in case the new one is too painful!

I've noticed this "dumbening" (is that how you spell it?) as well. I've been on Ubuntu since 4.10 and little by little, I realised things were creeping into it that made it fluffier, softer, and weaker. Along these lines, though I realise it happened before Warty, what the hell was wrong with cd's and flash drives mounting in 'mnt'?!?! Doesn't that make sense? You mount things in mount! Perfectly logical to me. But nope, now they go to media.

But back to it. Today I was checking out the screenshots of dapper - trying to decide exactly what to put on my new box due friday - and noticed something horrifying; something so terrifying I stopped dead. Screenshot #6 is particularly ominous. I'm not sure what will be going on this new box of mine, but in light of recent evidence, I'd say that Dapper is not the forgone conclusion it once was.

I know the guide is beginning to get a bit dated, but I still go back to Unofficial Ubuntu Guide now and then for some quick fixes. There's also the Ubuntu Wiki which has some more up-to-date information. I'm surprised that the sound didn't work out of the box.

Oh and before you suggest installing the codec's, checkout the ununtu forum. The how-to goes forever... and I am yet to see synaptic work even once!!!

They can't include it by default due to licensing problems. Here's how to do it:

1. Enable multiverse & universe repos
2. use apt or synaptic to install the gstreamer0.8-mad* package.
3. listen to mp3s

Done deal. As far as synaptic "not working", I've never had a problem with it, and I am running 6.06 which is still unstable. Maybe you just didn't have all the repositories enabled?

*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, I don't know about licensing issues, etc involved with this package - use your own discretion in installing packages on your system in accordance with local laws, etc

TFA reviews Flight5. Ubuntu is now testing Flight6. You can find the daily build here.

Remember, it's still alpha.

Get 6.06 here.

...can I really complain?

Well, the German Kubuntu team have closed their website in protest to what they claim is Canonical's disregard for KDE. Here are some of their concerns:

1) Canonical sponsors many more gnome developers than KDE developers -- just look how many more gnome-related commits appear in the Dapper commit log.
2) Edubuntu, whose education-specific programs come almost exclusively from the KDE Education Suite, runs on gnome instead of KDE. Canonical has never sponsored a KDE Education Suite developer, even though Edubuntu simply wouldn't exist without their work.
3) Canonical does not financially support the team that creates Kubuntu-LiveCDs, so they have to pay all the expenses from their own pockets.
4) Kubuntu doesn't accept community contributions (ie. contributions by anyone beside Jonathan Riddell and Andreas Mueller). A lot of volunteers wanted to contribute, but they can't because they have no access.
5) The name of the version featuring gnome is called Ubuntu, while the version featuring KDE has a K added to the front. This makes it sound like gnome is the default, standard, and KDE is some sort of offshoot. It would be more equitable to name them Ubuntu-KDE and Ubuntu-GNOME, or Kubuntu and Gubuntu.

Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu's main developer has tried to calm fears that Mark Shuttleworth is backing down on his commitment to KDE as a premier desktop system.

As far as I know, the Ubuntu foundation operates independently of Canonical, Ltd.

How does a post that starts with "as far as I know" get modded +4 informative?

All you have to do is look at the bottom of the page at ubuntu.com.

"© 2005 Canonical Ltd. Ubuntu and Canonical are registered trademarks of Canonical Ltd."

You should also note the grandparent's use of the word corporate. Red Hat is indeed a publically traded corporation, while Canonical is a privately held Limited Partnership. There's a big difference between those two when it comes to legal rights, shareholder obligations, and overall evil-ness.

Buzzz... wrong again. The suffix "Ltd." does not mean "limited partnership". Ltd. is a suffix added to British companies (and companies in some other countries) to show that the liability of investors in the company is limited to their investment... in other words, it is a corporation. See this wikipedia article for more details.

I use ubuntu on a daily basis (using it right now in fact). The fact that a corporation is behind it doesn't mean it's bad.

and almost as many crashes as an unpatched Win98 install.

What do you need, that is available on linux at all, and is not available in the universe/multiverse?

Seriously. Apart from some scientific software like Matlab and Mathematica, there still isn't very much popular proprietary software for linux, but for the most part there are excellent free alternatives. The only thing I can think of that you can't get so easily is "restricted formats", which is a legal not technological problem, and there's a helpful wiki on ubuntu's site explaining what to do about that.

Gnu/Linux is Now ready for some people , will be tomorrow for others , and was yesterday for others.

I for example dual boot Ubuntu and Windows , why? well games , just for it! If was not Ati crappy drivers and Win-only games i would have dumped Windows a long time ago , i would dumped it anyway if i had a better pc , that way i would use Cedega instead and ignored the performance lost in favour of having only my dear Gnu/Linux for human beings in my computer.

Problems with Ubuntu on a regular base? almost none :

A) After reading this wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com//UbuntuHowCome (great for noobs getting started) i was ready for apt-get , learned to edit my own sources.list (for those interested there is always the chance to get one already "completed" from several links) , and use several related commands , after a few codecs and programs install i had already a fully functional OS.

B) Without wanting to be a troll , but people who say Windows as got a friendly gui than Gnome are simply morons , the applications are all organized under categories ( internet , games , sound and video , etc...) , images are automatically "previewed" at the Desktop , i can install themes and stuff just with drag and drop , etc...

C) My only problematic hardware so far was my Ati radeon 9250 , sound , internet , printer , etc.. all work out of the box or with minimal fuss , i know most people have some piece that gives them troubles , but that luckily is not my case , believe it or not windows actually gave me more work in the past using official drivers to get things working.

And now? well i just love it , multiple Desktops , apt-get to install stuff , if a break something at the next moment i already fixed it , at the current moment im dual-booting Breezy , Dapper Drake and XP , im also planning to try other distros.

Planes for the future? This summer im going to install Dapper Drake at a friend computer , he does nt know almost anything about computers , his hardware is "Gnu/Linux friendly" , and after configuring it for him (he is not capable of doing it by himself , both in windows as Gnu/Linux) i will teach him how use the basic stuff without break anything , and im pretty sure he is going to love it!

I also have plans to install it at my older sister laptop ( Acer Aspire 1691) , unfortunately as far as i know there are still some issues with Acers , and besides my sister has got Gigabytes of works made in Office 2003 which OOO at the moment is not capable of handling at 100% , so i decided to wait until OOO 3.0 comes out and see at the time.

Gnu/Linux is groing at the Desktop , just wait and see.

• http://www.userlinux.com/ directs me to http://www.userlinux.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl
• http://www.userlinux.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl doesn't have a description, but it does say:
  
  "Main announcements have been moved to the UserLinux web site at http://www.userlinux.com/ . "
  
  and
  
  "# See http://www.userlinux.com/ and http://www.userlinux.com/about for more information. "
  
• 
  
  Great, so I click on http://www.userlinux.com/ and end up back at http://www.userlinux.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl . No luck there!
  
  
• Let's check out http://www.userlinux.com/about/.
  
  This site is parked via OpenSourceParking.com .
  No-Cost Parking, only Open Source / Free Software are used.
  Proceeds from advertising will go to political and promotional efforts on behalf of Open Source / Free Software.
  Now, you can do some good with that parked domain!
  
  

Good points. What's worrying me lately is that, while Linux is doing a fine job catching up to (and in many cases surpassing) the established OSes, the law hasn't really caught up to Linux.

For example, Ubuntu is pretty much how I'd want it by with the default installation, but it can't play certain proprietary media formats and some other things by default -- the wiki explains this. I know some of this is related to gray-area software that's free as in beer, but not as in speech, but there's a significant part of the computer world that's really restricted by patents and copyright issues. I also expect that, in the interest of diplomacy, more countries are going to start prioritizing intellectual property claims over FOSS. Is it politically shrewd to let Linux get tangled up in ridiculous legal issues? Obviously it's better for the public to have a free, flexible, secure OS available, but -- that hasn't necessarily stopped politicians in the past.

Now, if the media picked up that idea and ran with it, you'd think that would satisfy every reporter's innermost desire to do the world a favor and help the little guy. Clear some FUD off the table, get people interested in what our new trans-Pacific overlords are up to. Events like this are happening all the time, so mass media has every reason to spread the word.

Allowing nano scale particulates to be released in the home seems like a foolhardy way to save a bit of time.
I like the principle of nano tech, especially in embedded applications (like within a ceramic chip casing) but spraying it around just screams of stupidity.

People should just clean their windows manually, a good cloth can be found here.

(Funny thing, I just had this exchange with the ubuntu doc team like 5 days ago)

I was browsing http://help.ubuntu.com/starterguide/C/ch07s02.html , and took a look at the AntiVirus server portion. I wanted to recommend updating this portion -

"1. What is Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) Server?
    Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) is an anti-virus toolkit for Unix/Linux operating systems. Typically ClamAV is intergrated with email servers and can also be used to scan individual files. Linux rarely suffers from viruses and other nasties that infect other operating systems, so most likely you don't need to install ClamAV."

I would recommend replacing this with something along the lines of "While Linux rarely suffers from viruses and other nasties that infect other operating systems, it is wise to keep your system protected with anti-virus software and up to date definitions."

We all agree that linux is more secure and less prone to viruses then other operating systems, however, comments like this tend to promote a certain ignorance and a false sense of security.

--
response

Actually, I'm not sure that this is right. Antivirus is generally used
on linux machines only where there are samba shares or a mail server.
Running antivirus software is not (to my knowledge) a common part of
keeping your linux system safe. If someone tells me otherwise, I'm happy
to reconsider this section of the guide.

--
my response back

Fair enough. In those cases (samba and mail servers) it would be much more important. My concern is in looking to a future with linux being the most used desktop OS, and the attention from virus writers coupled with a much higher degree of a non-technical user base. Hopefully at that point, the people that would write viruses instead find open source projects as outlets to their creativity. Promoting the use of the AV software for desktop users now would either promote the ClamAV project or waste their resources with users downloading definitions.

--
response back

Yes, I don't think it's worth promoting it yet. I would think that when
an anti-virus becomes necessary, Ubuntu will provide one by default. But
certainly when the time comes, it will be reflected in the
documentation.

--

I sent him an email with a link to the article :) Besides, a virus scanner would make a great sales tool for free software!

Simple QA at best is all you can hope for, not a year of open beta.

No, you surely can't

Actually, it's interesting but IBM just certified DB2 UDB to run on Ubuntu:

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/db2cert

Seriously. Ubuntu is pretty much a support-it-yourself distribution. Not only is there virtually no (at least that I've seen) enterprise software that's certified to run on it, but you can't purchase as a product with support like you can with RedHat or Suse. I suppose you can get support options from Canonical separately, but I think that's going to be a tough sell to management, since they don't seem to be bundled very well. It's just not a very "corporate friendly" distro.

RedHat, on the other hand, has two different server products, each of which are spelled out for the types of workloads they're designed for. They have a "top of the line" one that they tout is good for CRM/datacenter/ERP/database stuff, and a cheaper one that aims for mail/file/print/web servers. Each one has three different levels of support. You could easily argue that the variations in product lineup (ES versus AS) is mostly marketingspeak, and I might agree with you, but it's the kind of marketingspeak that sells.

If you're looking for a distro to set up as your new print server, RedHat has matrices that basically tell you exactly what to get. If you go to Ubuntu's site ... well, I can just imagine some of my bosses staring at "Linux for human beings" and wondering what the hell that's supposed to mean.

I'm not trying to bash Ubuntu here, it's a good distro (I run Kubuntu on my Linux machine at home), but I think comparing it to RHEL as the GP is doing, is just trying to force it into a market that its not aimed at.

-FL

Yeah, nothing says proprietary formats like the ISO standard MPEG-4 audio layer.

1) Cory Doctorow showed that selling a tangible book isn't incompatible with releasing it online and opening it to modifications. Books don't need to be closed to let people make a living.

2) Many individuals are working on free support. Those that desparately need to feed their families are probably better off getting a day job. We don't need closed books to get the information out.

3) I'm not against people for wanting to sell something they've made. But the Ubuntu philosophy is about contributing free resources to the community. If you aren't into the philosophy, that's fine, but trying to profit off something you don't believe in is kinda disgusting.

And frankly, that makes me think that maybe Ubuntu has no business branching out any further (into, say, embeddable distributions for cell phones or the like). We've already seen one low-quality offshoot. Why dilute the product with another low-quality offshoot? Why risk possibly hurting the quality of your core product in the process?

A )Print/Read thisWiki(wiki.ubuntu)

B) Download the .ISO from the site

C) Install

D) Add the necessary repositories to your sources.list,
install/configure all the stuff you need , search tutorials about this
subjectshere
(ubuntuforums)

E) Put some nice themes/windows borders/icons at your Gnome (see Gnome Look) ,
the default art at Ubuntu sucks!

F) After a while help give back to the community , write
howtos , donate money , help other noobs , tell people how Gnu/Linux is
great , ...

G ) Bash M$ at /. (they deserve it)

H) World domination

The last two ARE NOT
optional.

Key to Ubuntu's philosophy is making "the tools you need available free of charge"

Thomas should respect the principles of Ubuntu and release this book for free and license it under Creative Commons to allow mashups and external improvements so the book can become more helpful over time.

My question is, if I choose Kubuntu, would I get anything at all out of this book?

Judging from the review:

1st Section: Linux History
2nd Section: Installing Ubuntu
3rd Section: Ubuntu Desktop / app comparison to windows
4th Section: Linux Command Line.

Of these sections, the 3rd is almost useless to you, 2nd should be reasonably useful, the 1st & 4th useful - but available from any book describing a linux distro.

In short - the book will be useful, but not alot more then a book describing any other debian based distro.

I know a book is a lovely reference to have - but I think one describing a particular iteration of any particular distro to be overkill. Grab yourself a general linux (or even unix) book, and use the helpful ubuntu wiki (and less helpful ubuntu forums) for kubuntu specific deviations.

Check out the Kubuntu Quick guide for starters...

"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are".

"a person is a person through other persons"

Aren't you going to make one for IE? How about IE7?

Yes. You can get the plug-in at http://www.ubuntu.com./ Install the software you find at that site and your IE will work with all those great Firefox scripts. Trust in me. Would a stranger on slashdot lie?

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com

I did what most normal users would do - I put in an Ubuntu disc, answered some questions, and I got a working system. That part was very good. I never once had to worry about a "repository" or a "Synaptic".

Basically, "Users are too dumb! They need to learn!"

In Mac OS X, I generally package my software by right-clicking the app bundle and selecting "Create Archive". If it is any harder to do than that, that's the fault of the OS.

Linux users in general seem to consider the fact that packaging software for their OS is much to difficult as some sort of natural law, that is to be worked around by complex technical and social solutions with repositories and other people packaging your software for you, instead of actually fixing the OS so that it's not such an incredible pain in the ass to distribute software for it.

Please, stop using Linux as the operating system, as it makes your comment a balant lie. No, it is not well supported by Linux, neither wifi and other things, it may be supported by one or two distributions.

Isn't it true that most users install a distribution rather than doing some kind of Linux From Scratch thing? Ergo, the vast majority of users have these things available to them out of the box without needing the user to do anything.

The Linux Kernel is infinitely configurable. This is how the same basic piece of software can run everything from a watch to a PDA to a PC to an enormous cluster of PCs. Linux as distributed in every distribution I've used in the last few years supports both WiFi and sound mixing out of the box.

As usual, you seem to be one of those people who once tried Slackware 10 years ago and still spout opinions based on that experience. Linux has changed immeasurably even over the last 2-3 years. Try a recent version of a good Linux distro (I recommend Ubuntu) and you'll see all that Linux of today has to offer. Yes, that includes WiFi (my laptop works out of the box) and sound mixing (my motherboard's on-board sound can play XMMS and OpenTTD simultaneously). Try it.

The entire computer industry has been stifled for years. We need competition, and we need it badly.

Yeah. Because Microsoft has no real competition at all in desktop operating systems.

Can't... it's required for Windows Update! If you don't update, you're screwed!

Can't be secure with ActiveX, can't be secure without ActiveX... but what would happen if ActiveX didn't exist?

Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo for sudo use in Ubuntu. Enabling root password (as you did) is not recommended for Ubuntu...

I've never liked that "security measure" in mac os x or ubuntu

As far as Ubuntu is concerned (dunno about OSX) it never was about security, or at least not in an abstract way, "what's more secure: root or sudo?". This is one of those myths that get perpetuated on mailing lists, /. and whatnot and drive me crazy. Someone misunderstood, and since then the myths refuses to die. Everyone writing about this topic should be forced to read the article on Ubuntu Wiki

Sudo in Ubuntu was done for one thing: convenience. The user (assumed to be dumb, and rightly so) should only have password. The system would ask (via gksudo) for this one password whenever it needs admin access. Now, in the case of a dumb user who who doesn't graps the root concept, I do believe that sudo is more secure, but that is a side effect.

Yes it's a weird term and there is actually a meaning. You could probably find some place that would explain what this weird term is. I don't know...say http://www.ubuntu.com/.

It is some Linux distribution you haven't heard of before. It's based on Debian. http://www.ubuntu.com/

Ubuntu Linux, one of the fastest growing Linux distributions, and widely regarded as one of the most usable. It's based on Debian, with which you might be more familiar.

Mp3 was excluded for one reason. Dogma. It has nothing to do with Fraunhofer being beligerent, because if it did, don't you think Ubuntu or others would have excluded mp3 support by now.

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install gdm

This will give you a desktop and a login manager. The Ubuntu support page will explain everything you need to know about installing new software with the Synaptic Package Manager. And once you've enabled the Universe and Multiverse repositories, setting up MP3 playback will be one hell of a lot easier than with any Fedora system I've used.