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Despite being a regular user of Xubuntu, I agree with Linus about preferring Flatpak over Snap for this reason: Flatpak docs refer to repositories, plural. A publisher could run its own repository. Snap docs, by contrast, refer to "the Snap Store", singular, and it is considered --dangerous to install a snap from any source other than Canonical Ltd.

Despite being a regular user of Xubuntu, I agree with Linus about preferring Flatpak over Snap for this reason: Flatpak docs refer to repositories, plural. A publisher could run its own repository. Snap docs, by contrast, refer to "the Snap Store", singular, and it is considered --dangerous to install a snap from any source other than Canonical Ltd.

Really? That hasn't really happened at all with my installation of Xubuntu, but maybe there is something wrong with my installation.

what version of Xubuntu? Creating menu entries is the standard in modern Linux. It should "just happen" whenever you install a graphical application from the repos.

But it shouldn't really be necessary.

It isn't, most of the time.

Linux desperately needs to make software installation a lot easier if it ever wants to get mainstream users.

It IS easy. Want to know how to install Eclipse on Fedora? You can just open up whatever graphical software application your desktop environment has installed, or...it's actually faster to just type "sudo dnf install eclipse" in a terminal.

I had a similar problem with Eclipse IDE which was not in the Ubuntu repos at all.

Yes it is: https://packages.ubuntu.com/co...

appweb and ESP, a web server and MVC framework respectively. I'd really like to be able to use them but I cannot even build them and even if I manage to build them the documentation is so inadequate that I doubt I will be able to get it working.

Now you have to remember I am not a programmer or developer. I can do some basic troubleshooting, but I could not tell you "how" to set up a web server for professional use.

But compiling appweb was as easy as typing "make" in a terminal, that's what the instructions said to do if you didn't want to go to the effort of building their special build too. Which I just did. The final message of the compile said that it could be ran in two ways, one of which was "make run", Which I just did.

It put up a little intro page at 127.0.0.1:4100, which I was able to access so it's working just fine. I didn't compile up ESP, but the build instructions look the same. You'll have to read their more indepth information to get everything setup for "production" use. Don't ask me, not-a-programmer/dev/webadmin

Also if you are still feeling generous why can I not upgrade qpdf to the latest version by compiling from source? I did ./configure, make, make install but it didn't actually install the program. It did build it though and if I go to the 'build' directory I can run it from within that directory only.

On Fedora the version in the repos is the latest version, 8.4.0. Again, which Xubuntu are you using? an LTS version? You might not need the latest version unless it has a feature the older version doesn't.

But your problem is probably either one of two things, the application is installed, but qpdf happens to be of those applications that installs libraries alongside the binary and since you didn't ldconfig after the make install the binary can't find the libs

Or else it's a $PATH issue and for some reason /usr/local/bin isn't ahead of /usr/bin, but that's much less likely. Just run ldconfig as root, that should do the trick.

For example, Chrome isn't there in Ubuntu.

For Fedora, chrome has it's own repo, probably the same for Ubuntu.

I tried to search for "steam" but the web site just gives me an error.

It's there.

https://packages.ubuntu.com/co...

Couldn't get my document scanner to work

Which one? Is it listed in the "sane" database and make sure sane-backends are installed.

there doesn't seem to be any equivalent to the document management software that NEC provides with it.

Shouldn't need it, simplescan should do the trick.

Charge for support? Evil Microsoft!

Bear in mind we're talking about Apple, the company that maintains Linux's printing subsystem.

I took a quick peak at their offering and surprise, it's a Behemoth. Weighing in at around 250MB, it's IoT target can only be things that contain SBCs (single board computers).

Oh and yes, it includes Systemd.

4.20 is in mainline for Ubuntu right now (it's actually faster at getting new kernels than Arch Linux).

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~ker...

The Open Source Initiative, contrary to some folks here on Slashdot, has expressed its purpose as the preservation of software freedom.

The OSI (for most of its existence) called the efforts of advocating for software freedom "ideological tub-thumping", hardly language I'd associate with preserving software freedom. Every now and then there's also some organization which calls itself an open source distributor that boasts of its association with a proprietor. Like the time Red Hat told us it was "partners" with Microsoft (Canonical did similarly with Microsoft) and did not frame the issue in terms of software freedom but "choice and flexibility" instead—apparently the flexibility to install a GNU/Linux on a Microsoft VM thus allowing the VM owner (Microsoft in this case) to know everything one is doing on that system. This is a position indistinguishable from granting considerable control to a proprietor over the possibly free GNU/Linux system. These are not the choices nor the language I'd expect from people choosing to frame what they're doing in terms that intend to remind people to learn about software freedom or request software freedom for their organizations so that their organizations can retain their own data and fully control what their organization does with their own computers. As the older "Why 'Free Software' is better than "Open Source" essay points out, "This manipulative practice would be no less harmful if it were done using the term 'free software.' But companies do not seem to use the term 'free software' that way; perhaps its association with idealism makes it seem unsuitable. The term 'open source' opened the door for this."

What I see is not precisely the same but much more in keeping with what is described in a GNU Project essay in the section "Different Values Can Lead to Similar Conclusions...but Not Always":

Radical groups in the 1960s had a reputation for factionalism: some organizations split because of disagreements on details of strategy, and the two daughter groups treated each other as enemies despite having similar basic goals and values. The right wing made much of this and used it to criticize the entire left.

Some try to disparage the free software movement by comparing our disagreement with open source to the disagreements of those radical groups. They have it backwards. We disagree with the open source camp on the basic goals and values, but their views and ours lead in many cases to the same practical behavior—such as developing free software.

As a result, people from the free software movement and the open source camp often work together on practical projects such as software development. It is remarkable that such different philosophical views can so often motivate different people to participate in the same projects. Nonetheless, there are situations where these fundamentally different views lead to very different actions.

The idea of open source is that allowing users to change and redistribute the software will make it more powerful and reliable. But this is not guaranteed. Developers of proprietary software are not necessarily incompetent. Sometimes they produce a program that is powerful and reliable, even though it does not respect the users' freedom. Free software activists and open source enthusiasts will react very differently to that.

A pure open source enthusiast, one that is not at all influenced by the ideals of free software, will say, "I am surprised you were able to make the program work so well without using our development model, but you did. How can I get a copy?" This attitude will reward schemes that take away our freedom, leading to its loss.

The free software activist will say, "You

it was great. it was predictable, reliable, and just fucking worked. vista had one too. it was like that as well, and so was xp's. me and 98 and 95 and 2000 and nt all had them. and they all. were wonderful.

8 did not have one. 10 **DOES NOT** have one

10's "start menu" is the "start screen" from windows 8 shrunk down somewhat. tiles on one side and the 'app list' (from the downarrow on 8's start screen) on the other.

classicshell, now known as, open shell is a god damn start menu. 10's is not. it's an abomination, as is the 'metro' or whatever the fuck they call it today 'settings' vs the former 'control panel'. it's all fucking bullshit.

shitty ui changes. shitty updates. shitty user tracking. shitty ads. shitty forced installs. shitty nudges to 'the cloud'. shitty privacy policy and update policies. shitty everything. welcome to your new pc experience.

+_+_+_+_+_+_

windows 7 users have just over one year to decide what the fuck they're gonna do. suffer needlessly forevermore or switch. ubuntu downloads are >> thataway >> https://www.ubuntu.com/

For those of us who don't have $75,000 to install OpenStack, you can do it yourself, https://www.ubuntu.com/opensta...

The somewhat troublesome fact for your whole story is that the "Ubuntu 18.04 to Ubuntu 18.04.1" "upgrade" is just them updating /etc/os-release to reflect that version. 18.04.1 is not an upgrade of any kind, it's just that Ubuntu creates new installs with regular intervals so that people don't have to upgrade tons of packages directly after an initial install.

The second problem with your story is that "ubuntu-desktop" have been installed by default since 4.10 aka Warty Warthog, or you know the very first version of Ubuntu ever released.

Also they have very good documentation at https://help.ubuntu.com/stable... .

https://blog.ubuntu.com/2018/1... perhaps?

I think often because people just say KDE as if it provides the answer. Better to say https://kubuntu.org/. I personally go with Kubuntu, although I do swap around with Gnome and have both accessible with just a configuration change at bootup.

So the answer is not so much go with KBE as go with Kubuntu. One leads to more questions and the other leads to a direct simple answer, even if you already use https://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://edubuntu.org/ or https://lubuntu.net/. After all those links it would be mean not to put in https://www.canonical.com/.

Linux == choice ;).

...if the Linux driver NDA exception tax exceeds the Windows tax, as Shikaku mentioned.

Your friend Shikaku likes to post utter bullshit. Whether its Intel or AMD, Linux just works on modern laptops, including wifi, chipset power management, sound, GPU, nearly every USB device you can think of and even custom keyboard buttons for most popular laptops. Not drivers to install, it all just comes bundled as loadable modules. Unlike Windows driver madness, where you are sure to be orphaned sooner or later when the vendor doesn't provide a driver for Microsoft's latest incompatible spyware.

If you doubt me, then just stick in one of these bootable sticks on a random Windows laptop and see what happens. Usually, it just pops up with everything working, put in your wifi password and you're on the net. Without touching the hard disk, unless you tell it to.

So far, so good. It seems to be working fine: Unity working on 18.10

See also Unty Testing 18.10

So far, so good. It seems to be working fine: Unity working on 18.10

See also Unty Testing 18.10

Ubuntu doesn't appear to even offer individual support. You have buy at least 50 PC's.

Well that is new. I bought a single desktop support just last year. I am betting you could buy it if you called. I also bet it will return to the website if a lot of people call! :)

Ubuntu doesn't appear to even offer individual support. You have buy at least 50 PC's.

I'm sure there are 3rd parties that have individual plans, but most consumers use word of mouth to judge such. It has to build up to a critical mass to be viable. The "network effect" matters in getting acceptance.

Intuitively, why can't we come up with some simple conduits that are sufficiently simple and vetted that we can be reasonably sure that ill conditioned inputs can't escape the sandbox.

We can. The "sufficiently simple and vetted" conduit is called OpenSSH.

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

The slashdot editor munged the link to the license text. It's here.

The license agreement says that they cannot publish benchmarks, as in those who redistribute the microcode cannot publish benchmarks. It does not (and could not) restrict anyone using the microcode update to publish benchmarks. Intel has been asking all of the companies involved in this process for benchmarks since the beginning. Every single microcode update. I'm not saying Intel is doing the right thing here at all, but it's not as bad as it seems. My guess is that the reason for this change is that the performance decrease is based on the type of work being performed. The microcode that Intel sends for inclusion in firmware is different than the microcode they send to OS vendors. The firmware version of microcode has all of these mitigations disabled and they must be enabled. My understanding is that these microcode updates through OS are supposed to be optional for those who need the mitigations enabled (cloud providers, for instance). But I don't know Intel's exact reasoning behind this with any sort of certainty. And since an OS push of microcode has to be loaded every single boot, it is easy enough to downgrade if necessary.

Yes. I didn't write that link. The proper text can be found here.

The slashdot editor munged the link to the license text. It's here.

https://www.ubuntu.com/downloa...

... slow release schedule?

What are you talking about? Latest Ubuntu has gcc 4.8.5. Last release of Slackware has 5.3 (-current has 8.1.1)

It often surprises me how much Ubuntu lags in package versions behind Slackware.

features a 10-inch display, integrated kickstand, and Windows 10

I guess the foam helmet is extra? :P

p.s. When you're ready to remove the training wheels, Linux will be waiting.

You can just download the tarball and use that until Ubuntu gets the update.

https://support.mozilla.org/en...

It will use the same config you currently have so no loss in bookmarks, logins, etc.

Ubuntu gives some more complex instructions in case you want to make sure to back up your firefox profile first
https://help.ubuntu.com/commun...

... Linux is also taking over the world of IoT.

I don't think that there has ever been another operating system that has been used across such a wide range of systems with such a range of scales.

I have no idea if a Sierra is better than a El Capitan or if a Yakkity Yak beats a Gusty Gibbon or whatever other nonsense code names they use.

On Ubuntu, the general rule is that later in the alphabet is a later release. Yakkety comes after Gutsy in the alphabet and is therefore later. There are a couple exceptions to this rule. First, "hog" releases (Warty Warthog and Hoary Hedgehog) were the first two. Second, this has to reset roughly every 13 years or 26 semiannual releases, as the Latin alphabet has only that many letters, putting Artful, Bionic, and Cosmic after Zesty. (Source)

5ms google search and... https://www.ubuntu.com/server

Yeah - somehow I doubt it offers the same feature-set as VMWare (especially for non-Linux). Especially as they focus on "LXD Containers"

But it might be good enough and that makes the cost savings worthwhile.

(Looks like it only supports Linux containers. IF that's enough for you, it's not surprising it can beat VMWare on cost and performance.)

I would. This makes Chrome laptops more appealing to me. When you want to run Linux on laptops you always have to be careful to select the right laptop which is compatible enough to make it worth buying.

I mean I get it, but you're solving it by finding a laptop which is supported out of the box by the manufacturer which is fine and all, but there are others already that do that. There's System76 for example. But also Dell and Lenovo offer Linux preinstalled on quite a few models. Lenovo even have a certification page for Linux laptops:

https://certification.ubuntu.c...

It is a known bug with Microsoft products that they sporadically break things and lock up. A patch is available here

It's out now...
http://releases.ubuntu.com/bio...
http://releases.ubuntu.com/18....

It's out now...
http://releases.ubuntu.com/bio...
http://releases.ubuntu.com/18....

Why not install Ubuntu on a USB drive and simply boot from it? Why require a second, lesser processor, less memory, and greatly limited storage be included inside the laptop?

If you want to run Windows on the hardware securely, take a look at Microsoft's "Windows to go" offering?

If you want stable, you're going to have to wait until the final release on April 26th. This is a BETA release. The schedule hasn't changed.
FWIW, I've been running it on a PC with few issues since pre-Alpha, but YMMV.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bionic...

This Beta is feature-complete and now the team is mostly focused on bug fixes and documentation.
Next Beta is April 5th followed by Release Candidate on April 19th, and final release on April 26th. Every release up until Final Release will have cautions about instability.

The reason it's called 18.04 is it's expected to be released near the end of April 2018. It's really not reasonable for anyone to expect anything stable sooner than that... as again, the schedule has not changed.

For reference this is the ISO I downloaded. http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/dail...

And a screenshot: Hitting the down arrow in the top right and going for wired settings leads to the window which is open: http://i63.tinypic.com/2i7mrzp...

Where is the time that upgrades actually worked?

Good question. In all fairness this is pre-releases we are talking about. So I give them a pass here. Then I would also complain if a release upgrade dramatically changed running software (which I know it already does). There's really no good answer to this.

The only widespread problem with mysql-server that I can find is the aforementioned upgrade problem. Nobody seems to be having problems with fresh installs, as I would expect.

I happen to be running 16.04 right now, so just to satisfy my curiosity...

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7
Suggested packages:
mailx tinyca
The following NEW packages will be installed:
mysql-server mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 94 not upgraded.
Need to get 10.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 94.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server-core-5.7 amd64 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [7,670 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server-5.7 amd64 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [2,708 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server all 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [10.2 kB]
Fetched 10.4 MB in 2s (3,561 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-core-5.7.
(Reading database ... 898644 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-core-5.7_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-5.7.
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-5.7_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server.
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
update-alternatives: using /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf to provide /etc/mysql/my.cnf (my.cnf) in auto mode
Renaming removed key_buffer and myisam-recover options (if present)
Setting up mysql-server (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...

$ systemctl status mysql
mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2018-01-19 14:51:15 EST; 4min 52s ago
Main PID: 27140 (mysqld)
CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
27140 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Jan 19 14:51:14 chris-ThinkPad-T420s systemd[1]: Starting MySQL Community Server...
Jan 19 14:51:15 chris-ThinkPad-T420s systemd[1]: Started MySQL Community Server.

So, works for me. As you said YMMV, but quirky system-dependent issues are difficult to debug. I'm not so quick to blame Canonical for a package that passes all

The only widespread problem with mysql-server that I can find is the aforementioned upgrade problem. Nobody seems to be having problems with fresh installs, as I would expect.

I happen to be running 16.04 right now, so just to satisfy my curiosity...

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7
Suggested packages:
mailx tinyca
The following NEW packages will be installed:
mysql-server mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 94 not upgraded.
Need to get 10.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 94.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server-core-5.7 amd64 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [7,670 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server-5.7 amd64 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [2,708 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server all 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [10.2 kB]
Fetched 10.4 MB in 2s (3,561 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-core-5.7.
(Reading database ... 898644 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-core-5.7_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-5.7.
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-5.7_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server.
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
update-alternatives: using /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf to provide /etc/mysql/my.cnf (my.cnf) in auto mode
Renaming removed key_buffer and myisam-recover options (if present)
Setting up mysql-server (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...

$ systemctl status mysql
mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2018-01-19 14:51:15 EST; 4min 52s ago
Main PID: 27140 (mysqld)
CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
27140 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Jan 19 14:51:14 chris-ThinkPad-T420s systemd[1]: Starting MySQL Community Server...
Jan 19 14:51:15 chris-ThinkPad-T420s systemd[1]: Started MySQL Community Server.

So, works for me. As you said YMMV, but quirky system-dependent issues are difficult to debug. I'm not so quick to blame Canonical for a package that passes all

The only widespread problem with mysql-server that I can find is the aforementioned upgrade problem. Nobody seems to be having problems with fresh installs, as I would expect.

I happen to be running 16.04 right now, so just to satisfy my curiosity...

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7
Suggested packages:
mailx tinyca
The following NEW packages will be installed:
mysql-server mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 94 not upgraded.
Need to get 10.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 94.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server-core-5.7 amd64 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [7,670 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server-5.7 amd64 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [2,708 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/u... xenial-updates/main amd64 mysql-server all 5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 [10.2 kB]
Fetched 10.4 MB in 2s (3,561 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-core-5.7.
(Reading database ... 898644 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-core-5.7_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-5.7.
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-5.7_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server.
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server_5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-server (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
update-alternatives: using /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf to provide /etc/mysql/my.cnf (my.cnf) in auto mode
Renaming removed key_buffer and myisam-recover options (if present)
Setting up mysql-server (5.7.20-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...

$ systemctl status mysql
mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2018-01-19 14:51:15 EST; 4min 52s ago
Main PID: 27140 (mysqld)
CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
27140 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Jan 19 14:51:14 chris-ThinkPad-T420s systemd[1]: Starting MySQL Community Server...
Jan 19 14:51:15 chris-ThinkPad-T420s systemd[1]: Started MySQL Community Server.

So, works for me. As you said YMMV, but quirky system-dependent issues are difficult to debug. I'm not so quick to blame Canonical for a package that passes all

Whoa, emotional much?

I wasn't finger pointing, just trying to explain your observation (marked as unassigned bugs), and I think it is reasonable. If you don't agree, please explain why instead of attacking with expletives.

The packages are stable. As I tried to explain, and you apparently missed, the problem with mysql-server is due to an upstream change. The software and packaging are not broken. The bug report refers to a problem during a major release upgrade. It was known possible issue that a user might encounter during upgrade reported in the release notes and is recoverable, so not generally something considered to be a show-stopper, by anybody. The problem with libreoffice was experimental functionality that the user enabled and is known to have problems. Solution: don't enable it. Again, not a show-stopper bug.

They are not ancillary systems: they are core functionality

That may be, but a commercial company cannot offer free support for every software package that someone considers "core functionality". Red Hat certainly doesn't. If you are having a problem with a package that is not in the "main" repository, and you haven't purchased a support package, you are left with community support only. This is clearly stated on their website, https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/se....

4.4.0-109 was released to fix the regression last night https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn... for me 4.4.0-108 booted successfully and OOPSed on shutdown

Here is their timeline. Surprising that (unlike RedHat) there is still no patch.

2017 Nov 09: the Ubuntu Security team is notified by Intel under NDA

Ubuntu has fixed kernels in testing now for 14.04. I don't see any final release date slated. They're not currently available via the standard package trees. You need to add a PPA to get the testing version. Ubuntu SecurityTeam Spectre and Meltdown

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/0...

"The filing showed that the sales were part of a 10b5-1 plan, which was created on Oct. 30,"

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Securi...

"2017 Nov 09: the Ubuntu Security team is notified by Intel under NDA "

So, not entirely outside the realms of possibility that the issue was known when the filing was made, and not what I would describe as "well in advance"

What is Ubuntu Touch? Ubuntu Touch is in general a new Ubuntu distribution with a different UI that is adapted specifically to mobile devices with a touchscreen like phones and tablets. Modern mobile devices are already very powerful and therefore Linux which exists for nearly all modern hardware architectures and can easily run on these devices. However, an existing user interface was not yet available to run Linux on these devices. Ubuntu Touch will be able to fill this gap. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/...

As you may know, RedHat has deprecated BTRFS in RHEL7.4 whereas many distributions like Ubuntu fully support ZFS.

I woud say that the status of BTRFS is worse than that of OpenZFS on Linux. See also here for an interesting article.

The summary links to the download page, but for once I'd have liked to read TFA (don't ask, I'm odd that way).

Also, when visiting their their homepage I'm greeted with a big invitation to try out whatever Kubernetes is (let's call it the BSoK).

No mention of this new release however, and no link to it jumps at me straight away. Anyone help me out here?

It's also very rare.

You sound like a sysadmin who doesn't pay very much attention. I'm running the 16.04 LTS release of Ubuntu. I installed it last year with kernel version 4.4.0-7.22 (Ubuntu numbering), actually a 4.4.2 mainline kernel. Since April last year there have been 51 kernel security updates each requiring a reboot to apply to my Linux machine which means that on average my Ubuntu server gets rebooted twice as often as my Windows machine for the purposes of applying an update.

Speaking of, I just logged into SSH to double check this before posting. Guess what greeted me:

Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-93-generic x86_64)

  * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/
  * Management: https://landscape.canonical.co...
  * Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage

0 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.

*** System restart required ***
No mail.

I'm going to eat some humble pie and admit that my server with an up-time of 41 days is now 4 kernel updates behind because I haven't rebooted in a while. Hopefully no security updates.