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Looking Forward, Ubuntu Linux 6.06

SilentBob4 writes to tell us that Mad Penguin has an interesting look at the upcoming version of Ubuntu. From the article: "All in all, Ubuntu 6.06 is gearing up to be quite an impressive release. Granted, I saw some bugs during my stay on the distribution, but can I really complain? It's not a full release, so it deserves some breathing room. Considering some of the horribly authored software I've looked at over the years, I feel that Ubuntu in pre-release form is more stable than other distros when they reach final release status. It's not quite in the league of Slackware and Red Hat/Fedora in that respect yet, but it's surely getting there in a hurry. As I said before, it smoked Fedora Core 5 performance-wise, so in that department it's solidly ahead."

23 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. *Really* Mad Penguin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    digged and slashdotted on the same day.

  2. Features - GCC 4? by SillySnake · · Score: 4, Informative

    Features

            * Linux kernel 2.6.15-18 PREEMPT
            * X.org 7.0
            * gcc 4.0.3/glibc 2.3.6
            * GNOME 2.13.94
            * Firefox 1.5.0.1 web browser
            * Evolution 2.5.92 email/groupware client
            * OpenOffice 2.0.2 productivity suite
            * Gaim 1.5.0 instant messenger
            * Gimp 2.2.10 image editor

    I haven't been keeping up with the 4.0 branch of GCC, but is 4.0.3 really stable enough for the average home user?

    1. Re:Features - GCC 4? by Bronster · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ubuntu Breezy (5.10) was compiled almost exclusively on gcc-4.0 (with the notable, and annoying, exception of the kernel)

      It's really been very stable - I've had no trouble compiling quite a bit of C and C++ software with gcc-4.0 on both Breezy and Dapper (6.04^H6).

    2. Re:Features - GCC 4? by owlman17 · · Score: 2, Informative

      For the average home user, or the weekend coder even, who won't need to recompile glibc, or other shared libraries, the gcc4 branch is ok.

    3. Re:Features - GCC 4? by zerocool^ · · Score: 4, Informative
      -bash-3.00$ yum info gcc
      Repository updates-released is listed more than once in the configuration
      Repository base is listed more than once in the configuration
      Setting up repositories
      Reading repository metadata in from local files
      Installed Packages
      Name : gcc
      Arch : i386
      Version: 4.0.2
      Release: 8.fc4
      Size : 5.1 M
      Repo : installed
      Summary: The GNU cc and gcc C compilers.
       
      Description:
        The gcc package includes the cc and gcc GNU compilers for compiling C
      code.
       
      -bash-3.00$
      That's from Fedora Core 4. It's a year old now...
      --
      sig?
  3. Re:What the name? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's Dapper Drake. (translation: Good-looking male duck.)

  4. Re:User guide to linux? by Cruian · · Score: 2, Informative

    I found this book helpful: Linux Desktop Pocket Guide
    It covers Ubuntu, Fedora Core, Gentoo, SuSe, and Madriva. It should have enough information to get what you need done.

    Have you tried searching the Ubuntu forums?

  5. Re:Two Things by Poppler · · Score: 3, Informative

    1) No iTunes clone. amaroK - yeeeeech...

    You can always apt-get banshee. Banshee allows you to manage your ipod, and the daapd plugin (which is also in the apt repositories) allows you access iTunes music shares, as well as share your own library with iTunes clients.

    --
    What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
  6. Re:Where are the downloads? by Poppler · · Score: 2, Informative

    Get 6.06 here.

    --
    What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
  7. Re:Ubuntu's There by DeadMeat+(TM) · · Score: 2, Informative
    Isn't FC intended as a test distro for new Red Hat stuff? I'm not a seasoned FC user but I've always thought FC releases were not first and foremost stable so much as innovative.
    The article is about Ubuntu 6.06, which is still in alpha. I'm using it right now on my home PC, and its alpha status shows at times: every once in a while, they'll release an update that'll suddenly break a program. You probably installed Ubuntu 5.10, which like RHEL is "stable" in the sense that they rarely release updates that add new features: almost all the updates are for security patching and bug-fixing. (As a result, it's also stable in the other sense, since they generally won't push out updates that haven't been tested thoroughly.)

    Fedora Core tends to walk a thin line between the two styles of releases, in that they'll frequently update packages to add new features, but they also test them at least a little before sending them out to the general public. I've been using Fedora Core on my work PC since FC3, and generally it's been rock-solid, despite the frequent updates. But some people seem to have had bad experiences with it, so YMMV.

  8. Up to Flight6 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

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

    Remember, it's still alpha.

  9. Re:Can it play MP3 out-of-the-box? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    All you need to do is install gstreamer-mad from either the universe or multiverse repositories. The package name should vary slighty from that, but those are the two key words, and a search in synaptic for "gstreamer" will bring it up. Once you've done that, you should be able to play mp3's just fine.

  10. Re:User guide to linux? by Grey+Ninja · · Score: 3, Informative
  11. Re:I'm a Kubuntu user and I'M complaining! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    As you even said in your post, it's an alpha verison. I couldn't even install X.org on my system at around flight 4. If you're not prepared for major things to potentially break, don't run versions that are intended for testing.

  12. Re:Very happy with Ubuntu 5.10 by Mad_Rain · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm eager to try out the new Ubuntu when it comes out. Will we be able to upgrade to 6, or will we need to do a complete reinstall?

    You know that wonderful "apt-get" program you like so much in Ubuntu?

    apt-get has you covered:

    1. Back up your "/etc/apt/sources.list" file. 2. Edit it with your text-editor of choice, changing all the spots where it says "breezy" to "dapper". 3. Update by typing "sudo apt-get update" and 4. upgrade by typing "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade". Wait for downloads, and all should be good. 4 steps (5 if you count the waiting) to the upgrade process.

    --
    "What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
  13. Re:User guide to linux? by TheJorge · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hey, I was in the same boat for a while. I never had the solid block of time to learn all of Linux, so I weaned myself in rather successfully by doing the following:

    1) start by using win32 versions of some popular OSS for your daily or occasional tasks. You probably already use Firefox, but OpenOffice and the GIMP are good ones to put on a windows machine. Perhaps the best lessons for me at this stage were installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP, but go with whatever you use.

    2) use them. Go through an upgrade or reconfiguration, and use them for your day-to-day tasks. Linux becomes a really quick thing to pick up if you're already comfortable with all the apps you'll be using. Seriously, if you have experience with all your apps, then it's just a matter of getting stuff installed and set up, and you're at near 100% productivity instead of having to learn how to format paragraphs in your word processor.

    3) make your first install on a computer other than your main computer. If absolutely necessary, dual-boot your main computer, but getting set up on a secondary computer is useful for two reasons-- if something's not working correctly or you're in the middle figuring something out, it doesn't stop your day-to-day computing. Also, while you're working on one, you can be browsing the web for guides and tips on the other.

    4) don't try to install every package you might possibly need at once. start with a basic setup, then add and configure apps as you have a need for them. all the big distributions have strong app-adding capabilities, so don't worry about not being able to add X after you get the box up and running.

    5) three tools you should make sure you have and get familiar with-- google, man, and a text editor.

    hope this helps

  14. Re:I don't know much about linux, I'll admit,... by crimsun · · Score: 3, Informative

    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

  15. Re:But is it fixed? by colmore · · Score: 2, Informative

    1) Fat32 doesn't support partitions above a certain size. However, the installer should catch that.

    2) reconfigure /etc/apt/sources.list

    --
    In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
  16. Re:User guide to linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    As far as AC97 support goes, AC97 is the codec the sound chipset uses, not the chipset itself, there are various chipsets using the AC97, though I believe the Realtek 8*0 are the most common, the majority of motherboards I looked at when I last upgraded had the 850, though one or two had the 870, which is generally regarded as giving better sound quality. Therefore while many chipsets utilizing AC97 may have kernel support in the default kernel that comes with Ubuntu/Knoppix, others may not.

  17. Re:"smoked" by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unless the package manager in Ubuntu does some really cool things that Fedora's stock yum frontends can't do (install, remove, groups, dependencies...), how can it beat really beat the shit out of anything?

    Well, considering that Fedora's stock yum frontends can't do anything at this current time, that shouldn't be a problem.

    Yum is an ongoing disaster. Inferior to apt in every single facet of its conception and design. It can't even do dist upgrades. It's also a huge resource hog. Up2date regularly hangs and crashes, so it would be easy for any apt frontend to surpass all this.

    I've used Fedora since FC2 and I have to say that my biggest complaint throughout has been the woeful package management system. Quite frankly, just using plain rpms is often faster than trying to coax yum to work. If fact, the workaround for a lack of a dist-upgrade option is to use rpms.

    Like a stubborn mule, Fedora won't let go of yum, lest they use apt and become "another debian os". Consequently, Fedora is a great distro, with a lousy package management system. It's a real achilles heel on an otherwise great workstation OS.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  18. Re:New Ubuntu Installer - not as good as Mandrake by jejones · · Score: 2, Informative

    You might want to look at this article about Espresso, the GUI installer that one runs from the Dapper Drake Ubuntu Live CD.

  19. Re:KDE / Kubuntu developers are complaining! by The+Warlock · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm curious to know your reasoning. No-one's talking about adding KDE packages to Ubuntu by default, so I'm afraid I can't understand why you think that developing KDE as an alternative to Gnome would add bloat to the distro.

    Um.

    It is developed as an alternative. It's called Kubuntu. I think you mentioned it earlier. You can even just apt-get install kubuntu-desktop.

    --
    I've upped my standards, so up yours.
  20. YUM Does Dist Upgrades by Illbay · · Score: 2, Informative
    ...[Yum] can't even do dist upgrades...

    I'm sorry, but you're absolutely wrong in this respect. I have upgraded to the next distribution at last twice that I can recall, using Yum.

    See HERE for the "secret recipe."

    It was relatively painless.

    As you can see from the site, it has been possible to upgrade distributions using Yum since FC1--so I'm not sure where you got your information.

    I used to use APT with Fedora, until FC4 when Yum became facile enough to use on an ongoing basis. Since then, I've abandoned APT entirely. The fact that the Fedora project officially supports Yum, and that they have improved it dramatically over the past year, seals the deal for me.

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.