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New Enterprise-Level Ubuntu Due This Week

daria42 writes "According to Ubuntu's official release schedule, the next version of its Linux distribution, code-named "Dapper Drake" is due to be released this week, June 1 to be precise. This landmark release will be supported for 5 years (previous versions were only supported for 18 months) and is being touted as ready for enterprise use." From the article: "Dapper Drake will be supported for three years for the desktop version and five years for servers, compared to 18 months for the current 5.10 'Breezy Badger' version. The code release will come after the development process was extended by six weeks in order to improve the reliability of the software."

331 comments

  1. when can I get it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Is this a first post?

    1. Re:when can I get it? by wallyhall · · Score: 3, Informative

      1st of July, although you can download and install breezy now, dist-upgrade to dapper and then dist-upgrade on the day (I think you can even get a flight-5 dapper ISO right now...?)

      --
      I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
    2. Re:when can I get it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    3. Re:when can I get it? by Professor_UNIX · · Score: 2
      1st of July, although you can download and install breezy now, dist-upgrade to dapper and then dist-upgrade on the day (I think you can even get a flight-5 dapper ISO right now...?)

      Or you can just install the enterprise-ready version right from the original source here. Why settle for imitations when you can have the original?

    4. Re:when can I get it? by wallyhall · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Ty, my bad memory!!

      --
      I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
    5. Re:when can I get it? by prionic6 · · Score: 1

      You can get the release candiate that is a few days old:

      http://releases.ubuntu.com/6.06/

    6. Re:when can I get it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why settle for imitations when you can have the original?
      Maybe because we want something very user-friendly.
      I'm not trying to install a server but a desktop, you know.

  2. Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by Rinzwind · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's the 1st Linux both my PC and my laptop accepted without a hitch during install or usage (past month or so). Bluetooth, Wireless connection, Printer HP PSC 2175 (with built-in scanner), wireless mouse (MX 7000), wireless keyboard, Multimedia keys and hibernate/resume all worked out of the box. Firefox as default browser is very nice. Ubuntu did what several redhat and suse installs didn't do: got me away from XP with a SMILE! *does happy dance*

    1. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by wallyhall · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah likewise. I'm on a Dell Inspirion 1150, totally seamless install and use. It's strange, I've actually had a hard time getting away from the terminal! (I've been using Linux for quite a while). Amazing distribution, really is. Excellent hardware support too (in my case, I know that it's all relative). Next major release is said to be more experimental / bleeding edge, XGL / NetworkManager etc. Honestly can't wait!

      --
      I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
    2. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by Rinzwind · · Score: 1

      I can't get XGL working on my system. Oh and it's cuz of me lacking skills ;) Dapper on a Dell Inspiron 9300 overhere. And on a P4 Epox 4G4A 2.4 :)

    3. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I've actually had a hard time getting away from the terminal!

      I must say my experience is similar. I've been using various unixes and linux and NeXT boxes since the mid 80s - but almost exclusively using text-mode applicatins runnng X just so I could have multiple xterm windows. (I still find reading large amounts of email in pine far more efficient than any GUI - thanks to its more efficient keyboard commands.)

      Ubuntu is the first time I really appreciate the GUI rather than using it as a smarter version of 'screen' - as well as being the first distro that gave me sound and the full resolution of my monitor out-of-the-box on installing it.

      Still run stock debian stable or solaris (depenging on my employer) on servers I'm responsible for, tho.

    4. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by rdoger6424 · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu doing wireless? when I saw that, I couldn't download the ISO fast enough!

      --
      "Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
    5. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by spirality · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Here here. Similar results for me on a Dell Inspiron 8600 using the release candidate. Everything but the wireless card anyway. The broadcomm wireless card was loaded up with the bc43xx driver, which does not work. I had to do some hand stitching to get ndiswrapper going and ensure the system did not load bc43xx at start up time. Other than that and the total lack of multi-media capability out of the box this is a stunning release.

      VPN worked out of the box. The multi-media keys. Ability to browse samba shares, though I still can't figure out how to login.... I can only browse public ones. What was totally amazing is that I had 3D acceleration out of the box for my ATI Mobile Radeon 9600! The external monitor doesn't work yet. I'll have to hand stitch that one, but still. This is huge step forward.

      It would be nice if by default a chess game was installed, but that is easily remedied...

      After a little tweaking I have full multi-media support.

      What's really nice is the user experience and having just installed Suse 10.1, I notice a huge difference. On Suse it's very confusing as to where I should look for a particular admin task. On Ubuntu, it's under "system". When I want to launch a Terminal on Suse, I go three levels of menus down and then get to select one of four choices. Unbuntu just gives me one adequate choice. Same with web browsers and everything else. Because they are not trying to be everything to everybody they make things very slick. It would be nice to see XGL in Dapper by default, but I much more appreciate the stability and correct by default autoconfiguration. That's really nice.

      I'm very impressed with Dapper. This is the best distro I have ever seen, other than perhaps my hand-crafted Gentoo boxes. :) However, it's certainly the best of out the box one.

    6. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by grammar+fascist · · Score: 2

      Yeah likewise. I'm on a Dell Inspirion 1150, totally seamless install and use.

      I've also got a Dell Inspiron 1150, and I've been running Ubuntu Breezy Badger. The install was seamless and all that, but it's got a couple of issues. If you don't mind, I'd like to quiz you to see if they're fixed in Dapper.

      1) Fan control sucks. It'll let itself get so hot that it shuts down. (I know that this is a stupid BIOS issue.) When I was on Windows XP, the motherboard driver (I think) handled this, so I had to write a script to turn the fan on using i8kutils. Annoying as heck.

      2) ACPI buttons: the reset button and lid close event do not work. As far as I can tell, this is a kernel limitation.

      Thanks in advance.

      --
      I got my Linux laptop at System76.
    7. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by wallyhall · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Hi,

      Firstly, the fan control I have no idea about. You said it's a bios issue(?), I've not got that problem afaik. The fans fire up as soon as it gets under load and starts warming up and I've never had it shut off on me. I got this laptop about 1 and a half years ago, maybe I've got something you havn't. Tried the Dell support site?

      As for the ACPI, yeah, I've got exactly the same. Best distro I've had for those (on this particular laptop) was SuSE 10.0. That worked beautifully as I remember. The power button I've kinda gotten used to not using (force of habbit to go System/Log Out/Hibernate now), but something else I've noticed (which is apart of ACPI afaik) is CPU scaling, which worked in Gentoo (with my own compiled kernel) and SuSE, so I'm guessing a kernel recompile would fix this.

      I wouldn't be at all suprised if we got onto the Ubuntu developers with as much information as possible (i.e. if we can get the ubuntu kernel sources and figure out what they need to do to the binaries they provide to make it work), they may well sort it out. In the meantime, mine goes into standby automagically after a while of inactivity when running on battery and the BIOS handles dimming the backlight when it's unplugged, typically I get a couple of good solid hours wireless surfing off it without the AC plugged in.

      Sorry I can't be of more help, if you drop me an email I'll see if I can figure anything better out.

      --
      I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
    8. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by concept10 · · Score: 1

      I swithed over to Dapper around two months now and I initially had the same problems with the bcm43xx alpha drivers. My Broadcom 4306 chipset was working perfectly with ndiswrapper 1.0 and the Windows drivers that came with my HP laptop.

      For some reason the firmware was not installed or not installed in the proper location.

      After a couple hours of frustration, I looked around and found http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/ (the drivers project page)

      I downloaded the firmware, installed the tool (sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter) and extracted to /lib/firmware and modprobed the driver again and everything works, now.

      Also, everything else works with Dapper on my three year old laptop (hibernation, multimedia keys, lcd dimming, volume keys, processor scaling, printer [OfficeJet 6100 all-in-one])

      There maybe other upgrades to NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher that I havent covered here, but I just wanted to confirm the driver works.

      - Good Luck

    9. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by metallidrone · · Score: 2, Informative

      For getting CPU governing on (and useful), I had to make the following changes to Debian Sid (which more or less tracks Ubuntu nowadays):

      Add to /etc/modules (these aren't loaded automatically):
      speedstep-centrino
      cpufreq_conservative
      cpufreq_ondemand
      cpufreq_powersave

      Install the package 'cpufrequtils' and edit /etc/default/cpufrequtils
      I use:
      ENABLE="true"
      GOVERNOR="conservative"
      MAX_SPEED=1700000
      MIN_SPEED=600000

      (the conservative governor gives it "inertia" to keep from changing speeds for momentary blips in usage)

    10. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by fimbulvetr · · Score: 1

      The reply to your post is correct for cpuscaling. Just make sure you get the right modules. Also, if you use the cpuspeed applet in gnome, you can setuid /usr/bin/cpufreq-selector (chmod o+s /usr/bin/cpufreq-selector) so you can change speed using the applet too.

    11. Re:Ubuntu dapper drake is cool by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      I tried it. It didn't support my Netgear 802.11g USB key, my ATI Radeon 9600xt, or my Hauppauge Win-PVR 250 video capture card. Cue the standard replies about how this is Netgear, ATI and Hauppauge's fault. But I rely on the 802.11 USB key for my Internet connection, so it was a complete no-go with me.

  3. Enterprise Ready by MrWim · · Score: 2, Funny

    Reminds me of something Jeff Waugh had to say.

  4. Could you be a bit more verbose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I recently gave Kubuntu Dapper a spin and I really liked what I saw.
    I also don't remember running into any major problems, so perhaps you could enlighten us about the problems you encountered?

  5. Re:Enterprise? not again! by wallyhall · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong saying this!! I think you've misunderstood the term enterprise, in this contex. Ubuntu Dapper is 100% free, open source software. No propriety 'enterprise' ties (in that sense of the word). It's stable (like Debian Sarge), reliable and comes with everything you'd need, and it's gunna be supported for 5 years, much like RHEL does, which is VERY important to enterprises/businesses etc. I dunno about you, but I don't see how that can really be a bad thing?

    --
    I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
  6. You can't see that anywhere else by kanzels · · Score: 3, Insightful

    3 years support for something that is completely free, you can't easily see that anywhere else! Go Linux! I will try to push Linux here.

    --
    Pixel image editor - http://www.kanzelsberger.com
    1. Re:You can't see that anywhere else by wallyhall · · Score: 1

      Even better, it's 5 years :P

      --
      I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
    2. Re:You can't see that anywhere else by akeyes · · Score: 3, Informative

      3 years on the desktop, 5 years on the server.

    3. Re:You can't see that anywhere else by MoreDruid · · Score: 1
      I will try to push Linux here.
      yeah, because we all know Slashdot is a Microsoft centric site. it's meant to be funny. laugh.
      --
      The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
    4. Re:You can't see that anywhere else by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you seem confused, the product may be free, the support contracts are not. besides why are we cheering when they are still less than 50% of the time MS supports?

    5. Re:You can't see that anywhere else by Respect_my_Authority · · Score: 1

      But doesn't GNOME 2.14 become a bit old in three years?

    6. Re:You can't see that anywhere else by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't Gnome a bit dated now. I so wish they would implement things like maybe right click drag and drop. Even if you don't have your move, copy etc options do something with it. It's not awful though considering that but I'd still prefer KDE.

  7. six weeks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, six weeks is all it takes to make something enterprise-grade?

    1. Re:six weeks? by wallyhall · · Score: 1, Redundant
      ? what?

      dapper has been worked on for a long time, infact since last year (Breezy release), and then was delayed by a few months from it's origional expected release date... just to make it "that little bit extra".

      Also, remember much of the software in Dapper is software that's been written, rewritten, improved, rewritten again and lastly rewritten once more, many many times over.

      --
      I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
    2. Re:six weeks? by babbling · · Score: 5, Informative

      Six extra weeks can help a lot.

      Linux distributions are unlike most operating systems in that most of the software they use is already written before they start. Most of the work involves putting all of the pieces (known to work correctly on their own) together and ensuring that they still work. There's other things involved too, of course, but my point is that the bulk of Ubuntu is programs that were created as separate projects, and this is how Ubuntu is able to be put together so quickly.

    3. Re:six weeks? by peteforsyth · · Score: 1

      The original post wasn't quite accurate.

      The Dapper Drake was always intended to be an enterprise-grade release, but several months ago, they decided to give themselves six extra weeks to meet that goal more effectively. They've been working on it much longer than 6 weeks.

      Here is an article describing the decision. It links to a log of the actual IRC discussion in which the decision to delay the release was made.

  8. Something is missing... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You got 'Breezy Badger' and 'Dapper Drake', but where's 'Crazy Crapper'?

    1. Re:Something is missing... by wallyhall · · Score: 1

      I wanna know what happens when (if) they run out of letters! Zippy Zebra covers Z, but ones like V and J are a bit harder! Jumping something? I dunno any animals with a J.

      --
      I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
    2. Re:Something is missing... by stevey · · Score: 1
      I dunno any animals with a J.

      Jellyfish? Jaguar? Probably more ..

    3. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here in Australia we have a colloquialism for a male sheep - a Jumbuck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbuck

    4. Re:Something is missing... by Eideewt · · Score: 2, Funny

      Jaguar, jay, jellfish? I'm looking forward to running Jittery Jellyfish.

    5. Re:Something is missing... by Eideewt · · Score: 1

      For that matter, jackrabbit and joey would go well with jumping.

    6. Re:Something is missing... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Go to a bookstore and look at the O'Reilly book covers or check out the Alphabet Riddle. No fact is too obscure for Google if you got the time to look. :)

    7. Re:Something is missing... by Woy · · Score: 5, Funny

      "where's 'Crazy Crapper'?"

      We usually refer to it by its commercial name, Windows XP.

      --
      "If God created us in his own image we have more than reciprocated." - Voltaire
    8. Re:Something is missing... by Eideewt · · Score: 1

      Jazzy Jinx?

    9. Re:Something is missing... by Mike+Savior · · Score: 1

      Jumping Jiraffe...?

      --
      space is pretty cool.
    10. Re:Something is missing... by Rinzwind · · Score: 1

      1. not every letter is supposedly going to have a release. 2. after Z they will start with A again (as stated on Mark Shuttleworth's BIO page).

    11. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Crappy Crazier or The Man who throws chair or Steve Balmer

    12. Re:Something is missing... by Bertie · · Score: 2, Funny

      Jumping Jehosaphat, OBVIOUSLY.

      Before you stare, I know it's not an animal. I don't care.

    13. Re:Something is missing... by zanglang · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure Mac fanboys would be seething with rage if Ubuntu 'stole' their big cats theme though. :P

    14. Re:Something is missing... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Jazzy Jaguar?

    15. Re:Something is missing... by IANAAC · · Score: 5, Funny
      Jumping Jiraffe...?
      --
      You're = You are. Your = Belonging to you. Their = Belonging to them. There = A location. Get it right, please..

      Oh, the irony.

    16. Re:Something is missing... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Isn't Jumping Jehosaphat a species of leaping lizards? Or did I read my Annie comics.

    17. Re:Something is missing... by MooUK · · Score: 1

      So are they going for alphabetical(ish) order then? They didn't start off doing so.

    18. Re:Something is missing... by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 1

      ...but where's 'Crazy Crapper'?

      He's, uhhh, busy at the moment...

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    19. Re:Something is missing... by shreevatsa · · Score: 2, Informative

      Jackal Jackalope Jackrabbit Jaguar Jellyfish.
      See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DevelopmentCodeNames for all the possible names, such as Irrefutable Ichthyosaur and Kinky Kangaroo.

    20. Re:Something is missing... by jo42 · · Score: 2, Funny

      The next version will be called 'Flaming Goatse'...

    21. Re:Something is missing... by creepynut · · Score: 1

      Hm. Their alphabet must be different over in Africa.

      Warty Warthog
      Hoary Hedgehog
      Breeze Badger
      Dapper Drake

    22. Re:Something is missing... by Sporkinum · · Score: 4, Funny

      Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

      --
      "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    23. Re:Something is missing... by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

      Jazzy Jaguar

      That's so gay I think even the Mac fanboys would let you have it.

      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    24. Re:Something is missing... by Woy · · Score: 1

      I make this obvious, dull joke and it gets modded up to +5 instantly. Lots of much better jokes, mine and by other ppl are right now rotting at +1 unmodded. You boys seriously need to touch up your humour skills. 14 year old kid humour doesn't fit slashdot, now that we all aged up.

      --
      "If God created us in his own image we have more than reciprocated." - Voltaire
    25. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hey, it's not like you actually get karma for being modded funny or anything...

    26. Re:Something is missing... by Crayon+Kid · · Score: 1

      Flatulent Flamingo

      (Not my idea, seen here on Slashdot before.)

      --
      i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
    27. Re:Something is missing... by ehlertjd · · Score: 1

      I'm eagerly anticipating "Exploding Elephants"

    28. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jocular JackAss

    29. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dammit, I can't do the last one.

      Z _ _ _ _ A

      I start with a Z and end with an A.
      I live in Africa.
      If I was in captivity I would eat hay.
      I have white and black stripes.
      I have brown hooves.


      erm.... Zeebra?

    30. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thought it was going to be 'Esoteric Egret'. No matter.

    31. Re:Something is missing... by mangu · · Score: 1
      The next version will be called 'Flaming Goatse'...


      Hmm, no. Both words must have the same initial. Therefore, it should be 'Gaping Goatse'...

    32. Re:Something is missing... by bytesmythe · · Score: 1

      Hafta keep to the same initial letter... that should be:
      "Gaping Goatse"

      --
      bytesmythe
      Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
      -- Scott Meyer
    33. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      We may have to go to "Gumping Giraffe", then :).

    34. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You misspelled it: jumping jehosephat is the correct spelling

    35. Re:Something is missing... by rdoger6424 · · Score: 1
      --
      "Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
    36. Re:Something is missing... by TheDugong · · Score: 1

      Poofy Puffin?

    37. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah, Im gonna go with Humping Hippos

    38. Re:Something is missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hasta la Vista Windowz... that what is missing.

  9. Only 3 years for desktop version by tom+taylor · · Score: 1, Redundant

    It's actually only supported for 3 years for the desktop version - it's the server version which is supported for 5 years. Still, it's a decent length of time, and it's sure to appeal to businesses.

  10. With all due respect, how is this news? by gsasha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With all due respect to Dapper (and a well-deserved one, I'm running it right now and it works fantastically), how is this news? So it will be out in a week - it was known. Don't understand me wrong. The *NEWS* about it getting delayed was news. The *MORE OR LESS NEWS* about it on the release day is news. But this is just publishing a countdown - what will be next? 5 days to Dapper, 4 days to Dapper, ... articles? And again, this is a very fine Linux distro, which deserves a lot of coverage... but come on!

    1. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a holiday, pretty much as slow as slow news days get. Guess they've got to have something on the front page...

    2. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by corychristison · · Score: 1
      ... Actually: This post is very informative. I just got home last night from Halfax, NS, Canada. [from SK, Canada] I've gone about a week without any real time on the internet.

      Thank you slashdot for your beautiful feed that has helped me recover from the very lengthy time I have just endured without internet.

      P.S. - To anyone who cares at all, I was at the Skills Canada Competition in the WTCC Building for Web Site Development. I placed 2nd.

    3. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by strider44 · · Score: 1

      But this is just publishing a countdown - what will be next? 5 days to Dapper, 4 days to Dapper, ... articles?

      Somehow I doubt that, seeing how it's only 2 days till Dapper.

    4. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by babbling · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Of course it's news. Without this, many people might not realise that it is coming out in a week or so.

      Do you think CNN and BBC won't mention anything about Windows Vista a week before it gets released? The fact that something big is imminent is news.

    5. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      They had to get the troops ready so we can slashdot the mirrors to obvlivion.

    6. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by strider44 · · Score: 1

      Australia, actually.

    7. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by Laser+Lou · · Score: 1
      With all due respect to Dapper (and a well-deserved one, I'm running it right now and it works fantastically), how is this news? So it will be out in a week - it was known.


      You must be new to Slashdot. That's pretty much how it got started in the first place.

      --
      No data, no cry
    8. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by fbjon · · Score: 1

      Indeed, I was under the impression that it'd be released in late June, but this is great news.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    9. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by Corrado · · Score: 1

      Ok, so you were without an Internet connection. And what were you doing? Building web pages. :)

      Only on /.!

      --
      KangarooBox - We make IT simple!
    10. Re:With all due respect, how is this news? by corychristison · · Score: 1
      I don't know if you know anything about Skills... but:

      In my competition we do not have access to any outside network.
      We are on a local intranet and only have access to the web server that we are to develop the project on.
      There is a time limit of 13 hours. You have no access to any reference material and you really have to work your ass off.
      There were 18 competitors in total. Secondary and Post-secondary competitors.
      I placed 2nd... in a National-wide competition.

  11. VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by fnord_uk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ah. XP. In case you're missing it, I've just installed the free VmWare Server Beta http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ on Dapper (AMD64), and am ?happily? running XP on it, mostly for running ham radio programs. I'm also going to set up a 32 bit Dapper VM for those few progs that don't compile or run well on the 64 bit platform.

    So far, so good. BTW, anyone trying to configure software RAID for their Dapper BETA install, you need to use the alternative install CD image, for the old-style install routine (no live disk built-in). A useful guide is here for setting up a RAID1 configuration
    http://users.piuha.net/martti/comp/ubuntu/raid.htm l

    Enjoy...

    --
    In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not.
    1. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by JohnnyBigodes · · Score: 1

      Sorry for the n00bism, but what's the difference between VMWare Server and VMWare Workstation, in practical terms? The product page doesn't say all that much...

    2. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by Pedersen · · Score: 4, Informative
      Actually, there's a few differences worth noting.
      • VMWare Server does not require a display, Workstation does
      • VMWare Server has a web interface for controlling start, stop, and various configuration bits of vmware. Workstation does not
      • VMWare Server is still in beta, and as such, the license keys expire periodically. Supposedly, this will not happen when it is released sometime this summer.
      • Using the remote console, you can connect to your vmware server hosted machines across the network. With workstation, this is not possible.
      • VMWare Server is free. Workstation is not.
      • VMWare Server works with (at least) version 2.6.15 of linux kernel. Workstation requires unofficial patches.

      So, why would you use Workstation over Server? Support, for one. You can get an actual support contract for Workstation. Whether or not this will be available for Server is unclear at this time. The snapshot manager for Workstation is much more advanced than it is for Server. And, to some degree, Workstation is more convenient on a desktop/laptop than Server.


      So, while not a comprehensive list, this gives some idea of the major differences I've noticed using them both.

      --

      GPL made simple: What was my stuff is now our stuff. If you improve our stuff, please keep it our stuff.
    3. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by fimbulvetr · · Score: 1

      You forgot one thing, that I at least think is important. W/S has shared folders, allowing fast access between environments. Server offers no such mechanism so if you'd like to transfer files between boxes, you're stuck with something like samba/smb which has a fair amount of overhead including overhead from the network. It's really quite inconvient, and you'd think it'd be easy for them to slap in there.

    4. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by kestasjk · · Score: 1

      "I'm also going to set up a 32 bit Dapper VM for those few progs that don't compile or run well on the 64 bit platform."

      Most people use chroot to run 32-bit apps on a 64-bit system. An entire VM is a bit much.

      --
      // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
    5. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by JohnnyBigodes · · Score: 1

      Well the reason I'm asking is because at two client sites I just "kung-fu"'ed VMWware Workstation inside Linux just to run some Windows-specific apps (usually something involving SQL Server). It's a hack, even though it's been surprisingly stable (have it start when X starts with auto-login, etc... and simply backing up the virtual disk just r0x0rs). However, it seems from your description that VMWare Server might in the future solve my situation, in other words, make it stop being a hack :)

    6. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by pato101 · · Score: 2, Informative
      I'm also going to set up a 32 bit Dapper VM for those few progs that don't compile or run well on the 64 bit platform.

      Creating a 32 bit chroot might be an easier choice for those apps, and I guess it will give you better performance. I'm pretty happy with it; and I started width warty and upgraded both main 64bit and 32bit chroot to breezy with little trouble. Furthermore, if you have same nvidia drivers installed on both, you will have 32bit accelerated 3D apps in your 64bit desktop.

    7. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by hawaiian717 · · Score: 1

      Sadly, this is the most obvious missing feature I've found when trying to use VMWare Player. And I use it in Workstation quite often.

      --
      End of Line.
    8. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by mrbooze · · Score: 1

      Using VMWare Player I'm pretty sure I've just dragged files from the guest desktop to the host dekstop and they copied automatically. I remember being surprised by this as I didn't even know that was a feature.

    9. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      I'm also going to set up a 32 bit Dapper VM for those few progs that don't compile or run well on the 64 bit platform.
      you shouldn't need a vm, a chroot should be just fine (amd64 linux kernels have no trouble running i386 linux binaries)

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    10. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by jZnat · · Score: 1

      And people who want a fully supported 64-bit operating system out of the box go with Debian Stable, but of course there's the "it's severely outdated" argument. Good for 64-bit servers, tends to require many backports (or risk using Debian Sid) if you want more cutting-edge desktop packages.

      --
      'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
    11. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by Raphael · · Score: 1
      And people who want a fully supported 64-bit operating system out of the box go with Debian Stable, but of course there's the "it's severely outdated" argument.

      Another argument is that the previous post talked about AMD64. The only official 64-bit Debian Stable ("sarge") is for Itanium, not for AMD64. Of course there is the unofficial AMD64 port that is now part of Debian Testing ("etch") and Unstable ("sid"), but the "sarge" version will always remain unofficial.

      Good for 64-bit servers, tends to require many backports (or risk using Debian Sid) if you want more cutting-edge desktop packages.

      Using Debian testing ("etch") is usually safer than using "sid". For AMD64 systems, I would recommend using it instead of the slightly outdated and less stable unofficial "sarge" version. In fact, I currently recommend using a base install from "etch" and pulling Xorg 7 and its dependencies from "sid" because the X server in "sid" (unstable) turns out to be more stable than the one in "etch". Or just use Ubuntu "Dapper Drake".

      --
      -Raphaël
    12. Re:VMWare Server Beta, RAID install... by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      amd64 sarge wasn't included in the official archive due to mirror issues (they had a major change to the mirroring setup recently that has made it feasible to let it in) but it does have CDs built by the official CD image system, security support from the official security team, entries on the official package search site and virtually everything else that the official release architectures had.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  12. Shuttleworth by SIInudeity · · Score: 2

    Forgot Nelson Mandela and all those other South African icons. Shuttleworth is the man.

    1. Re:Shuttleworth by Gramie2 · · Score: 1

      It's all very well to be excited about Ubuntu, and the positive effect it has had on desktop Linux, but comparing Shuttleworth to Mandela and other people who sacrificed their lives (or decades of time spent in prison) is a little myopic, don't you think?

    2. Re:Shuttleworth by SIInudeity · · Score: 1

      Yes, yes it is. On the other hand, think of all those long nights Shuttleworth spent at www.thawte.com, until after a decade or something. Shuttleworth can play Battle for Middle Earth 2 on an XT.

    3. Re:Shuttleworth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least shuttleworth doesn't think necklacing people is a good idea. To see what south africa will eventually be like, check out rhodesia/zimbabwe today. Just give it some more time is all.

    4. Re:Shuttleworth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hm... a linux distribution vs. Truth and Reconciliation Commision.

    5. Re:Shuttleworth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting that you would bring up Mandela. There's a clip of him talking about the concept of Ubuntu in the Examples directory of the Live CD.

  13. I think it's rather nice too. by john8472 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And we'll be deploying it, automatically, to around 400 workstations, which will be switched on, and running Win XP, all without any manual intervention. And they'll dual boot (Windows/Linux!) afterwards. Which is nice. Eat your heart out FAI. :)

    Oh, and it works nicely under VPC, apart from needing to rebuild the kernel so that the timer tick runs at 100Hz, instead of 1000Hz. Which is also nice.

    --
    I may have been drunk when I wrote this.
    1. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by golemwashere · · Score: 1

      will you write something about your experience somewhere (blog post, howto, etc)?

    2. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by jimicus · · Score: 1

      And we'll be deploying it, automatically, to around 400 workstations, which will be switched on, and running Win XP, all without any manual intervention.

      How? Enquiring minds want to know....

    3. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by ztirffritz · · Score: 1

      I'd very much like to hear about how you're doing this. I'd like to hear all the gory details, the pitfalls, mistakes, successes, everything. I thought about doing this too, but I'd have to manually touch every machine, but I only have 80 or so to deal with.

      --
      Why doesn't anything interesting happen when I have mod points?
    4. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judging from the parent post, they are using VPC (i.e. VirtualPC). Since this runs under Windows, and I'm assuming a network of this size is running ActiveDirectory, a simple MSI push would accomplish this.

      Whats the point of installing an image of Ubuntu under VPC?? Your guess is as good as mine.

    5. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by mrkh · · Score: 1

      Reckon we should start pushing it out next week then? ;)

    6. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by john8472 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Hi,

      The Ubuntu drop is native; the machines dual boot after it's all over.

      The (very) rough details of how to do it are:

      1. Grub for Windows and an initrd image are pushed to the Windows Box.

      2. The Windows box is rebooted into Linux, and mounts an nfs share, which contains enough stuff to get most of the install working. The hard drive has its NTFS partition resized, leaving space for the Linux drop.

      3. The Linux partitions are created in the newly created free space, and then Linux is set up, with the majority of the packages sourced from an Ubuntu mirror (we proxy through Squid, though as we had some snags using apt-proxy) with a custom pre-seed file.

      That's the basics. One of the reasons we need to be able to be able to easily control which o/s to boot into is because most of the PCs run Windows during the day (they are almost all Lab resource workstations at the Uni where I work), and there's a desire to run a Beowulf like setup, out of hours, and during holidays.

      We did try FAI, but because of the Windows infrastructure, we can't run a DHCP/TFTP setup, and booting from a floppy on each workstation was too hideous a concept. Also, FAI is a cryptic as a cryptic thing on a particularly cryptic day, and is horrendous (IMHO) to set up.

      So far, none of it is documented (at all!) but we will be publishing a "how we did it" once the dapper drop is deployed. Right now, I'm not sure where, but it'll prolly go through the Ubuntu website, somewhere or another.

      There have been two of us *involved* in getting it all sorted, but to be honest, I can only bathe in the reflected glory of my colleague at work, because it is he who has been the driving force behind this, and it is he who has carried out the vast majority of the (brain) work. I have been peripheral in this process.

      --
      I may have been drunk when I wrote this.
    7. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      what happens if the NTFS partitions are too full to correctly resize?

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    8. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They'll be reincarnated as precious Mao buttons and distributed to the poor people in the region of Thud.

      Seriously, if SUSE installation is any indication, it will fail noisily on those systems, making no changes at all (well, past the Windows Grub and whatever came before the installer)

    9. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by john8472 · · Score: 1

      As the peripheral component in all this, I think we should wait until July :P

      --
      I may have been drunk when I wrote this.
    10. Re:I think it's rather nice too. by john8472 · · Score: 1

      This generally gets deployed to (reasonably) freshly RISd Windows boxes, so free space is mostly not a problem.

      --
      I may have been drunk when I wrote this.
  14. Not ready for prime time by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 1, Interesting

    In my opinion Dapper shouldn't be released yet. I've installed it on two computers and had serious problems on both, and that was using the release candidate that came out just 8 days or so before the final release date of June 1.

    I know almost all non-trivial software has bugs, but I'm really worried about Dapper's quality. It's not up to Ubuntu's typical standards. Of course, different people have different experiences with it and can over-generalize their experience to what all users will experience. But if you look at Dapper's bug database, the number of open bugs with non-trivial priority levels is scary. I really hope Ubuntu's great reputation isn't dinged by an overly aggresive release plan.

    1. Re:Not ready for prime time by jasonhamilton · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've been running it on my laptop for the last 4 months.

      Almost all the issues I've had have been slowly worked out over time. I don't currently have any complaints. Running both KDE and Gnome.

      --
      SearchIRC - Now with live chat directory!
    2. Re:Not ready for prime time by Pecisk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hmmmm, no. My pick is that Ubuntu Dapper got to one level where you get user (not A geek) to use Linux as primary operational system. In result, lot of different bugs have been filled, for example, about using three sound cards (!) or three monitors, because people have started Dapper for almost everything. And as bugsquad is very warm and responsive to bug fillers, in result, people look at things, test them, fill bugs. Lot of those bugs could be fixed by geek, which have been running RedHat, Slackware, Debian, whatever. Ubuntu rises this bar to common users and in result, lot of bugs for next level to fix :)

      By default, Dapper is the best Ubuntu distro, without any doubt. Bug count just shows how much users are earing to improve and polish this already good distro.

      --
      user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
    3. Re:Not ready for prime time by dubbreak · · Score: 2, Informative

      Count me in as well. I've been running it on my gateway laptop for 3-4 months and haven't had a problem, in fact with the inclusion of the broadcom wireless driver in the kernel I've had less problems as I don't have to use NDIS wrapper. All the software packages I use work fine (better than the last release even). The only problem with install I had was the sound "not working", which involved me opening up alsamixer (open terminal type alsamixer) then muting (I think it was mute not unmute) the external amp channel ('m' key does muting), and then it worked. That was the only thing that took me time to figure out (and I've had to do that since previous releases). I have been super happy with this release and haven't missed windows one bit on my laptop.

      --
      "If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
    4. Re:Not ready for prime time by Achra · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm just praying that they're going to fix my top 3 bugs: 1) KVM switch support. When you switch away from Ubuntu and back - The mouse goes NUTS. This is apparently caused by mouse protocol issues and had workarounds in Breezy Badger & Worked just fine in Hoary. Nothing seems to work to fix this problem for me. in Dapper. :( 2) Windows network printer support. This simply doesn't work. At all. 3) Windows network fileshare support. This is pretty flakey right now. It seems to work really well if you're looking for a share on a 95/98/ME machine, but NT/2000/XP Not very reliable. I guess the workaround is to setup the share on the Ubuntu machine, but I like to be able to go any direction I need to at the time, you know?

      --
      Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
    5. Re:Not ready for prime time by EvilIdler · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've been reporting to, and watching, the bug database for the past
      week or so, and the number of CRITICAL and MAJOR bugs have gone down
      drastically over the past three days (many will still show after they've
      got 'rejected' or 'fix released', but they can be ignored). From what's
      left, I can see a little overlap on some problems, including one that
      hindered me from upgrading to Flight 7 from Breezy. Here's hoping they
      squash it in the next couple of days :)

    6. Re:Not ready for prime time by Spliffster · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I can second that (the parent). i am running dapper on 2 machines which are frequently updated. on the laptop: the power manager fails which is a pitty. dbus seems to have problems and on both machines (the other one is a 2.4ghz pentium workstation) gnome-session fails upon login after every update (the installation on the desktop computer is plain vanilla without any tweaks). i have to remove loads of ~/.gnome* ~/.gconf* files and login again to get rid of the problems doesn't work every time).

      Also, i see that gparted bundeled with ubuntu is version 0.1 (it's in the admin menu by default) which is quiet behind the current "stable" release.

      I really hope the ubuntu team isn't rushing out a release which would harm its reputation. I really like ubuntu!

    7. Re:Not ready for prime time by pjbgravely · · Score: 1

      So far it is running great for me. I did find a bug and helped the developer reproduce it and it has been patched. Any program not working by release will probably be set back to the last stable release. Release candidates are still beta.

      --
      Star Trek, there maybe hope.
    8. Re:Not ready for prime time by flacco · · Score: 1

      kompressor does not dance!

      --
      pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
    9. Re:Not ready for prime time by dbitch · · Score: 1

      Bug counts mean shit-all. You are comparing distributions that are carrying different patches for programs at different versions. Besides, who care what your bug count is when Ubuntu WRITES the shadow passwords to an unsecure file? Remember that? Ubuntu could have only 1 bug, but if that bug is enough to give a cracker root, who cares what the count is..

    10. Re:Not ready for prime time by bit01 · · Score: 1

      I can second that. I did a mega install of the Dapper i386 beta with a gig of extra packages via Synaptic two days ago. Yesterday the online update fixed two of the three install bugs I'd had the day before... I don't think it's quite ready yet but it's pretty close.

      ---

      Open source software is everything that closed source software is. Plus the source is available.

    11. Re:Not ready for prime time by phaggood · · Score: 1

      > laptop; power manager fails

      Is your laptop a Presario V2000 series? I just purch'd the AMD64-powered V2630 - I installed a Suse10.0 which found pretty much everything - even the Hawking HWD54G PCMCIA card, then I got a Dapper pre-relase which would not boot - even with acpi=off. NExt I downloaded Suse10.1 DVD iso after the annoucement here on ./, PCMCIA rolled over dead and the box is running hot, but at least NDISWrapper runs the Broadcom 4318 okay.

      I used Breezy on the previous laptop and was a big fan of Ubuntu; I hope Dapper fixes my Presario V2630 problems (I was *really* used to hibernate+wireless on the old box).

    12. Re:Not ready for prime time by Spliffster · · Score: 1

      no, its an acer Travelmate 4651LCi.

      Verything works fine in breezy (except the card-reader which isn't supported by the kernel at all).

      Breeze works like a charm, and i guess once the beta hickups of breeze are fixed it'll run well on this laptop. it's just that the beta (somewhere around flight 4) started to have problems with wither gnome-session or the private instance of dbus which causes several other (gnome-related) problems.

    13. Re:Not ready for prime time by ElleyKitten · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu doesn't write the shadow passwords to an unsecure file. Previous Ubuntu installers (that are long since unavailable) had a bug that wrote the password for the user account created during install to an unsecure file, however, this has long since been patched, and this bug was rendered moot by simply changing your user password. It was much less of a deal than you're making it sound.

      --
      "What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
  15. Enterprise? Then why not debian? by dirtyforker · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I don't really understand why ubuntu are making an 'enterprise' version. I thought the whole point of ubuntu was to get a fairly package-stable version of debian that was up-to-date so funky new desktop apps would have a nice home to live in. Great for home users and for pinching market share from other operating systems, but would you take newness over proven reliability for work? The debian release schedule (or lack thereof) seems perfectly suited to business needs to me. So wots it all about then?

    1. Re:Enterprise? Then why not debian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, in our case, lack of x86_64 support in stable. Debian really mangled their x86_64 support, even now it's a bit wierd. Some ultra-purist conspiracy was responsible for the x86_64 debian port, the WHOLE POINT of x86_64 is so that x86 continues to work smoothly, and they pretty much wasted months on "pure64" effort. RHEL or SuSE handled x86_64 much better (academically a little uglier, but much more useful in enterprise environments with mucho in-house stuff to support), Ubuntu at least handles x86_64. An enterprise-stable x86_64 debianoid like ubuntu MIGHT be enough to get me to switch back from CentOS.

    2. Re:Enterprise? Then why not debian? by DigDuality · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      No disrespect, as Debian is a damned solid distro. But lets be real about the situation. 14 cds? or one? Or how about, when i actually want help on an issue i'm greated by either A) a community or B) paid support, that isn't filled with elitist pricks who think their shit doesn't stink? Debian guys, might know they're crap, but they're air of snottiness will drive people away from linux all together. I thank them for their efforts, but the Debian community need to drop the attitude. Oh Boo hoo... a couple of the Debian developers went to work on Ubuntu. Ya know?

    3. Re:Enterprise? Then why not debian? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      in what way is ubuntu amd64 different from debian amd64? i thought both were pure 64 bit with only minimal 32 bit libs availible in special packages?

      now the fact that amd64 sarge didn't get added to the official archive before sarge release was a fuckup i agree but not a monumental one.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    4. Re:Enterprise? Then why not debian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Some ultra-purist conspiracy was responsible for the x86_64 debian port, the WHOLE POINT of x86_64 is so that x86 continues to work smoothly, and they pretty much wasted months on "pure64" effort.

      Come back when you have some clue what you're talking about. The reason there was a "pure" port is because that's the only thing apt can handle. Apt doesn't have any concept of multi-arch, and it's not as easy as it sounds like to hack it in in a way that's backward compatible. You know, the reason people stick with debian in the first place, that you can upgrade as far back as slink without reinstalling. Anyway, the overwhelming majority of x86_64 bit installations are for servers, which have no interest in half-assed gradual solutions.

      Ubuntu's 64 bit port didn't exactly fix the multi-arch issue either.

  16. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by x1n933k · · Score: 1
    I agree with the only poster that you need to give more details besides KDE being the exception with Kubuntu.

    The fact is Kubuntu is /specifically/ for users who perfer KDE over Gnome, which is standard for a desktop install of Ubuntu-BB, otherwise why download and use the Kubuntu package?

    I thought since discovering Ubuntu that it is really quite User-friendly. 1 CD gets you up and running to experence GNU/Linux. The only problem is Installing and running into errors doesn't tell a new user where to look for logs and what exactly is wrong. It isn't a graphical installer (yet), but it is still not too hard to figure out.

    [J]

  17. Last minute bug reports by wysiwia · · Score: 4, Informative

    I happen to test around several boot problems the last few weeks I've summarized just here

    http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10623 67#post1062367

    Since these boot problems are quite difficult and probably mean a no go for anybody not a though expert I really hope they were fixed before release. It probably means another delay for a few days but think it's worth.

    O. Wyss

    --
    See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
    1. Re:Last minute bug reports by radarsat1 · · Score: 1

      I would have to agree.
      I recently switched to Ubuntu and immediately loved it. Everything smooth -- even my printer works! (Something I've had considerable difficulty with in other distros..)

      However the last couple of kernel updates have actually broken my boot. First one I got some kind of "bad ramdisk image" problem, so I switched back to the previous kernel version. (Thank goodness it doesn't automatically de-install the older version.) The next update booted fine but broke my Nvidia driver for some reason. Maybe the update was not synched properly with an Nvidia kernel module update? Anyways, rather than fix it I just switched back to the version that works, because I didn't really feel the need to keep the latest point-point-minor-patch version of the kernel.

      Granted, there were updates and not clean installs. However, the point is... I hope not too many other people had similar problems. If they did, it's probably not a good idea to release it.

      It's just good that I happen to know enough to fix these problems manually. I'm sure not everyone in the target audience would know what to do.

    2. Re:Last minute bug reports by mike_sucks · · Score: 1

      Have you posted a bug about it in Launchpad?

      --
      -- "So, what's the deal with Auntie Gerschwitz et all?"
    3. Re:Last minute bug reports by wysiwia · · Score: 1

      Have you posted a bug about it in Launchpad?

      Read the Ubuntu forum message and you will know.

      O. Wyss

      --
      See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
    4. Re:Last minute bug reports by mike_sucks · · Score: 1

      ENOTIME

      --
      -- "So, what's the deal with Auntie Gerschwitz et all?"
  18. Bugs in PPC flight 7 by jdbartlett · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I tried out Flight 7 on my PowerBook when it was released earlier this month, and it was a little buggy. The trackpad response was s-l-o-w and altering the mouse speed and sensitivity accomplished nothing to solve the problem - I had to plug in my USB trackball to make it useable. Any ideas?

    I didn't go onto any networks when I tested, but does anyone know if there'll be support for WPA wireless encryption anytime soon? WEP doesn't cut it at my office, and Ubuntu 5.10 (current stable) doesn't offer any other type.

    Other than those problems, this is great news! I wasn't expecting a new Ubuntu until August! GNOME's new Spotlight-killer is fantastic (especially since Linux filesystem is *that* much faster than Mac journaled) and the UI looks a lot cleaner.

    1. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by fimbulvetr · · Score: 1

      The touchpads are buggy on apple devices, same old story. NetworkManager is included with dapper and has native wpa functionality (I don't think it has wpa2), and it works wonderfully.

    2. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by tgd · · Score: 1

      As someone suffering through using a crappy Dell laptop running Ubuntu Dapper or WinXT because his iBook did the typical "died a month out of warranty" thing, my suggestion would be to run OSX on there. They say the grass is greener on the other side, but in this case they're wrong.

      I do like Dapper, though. Its the only Linux distro I could get running on this laptop, and it was largely out of the box.

    3. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by aromanos · · Score: 1

      With the wpa_supplicant and NetworkManager packages, WPA wireless is almost as easy as in Windows. I believe one of the reasons to delay the release was to test these bits more throughfully. I suppose both packages are avaliable in ppc; amd64 here.

    4. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by jdbartlett · · Score: 1

      Fantastic news about Dapper and WPA support, thanks!

      I don't think it's the device that's faulty - it works fine in OS X. It may work differently, though; I'm not sure how they accomplish the whole 'drag two fingers to scroll' effect (which is really handy). Maybe I should set up a NX Client/Server connection with another computer!

      Next time I need a new laptop, I think I'll build it myself... unless anyone out there can recommend a decent indie laptop maker (first person to suggest Dell-owned Alienware gets shot!)

    5. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by fimbulvetr · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think the wpa is better than windows actually - I can hot-undock my dell d800 and the first screen I get is the keyring prompt for the password so it can login to my wpa connection. I can do whatever, come back and hot-dock and my wired is up after a second or two. Just my experience, though.

    6. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that at least on my laptop, NetworkManager doesn't work at all. It just flat-out refuses to find any interfaces, wired or wireless. There's other "small" bugs as well, such as the inability to shut down the machine. These and lots of other small things I've always had to fight in every Linux install I've ever used are the reason I'm going Mac. There's just less bullshit.

    7. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 1

      Wait, you can get wireless by default? I've tried, and neither 5.10 or 6.06 Flight5 boot CDs worked with my iBook's card.

    8. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by megabyte405 · · Score: 1

      There (as of my last testing - flight 5 on Dell Inspiron 6000) have been a few issues with the X server and trackpads. If you search Launchpad.net (the Ubuntu bug tracker and other stuff) you should be able to find the bug report with a workaround - it was not terribly tough when I fixed it personally.

      --
      I recognize people by their sigs. Is that a bad thing?
    9. Re:Bugs in PPC flight 7 by jdbartlett · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu Dapper bugs are offtopic for a post about Ubuntu Dapper? Okidoki...

  19. Would somebody PLEASE e-mail Mr. Ballmer... by The_REAL_DZA · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...and tell him how to get his own /. username so he can stop posting "AC"?

    --


    This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
    1. Re:Would somebody PLEASE e-mail Mr. Ballmer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LMAO. Friended just for that/.

  20. RC1 Available by kuyaedz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dapper 6.06 LTS Release Candidate is available now for download. This is very close to the final release & definitely worth checking out if you're impatient (3 days IS a long time!) http://releases.ubuntu.com/6.06/

    1. Re:RC1 Available by ZakuSage · · Score: 1

      Not only that, installing a release candidate is a good way to beat the rush so you don't end up with an excrutiatingly slow download speed. I'm going to be updating my dapper system (running for about two weeks now, would be 2 months but I had a critical problem when I tried to install KDE...) today, and then not again for about two weeks so I don't have an hour+ of download time for a 10k file.

  21. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by Goodgerster · · Score: 1

    It's not nearly as polished as GNOME in Ubuntu... perhaps it's just KDE, I haven't been using it for long. GNOME just seems smoother and more tweaked than KDE.

  22. Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by tayhimself · · Score: 1
    Can someone please explain why I would want to use this over a mixture of debian stable/testing?

    Is it the 5 years of bug fixes and security patches? I can see the advantage of that, but conversely debian stable with apt-pinning should be able to achieve keeping critical packages safe while upgrading the rest of the system for securtiy, speed, or features.

    1. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Deusy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The two primary reasons:
      * More up-to-date than Debian
      * Easier to use than Debian

      "But Debian can be bleeding edge if you add X and Y to sources.list"

      If you have to know such things, then it's not easy to use.

      If you want to start with a desktop that's preconfigured and generally pretty solid without the hassle of setting it up yourself, then Ubuntu Dapper is better than Debian unstable. If you want to start with a minimal base then build your desktop yourself, then Debian is better than Ubuntu.

      --

      Free Gamer - Free games list and commentary

    2. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Entrope · · Score: 1

      As the other commenter pointed out, there is a lower barrier to entry for the well-supported version.

      Beyond all the reasons that running a mixture of stable and testing is in itself risky, there is also no predictable long-term support for Debian stable releases: you have to upgrade after one or two release cycles (unpredictably[1]) but so far that has been more often than every three years. Debian puts a lot of effort into making upgrades work well, but any dist upgrade has risks, and enterprise customers want to minimize the number of times they have to upgrade everyone. Perhaps more importantly, they want the timing to be predictable, so they can plan and budget to reduce the indirect costs of upgrades (such as lost productivity during the upgrade or when fixing problems aftwards).

      [1]- Debian's woody release page says woody will stop getting security updates once etch starts getting its security updates; potato stopped getting security updates two years before sarge was released; the pages for hamm and slink do not say when their security updates stopped.

    3. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by mpeg4codec · · Score: 1

      For what it's worth, I find great value in starting from an Ubuntu ``server'' configuration and building up a desktop from there. I get many of the benefits of Ubuntu, such as up-to-date software and security updates, with practically the same flexibility as starting from a base Debian system.

      Nowadays, I have only one Debian unstable system left as a desktop machine. The rest are all Ubuntu server configuration plus my packages. The big kicker? Hundreds of daily updates make life nearly unusable under Debian unstable.

      That said, I'd never run a server on Ubuntu.

    4. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Perhaps more importantly, they want the timing to be predictable, so they can plan and budget to reduce the indirect costs of upgrades (such as lost productivity during the upgrade or when fixing problems aftwards)
      well with debian you typically get at least a years window between when a new release is ready and when you loose security support to plan your upgrade in. Is a year not enough to find a quiet period in which to upgrade?

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    5. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      the problem with that is because of the way debian does depscanning (and even if they fixed that some general issues with the attitude of library developers) you can't install a debian package unless your versions of libraries are as new as or newer than those on the system the package was built on.

      so if you wan't to run anything from etch your going to end up running core libraries from etch or rebuilding.

      also mixed stable/testing systems are likely to exibit strange breakage, especilly as stable gets older. (for example is if you install sarges sshd on woody and let it upgrade everything it thinks is needed to do that you won't be able to log in over ssh!)

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    6. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Respect_my_Authority · · Score: 1

      Please check your facts -- they're just plain wrong.

      Debian "testing" and "unstable" get upgrades every day while Ubuntu is upgraded only once every six months. Debian "unstable" is now more up-to-date than Ubuntu "dapper" and one month from now also Debian "testing" will be more up-to-date than Ubuntu "dapper". And still Ubuntu fans keep parroting the same old myth that Ubuntu is always more up-to-date than Debian.

      Ubuntu being easier to install & configure than Debian is another myth. Most people who claim that haven't recently installed Debian, so they just don't know what they're talking about. Try Debian "sarge". Try the most recent beta-version of Debian-Installer. Find out how Debian keeps developing all the time, becoming easier all the time. You might learn that Ubuntu's installer comes from Debian. You might also learn that Ubuntu's configurations are managed by debconf that also comes straight from Debian.

      Yeah, Ubuntu "dapper" will come on a live-cd with a new installer. But guess what happened when I tried the latest RC of this new installer -- it overwrote my default bootloader without asking me first. I DIDN'T LIKE THAT AT ALL. This is what Ubuntu being "easier" than Debian is all about: Ubuntu asks you fewer questions than Debian and it also does a lot of things (without asking you first) that Ubuntu developers have decided is best for you. If you like what the Ubuntu devs have chosen, then that's all right. But if you don't like what Ubuntu has decided for you -- then Ubuntu quickly becomes a royal pain in the butt.

      Despite many user requests, Ubuntu has refused to distribute their packages on more than one CD. This is a real bummer if you don't have a net connection.

      Debian, on the other hand, has many alternative installation options to choose from. You can install the base system from the netinst CD and download the rest of the packages that you need via network. Or you can just download the first and maybe also the second CD from the installation set -- the most popular packages are on the first CD's. Or you can download the whole installation CD set (available also on two DVD's) if you're planning to install Debian on a computer that doesn't have a net connection.

    7. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Drinking+Bleach · · Score: 1

      It's not called the bleeding edge because it's safe and there's no dangers whatsoever. If you dance on the edge, you will get hurt. That's why Debian, RHEL, etc stay with older software for the _stable_ versions and fix bugs and security issues. Newer software might be nice in the home, but it is far from suitable in the enterprise without months or years of testing in advance.

    8. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by miro+f · · Score: 1

      of course! listening to all your arguments I'm not surprised that no one uses Ubuntu and Debian is the most popular linux distribution

      oh wait...

      if you prefer debian, good for you. If you don't like Ubuntu, good for you. Don't use it. Debian users should get over their dislike for Ubuntu and realise that it's a quality product, just like Debian is.

      --
      being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
    9. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by figa · · Score: 1

      I've been running Debian testing since it was first established as a layer between stable and unstable. I've been burned many times, mostly with buggy Gnome libraries and problems with X. After an upgrade last month, I had repeat system lock-ups with xorg, Firefox started crashing, and I vowed to move to Kubuntu as soon as the new release is out. (I'm taking Linus' advice and scrapping Gnome as well.) In the meantime, I'm running a mix of testing and unstable, which I really don't like to do.

      The problem isn't so much with Debian as with my impulsive desire to upgrade. If I get a little downtime at work, I upgrade, just to see what's new. Since Debian stable is only released every few years, it's really too old to use on a workstation, so I'm left without any set upgrade cycle. That's what Kubuntu is promising for me: a regular upgrade cycle with a known, working configuration I can use for six months.

      I'm still using Debian stable on my server, where it belongs. I've tried running a mixture of stable and unstable in the past (before testing), and stable and testing after that, but library conflicts quickly make it difficult to manage. I think there's a lot of value in having a configuration that's somewhat similar to what a large user base is running, so when you find a bug, there's a good chance someone else has already posted a workaround.

      Finally, to those who say that testing and unstable are not stable, and I should expect problems, my thought is that I don't want to run testing or unstable. I want to run versions of applications that are recent, stable releases, not the bleeding edge. At the same time, I don't want to miss out on bug fixes and upgrades while waiting years for Debian stable. In that sense, I think Ubuntu is a good compromise for desktop users.

    10. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by mpeg4codec · · Score: 1

      As my sibling post to yours notes, as far as packages go, Ubuntu fills an important niche for me. While Debian testing/unstable will always have the latest packages, it's a major pain to download the dozens of daily updates just so I can have libxyz 1.1.2-cvs20060530 instead of 1.1.2-cvs20060525.

      Ubuntu provides relatively up-to-date packages with a reasonable release schedule. Downloading a couple hundred megs of updates every six months while still being relatively assured of security/stability is worth it to me. Sure, I may not be running the latest beta of software X [or even the latest stable, such as Firefox], but I consider the trade-off worth it.

      Your arguments seem to contradict. Debian offers a lot of CD sets and such, but typically only for stable [as unstable/testing would be outdated as soon as they were released]. If you want to track unstable, you HAVE to have a fast net connection in order to receive the updates that are released every day.

      However, as the sibling to this post noted, the great thing about Linux is choice. Debian and Ubuntu are both great distros in my opinion and I have uses for both of them. For relatively recent software and a good update cycle for desktops, I'll stick with Ubuntu.

    11. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Respect_my_Authority · · Score: 1

      > Debian users should get over their dislike for Ubuntu and realise that it's a quality product, just like Debian is.

      That's much better. Arrogant Ubuntu users usually claim that Ubuntu is always in every possible way better than Debian for any given task or purpose. I was just responding to such elitist Ubuntu user who claimed that Ubuntu has always newer packages than Debian and that Ubuntu is always easier than Debian. Well, this can certainly be true under certain circumstances -- BUT NOT ALWAYS!

      This is all I'm trying to argue here. Ubuntu users should really learn some manners and some respect to other distros. Ubuntu might currently be the most popular distro but there are also other quality distros out there.

    12. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Respect_my_Authority · · Score: 1

      > it's a major pain to download the dozens of daily updates just so I can have libxyz 1.1.2-cvs20060530 instead of 1.1.2-cvs20060525.

      It's not really compulsory to upgrade every day, you know. Instead, you could choose to upgrade weekly or monthly -- whatever suits you best.

      > Ubuntu provides relatively up-to-date packages with a reasonable release schedule.

      That's certainly true but it's not what the post I responded to suggested. It said that Ubuntu always has more up-to-date packages than Debian.

      > Downloading a couple hundred megs of updates every six months while still being relatively assured of security/stability is worth it to me.

      Good for you. Just remember that Ubuntu Security Team doesn't provide any security updates for the "universe" repo.

      > Sure, I may not be running the latest beta of software X [or even the latest stable, such as Firefox], but I consider the trade-off worth it.

      Hmm... Ubuntu fans usually say that they always get the latest and greatest stuff before anyone else. But I think those Ubuntu fans are wrong and you're right. :-)

      > Your arguments seem to contradict. Debian offers a lot of CD sets and such, but typically only for stable

      Nope. There are weekly built full snapshot CD sets available for both Debian "testing" and "unstable".

      > Debian and Ubuntu are both great distros in my opinion and I have uses for both of them.

      I'm glad to hear that.

      > For relatively recent software and a good update cycle for desktops, I'll stick with Ubuntu.

      My choice is Debian "testing" -- for the very same reasons. :-P

    13. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Stepping+Razor · · Score: 1

      "That said, I'd never run a server on Ubuntu."

      Never is a very strong word, you know something about the future that we don't. :-)

    14. Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix? by Entrope · · Score: 1

      If new releases and termination of security updates were predictable, having a year-long window would be more than enough. The problem is that the release schedule is hugely unpredictable under Debian (remember the last-minute delay of sarge?), so the effective planning window is significantly shorter than a year. Since it's common for major efforts to be planned at least a year in advance, this often means that the IT department must support a mixed environment because there is no one time that every system can be upgraded without impacting someone's deadline.

  23. Ship it by Life700MB · · Score: 4, Informative


    Don't forget that you can order some ubuntu cds from at shipit.ubuntu.com.


    --
    Superb hosting 20GB Storage, 1_TB_ bandwidth, ssh, $7.95

    1. Re:Ship it by j0217995 · · Score: 1

      Also don't forget for the first time CDs are available through shipit.kubuntu.org. Note the difference, if you want Kubuntu specific CDs shipped free of charge you must go to ship.kubntu.org not shipit.ubuntu.com

  24. reliability? by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "The code release will come after the development process was extended by six weeks in order to improve the reliability of the software."

    I've been using Dapper Drake since March, and I've had fewer problems with the betas than I have with stable releases from other distros (Gentoo I'm looking at you).

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  25. v is for vole by patiodragon · · Score: 1
    1. Re:v is for vole by thephilv · · Score: 1

      Ah...the vociferous vole.

  26. Just in time... by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1

    ...for this Linux flavour of the year to go out of style. Don't Enterprise versions of a Linux distro seal its fate? RedHat, Mandrake, now Ubuntu

    -
    -
    Don't mod me down for speaking the truth.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
    1. Re:Just in time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are not separate home and Enterprise versions. Ubuntu is free. "Enterprise" is just being used as a buzz word. All versions of Ubuntu are free and include professional support, but this particular release, for a server install, has a five year support term. This is comparable with "Enterprise" versions of other Operating Systems.

    2. Re:Just in time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...for this Linux flavour of the year to go out of style. Don't Enterprise versions of a Linux distro seal its fate? RedHat, Mandrake, now Ubuntu

      -
      -
      Don't mod me down for speaking the truth.


      It isn't an Enterprise Edition. Officially, it's just a new release of Ubuntu that Canonical believes is good enough to use as an Enterprise product.

  27. What problems, specifically? by khasim · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I've installed it on two computers and had serious problems on both, and that was using the release candidate that came out just 8 days or so before the final release date of June 1.
    Can you state what those problems were, specifically?

    I've been running it for months now and the only "problem" I had was the built-in sound chip on my motherboard. I dropped in an old SoundBlaster and everything works fine now.
    Of course, different people have different experiences with it and can over-generalize their experience to what all users will experience.
    It's kind of hard to "over-generalize" having no problems.

    I did file one feature request about their ADOdb package's dependencies and they did modify it. I don't know if that would count as a "problem", but it is been working perfectly for me now.
  28. Download Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  29. Just upgraded by kbahey · · Score: 2, Informative
    I just did that over the weekend on my test server.

    Edit the sources.list file. Put this in it:
    ## All officially supported packages, including security- and other updates
    deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper main restricted
    deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
    deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates main restricted
     
    ## All community supported packages, including security- and other updates
    deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe multiverse
    deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
    deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates universe multiverse
    Run the following commands:

    # apt-get update
    # apt-get dist-upgrade

    Then reboot

    Done!
    1. Re:Just upgraded by Knuckles · · Score: 5, Informative

      Nooo! Please, people, stop recommending this, at least when there is reason to suspect newbies in the vicinity :)

      The better way to upgrade is to use the update manager from the System > Administration menu. Once Dapper is released, it will know about it, and offer Breezy users the option to upgrade. As long as Dapper is not yet officially released, you need to run it with the -d switch from the command line to make it upgrade to Dapper: gksudo update-manager -d

      Ubuntu has invested quite a bit to make the upgrade patch as smooth as possibly, without requiring users to edit sources.list and such. And there are other problems besides editing sources.list: not every change on the system can be expressed in package dependencies. Sometimes changes have to be made that are too dangerous to attempt automatically during the upgrade, and require manual intervention. E.g., the wiki page for the Breezy upgrade listed several things a user must do (see "Post-Upgrade")

      All these things are taken care of now by update-manager

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    2. Re:Just upgraded by Knuckles · · Score: 0

      "upgrade patch" -> upgrade path

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    3. Re:Just upgraded by kbahey · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Yes, you are right.

      However this machine is a SERVER.

      It does not have any GUI stuff on it at all (no Gnome, no KDE). Plain old ssh and command line.

      I also don't use sudo on it, and reenabled the root account.

    4. Re:Just upgraded by Knuckles · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sorry, I didn't mean to say you are wrong. Of course you aren't (except leaving out possible post-upgrad tasks :) but it was a perfect opportunity to spread the knowledge about this new facility a bit more.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    5. Re:Just upgraded by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      1: make sure you look at what dist-upgrade is planning to do before you say yes
      2: i'm not sure if doing that will upgrade the kernel.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    6. Re:Just upgraded by kbahey · · Score: 1

      1: make sure you look at what dist-upgrade is planning to do before you say yes

      Good advice.

      2: i'm not sure if doing that will upgrade the kernel.

      Yes, it upgrades the kernel for you, and modifies grub's menu.lst as well, keeping the entries for the old kernel in there as well.

      The reboot is needed to bring the new kernel in effect.

  30. Laptop support? by bananaendian · · Score: 0, Redundant

    What about support for wireless and ACPI and external monitor output ???

    I've got a HP NX6125 with Broadcom 4318, AMD Turion, Radeon XPress 200M...

    Anyone tried those?

    --
    www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
    1. Re:Laptop support? by Amendt · · Score: 2, Informative

      I know suse 10.1 doesn't support the Broadcom 43xx :( , but if you go to kernel.org the latest stable release finnally supports it. It seems I have been jumping trying to get drivers, for the last few years know they are finally getting within reach.

    2. Re:Laptop support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The broadcom 43xx card is recognised & all, mostly thanks to the great work done at kernel level. I can get it to work flawlessly with a non-encrypted wireless connexion, both static IP & DHCP. I cannot get it to work at all with encryption, whether WEP or WPA.

      YMMV

    3. Re:Laptop support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mine is an Acer Ferrari 4005WLMi, that seems to be built on the same platform: an AMD Turion, the ATI XPress 200M chipset and the Broadcom 4318 wireless. I got the wireless working with the ndiswrapper driver using the Broadcom drivers for Windows XP x64. I am aware there is an open-source driver on development, but last time I checked it didn't worked for me.

      ACPI.. well it seems most notebook BIOS have ACPI support quite broken. In my case, the latest Acer BIOS updates and the recent kernel that dapper includes improved things a bit and now even things like hibernation and suspend work nicely :)

    4. Re:Laptop support? by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      A laptop is not Enterprise. Try again.

    5. Re:Laptop support? by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Funny, I don't see the 10,000 consultants in our company lugging desktops around.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    6. Re:Laptop support? by TorAvalon · · Score: 1

      Are you serious?

    7. Re:Laptop support? by Buelldozer · · Score: 1

      I have an HP ZE2000 with all three of those and I am running the 2.5.15-23-amd64-generic kernel on it. It took some doing to get the BCM4318 to work with the native drive but I did get it to go. The processor support worked out of the box and so did the Radeon XPress 200M.

      So far I've been fairly pleased.

    8. Re:Laptop support? by Minimoose · · Score: 1

      This forum says that Broadcom 4318s works natively with Ubuntu Dapper.

      If you have problems, the Broadcom 4318 based wireless card should also work with a program called ndiswrapper. Build the latest version (for some reason it needs gcc 3.4, not 4.0) and use the Windows drivers that go with the card.

  31. Re:Not ready for prime time (parent troll?) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wouldn't call Ubuntu's release schedule 'aggressive', since other community distributions, namely Fedora and OpenSuse also follow a 6-month-ish schedule. As for stability, the beta version of OpenSuse 10.1 would not install on my laptop, but I've been running Dapper Drake for a month on it, with all the hardware configured correctly. So, from my perspective, Dapper is better.



    I point your attention to Bug \#1 from Ubuntu's tracker

  32. 5 years is a good start by Rogerborg · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have SuSE Linux "Professional" boxen that I have to maintain from a mirror of SuSE's updates because they dropped active support after 18 months and took the files off of their update servers after 3 years. Given that's less than the mean time between reboots that I'd expect for an enterprise system, that was a big mistake on their part; they'll never get a red cent from me again.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    1. Re:5 years is a good start by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 2, Informative

      Suse professional is not an enterprise product. Suse Enterprise server (SLES) is. You used a workstation Linux expecting the reliability and support of an enterprise system. I pity whomever hires you.

      --
      Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
    2. Re:5 years is a good start by M1FCJ · · Score: 1

      SuSE PRO is NOT their enterprise distribution. If you want to use the 5 year supported version, you have to switch to SLES9, which will be upgraded to version 10 sometime in June. Similarly, for desktop environments in enterprise, they also have Novell Desktop (which, shamelessly will be renamed to SuSE Desktop soon, if not already happened) and that shares the same heritage and support of SLES. SuSE Pro was, just like Redhat's now defunct offerings, for enthusiasts (like me (current mesage written on a SuSE 9.3 because I can't be bothered to upgrade right now, laptop and office workstation already on SuSE 10 but not 10.1, mainly because of the dissatisfaction with the new package manager).

    3. Re:5 years is a good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You think you're so brilliant, and yet you don't know the difference between whoever and whomever.

    4. Re:5 years is a good start by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 1

      Oh no! A grammar criticism to completely dismantle my observation! Also, I do know the difference. Whomever is correct in the context I used it, whoever is not. Simple as that.

      --
      Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
    5. Re:5 years is a good start by arkhan_jg · · Score: 3, Informative

      SuSE linux professional was the desktop line. Ubuntu only has 5 years support for the server version, it's less for the desktop, just like SuSE. If you run desktop versions of OS's, you get shorter support times. If you built a server from a £70 workstation disc, then such is life.

      You have four choices. Keep doing what you're doing; upgrade to the free SUSE Linux 10.1 OSS, with shorter support lifetime; upgrade to the paid version of SUSE linux 10.1, with an active support time of 2 years, or upgrade to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, lifetimes available here. A new version of SLES is due soon, you may want to wait a month or two, if you decide to go this route, as SLES 9 is a couple of years into its 5 year general support cycle.

      Of course, you could switch the server to a different distro altogether. Just go for the server-intended ones, you'll be much happier in a few years time.

      --
      Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
    6. Re:5 years is a good start by smithtodda · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with the new package manager!?! I just ordered 10.1 a couple of days ago!

      --
      Why Vegan? No other food choice has a farther-reaching and more profoundly positive impact on all of life on Earth.
    7. Re:5 years is a good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >upgrade to the free SUSE Linux 10.1 OSS, with shorter support lifetime; upgrade to the paid >version of SUSE linux 10.1, with an active support time of 2 years,

      the support is the same, there is no such thing. Its two year for both flavors of suse linux 10.1... ANd tehres

      gosh... I dont even know why I bother to come here in /. and clear things up, since people really dont care posting wrong information here.

    8. Re:5 years is a good start by Rogerborg · · Score: 1

      Introduced when? Maybe you should consider the concept of "past tense"?

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  33. OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by jdbartlett · · Score: 2, Interesting

    OS X is certainly the prettiest, most polished OS out there, but my future is Linux, I can feel it. I'm starting to use applications like GIMP, Inkscape, and OpenOffice more and more. I'm slowly switching to OpenSource alternatives to everything. Seashore is great, but doesn't import SVG (or support any) paths and can't be used with UFRaw (my main reason for using GIMP). Picasa isn't Open Source, but it also isn't available on Mac, and I'd love a tool that gives me detailed EXIF data (plus iPhoto 5 is pretty slow and I don't want to pay to upgrade). Inkscape loads very slowly, but performs well once it's open. The latest NeoOffice alpha performs better than OpenOffice 2, and actually supports ODF; I consider that a solution.

    Still, I haven't done a crossgrade on my Windows Photoshop CS (at first because I was waiting for a Universal - no point in upgrading to old technology) but also because money's too tight for the spare $175. In the meantime, I'm starting to become more supportive of Photoshop's open source alternatives. Sure, GIMP has no layer effects (yet), but it's catching up very quickly considering how long it's been in development.

    What I'd really love to see is an open alternative to Aperture or LightRoom, or even just Picasa. I want to see my EXIF data without loading another application!

    1. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by fbjon · · Score: 1

      But can GIMP handle raw or DNG files? If not, it's instantly less useful for me.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    2. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by jdbartlett · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. Raw (Super CCD Raw is almost universally unsupported) is preceisely the reason I use GIMP! UFRaw (a GIMP plugin) includes live histograms and many, many options. There are other plugins and maybe some built-in support for Raw, but my Fujifilm S5200 is unsupported by all the others I've looked at. (Photoshop CS2 didn't even support Fujifilm S5200/S5600 last time I checked. Picasa's Support page states specifically that it doesn't support S5200!)

      SourceForge page for Linux:
      http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html

      For OS X, this guy built an installer for use with GIMPshop (a commercial version of GIMP, without the X11, haven't tried it yet) but I used it on the PowerPC version of regular "GIMP for Mac" and it works great!
      http://collectivity.goof.com/articles/2006/03/18/u fraw-gimpshop-app-plugin

      Hope that helps.

    3. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by fbjon · · Score: 1
      Nice, it seems to work. Unfortunately the interface is pretty horrid, at least on Windows. I can't zoom in more than 50%, and even then the window blows up the entire image all the way outside the screen borders, instead of panning the image. Overall a bit primitive, but workable, if need be.

      Speaking of camera support, CS2/Adobe Camera Raw and the DNG converter support the S5200/S5600 since version 3.3 (now at 3.4).

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    4. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by Trelane · · Score: 1
      What I'd really love to see is an open alternative to Aperture or LightRoom, or even just Picasa. I want to see my EXIF data without loading another application!
      f-spot?
      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    5. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by a9db0 · · Score: 1

      Check out digikam or F-Spot. Both support access to EXIF data, both are free (GPL). Digikam is KDE oriented, and F-Spot is GNOME oriented. Both feature basic photo editing, while F-Spot's tagging and organizing may be a bit stronger. Both support a wide range of memory cards and cameras.

      --
      -- "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." - R.A.H.
    6. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by CableModemSniper · · Score: 1

      (a commercial version of GIMP, without the X11, haven't tried it yet)

      Are we trolling today? GIMPshop is neither commercial, nor does it remove the dependence on X11. What it is is a reworking of the GIMP's UI (the menus mostly) to make it more similiar to Photoshop.

      --
      Why not fork?
    7. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by jdbartlett · · Score: 1

      FSpot's looking promising, especially with its histogram. How detailed is the EXIF? My problem with iPhoto is it only displays basic EXIF data (date, camera). I'm looking for more advanced/detailed info like aperture, shutter speed, light sensitivity setting, etc. I'm looking for a tool I can use to track my progress w/digital photography - to be able to see why a shot worked is an important part of that.

    8. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by jabelson · · Score: 0
      Sure, GIMP has no layer effects (yet), but it's catching up very quickly considering how long it's been in development.

      Why would anyone settle for the software trying to catch up? I also read that Gimp sorely lacks in color managment (on Linux), and the USM is not great - is this true? if so, Gimp is for kids...

    9. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by b0bby · · Score: 1

      Depending on what you're doing with your images, you might also check out Imagemagick. It's command-line, and I use it in a script to generate html pages with resized images. It can extract exif data, and I've considered using it but haven't quite got around to it. Anyway, it's a cool program & makes batch resizing etc. of directories full of photos a piece of cake. Pretty much any image manipulation you'd want to do, it can do.

    10. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by fimbulvetr · · Score: 1

      FSpot's looking promising, especially with its histogram. How detailed is the EXIF? My problem with iPhoto is it only displays basic EXIF data (date, camera). I'm looking for more advanced/detailed info like aperture, shutter speed, light sensitivity setting, etc. I'm looking for a tool I can use to track my progress w/digital photography - to be able to see why a shot worked is an important part of that.

      This is a picture I took recently. I just went to view->metadata browser in f-spot and copied and pasted. It's not a toughguy camera, I know, but you'll see the program gets pretty verbose with the metadata.

      Manufacturer SONY
      Model DSC-P10
      Orientation top - left
      x-Resolution 72.00
      y-Resolution 72.00
      Resolution Unit Inch
      Date and Time 2006:04:13 19:08:24
      YCbCr Positioning co-sited
      Exposure Time 1/250 sec.
      FNumber f/2.8
      ExposureProgram Normal program
      ISO Speed Ratings 100
      Exif Version Exif Version 2.2
      Date and Time (original) 2006:04:13 19:08:24
      Date and Time (digitized) 2006:04:13 19:08:24
      ComponentsConfiguration Y Cb Cr -
      Compressed Bits per Pixel 4.00
      Exposure Bias 0.0
      MaxApertureValue 3.00
      Metering Mode Pattern
      Light Source 0
      Flash Flash did not fire.
      Focal Length 7.9 mm
      Maker Note 1504 bytes unknown data
      FlashPixVersion FlashPix Version 1.0
      Color Space sRGB
      PixelXDimension 2592
      PixelYDimension 1944
      File Source DSC
      Scene Type
      Custom Rendered Normal process
      Exposure Mode Auto exposure
      White Balance Auto white balance
      Scene Capture Type Standard

    11. Re:OS X vs. Linux (green grass vs. freedom) by jdbartlett · · Score: 1

      I've used imagemagick in a coldfusion (ack) administrator tool for uploading images to a client's website. It seemed pretty versatile, but I prefer working in a GUI when dealing with images especially. Thanks all the same!

  34. More than security updates? by vginders · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hope "Ubuntu Support" means more than only security updates, like we now have with Debian Stable.
    IMHO, Debian sometimes leaves certain packages broken for the sake of stability, which is not always a good thing.
    Support means more than security, functionality is also important.

    Of course I'm not speaking of newer versions of packages, but more of the full range of bugs that apply to a certain package. Dapper having 5 years support, I also expect more backports to become available.

    --

    Serge
    1. Re:More than security updates? by Respect_my_Authority · · Score: 1

      Nope. The free support covers only security updates -- and only for the "main" category, not for the "universe".

      For the paying corporate customers Ubuntu (or Canonical, actually) offers bugfixes and other technical support that ordinary users won't get. Don't forget that Ubuntu is a for-profit distro and so Canonical needs to be able to sell extra support if they want to make money.

      If ordinary users notice bugs and want them fixed, they can report them before the release -- after the release it's too late and if you don't pay any extra you only get security updates (and not even these for "universe").

  35. Another useless ubuntu comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Guys, is this serious? An article that Ubuntu is **going** to be released? Is this serious? As someone else said -- as much as I like Ubuntu, it's a little annoying seeing a /. article every time there's a cvs change in Ubuntu, or other useless information (like this one). Why not save it for release date?

    1. Re:Another useless ubuntu comment by rdoger6424 · · Score: 1

      People (myself included) thought it would be sometime in late june. Now that I see that it's June 1st, and that wireless support has been added, this changes everything

      --
      "Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
  36. Enterprise ? by DrSkwid · · Score: 1

    So it supports diskless terminals via PXE, centralized authentication and distributed computing out of the box ?

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    1. Re:Enterprise ? by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing no.

    2. Re:Enterprise ? by Daengbo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Can't comment about sentral auth or distributed, but just apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone and you'v got the PXE boot diskless terms.

    3. Re:Enterprise ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it supports negatively aligned anti-matter particles, and distributed warp super-streams.

  37. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by jZnat · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ubuntu may have put more effort into modifying GNOME, but most KDE users will tell you that the KDE developers put more work into make KDE more polished and usable than GNOME. Not to troll, but after using KDE for so long, going back and trying to use GNOME (e.g. via a LiveCD while demonstrating for a friend) is crippling. Also, for Windows users, there are themes, settings, and whatnot for KDE to feel just like Windows (except more stable, all the benefits of using Linux and a Unix environment over the Windows kernel and its degrading environment which tends to cancel anything good about the kernel). For example, the level of integration you may have come to expect from Explorer/IE with the desktop environment is reminiscent in Konqueror and the usage of KParts, but it's been done far more securely and sensibly.

    --
    'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
  38. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by Wudbaer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh come on. In almost EVERY article about something open source someone complains about the naming thing. Good and well, there are some pretty dumb, ugly oder unpronouncable names, but OTOH there are also loads of pretty crappy commercial names, too:

    - My life insurance is at Janitos (will they clean my house if I die ? Ok, I am in Germany, but still it sounds more like some room cleaning service like a large insurer.)

    - Oh look, that guy is driving a Toyota Aventis and I just bought that new great drug from Avensis, or was it the other way round ?

    - The great Borland/Inprise disaster.

    - Qimonda, oh yes ! The Hunchback of Notre Dame's wife ! No ? Oh, it's the recent Infineon spinoff, which uses to be Siemens (on of THE German brand names), like those other guys that also used to be Siemens and whose stupid new artificial name I forgot, even if my dad worked for them for 30 years before they became [stupid artificial name]. Something with e, I think.

    [To be continued ad nauseam]

    So stupid naming is no privilege of Open Source projects, and still those other guys earn shitloads of money.

  39. Growing pains by FishandChips · · Score: 1

    I am using Dapper Drake on my laptop and it is fine, but overall I think Ubuntu are trying to do too much too quickly. Their resources and manpower are still limited. For example I much prefer xfce to gnome on this machine, but the Ubuntu implementation has a couple of annoying bugs and isn't that well thought out in design terms. It needs a bit more polishing to be truly smooth and slick.

    I guess Ubuntu's best work is under the bonnet and unseen, in terms of excellent hardware detection and the smooth integration of kernel modules for wifi and similar things. Impressive, and easy to overlook.

    I still prefer Debian and SuSE, though. The things that put me off Ubuntu are the silly names and too much teenage carry-on in the user community, with the fanboys and the peer group stuff. I prefer something well away from all that, and the fanboys haven't helped by raising expectations that will be near impossible to fulfil and creating the feeling (strictly imho) that Ubuntu is somehow a little lightweight and not so serious.

    It's always good to see a new ship launched. I guess only time will determine how Ubuntu's hopes for the enterprise pan out. It's a rough, tough market out there.

    --
    Las qué passoun
    tournoun pas maï
    1. Re:Growing pains by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      XFCE isn't what Ubuntu is about, though. That's a side project that you have to enable by adding the unofficial universe repository. I fail to see how explicitly unsupported software not working perfectly is a downside of the distribution...

    2. Re:Growing pains by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      Ummm... XFCE/Xubuntu is only in the Universe repositories, and that is not really part of the official distribution, even though you can enable them. So I fail to see how it's a problem with ubuntu when explicitly unsupported software doesn't perform perfectly.
      And you know, energy around the distribution is why it works. It's not all "teenage carry-on". Remember, many computer visionaries started in their teens by being excited about something.

  40. What is the best whitebox laptop? by 8uzzed · · Score: 1

    For portability. To be used as a programming box perhaps 12-14 inch. To be installed with Dapper. Thoughts?

    1. Re:What is the best whitebox laptop? by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      I use an Averetech laptop. Flight 6 Live CD picked up everything I had on this laptop.

    2. Re:What is the best whitebox laptop? by Marc+D.M. · · Score: 1

      I've been using an Averatec AV4155-EH1 with Breezy since December 05. Almost always on wireless. Everything detected out-of-the-box.

      I had to tweak the xorg.conf file to get the touchpad just right, but that was ok. Mine has a 13" widescreen and an AMD Turion64 MT-30 processor (1.6Ghz 64bit).

      And cheap.$979.99 at amazon
      http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009PDMQU/103-13 03984-2125468?v=glance&n=541966

      ok, relatively cheap.

    3. Re:What is the best whitebox laptop? by WombatControl · · Score: 1

      My recommendation: MacBook.

      Add as much RAM as you can afford, (best purchased from someone other than Apple - their RAM prices tend to be exorbitant) and you have a very portable development system capable of running Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. I'm current developing with Dapper running via Parallels Desktop, and its very responsive despite being virtualized. The MacBooks are by far the best portable for the money at the moment, and the fact that you have an inexpensive virtualization system available makes them an even better buy.

  41. Are you serious? by Flying+pig · · Score: 1

    I find myself boring anybody who will listen with how well printing is supported in this release. What printers are you using? For HP devices I am using both direct print and printing to Windows spoolers, for unsupported devices I am printing both directly to generic postscript and to Windows shares. I am connecting without problems to Win 2000 and XP servers and workstations including VMWare instances. What exactly is the issue?

    --
    Pining for the fjords
    1. Re:Are you serious? by Achra · · Score: 1

      Wow... Well, I'm just trying to do a (very simple!) print from my Ubuntu machine to an HP Deskjet that is being shared by a Windows XP Pro machine. (Connected to windows box via parallel). It's not a firewall issue, it still exists with both personal firewalls disabled. I've tried just filling out the boxes the way they are labelled to be filled out - and I've also filled them in some of the alternative ways that I have read about on blogs.. like for username, you would use achra\WORKGROUP or whatever. I've wrestled with this thing and tried everything. Now, I just copy the file to a thumbdrive and sneakernet.

      --
      Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
    2. Re:Are you serious? by Poppler · · Score: 1

      I had the same problem starting when I moved my Breezy box to Dapper. According to the bug report, it's been fixed.
      Is your copy of Samba up to date?

      --
      What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
    3. Re:Are you serious? by Achra · · Score: 1

      Up to date as of a couple weeks ago. I haven't had physical access to the machine since then.. and I'm always a little scared to do an apt-get dist-upgrade via ssh.. Cuz who knows if it will come back up happy. It probably will... But I need that box running. How recently was it "fixed"?

      --
      Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
    4. Re:Are you serious? by arc.light · · Score: 1

      For the username, wouldn't "WORKGROUP\achra" be more appropriate?

    5. Re:Are you serious? by Poppler · · Score: 1

      Instead of a dist-upgrade, I would try upgrading Samba and maybe cups, that should fix it. I haven't looked in depth as to what the fix was specifically - I was given my own printer before the fix was made, so it wasn't a big deal to me anymore. I believe the fix was made about a week ago.

      --
      What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
  42. FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone by magwm · · Score: 1

    is there a painless migration utility or method to migrate our obsolete FC2 server s to this fine new release??

    1. Re:FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone by Alioth · · Score: 1

      No. You're going from an RPM based distro to a totally foreign DEB based distro - you'll need to install from scratch.

    2. Re:FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone by magwm · · Score: 1

      that sucks bigtime.. even if I use webmin to administer the system?

    3. Re:FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      yeah. tar /home
      rm -rf *
      Insert Dapper Live CD.
      Profit.

    4. Re:FC2 to DapperDrake migration anyone by magwm · · Score: 1

      yeah. now how would that take into account my website at /var/www/html/* and the php settings and the webmin settings etc etc.

      no thanks what is an enterprise ready system if it doesnt import the old system?

      grrr. bytheway my box is at www.gadis.it .

  43. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by Alioth · · Score: 1

    Ah, just like Microsoft Axapta doesn't sell, even though the name sounds like the sound made by a child's toy gun.

  44. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And here I thought that the name *came* from a suit ... and a pretty successfull one, too.

  45. Another compatibility rant/question... by nowhere.elysium · · Score: 1

    Just out of curiosity, have they sorted out the Ricoh SD card reader issue that they were having with Dell Inspiron 6000s? There was also a problem with the hard disk/optical drive arrangement, too: one of them's PATA and the other is SATA - I don't remember the details of it, but it was a bit of a pig to deal with, last time I used Ubuntu on this laptop; it worked, but it was a bit on the sluggish side, and it required a lot of kernel patching/alteration.
    Other than that, I am looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. The 3-year support is a good move, as well. Let's just hope that it doesn't mean that they grind down to debian's release cycle.

    --
    http://xkcd.com/313/
    1. Re:Another compatibility rant/question... by Coeurderoy · · Score: 1

      I have an USB Key with SD (and a couple of other formats) reader inside.
      It did cost me 29 but works everywhere and on about any OS.

      There are some stupid IP issues with SD cards that makes support non trivial.

    2. Re:Another compatibility rant/question... by nowhere.elysium · · Score: 1

      yeah, i can believe it. the only real reason that ubuntu had issues with the ricoh one was that ricoh decided to hold on to the specs for their reader for some time, and then release it a couple of months *after* breezy came out. buggered if i know why. there was a workaround, but it got pretty involved. i know that i couldn't be bothered with it.
      there were also issues with 3d acceleration with the radeon m300 card, but ati acceleration problems are nothin new in my experience of linux.

      --
      http://xkcd.com/313/
    3. Re:Another compatibility rant/question... by megabyte405 · · Score: 1

      Not sure the status of the card reader at the moment, but I did install Flight 5 (several months ago) on an Inspiron 6000, and I had no problems with the default install (actually pre-resized the partitions with gparted cd because I didn't realize how improved the installer was, but that was unnecessary)

      --
      I recognize people by their sigs. Is that a bad thing?
  46. Examples of failed product names by Flying+pig · · Score: 5, Interesting
    • Mercedes - giving a car a girl's name
    • Cadillac - doesn't sound like anything
    • MAAPICS - pictures of Mars?
    • Virgin - you have to be joking
    • Starbucks - first mate on a whaler?
    • Kodak - deliberately doesn't sound like anything
    Brand names acquire legitimacy through the associations that cluster around them, and not vice versa.
    If Ubuntu succeeds in the market, it will be because of positive associations that will eventually get Joe Public aware of the name. The psychologists in marketing research already know this. They know that you can even make a brand name out of a grimy, crime ridden northern English city (Manchester United), but if it is then taken over by a US entrepreneur and loses its core values it will quickly start to go down the toilet. The entrepreneur may not know that...in exactly the same way, the associations of Windows are starting to go negative. I am sure there are plenty of researchers in Microsoft who know that, but does the management want to listen? If they don't, in ten years time people will be saying "Windows - what a stupid name for something to do with computers. You might as well call it "plasterboard"."
    --
    Pining for the fjords
    1. Re:Examples of failed product names by tbuskey · · Score: 1

      * Mercedes - giving a car a girl's name

      One of the founder's names

              * Virgin - you have to be joking

      Richard Branson was 12? 14? when he foundede his company and a Virgin.

              * Kodak - deliberately doesn't sound like anything

      One of the Founder's last names.

      Compare these to contrived names like current drug, computer chip, etc names. At least there's some previous history for some of these names.

    2. Re:Examples of failed product names by ezHiker · · Score: 1

      Cadillac - doesn't sound like anything
      Cadillac was named for the French explorer who founded Detroit.

    3. Re:Examples of failed product names by Mikelikus · · Score: 1

      WRONG, WRONG, WRONG and, huh, WRONG! I really couldn't let this pass...

      Kodak - "Philologically, the word Kodak is as meaningless as a child's first 'goo'--terse, abrupt to the point of rudeness, literally bitten off by firm and unyielding consonants at both ends, it snaps like a camera shutter in your face. What more would one ask!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak

      Mercedes - The name of the daughter. A girl's name for a car, like the grandparent stated, and NOT one of the founders'.

      Virgin - Richard Branson started Virgin Records with 19. If he was, or not, a virgin, I don't know. But it would a bit strange for 19 year old with an associate (Nik Powell) would call his company Virgin because he was a virgin.

      Ubuntu - "Ubuntu is a sub-Saharan African ethic or ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(ideology)

      If you ask me it's a better thought out name Ubuntu when compared to Kodak, but Kodak is already a household name and Ubuntu is not. This was the point of the grandparent.

      --
      -- Would it be acceptable to just put my name on my sig?
    4. Re:Examples of failed product names by Cus · · Score: 1

      Courtesy of Wikipedia, but mentioned in quite a few other places:

      The name Virgin was chosen because a female friend involved in setting up the initial record label commented "We're all virgins at business".

    5. Re:Examples of failed product names by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 1

      i thought it was because it started out as a condom manufacturer.

      --
      (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
    6. Re:Examples of failed product names by wingman358 · · Score: 1

      Cadillac = Caddle lack, as in lacking horses (pulling a buggy). Kodak = Asked about the name "Kodak", George Eastman replied, "Philologically, the word Kodak is as meaningless as a child's first 'goo'--terse, abrupt to the point of rudeness, literally bitten off by firm and unyielding consonants at both ends, it snaps like a camera shutter in your face. What more would one ask!"

  47. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by giorgosts · · Score: 1

    now, lets see.. are they going to fix anytime soon tv-out in open source "ati" driver? the proprietary one supports it, though it often crashes esp. with opengl apps. Also with the latest drivers from ati, there is no extended desktop on the tv. I think that playing a movie fullscreen on the tv and doing sth, else on the desktop would be pretty standard by 2006, whilst its available on windoze from 2001!

  48. laptop hardware support. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I rolled my own debian stable on my laptop and I love it. Fast as hell (xfce), all the software I want and no bloat I don't. Everything I could want is in the debian repository.
    However, I never managed to get the wireless or the battery indicator to work. So I popped in an Ubuntu CD, and every single hardware doodad worked, with zero effort on my part. I've hardly used the debian partition since, despite the fact that ubuntu + firefox + openoffice = swapfile city.

    Maybe I could have got everything working in Debian. But it would never have been as fast or easy.

  49. Agree by robinjo · · Score: 1

    Why should I try a Linux distribution whose name sounds like a cow having bowel problems?

    That's how bad the name sounded. It took me months to even try the distribution. Now I love it.

    1. Re:Agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As everyone knows, Ubuntu is a Zulu word that means something
      like "humanity".

      Now if you want a dumb-sounding name, try SuSE...the common
      pronounciation for SuSE sounds just like the Zulu word for "fart".
      And yet still it sells in S/Africa...why, we were forced to
      run SuSE EL in our data center as it is "supported" by our
      vendor. (And I'm trying to figure out why "vendor support"
      isn't a liability...)

  50. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by tvon · · Score: 1

    WTF is "interesting" about parents post? It's just a "kubuntu is not as refined as ubuntu" comment with nothing constructive, just a jab at kubuntu developers.

  51. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by Knuckles · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Well, go complain to ATi then.

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  52. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by amontiel · · Score: 1

    And please don't forget the very insightful names for german toilet paper, such as Danke and Servus. And of course, the "Ja" line of food products. Servus.

  53. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by tvon · · Score: 0, Troll

    Ubuntu may have put more effort into modifying GNOME, but most KDE users will tell you that the KDE developers put more work into make KDE more polished and usable than GNOME.


    In other news, most GNOME users will tell you that GNOME developers put more work into making GNOME more polished and usable than KDE.


    Not to troll, but after using KDE for so long, going back and trying to use GNOME (e.g. via a LiveCD while demonstrating for a friend) is crippling.


    And after using GNOME for 4 years, trying to spend a week configuring KDE to function in a sane manner is really not worth the effort.

    Or, maybe it's just that the desktops are different and if you really like one you are most likely not going to enjoy using the other for a short period of time?

  54. Fire up the crackpipes by linzeal · · Score: 1
    1. Re:Fire up the crackpipes by thephotoman · · Score: 1

      Ah, but Edgy isn't for the suits. It's for the sandal-wearing geeks who want to play. Dapper is the one for the suits. And honestly, I could use it for three years, even if Gnome 2.14 will suck in six months' time.

      --
      Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
    2. Re:Fire up the crackpipes by 10Ghz · · Score: 1

      Um, that's not a slogan. It's a short (very short) description of the version. With Eft, they are going to try out new things and technologies. The "suits" are NOT going to see nor care about some short comment regarding an unreleased beta-version of Ubuntu. What they ARE going to see is "Ubuntu Linux 6.06 LTS". Hell, it even has that all-important TLA in it!

      If you are looking for the "slogan" of Ubuntu Linux, I would guess it's "Linux for Human Beings".

      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  55. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by Knuckles · · Score: 1

    In Südtirol: "Si, naturalmente"

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  56. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by texroot · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do I think that corporate types would ever pick such a name? wii

  57. Ubuntu v Xandros by HangingChad · · Score: 1

    Anyone tried both Ubuntu and Xandros? I'd be curious as to how they compare. I've had very few problems with Xandros. It would be nice if the media support on the paid copies was a little better, other than that no complaints.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:Ubuntu v Xandros by Achra · · Score: 1

      I've tried Xandros a few times.. I was never able to get it to install on any hardware that I've owned. Enough said.

      --
      Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
  58. linux and windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why in the hell every time a linux related post, some moron has to include windows in their comment? wtf? who cares about your dual boot with windows!

    1. Re:linux and windows by TorAvalon · · Score: 1

      why in the hell every time a Windows related post, some moron has to include Linux in their comment? wtf? who cares about your dual boot with linsux! pay more attention.

  59. Simple, money. by bogie · · Score: 1

    While it's great and all that a bunch of money was dumped into Ubuntu to get it started long term they need a business plan. The way to do that is to sell support. Supporting Linux Desktop users will never be a viable support model. But on the other hand Enterprises tend to like to buy support contracts. If you don't have a stable OS that has support for years then you certainly are not going to attract businesses.

    "I thought the whole point of ubuntu was to get a fairly package-stable version of debian that was up-to-date so funky new desktop apps would have a nice home to live in."

    That was never the point of Ubuntu. The point of it like everything else was to eventually make money. Anyone who tells you otherwise has blinders on.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    1. Re:Simple, money. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, so *that's* why I started smoking.
      And why Hughes built that huge mansion (or was it the other guy?)
      And why we sent those metal cans to Mars.
      And...

    2. Re:Simple, money. by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      canonical is a private company, in other words they exist to do whatever thier owner wants, that may be to make a profit but thier owner is already pretty damn wealthy..........

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  60. How depressing by cyber-vandal · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have used Linux on and off since 1998 and Kubuntu Breezy was the biggest aggravation since Redhat 5.2. The network didn't work properly and the GUI config tool was useless I had to fuck around a lot to convince it to use the right network card (I've got ethernet and wireless, wanted to use ethernet, it decided to connect to my neighbour's WLAN instead). That sort of annoyance hasn't happened to me since Redhat 6.0, ethernet has just worked automatically without any user intervention, which is the whole bloody point of DHCP. I picked the ethernet card at installation too, Breezy just didn't believe that I wanted that and changed it for me. If I'd have wanted Win98-style crap decisions I would have installed Win98.

    1. Re:How depressing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose you wanted to use the ethernet card as your internet getaway.
      It is as simple as
      #route add default gw 192.168.1.1
      where 192.168.1.1 is your router...
      Of course I am getting your point, that shouldn't be necessary in an enterprise and desktop oriented distro like Ubuntu.

    2. Re:How depressing by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Dear Mr Moderator,

      This is not a troll but a genuine experience that I have had. I like Linux, I think the freedom it gives is wonderful, however something as basic as DHCP should be automatic no matter what OS you use. Thank you for your time.

      Your respectfully

      cyber-vandal

    3. Re:How depressing by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      You're right it didn't take me that long to figure out given my Linux experience, however it should not have been necessary. Tuning an OS for wtfpwnedn00bpvp in an MMORPG should be a bit hard, making it get an IP address from a router shouldn't.

    4. Re:How depressing by rduke15 · · Score: 1
    5. Re:How depressing by ElleyKitten · · Score: 1

      I've used Ubuntu as my main OS for about a year and haven't had any problems, but I've had wierd problems with Kubuntu. When I installed it on my secondary computer, I couldn't get ethernet or sound working, even though they had worked just fine under Ubuntu, and when I installed it on my friend's machine, sudo broke. I've heard of other wierd problems people have had with Kubuntu, like printer support being completely broken, that I've never heard of with Ubuntu. I'm not sure what the hell the Kubuntu team is doing, but either try Ubuntu, or, if you really like KDE, go with Mepis.

      --
      "What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
    6. Re:How depressing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is not a troll but a genuine experience that I have had

      Sure, but you are using Kubuntu. Your fault. If you had been using Ubuntu instead, you would not have experienced some of these problems.

      What's the point in whining about Kubuntu in an article about Ubuntu? You complain about GUI tools that are designed for the inferior KDE environment instead of the much more rich and stable GNOME environment. Your fault. Also, comparisons with obsolete versions of Windows do not help. You sir are just a troll and deserve to be moderated as such.

    7. Re:How depressing by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Yes I'm using Kubuntu. Are the two so fundamentally different that basic things work on one but not the other? Having the wrong hardware/drivers chosen automatically for the user was a very Microsoftian behaviour around that time hence the reference.

  61. how long will universe get security security for? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

    traditionally ubuntu gave security support to main for 18 months but universe for only 6. Whats the plan this time arround?

    --
    note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  62. Re:Enterprise? not again! by petermgreen · · Score: 1

    the real questions are

    1: can ubuntu really manage 5 years of secuirty support
    2: is the 5 years of security support just for main (leaving you backporting yourself for anything you use from universe)?

    --
    note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  63. Re:how long will universe get security security fo by crimsun · · Score: 3, Informative

    Universe and multiverse receive no official core-dev support by default; they're community supported. A few of us have spent time with -updates and -security for universe, but we could use assistance.

  64. Same problems here by mgkimsal2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Mine's a compaq v5000 laptop - same problems. This is why Apple is winning the hearts and minds of people looking for unixy hardware - the stuff just works.

    The biggest hurdle linux will face in the next couple years (and is facing now) is laptop support. You *can't* just go swap out your network or video card for one that is 'linux compatible', and trying to look for 'linux compatible' hardware when you're buying requires more effort than most people can go through. Sites http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ are a nice idea, but hopelessly out of date. Probably a full 95% of the hardware listed on that site is not available in retails stores, relegating you to ebay and other used hardware sources.

    What mandriva, ubuntu, redhat and others need to do is put a bit of money in to testing/verifying their software, setup and detection systems with new hardware. Given the potentially high adoption rate of RHEL (for example) if people could get basic stuff like wireless working easily, it would be cost-justified for Redhat to send people to best buy and pick up 1-2 laptops a month and test/fix/patch their stuff to work with the latest hardware, then contribute that back. Or ubuntu - they're touted as having money to 'invest' in linux.

    Making sure ubuntu works with a 4 year old abandoned network card isn't going to get as many people to switch/adopt a distro as making sure it'll run on current hardware.

    1. Re:Same problems here by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      damn I bought a compaq v4,000 2 weeks ago and I have been thinking of linux on it. I think you mean the 4k since I was not aware the 5k existed?

      But the wifi thing I was curious about since Intels are not supported immediately but the other laptops had broadcom wifis that had numerious problems with broadcom telling its customers to just use NDIS. I guess now they feel they can save development costs by not supporting it. Uh, no thanks.

      I think the wifi problem will be addressed since Intel always gives out drivers. Just late.

    2. Re:Same problems here by mgkimsal2 · · Score: 1

      I've got a v5120, if that helps.

  65. Kickstart ? by drsmithy · · Score: 1

    I must admit I haven't put the slightest bit of research into this, as I'm too busy, but what is Ubuntu's answer to Kickstart ?

    1. Re:Kickstart ? by Plug · · Score: 1

      You can use Kickstart on Ubuntu, or you can use Ubuntu's automatic installation (preseeding debian-installer), which is much more powerful, and lets you configure pretty much anything you want at install time.

    2. Re:Kickstart ? by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      You can use Kickstart on Ubuntu, or you can use Ubuntu's automatic installation (preseeding debian-installer), which is much more powerful, and lets you configure pretty much anything you want at install time.

      Thanks, looks like they're on the way to something decent.

      The apparent lack of LVM and RAID capability, however, would make it a non-starter for us. I hope they keep improving it rapidly.

  66. Longer support times! by Istrancis · · Score: 1

    Glad to hear they'll be supporting Dapper for twice as long as they are Breezy, it makes people less worried about getting the latest version ASAP, and less likely to spend time waiting for the new version.

  67. (C) 2005 Canonical Ltd. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    (C) 2005 Canonical Ltd. Ubuntu and Canonical are registered trademarks of Canonical Ltd.
    Hopefully they do not repeat the RedHat's mistake of abandoning their "community edition" when they become financially successful.

    Ununtu's OK but I think I'll stick with tried and true Debian.
    1. Re:(C) 2005 Canonical Ltd. by cerebraldebris · · Score: 1

      "Ununtu's OK but I think I'll stick with tried and true Debian." My sentiments exactly. I wish them success, but just Debian for me, thanks. I've always felt too inhibited with other distros. Especially the kitchen sink approach that so many of them seem to take. Ah well. To each his own. The simplicity and freedom of just regular ol' Debian has me hooked.

  68. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by oddfox · · Score: 1

    I'm extremely curious how the parent poster got modded as Flamebait when the point is perfectly valid. Don't like how your ATI card doesn't support the features in Linux it does in Windows? Complain to ATI for not devoting sufficient resources to the driver. Same goes with any other device and driver.

    I guess some people just don't like to accept the fact that the reason their hardware ends up sucking in certain situations is because they bought their hardware from a manufacturer that doesn't care enough to support it on the platform they're trying to use. Can't just be silently bitter (Or at least bitter at the responsible parties) about wasting money on the card, gotta go and sling mud as well, I guess.

    --
    "We invented personal computing." - Bill Gates
  69. Workaround by alphasubzero949 · · Score: 1

    I clean installed two PCs (some friend's custom PC and a Dell Inspiron 4100) with the RC. Both have Linksys WPC54GS wireless cards which have flawlessly worked with ndiswrapper. It seems that in the RC wlan0 is no longer a recognized interface, even if you blacklist the bcm43xx driver. My workaround was to edit the ndiswrapper alias after modprobing it by changing the 'wlan0' to 'eth1' (at least that was the interface for both, YMMV). If you don't plan on using NetworkManager, the traditional way (iwconfig, System->Administration->Networking or editing /etc/network/interfaces) will not work. Once I installed the nm-applet I was online in literally a few clicks. I took the laptop around to other wireless hot spots and got online with ease. That said, NetworkManager is a godsend for laptop users. No more dirty editing. Can't say the same for my PowerBook G4 and its Airport Extreme. =(

  70. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wii

  71. Total Package by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ubuntu is a great package for desktops, for normal users to get the most out of their hardware and the jobs they do with their computers. I'd love to see an upgrade system that downloaded the new version from the Net, pulled user data (including OS and app configs, installed app lists, email, other Personal Info) from the old install, and burned it all to an archive/installer CD-ROM. All started by a single click, and an up-front set of questions, with the rest 100% automated. Reinstalling to the same HW ought to make installer deductions faster and more correct, and so deterministic that users can reinstall from source whenever they want, for the best fit, and least sweat.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  72. the real question is by petermgreen · · Score: 1

    will they IPO

    as a private company they can do what they wan't without shareholders breathing down thier necks but if and when they sell out to the market...............

    --
    note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  73. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by Knuckles · · Score: 1

    I'm extremely curious how the parent poster got modded as Flamebait

    Me too :)

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  74. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by ixmo · · Score: 1

    > Qimonda, oh yes! [...] like those other guys that also used to be
    > Siemens and whose stupid new artificial name I forgot, even if my dad
    > worked for them for 30 years before they became [stupid artificial
    > name]. Something with e, I think.

    BenQ?

    Btw: In the good old Sinix days, SIEMENS was the acronym for "SIe Erhalten Monatlich Ein Neues System" :-)

  75. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by RedBear · · Score: 1

    Oh come on. In almost EVERY article about something open source someone complains about the naming thing. Good and well, there are some pretty dumb, ugly oder unpronouncable names, but OTOH there are also loads of pretty crappy commercial names, too:

    I fail to see what is insightful about this oft-repeated idiocy, mods. By attacking the silly names of some commercial products you do nothing to disprove the fact that many open source products have silly names. Furthermore you completely ignore the fact that the commercial world is completely different from the world of open source software. In the commercial world you have a little something called marketing. Marketing can take the most ridiculous name you can think of and make it a household name. An example that is always brought up by people like you is "Excel". It may be a silly name that doesn't tell us much, but everyone knows what it refers to because Microsoft was able to make Office a de facto standard for office productivity software.

    Open source software, on the other hand, must rely completely on intrinsic quality and word of mouth to spread. Projects like Firefox have marketing behind them to help overcome the fact that most people don't know what Firefox is. Other projects have nothing behind them, and so when they give themselves silly names they merely hurt their ability to spread and be discovered by new people, outside a limited circle of geeks who are somehow able to discover what things like "gkrellm" are supposed to do. There are a great many very good open source projects that could really benefit from improved names if they want to appeal to the general public.

    Referring to the fact that many commercial products have similarly unhelpful names doesn't change this fact, especially when the commercial products you're referring to are mostly from completely different fields where naming often plays little part in the success of the product. I believe they call this a straw man argument, BTW.

  76. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by Wudbaer · · Score: 1

    Nono, not THAT stupid name ! I looked it up in the meantime as it kept bothering me: Epcos (used to be Unternehmensbereich Bauelemente (electronic components division, not semiconductors, those became Infineon) ! (another blatantly stupid artificial name, maybe the board flew to Disneyland before coming up with the name).

    Regarding Siemens appliances: "Do you want something nice or can it be from Siemens ?" ;-)

  77. Server is fine for a Linux VM in Linux by Nurgled · · Score: 1

    I think for the purposes of running a 32-bit Linux distribution you'd do fine with server, since then you can just pretend it's another machine and connect running apps to the 64-bit X server for seamless, network-transparent desktop goodness. For running Windows, Workstation is probably less frustrating.

    Of course, a VM just for running 32-bit apps is probably overkill. A chroot environment with the 32-bit version of Ubuntu in it should do the trick, since AMD64 Ubuntu is perfectly capable of running 32-bit processes, it just doesn't have the 32-bit libraries there for them to load. Using a chroot environment does have some annoying consequences, but it has to be less annoying than simulating an entirely separate machine.

  78. No need for ndiswrapper with bcm43xx by Sits · · Score: 1

    If you cut the firmware out of your Windows drivers you should be able to get the native linux driver working doing away with ndiswrapper. See the Wiki page on BCM43xx on dapper for details

    (The firmware can't be shipped with the distro due to license issues)

  79. LVM and RAID by Sits · · Score: 1

    I used an Ubuntu Dapper Flight text install CD to fix up broken FC5test software RAID partitioning (the bug was fixed in the FC5 final anaconda). Ubuntu definitely understands LVM and Linux software RAID and be made to create and mount such partitions (the LVM scripts are definitely there). I don't know what the GUI software support is like after the install though.

    1. Re:LVM and RAID by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      I'm sure Ubuntu itself does - in fact, I know it does because I've manually installed it (the installer is massively overrated, IMHO) into an LVM configuration.

      I was commenting on the apparent lack of support in the automated installation processes for LVM and/or RAID configurations making it unusable for us.

  80. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by ixmo · · Score: 1

    I knew you meant Epcos (my soon-to-be-ex-father-in-law works for them... or worked?), but I couldn't resist the BenQ joke :-)

    SIEMENS: Sicher Ist Eines. Man Erhält Nur Schrott :-)

  81. Nobody cares what you think. by Ayanami+Rei · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Get a real job, cuntwhack.

    --
    THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
  82. Yeah, uh, no. by Ayanami+Rei · · Score: 1

    Seriously, ATI cards suck to support. I don't recommend them to anybody no matter what OS they use.
    Unless we're talking about like a R200-based platform (R8500, 9100, 9000Pro, 9200) which is pretty well understood and should be support by Windows HCL and Linux OSS drivers completely (incl. Xinerama/tv-out)

    Anything newer than that is a crapshoot.

    And you can tell ATI feels this way too. You know the FireMV line... their uber-stable flagship line of workstation multi-monitor visualization cards? All R200-based chips. They managed to shove 4 onto a board with a single passive heatsink and tons of texture memory. They leave the R300 and R400 cards for the Quadro line (w/certain features disabled) and the enthusiast boards (where crashes are expected anyway).

    --
    THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
  83. Also, server is for servers by PCM2 · · Score: 1

    Forgive me if none of this applies to Linux because my only experience running VMware products is on Windows. But on Windows, VMware Server runs as a service in the background, all the time. This means that you can log out of your current Windows session and your virtual machines will keep running. Workstation, on the other hand, mostly runs like any other user application. When you quit the program or log out of your session, the virtual machines all close down.

    Why would you want this? Well, quite frankly, if your main purpose for your computer is running user applications -- in other words, it's a workstation -- then it doesn't seem to make much sense to have VMware consuming a bunch of memory and occasional processor overhead when you're not using it for anything.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  84. Here is my list by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

    Colorful Chuckwalla
    Emotional Emu
    Funny Fox
    Goofy Giraffe
    Hoary Hedgehog
    Irate Iguana
    Jumping Jaguar
    Kinky Kangaroo
    Loony Loon
    Manic Moose
    Nervous Newt
    Oblivious Opossum
    Perky Penguin
    Quaking Quaker
    Rolling Rino
    Silly Snook
    Timid Tiger
    Unhappy Uromastyx
    Voracious Viper
    Wonky Wildebeest
    Okay I am stuck with X

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  85. Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name by Wudbaer · · Score: 1

    I'm afraid I have to disagree with my fellow bear, at least in that respect that you are mixing together two only partially related issues: The one of names and the one of marketing.

    You are completely right that commercial products have the big advantage of having often very expensive marketing campaigns on their side. Especially if they are used to sell potential customers re-branding or products with often stupid names. If you hear, read and see often enough that burpalooganda is the new and trendy chocolate bar the young urban professional just HAS to try, someday you just will give that stupid thing a try if only to see what all that bruhaha is about.

    Open source projects don't have this, at least most of the time. But that, at least IMO is the key point. Not the name of a product. What is in a product's name today ? A lot, if you believe the marketeers, more or less nothing, if you believe potential customers. This gets even worse in non-English speaking countries. I read about several studies done by respected research institutes that clearly showed that more than half of German customers do not even understand slogans, even if they are for very intensively propaged products with often extremely prominent names coming from national mega-brands. It has become more and more fashionable in Germany to use English slogans or even English names for outlets; the respective companies spend literally millions and millions in marketing, but people are neither able to tell you what the slogan is nor what it means nor what the product's correct name is, BUT THEY KNOW THE BLOODY PRODUCT and buy it because it seems desirable. THAT is marketing, and that is what open source does not have.

    But the names themselves are only smoke and mirrors. Gimp, Linux, whatever, wouldn't be more popular if they were named Super Draw XL 2007 and Power Operating System/1 as long as they are not marketed properly. Maybe 20 years back people would have laughted at many Open Source product names, today everything has a funny/stupid/totally non-descript and synthetical name.

    If it is just in the names, neither Apple nor Microsoft ever would have become household names, coming from their very humble roots as small startups with products that only mattered to a small group of enthusiasts, most of them with odd names.

    Marketing is the key. Have a great marketing campaign (and a product people think they need, see tamagochi, both stupid name and stupid product but big commercial success) and noone bothers about the stupid names you came up with, at least not in any financially meaningful way. Have the greatest product of all times with a nice and meaningful name, and without marketing it will founder. (and no, I am neither a marketer nor I am related, married or otherwise affiliated with one).

  86. Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu by giorgosts · · Score: 1

    Ati has some serious bugs with their linux drivers, at least for my hardware configuration (9600 (agp8x) on Intel 845 (agp4x)). DRI freezes X. have to reset. I know this cause i've tried suse 10.1, kororaa, kubuntu5.10 and ditto 6.06, with all available configurations. OSS driver doesnt freeze, but no DRI, no tv. Ive installed kubuntu with fglrx, xinerama overscans monitor and i cant see. no way to change resolution. In suse 10.1, xinerama works just fine. A similar bug in xinerama existed also in kubuntu5.10(there was no way to move to second display). So, what would take to a man to watch movies in his tv? buy a new computer? switch to windows? switch to suse?