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."

Comments

You can't see that anywhere else

[kanzels]

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.

With all due respect, how is this news?

[gsasha]

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!

Re:With all due respect, how is this news?

[babbling]

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.

What problems, specifically?

[khasim]

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.

Re:Reasons to use over debian stable/testing mix?

[Deusy]

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.

Re:when can I get it?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

More than security updates?

[vginders]

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.

Re:Damn fine, pity about Kubuntu

[jZnat]

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.

Re:For widespread acceptance, change the name

[Wudbaer]

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.