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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."
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.
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.
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.
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?
"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.
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!
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.
- 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
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.
:) However, it's certainly the best of out the box one.
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.
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
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.
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.
creation science book
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.
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make install -not war