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Ubuntu Feisty Fawn - Desktop Linux Matured
Provataki writes "It seems that Linux on the desktop is getting there, with Ubuntu. Eugenia of OSNews fame wrote a glorifying preview about Ubuntu's next version, dubbed Feisty Fawn. The review talks up the new features, like the restricted drivers/codecs management, easier package management, and good laptop support. The review also lists some of the distro's flaws in the current beta. A good read for those who are curious about what's next for Linux on the desktop. The piece concludes: ' Ubuntu is a distro that obviously has paid attention to detail ... and has found a good middle ground between hard core Linux users and new users from the Windows/OSX land.'"
Ubuntu is still its own OS (as are the other distros): See Ian Murdoch essay.
As such, no platform exists for PC software vendors to target.
Case in point, the 3dfx xorg driver. Worked fine in Dapper. Broken in Edgy. A two line patch to add the proper prototype for a function fixes the problem in Edgy. Bug report is closed because it's been fixed in Feisty.
Or how about the USB hot plug stuff missing a bunch of digital camera IDs? Pretty well documented, but nope. Not fixed in Edgy. As a result, using a digital camera with Ubuntu requires lots of digging.
The revolution will be mocked
It's the best packaged product for average user.
Perhaps the thing you are missing is that some of us thinks that OS X is a) horrible to use b) costly c) closed? Until those three issues are resolved, I don't see OS X on any of my desktops. Ask, and I shall explain any of those 3 grievances, and why e.g. KDE+linux (and who knows, maybe Beryl some day) does not have that flaw.
/me waits for the hordes of the OS X lovers to mod me down to oblivion :)
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
My XP used to boot up fast too when I first installed it. These days it can take as long as five minutes to boot and display the desktop icons.
Come to think of it I guess I haven't re-installed it in about six months now so it's about time to do that.
evil is as evil does
I don't choose an OS because it boots faster then another one and I think both boot almost as fast.
:(
I'm using Ubuntu Edgy on a Laptop and a Desktop. I don't think it loads as fast as XP but again, I don't really care about how fast it boots when its only a couple of extra seconds.
For the record I would guess my boot speeds to be as so..
Desktop:
Ubuntu Edgy - 35 Seconds - To the desktop and ready to launch.
Windows XP - 25 Seconds - To show the desktop
- extra 5 seconds - To be ready to load apps
I should also note I use Ubuntu more so it could just be that its loading more stuff up to begin with compared to my windows xp partition. I tried to install Vista but it said I didn't have enough space (needs more then 10 gig).
The year of Linux arrives the year Adobe ports their software to Linux.
Linux is already more usable and easy to use and install than windows. The
problem is that windows is good enough for most people, and it have the advantage
of having a lot of applications the people already know how to use.
To make any dent in the Windows dominance it doesn't only need to be better than
Vista, it need to be significantly better.
God is REAL! Unless explicitly declared INTEGER
Since the default install is one big root partition, your problem was one of your own making. Hard to blame that on Ubuntu. I have sold several Ubuntu systems that have been rock stable, with no problems. If you buy the right hardware, and don't get fancy with the configuration, it is rock solid. If you compile your graphics drivers, you just might have graphics problems. A long time ago, this used to be called common sense. I guess really-fucking-rare sense just doesn't roll off the tung.
"By manually entering the vertical and horizontal sync in the xorg.conf file it fixed the problem for my 1440x900 screen and I was able to load the LiveCD and finally install Feisty on the hard drive."
If Windows is too hard for people (and it is), what on Earth makes you think mortals will be able to do that? That's not a mature product designed for end users, despite how (otherwise) nice Ubuntu is.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I've been running the Herd releases for Feisty. And I just can't say enough good things about it.
Wireless just works. Automatically. No dicking around with swapping config files if I switch between an open AP and a WEP/WPA-locked AP.
Beryl. With the underlying AIGLX support, Beryl installed and just worked right out of the box on my laptop. SWEET!
Ubuntu has drastically reduced the hassle of just getting a Linux system into a usable, functional configuration. If they keep going, they're going to be a credible replacement for Windows, even for mega-luddites.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
To make any dent in the Windows dominance it doesn't only need to be better than Vista, it need to be significantly better.
It's not just being better, it's making the move more painless. Face it, even if your application is better, if there's a learning curve to do simple things, people won't switch. If your life revolves around ACT!, you'll be using the OS that supports ACT! (or more pointedly, the OS that ACT! supports).
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Most people don't learn to operate computers and software from a conceptual and fluid point of view that allows them to adapt easily. Then learn it by rote, step-by-step in a sequence of operations. They may not understand why they perform those operations. They just know if they follow the steps they've been taught, they'll get the result they want/expect.
Some people see life as an adventure of learning, but they're a minority. Having to learn new programs (via learning new steps) scares people. It makes them unhappy. And if they've been doing a set of steps for a few years, those steps have become habitual. So you not only have to teach them the new steps, you have to break them of the old ones. Breaking habits is unhappy work.
Furthermore, if you read TFA, look at the various driver problems she had. If the hardware and software don't play nicely "out of the box", the deal is off for most people. And you can angrily tell them to buy different hardware, but Joe Shmoe is going to buy what looks neat to him. If Linux won't run on it, Windows probably will, and since he knows Windows already, it's just the path of least resistance.
Being "better" is immaterial. Either sticking with Windows has to get so painful that people exceed their tolerance level and will switch to anything that promises (and delivers) less pain, or Linux has to make it SO easy and painless to switch over, that people will do it just to save a few bucks.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
How carefully did you meassure the boot times? If you just meassured each case once, the difference could be for a lot of other reasons. If you want to be sure, do the following. Flip a coin to decide whether you are going to plug the power or run from battery, then boot the machine. Repeat this ten (or more) times, meassuring the boot time each time.
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
The difference between the Linux bloat, and the Vista bloat, is that I can (and do) still use fluxbox as my wm if that's what I prefer.
Please define 'power' and how OS X falls short.
PS I wouldn't call OS X the 'ultimate' OS either, but you seem to be dismissing a hand-waving argument with another one about power-users.
Your comment about "Joe User" is accurate ... but premature.
The group that will initially drive Linux adoption (whether *buntu or other) will be governments and businesses.
The majority (99.9%+) of workers in those two categories will not be focused on the latest hardware and toys. They use wired connections, 2D graphics and save their data onto a central server. Their users do not maintain nor upgrade their boxes. They have experts who do that for them. And being Debian-based, *buntu is very easy to upgrade/maintain.
The only features missing for those categories are email / calendaring / scheduling (similar to Outlook/Exchange, GroupWise or Lotus Notes) and directory services (similar to Active Directory or eDirectory). The directory services may be here soon from Red Hat's Directory Server http://www.redhat.com/software/rha/directory. But the email segment is taking a bit longer. Eventually that will be here also.
At which point, non-US governments will be heavily pushing to get off the Microsoft upgrade treadmill. Particularly since they'll be able to invest in their LOCAL developers to polish Linux for their specific needs.
As the government / business workers gain familiarity with Linux at work, they'll be more comfortable using Linux at home. But the home market will be the LAST market that Linux will crack. And it will take YEARS (literally).
If you want to bring the home market around quicker, you need to focus on bringing WINE up to speed for their applications (and the home users have a LOT of different apps, each with slightly different requirements and almost NONE of them written in an easily portable fashion). Or you can work on near identical apps for them (which addresses your point about them "learning" by rote).
... the Average User ("AU") will start adopting it. This really should be the goal of Linux now that it is well into its teens. Time to stop being a geek-only, tinkerer OS and streamline the process. Now, admittedly, this is a beta... but I have dealt with these problems in all kinds of final Linux distros over the years. With that in mind, I am not so inspired by this review. Consider the following from the article:
By manually entering the vertical and horizontal sync in the xorg.conf file it fixed the problem for my 1440x900 screen and I was able to load the LiveCD and finally install Feisty on the hard drive.Fortunately, I have not had to do this since about Slackware 8 or 9 (and that was on an old 486 Dell). Even then, it was NOT fun. You will not get a mom to edit xorg.conf. You will not get your typical manager/supervisor to edit xorg.conf. You will get them, however, to call the MCSE tech to fix a driver issue in Windows or a problem with Exchange.
...the bootloader should be installed it could use some friendlier "names" rather than just (hd0,0)...The AU doesn't know hd0,0 from eth1 from lpt. Why even have these as default names if you want the AU to know what it is? It is intimidating for an AU to decipher tech names for hardware. They just want to see "Wireless" and know that is what they configure to hook up at the local coffee shop.
I would personally go with AIXGL and Beryl instead of the slower-evolving Compiz (after re-writing Beryl's pref panels of course to be more humane/sane)What is a resistance to a consistent interface and making things look at least somewhat like Windows by default in the Linux community? It always seemed to me that consistency and a default Windows look and feel would encourage AU adoption. Looking at the desktop of a Linux distro for the first time is like getting into a car with the break/accelerator pedals reversed and the radio and other interior controls located on the door. Let's get some consistency and start it up looking like Windows so the AU can find everything. Then let them move everything around!
I manually installed libdvdcss Yeesh! Never happen with an AU... and an AU would never adopt an OS they couldn't just watch a DVD (or rip an MP3 or whatever) from first boot. I had to blacklist the BCM43xx driver before I could successfully install ndiswrapper and finally get WiFi support. Again, see "manual installation" issue above. There were very few the times that I had to pop to the terminal to carry out an important action.This should be a "never" for AU adoption. Geeks want to run everything from the terminal, moms, wives and bosses do not.
I am 33 years old and I just don't have the same energy as I used to to deal with stupid issues that they should not be there, or with removal or non-development of conveniences for no good reason.Isn't this what ALL computer users want!?!
I am 35 and I write this on a T23 with Ubuntu Edgy Eft installed. Five or six years ago I would have spent hours getting Linux installed on a machine b/c I liked the challenge. Now, I have enough to do without fighting over all the stuff mentioned in this article (and hey for Edgy Eft on the T23, wireless was the only real difficult thing)! AUs of all ages are the same way with maybe the younger ones have slightly more intestinal fortitude to configure Linux under the hood.
My hope is that they clean this up in beta and Feisty installs as (more or less) easily as Edgy did for me, but this is not an article that inspires me to believe the Feisty is a transformative release for purposes of Average User adoption.
Since when was any Linux distro easy to use? I have to recompile my kernel to get my TV card to work, and even then it's sketchy. The year of Linux will be when all hardware manufacturers release SOURCE for their drivers - AverTV released binary drivers, but they're no use to me. The card is an AverTV Hybrid PCI DVB card if anyone knows how to get it working, by the way.
"Anonymous could not immediately be reached for further comment." - International Business Times
Matt Edd's issues are real. Windows is PRE-INSTALLED. That's why it doesn't have them. That's also why Microsoft fights like Godzilla to keep any other OS from being pre-installed. If people had to do their own installs of Windows (any version), the whole world would already be using Ubuntu, even with the well-documented problems for new users (manual edits of some config files and the like).
There's no point carping that such and such is "not a *nix problem" or "is a closed-source driver problem." Only we care. Lots of people out there want it to just work. Where we should be directing our energies is getting anti-monopoly laws applied to OEMs who won't provide specs so that drivers can be written, and to companies who kill people when they pre-install anyone else's OS.
You are right but I'd just like to add that the reason codecs aren't distributed can differ wildly. Most of the time it has to do with patent law (it might not be legal to distribute implementations of an algorithm), or the licenses of said codecs (not an issue for mp3 in linux, but maybe others) that don't allow redistribution. It has little or nothing to do with the GPL.
I would personally go with AIXGL and Beryl instead of the slower-evolving Compiz (after re-writing Beryl's pref panels of course to be more humane/sane).
Compiz/Beryl/AIXGL all really serve no purpose other than slow your system down to a crawl, introduce instability, and waste your time. I played around with them and see no benefit other than the "Whee, look at the cube!" which is boring as hell in about 5 seconds. So, can anyone actually tell me what's the point?
/me waits for the hordes of the OS X lovers to mod me down to oblivion :)
You must be new here. Bashing anything always gets modded up. It's positive comments that get buried.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
But why would I want to wait for DHCP and NTP do do their thing during bootup on my desktop/laptop. DHCP can run in the background, and time can synchronize any time, no need for it to be at bootup. Sure that makes perfect sense on a server which you won't be rebooting very often (hopefully!). But bootup time is a much bigger consideration on the desktop.