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Ubuntu Hardy Heron Announced

Jono Bacon, Community Manager for Ubuntu, has announced development on the next version of the popular Linux distribution name "Hardy Heron". "Not only will the Ubuntu community continue to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use, reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. We look forward to releasing the Hardy Heron in April 2008."

511 comments

  1. I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by The+Orange+Mage · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...because I would have loved to see a Hungry Hippo release.

    1. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 1

      I guess you haven't heard...

    2. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by JimMarch(equalccw) · · Score: 1

      Meh. We'll still call it that :). But what's next? Ignoble Iguana?

    3. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Kenshin · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's reserved for the next version of Windows.

      --

      Does it make you happy you're so strange?

    4. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by ArcherB · · Score: 4, Funny

      Meh. We'll still call it that :). But what's next? Ignoble Iguana?

      Bleeding Beaver, Timid TubeSnake, Leaping Lemming...

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    5. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by MonorailCat · · Score: 1

      I wish the next one were 'Gnarly Goat', that strikes me as very funny for some reason

    6. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by paeanblack · · Score: 5, Funny

      As opposed to a Spoonerism of Hairy Hard-on?

    7. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by balster+neb · · Score: 1

      If I had any say, it would be called the Indignant Ichthyosaur.

      Or maybe the Ignominious Ibis.

    8. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Khaed · · Score: 3, Funny

      No way, the L release should be Llama. Lovable Llama.

      Picture it: A Llama in a leisure suit.

    9. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guess it will be a while before Portly Penguin, or whatever P* they chose for it, surely when they get to the Ps will have to be P* Penguin, guess we will call it PP for short. Of course they could name it after some of the posters here; Pontificating Penguin, Pernicious Penguin, Pompous Penguin, Paranoid Penguin (tin hat or security version?), Polical Penguin, Pariah Penguin, Pefect Penguin, Psycho Penguin, Psychoanalytical Penquin, Porky Penguin, Paranthetical Penguin, Posting Penguin, Pimped Penguin, Pwn3d Penguin (who would download it?), Pirate Penguin, Pompadoured Penguin, Parenting Penguin, Precious Penguin, Precocious Penguin, Phrantic Penquin, Pyro Penguin, Peeking Penquin, Passionate Penguin, Pushy Penguin, Pissed Penguin ( two versions, Aussie/Brit and US ), Pickled Penguin, Polite Penguin, Porched Penguin, Pokey Penguin, Pourous Penguin ( MS released version ),,,,,,

      Leaving out some of the more obvious P*s for the obvious reasons.

    10. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by FlyByPC · · Score: 1

      Meh. We'll still call it that :). But what's next? Ignoble Iguana? Better than Itchy Icthyosaur...
      --
      Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
    11. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 5, Funny

      And how did you feel, being denied these hungry, hungry hippos?

    12. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Donniedarkness · · Score: 1

      Regret.

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    13. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Hatta · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Impotent Impala

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    14. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by ben0207 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ignoble Iguana? Wouldn't that be SuSE?

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      cmd-q.co.uk - some sort of stupid fucking internet bullshit
    15. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i thought they were going to skip 'h', since it was already used in hoary hedgehog.

    16. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its going to be Pedophile Penguin.

    17. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I was hoping for

      Hard Homo, Hairy Hacker, or Happy Hitler

    18. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by desenz · · Score: 1

      No, they're only up to capricious chameleon

    19. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by jefu · · Score: 2, Funny

      the L release should be Llama. Lovable Llama. ... A llama in a leisure suit.
      A post that somehow makes this poem from Ogden Nash inevitable, but perhaps this is a good reason to imagine the lovable llama in pajamas (risking a possible salacious interpretation) :

      The one-l lama,
      He's a priest.
      The two-l llama,
      He's a beast.
      And I will bet
      A silk pajama
      There isn't any
      Three-l lllama.*

      *The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer. Pooh.
    20. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by bean123456789 · · Score: 1

      I read the version as Ubuntu Hardly Heron, quite a difference in meaning... I thought shuttleworth was feeling inadequate.

    21. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In honour of the "world obesity epidemic" they should've named it hefty heron

    22. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by DiamondGeezer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Lets hope Ubuntu get bought out before they get to 'X'

      --
      Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
    23. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by ThePengwin · · Score: 0

      PedoBear wont like that

    24. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by EdBear69 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm waiting for Busty Bunny...

      --
      I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV...
    25. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by JimDaGeek · · Score: 1
      --
      General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
    26. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by coren2000 · · Score: 1

      I too, am disappointed.

      I suggest an online petition.

    27. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Certainly it should be Gaping Goat.se

    28. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by rebelcan · · Score: 1

      I am the only one who saw "Hardly Heroin" when first glancing at the title?

      --
      God is dead -- Nietzsche
      Nietzsche is dead -- God
      Zombie Nietzsche lives! -- Zombie Nietzsche
    29. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by rapid_snail · · Score: 1

      Yea, they wouldn't want to name it Xenophobic Xtian.

    30. Re:I guess they were scared of copyright issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Using leaping lemming as a release name is not a good idea. Once your computer dies, a large group of other computers are sure to follow suit

  2. Kinda dirty? by kidcharles · · Score: 1, Funny

    I've got a dirty mind, but this name conjures up images of a sex-crazed bird terrorizing his native wetlands.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une sig.
    1. Re:Kinda dirty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      "Hardy" doesn't mean "hard".

      Or, for all you "Look at my 1337 hello.c!" dweebs, "hardy" != "hard".

    2. Re:Kinda dirty? by bazorg · · Score: 3, Funny

      well I was hoping that the "H" release would be Horny ______

    3. Re:Kinda dirty? by kidcharles · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, "hardy" does not literally mean "hard," but it sounds like perhaps a nickname about a heron with a constant erec...wait, why am I explaining myself to a cranky, humorless AC?

      --
      Ceci n'est pas une sig.
    4. Re:Kinda dirty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now I'll start calling myself Cranky Coward!

    5. Re:Kinda dirty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I'm sure most people will end up calling it "Horny Heron" at some point. I'm sure...

    6. Re:Kinda dirty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll terrorize your mom's native wetlands ;)

    7. Re:Kinda dirty? by Xtravar · · Score: 1

      I keep wanting to read "hardy heroin"

      So maybe it's a drug-addled, sex-crazed bird terrorizing his native wetlands.

      --
      Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
    8. Re:Kinda dirty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure most people will end up calling it "Horny Heron" at some point. I'm sure... Or Hairy Hardon...
    9. Re:Kinda dirty? by xENoLocO · · Score: 1

      Well, when I'm horny, I too terrorize my native wetlands.

      --
      "The need to build the internet comes from something inside us, something programmed... something we can't resist."
    10. Re:Kinda dirty? by haeger · · Score: 2, Funny
      I'm sure most people will end up calling it "Horny Heron" at some point. I'm sure...

      Hey, that's my nickname.

       

      .haeger

      --
      You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
    11. Re:Kinda dirty? by Yath · · Score: 1

      I've got a dirty mind.


      Fixed that for you.
      --
      I always mod up spelling trolls.
    12. Re:Kinda dirty? by Poromenos1 · · Score: 1

      Horny Hardon? Redundant.

      --
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    13. Re:Kinda dirty? by Cranky+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Too late...

    14. Re:Kinda dirty? by bigsam411 · · Score: 0

      For a second I actually thought it said Hardy Hardon in the title.

    15. Re:Kinda dirty? by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      Surely we got this out of our systems with the last alliterative 'H'-based release. Come to think of it, why are we getting another H, anyway? They surely haven't gone through all of the letters which begin both animal names and adjectives.

      Either that or it I'm not sure I want to know what a Whedgehog is...

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  3. Silly by hhlost · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apart from being silly, the code names add confusion to Ubuntu's already-confusing version numbering system.

    1. Re:Silly by HomerJ · · Score: 4, Informative

      There's an argument to be made for the goofy "code names". However, they are just that, code names. As far as version numbers, they make about as much sense as any. Higher versions get bigger numbers. 8.04 is a later version than 7.04. 7.10 is going to be a later version than 7.04, but behind 8.04.

      What exactly is so confusing about it?

    2. Re:Silly by hhlost · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's confusing because I'm retarded. Wait, no I'm not. It's confusing because I expect version numbers to go up one at a time. Windows XP is actually Windows NT 5.1, which came after Windows NT 5.0 (Windows 2000).

    3. Re:Silly by pebs · · Score: 0

      Apart from being silly, the code names add confusion to Ubuntu's already-confusing version numbering system.

      How is the version numbering system confusing? It's year followed by month it was released (Y.MM). How can that possibly be confusing?

      --
      #!/
    4. Re:Silly by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because the usage is inconstant. One person may say "I'm using Feisty". Someone else may say, "I'm using 7.10". To the casual user, there is no obvious relationship or distinction between the two names.

      And really, some people talk about 7.04 and 7.10 as if they are different major releases. But the numbering scheme suggests that 7.10 is only a minor release. And the two releases have different 'Code names', which makes it seem like there is a major difference between the two. That's confusing.

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    5. Re:Silly by ianare · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The version numbers are actually quite logical - first number = year, second number = month. So 7.10 means october 2007, 8.04 means april 2008. It actually makes more sense than a lot of other software release numbers.
      As far as the code names, well they are silly, but silly can be good. All too often we take ourselves a little too seriously. If you're pitching it to the boss (who is very much against silliness - the stupid bastard), then go by: Linux Operating System Long Term Support edition v 8.04 or something like that ...

    6. Re:Silly by hhlost · · Score: 3, Informative

      Ok, perhaps "non-standard" would have been a better term. And I really should have left the already-confusing part out, because my real concern is that, as someone posted above, convincing someone that the best platform for their needs is "Hardy Heron" in a professional environment is difficult, and embarrassing. Linux has the reputation of being usable only by teenage computer geeks and this does not help. Yes it's a code name, but it's used in public much more than most code names, and regardless, there's no reason for them to be increasingly ridiculous.

    7. Re:Silly by qweqwe321 · · Score: 1

      Higher version number means it's a newer version, plus it also indicates the month and year of release. Thus, Dapper Drake 6.06 was released in June of 2006, Edgy Eft 6.10 is October 2006, Feisty Fawn 7.04 is April '07, etc.

    8. Re:Silly by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the code names are intended to be pre-release--once released the code name is officially dropped for a version number (though the code name is unofficially retained by most users including myself). "Silly" or otherwise unusual code names are common in the technology world--My personal favorite is Apple's internal names for the Power Mac 7100.

      Ubuntu's version number system is very simple, straightforward, and understandable--it consists of two numbers taken from the date of the release it is applied to: [year].[month]. Very simple, huh?

      In Ubuntu's case, it is wise for them to use a code name prior to release, given their version number system, because a any delays could render the version number less meaningful (the author notes that Ubuntu uses a predictable release pattern with new releases every 6 months, but I think the makers of Ubuntu are being cautious because everyone knows delays can occur).

    9. Re:Silly by Reapman · · Score: 1

      You realize Ubuntu did'nt make up this system, right? Ever hear of Longhorn? MS, and pretty much every development shop in the known universe, uses code names too, no sane person would say let's install Dapper Drake! They'd say Ubuntu 6.06 (or just 6, or just UBUNTU)

    10. Re:Silly by Khaed · · Score: 1

      So use a different distribution. I know that's sort of the flaming typical reply, but really, there are a lot of options out there. It'd be much easier to pick a different distro than change Ubuntu and the entire community (which seem to overwhelmingly prefer the nicknames).

      While we're talking about names: Hardy Heron is still a much better name than "The Gimp." That's the number one bit of software I'd like to see get a name change in the OS world.

    11. Re:Silly by janrinok · · Score: 1

      Er, you have answered your own question. The release number is the last digit of the year, plus the month. e.g. 6.10 was 2006 October, 7.04 was 2007 April. And guess what - there are six months between 6.10. and 7.04! Now, assuming that Hardy Heron is released on time in April 2008, can you work out by yourself what the version number will be?

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    12. Re:Silly by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 1

      There's an argument to be made for the goofy "code names". However, they are just that, code names. As far as version numbers, they make about as much sense as any. Higher versions get bigger numbers. 8.04 is a later version than 7.04. 7.10 is going to be a later version than 7.04, but behind 8.04.

      What exactly is so confusing about it?

      It's actually better than that. The code names are Year.Month. 7.10 is "October 2007", which is the the targeted release date. They're on a six month schedule, so the release months are usually either 04 (April) or 10 (October). The exception was the most recent (and first) LTS release, which was 6.06. Apparently this was because making it LTS was not proposed until part-way through the dev-cycle.
    13. Re:Silly by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1
      officially dropped for a version number

      It's not officially dropped everywhere, and the version number isn't listed in several critical locations. For example, /etc/apt/sources.list and doesn't mention anything about 7.04. Instead, it lists this the nickname:

      deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty main restricted
      And likewise, there is no '7.04' in the Ubuntu repositories. But there is a nickname: http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty

      Is 'feisty' the same thing as '7.04'. I guess so. But how are new users supposed to figure this out. Why doesn't '/etc/issue.net' say "Ubuntu 7.04 - Feisty Fawn" or something similar?
      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    14. Re:Silly by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      However, their version numbers have no connection with how much the product has changed/improved. If they release every 6 months, then they go up a major version number every year, regardless of if anything has actually changed.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    15. Re:Silly by pilgrim23 · · Score: 1

      We now all know what happend to the old AOL signup disk password generator...

      --
      - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
    16. Re:Silly by evilbessie · · Score: 1

      The correct response to this article is meh, who cares, really. Ubuntu are not going directly after enterprise support, are engaging the community, bringing in new users. And it's not like most other projects don't have silly numbering schemes, they just have marketese to hide the numbers. Ubuntu are not like other companies and the 'silly' naming scheme they have gets them mentioned more that most. But then I think that you should be able to use any computer that is in front of you regardless of the actual OS it is using. They are also trying to get mentioned a lot, grow brand recognition. Also IE7 being 7.0.5730.11, is oh so helpful to non-developers.

    17. Re:Silly by fishthegeek · · Score: 1

      One user says NT 5.0 another says Windows 2000, one says NT 5.1 and another says XP, one says Panther and another says 10.3. I agree that Ubuntu is kind of cartoonish in naming but it's a train that everyone is on right now.

      --
      load "$",8,1
    18. Re:Silly by xenocide2 · · Score: 1

      Right, because when I tell people about Vista, I call it "Longhorn". The boss loves the sexual innuendo, as does HR. Everyone has codenames, and nobody has to use em. If your boss doesn't like fun, then just call it Ubuntu, and if he wants to hear about a specific release, call it by version number. Or you can embrace the silly names and corequisite laughter, and point out that Ubuntu isn't worried about perception. They'll fix bugs as they're found, they don't deny or deliberately hide security vulnerabilities, and let people laugh if they want to.

      Honestly, the numbers seem less confusing than say version 3.11, which means almost nothing. In contrast, 6.06, 7.10 an 8.04 carry a specific meaning. And as we saw with 6.06, sometimes that number needs to change to reflect reality. The codename does not.

      --
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    19. Re:Silly by brkello · · Score: 1

      Then if you are presenting it in a business environment don't be retarded and just say Ubuntu Linux...if they ask for the version give them the number.

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    20. Re:Silly by MMC+Monster · · Score: 1

      As opposed to say, windows 98? Or Office97,2000,2003,2007?

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    21. Re:Silly by thegnu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's the most logical versioning system I've ever seen, because you know how old the release is. And you can't get confused by anything, at all. Higher number? Newer OS. Lower number? Older OS. As a practice, try arranging the following versions in the right order:

      6.06
      5.11
      7.04
      8.04
      7.10
      20.01

      I bet you can do it. Plus, tell me when they were released. Now rearrange the following and tell me what date they were released (month/year):

      Windows Vista
      Windows 3.11
      Windows XP
      Windows Millenium
      Windows NT 4
      DOS 6
      Windows 2000
      Windows 2000 SP1
      Windows 2000 SP2
      Windows 2000 SP3
      Windows 2000 SP4
      Windows XP SP2
      Windows XP SP1
      Windows NT 4 SP1, etc

      As far as silly codenames go, someone might want to know how Feisty Fawn compares to Longhorn, or Dolly, or some crap:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_codenames

      So people wouldn't build a business on Zamboni, would they? How about Fidalgo? Would you manage your mail with Touchdown? How about let your kids run Whistler? I mean, really. You should berate people for being morons if they can't read a code name without letting it alter their opinion of the viability of the product in their IT infrastructure.

      If people don't like things made by people with a sense of humor, maybe they should get the fuck out the tubes and stop blocking my passage.

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    22. Re:Silly by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1

      No, I don't think it's "very simple". In fact, I think it's rather confusing. It's fairly standard in the technology industry of "Major Version Number.Minor Version Number". Or to use year numbers as year numbers for marketing purposes (Windows Server 2003, Office 2004, etc.). The mixed paradigm is quite confusing, even if there's a perfectly simple system behind it.

      I have no problem with silly code names, as long as they are used as release code names and don't become product names. I use Ubuntu and it's a great OS, but the reason the name "feisty" is used more than the version number "7.04" is because the version numbering system is confusing and counter-intuitive. Mentally, 6.06 and 6.10 sound like they should be very similar, and 7.04 sounds like a new major version release.

      Wouldn't it be more in line with the overall community standards to have each 6-month release counted as a minor version number, and each LTS release counted as a major version number (or better yet, the version after a stable LTS release be a .0 version to emphasize that it's new and less stable)? I.e. "Drake" == 1.4 "Edgy" == 2.0 "Feisty" == 2.1 "Gutsy" == 2.2 "Hardy" == 2.3.

      I think people would actually use those numbers more often.

      I also think it's going to look a little silly when 2014 rolls around and the version number is 14.08 or something like that. It'll look like your classic version number inflation.

    23. Re:Silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Moron, they are numbered based on release date.

      Gutys "7.10" means released on the tenth month of 2007.

    24. Re:Silly by Pedahzur · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu's already-confusing version numbering system. What's confusing about [year of relese].[month of release]?
      --
      Joshua J. Kugler
    25. Re:Silly by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

      At the very least they could've started with A "Awesome Aardvark" (or something) and continued through the alphabet so that v8.x would turn into Hard Heron.

      But that would make too much sense to me that wants to try Ubuntu but has never gotten around to it. (I'll probably format my old PC and do it over winter shutdown)

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
    26. Re:Silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And therein lies the joke, I think

    27. Re:Silly by colmore · · Score: 1

      > Linux has the reputation of being usable only by teenage computer geeks and this does not help.

      When, in 1996?

      If your IT department hasn't even *heard* of Ubuntu or read enough to be passingly familiar with their stupid (yes) naming system, then it would probably be a very bad idea for your business to switch.

      --
      In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
    28. Re:Silly by rustalot42684 · · Score: 1

      Ummm... because anyone who's knowledgeable enough to know what /etc/apt/sources.list is, let alone be looking through it, is smart enough to figure it out by themselves?

    29. Re:Silly by Echolima · · Score: 1

      convincing someone that the best platform for their needs is "Hardy Heron" in a professional environment is difficult But convincing someone that "Ubuntu Version 8.04" is the best platform for there needs would be easier.
    30. Re:Silly by kerberos · · Score: 1

      I think the code names are intended to be pre-release--once released the code name is officially dropped for a version number (though the code name is unofficially retained by most users including myself). Not quite. I happen to be writing this on a laptop with Kubuntu 7.10. The system refers to itself as "Feisty Fawn" in a number of places, of which the most obvious is Firefox' default start page, with its heading "Welcome to Kubuntu 7.04, Feisty Fawn!"
    31. Re:Silly by this+great+guy · · Score: 1

      Do you refer to Vista by its codename "Longhorn" ? No ! So why do you do it with Ubuntu ? Why do you insist in calling it "Feisty Fawn", and then you complain people laugh at you, when you could just say "Ubuntu 7.04" ? I am truly perplexed.

    32. Re:Silly by Tribbin · · Score: 1

      Don't worry. Incognito Iguanidae, will just be called 8.10.

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    33. Re:Silly by zerocool^ · · Score: 1


      Seriously, I can't be the only one worked up about this. Tell me there have to be other people that recognize the value of naming things with the least specific delimiter first, right?

      [year]-[month]-[day]-[[hour]]-[[min]]-[[[sec]]] to me is the only correct way to name anything that is designated by a date. You go as far as you need delimiters between files. Or sometimes I use a shortcut and just name stuff unixtime, which still guarantees that when I do an ls, everything is in the correct chronological order.

      Not ubuntu, though. Ugh. Seriously, people, get it right.

      --
      sig?
    34. Re:Silly by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      What about novices who are attempting this for the first time?

      Many novices edit /etc/apt/sources.list because it is suggested or required in a HOWTO or other documentation. Plenty of novices want software which is only available in universe. They don't necessarily understand the format of sources.list.

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    35. Re:Silly by modecx · · Score: 1

      However, their version numbers have no connection with how much the product has changed/improved. If they release every 6 months, then they go up a major version number every year, regardless of if anything has actually changed.

      Frankly, that's what a changelog is for, most open source projects don't do a good job of working this way. Furthermore, the fact that a newer release has a higher number doesn't necessarily suggest that the software has become better in some way. One would hope this to be the case, but it's not always the truth.

      --
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    36. Re:Silly by zerocool^ · · Score: 1


      Nevermind, i'm an idiot.

      I still stand by the animal thing, though.

      --
      sig?
    37. Re:Silly by JoeShmoe950 · · Score: 1

      Are you on drugs? The second sequence is what they currently use, the one that looks correct. 8.04 comes after 7.10, as 8.04 is from 2008, while 7.10 is from 2007. Ubuntu is using an obvious and simple versioning scheme.

    38. Re:Silly by norton_I · · Score: 1

      Fluke, maker of test and measurement equipment, not only survived with the name fluke, but used to use the marketing slogan:

      "If it works, it's a Fluke"

      People still bought their stuff because, you know, they work.

    39. Re:Silly by analog_line · · Score: 1

      Linux has the reputation of being usable only by teenage computer geeks and this does not help.


      You mean the pimpled teenage computer geeks working at, and making a mint for International Business Machines? Or are we talking the idealistic nerds piling cash upon cash at Dell Computer?

      If they make their business decisions based on what their snobby, spoiled rotten kids tell them Linux users are like, then they deserve all the extra costs maintaining Windows has left them with.
    40. Re:Silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do they make it harder, it is a comical numerical versioning system they are on F, G will be releaced in october, and then the fallowing april will be H

    41. Re:Silly by Braino420 · · Score: 1

      There is a standard for version numbers? Oh please do tell.

      --
      They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
    42. Re:Silly by LeDopore · · Score: 1

      Except when fools call 7.04 "7.4," which sounds higher than "7.1," which is what the same fools call "7.10". We should either get rid of two months or adopt a base-12 numbering system (and maybe genetically alter humans to have 6 fingers per hand while we're at it...), all in the name of Ubuntu.

      --
      Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
    43. Re:Silly by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 1

      I like turtles.

      --
      Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
    44. Re:Silly by Cuppa+'Joe'+Black · · Score: 1

      "Apart from being silly, the code names add confusion to Ubuntu's already-confusing version numbering system."

      But they tie in nicely with the consistently immature cartoon mascots you see associated with all sorts of free software. Look at all the dorky penguin characters. Look at the Gimp. I used to draw shit like that on my notebook folders in 7th grade. Look at Shuttleworth's blog. That dragon isn't cool, or bad, or elegant. It's just goofy. Infantile and silly. The use of words and images in marketing matters. Most the Linux stuff I see looks unprofessional.

      --
      Technically, murder-suicide does not violate the golden rule.
    45. Re:Silly by danilo.moret · · Score: 1

      You shouldn't expect the average technical decision maker in the professional market to accept three things different from what he's used to:

      1 - A new (for him) operating system, no matter how well known and professional it is;
      2 - A new (for him) version numbering system, no matter how logical and professional it is;
      2 - A new (for him) funny sounding nickname, no matter how many well known and professional systems with funny sounding nicknames there are;

      I mean, I think you can convince a person used to focus on stability to learn a new nickname ("we're upgrading all the desktops to the new Windows, which was called Longhorn") or a new version numbering system ("we're upgrading the server to Java 5, which is actually Java 1.5") or a new operating system ("we're installing a Red Hat Core on the new development sandbox server"), or maybe two out of three, at one time. But you're certainly stressing too much his sense of "let's not get ahead of ourselves" if you want him to go from Windows "I use it since when I was a kid" Vista "they know how to pick a name", a.k.a. Longhorn "those crazy MS developers" to Ubuntu "what?" 7.10 "how come?", a.k.a. Hardy Heron "now hold on a second...". And this is the point where some people would rather go on without the nickname.

      And I think they really should drop the nickname when it would cause confusion rather than clarification. As long as it's not printed on the CD cover or shown on every login, the nickname is free to be used among those who are comfortable with it. Like here on Slashdot.

      --
      ^[:wq!
    46. Re:Silly by thegnu · · Score: 1

      And I think they really should drop the nickname when it would cause confusion rather than clarification. As long as it's not printed on the CD cover or shown on every login, the nickname is free to be used among those who are comfortable with it. Like here on Slashdot.
      Right. As long as it's a codename, then it's fine. I would personally try a sentence like:

      "Linux supports our needs x, y, z. I would suggest Ubuntu Linux, because I administrate several systems running Ubuntu already. In addition, Ubuntu has excellent community and paid support. The next version 8.04, slated to be released in 8/04 (yoinks!) is a Long Term Support version, which means it will have security updates for 5 years on our server."

      I don't know where the code name comes up in the conversation, but if people look into it and have a negative reaction to it, ask what the hell kind of pasty nerd they'd prefer code their applications. That's all I'm saying. What profession doesn't use code names to talk about things they work with?

      I guess, given all the comments on here, I'll take corporate blowhard for the win.

      on the new development sandbox server
      And by the way, I think sandboxes sound childish and stupid.

      --
      Please stop stalking me, bro.
    47. Re:Silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Version numbers are year.month
      7.10 will be released in October (10) of 2007 (7).
      7.04 was released in april (04) of 2007.

      Which is why it's "seven ten" not "seven one oh".

      There was some discussion a while ago about changing the . to a / or -, something I support personally.

    48. Re:Silly by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 1

      It's a bit like learn to count with Microsoft Word ...

          1..2..6..95..97..2000..2002..2003...2007

      It's obvious ....

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    49. Re:Silly by thegnu · · Score: 1

      It's a bit like learn to count with Microsoft Word ...

              1..2..6..95..97..2000..2002..2003...2007

      It's obvious ....

      I don't know what you're comparing this to, but I'll bite. The difference between Ubuntu and Microsoft Word is that Ubuntu has at least one release per year, which makes the integer progression smooth. Even 95, 97, 2000 is pretty good. But then, how many people have you heard say they have Windows 97 because they have Word 97, and that's what comes up on their screen?
      --
      Please stop stalking me, bro.
    50. Re:Silly by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      what makes the office versioning (and the windows versioning for that matter) rather messy was they went to a scheme based on two digit years just before a century rollover. Not a very smart thing to do imo.

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

      Raises another question, though: What's your market?

      Names like Fluke, Megger, HP (OK, not a good example), Tektronix, Marconi Instruments, Bruel and Kjaer (CBA to launch KCharSelect), Ono Sokki, Racal et al might mean something to the /. crowd, but to your average non-techie? Sod all. Those companies have flourished on the knowledge of technically savvy people making a conscious choice about things like reliability, quality and accuracy. What they were called mattered not a bit.

      Operating systems are more complicated because they straddle markets. We use things like Ubuntu Feisty, Fedora Core, The GIMP and such because we know the software, not because of the name. "What the hell is the GIMP anyway? BDSM pr0n?" would be a more likely question from a non techie user seeing the package name for the first time.

      Who was it said letting the developers of flagship OSS projects name the applications is akin to letting marketing write them? Personally, I wouldn't care if they suddenly started calling FreeBSD "*nix for BaStarDs 7.0" [1] as long as it still adhered to POLA. Others, however, may have a different view, especially if they are thinking of switching from some proprietary UNIX OS in a datacentre, where a lot of decisions are made by beancounter PHBs who have little tech background. I can't see Joe Sixpack using "Professional GNU/Linux 2.6.22 SMP datacentre high load optimised" either.

      True, you can't judge a book by its cover, but people still do. It's very hard for the distro people to strike a balance. Ubuntu is aimed at desktop users primarily, so they're trying to make it sound friendly. On that score, they're doing quite well. I'm looking forward to "Ubuntu Killer Koala" after Linus' references to dropbears in an earlier interview...

      [1] Could have been tailor made for me, that name, but I really can't see Yahoo! or any of the big hosting providers using it.

      --
      Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
  4. Runner Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    So much for Ubuntu "Horny Homo". Just kidding, I'll still call it that.

    1. Re:Runner Up by Nimey · · Score: 1

      You got a purty mouth.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    2. Re:Runner Up by howlingmadhowie · · Score: 4, Funny

      someone was there before you: http://gaybuntu.com/

    3. Re:Runner Up by harrkev · · Score: 1

      I always thought that "Hoary Hedgehog" had a nice ring to it. I wonder why they didn't use that. That name wasn't taken, was it?

      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
    4. Re:Runner Up by jalefkowit · · Score: 1

      You don't have to post anonymously, Senator Craig...

    5. Re:Runner Up by pclminion · · Score: 1

      Yes. Because nothing makes more sense to structure a technical community around, than sexual orientation. My eyes are rolling...

    6. Re:Runner Up by howlingmadhowie · · Score: 1

      there are also such things as "ubuntu christian/muslim/satanic edition".

      one waits of course for his noodliness.

    7. Re:Runner Up by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Would an upgrade from "Horny Homo" to "Pink Pussy" require a just a reformat or complete repartition of the hard drive? ...or...or...

      Could people who run one of those distros only run the other from a floppy?

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  5. Mint by desenz · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    On a semi-related note, I've come to like Linux Mint. Its built on Ubuntu and includes some non-free packages(Video codecs, MP3 support, so forth). Also has some of its own config tools which are alright. Not perfect though, I had a little trouble with dual monitor support. Overall, its a pretty nice distro.

  6. Hope they get it right this time by goldspider · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, I already know this is going to -1 hell. I don't care. I'll keep it short at least.

    I tried to install the AMD 64-bit version of Feisty, and the CD wouldn't even boot. None of my hardware is exotic by any stretch of the imagination, yet the GUI installer wouldn't even load. A few inquiries on the Ubuntu forums got a few suggestions to try the non-GUI install. I don't feel I should have to slog through a text install in the year 2007, so I didn't give Feisty a second thought.

    I'll try Hardy, but it better work out of the box. It's hard to promote a distribution to friends when the damn thing couldn't even boot as a live CD.

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
    1. Re:Hope they get it right this time by hhlost · · Score: 1

      Yes, my experience was that 7.04 wasn't quite 64-bit ready. Try the 32-bit version, which will run just fine on an AMD 64-bit processor.

    2. Re:Hope they get it right this time by desenz · · Score: 1

      I had the same problem. I had to go to the text mode installer, or I got strange colored lines. Maybe like a refresh rate was way out there or something.

    3. Re:Hope they get it right this time by ericrost · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What were you trying to install on? There are several problems on laptops that can be solved with a bootline option or two (I had to do this on an amd64 HP lappy).

      When you say AMD64 and not exotic in the same sentence, you're kidding yourself btw. Nothing has shaken out as standard in the chipsets or BIOS's yet. That's why you have a little tweaky tweaky (esp since there are some MANY damned broken BIOS's out there).

    4. Re:Hope they get it right this time by d0rp · · Score: 1

      I tried to install the AMD 64-bit version of Feisty, and the CD wouldn't even boot. None of my hardware is exotic by any stretch of the imagination, yet the GUI installer wouldn't even load. A few inquiries on the Ubuntu forums got a few suggestions to try the non-GUI install. I don't feel I should have to slog through a text install in the year 2007, so I didn't give Feisty a second thought. I had the same problem. Apparently it has something to do with the drivers for the bootloader/framebuffer with certain graphics cards. Even if you did get it installed, you'd have to manually disable the nifty graphical loading screen because that wouldn't work either.

      At this point, you'd still want the 32-bit version anywhere because certain things just won't work, you'll have to install separate 32-bit versions of some software, and the driver support just isn't there yet (though that goes for Windows as well).

      On another note, have they announced when Gutsy is going to be released? Because if they did, I must have missed it.

    5. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've tried to install Ubuntu many times. I spent hours on it and never could wireless networking to work. I gave it another shot with Feisty and it just locked up. Has anybody figured out out to get wireless networking to work with Ubuntu?

    6. Re:Hope they get it right this time by rolfwind · · Score: 1

      Why don't you try Gutsy Gibbon (available now but only as Alpha - Tribe 5, released in October) before waiting almost 7 months or more for Hardy Heron.

    7. Re:Hope they get it right this time by ericrost · · Score: 1

      Fairly untrue. I have full hardware support, just a broken bios. The only thing I have a "separate" version of is Firefox, so I can run flash. Everything else works just fine as 32 bit packages on a 64 bit distro through compatibility libraries (ia32 I want to say, but I don't have my installed package list in front of me as I'm on my Windblows box at work).

    8. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      don't matter, I haven't tried the GUI install on several PC's since 6.xx it has been broken on the 64 bit AND 32 bit side for a while for some hardware combinations. Specifically with older Nvidia cards for some reason. But I have seen the problem on a machine without nvidia and still require CLI install.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    9. Re:Hope they get it right this time by everphilski · · Score: 1

      I've had a 64 bit AMD processor for almost 2 years now. Cheap-ass no-name motherboard. And I've had Fedora Core running on it for damn near that long, no tweaking.

    10. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Chysn · · Score: 1

      Well, you're not alone, so I can't see anyone sending you to -1 hell. After happily running Red Hat on my web server for years, I decided to try Desktop (er... Laptop) Linux with Ubuntu Fiesty. I was able to get it working properly on my Lenovo R60e, but I ran into some problems (wireless network not working out-of-the-box, for one thing) that I was able to solve at the command line. Somebody without years of prior Linux experience may have given up on the thing.

      There would be a few barriers for me replacing Windows XP entirely: my internal microphone still doesn't work. I can't watch DVDs (apparently it's against the law to watch DVDs on Linux. Literally against the law, if you can imagine). Bluefish sucks. There doesn't appear to be a decent Subversion client. In due time I'll sort these things out and complete my migration. But is Ubuntu a mature desktop force? Not yet.

      --
      --I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
      -- See?
    11. Re:Hope they get it right this time by ericrost · · Score: 1

      And I've got Ubuntu running on mine with a bootline tweak, but Fedora 7 wouldn't boot. Go figure, just like I was saying, things aren't standard on 64 bit platforms, broken apic's is the biggest problem I've come across.

    12. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some users are helped by pressing f6 at the menu and adding "noacpi" (sans quotes) as a boot option.

      But don't bother trying that or even HH for that matter, because from your attitude and tone I can tell that you'll just be a drag on the community's resources and patience any way. Instead of having us waste our time holding your hand to make what "better work" for you work, why don't you just stick with M$ where you can have things that you paid for not work due to unacknowledged bugs, incompetence and DRM restrictions.

      I mean come on dude, you have to at least meet us half way on occasion. I shouldn't have to slog through an ocean of morons in the year 2007, but here I am... reading /. ... again.

    13. Re:Hope they get it right this time by xra · · Score: 1

      Maybe not for you, but Ubuntu is a mature desktop force for me. Everything I want work perfectly. I can watch DVDs since I don't live in a country where it's not against the law to watch DVDs on Linux.

    14. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slog through a text install? If you can get over the fact that it's not graphical, you'd realize that it's not only just as easy -- it's the right tool for the job. It's clean, fast, and it just plain works. Why over-engineer it? You're talking about installing an operating system, not an application.

      I'll also point out that even the Windows install is "text mode" all the way through the partitioning, formatting, and copying files stages. Why isn't anyone complaining about that?

    15. Re:Hope they get it right this time by ericrost · · Score: 2, Informative
    16. Re:Hope they get it right this time by DarthVain · · Score: 1

      yeah I have had very mixed results with Linux. Depending on my system, some work, some don't, and some work sort of. My old school Dell 4200 (P3800, etc...) could not run any Ubuntu. It could run Xandros, Mepis (forget spelling), and a few others. My new system (C2D 4200, ok that is a bit weird.. anyway..) could run the LIVE version of Fawn, however when I would try and actually install it, it would not boot (ok it would boot, the OS just wouldn't load). However I had a hard drive failure and for like 2 weeks had no hard drive I could use, so I used my new computer sans HD using just the Live CD which was a bit of a life saver as at least I could do email and web stuff that way. I had to watch that I didn't eat up all my memory, otherwise I would have to reboot and lose some stuff. Anyway we shall see how "Hardy" this new version is. I had the most luck with Xandros personally.

      The two things about Linux of any flavor is until they get thing running so it pretty much just works, it won't garner widespread acceptance. I know a bit about computers, and even I say forget it after mucking around for a couple of days. Sure there is online help and fourms, but not everyone has a computer lab setup at home (not to mention that while the advice generally I found to be good, there was a problems of old solutions to old problems). The second thing is programs, specifically computer games and compatibility. Sure there are work arounds, wine, cedgera, Linux versions, etc... but if I have to mess around with it for days, just to achieve partial compatibility... well nuts to that. It ain't gonna happen. I do like what Ubuntu is doing though, they seem more "together" than most. An intrinsic problem with open source development I would guess, no focus mostly. Anyway I will certainly try it out, however it will probably join my growing pile of various Linux distros and all their various versions, gathering dust in my desk (off the top of my head, 2 or 3 versions of Knoppix, 2 of Xandros, Damn Small, two version of Gentoo, 3 versions of Mepis, 3 versions of Ubuntu, PC Linux, Slax, there might be a few more, but I can't remember them.

    17. Re:Hope they get it right this time by MobyDisk · · Score: 4, Informative

      Your information is out-of-date. AMD64 has been around since April 2003, and Windows/Linux has been working on since before it left the factory. Actually, all AMD motherboards since that time are 64-bit, even if nobody runs the 64-bit OS's.

    18. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll try Hardy, but it better work out of the box

      Lets just hope they didn't name it after the Hardy Boys and you have to be a detective to figure it out...

      -mcgrew

    19. Re:Hope they get it right this time by cerelib · · Score: 1

      I'm curious. Did you check the integrity of the download with the SHA/MD5 checksums provided for the download before burning it to media? Also, did you happen to try the "Alternate Install" CD as well?

    20. Re:Hope they get it right this time by DarthVain · · Score: 1

      I think I read a post about Linux Mint as well, I might have to try that out as well. Hopefully they will follow the the new Ubuntu version or it will install properly using the Fawn version.... Sound like what I am looking for... Though I know I will probably still have to go through a litany of installs for Windows codecs, and all the other stuff that is missing etc... Though it sounds like I would have to do less to make it usable.

    21. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Burpmaster · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I already know this is going to -1 hell.

      It deserves to. As evidence, it's anecdotal. As information, it's devoid of details. You didn't even provide the most basic information, like what CPU and video card you have. You also didn't describe very well where the process failed. Any experienced user knows that a problem description consisting of "it didn't work" is useless. I don't feel I should have to slog through a post like this on a forum for tech-savvy people.

      Did the bootloader come up? Did the kernel begin the booting process? My best guess, based on your description, is that you either made a bad burn, or are trying to boot an AMD64 disc on a 32-bit system.

    22. Re:Hope they get it right this time by goldspider · · Score: 1

      I did get several recommendations to try the alternate install, but frankly by that point I wasn't really interested enough anymore in trying to get it working.

      Points well taken about 32-bit app compatibility by other posters, though.

      --
      "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
    23. Re:Hope they get it right this time by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      Mandriva

      That is all.

      I've been using Mandriva for 6 years, and find it to be the best desktop distro. I've tried Ubuntu, Fedora, Redhat, Suse, Slackware, and probably about 5 other distros, and have found that Mandriva is the only one that works out of the box consistently on all my PCs. It really doesn't get enough recognition as good desktop Linux distro.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    24. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mandriva is great. I think the past 'pay for current release or wait for download later' policy really hurt their image though. They are gaining back a lot of ground on the desktop though from the good ol' Mandrake days.

    25. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Chysn · · Score: 1

      > http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#How_to_i nstall_DVD_playback_capability

              Thank you much. I'll try this when I get home. Wish I had Informative mod points to give.

      > sudo apt-get install subversion

              Well, sure, got the usual Subversion client/server installed on my webserver. But with Windows XP, I get to use Tortoise SVN, where I can right-click a file to add it, or right-click the repository to commit it. Anyone know of a good programming editor with integrated SVN that'll look pretty on Gnome?

      --
      --I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
      -- See?
    26. Re:Hope they get it right this time by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``What were you trying to install on? There are several problems on laptops that can be solved with a bootline option or two (I had to do this on an amd64 HP lappy).''

      Beep, wrong. The point your parent was trying to make is that, in this day and age, and with a supposedly luser-friendly OS, things ought to work straight out of the box. That means no "botoline option or two".

      ``When you say AMD64 and not exotic in the same sentence, you're kidding yourself btw. Nothing has shaken out as standard in the chipsets or BIOS's yet.'' ...other than what was there from the beginning, namely backward compatibility with older iterations of the PC platform. It's there, and it's enough to boot at least the graphical installer. Unless, of course, you _do_ have something exotic, like EFI firmware that isn't backwards compatible.

      Of course, there are still things that could give you trouble, like the network card or the sound card. However, you should be able to detect this and present a message to the effect that "Sorry, this hardware is not currently supported. You can file a request at ... . In the meantime, you can continue without the functionality this hardware provides, or replace it by compatible hardware. A list of compatible devices can be found at ... ." That's a heck of a lot friendlier than the system simply not starting at all.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    27. Re:Hope they get it right this time by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 1

      I had similar problems, and am thus running the 32 bit version. No problems with this version. I don't plan to upgrade until I'm sure it's worth it.

      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    28. Re:Hope they get it right this time by BobMcD · · Score: 1

      Preface: I'm absolutely certain you've thought of this, and do not mean to demean you, but:

      Could it have been a bad burn? I've had that exact same problem with Ubuntu many times on different PC's. A new/fresh CD has always fixed it - to date.

      In fact, I had one only moments ago...

    29. Re:Hope they get it right this time by ericrost · · Score: 1

      "...other than what was there from the beginning, namely backward compatibility with older iterations of the PC platform. It's there, and it's enough to boot at least the graphical installer. Unless, of course, you _do_ have something exotic, like EFI firmware that isn't backwards compatible."

      beep, wrong. There are multiple broken APIC implementations out there that are completely nonstandard. This is how a non plug and play (read everything but windows) OS brings up hardware and assigns irq's. That's not "good enough to bring up the installer" its bad enough to hang the boot. If someone wants to put out a BIOS and include APIC, they should implement it correctly so you don't have to disable it to boot. We can boot without it, which we will if its A) not there, or B) disabled.

    30. Re:Hope they get it right this time by anno1a · · Score: 1

      Instead you use Windows... Do they boot on a live CD yet? Oh, and when did their installer go graphical (Really, I don't know)? Oh yeah, and last time I installed Windows (XP SP2) the installer crashed... Several times. I think I finally got through on the 5th or 6th attempt. So now what will you use? OS/2? ;)

      --
      ------- I fumbled my registration and I now must suffer
    31. Re:Hope they get it right this time by ericrost · · Score: 1

      http://subversion.tigris.org/links.html

      There's a good selection halfway down the page.

    32. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      eclipse, if you don't mind the memory hog and having to install a plugin for subversion support

    33. Re:Hope they get it right this time by zerocool^ · · Score: 1



      Of course, there are still things that could give you trouble, like the network card or the sound card. However, you should be able to detect this and present a message to the effect that "Sorry, this hardware is not currently supported. You can file a request at ... . In the meantime, you can continue without the functionality this hardware provides, or replace it by compatible hardware. A list of compatible devices can be found at ... ." That's a heck of a lot friendlier than the system simply not starting at all.


      Yeah, when I tried Ubuntu recently on a laptop that I had to work on, it had some things that gave it trouble. First on the list was the ATA controller. I kind of gave up then.

      I agree with you, Ubuntu is not this great awesome religion changing linux distro. It's just another distro that does a few things well, and has a lot of people claiming it does a lot more things well, when it doesn't do them any better than anyone else. CentOS 5 installed all the hardware on this Latitude d630 correctly, except the NVidia Quadro NVS 135M, and the Intel 4965 wireless chipset. Ubuntu... not so much.

      --
      sig?
    34. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Teun · · Score: 1

      To give an unspecific answer to an even more unspecific question; I write this on a wireless connected laptop and it never gave any problem.
      But then I do not spend money on products from companies that refuse to support Linux.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    35. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Braino420 · · Score: 1

      I don't feel I should have to slog through a text install in the year 2007, so I didn't give Feisty a second thought.
      Good thing you don't have to install Winders huh? Seriously though, if you stopped because of that, you really shouldn't even bother. Plus, you would have no way of going back to the darkside with no gui install ono!
      --
      They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
    36. Re:Hope they get it right this time by xkhaozx · · Score: 1

      Umm, why is this 5-Interesting?

      Its not interesting at all, no information is provided, and it just seems pretty random and pointless.

    37. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      None of my hardware is exotic by any stretch of the imagination, yet the GUI installer wouldn't even load.

      It doesn't matter if your hardware is "exotic". All that matters is if your hardware is supported. If it had been, it would have worked. Since it wasn't, it didn't. All your test showed is that there is at least one piece of hardware that Feisty doesn't support, and you happen to own it.

      If you seriously want to try out Ubuntu, I'd suggest picking up a machine with the OS pre-installed. That's how people normally get operating systems, so that seems like the only valid way to evaluate a new one. Dell sells Ubuntu boxes starting at like $350, so it wouldn't require some massive investment or anything.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    38. Re:Hope they get it right this time by robbak · · Score: 1

      What is the problem with a text-mode install? The only thing an install has to do is get the thing onto the hard drive with as little points of failure as possible. 'Looking pretty' shouldn't even be on its check-list.
      That is best done on a text mode display. Mouse support is a nice add-on, if the developers are bored.

      --
      Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
    39. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      I've used Mandriva for many years, but when the 2007 version came out, they messed up club member stuff entirely, did not fix it for months on end. The SeerOfSouls repository ended up providing better packages for drivers, the proprietary software than Mandriva's official pay repositories did.

      I do not mind paying for a good service, but I felt really cheated with Mandriva 2007.

      Then I tried Kubuntu as the founder of SeerOfSouls decided to try it out at the time...

      I was utterly amazed by the speed of the OS in general, how fast it boots up, responsive in comparison. The package management tools, searches that took over ten minutes on Mandriva would take literally seconds on Kubuntu, and it had far more packages to search through. Everything was well supported. I didn't even need to fiddle with things to get WEP working properly.

      Hell, installing flash, sun java, proprietary codec support was just installing the package 'ubuntu-restricted-extras' (you will need 'libxine-extracodecs' too if you use xine though). I've never had such ease under Mandriva.

      Skype, Google, Opera even provide proper repositories for Kubuntu, which I never got with Mandriva, definitely a plus as I dislike going to separate sites checking for updates.

      I used to particularly miss harddrake from Mandriva, but then restricted-manager became available under Kubuntu and provided a much more user friendly interface (just tick the drivers for the detected hardware you want to use, downloads, installs and configures them automatically). One thing I do really miss, although I don't need currently is DKMS - It would build any kernel modules you had installed if the kernel you were using didn't have it, and set it up. It was rather useful when running custom/not so standard kernels (although I don't use those currently).

      I am aware of module-assistant in Kubuntu, but it's not quite the same as it was not setup out of the box to build and setup modules on bootup, nor is it a default package to assist handling kernel modules if need be (I'm sure I could set this up manually in Kubuntu with a lot of scripting, but there goes your ease of use right there).

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    40. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Jonner · · Score: 1

      I hope you don't get modded down for sharing an experience. Implying that is almost flamebait. I use Ubuntu on several machines and have had mostly good experiences. I wanted to install it recently on an old Thinkpad A30, and it booted fine. The desktop appeared after a while, but starting any app, including a terminal was excruciatingly slow.

      I started the installer, but gave up waiting for the GUI to appear after almost an hour. Then, I booted an alternate install CD in text mode, did a default install, and everything was fine. The CD drive was no speed demon, but installation took about 30 minutes, IIRC. Performance is fine now that Ubuntu's installed on the hard drive. I have had to do a little work to get the Linksys PC card Wifi adapter and Palm sync working, and I have not yet gotten suspend and hibernate to work reliably, but that may just require some magic ACPI kernel command line options.

      I don't know why running things off the Live installer CD was so slow. I didn't have any trouble using the text mode installer, but I understand that many would want to avoid that.

    41. Re:Hope they get it right this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and for exactly how long is there nvidia 6800gs on the market?

      the drivers are bugged, this means no live cd, and installing the alternative cd, reconfiguring xorg and so on. is it a big hassle to use the default vesa driver if this card is detected?

    42. Re:Hope they get it right this time by drew · · Score: 1

      Of course, even assuming that the hardware truly is backwards compatible, as you say, and doesn't have a broken BIOS, APIC, or whatever, the OP wasn't trying to install a "backwards compatible" 32 bit OS on it, so backwards compatibility is completely irrelevant, isn't it?

      --
      If I don't put anything here, will anyone recognize me anymore?
    43. Re:Hope they get it right this time by ogmundur · · Score: 1

      Try the -noapic and -nofb flags at boot. Worked for me on an AMD64 machine.

    44. Re:Hope they get it right this time by SpeedyGonz · · Score: 1

      I got a 3800+ X2, and it worked out of the box. In fact, I rarely log into windows anymore except for the odd task I do that requires a windows only program. Got this weird bug with the windows NVidia IDE drivers that keeps freezing the PC after some run time. Installed ubuntu 7.04 and the PC has been running on it for days without a hiccup. In fact, UT2004 runs smoother (for me at least) on linux than in windows. What Brand/model of mobo, memory you have? I relly don't think it's a hardware thing. If you got an ATI vidcard that's another trouble spot, because ATI linux drivers are junk. I have a NVidia and it works like a charm. Also, check for a bad CD burn or a corrupt ISO image.

    45. Re:Hope they get it right this time by stix213 · · Score: 0

      A lot more people use the 32-bit version, so it is much better tested than 64-bit. Unless you have massive amounts of memory in your machine there is probably no reason to need the 64-bit version over 32-bit. If you have a huge amount of memory that isn't addressed properly with the 32-bit version (the main reason you should care about 64-bit) then you will just have to wait until the bugs are fixed in 64-bit.

    46. Re:Hope they get it right this time by infinityxi · · Score: 1
      --
      Turn based strategy game that runs over XMPP. Phalanx
  7. I parsed it as "Hearty Heroin"... by nweaver · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I always knew the FSF crowd were on some good drugs...

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
    1. Re:I parsed it as "Hearty Heroin"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ubuntu is not the FSF.

    2. Re:I parsed it as "Hearty Heroin"... by MrHanky · · Score: 1

      You'll have to wait for the Krazed Ketamine release to find an FSF approved version of Ubuntu. The drugs and OS community relationships go like this:

      * OpenBSD : meth
      * Slackware : heroin
      * OS X : poppers
      * FreeBSD : coffee and cigarettes
      * Windows : cancer
      * NetBSD : water
      * BeOS : ether
      * Emacs : ketamine
      * Gentoo : laxatives
      * Debian : will give you access to all known drugs, but they're either too old or experimental

    3. Re:I parsed it as "Hearty Heroin"... by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu is not the FSF.

      No, but the FSF is a bunch of Hairy Hippies, which is pretty close.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  8. Before the site is slashdotted... by Nimey · · Score: 2, Informative

    Introducing the Hardy Heron
    August 29th, 2007

    I am delighted to have the pleasure of announcing the Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04), the next version of Ubuntu that will succeed Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu 7.10, due for release in October 2007). Not only will the Ubuntu community continue to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use, reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. We look forward to releasing the Hardy Heron in April 2008.

    With the opening of each new release cycle of Ubuntu, we have more and more opportunity at our fingertips. Not only are our friends in the upstream world constantly innovating and extending their applications and software, but the Ubuntu community continues to see incredible growth in its diverse range of areas such as packaging, development, documentation, quality assurance, translations, LoCo teams and more. Each new release gives us all an opportunity to shine, irrespective of which bricks in the project we are laying, and this is at the heart of our belief - working together to produce an Operating System that will empower its users and shape the IT industry, putting free software at the corner-stone of our direction.

    Most people only ever see the end-user view of Ubuntu, running it on their desktops, servers and mobile devices around the world. For these users, Ubuntu provides a simple, convenient means to do what they want to do easily, effectively and without unnecessary complexity. For many of us though, we want to open up the hood and understand how the system works and how to extend and grow it. Thousands of us get out of bed every day, united behind Ubuntu, ready to make a difference, working together to make our vision happen.

    Importantly, our ethos of collaboration and freedom extends to the development process as well as the end product. As such, the Ubuntu development process is a very open, transparent one, and anyone is welcome to get involved. It works like this:

            * Everyone is welcome to think of and develop ideas for features that could be present in the Hardy Heron release. These ideas are written as specifications (detailed documents outlining how the idea would work and be implemented). You are welcome to add your specifications to https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu.
            * In October 2007, we will hold the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and generate a schedule of sessions to discuss these specifications. The sessions provide a means for interested parties to help scope out the proposed feature and determine methods and plans to implement it. The Ubuntu Developer Summit is a semi-virtual event in which those who cannot attend can dial in with VoIP and use IRC and collaborative editing with Gobby to take part in the summit.

    Everyone is welcome to participate, everyone is welcome to get involved, and everyone is welcome to help shape the form of the Hardy Heron. Let's work together to shake things up, make things happen and make the most compelling Ubuntu release yet. Start your engines...

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
    1. Re:Before the site is slashdotted... by ed.mps · · Score: 1

      thanks, it's already slashdotted.

      --
      !sig
    2. Re:Before the site is slashdotted... by balster+neb · · Score: 1

      Already slashdotted. Editors, a better link to the text would have been this one on the Ubuntu mailing list.

  9. Second Runner Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess Hardly Heroin wasn't an option.

  10. And hurts Ubuntu by ACS+Solver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've said it before and say it again... these silly names are hurting Ubuntu. When you need to convince a boss that installing Ubuntu on office computers is the way to go, you'd need a more professional sounding name. "Windows XP" or "BeOS 5" sounds fine. But "Ubuntu Hardy Heron" does not. Sure you can use the 7.10 number, but it seems that the Ubuntu community prefers not to use the numbers, and these silly names actually crop up within the OS more.

    1. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by cyberkahn · · Score: 1, Redundant

      I concur. Hear!!!! Hear!!!!!!

    2. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by nuzak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > Sure you can use the 7.10 number

      They do. On the front page of ubuntu.com. The only place I know of where they show up programmatically is in sources.list.

      Anyway, corporate only cares when they're reselling. You saying it's hurting Ubuntu doesn't present any actual evidence that it is, and the bald assertion is hardly new or insightful.

      --
      Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
    3. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by solevita · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      the Ubuntu community
      The "Ubuntu community", whoever that vague generalisation applies to, is not in your office. If you don't like the code names used for Ubuntu releases, why not use the version number? If your whole argument fails because someone else uses a different, perhaps silly, name for the software you want to install, then maybe your argument wasn't particularly strong in the first place. But you can always blame the naming for your failures...
    4. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by hhlost · · Score: 5, Informative

      I develop a medical database that requires a server to be installed locally, for security reasons. I try to convince the hospitals to let me use Ubuntu instead of MS Windows for obvious reasons, but so far have been unsuccessful. My latest attempt was thwarted, at least in part, when the IT staff had a good laugh at the "Feisty Fawn" name.

    5. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by nuzak · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm inclined to agree with the other respondent: the problem was not the name.

      Why Ubuntu on the server anyway? For support? Vanilla debian would do just as well otherwise.

      --
      Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
    6. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 0, Troll

      I dunno. Windows Ex-pee doesn't really sound that professional to me.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    7. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by quanticle · · Score: 0, Troll

      How is "Gutsy Gibbon" or "Feisty Fawn" more silly than "Longhorn" or "Whistler" or "Blackcomb" ?

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    8. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by somegeekynick · · Score: 1

      Well, when talking to your boss, don't use the code name. If you're boss is already a member of the Ubuntu community, then I see no problem at all.

    9. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by nukem996 · · Score: 1

      If you neeed a server and want something really secure you should be pushing Redhat, CentOS(free version of Redhat), or Fedora. All very secure with SELinux enabled by default, and very mature. I'm currently doing medical research and its all on Fedora.

    10. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by howlingmadhowie · · Score: 1
      here's a list:

      code name --- release name
      • warty warthog --- 4.10
      • hoary hedgehog --- 5.04
      • breezy badger --- 5.10
      • dapper drake --- 6.06
      • edgy eft --- 6.10
      • feisty fawn --- 7.04
      let me guess, at the moment you're using a springboard-whidbey combo?
    11. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by RockoTDF · · Score: 0, Troll

      I'm sure that "Longhorn" sounded equally convincing at one point....

      --
      There is more to science than physics!

      www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
    12. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by popejeremy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If a "professional" IT department is going to choose software based on who has the best name, they're already fucked.

    13. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by 6Yankee · · Score: 1

      these silly names are hurting Ubuntu

      I doubt we can prove that one way or the other, but "Edgy Eft" really left me going, "Huh?"

      One meaning of "edgy" is "on edge, unstable" - not the kind of thing you want associated with your OS!

      And as for "eft", well, WTF? I had to look it up.

    14. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by zlogic · · Score: 1

      And did they find Windows "Longhorn" funny? Especially when the logo was some kind of bull/cow? Or for example Photoshop 6 had the codename "Venus in furs" and a crazy looking cat as the mascot. Not to mention easter eggs which are common even in commercial software.
      I think Ubuntu is more serious than for example these guys from HP: http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/forums/thread/1 10484.aspx

    15. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by toleraen · · Score: 2, Funny

      I dunno, FreeBSD is pretty decent from what I hear.

    16. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by kebes · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's really too bad, because obviously important tech decisions should not be made based on the product name. If the product does the job, then that's what should matters. Besides, many software names sound goofy until you get used to them--I'm sure some people thought "Dreamweaver" was a rather ambiguous and strange-sounding name, but once it attains mindshare, the name gains the appropriate recognition. Same goes for "Powerpoint," "Photoshop," "Apache," and so on.

      Besides, as others have pointed out, the discussion should not have gotten to "Feisty Fawn" in any case. That would be like discounting Windows Vista because "Longhorn" sounds silly. "Longhorn" was a pre-release code-name, with the final release called "Windows Vista." Similarly, "Feisty Fawn" is a pre-release code-name, with the final release called "Ubuntu 7.04."

      I don't want to insult your coworkers, but as far as I'm concerned, allowing jokes about a product name to cloud one's technical judgment is not at all professional. And I really don't think the solution is to refrain from using pre-release code-names (which are helpful to the programmers)... because people making unprofessional judgments will just focus their baseless ridicule on something else (icons, artwork, color scheme, website, forums, personalities of people involved, etc.).

    17. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      If a "professional" IT department is going to choose software based on who has the best name, they're already gored in the posterior by a longhorn .
      There, fixed it for you.
    18. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by admdrew · · Score: 1

      Apples to oranges, my friend; Longhorn, Whistler, and Blackcomb were all internal project names for unreleased software, and aren't officially used on release versions (though I think I remember there being some Whistler references still present in XP).

    19. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      When you need to convince a boss that installing Ubuntu on office computers is the way to go, you'd need a more professional sounding name. "Windows XP" or "BeOS 5" sounds fine. But "Ubuntu Hardy Heron" does not. Is that the same boss that laughed at you when you told him that his server needed more "RAM"?

      "There there, ACS Solver, we'll get you all the RAM you need, Mary get me the local farm, ACS Solver wants more rams."
    20. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 1

      No more stupid than Leopard or Tiger.

    21. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by LiquidFire_HK · · Score: 1

      Because Longhorn sounds so much more professional.

    22. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Ephemeriis · · Score: 1

      I develop a medical database that requires a server to be installed locally, for security reasons. I try to convince the hospitals to let me use Ubuntu instead of MS Windows for obvious reasons, but so far have been unsuccessful. My latest attempt was thwarted, at least in part, when the IT staff had a good laugh at the "Feisty Fawn" name.

      I really have to wonder a bit why you were recommending Ubuntu for a server, especially since you sound so dubious about their naming conventions. Regular Debian would perform at least as well as Ubuntu...RedHat/CentOS/Fedora are also popular choices for business...and there's always SuSE...
      --
      "Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
    23. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by gomadtroll · · Score: 1

      First its Linux, if they don't know what that is then your screwed anyway. Second if Linux is acceptable then try 'Ubuntu', versions really don't mean that much except to the admin.

    24. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Short answer: I think the distro name has nothing to do with it.

      The IT staff are more likely to want to keep you on MS Windows for other reasons than the particular name that the Ubuntu distribution uses.

              1) If they have an all-Windows deployment now, that means that they likely don't have
                  the staff (or interest) in having to deal with multiple desktop OS's.
              2) HIPAA compliance issues.
              3) Because they're control freaks (this isn't news -- what IT department doesn't have
                  some of that?)
              4) Possible complications with IT infrastructure. [Is Ubuntu going to log into the
                  Windows Domain Controller and run the login scripts and mount network drives? Etc.]
              5) Because you asked for it, and the default answer is "no" because the IT department
                  is overloaded with work as it is (which is typical)

      But rather than explain any of these things, it's a LOT easier for them to say "NO" and make fun of the Ubuntu distribution name. The added benefit is that you're left with the impression that that's the problem and are thus diverted away from actually asking more questions that are tough to answer.

    25. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The name thing is not a joke. Especially when you have developed applications for corporate and their biggest concern is the color. Decisions OFTEN are made based on the wrong things but that's life with people who don't know the technology. I personally don't like the corny names anyway.

    26. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by pato101 · · Score: 1
      Sure, since Debian releases take so long that their names get lost in the memory of time. Their names are nevertheless professionally biased as well (woody, potato, sarge ...). :P

      PS: I agree with your points, but couldn't help making the joke.

    27. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by owlstead · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They've got their uses. If I look for a problem specific to a version of Ubuntu, the Google searches are much more precise than when I just use the version number.

    28. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by xenocide2 · · Score: 1

      While it's pretty unprofessional and juvenile to dismiss software because the name sounds silly, I have to say, if you want a database running on a server, maybe Feisty's short support commitment is not the best option? Dapper is supported for 5 years on servers, while feisty will be over in a year. You've failed to give the most convincing argument that Ubuntu should be deployed for your needs, especially in terms of things IT cares about. I don't think IT would go for it, even if the code name was "Virgin Fucker" or "Indiscriminate Fire" or something else appropriately masculine.

      --
      I Browse at +4 Flamebait

      Open Source Sysadmin

    29. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by mifunevalentine · · Score: 1
      ...because "Longhorn" sounds silly.

      I work for the University of Texas System, and it doesn't sound silly to me, you insensitive clod!

    30. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Cecil · · Score: 1

      RedHat/CentOS/Fedora are also popular choices for business

      Yeah, much to my dismay. At least with Debian/Ubuntu you don't have to worry about your subscription running out and suddenly not being able to install software anymore without paying more money. Also, up2date is a train wreck. You can't even upgrade your python version on the system without up2date breaking. It also has only a tiny subset of the software packages available in Ubuntu. Why does anyone use it? I don't get it.

    31. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by boris111 · · Score: 1

      I think it's a problem with Linux in general. How does any non-Linux person give credibility when they see "GIMP". Makes me think of Pulp Fiction: "Bring out the Gimp!" Part of Feisty Fawn's default installation. I'd like to see Linux in the mainstream, but some of the names in the default applications are painful looking to me.

      Granted MAC puts 'i' in front of every damned thing and it's golden.

    32. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Tribbin · · Score: 1

      Well, I seem to better remember my past experiences with Ubuntu by the names.

      Three years from now I will not remember what my experience was with 5.10. But I surely will remember how Breezy was.

      --
      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    33. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by SunTzuWarmaster · · Score: 1

      I hope that they never drop the naming convention. When google-searching for why my wireless drivers and Philips Gogear don't work (I had XP when I got them, not my fault!), it is FAR easier to find someone else running Feisty Fawn than it is to find a kernel version number.

    34. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by nxtw · · Score: 1

      Who still calls Vista "Longhorn"? Hardly anyone.

      Who still refers to Ubuntu 7.04 as "Feisty Fawn"? Quite a few people. Like Ubuntu's ShipIt page. The download URLs for packages and ISOs say "Feisty". It's often referred to by users as "Feisty".
      But I haven't ran into anyone that says they're using "Longhorn" when they are really using Vista or Windows Server 2008.

    35. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by jon_anderson_ca · · Score: 1

      While the repos may use the names "feisty", "gutsy", etc., I'm pretty sure that those are only "supposed" to be development names. Once a release is, well, released, it's known as 7.04, 7.10, etc.

      When Edgy went from development to release, for instance, I noticed that my console login went from "Ubuntu Edgy" to "Ubuntu 6.10".

    36. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I don't think the name is the problem. Your IT department is clearly staffed by twats.

    37. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      If a "professional" IT department is going to choose software based on who has the best name, they're already fucked.

      But, just remember ... they need to go to their bosses and request purchasing/allocating a box to run this on. They may have to have formal architecture documents describing the name and version of the software. They may have to go to meetings with stern looking people with no sense of humour. Explaining to some suit why your software has such a stupid name isn't fun; and it makes it sound like a game instead of a real, solid, ready-for-prime-time OS.

      If you really believe that a corporation isn't going to look at a name like "Feisty Fawn" or "Hairy Hardon" and NOT blow a gasket, you maybe have never worked in a large organization. It sounds totally unprofessional. Alliteration is cute, but cute isn't what companies like.

      They're not choosing it based on who has the 'best' name. They're just really reluctant to use something which has an absurd sounding name because it sounds like a toy. Outside of Linux advocates, such names are actually rather quite silly. It is a fair point to observe that organizations might balk at them. Quite frankly, every time I see an Ubuntu story, I usually roll my eyes at the names. Call it "Tally Whacker" and see where you get.

      They can call it whatever they like, but it doesn't detract from the fact that pitching it within a conservative organization isn't always going to fly. I'm not even the slightest surprised that trying to get an IT department to use it encounters resistance -- even when I know what it is, I still shake my head and wonder why they called it that.

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    38. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by poopie · · Score: 1

      If you are actually trying to convince your boss to install BeOS 5 at work, then I'm afraid we can't help you.

      As to silly names... everyone deals with codenames for products and projects. I don't mind that. I do think perhaps Canonical should do more to emphasize the LTS releases.

      Perhaps retroactively brand 6.06 / Edgy Eft as Enterprise Ubuntu 1? Call Hoary Heron ... Enterprise Ubuntu 2?

      As to naming hurting Ubuntu adoption... I'm not sure I could say "hoary" at my work to a mixed audience without getting reprimanded by HR.

      Personally, I sort of like the fun names, but... could they be just a little less oblique?
      Instead of Icosahedral Imp maybe something more like itchy iguana.
      Instead of kinky koodoo maybe something more like kicking kangaroo.

    39. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by quanticle · · Score: 1

      Apples to oranges, my friend; Longhorn, Whistler, and Blackcomb were all internal project names for unreleased software

      And Gutsy Gibbon is an internal name too. The official name of the release is Ubuntu Linux 7.10. Its just that Ubuntu is an open-source project so everyone knows the code name at the start, and we don't have to wait for some insider to leak it to the press.

      Heck I still hear the occasional reference to Vista as "Longhorn", so this phenomenon is not solely limited to Ubuntu.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    40. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by LingNoi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Redhat, co are Grandpa's old distros. We use Ubuntu at work and it is much easier to manage because I already run it on the desktop.

    41. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Knuckles · · Score: 2, Informative

      And who prevents him calling in this documents by its official name, Ubuntu 7.04? Or is he selling Windows Longhorn in these docs, too?

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    42. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by popejeremy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Likewise, if a company organizes itself to allow people with no expertize in IT to make critical IT decisions, they're setting themselves up to be fucked, hard.

    43. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've said it before and say it again... these silly names are hurting Ubuntu. When you need to convince a boss that installing Ubuntu on office computers is the way to go, you'd need a more professional sounding name.
      And? Ubuntu is aimed at the home market, as its emphasis on a friendly image shows. If you want a professional-sounding Linux, go for one of the distros that target big business, like RHEL.
    44. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by nuzak · · Score: 4, Informative

      Firefox has a component named "libpr0n". It's developed by an organization named Mozilla (which also develops a full suite named Seamonkey), and the fundamental basis of its UI technology uses an XML namespace defined by a uri of, get ready for it, http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there. is.only.xul

      If you are in the business of reselling a distribution, you may have a point. If you cannot sufficiently hide the development names of pieces of your system from dour humourless micromanagers, then you cannot do your job, full stop. This may or may not be your fault, but it's hardly a reason to keep dragging out the same tired old "the name is too silly" argument. Serious people take Mark Shuttleworth seriously, and it's not just because he has money.

      --
      Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
    45. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      Alliteration is cute, but cute isn't what companies like.
      I dunno, it seems to work just fine for Rational Rose.

      Anyway, who cares about companies? Ubuntu is Linux for human beings, not Linux for big soul-sucking corporations. They can use big soul-sucking distros like Red Hat and SuSE that have reassuring words like "Enterprise" in their name, and come with comfortably expensive support contracts. And Ubuntu will continue to thrive on the home desktop, which is the niche it happens to fill best.
    46. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Kjella · · Score: 1

      If you don't have any real arguments, you use an ad hominem attack. They might as well argue it's a hippie OS run by geeks living in their mom's basement. Or that nobody would give away something that's actually useful. Or the possibility of some unspecified patent violations and legal uncertainty. It wouldn't be true either but it's not like that matters. And there's always some ad hominem attack to use if they want to, they can check Microsoft's get the FUD site if they aren't very creative. Removing the code name isn't going to make one bit of difference.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    47. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by pugugly · · Score: 1

      I'm cool with that. Because, we're not a conservative organization, we're test-running Ubuntu now, it's working great, and we can kill them with it.

      Next - to convince conservative organizations that using "Google" offend their dignity!

      Pug

      --
      An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
    48. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by smellsofbikes · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >If a "professional" IT department is going to choose software based on who has the best name, they're already fucked.

      People vote for the guy with more hair. Taller men are paid more. People vote against stem cell research funding if their voting place is in a church, and vote for school funding taxes if their polling place is in a school.

      Here are precisely all of your options: expect other people to be 100% rational and spend your life disappointed, or realize that people are primarily emotional and consistently make choices based on motivations they themselves don't understand and work to capitalize on that.
      In other words: study advertising and marketing. They're not about choosing software based on the best name. Go ask half a dozen kids "if you go into graphics advertising, which job do you think will pay more, one where you use a program called 'photoshop' or one where you use one called 'the gimp'" and you'll find out something about perception and how it affects behavior. If a person doesn't have good metrics, the person will use whatever metrics are at hand to make a judgment. It is not unreasonable to expect that even with good metrics, people will still tend to use prima facie evidence to make decisions.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    49. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by admdrew · · Score: 1

      The difference between the Ubuntu code names and the Windows ones lies with their intention and use after release.

      The Ubuntu names are branded and visible in the OS after release, and are considered 'official' names.

      In contrast, the Microsoft OSes contain no official mention of their codenames after public release, nor are they intended to be used in any official capacity.

    50. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by popejeremy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      OK. Good point. Now the question is: Why should the Ubuntu organization put any effort whatsoever into convincing irrational people to use their operating system? They're not selling anything. Advertising is for a company that wants to convince irrational people to buy their product so that they can make lots of money. Ubuntu doesn't want to make lots of money. Based on Ubuntu's actions, I'm guessing it's enough for them to make a great system and then let the people who are smart enough to appreciate it enjoy it.

    51. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Eponymous+Bastard · · Score: 1

      I've said it before and say it again... these silly names are hurting Ubuntu. When you need to convince a boss that installing Ubuntu on office computers is the way to go, you'd need a more professional sounding name. "Windows XP" or "BeOS 5" sounds fine. But "Ubuntu Hardy Heron" does not. Sure you can use the 7.10 number, but it seems that the Ubuntu community prefers not to use the numbers, and these silly names actually crop up within the OS more. What about Mac OS X's Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, etc?

      Yes, the adjective sounds stupid, but it's not unheard of to have additional names. Just point to the manager's computer next time someone laughs.
    52. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by EXrider · · Score: 1

      You might as well point out how "professional" the annoying cartoon dog found in the search dialogs of Windows XP is. Or, how about the beloved Clippy?

      --
      grep -iw skynet /etc/services
    53. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by WindBourne · · Score: 1
      Are you selling it to them? Then this is an easy sell.

      1. Charge more for the windows version. And you should. It costs more.
      2. have them sign a release for installing it into windows, in particular, make sure the release has all the info about the security issue associated with Windows. Basically, you want to be absolved of all liabilities for doing windows. Once they are FULLY responsible for the platform choice, it tends to temper even the idiot.
      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    54. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by smellsofbikes · · Score: 1

      I start off by apologizing for my unwarranted crabbiness: I'm in the middle of fighting exactly this fight at work and it sucks. We, by which I mean open-source advocates, are losing business and credibility because we don't have focus groups, and while it galls me more than I can say, I don't think we *can* win hearts/minds without market research.

      You're entirely right, and that's what sucks: linux is by people who are doing it for fun, for people who are doing it for fun, and the only reason to be all serious and markety about it is if you want to take over the world. They don't. But it hurts everyone, by association. I'm not saying shareware developers have any obligation towards giving things serious, boring names, but boy would it make things easier trying to get them accepted by people who claim to only be interested in results, but are actually strongly influenced by appearances.

      I work in engineering. Many or most of the engineers drive either home-hopped-up Japanese or German sports cars, modified jeeps, or old used Japanese cars they've rebuilt. The managers? drive big new American sedans. Engineers don't mind using something that has wires hanging out and smells like gasoline. Managers pay for things they don't mind other managers seeing them drive. Same goes with software. It sucks.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    55. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by popejeremy · · Score: 1

      Eh, it sounds like you have a lot to be crabby about. All I'm saying is (and it sound like you agree) put the blame where it belongs. Blame the people who are making the stupid decisions, not the smart people like the ones who put together Ubuntu who simply don't care to be sheep herders and babysitters.

    56. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 0, Troll

      Ubuntu is Linux for human beings,

      You mean like how it's about liberation from proprietary software (except when the install is so badly engineered that they tell you to just "go find your Windows disc"). Yeah, expect those principles to die out pretty quickly when you actually call their bluff...

    57. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

      This is not directed at the parent, per se.
      I have to wonder do people presenting Ubuntu to management refer to "M$ Winblows" or "MEsta" in their comparisons to the competition? How much more professional is "Longhorn" for a multi-year development project? Why would any presentation to a PHB include anything but the professional reference of Ubuntu GNU/Linuxw v7.10 (or more properly for extended business use 5.10 LTS). Why would development project names for any alpha/beta platform have a place in "selling" a change to the suits.
      I would also have to ask if the naming is such a hot button, is there something uncromulent about CentOS 5.0 as an alternative?

      --
      There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
    58. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Alioth · · Score: 1

      It's certainly better than the name Microsoft Axapta (which sounds like the sound a toy raygun makes, and no one knows how to spell if they've only heard it spoken).

    59. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by nukem996 · · Score: 1

      At my university the CS department, which I am an admin at, just switched from Gentoo to Ubuntu. On my desktop and laptop I run Gentoo. For the last four years or so I've ran Fedora on my grandparents computer and it gives me no trouble. I run Fedora while doing research because its very secure, easy to manage, and is the only officially supported distro by IBM for the Cell Processor.

    60. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Karzz1 · · Score: 1

      I cannot vouch for Fedora, but I have to agree with the problems you are referring to with regard to RedHat (well that, and I am still pissed about how they ended by support contract prematurely immediately following the release of RH9). That is why I use CentOS almost exclusively, with yum rather than up2date. As far as all those packages you are missing is concerned, I have had extremely good luck with the rpmforge repository.

      --
      Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
    61. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by StikyPad · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, I'm sure Symantec wouldn't have any problems if they renamed their product to CockBlocker Deluxe.

      A good name won't necessarily win, but a bad name will always lose.

    62. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by malkavian · · Score: 1

      Interesting; I work in a Hospital too.. And we have a goodly many small firewalls in departments that are cheap PCs with dual network cards and Ubuntu on them.
      They love it. Got a couple of DB servers (MySQL/PostgreSQL) on Ubuntu.. Our Disaster Recovery systems monitors are all on Ubuntu.
      Fair enough, we use SLES for higher profile stuff, like the Oracle servers/Identity Manager, but Ubuntu works nicely and easily.

      Saves a fortune in licensing fees, and lets the money go back where it's really needed, patient care.
      At least in the NHS in England, there's no major agreement for server operating systems with MS. So, SLES and Oracle (which there's a great agreement on) save us boat loads of cash. Ubuntu just adds happiness to the mix.

    63. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by couchslug · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      "Cute" = "Fscking Stupid", not just unprofessional.

      There is no level of scorn harsh enough for these fvcktarded release names. I'd like to see the people who pick them named and shamed for the damage they are doing to Linux adoption.

      Dear readers, unless you are doing childrens software where "cute" helps marketing, please avoid cutesy names for anything.
      Should you be tempted, ask a good friend to punch you in the throat until that temptation fades.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    64. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "I don't want to insult your coworkers, but as far as I'm concerned, allowing jokes about a product name to cloud one's technical judgment is not at all professional."

      PHBs and co-workers don't always think that way.
      Since there is absolutely no reason not to use names that help marketing, what is the point? Stupid product names are only appropriate in certain markets. If we want to encourage Linux adoption, understanding the market isn't a bad way to start.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    65. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by nuzak · · Score: 1

      > I'd like to see the people who pick them named and shamed for the damage they are doing to Linux adoption.

      That would be one Mark Richard Shuttleworth. I think he's too busy in meetings with Dell and HP to talk to you right now, but I'll make sure he gets the message.

      --
      Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
    66. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Delkster · · Score: 1

      If the version numbering were better, I don't think the code names would matter so much. The numbering based on release dates is only useful for those who know when the releases were done in the first place, and for most other people version numbers like 6.06 are only confusing -- not to mention that some people will take the liberty to consider 7.04 equal to 7.4 and others, a lot more erringly, consider 7.10 the same as 7.1. Whoops, the releases just changed their mutual order. Version numbers like 2.0 would be a lot easier to remember as well.

      The code names could be whatever if they weren't actually used practically every time versions or releases are discussed. People might opt for using the version numbers instead if they weren't so damn complex.

    67. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by ChrisA90278 · · Score: 1

      If the name is a problem why would you keep suggesting ubuntu? For a server it hardly matters which distribution you use. If they like "Big Names" why not suggest Solaris. Doesn't Oracle have a linux distribution now? Or Red Hat Enterprise Server?

      Once they agree to Linux/UNIX then you can do thetrad studies and see which is best.

    68. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by jhol13 · · Score: 1

      Maybe, just maybe, they are only avoiding, consciously or unconsciously, those with a bad name. I know I would.

    69. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by jdub! · · Score: 1

      Why did you mention it?

      When Ubuntu ships, references to the codenames cease, except in community discussion and sources.list. They're just not relevant outside the scope of enthusiast discussion and the development process.

      Next time, just call it "Ubuntu". Or, if for whatever reason the specific release is relevant to your client, call it "Ubuntu 6.06 LTS" (or appropriate).

    70. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by ACS+Solver · · Score: 1

      On an Ubuntu system, open the "About Ubuntu" help dialog. If I recall correctly, it says something like "Welcome to Ubuntu 7.04, also known as Feisty Fawn".

      In addition, other websites refer to versions by these names. The Skype Linux download page says "Feisty Fawn (7.04)". The Automatix pages are similar. Fortunately, most sites use name as well as the number, but releases are certainly know also by their names after being released. Whether the developers intended it so is another question.

    71. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by couchslug · · Score: 1

      He funds the project. As to the release names, he may or may not choose those. It would be interesting to really know.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    72. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by popejeremy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would buy Cockblocker Deluxe, based on the name alone.

    73. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Hucko · · Score: 1

      Yes, Windows Vista Premium/Ultimate sounds like a real professional name and not some stupid marketing research that was more applicable back when Terminator 2 was in cinemas...

      Come on, Windows is a stupid name for software. Just as stupid as Gimp (and I love Gimp). When we start seeing cars called Steering Wheel Wool Cover maybe Ill start to reconsider my opinion of software names.

      Hmmm... My quotes and apostrophes arent being displayed ...
      --
      Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
    74. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by pclminion · · Score: 1

      Completely to the contrary -- it speaks volumes that these folks are unable to come up with a legitimate, descriptive name. It makes one wonder if their code is also full of stupid variables names, pointless, unfunny "joke" comments, or any of the other stuff you typically see in code written by adolescents.

      Names are IMPORTANT. They aren't just arbitrary tags. Choosing goofy names makes the entire Ubuntu team appear... goofy. Who the hell wants software written by a bunch of goofs?

    75. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by EvilRyry · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Few reasons I'm considering moving my business servers to Ubuntu...

      -I've had much fewer bugs in Ubuntu server installs than with Debian Etch. Bugs seem to get patched faster as well.
      -Software is more up to date
      -3rd party Ubuntu debs are becoming increasingly popular

    76. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Troll? Come on, the parent makes a good point in saying that a lot of code names sound ridiculous!

    77. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      Indeed,
      Dale Carnegie courses teach that 90% of an argument is emotional and only 10% logical in many cases.

      A lot of time the decision is just arbitrary.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    78. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "Names are IMPORTANT."

      Man, you got me.

      I'm going right now to start a model using my Rational Rose, which I'll feed with a lot of to-the-point data from Google, taking advantage of the synergies only my shiny Longhorn OS can give, so no valid idea is lost through the Windows.

      Uh... And I somehow will use a mouse to tame all that power at my fingertips.

    79. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "He funds the project."

      And he does so for a reason.

      "As to the release names, he may or may not choose those. It would be interesting to really know."

      Maybe it would be interesting for a f* retard. Anyone else already knows that Shuttleworth's answer if he thought that Ubuntu's naming conventions are hurting his bussiness plans wouldn't be "but, what can I do? after all, I only fund the project!"

    80. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "For a server it hardly matters which distribution you use."

      How can anyone say such a thing? On a desktop? Yeah, it really doesn't matter which distribution you use. All of them leave place enough to tweak it and get the result you wanted. And even if it's more work than expected/wanted, you just weep it out and start again, no problem.

      But a server? Once you deploy a server you usually have to stand for it for three or more years; any minor unsuitability gets then multiplied; and it's no fun to redeploy a complex system a lot of people depends on, so you are in all practicality tied to it.

      I do sysadmining for a living, and I know I usually don't care too much about my desktop distribution as long as it has the tools I usually manage (and I'd say almost anyone would fit that goal). But I know there are hugh differences regarding which OS (which Linux distribution, in this case) the servers run.

    81. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with "Hardy Heron"? I mean... I guess someone might exist who doesn't know what a Heron is, but...

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    82. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      Try this: Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and find a reference to "Feisty Fawn" in the marketing material for the release version (rather than the old dev documents in the Wiki). There may be a slip or two, but I couldn't find one in a couple minutes of looking. Generally the development code names are only used for development.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    83. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      How does any non-Linux person give credibility when they see "GIMP". Makes me think of Pulp Fiction: "Bring out the Gimp!" Part of Feisty Fawn's default installation.

      The menu item is "GIMP Image Editor". All caps indicates an acronym. I doubt anyone even gives it a second thought.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    84. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "The Ubuntu names are branded and visible in the OS after release,"

      I challenge your assertion. Please go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and tell where do you see the "feisty fauns and friends". All I can see is "Ubuntu Desktop Edition" and "Ubuntu Server Edition". The "Download Now!" button friendly explains me I'll go for "Ubuntu 7.04 The power of free software. On your laptop, desktop and server. Smart. Secure. Easy". They go further and explain me how long Ubuntu 7.04 and/or Ubuntu 6.06 LTS will be supported.

      But then, they have a "search" box. If I explicitly intro "feisty" on it all references are about test releases or clearly indicate it as a nickname after the release number (just like you'll find Microsoft Windows XP "Whistler" or Microsoft Windows Vista "Longhorn").

      On the other hand, I don't remember seing the codename neither on Ubuntu's installer nor on the default desktop.

      "In contrast, the Microsoft OSes contain no official mention of their codenames after public release"

      Just go to http://www.msdn.com/ and search for "longhorn".

      The truth is that Ubuntu makes no more "official mention" to their distribution's codenames nor they are any more "intended to be used in any official capacity" than Microsoft's.

    85. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      Your IT department has never heard of Ubuntu? Wow, I have seriously overestimated the intelligence of sysadmins, I guess.

    86. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by pclminion · · Score: 1

      'm going right now to start a model using my Rational Rose, which I'll feed with a lot of to-the-point data from Google, taking advantage of the synergies only my shiny Longhorn OS can give, so no valid idea is lost through the Windows.

      I didn't say that names must necessarily be meaningful. But is a little elegance too much to ask? There's a huge aesthetic gap between "Rational Rose" and "Hardy Heron."

    87. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by WK2 · · Score: 1

      ...these silly names are hurting Ubuntu...Sure you can use the 7.10 number, but it seems that the Ubuntu community prefers not to use the numbers, and these silly names actually crop up within the OS more.

      Yes, we should alienate Ubuntu's current customers, who prefer the silly names, so that we can acquire hypothetical corporate customers, who will only use the product with the best name.

      --
      Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
    88. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by jimmyharris · · Score: 1

      You know that CentOS is a completely free version of Red Hat, don't you? There's no subscription or any other charge involved and you get all the updates that Red Hat packages, normally only a day or so later than Red Hat releases them.

      As of version 5, Red Hat has (thankfully) dropped up2date and replaced it with Yum. I think even Red Hat themselves hated up2date.

      As for why people use up2date - speaking for myself, because it's the only was to use the Red Hat Network (RHN) for pre-RHEL5 systems. We have a local RHN proxy server which connects via VPN from Australia to our RHN satellite server in Germany and allows us to test all patches before rolling them out for worldwide release. You can't get that kind of "enterprise" management from Debian/Ubuntu - most businesses may not need it, but the large financial institution I work at certainly does and is happy to pay for it.

    89. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by torxic · · Score: 0

      Much naming the Wii. Everyone thought it was silly and Nintendo wouldn't really call it Wii.

    90. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by aqk · · Score: 1

      I've said this before-

      This is one of the reasons that IBM's "Warp" never took off.
      What kind of a major bank CIO would trust $billions to something called "warp"?

    91. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can we have that icon in cornflower blue?

    92. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by laptop006 · · Score: 1

      One meaning of "edgy" is "on edge, unstable" - not the kind of thing you want associated with your OS!
      Actually that's exactly *why* it was chosen. It was intended to be the followup to Dapper (6.06 LTS) that included many experimental features like Upstart and Compiz.
      --
      /* FUCK - The F-word is here so that you can grep for it */
    93. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Chief+Camel+Breeder · · Score: 1

      "That's really too bad, because obviously important tech decisions should not be made based on the product name. "

      Yes, but the decision isn't made on the name directly, but on the inferred professionalism of the people who chose the name. Lots of products to choose from; not enough time to test them all. Do I bother testing the one that sounds like a joke? Probably not. Incorrect conclusion, but if you don't know a priori that the Ubuntu teram are competent you wouldn't guess it from the name.

      My team uses the "bouncy-castle" Java crypto library; it's one of the better FOSS Java products. When we use it in Java-web-start apps the users sometimes get a dialogue saying "Do you want to run this component signed by The Legion of the Bouncy Castle?" They think that's the name of a cracker gang and they think "trojanized" and they click "no". The name hurts customers of BC's customers.

    94. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Project I used to work on used Star Wars names as internal codenames for various parts of the system - Luke, Leia, Vader and so on. I was planning to call the next module "Kenobi: More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine"...

    95. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > But rather than explain any of these things, it's a LOT easier for them to say "NO" and make fun of the Ubuntu distribution name. The added benefit is that you're left with the impression that that's the problem and are thus diverted away from actually asking more questions that are tough to answer.

      The problem is that these names make it awfully easy to make fun of and dismiss Ubuntu (/Linux)

      As if Feisty Fawn wasn't already embarrassing enough, they come up with Gutsy Gibbon, and now Hardy Heron?!

    96. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      My latest attempt was thwarted, at least in part, when the IT staff had a good laugh at the "Feisty Fawn" name.
      and you were planning to use a short lived ricer release for a server why exactly?

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    97. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      the debian way of dealing with patch testing would be to create a custom repositry and then install packages you download from the official repositry into the custom 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
    98. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      One meaning of "edgy" is "on edge, unstable" - not the kind of thing you want associated with your OS!
      It was a deliberate choice, edgy wasn't meant to be a particuarlly stable release those who needed stability were meant to stay on the long term support release before it. Edgy was a release for radical changes that had big potential for improvement but also big potential for breakage.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    99. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by admdrew · · Score: 1

      First, Whistler != XP, and Longhorn != Vista. Whistler and Longhorn were pre-release code names.
      Second, Feisty Fawn *is* Ubuntu 7.04.

      "In contrast, the Microsoft OSes contain no official mention of their codenames after public release"
      Just go to http://www.msdn.com/ and search for "longhorn".

      Wait, MSDN is part of the OS? Fine, then go to wiki.ubuntu.com and search for "feisty fawn".

      Is this a ridiculous argument? Sure. I'm not against having silly names for Ubuntu releases, even more so because they're not given by a marketing team intending to boost sales or PR. Nor am I against any of the MS code names; I would've been happy as a clam if they had kept the Whistler name.

    100. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by smellsofbikes · · Score: 1

      When you say "Hardy Heron" or particularly "Feisty Fawn" the first thing that leaps into many people's minds is "Mickey Mouse" and "Donald Duck". I've tried free-association tests with people to check this: y'know, "say the first thing that comes into your head when I say $x." Not scientific, I admit: *I* know what I'm asking, and I'm asking people like my grandmother and the little old lady who lives across the street.

      You're right, though: the presenter should leave codenames at home and discuss the version major/minor number. But what if the presentees are somewhat familiar with the subject? All it takes is one "oh, yeah, that's the one they call 'The GIMP', right?" and a lot of your effectiveness has just walked out the door.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    101. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by hhlost · · Score: 1

      Yes, but Windows is already installed, has been for years, they advertise like crazy and people are used to it. They are not used to, and never will be used to, "Feisty Fawn".

    102. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by smellsofbikes · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not only that, but also humans are fantastic at post-decision rationalization. We'll tell ourselves we decided something for good, logical reasons, and even make some up and convince ourselves that's why we chose things, but psychologists that spend a lot of time watching people, claim that most of the time even when people give reasons for their choices, it's likely those reasons don't have much to do with their choices.
      Another way of putting the Carnegie claim, which I base on having read books like "The Paradox Of Choice" by Barry Schwartz and the research on which Malcolm Gladwell based "Blink" is that we've probably made our decision within a tenth of a second of being offered a choice, and the rest of the time we spend choosing, is spent second-guessing and rationalizing that decision -- we're trying to decide whether an instinctive, pattern-matching, non-rational reaction was correct or not, and generally speaking, we decide it's correct.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    103. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Scarblac · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why should the Ubuntu organization put any effort whatsoever into convincing irrational people to use their operating system? They're not selling anything. Advertising is for a company that wants to convince irrational people to buy their product so that they can make lots of money. Ubuntu doesn't want to make lots of money. Based on Ubuntu's actions, I'm guessing it's enough for them to make a great system and then let the people who are smart enough to appreciate it enjoy it.

      From their About us: Ubuntu aims to be the most widely used Linux system.

      If that's their aim, then convincing irrational people to use it seems a pretty important activity.

      --
      I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
    104. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Braino420 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They're not selling anything.

      Ubuntu doesn't want to make lots of money
      This is the first I've heard of this, can you tell me how you came to these conclusions? I always thought they sold support and that Mark Shuttleworth is a venture capitalist. Looks like they're selling stuff and want to make money to me. Is it possible that maybe you were talking out of your ass? Oh, and this "Ubuntu organization" you're talking about is called Canonical (the ones that handle the money, you should look it up!).
      --
      They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
    105. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's funny Last year everybody was talking about how nintendo calling their product the wii was a bad bad name and how it was going to sink them. This year its all about how Sony and Microsoft are getting creamed by nintendo with regards to the number of consoles sold.

    106. Re:And hurts Ubuntu by Dr.+Smoove · · Score: 0

      Are you kidding? You Ubuntu fanboys are hilarious. It's pretty obvious why people use Red Hat for business (Also obvious you haven't used the distro in some time), but your last statement is what beckoned me to hit reply.

      When do you find yourself administering a Red Hat server that needs access to something that isn't in the repos? Never, your personal non-work desktop is a different beast.

      --
      "If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind."
  11. Reminds me of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Happy Harry Hard On" from the movie Pump Up The Volume. Yeah Boss we need to install Happy Harry Hard On.

  12. Spoonerish by minginqunt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ubuntu Hairy Hardo... I mean, er, Hardy Heron, was announced today to much polite coughing.

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

      *gigglesnortcoffeesquirt* You owe me a keyboard.

    2. Re:Spoonerish by Pastis · · Score: 1

      > Ubuntu Hairy Hardo...

      _comes_ with _long term support_.

      Try to sell that to your boss now...

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

      Ubuntu Hairy Hardo... I mean, er, Hardy Heron, was announced today to much polite coughing.

      This one's going to stay up for a long time too.

  13. One question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will this be the version on Ubuntu production servers, or are they going to run old, vulnerable version on them so people can compromise them?

    LOL They would be better off running Windows 2003 Server.

    1. Re:One question by Tribbin · · Score: 1

      6.06 for that. Supported since 6.06 (June 2006) 'till 2011 on servers.

      By that time you had more than enough time to switch to Hardy Heron wich will be supported till April 2013 on servers.

      And I do not mean half-ass supported.

      And I will just ignore your last statement.

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  14. Stop with the names already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    "Hardy Heron"

    This is one thing that drives me crazy about Ubuntu... these names are elitist and completely unintuitive. There is no obvious relationship between the version numbers and the names.

    Somebody on the forums many mention a solution for "Feisty", but a new Ubuntu user may not understand that the solution will work on 7.0x, but WON'T WORK on Ubuntu 6.06. In order to know that "Feisty Fawn" is Ubuntu 7.0something, I have to know Ubuntu, dig around unmaintained Wikis, look it up on Wikipedia. I shouldn't need to waste this time-- I just need to get the damn thing working.

    For example, do you see the phrase "Feisty Fawn" or "Gutsy whatever" listed anywhere on the top level support sites at ubuntu.com? No. Why not?

    https://help.ubuntu.com/
    http://www.ubuntu.com/

    Somewhere, deep in the document ion you may find a map of Names-to-versions. But if you need a map just to achieve step one, your documentation has failed.

    1. Re:Stop with the names already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And Windows XP is related to what exactly as a version name?

    2. Re:Stop with the names already! by Random832 · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is one thing that drives me crazy about Ubuntu... these names are elitist and completely unintuitive. There is no obvious relationship between the version numbers and the names. Well, at least recently they collate in the same order

      Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)
      Ubuntu 6.04 (Dapper Drake)
      Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)
      Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
      Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
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    3. Re:Stop with the names already! by middlemen · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

      Don't you mean Goatse Gibbon !!

    4. Re:Stop with the names already! by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 1

      Here's a collection of the code names matched up with version numbers (though, as already pointed out, the fact that the code names slowly move up the alphabet is a pretty good indicator):

    5. Re:Stop with the names already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If by elitist you mean lame, then yes, I agree. Personally I was sorry they scrapped Ubuntu 5.20, the Crusty Crotch...

    6. Re:Stop with the names already! by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      What happened to the "C" version? And was there ever an "A" version?

      Also, what will they do when they hit "Q"?

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    7. Re:Stop with the names already! by Alter_3d · · Score: 0

      Well, at least recently they collate in the same order Should we expect Idiot Iguana, Jackass Jaguar and Kinky Koala?
    8. Re:Stop with the names already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only since Dapper Drake. The early versions were

      Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)
      Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog)

      and I wouldn't say the sequence started with Breezy Badger since they skipped "C".

    9. Re:Stop with the names already! by imbaczek · · Score: 1

      Quiet Quadruped.

    10. Re:Stop with the names already! by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 1

      Gutsy Gibbon? What about Glitchy Goat? It sounds more applicable at this stage of development.

      --
      The game.
    11. Re:Stop with the names already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahh, but you're forgetting the first release: "Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)". That's going to really confuse new users in 2015 when they skip from V to X, and the W release is ancient! :P Plus, the second release was "Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog)".

    12. Re:Stop with the names already! by Hatta · · Score: 1

      For example, do you see the phrase "Feisty Fawn" or "Gutsy whatever" listed anywhere on the top level support sites at ubuntu.com? No. Why not?

      Because they're code names. Do you see "Long Horn" anywhere on microsoft.com?

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      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    13. Re:Stop with the names already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quixotic Quahog.

    14. Re:Stop with the names already! by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 1

      Windows NT kernel version 5.1

      --
      The game.
    15. Re:Stop with the names already! by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 1

      Try these on for size:

      Amorous Antelope
      Crusty Carp

      --
      The game.
    16. Re:Stop with the names already! by glwtta · · Score: 1

      Jackass Jaguar

      That one might cause confusion. Fitting though.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    17. Re:Stop with the names already! by glwtta · · Score: 1

      Qualified Quail?

      That could actually work, I think...

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    18. Re:Stop with the names already! by unapersson · · Score: 1

      Quirky Quail

    19. Re:Stop with the names already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But then why are the code names used in dozens of places within Ubuntu?

      Is there a '7.10' repository? No. There is a 'Breezy' repository.

    20. Re:Stop with the names already! by Dusty101 · · Score: 1

      OK, gonna feed this troll...

      "In order to know that "Feisty Fawn" is Ubuntu 7.0something,"

      Shock horror! A trivial Google search for:

      Ubuntu 7.04

      (without even using speech marks)

      produces a search with the third result having the following entry:

      Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
      ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso 15-Apr-2007 14:52 698M Desktop CD for PC (Intel ...
      ubuntu-7.04-server-i386.iso 15-Apr-2007 15:59 492M Server install CD for PC ...
      releases.ubuntu.com/feisty/ - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

      A Google search for

      Ubuntu Feisty

      also givess similarly helpful results.

      Hardly a lot of work for anyone. Even the proverbial Aunt Tilly can do that...

  15. Apparmor rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't care what anyone with a clue says about path-based security, ubuntu developers know best!

    That and the inclusion of mono basically remove it from serious consideration.

  16. More bad news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    No sooner does Yahoo report that worldwide illegal drug use isn't growing for the first time since drug prohibition started producing illegal drug use in the mid 19th century, then slashdot reports that Ubuntu Hardy Heroin is Announced!

    Damned drug smuggling penguins...

  17. Nah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I think I'll hold out for "Incontinent Iguana."

    1. Re:Nah by thegnu · · Score: 1

      I think I'll hold out for "Incontinent Iguana."
      My vote goes to "Impish Imp." Or if that's redundant, "Impetuous Imp."

      Or Ignorant Asshole, though that's not alliterative, and would probably reflect poorly on the quality of the OS.

      --
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    2. Re:Nah by Tribbin · · Score: 1

      Incompetent Idiot.

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  18. Hardy Heron by HeronBlademaster · · Score: 1

    Do I get royalties on this?

    1. Re:Hardy Heron by Code+Master · · Score: 1

      Alas, royalties are going to Jordan.

      --
      The Code Master
    2. Re:Hardy Heron by gawdonblue · · Score: 1

      Do I get royalties on this?
      You'll receive them right after the last book is released. Or more probably your grandchildren will.

      "As time marches on, and ages come and go, memories are left that become legend..."
  19. Nifty Names by four+runner · · Score: 1

    As for me, I'm looking forward to what they come up with for the letter X, and I'd like to be the first to suggest Xanthic Xerbus.

    --
    "There is nothing so American as our national parks.... " - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
    1. Re:Nifty Names by SpeedyDX · · Score: 3, Funny

      If copyright was not an issue, I'd like to see Xenophic Xenu.

    2. Re:Nifty Names by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I thought that the names of historical figures (Galactic Overload Xenu), were not copyrightable. Or are you implying you want the Scientologists to beat you down?

      --
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    3. Re:Nifty Names by Tribbin · · Score: 1

      I like you 'Nifty Names' idea better.

      That would be bad-ass.

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      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    4. Re:Nifty Names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On a somewhat shorter timeframe, I look forward to install Naked Natalie on my hard drive. Can't wait for the eyecandy!

    5. Re:Nifty Names by naChoZ · · Score: 2, Funny

      As for me, I'm looking forward to what they come up with for the letter X, and I'd like to be the first to suggest Xanthic Xerbus.

      Sounds appropriate to me. It certainly seems as if Piers Anthony is in charge of Ubuntu's naming scheme.

      --
      "I can be self-referential if I want to," said Tom, swiftly.
  20. Release Name suggestion by Nonillion · · Score: 1

    Hey, Ubuntu developers. I'd like to suggest the name for your next release.. "Killer Green Bud"

    --
    "I bow to no man" - Riddick
    1. Re:Release Name suggestion by everphilski · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu Geico Gecko!

      Think of the profitable commercial tie-ins!

    2. Re:Release Name suggestion by russlar · · Score: 1

      Hey, Ubuntu developers. I'd like to suggest the name for your next release.. "Killer Green Bud"

      Ubuntu KGB- Linux for the Mother Russia!

      I would laugh at Ubuntu Killer Kronic, though.
      --
      Anybody want my mod points?
    3. Re:Release Name suggestion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Intoxicating Indica"?

  21. Relevant news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are we now getting update information of the new code names of all open source projects on Slashdot?

    1. Re:Relevant news? by ketilwaa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, because Ubuntu (the number one Linux-distro) is just like just another OSS project...

      BTW: To all those people proposing new and funny names: The last word is supposed to be an animal, the first one being an adjective. I'm assuming you still find your alternatives hilarious, but trust the long time users on ubuntuforums.org: It gets really old, really fast.

    2. Re:Relevant news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...trust the long time users on ubuntuforums.org: It gets really old, really fast. Aw, you sound like a Grouchy Geek.
  22. Good Test Case by JeremyGNJ · · Score: 1

    This is interesting news about the "Long Term Support" thing. If they can pull it off, then it will be a major step forward. However....3-5 years? Most distros only have their spot in the sun for 2-3 years. I guess this is their attempt to break that trend.

    1. Re:Good Test Case by ericrost · · Score: 1

      6.06 is already a LTS release. Same terms.

    2. Re:Good Test Case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Red Hat support is currently 7 years from release date. 3-5 years sounds reasonable, and is likely a realistsic business compromise for an attempt at competeing with 7 year support.

    3. Re:Good Test Case by Elliot_Lin · · Score: 1

      Theres already been one LTS release - 6.06

    4. Re:Good Test Case by JeremyGNJ · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One major difference. Redhad has money and corporate customers behind it. They can pay for employees to continue support it 5-7 years out. Even Microsoft says after 5 years its not worth spending the money...and if they wanted to plenty of businesses would PAY to have the support extended.

      Ubuntu 6.06 is only ~1.5 years old. Only halfway there. Kind of remains to be seen if they can pull it off....especially with MULTIPLE LTS products in cycle. Under their plan to release a new LTS every 2 years, they will have three products in support cycle at a time.

    5. Re:Good Test Case by ianare · · Score: 1

      It's not uncommon for a server to keep on running without ever needing a complete system update for 5 years. We have a few mandrake 9 (released in 2002) machines that are running just fine, but it would be nice to have security updates and such for them.
      Also, I think RedHat has 5 year support on their servers as well.

    6. Re:Good Test Case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shuttleworth's not exactly poor either you know.

    7. Re:Good Test Case by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      One major difference. Redhad has money and corporate customers behind it. They can pay for employees to continue support it 5-7 years out. Ubuntu is backed by Canonical. I don't know any exact numbers, but I'm pretty sure they have a few bucks to spend on people.
    8. Re:Good Test Case by ClamIAm · · Score: 1

      Mark Shuttleworth doesn't have money? That's news to me...

  23. you dirty, dirty boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The shrink in me thinks you're mixing the two words... "Hardy Heron"

    You dirty, dirty boy! /sarcasm

    1. Re:you dirty, dirty boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, let me get this straight... Hairy Hardon?

  24. Misread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone else read it as "Hardly Heroin"?

    1. Re:Misread by sabre307 · · Score: 1

      I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to see it as that!

      I, for one, welcome our Hardy Heroin Overlords!!!!!

      --
      My software never has bugs.
      It just develops random features.
  25. where is this naming convention going? by Boigaz · · Score: 1

    insolent iguana jealous jackal etc. u... u... u... unbecoming umbrellabird seriously, there are very few animals that begin with u. this will end in tears

    1. Re:where is this naming convention going? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    2. Re:where is this naming convention going? by Emetophobe · · Score: 1

      I vote for Urinating Unicorn.

    3. Re:where is this naming convention going? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  26. x64 worked for me by bcrowell · · Score: 1

    I'm not saying it's your fault, or you must be wrong, or anything like that, but I installed Feisty on my AMD x64 machine, and it worked just fine. The graphical installer worked fine. Firefox and flash worked fine. So although you've clearly experienced a problem, it's not a problem with all x64 systems, and it may not even be an x64-related issue at all. BTW, if the CD wouldn't boot, one thing to check would be the checksum on the ISO file, if you downloaded it.

  27. Next up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Idiomatic Inanity?

  28. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by Random832 · · Score: 1

    They are links. Have you tried clicking them? (and, underlines on links disappearing on mouseover has been a common design feature of websites for, like, the past five years)

    --
    We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
  29. O'Reilly Books? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Funny

    It seems that these releases are targeted for distinctive Victorian-period engravings.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  30. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by ericrost · · Score: 1

    subject isn't a link, text bar comes up when you mouse over them.

  31. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Gosh, no, it never occurred to me to try clicking on them. *rolls eyes*

    They ain't no links on my damn FireFox. What are they links to, genius? What does the status bar say when you hover on 'em? What website does it take you to? How come no other article has fake-link underlines on the subjects of every comment?

    Tell me, Random832, do you have a blog or something I could read? I bet you make entertaining dumb-ass observations like this all the time. I bet you go to the grocery store and see people eating grapes without paying for them, and then you go home and write a hand-wringing blogpost about how the rule of law is crumbling around us.

  32. For convenience... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...we will shorten this to Ubuntu Hardon

    captcha: impurity

  33. The release after? - Irksome Iguana? by bushboy · · Score: 1

    Irritable Ibex?
    Interminable Impala?
    Ingrate Ibis?

    --
    A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
  34. ObMrGarrison by sharkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bleeding Beaver

    I just don't trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die.

    --

    --
    "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
    1. Re:ObMrGarrison by ArcherB · · Score: 4, Funny

      Bleeding Beaver I just don't trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die. It does have a 28 day release cycle.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    2. Re:ObMrGarrison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Bleeding Beaver

      I just don't trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die.

      Now where's that "-1 Misogynist Prick" mod option; that's right, this is Slashdot: it's "+1 Funny".
    3. Re:ObMrGarrison by nschubach · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's coming just as soon as they finish putting in -1:Misandry and my newly coined -2:Misnerdiny

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    4. Re:ObMrGarrison by Mozk · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      OH. MY. GOD.
      Amazing.

      --
      No existe.
    5. Re:ObMrGarrison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      misogynist? he didn't say hated, just not trust, now where's that -1 Sensitive Shrew mod

    6. Re:ObMrGarrison by zurtle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Grandparent deserves either:
      -1 Whoosh
      or
      -1 Stupid

      It was a citation goddammit.

      --
      Couldn't stand the weather
    7. Re:ObMrGarrison by couchslug · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      "It does have a 28 day release cycle."

      Patch release is spotty though.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    8. Re:ObMrGarrison by stinerman · · Score: 1

      You're off my enemies list for that one.

    9. Re:ObMrGarrison by aichpvee · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh no! 28 - 5 = 23. And as anyone can tell you, 5 is nothing but 2 + 3. The combined ASCII values for "hardyheron" equal 1076. int(1076/23) = 46. 46 / 2 = 23!

      --
      The Farewell Tour II
    10. Re:ObMrGarrison by NyteGeek · · Score: 0

      "Bleeding Beaver I just don't trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die."

      Interesting point, but often a necessity in life, how do you feel about those that only bleed for 3?
  35. Hmm... by cromar · · Score: 1

    Great Ganja
    Green Ganja
    ...
    Golden Ganja

    You ever install Ubuntu... on weed? Oh, there's some crazy shit, man. There's a penguin in the distro box. Has he got a gun? I dunno! RED TEAM GO, RED TEAM GO.

  36. what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by bcrowell · · Score: 4, Informative

    It would be interesting to know more about what's planned for Gibbon and Hippo. I'm currently running Feisty on all my home and work machines, and in general it works great. TFA does have a link to a wikified wishlist for Hippo, but that's not the same as knowing what the focus of the release is really going to be: usability, innovation, stability? I'd guess the focus won't be innovation, since they're going to make it a long-term support release.

    Here's my person impression of what's already okay in Feisty, and what needs to be improved.

    Already okay in Feisty:

    1. 64-bit support is perfect, as far as I can tell. I hear a lot of people complaining about it, but all I can say is that I'm running the default packages for firefox, flash, and java, and everything Just Works. The flash and java applet plugins work fine for me. AFAICT, some 64-bit enthusiasts are upset that they can't run these plugins as native 64-bit apps in a 64-bit native browser. What I can't figure out is why that matters...? If it works, it works.
    2. Wifi just worked for me, and is now sufficiently integrated with the Gnome gui to make it easy for my 11-year-old daughter to deal with it on her machine.
    3. The kernel has built-in support for AMD's Cool'n'Quiet energy-saving technology.

    Problems with Feisty:

    1. ACPI power management doesn't work. This is a particularly bad problem for laptops. My laptop would shut down as soon as Gnome started, because it believed the battery was dead, when it really wasn't. Hibernation has never worked on any machine I've tried it on. Sleep typically doesn't work. To be fair, this may not be the fault of the linux/ubuntu developers; apparently a lot of hardware manufacturers refuse to supply enough information to allow kernel developers to know what hardware registers need to be restored when waking from sleep or hibernation.
    2. Getting a working java runtime is still more work than it needs to be. At the very least, you have to enable a non-free repository, and then add an obscurely named package. I assume this is basically a licensing issue, and will go away as the open-source runtime matures and has the rest of its proprietary components replaced with free ones.
    3. CUPS and printing suck to high heaven. This is the single biggest problem I'm facing now. It's not as much of a disaster as it was in earlier versions like Breezy, but it's still a disaster. I have pages and pages of notes on how to get my printer working with Feisty, and it still doesn't work very well -- the printer freezes unpredictably and needs to be power cycled. No, this is not a case where the problem is just that the manufacturer won't release specs; it's a Brother laser printer, and Brother actually hired the CUPS developers to write GPL'd drivers.
    1. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by nyctopterus · · Score: 1

      Yeah, printing is high on my wishlist too. It's currently a disaster, it's really one of those things that needs to Just Work. I spent a couple of hours trying to get a Brother printer to work with Feisty, and in the end gave up - if I don't sort it out, my girlfriend's heading back to Windows-land.

    2. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by eZtaR · · Score: 1

      Have you tried this? It worked for me :)

    3. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by thegnu · · Score: 1

      I think people are moderately screwed with printing if vendors don't start supporting Linux. Linux has the best hardware support of all OSes, however, volunteers can't keep up with every printer that's out there.

      Just about every printer I've ever hooked up to a Feisty box installed without any prodding whatsoever. I think that it could be slightly more smooth on people if the printer DOESN'T work, and they could recommend you buy a printer that's compatible with your computer next time. I know it's a problem for migration, but people migrate to OS X and have to purchase new peripherals all the freaking time.

      It just rocks the "free shit" boat if you have to make purchases, which is a shame. Buy a Samsung (vendor supported Linux drivers) or an HP (lots of community support).

      --
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    4. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by owlstead · · Score: 1

      I don't have too big a problem with both of the last two options. I run a HP printer/scanner/copier and it worked right after plugging in the USB cable. Way to go HP/Ubuntu. Installing Java was also a breeze, I've now added the JDK as well. I do agree with the power safe options. They simply do not work as wanted. Then again, I am running it on a VIA EPIA fanless motherboard, and it seems not all hardware is supported as well as it could be. No crypto functionality, and I've got some serious USB issues when I shut down the computer (which it won't do, shutting down completely) and when it goes into any power safe mode. But after enjoying digital audio, gigabit network, firewire, USB-2, PATA, serial ATA, printer functionality etc. ect. out of the box, you won't hear me complain to soon. It even does some 3D after installing some additional stuff. The 3D is rather unstable though.

      Fortunately it was always meant to be an always on machine, it does not consume power. But the power management in Linux always has been sub-par when compared against Windows. This is especially annoying when running it on a laptop, but it gets increasingly important on desktops as well. Of course, Windows has got it easy. No laptop maker will deliver a laptop without testing the power management on the Windows version they are delivering it with. I'm not so sure that a mere distribution will solve these problems though. You need full functioning drivers and bug-free hardware to have full ACPI support. Something that seems to be hard to do, even on Windows.

    5. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by MMC+Monster · · Score: 1

      The thing with Ubuntu releases are that they are based on calendar dates. They want to release the next version in October of this year. Which means that if some of the goals aren't met, they are put aside until the next release. (ie: Bulletproof X11) They really don't want to miss their release window, because it will be a mess for their next release.

      The reasoning behind this is that they base each release on the latest version of Gnome. Gnome releases every six months. So Ubuntu releases a month or so after Gnome. If they delay a release, they either delay all future releases (which will get them off-sync with Gnome), or have a shortened next release cycle (which is what happened with 6.06 -> 6.10), meaning a less interesting next release (as many considered 6.10).

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    6. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by Tribbin · · Score: 1

      They are going to work on completing the desktop and server version of the totally-free and non-free version; 4 versions that they are going to support 'till spring 2013.

      That's a pretty milestone and I hope they only focus on that.

      After that they can build 'Instable Improvements' all they want.

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      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    7. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by jimicus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      CUPS and printing suck to high heaven. This is the single biggest problem I'm facing now. It's not as much of a disaster as it was in earlier versions like Breezy, but it's still a disaster. I have pages and pages of notes on how to get my printer working with Feisty, and it still doesn't work very well -- the printer freezes unpredictably and needs to be power cycled. No, this is not a case where the problem is just that the manufacturer won't release specs; it's a Brother laser printer, and Brother actually hired the CUPS developers to write GPL'd drivers.

      Printing in Linux has sucked for years, and will probably continue to do so. It's not actually the fault of CUPS which basically provides a framework for drivers to sit in and communicate with the printer - more the manufacturers.

      If you're buying a laser printer with a view to Linux compatability in the future, look for one which supports Postscript. All this talk of "Drivers this... drivers that...." - it's cobblers. Postscript has been a perfectly good language for printers for something like 20 years, and postscript printers don't command anything like the same premium that they did 10 years ago.

      I don't care if the manufacturer provides a Linux driver. If it's binary only - then installation is distribution-dependent and may not be possible in a typical Linux distribution a few years from now. This could also happen in Windows, so those who have winprinters and aren't planning to use Linux can wipe that smug grin off their face.

      If a driver in source code and specs for the language the printer speaks do exist - it won't do a great deal of good if you're the only person wanting to use it in Linux and you don't have the expertise to write your own driver.

    8. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by bcrowell · · Score: 1

      It's not actually the fault of CUPS which basically provides a framework for drivers to sit in and communicate with the printer - more the manufacturers.
      It is partly the fault of CUPS. For instance, CUPS tries to remember too much state, and it's difficult to get it back into a known-good state when it's messed up.

      I don't care if the manufacturer provides a Linux driver. If it's binary only - then installation is distribution-dependent and may not be possible in a typical Linux distribution a few years from now.
      If you take a look at my post, you'll see that I was talking about GPL'd drivers that Brother hired the CUPS developers to write.

      If you're buying a laser printer with a view to Linux compatability in the future, look for one which supports Postscript. All this talk of "Drivers this... drivers that...." - it's cobblers. Postscript has been a perfectly good language for printers for something like 20 years, and postscript printers don't command anything like the same premium that they did 10 years ago.
      If you look at what drivers for a lot of modern inkjet printers do, it's a lot more than just providing a language for applications to describe what to print. They have all kinds of elaborate GUIs for aligning the print heads, cleaning them, etc. Also, low-end printers don't have postscript, and it's not a very good situation to tell prospective linux users that they have to buy a new, expensive printer because their old one won't work with linux.

    9. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by Eponymous+Bastard · · Score: 1

      Hardy's doesn't have features listed yet. From TFA: "Everyone is welcome to think of and develop ideas for features that could be present in the Hardy Heron release." So it'll be a while before there is even a wishlist.

      Gutsy's seem to be at the launchpad here. I see:
      - free-flash
      - mobile-kernel, mobile-app-framework and related packages, apparently for developing and using the same apps on mobile devices and desktop
      -xorg7.3
      -composite-by-default: Compositing window manager, (but still at drafting stage?)
      - bullet-proof-x
      - displayconfig-gtk: "We have got a configuration backend that is currently used in Kubuntu. The GTK frontend supports the basic functionality."
      - restricted-manager-improvements:" should be able to detect hardware for which the required package is either not installed, or not enabled by default [...] with the above, should be able to offer facilities to help enable the hardware, for example detecting broadcom windows drivers installed alongside or placed on media somewhere, and cutting the firmware out of them"
      - Virtual machine on CD: "Make it possible to run Ubuntu in a virtual machine when booting the desktop CD under Windows."
      - write-support-for-ntfs

      I don't see much that can't be done in Feisty, but I haven't been using it for long, so I might be missing something. The virtual machine on cd stuff looks very nice for showing people without even a reboot. It looks like improved hardware support, more facilities for the user (screen configuration, etc), some nice defaults (ntfs3g, beryl, etc) and so on.

      If someone finds a better description, let me know.

    10. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by Eponymous+Bastard · · Score: 1

      Err, after submitting my other post I found this summary of features in Gutsy:
      As for the new features added in Gutsy Gibbon there are plenty, most of which are particularly well suited for new users to Linux. Some of the more notable new features are a Graphical Configuration tool for X, improvements in plug-in handling for Mozilla Firefox, revamped printing system with PDF printing by default, fast user switching, new desktop search (Tracker) application and the new AppArmor security framework.

      Also, for printers:
      A feature I was particularly impressed with was the new updated printing system found within Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbons. Most printers can now be plugged in and Ubuntu will automatically set up the printer. Also, Ubuntu has implemented a slick new "PDF printer" which is enabled by default. The "PDF printer" allows you to easily created PDF files from all applications such as Gimp, Firefox, Rhythmbox and other non-Gnome applications.

      So it looks pretty good. Not much that can't be done already but it seems like a good upgrade, and should be very good for new users.

      As for Hardy, they're still taking proposals.

    11. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      ACPI power management doesn't work. This is a particularly bad problem for laptops. My laptop would shut down as soon as Gnome started, because it believed the battery was dead, when it really wasn't. Hibernation has never worked on any machine I've tried it on. Sleep typically doesn't work. To be fair, this may not be the fault of the linux/ubuntu developers; apparently a lot of hardware manufacturers refuse to supply enough information to allow kernel developers to know what hardware registers need to be restored when waking from sleep or hibernation.

      Power management works fine on supported hardware. Finding laptops that were fully supported used to be hard, so this was a valid complaint, but now that even Dell sells fully supported laptops this is simply user error just like any other "unsupported hardware" complaint.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    12. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by jc42 · · Score: 1

      If you're buying a laser printer with a view to Linux compatability in the future, look for one which supports Postscript. All this talk of "Drivers this... drivers that...." - it's cobblers. Postscript has been a perfectly good language for printers for something like 20 years, and postscript printers don't command anything like the same premium that they did 10 years ago.

      What I'm looking for is a printer (or printer driver or whatever) that correctly prints files encoded as UTF-8. I have a bunch of multi-language postscript files that I can show contain the right text. I just edit them with vi(m) on my Mac or linux boxes, and you can see the Chinese or Arabic or whatever there on the screen. But when I send the files to any of the available printers, the Chinese or Arabic (or whatever) text comes out as Latin1 gibberish.

      Anyone know of any printers and/or printing software that gets this right? Can you print files that are a mixture of English, Russian, and Japanese, for example? If so, how do you do it?

      Presumably people in Asia have printers that can print their native languages. But so far, I haven't found out how to get it to work here in the US. Of course, "Customer Support" people around here don't find it interesting, because why would anyone want to use anything but English? OK, maybe in Spanish or French, and those do work. (But sometimes I wish I could get them to move their support to Asia. ;-)

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    13. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      Well, I'm not sure what the GP's printer is, but many of the Brother laser printers are Postscript printers. The problem isn't the printer, or CUPS, it is the way that printing is setup in Ubuntu. The config tools just don't setup the printer profiles correctly. I've found that if I bypass the printer config tool and just use the CUPS web-based tool, the printer works perfectly. Meanwhile, the last time I was playing around with Fedora, their printer config tool worked perfectly. This is really just an Ubuntu problem, although I'm not sure what exactly the problem is because I'm using the same Postscript driver with the same PPD for my printer no matter what.

      I know a new printer config tool is in the works, but as far as I can tell it has been delayed through the last two releases, and it doesn't look like it will make it into Gutsy either. It seems there have been some hangups.

    14. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by I'll+Provide+The+War · · Score: 1

      Wifi is still a big issue.

      It took me about 8 hours to get my Linksys card to function.

      I tried ndiswrapper for hours before finding a site that stated in broken English that it would not work with this chipset(Ralink RT61) and the current Linksys driver. Eventually after getting some driver source code from Ralink and typing dozens of cryptic commands into Ubuntu 7.04 while enabling and disabling various network settings it works about 75% of the time I boot and there is a 5 second delay before every new page begins to load in Firefox. Needless to say I boot into Windows for any web-related activity.

      Judging by this poll most people can not get wireless working at all: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=419905

      Of those who did a clean 7.04 install only 20% had wireless networking function straight away while 56% could never get it to work.

    15. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by jimicus · · Score: 1


      It is partly the fault of CUPS. For instance, CUPS tries to remember too much state, and it's difficult to get it back into a known-good state when it's messed up.


      Eh? CUPS is just a framework. It's down to the driver to know what state it's in. If the driver's trying to do too much then yes, what you describe is indeed a problem.

      If you take a look at my post, you'll see that I was talking about GPL'd drivers that Brother hired the CUPS developers to write.

      Had you read the next sentence I wrote, you'll note that I addressed that. GPL'd code doesn't do you any good if it's specific to one particular model of printer, hardly any Linux users have that printer and none have the expertise to maintain it.

      If you look at what drivers for a lot of modern inkjet printers do,

      Ahem. The paragraph you are replying to started with: If you're buying a laser printer with a view to Linux compatability in the future.

      Inkjets are another beast entirely.

      Also, low-end printers don't have postscript, and it's not a very good situation to tell prospective linux users that they have to buy a new, expensive printer because their old one won't work with linux.

      Neither is it a very good situation to purchase printers which depend on a proprietary language which essentially means that if the manufacturer drops support, you're stuck with the current version of the driver forever. If that version of the driver is rendered inoperable by Vista Service Pack 1, that's your problem.

      Printers which support Postscript are, granted, slightly more expensive. But they're nowhere near as expensive as they were 10 years ago.

    16. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by jimicus · · Score: 1

      What I'm looking for is a printer (or printer driver or whatever) that correctly prints files encoded as UTF-8. I have a bunch of multi-language postscript files that I can show contain the right text. I just edit them with vi(m) on my Mac or linux boxes, and you can see the Chinese or Arabic or whatever there on the screen. But when I send the files to any of the available printers, the Chinese or Arabic (or whatever) text comes out as Latin1 gibberish.

      My God, an intelligent reply. We should have you stuffed!

      That's actually a very good question. It's also the kind of thing which may not be mentioned when the manufacturer claims "Postscript support". I guess as a workaround you could convert your postscript to PDF - Adobe Acrobat reader allows you to send PDF to the printer as graphics rather than text. Which is damn slow and memory hungry but tends to fix rendering issues in the printer.

    17. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by Niggle · · Score: 1
      --
      - Blah blah blah, missing scientist. Blah blah blah, atomic bomb. -
    18. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by bcrowell · · Score: 1

      Well, I'm not sure what the GP's printer is
      It's a Brother HL-1440.

      I've found that if I bypass the printer config tool and just use the CUPS web-based tool, the printer works perfectly.
      Yeah, I've given up editing the config files by hand, and have found that using the browser-based interface to cups works as well as anything else. But it still doesn't work well for me. The printer freezes up frequently, and needs to be power-cycled. Also, there's a usability problem, because there's a large number of drivers for this printer that the browser-based cups interface presents to you, and it's not obvious which is the right one. There's one marked "recommended," which is what I'm using (and doesn't work very well). There's another, different one that's presented as the default, which doesn't seem to work.

    19. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by bcrowell · · Score: 1

      Finding laptops that were fully supported used to be hard, so this was a valid complaint, but now that even Dell sells fully supported laptops this is simply user error just like any other "unsupported hardware" complaint.
      It's not just a problem on laptops. I have never found a single desktop machine on which ACPI worked correctly, and I've tried it on a lot of very ordinary, vanilla desktops.

    20. Re:what's really in Gibbon and Hippo? by bcrowell · · Score: 1

      Judging by this poll most people can not get wireless working at all
      There's a major issue in the accuracy of this poll, which is that the people who come across the poll are people who came across it on the networking and wireless section of ubuntuforums.org, and typically the reason they went there is because it didn't work. The people (like me) for whom it Just Worked will typically never see the poll.

  37. This about.... by RockoTDF · · Score: 2, Funny

    ....sums it up

    http://xkcd.com/178/

    --
    There is more to science than physics!

    www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
    1. Re:This about.... by andrewd18 · · Score: 1

      +1 Perfect Timing.

  38. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they are links. your subject links to this url: http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=282945&c id=20402197

    onclick opens/closes the comment and cancels opening the link. middle-click if you want to open the link instead.

  39. Just use the adjective. by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I say we're installing "Ubuntu Feisty", sure, it sounds... different. But it doesn't actually sound stupid, like it would if I said "Feisty Fawn".

    Same with Gusty. In fact, Hardy works even better.

    I also tend to like names that don't actually offend programmers. Windows XP seems to me a deliberate attempt to steal the XP acronym -- and they have. XP used to stand for "Xtreme Programming", which is actually a very useful concept, and one which might have avoided some of the dumber problems Windows has had.

    And they do this all the time. .NET, Word, Office, Internet Explorer, etc. They choose names that are so generic that you get most people confusing them with something else almost instantly. It's difficult to talk about a "Word processor", because most people hear that and think MS Word. It took Firefox long enough, and we still have to deal with people who think the Internet is Internet Explorer.

    So now we have names like "Ubuntu" and "Hardy", and I think they work well -- they're distinctive, and they don't actually sound like anything else in the same field.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    1. Re:Just use the adjective. by random0xff · · Score: 0

      As opposed to Apple, who use the most generic term possible for their OS (OS). And how about creating your keynote in Keynote, or editing some pages in Pages. I know, let's add some numbers, I'll just use Numbers for that.

      These names still beat stuff like K/J/GNumeric.

    2. Re:Just use the adjective. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Same with Gusty...

      A Gusty gibbon would presumably stink the place out; just as well it's Gutsy. :)

    3. Re:Just use the adjective. by ACS+Solver · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Generic names. Leads to me to another thought.

      I'm not a native English speaker - it's my third language. I'm fluent, I read books and watch movies in English, and generally know the language well enough. I knew words like "fire", "fox", "access", "office", "word", "vista" or "binder" before encountering the applications named so. However, I only found out what "heron" means today, and what "eft" means back when that version was announced. I'll readily admit that animal names (plant names, too) are the weakest part of my vocabulary in all languages I speak, but I still think it's better to have names that consists of words familiar to most people. As far as I understand, lots of native speakers didn't know what an eft is either.

    4. Re:Just use the adjective. by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 1

      The animal names go by letter. Edgy Eft was Ubuntu E. Feisty Fawn was F, Hardy Heron is H, and so on. There aren't a lot of animals that start with E in english.

      --
      Not a sentence!
    5. Re:Just use the adjective. by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      Oh, because i is so much better than K, J, or G.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    6. Re:Just use the adjective. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eagle, elk, elephant, eel, emu... off the top of my head. I think all of those are better known than "eft".

    7. Re:Just use the adjective. by Fallingcow · · Score: 1

      Yeah, no shame in not knowing "eft". I had a vague (and wrong) guess based on something I may or may not have seen on the Discovery channel when I was a child, but I definitely didn't have the name anywhere in my memory where it could be recalled for use in everyday language. Certainly, had I seen a picture of one, I'd have called it something other than "eft".

      Heron's much more common. Very pretty birds. Then again, I may only know that one because we have quite a few around here...

      Animal/Plant names give me trouble in French, but also proper names that are borrowed from non-English and non-French sources. Studying, say, ancient Greece or Rome in French is tough for me, as English speakers may pick one name to use for a given person, while French speakers pick another one entirely, or even if they agree on which name to use, the spelling (and spoken sound) may be so wildly different that one can't guess one based on knowledge from the other language (or even based on knowledge of the source language!).

    8. Re:Just use the adjective. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you forgot the clueless Bill Gates 'DNS' for 'digital nervous system' attempt to hijack
      'DNS' 'Domain Name System'.

    9. Re:Just use the adjective. by Viceroy+Potatohead · · Score: 1

      Windows XP seems to me a deliberate attempt to steal the XP acronym -- and they have. XP used to stand for "Xtreme Programming", And before that experience points...
      And before that...
      etc. I agree with your post, but I'm just nitpicking what "XP" used to stand for. It is, as you say, entirely generic.

      If Ubuntu gives the world nothing else, it has at least enriched the vocabulary of millions of people with the word "eft". Seriously, who knew this word?
    10. Re:Just use the adjective. by robin.com.au · · Score: 1

      XP is simply a face mocking you

      --
      robin
    11. Re:Just use the adjective. by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      That's why I'm waiting for the P release. No one would think to name their distribution "Pink Cat" (and we'd all know what they were really talking about.)

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  40. Pointless... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    In Ubuntu, as a matter of course, I go enable the Universe and Multiverse repositories, which is now a point-and-click operation. That done, codecs are just stupidly easy: apt-get install vlc.

    And done. All your media codecs are now enabled.

    It's not automatic, so it could be better. But I find it very odd that people even bring up codec support anymore -- after I install mplayer and vlc, I have codecs for 99% of the content out there, all open. People still talk about win32codecs, and the hassle of making them work on amd64, but I know of about one thing that isn't supported without those codecs, and I doubt it will take very long.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    1. Re:Pointless... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

  41. Hungry Hippo! by Werrismys · · Score: 1

    It's either Hungry Hippo or Horny Hobbit.

    --
    'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
  42. Mod parent up. by khasim · · Score: 1

    Exactly.

    They don't like "Feisty Fawn"?
    Or is it "Ubuntu"?
    Or maybe "Linux"?

    If they're going to complain about names, then they'll always have a reason to bitch. Any professional shop would look at what it could do, not what it was named.

    1. Re:Mod parent up. by hhlost · · Score: 1

      It's not the professional IT shop that's the problem, it's the professional decision-makers, who are not in the IT department. They like their MS because they are comfortable with it and they don't care what the price tag is b/c they take home the same amount every two weeks either way. They have Windows XP installed, and that makes them feel good. "Feisty Fawn" makes them feel like laughing, even though it's a far superior OS. (And contrary to other posts, I've never heard anyone actually say that they were running or installing "Longhorn".)

  43. High expectations. by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    First of all, Windows doesn't boot as a LiveCD. Or maybe Vista does, but last I checked, XP does, in fact, start you off with a textual install. Ubuntu's textual install is basically the same as its graphical one, it's just not as pretty -- there's no "slogging" at all.

    Second, there are most likely ways to make it work, even in graphical mode. You, apparently, didn't even try. Were it any other product, would you have given up on it that easily? I wouldn't.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    1. Re:High expectations. by goldspider · · Score: 1

      First of all, Windows doesn't claim to boot as a LiveCD. Ubuntu does.

      Second, I expect any quality OS to work out of the box. I don't believe that is an unreasonable expectation. Perhaps Ubuntu simply isn't polished enough yet.

      --
      "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
    2. Re:High expectations. by EXrider · · Score: 1

      How far did the install process get? Obviously, it's not going to be able to install the OS if it doesn't recognize your storage controller. If the Live CD wouldn't even boot... perhaps Ubuntu tried (and failed) to use your hard drive for temporary swap space. Though, if that were the case, I'd expect it to show some kind of error message (which you didn't mention) though.

      Windows installer has always done this on servers and workstations that have exotic RAID controllers. If you can't supply a *floppy containing the **drivers, in the ***EXACT format that the Windows installer expects to see it. You get greeted with a vague error message about no storage devices found, and a countdown to reboot.

      They've finally fixed this crap for the desktop. The Windows Vista installer, which will accept storage drivers during the installation from a variety of modern media such as: CD, USB flash drive, etc. I'd assume this long awaited feature will appear in the next server version of Windows.

      *legacy technology that many machines don't even have anymore, nor will the damn Windows installer even recognize a USB floppy drive unless the BIOS properly emulates it. **drivers now days often won't even fit on a single floppy ***Promise for example, can't seem to figure this shit out, which often requires you to delete files, move them from folders to the root of the disk, edit config files, etc.

      --
      grep -iw skynet /etc/services
    3. Re:High expectations. by goldspider · · Score: 1

      This post describes a similar problem. The CD wouldn't even finish booting, or if it did, something rendered the screen completely unreadable.

      And yes, I'll concede getting Windows to install on a RAID was an (almost intolerable) adventure.

      --
      "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
    4. Re:High expectations. by dbcad7 · · Score: 1
      Have you tried the CD on another computer ?

      This would verify that your CD is good, and that it's Ubuntu having problems with your particular set-up.... I'm going to tell you, I have had plenty of people who thought they burned the CD correctly ... bad mouth away... only to find out that they had did something stupid like copy the ISO to the CD, instead of burning "from" an ISO... If you don't understand what I mean, then you probably did that.. That may not be what you did, but you don't give ANY details of what it does when you try and install... SO.. I would try getting the CD to live boot on another machine before you blame the distro totaly. If it doesn't boot on another machine you have a bad CD, and I'm sure you'll come back here and tell everyone "my bad"..... uh sure you will.

      --
      waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
    5. Re:High expectations. by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      First of all, Windows doesn't claim to boot as a LiveCD. Ubuntu does.

      So you refuse to use Ubuntu because it claims to have a feature, and then doesn't. Yet you continue to use an OS that doesn't have that feature, and never claimed to.

      In other words, you're more concerned about truth in advertising than you are about actually getting a solid product. Never mind how little work you've actually put into trying to make it work.

      Second, I expect any quality OS to work out of the box.

      Better ditch Windows, then.

      On just about every bit of hardware I've ever had, I have to download drivers for Windows, at the very least, to make it usable. The only exception is when it comes preloaded -- in which case, you don't have the right to bitch about Linux until you buy a Dell with Ubuntu preloaded.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    6. Re:High expectations. by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      Second, I expect any quality OS to work out of the box. I don't believe that is an unreasonable expectation. Perhaps Ubuntu simply isn't polished enough yet.

      Any quality OS does work out of the box. When you buy it the normal way - pre-installed on a machine. Installing operating systems by hand on hardware that may or may not be supported always has been, and always will be, a hobbyist adventure.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
  44. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by peterpi · · Score: 1

    Not for me (FF 2.0.0.6 on Debian Etch)

    Left click does nothing, middle click brings up an error box saying "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded" and right click brings up the same menu as if I'd clicked on any other non-link part of the page.

  45. Fight back by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Start saying "Windows Vista Longhorn" and "Windows XP Whistler".

  46. Drums. by C10H14N2 · · Score: 1


    The default cannibal virgin sacrifice drums that play at every possible juncture probably don't help the "serious" image much either.

    I use Ubuntu on my laptop and always get chuckles when I log in to it at work. They probably think I'm playing Civilization or WoW or something.

    1. Re:Drums. by jb.hl.com · · Score: 1

      Last time I used a recent Ubuntu the main impression I came away with is "that startup sound is fucking awesome". It sounds like someone remixed a Mac's startup beep.

      --
      By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
  47. Listen to me, Mark Shuttleworth! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I, for one, feel that Ubuntu has missed a golden opportunity by not calling the next release "Goatse Gnu". No-one could ever forget the powerful image that would create, burned into the brains of geeks everywhere as a landmark release. Imagine the logo!

  48. yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    looking forward to gruesome goatse

  49. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by LuckyStarr · · Score: 1

    The titles are anchors, a sort of in-document links. They are itself not clickable, but a valid target to link to via

    http://example.com/url/#anchor

    The browser will then jump directly to the position of the anchor. If you use Firefox, you can remove the hover behaviour if you install the extension "Stylish" and then add a new CSS file for slashdot.org which looks like this:

    @namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
    @-moz-document domain(slashdot.org) {
        div.title h4 a { text-decoration: none !important; }
    }

    Have fun.

    --
    Meme of the day: I browse "Disable Sigs: Checked". So should you.
  50. hehe... by that+IT+girl · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one who, upon first glance, got "Hard-on" out of that?
    Ubuntu Hardon. Perfect for downloading porn...

    --
    10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
    20 DRINK COFFEE
    30 GOTO 10
    1. Re:hehe... by that+IT+girl · · Score: 1

      ...No, I see I was not the only one who thought that. Missed that comment above...I'm tired.

      --
      10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
      20 DRINK COFFEE
      30 GOTO 10
    2. Re:hehe... by Tatsh · · Score: 1

      I immediately thought the same thing. Damnit I wanted to be the first person to post this!

    3. Re:hehe... by Tribbin · · Score: 1
      --
      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
  51. So after ZZ we start over with AAA? by eddy · · Score: 1

    If so I suggest "Awkwardly Anal Anaconda"

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
    1. Re:So after ZZ we start over with AAA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hi Mods, what's up?
      Hungry Hippo is modded funny and this is not??

    2. Re:So after ZZ we start over with AAA? by Dusty101 · · Score: 1

      Ah. Avoid Alliteration. Always.

  52. From Silly to Solid by freeze128 · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu is getting more and more exposure, and is getting quite the reputation for the easiest to use Linux around. If this trend continues, then the Silly Names will be associated with Ease-of-Use and Supportability. Then, only fly-by-night Linux distributions will be using boring, non-alliterative version numbers to identify their releases. Who will be laughing THEN?

  53. How great... by Pecisk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Article is about that finally another Ubuntu LTS is comming and everyone and his/her dog bitching how silly Ubuntu code names are. Not about bugs, not about how to help to solve them, but about FUCKIN FREAKIN code names!

    If you choose software just by code names, you are completely lost. And if you thinking that word "Hard" is embarrassing, you definitely have too less sex, and never have thought what "Longhorn" actually can mean.

    (ooh, there goes my karma)

    In a mean time, click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron to see man with...ohhh, it is just bird. Nevermind.

    --
    user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
    1. Re:How great... by danilo.moret · · Score: 1

      It's not Fuckin Freakin, it's Feisty Fawn.
      It's not Green Goo, it's Gutsy Gibbon.
      And it sure as hell is not Hardy Humping, it's Hardy Heron.
      What were you expecting, you Immoral Imp? :)

      --
      ^[:wq!
    2. Re:How great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where is the penis bird when you need it?

    3. Re:How great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > never have thought what "Longhorn" actually can mean ... or Microsoft, for that matter.

  54. Ubuntu to Adult Swim by jvollmer · · Score: 1
    You gotta love a Linux distro which has release names that sound like shows that would air on Adult Swim http://www.adultswim.com/.

    If it's not Consolidated Lint, it's just fuzz!

  55. So, Shut The Fuck Up about the code name by Colin+Smith · · Score: 1

    And only use the version number when you mention Ubuntu.

    --
    Deleted
  56. LTS by Tribbin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hardy Heron: Me support you long time.

    --
    If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    1. Re:LTS by jd · · Score: 1

      I would have thought Hardy Heron would need a Stanley joke in there somewhere.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  57. One word... by squizzar · · Score: 1

    Longhorn

  58. Who the $%!@ cares?? by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

    convincing someone that the best platform for their needs is "Hardy Heron" in a professional environment is difficult

    Then don't bother. Jebus, Ubuntu seems pretty damned successful on the desktop. They're being used increasingly in the server space. Do you *really* think they give a damn if a couple idiot IT folks rule it out because of the name?

  59. Ubuntu and power management by Jeff+Carr · · Score: 1

    In my experience power management works far better under Kubuntu than it does under Ubuntu.

    I had the same problem with the battery reporting itself as dead at bootup with my Toshiba laptop as you did under Edgy Ubuntu. I moved to Feisty Kubuntu, and I haven't had any problems since. Also, suspend and hibernate have been working pretty well with Kubuntu too.

    --
    The television will not be revolutionized.
  60. or Corny Craig ... by porky_pig_jr · · Score: 1

    on the next alphabet cycle ...

  61. Popularity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jono Bacon, Community Manager for Ubuntu, has announced development on the next version of the popular Linux distribution name "Hardy Heron".

    That's the first I've heard of it. How come this distribution name is so popular already? And why does a popular name need another version?

    :-P
  62. Xorg rewrite? by man_ls · · Score: 1

    I didn't RTFA, but I'm wondering if anyone around here knows.

    I've been hearing for a bit that there is an Xorg rewrite coming down the pipe which will reduce or eliminate Xorg.conf and make it much, much easier for multiple monitors on multiple display devices to actually function.

    Is this going to be in GG, or HH, or is it just vaporware?

    1. Re:Xorg rewrite? by lbbros · · Score: 2, Interesting

      X.Org 7.3 should be released around today. Although I don't know if it will eliminate the config file (probably not), I know it makes a step in the right direction by implementing input device hotplugging.

      --
      A CC-licensed illustrated horror novel
    2. Re:Xorg rewrite? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AFAIK xrand (RandR 1.2) for autodetecting video was already in Xorg 7.2. There should be input hotplugging in 7.3. For some special tweaks, you still need xorg.conf, but otherwise can live without it.

  63. Hungry Hippy? by antdude · · Score: 1

    How about "Hungry Hippy"? That would had worked. [grin]

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  64. Heron Mark by egandalf · · Score: 1

    Finally, a true master's weapon. The One Power-forged, heron-mark blade server.

    I hope I haven't made the first WoT reference.

    --
    Those who have telepathy have no need to RTFA.
    1. Re:Heron Mark by Viceroy+Potatohead · · Score: 1

      What are you doing? Aes Sedai would make the first one!

  65. Agree: Kubuntu on Dell laptop works fine by KWTm · · Score: 1

    In my experience power management works far better under Kubuntu than it does under Ubuntu.

    I'll second that. I actually haven't used (GNOME) Ubuntu much, even though it came pre-installed on my Dell laptop, but on the Kubuntu which I installed the day I got my laptop, power management is great. After I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, Alt-H, it takes about 20-30 seconds to go into Hibernation (zero power consumption) --but I don't care, since I just close the laptop and stick it in my bag while it's still running. If I just close the lid, it takes about 5 seconds to go into Suspended mode (minimal but non-zero power consumption), and about as long to come out of it once I reopen the lid. If hibernating, it takes about 45 seconds to get back from power-on to the previous usable state.

    Given my past bad experiences trying to use ACPI with prior Linux distros, I am delighted at the power management capabilities. For once, instead of tweaking Linux, I can actually turn on the computer and *use* it. I find that I don't need to spend that much time on my computer *doing* things --and I actually have more time to do other things, like take walks outdoors, do chores, or sit back and relax with a book (on my Treo, of course). It's very liberating.

    I don't know if it's GNUbuntu or just the way it's set up on your computer. You might want to think about installing Kubuntu power mgmt apps, or even installing Kubuntu and then using your GNOME apps.

    --
    404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
    [GPG key in journal]
  66. I fear Ubuntu might have trouble developing names by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

    Allow me to submit a few they could choose from in the future.

    Irritable Iguana
    Jocular Jellyfish
    Konstipated Kangaroo
    Llustful Llama
    Moody Moonbat
    Naughty Nautilus
    Onomatopoeic Ocelot
    Pervy Penguin
    Quizzical Quetzalcoatl (we can use mythological beasties if BSD can use daemons)
    Randy Rhino
    Secret Squirrel
    Truculent Tapir
    Unctuous Ungulate
    Vituperative Vole
    Woeful Walrus
    Xenophobic Xenu (posted here previously, I like)
    Yearnful Yak
    Zoophilic Zebra

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  67. One down... by huckamania · · Score: 1

    ...can everyone just take a number and form a line?

  68. Heron Branded Hands & DVD by Dareth · · Score: 1

    If I prove mastery of this Linux distribution, can I get herons branded on my hands and the right to carry around a heron marked DVD?

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
    1. Re:Heron Branded Hands & DVD by Nimey · · Score: 1

      I think I'm the only one who will admit to getting the joke. :-)

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
  69. UU Release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm waiting for the Unreasonable UbuntuDupe release.

  70. What about BOB? by Etrias · · Score: 1

    You forgot BOB. Where's BOB? What's that? Trying to forget...huh?

    Oh I see. Carry on. Nothing to see here.

  71. Why were you suggesting Feisty instead of the LTS? by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For that sort of installation it sounds like the LTS edition would be much more preferable. Ie it is supported for longer (much longer if you only need the server installation) and will have a one hop upgrade to the next LTS (rather than a two stop upgrade from Feisty).

    If you aren't telling them you want to install "Ubuntu 6.06 Long Term Support" then frankly you are shooting yourself in the foot.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  72. Re:I fear Ubuntu might have trouble developing nam by jbeaupre · · Score: 1

    Some suggestions in place of the fictional ones Quirky Quetzal Xenophophic Xoloitzquintle If I ever play Scrabble, I'll have to remember the last one!

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  73. Re:I fear Ubuntu might have trouble developing nam by jbeaupre · · Score: 1

    crap, sorry about the formatting.

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  74. Runner Ups by kerberos · · Score: 1

    So much for Ubuntu "Horny Homo". Just kidding, I'll still call it that. The question is, can you use it in a dual boot configuration with Windows XP Homo Edition?
  75. Lappy Larry by epine · · Score: 1

    I have to say what makes me laugh about this entire thread, is that people complain it doesn't "just work" and then go out and buy themselves a "lappy". A lappy with wifi. Buying a lappy is like marrying five people simultaneously and not being able to divorce any of them. Wifi is like also having a mistress on the side, in case the harem is too harmonious. So it becomes Ubuntu's problem to function as the go-between and keep the dysfunctional union ticking along nicely. Oh joy to Ubuntu.

    We should study wifi client deployment for deep insight into multi-dimensional packing problems. Any three distinct wifi clients wishing to connect to a single AP will force the AP to be configured into the least secure possible mode. What should we call that? The Hamming effect?

    If I filled my desktop PC with two gallons of epoxy resin, then I could also join the just-work killer bee swarm. By definition, once I've deprived myself of the latitude to fix it myself, it instantly becomes the problem of the upsteam provider, and since I'm not otherwise busy with fixing anything (the brokenness is welded, baked, and boxed), I've nothing else to do but complain about it.

    Maybe Ubuntu needs to emit a more forceful installer message: Sorry, lappy dude, your APIC is fucked. Patch available at ebay.com. Batteries not included.

  76. Windows codenames by Torodung · · Score: 1

    Windows has a similar pre-release name structure:

    Comely Cairo
    Mighty Memphis
    Nervous Neptune
    Warty Whistler

    See?

  77. 7.10 PS3? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    Any word on any improvements in the next Ubuntu release ("7.10", I guess) targeting PlayStation3 features?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  78. I thought Gutsy was to be LTS? by Benanov · · Score: 1

    Why is Hardy now the LTS distro? Or are both supported?

    1. Re:I thought Gutsy was to be LTS? by Nimey · · Score: 1

      Gutsy was never the next LTS. Shuttleworth said in an interview a month or two back that he didn't think Gutsy would be it, and he hoped the next one (Hardy) would be it. Looks like he got his wish.

      Gutsy will get the standard 18 months of security support.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
  79. Plano, Tx by Hadlock · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's just because I grew up in Plano, Tx, but did anyone else read that as "Hardy Heroin"?

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  80. Wireless Support + Beryl by pinkstuff · · Score: 1

    This is a general Linux problem, not a Ubuntu only problem. But, I would like to see better wireless card support. This is one area where Linux falls down. Somehow there needs to be a closer relationship between wireless chipset manufacturers and the Linux community. How? I am not sure, I just know it is hurting the Linux rep. Is it Linux's fault? Of course not, its the manufacturers fault. but if Linux wants to be taken more seriously as a desktop solution this is the number one place to start IMHO.

    As for getting mass migration to Ubuntu? Beryl, Beryl, Beryl! Average Joe Smo doesn't care about security or stability, they care about eye candy and bragging rights. Beryl is impressive enough to show off and impress friends. Some might even install it and show there friends.

    1. Re:Wireless Support + Beryl by Almahtar · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can't tell you how many PC users have watched over my shoulder as I used Beryl and said "Wow... looks like Vista is worth the switch afterall, that's amazing."

    2. Re:Wireless Support + Beryl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beryl doesn't exist anymore. It's been merged into Compiz Fusion. Also, Compiz is on by default in Gutsy.

  81. Hairy Hippie? by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

    Would be great if you were releasing an oldskool unix distro, instead of these new fangled user-friendly thingies.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  82. On my Ubuntu Live CD... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which is an official copy mailed by Ubuntu, not something I burned at home... There is the following print:

    "It is legally free to use, modify, and redistribute this CD".

    Doesn't mention anything about GPL, or the fact there ARE some restrictions on modification and subsequent redistribution of Ubuntu as something that uses the Linux kernel which is licensed under the GPL (namely, it must be released under the GPL too0.

    So, seeing this print, does that mean I can redistribute mods of that CD under proprietary license (or just not share my source), and if I get in trouble for copyvio blame Ubuntu?

  83. Hardy is NOT a Word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is a "Hardy Heron?" Could it be a heron that likes to hang around with white republican types and solve mysteries circa 1953?

    1. Re:Hardy is NOT a Word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to check the definition of 'word'.

  84. Was hoping for Hoary Hedgehog by jdigriz · · Score: 1

    Sonic FTW

  85. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 1

    LOL, now they fixed it! I was right! I was right!

  86. What happened to Glittery Gnu? by billstewart · · Score: 1

    Didn't they want to acknowledge RMS's efforts in promoting Unix-like operating systems? :-)

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  87. shocker by Andrei+D · · Score: 1

    I think the whole community will be shocked if the next version will be called Ubuntu 8.10 Standard Edition

    --
    We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us
  88. Ubuntu was mentioned on Veronica Mars by KWTm · · Score: 1

    Agreed.

    "Veronica Mars" is a TV show about high school kids, of whom the titular character is a sleuth. One of the scenes from the first season (2005?) showed the nerdy hs geek and the rather cool-looking geekess arguing the merits of Ubuntu vs OS X.

    That TV show is not G4TechTV, nor even a nerd show by any stretch of the imagination.

    I wouldn't worry about the reputation of Ubuntu and whether people have heard of it.

    People used to think that "Gaylord" was a dorky name for an athlete, too, until the athlete took home the Olympic gold in gymnastics.

    --
    404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
    [GPG key in journal]
  89. Re:I fear Ubuntu might have trouble developing nam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Naughty Nautilus

    Can we make this Naked Natalie? I think the Slashdot community will unanimously agree.
  90. Eh. by zodiaccat · · Score: 1

    I'm holding out for Sanctimonious Sloth, though I may break down somewhere around Insensitive Iguana.

  91. All goes according to plan by Arceliar · · Score: 1

    in another 2 years we'll get Lazy Lobster, then another 2 until Panzy Penguin.

    Seriously though, *buntu is a great OS (set) but, at least for the LTS releases (as they stand a slightly better chance of being used in a business world) ought to have at least slightly more serious names.

    Slightly.

  92. No, linux is not ready for the desktop. by AbRASiON · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've been experimenting with Ubuntu for about 2 years now on and off, I try it each new release.

    I've tried every release from 5.04 onwards, each time I've had difficulty getting things working.
    Initially intel 2200 wireless cards, then after purchasing a new card, getting WPA to work.
    Now, finally WPA is out of the box on atheros cards however my rt2500, not so much.

    Sure in Windows sometimes stuff doesn't work too but in order to get things like this fixed under linux is very very difficult.
    (I've been using PC's for 16 years this year mind you)
    I read forums I post on forums, I try my best to figure it out but it just doesn't seem that simple at ALL.

    Sure it's free and yes the guys over at the ubuntuforums certainly defy the stereotypical 'rtfm noob!' responses of yesteryear in # ultimately though it's still just crazy hard and I really don't want much (promise)

    The latest edition of Ubuntu (7.04 iirc) doesn't work properly on Dell 8600 displays, the driver is dead and glitchy weird scanlines appear on the display (mind you this has never been a problem before)
    Sure you'll tell me it's a proprietary driver issue or ATI's fault and you'd be right but I'm typing this post from the perspective of a Windows user, I don't care, sorry but I don't - I just want it to work, I'd love to replace Windows.

    I want to emphasize I'd be happy to persevere if say my graphics, sound and networking were fine, as long as I can sit on the couch and browse that's a great start, further issues like downloading things, burning dvd's, re-encoding media, manipulating images that is less important than the core functionality (although damned important too)

    I do not want to use Windows Vista (don't get me started, terrible stuff)
    I'm an end user and I'm a gamer but I'm happy to dual boot XP and Ubuntu or if I get sick of my Desktop PC and PC gaming, go entirely 360 / PS3 and Ubuntu on the laptop but... at this rate Ubuntu isn't happening for me, been trying so long with so little luck :/

    I've no doubt some will mod this overrated others troll but this is how it is from 'our' perspective over in the Windows / end user camp, we just need it to work, I'll keep on trying eventually it will work, I hope.
    (note: I am not saying it's all bad, synaptic is a fantastic concept, works well, free is awesome, overall UI doesn't seem too bad either)

    1. Re:No, linux is not ready for the desktop. by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Perhaps your next computer purchase should be a system (such as a computer from System76) that comes with Ubuntu rather than Windows. It will be fully supported.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    2. Re:No, linux is not ready for the desktop. by stinerman · · Score: 1

      WPA-PSK works fine on most rt2500 cards. The only problem is that rt2500 doesn't use wpasupplicant, but a combination of iwpriv and iwconfig to get things going. I find that it only works under WPA with TKIP encryption. These "legacy" drivers are working rather well for most users.

      There is a project to rewrite the driver from scratch, get it mainlined in the kernel, and use the standard interfaces so that the card can be used with NetworkManager and the like. Unfortunately, for all their work they haven't much to show for it. They've changed 802.11 stacks several times, the drivers are still very, very buggy, etc. Hopefully their temporary hiatus will give them a fresh perspective when they tackle completing the new drivers.

      If you are interested in emailing me, I might be able to help you. I've had an rt2500 card for 2+ years, and I've ran into about every problem they have.

      You also seem to be in the same boat a lot of people moving to GNU/Linux are. Things are rocky until you make the commitment to buying hardware that is well supported. I had a lot of the same problems, but now I wouldn't go back to Windows if you paid me.

    3. Re:No, linux is not ready for the desktop. by Synn · · Score: 1

      The problem is that hardware manufacturers target Windows, so the support there is steller and it Linux is usually playing catchup. Though when the hardware is older, the support can actually be better than what Windows provides. I've seen more issues with installing Windows from scratch than with Linux.

      Pre-installed Linux systems(like from Dell) solve this for now and if more companies do this you'll see better hardware support because manufacturers will target Linux to please companies like Dell.

    4. Re:No, linux is not ready for the desktop. by turing_m · · Score: 1

      I suggest you go to distrowatch, check the rankings, and work down the list trying distributions (also try various BSDs). You can also click on them to read reviews. Anyway, the point is not to be fixated on the one distribution. There is very likely one distribution that supports your hardware out there. You just need to find it. And chances are you can download some for free from your ISP's ftp server.

      --
      If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
    5. Re:No, linux is not ready for the desktop. by kwandar · · Score: 1

      Actually I had major problems with RT2500 card from Asus - forget even getting to WPA. It could see the networks, but showed them all at zero.

      In any event, I then tried Gutsy Tribe 5 and lo and behold it worked! With WPA!! Right out of the box.

      They seem to pay attention and fix issues, and as a new Ubuntu user I couldn't be happier playing around and finding new things (though it would have been easier if they'd told me about the "top secret" codec install so I could use things like ohhh .... MP3s. (I thought Rythymbox was a piece of crap until I finally realized what the problem was).

      Ubuntu is desktop ready imho and with a little more experimentation/beta (like printing, file compatiability) I'm going to see if IT can't start putting it on desktops at the office.

  93. Hardy Heron? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Am I the only one who sees "Hardy Heron" and flips the syllables of the words around?

    I wouldn't bring this up, but I scrolled down the page and could of sworn I saw Hery Hardon.

    Whoever Hery is, he must really like Ubuntu...

  94. Re:I fear Ubuntu might have trouble developing nam by ClamIAm · · Score: 1

    Yakety Yak


    Fixed that for ya.
  95. Re:I fear Ubuntu might have trouble developing nam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  96. Re:For obvious reasons? Ah, you mean THESE?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL! A down mod, but no score superior to the one I post, using "the inferior in security Windows" on a multiplatform test of security?

    Come on...

    (I mean, I am only replying to someone saying that *NIX security is so much stronger on their OS platform here @ /. with some evidence of my own, that they are free to prove their words with after all. Completely fair... and yet, a down-mod!)

    ROTFLMAO!

    APK

    P.S.=> I mean, if you're telling it how it is, with this:

    "(Insert *NIX variant here) is more secure/securable than Windows"

    material you guys put out here @ /., then, back it up, with some proofs of your own via CIS TOOL... pretty simple enough, go for it... apk

  97. Better name... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My idea would be "Hardy Hardon"... or is it nerdy hardon? Serves us right, heh.

  98. Mod Parent Up by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

    The Parent is right. By the GP's definition, most "professional" IT companies are fucked. They are all made of human beings with human weaknesses. The name gives the first impression, and no matter how misleading it may be, people will always put some stock into it.

    --
    You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    1. Re:Mod Parent Up by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      IMO "dapper drake" and "hardy heron" give a very different impression to "edgy eft" , "feisty fawn" and "gutsy gibbon". I strongly suspect this is deliberate.

      Anyway if you think the codenames are going to be laughed at just don't mention them and just use the version number like ubuntu themselves do in more official contexts.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  99. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    You got it back asswards. Anchors aren't "a sort of in-document links". Links are a subset of anchors, namely the ones that have href set to a URI or trigger an onclick event.

    Here's the culprit: (http://images.slashdot.org/slashdot_linux.css/ so stylesheets are images?)

    a {
    color:#000000;
    text-decoration:underline;
    }
    Good CSS practice would of course be to define a:link and a:visited instead of just a. Usually there's no reason to highlight anchors.

    Of course this use of named anchors is obsolete as you can just use an element's id as a link target nowadays.
  100. Specific for Vlad Putin by coren2000 · · Score: 1

    In near-soviet Russia, Linux KGB installs YOU!

  101. Just out of curiousity... by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

    ... why do you consider the pre-release codenames "elitist"?

    --
    You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
  102. Numbering bad for marketing by kylehase · · Score: 1
    Both their names and numbering are strange. I was totally confused by their numbering system at first. I thought they used major.minor release numbers like everyone else but it's year.month hence Hardy Heron = 8.04.

    I think this is bad for marketing since a new major version number generates more hype than a minor release. Consider non-free software. Would you be more willing to pay say $100 for an upgrade from v7.04 -> 7.10 or v7.10 -> 8.04? Although Ubunutu is free they still rely on marketing.

    --
    You want fun, go home and buy a monkey!
  103. Merits by mattr · · Score: 1

    You shouldn't say "We should use Ubuntu Feisty Fawn" since that is just a point release. You should say "We should use Ubuntu starting with release x.x codenamed Feisty Fawn". If they say "Whaddayamean, Feisty Fawn?!" you could say they have a smart versioning system that lets you know how old a release is, and they name each point release alphabetically so even if you don't memorize the version number you can know that "F" (Feisty) is two point releases later than "D" (Dapper) which is a darned good idea.

    One nice thing is the famous librarian who made that video about installing Ubuntu really liked the name. I remember very well her saying something like, "I just love saying the name Ubuntu! Ubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu..." So people who enjoy these names also may contribute enthusiasm. And, Ubuntu's meaning is cool too.

  104. Well, after installing the latest Fawning Fester- by aqk · · Score: 1

    ....I think I'll pass, and wait for Queer Quahog.

    OK, so it sounds kind of clammy; let's hope we don't have to shell out any money for it,

  105. Interesting by Almahtar · · Score: 1

    While I prefer 32-bit Ubuntu I've installed the 64-bit version on the side for every version since Breezy. This is on an HP ZV6130us - a very linux-unfriendly laptop. I've had little problems with it, and it always booted into the liveCD without issue. Odd that you've had issues.

  106. exp? by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's just me, but I always spelled that "exp".

    Then again, I'm also the type to usually spell things out, rather than simply lol stfu nub.

    Ah. Now I know why -- the MMO I play has EXP clearly marked, right next to VITA, MANA, and GOLD.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    1. Re:exp? by Viceroy+Potatohead · · Score: 1

      In D&D, 1st and 2nd Editions at least, I'm pretty sure it was "xp"... I'm almost positive (and "ep" in Rolemaster, IIRC), although I don't have the books around any more for confirmation. You could be right otherwise, though, since I've never played massively multiplayer online games.

  107. No WPA, I mean c'mon by curusetae · · Score: 1

    I installed 7.04 on my one year old laptop yesterday just to see if I could finally get away from Windows on normal daily home desktop use.

    Turned out the GUI version installation CD didn't work with my hardware (ok), so I had to download the alternative install CD. It didn't recognize my dhcp during the install (ok). After the installation, Gnome didn't start because it told me I had no monitor at all (ok). After RTFM, I got the network to work by simply telling it to use dhcp in the config file and Gnome began to work with new drivers and some config tweaking as well.

    So the GUI works, everything seems to be in order, I figure Windows and OSX have been able to use wlan in laptops for years so I try to turn it on here. Great, it sees my wlan, now I just enter my passphrase and select WPA2 from this menu... wait, why is there only WEP available?

    RTFM tells it all: "Ubuntu does not automatically support WPA encryption"

    I mean, it's 2007! Almost 2008! And this thing is telling me that in order to use Linux in my home I should remove any encryption from my wlan? And that I could try to go through a lengthy installation of WPA with tweaking config files again, but even the guide tells me that "sometimes WPA just won't work".

  108. Re:I fear Ubuntu might have trouble developing nam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't talk back!

  109. we need Ubuntu "Adult Cover" editions... by itsdapead · · Score: 1

    I've said it before and say it again... these silly names are hurting Ubuntu.

    The Microsoft (nee. IBM) industry sub-standard monoculture is founded on the suit-friendly "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" culture and the fact that PHBs are too insecure in their maturity to deal with computers named after fruit or star trek characters.

    Publishers of Harry Potter and other "too good for children" children's literature have got the idea - produce "adult cover" editions for those sad, sad people who are too uptight to be seen dead reading a book with a brightly coloured cover on the train (and too stupid to realise that it still says "Harry Potter" in large friendly letters on the cover)*.

    Of course, there is Ubuntu 6.06LTS - but there's still that tricky "Ubuntu" name - your stereotypical "conservative" PHB is usually White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, so you'd be safer with something pseudo-latin ending with "-itas", "-ia" or "-um" (justified with some pseudo-psychological newspeak about encompassing the prodynamic metaresponsive approach of something, and using "leverage" as a verb) than a Bantu word incorporating some warm fuzzy communist tree-hugging philosophy.

    (*OK - I know that, in reality, this is probably more to do with getting bookshops to display them outside the kids department - also I confess to briefly owning an adult-cover copy of "The Northern Lights" but it was the only one in the shop & I gave it away as soon as I got a proper copy).

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  110. What comes after "Zealous Zebra"? by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    That is the real question.

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  111. Once my thoughts.. by Junta · · Score: 1

    I still run Ubuntu (hasn't done anything to date to make me want to leave, and is doing a good job of bringing new technology to me in a stable form than others with their release cycle.

    I will say, hawever, the 'easier to manage' part is largely people who were disenchanted with the RedHat situation a long time ago. Since finally adapting yum, the RedHat/CentOS world has something that is roughly equivalent to apt (IMO, the key thing that RH didn't officially have that made the difference). Yum has behaviors I don't like (i.e. yum search is much harder to parse through than aptitude search), but the fact remains, I admin a CentOS server and it's trivial to manage, not that different from Ubuntu anymore.

    I tried Fedora back in the day, but they were, at the time, too aggressive and things broke frequently and behaved poorly (this was the Fedora Core 1/2 days), but I have no idea how they are now. I will say Ubuntu gets things done in a good balance, but I don't claim that the others haven't adopted strategies/policies that bring it up to par.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  112. UBUNTU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does this mean they'll finally get it right at "Zealous Zebra" and quit with these danged updates?

  113. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by Random832 · · Score: 1

    What are they links to, genius? The individual comment. However, with javascript enabled it instead acts as an expand/collapse button (though middle-clicking will still open the comment in a new tab)

    What does the status bar say when you hover on 'em? It says "http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=282945&cid=20 402197"

    What website does it take you to? The above-mentioned URL.

    How come no other article has fake-link underlines on the subjects of every comment? They all have, for me, for months now.
    --
    We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
  114. Re:WHY IS THIS SUBJECT UNDERLINED? by Random832 · · Score: 1

    You were right about what, exactly? It's still a link, and it's still underlined. Can I assume your incoherent post means that it works for you now? It seems more likely the problem was with your browser [and somehow it fixed itself, maybe you restarted it] than with slashdot.

    --
    We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
  115. It's called the alphabet. . . by Iowan41 · · Score: 1

    If you can't put that in order, well, then, not sure you could work at MacDonald's let alone install Linux. ---waiting for Zippy Zebra

  116. Another reason I can't stand Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The ridiculous code names along with the touchy-feely imagery really turn me off to the idea of using Ubuntu.