What Normal Users Can Expect From Ubuntu 8.10

notthatwillsmith writes "With Ubuntu 8.10 due to be released in just a few days, Maximum PC pored through all the enhancements, updates, and new features that are bundled into the release of Intrepid Ibex and separated out the new features that are most exciting for Linux desktop users. Things to be excited about? With new versions of GNOME and X.Org, there's quite a bit, ranging from the context-sensitive Deskbar search to an audio and video compatible SIP client to the new Network Manager (manage wired, Wi-Fi, VPN, and cellular broadband connections in one place)."

Comments

Newbie Question

[electrictroy]

Is Ubuntu the easiest version of Linux to set up? I like the ease of just clicking "install" and everything automagically takes care of itself. (Like my Windows XP disc.)

Re:Newbie Question

[marco.antonio.costa]

In my experience it's more JustWorkish than Windows. My ancient Bt878whatever capture card and Chinese junk Bluetooth adapter were both a pain to set on Windows. On Ubuntu I just get a recognized capture device and a nice little BT icon on the tray. :-)

Haven't looked back since. Kudos to Shuttleworth and employees.

Re:Newbie Question

[jonaskoelker]

You never just "click install" on windows xp..
1) Pop in disk
2) First you have to [...]

Almost correct.

1-5) as you said.
6) Look at the popup that says lsass.exe will shut down your box in 30 seconds
7) Pull the box off the network
8-12) Do step 1-5 again
13) Download antivirus without connection to the network. Pixies and leprechauns are helpful here.
14) Install the antivirus
15-16) step 6-7

Based on a true story. I can't tell you how much I hated windows when I saw the sasser popup.

Re:Newbie Question

[Draek]

13) Download antivirus without connection to the network. Pixies and leprechauns are helpful here.

Which is why you should always install XP with at least one of the following:

a) Behind a firewall (may not be completely safe, though).
b) With a laptop besides you.
c) With an Ubuntu LiveCD.

Option c) is specially funny though, all things considered, but it's the one I usually recommend. In fact, many of my friends' PCs used to have a relatively small FAT32 partition for LinuxWindows file exchange during install/troubleshooting, before Linux got reliable NTFS support.

Re:Newbie Question

[Velex]

2) First you have to setup a partition to install windows.. lets assume it's an empty disk so you'd press c (create partition) and number the number of disk space for that partition then enter, then you press enter again to install on that partition.

As an interesting anecdote to back up your point: a friend/roommate bought a new computer and got ahold of a warez XP 64-bit install CD. None of the cd keys from my secret stash worked, naturally, so he decided to go buy a legit copy of XP. Because the 64-bit installer had already loaded stuff on the drive (yeah I know real technical language—it's the weekend jeez) the legit disk refused to do anything.

So I got out a handy Linux livecd to nuke the partition table so the legit XP CD would install from scratch. So he was all set.

A few weeks later he motioned me into his room after I got home from work and explained that Windows wasn't seeing his whole drive. I immediately noticed that Windows had only created a 300 GB partition on his 750 GB drive! I mentioned a few tools I could get together to expand the NTFS filesystem, but he decided to just make the other 450 GB a D: drive.

Moral of the story is that installing Windows is, as you suggest, not just hitting some big red "Install" button.

Re:Newbie Question

[mechsoph]

It's not that hard. You just add one line to your xorg.conf (something like "Virtual 2048 768" to the Display Subsection of your Screen section). Then you do a `xrandr --output VGA-0 --left-of DVI-0'. This gives you one X screen split across your two monitors. I have this working fine on multiple machines with the open source radeon drivers. The only hiccup from compiz is that if your total screen size if bigger than the maximum texture size of your card, you get some strange artifacts in the extra screen area. It's still quite usable, and a reasonable workaround is to just stick some window there pinned to all workspaces (I use an Eterm tailling /var/log/messages pinned using devilspie).

It used to be possible to run each monitor as a separate X screen using a little more hackery in the xorg.conf file. I thought that was nicer than using a single screen; however, Xorg broke that sometime in the past 10 months. Now trying to make that work (at least with the radeon drivers) will cause X to crash, which is really just pathetic.

Re:What normal users can expect

[Tubal-Cain]

And it encourages those that don't like it to explore the customization features.

Re:What normal users can expect

[solevita]

Indeed.

When using previous Ubuntu versions, the first thing I would do after installation was the theme to something less brown. I downloaded and installed the 8.10 beta the day it was released and it was beautiful - no need to change a thing - I loved it.

Sadly an update replaced the beta's wallpaper with, what I imagine is, the wallpaper for the final release. It looks like crap so I changed to a solid brown background.

Ubuntu are employing people to do design work now and it really shows. Yes, you get a brown desktop background, no, this isn't what Microsoft or Apple would sell you (unless you've got a Zune, I guess), but yes, it looks wonderful.

An operating system is more than the colour of the background image, of course, so I really shouldn't be labouring the point so hard, or feeding the troll; if you don't like it you could change it - don't judge the whole thing on its theme. Having said that, in 8.10 brown works well.

The one Ubuntu feature I want most:

[Cordath]

Proper Bluray media support.

I don't care if I have to pay for it. I just want to be able to play all Bluray media, including stuff with only HD audio codecs that are currently unsupported in Linux.

Now, I know some of you think this is unnecessary fluff. However, if Linux wants to compete with Windows it has to tackle the crucial stumbling blocks that force people to continue using Windows. Linux has lots of great home theater software and many aspirations towards filling that niche, but they amount to a hill of beans without support for all HD media.

Re:The one Ubuntu feature I want most:

[Directrix1]

Does VLC not support this yet?

Eclipse

[epine]

I wish Ubuntu would get their act together on Eclipse.

From http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1265/

msarro wrote on the 25 Mar 08 at 01:50

This has almost 550 vote ups, more than just about anything else on this place, and yet according to launchpad this isn't even supposed to make the hardy release? C'mon guys, 3.3 is a year old, and 3.4 will be in testing shortly after hardy. Some of us like to have a scripted install so we can get ubuntu installed, run our shell script, come back an hour or two later and have everything installed. Yes, it can be downloaded and run from a folder, but we can do that with everything. So if that's the retort people are going to keep kicking back at us why are we even bothering to include apt?

My attempt to run Ganymede from a folder was unsuccessful. Maybe it was the AMD64 thing, I never figured it out, and I don't want to.

Ibex appears to be stuck at 3.2.2. That's Callisto from July 2006. If Jaunty remains stuck at 3.2 in April 2009, I'll begin to seriously wonder about things. Does July 2002 to June 2005 ring any bells with Ubuntu management?

I've read other threads which suggest that Fedora enjoys a small monopoly on the developers who are proficient at packaging Java applications.

[[Had some problems posting from a public terminal. Sorry if my repost ends up becoming a dup.]]

Re:What normal users can expect

[alex4u2nv]

Its either that, or the naked people! (ubuntu calendar)

Re:What normal users can expect

[solevita]

One of the problems Ubuntu has from a selling standpoint is that Gnome's look, even with the Ubuntu customized settings, look like a dull hodgepodge ripoff of Windows XP and OS X Panther.

If you can't get people to use your distro because it looks like it's way past its prime, then it doesn't matter how useable it actually is. People need to see past ideology and make something that looks like what people are likely to want to use.

In other words, brown is bad in this instance.

Unfortunately I don't think you've really got the gist of this thread, nor used the software in question. The OP was talking about the colour of the desktop wallpaper - let's not bring ideology into this. Also I don't agree with you when you say that Ubuntu looks "look like a dull hodgepodge ripoff of Windows XP and OS X Panther."

Yes, previous brown Ubuntus looked bad, that was the starting point of my original post, but in this instance brown Ubuntu looks good.

And that's ignoring the fact that I've shown 8.10 to a number of people, both highly technical and those who find double clicking hard, all of whom seemed to be impressed by the default look of the software. To repeat myself then:

In other words, brown is good in this instance.

Re:What normal users can expect

[lysergic.acid]

yes, changing your desktop wallpaper is a sure sign of intelligence and creativity. i approve of the logic of your statement.

i mean, changing your desktop from its default background is much more important than configuring your firewall, re-installing device drivers/your personal applications, restoring backed up files & documents, or setting up your network connection.

and nothing says "i'm a tech savvy hipster" like changing your desktop background to one of the throwback stock wallpapers that came with your OS--like a close-up shot up of wet leaves of grass/a frog/a butterfly, wind-blown sand dunes, tranquil autumn leaves, or any of the other kitsch backgrounds that expresses your personality--after all, what better way to show your sense of individuality than by personalizing your computer with a determined set of wallpapers, user avatars, and desktop icons?

so are you the skateboarder, guitar, soccer ball, or the chess pieces?

Re:What normal users can expect

[d3ac0n]

Um...

Not to try and troll or anything, but while Ubuntu Studio is cool and all, particularly if you are doing sound mixing, wouldn't it be easier to just install Compiz Fusion and then pick from DOZENS of cool skins?

I guess it's just a matter of what you want/need your machine for.

(Although Ubuntu Studio DOES look pretty)

Re:What I noted about upgrading from 8.04 to 8.10

[ricegf]

I never upgrade Windows OR Linux - I reinstall both on a clean partition.

I have two partitions, for the current and previous install respectively. When it's time to upgrade, I copy my user data from previous to current; reformat previous and install the new OS there; and flip partitions in the boot loader.

That way, if the new install isn't all I'd hoped, I can easily boot into the previous partition from the grub menu. And I don't have to worry about a Windows or Linux upgrade almost working (yes, I've had problems with both).

Re:What normal users can expect

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer this one.

... a system lock-up if you invoke NVIDIA drivers?

[pterandon]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/288726

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