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Shuttleworth Announces Karmic Koala
An anonymous reader writes to mention that Mark Shuttleworth has announced the next release in the horribly alliterative Ubuntu family, "Karmic Koala." The new version hopes to include a newer, shinier, faster startup, better small screen support, a spruced-up desktop look (no more brown), and many minor tweaks and updates. "A newborn Koala spends about six months in the family before it heads off into the wild alone. Sounds about perfect for an Ubuntu release
plan! I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in Barcelona, and before
that, at a Jaunty release party. Till then, cheers."
Like we need another brand of kola on the market.
A good Koala knows how to see the wood for the trees, even when her head
is in the clouds. Ubuntu aims to keep free software at the forefront of
cloud computing by embracing the API's of Amazon EC2, and making it easy
for anybody to setup their own cloud using entirely open tools. We're
currently in beta with official Ubuntu base AMI's for use on Amazon EC2.
During the Karmic cycle we want to make it easy to deploy applications
into the cloud, with ready-to-run appliances or by quickly assembling a
custom image. Ubuntu-vmbuilder makes it easy to create a custom AMI
today, but a portfolio of standard image profiles will allow easier
collaboration between people doing similar things on EC2. Wouldn't it be
apt for Ubuntu to make the Amazon jungle as easy to navigate as, say, APT?
What if you want to build an EC2-style cloud of your own? Of all the
trees in the wood, a Koala's favourite leaf is Eucalyptus. The
Eucalyptus project, from UCSB, enables you to create an EC2-style cloud
in your own data center, on your own hardware. It's no coincidence that
Eucalyptus has just been uploaded to universe and will be part of Jaunty
- during the Karmic cycle we expect to make those clouds dance, with
dynamically growing and shrinking resource allocations depending on your
needs. A savvy Koala knows that the best way to conserve energy is to go
to sleep, and these days even servers can suspend and resume, so imagine
if we could make it possible to build a cloud computing facility that
drops its energy use virtually to zero by napping in the midday heat,
and waking up when there's work to be done. No need to drink at the
energy fountain when there's nothing going on. If we get all of this
right, our Koala will help take the edge off the bear market.
If that sounds rather open and nebulous, then we've hit the sweet spot
for cloud computing futurology. Let me invite you to join the server
team at UDS in Barcelona, when they'll be defining the exact set of
features to ship in October.
Desktop
First impressions count. We're eagerly following the development of
kernel mode setting, which promises a smooth and flicker-free startup.
We'll consider options like Red Hat's Plymouth, for graphical boot on
all the cards that support it. We made a splash years ago with Usplash,
but it's time to move to something newer and shinier. So the good news
is, boot will be beautiful. The bad news is, you won't have long to
appreciate it! It only takes 35 days to make a whole Koala, so we think
it should be possible to bring up a stylish desktop much faster. The
goal for Jaunty on a netbook is 25 seconds, so let's see how much faster
we can get you all the way to a Koala desktop. We're also hoping to
deliver a new login experience that complements the graphical boot, and
works well for small groups as well as very large installations.
For those of you who can relate to Mini Me, or already have a Dell Mini,
the Ubuntu Netbook Edition will be updated to include all the latest
technology from Moblin, and tuned to work even better on screens that
are vertically challenged. With millions of Linux netbooks out there, we
have been learning and adapting usability to make the Koala cuddlier
than ever. We also want to ensure that the Netbook Remix installs easily
and works brilliantly on all the latest netbook hardware, so consider
this a call for testing Ubuntu 9.04 if you're the proud owner of one of
these dainty items.
The desktop will have a designer's fingerprints all over it - we're now
beginning the serious push to a new look. Brown has served us well but
the Koala is considering other options. Come to UDS for a preview of the
whole new look.
I've always been fascinated how the Debian (and derivatives) releases have functioned. Each branch is like a chamber in a revolver; as it reaches 'stable', it aligns itself with the barrel ready to be fired off to the masses.
If it's brown, drink it down. If it's black, send it back.
"The new version hopes to include a newer, shinier, faster startup; better small screen support; a spruced up desktop look (no more brown); and many minor tweaks and updates."
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I was hoping for Kwicky. :-(
...but it's still shitty bloatware!
Am I the only one who likes the brown color scheme?
I find that it's easy on the eyes without being outright drab, but maybe that's just me.
It only looks cute and cuddly. Actually try to cuddle a koala and it'll bite you, claw you, and shit on you.
Or so I've heard...
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I was hoping for King Krimson.
...they're finally getting a new theme?
Seriously, of all the things to mention in the summary, you focus on the not-brown?
There's a page long rant about cloud computing, about the eucalyptus project, and why the release is named koala. And you mention that, like every release, there's talk of it possibly not being brown?
aawww..
I'm just going to leave this info there and walk away
I confess that not knowing who mark shutlleworth may be, I do not understand what you wanted to announce.
How about the RAM/disk footprint? I'd like to know if it's getting leaner.
Kill the Koala. Get a real name. Get this distro hopping.
Ops, I shuld have usd the prevuwe but in.
... is that it scatters its seeds by explosion, into the remains of a forest fire (which it promotes via its extremely flammable sap and the tinder pile of leaves and shed bark it creates around itself - apparently "in the hope of" getting the fire started B-) ). A row of eucalyptus trees during a fire can become the equivalent of a walking artillery barrage targeting a fuel dump.
So I certainly wouldn't want to compute on a eucalyptus cluster - even if it is a "cloud" floating far away (like over the Berkeley Hills - high enough to be visible from I5 north of Sacramento). I'd worry about it taking out the data center and my data with it and "distributing" it up to the tropopause and onward with the prevailing wind.
As for my laptop, no WAY I'll install any eucalyptus package on that. It's got enough problem with those lithium batteries with the energy density of a hand grenade without adding something more with the energy density of napalm.
= = = =
And I thought Ubuntu had an unfortunate choice of names. Good grief!
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Will be named Masturbating Monkey
...DropBear as the default SSH. Should have been called "Killer Koala."
Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
Karma might dictate that, with this release, Ubuntu adoption reaches a critical mass, and the first (legitimate) wave of Ubuntu-oriented virii are released into the wild.
Anybody want my mod points?
"Koala spends sleeping 75% of its time. Just after sunset koalas move around and can often be heard "barking" aggressively at other koalas." - they sleep 75% of the time, I don't know how to translate to computer terms but barking is certainly cool... looks like I know what the start up sound for ubuntu 9.10 will be :D
Damn it!
I had 1000:1 odds on "Kinky Kangaroo"
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
"That's not poo sweetie! Daddy installed Ubuntu!"
Shuttleworth has been promising big overhauls to the default look since Dapper Drake. There have been incremental improvements but on the whole the basic theme really hasn't changed.
While it doesn't matter to me because I'm literate enough in GNOME to install new themes, I would love to see the Ubuntu folks actually follow through on their promises to really do a nice theme.
It's 2009. Over twenty years since the original Macintosh was released. Twenty years since the fundamentals of UI element spacing, text rendering, text kerning, verticle and horizontal text alignment, colour usage...
And the latest Ubuntu, the 'gold standard' for Linux desktops, is a complete mess:
* Text kerning problems all over the place
* Alignment problems in almost every single text field or label
* Almost random colour choice for UI elements
* UI elements having no consistent alignment or spacing
* UI elements that look like they come from some amateur 1990s Mac/Windows clone
Honestly, the toy apps I throw together in Interface Builder look like polished commercial grade software compared to almost everything I see in Linux. I can only assume that there is no standard Linux UI building tool equal to Interface Builder.
Microsoft is on the ropes with Vista and frantically rushing Win7 out the door. Cheap netbooks are doing major damage to the OS profit margins.
And Linux continues to be a UI train wreck. Silly names. Stupid package management with insane dependencies. Redundant and competing desktops. License wars. Mass duplication of common apps with each version sucking in their own unique ways and no single app every getting to the point of being a drop in replacement for commercial Mac/Windows versions.
Even something as trivial as the damn Solitaire app looks like a complete piece of shit.
Boggle.
and... rich 50 is middle-class 38 !
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
9.10 - The Capable Cock
Or might it just be called K3?
creation science book
As with most things cute, they are cute for about 5 seconds. Then they get annoying.
...they it's gotta be the Purring Pussy.
It's just gotta be that one, or I'll be sorely disappointed.
I wonder what the one after Zealous Zebra will be.
They're really ditching the brown?!?!? Can I announce year of desktop Linux yet?!?
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Now we only have to wait through the 'L' release until they can finally use "Masturbating Monkey".
Question everything
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I say they let Little Orphan Annie name the next release... "Leapin' Lizards!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Shouldn't that read "the appallingly alliterative Ubuntu family"?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Seriously. I left the default desktop background for a month or so after I did a fresh install of 8.10. At least half a dozen people in my office said something to the effect of 'That's a cool background!'.
Sure the coffee-stained leather looking thing gets a bit old after a while but it is definitely not any worse than rolling green hills with blue skies and multicolored windows!
As a long time linux user, I'm pretty much fed up with Ubuntu. Every twat who uses it thinks they invented linux, and it gets more coverage than Princess Di. It's only a distro, not a religion. All mouth and no trousers...
So... when will I be able to use multiple displays without having two separate X sessions? You can't drag things between sessions so that approach is useless, and I don't want one virtual display where everything full screen is kicked between the two either. I want two screens. Is that so hard? It's part of the reason i rarely use ubuntu at home!
-taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Why did I first read this as idiot-with-ubuntu rather than i-do-it-with-ubuntu?
I wonder how many people will install KKK (Karmic Koala Kubuntu) because of the new "no more brown" look...
Yes, I know I'm replying to a slightly tongue-in-cheek posting but...
Can we get some convention in the tag system? I'd recommend lowerCamelCase.
I use camel case even for files - The "Documents And Settings" and "Program Files" nuisance could have been avoided if MS had adopted such a convention.
if you use vim/gvim, have a look at zenburn theme. it is designed to be especially easy on the eyes during long duration editing sessions.
That is a lot of bugs to file ...
Wouldn't it be more productive if there existed some detailed style guide/HIG.
I know that one exists, but it isn't very prominent and seems to lack good detailed examples.
...Stupid package management with insane dependencies. ...
And you say this as a Mac user, using an OS that doesn't even have a unified package management system (And no, .pkg files don't count, since they aren't unified and there's no built-in update of uninstall mechanism)?
Your post should have been marked troll, flamebait or Macfanboi, and I say that as a Mac user myself who owns three Macs.
I use mainly Debian (on my desktops) and OS X (on my laptop). There are pros and cons to both, but by far the biggest con of the Mac and pro of Debian is that packing management actually exists and works.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I first saw that the official way to install apps on OS X is to mount a virtual drive image and then manually copy files out of it to somewhere on your hard drive (like the Applications folder), and then unmount the drive image. That's the best they could come up with?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
...I seriously doubt it. There have been hopes of that for several releases...
sudo mount --milk --sugar
We need to get Lusty Lobster, Melancholy Mule, and Obese Otter out the door first.
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