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."

Comments

Cool

[pak9rabid]

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.

Re:Cool

[contra_mundi]

This needs a car analogy for us non-gun folk.

Re:Cool

[corsec67]

I've always been fascinated how the Debian (and derivatives) releases have functioned. Each branch is like a car in a merge ramp; as it reaches 'stable', it speeds up and aligns itself with the other cars on the road ready to be released on the information superhighway.

Re:Cool

[von_rick]

This needs a sticks and stone analogy for us stone age folks ;-)

Re:Cool

[V!NCENT]

Ubuntu is like a massive rock; as it reaches 'stable' it starts rolling down the hill and as the giant rock becomes fasty-fasty it will go BOOOM breaky the barrier made of sticks.

Re:Cool

[Propaganda13]

I'm lost with the guns, cars, and stones. Could someone make a software analogy?

Re:Cool

[PitaBred]

It's like a Windows beta, except it eventually starts working right.

Re:Cool

[dmbasso]

Also another exception: if it screws you somehow, it's not on intent.

Re:Cool

[MadMidnightBomber]

Debian unstable is like a Windows RTM, except it's more stable.

PS. Don't mod this funny like you did last time, it's fucking true.

Re:Cool

[minvaren]

Everything is different, but the same... things are more moderner than before... bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers... San Dimas High School football rules!

Re:Cool

[im_thatoneguy]

I don't use Windows. Could someone phrase this for a Debian user?

Re:Another one!

[VeNoM0619]

Better yet, they passed up the chance of a snappy name like Karmic Khameleon Imagine the new colors they could bring to their new desktop scheme...

Really, is it that bad?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Really, is it that bad?

[DrLang21]

I quite enjoy the brown color scheme. It looks clean and professional while being easy on the eyes.

Re:Really, is it that bad?

[Aphoxema]

I've got sick on blue from Windows and OS X, Ubuntu's theme was liberating when I first set eyes on in and until the Darkroom theme came along I never really felt the need to change it.

And just like a koala

[wiredog]

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...

Re:And just like a koala

[ianare]

So a bit like some children then ?

Re:And just like a koala

[Hillgiant]

So a bit like some children then ?

Some? You are obviously not a parent.

Damn

[Alarindris]

I was hoping for King Krimson.

Re:Damn

[rbanffy]

Krusty Krab

Re:Cat got you karma-whoring-80-column ass?

[bluefoxlucid]

I actually thought this was a joke when I first read it. Especially with the cloud computing bullshit.

Re:Another one!

[von_rick]

The ratings were pretty high for Kinky Klingons, but seems like they were cast aside for being less exotic.

I have a tendency to make things up

Re:Another one!

[HTH NE1]

I just wonder if the next will be Leaping Lizard.

Re:Another one!

[Chris Mattern]

They tried, but it had a bad effect on reliability. The system would come and go, would come and go-oo-oo...

Re:Another one!

[iced_773]

kola...isn't that a KDE program? Then again, shouldn't this whole release be KDE-only? I mean, it's all K's...

The problem with eucalyptus ...

[Ungrounded Lightning]

... 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!

Re:Another one!

[Thelasko]

The system would come and go, would come and go-oo-oo...

On behalf of the entire Slashdot community, I thank you for getting one of the worst songs ever written stuck in everyone's head.

Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[MediaStreams]

The text alignment and kerning problems are something I really can't understand. Every time I do my yearly 'let's give Linux a try again' it is depressing to see the same horrible font choices, text that is never properly aligned in text boxes, and kerning problems.

It's like trying to put out a newspaper or magazine that doesn't have any real professional page layout people working on it. It is so jarring to read that it really doesn't matter what the actual content is.

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[dotancohen]

Please, file bugs with specific examples. You are probably right: the people of that particular profession are not on the dev team and the devs that are working on Ubuntu probably don't even _know_ what they are doing wrong. Better yet, file it at Redhat or Novell, where the cashflow to hire the right people exists (Canonical won't do it).

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[Radhruin]

I've noticed a lot (A LOT) of problems along these lines, and it really gets to me (I suspect that the metrics for a lot of the fonts that are distributed with Ubuntu are completely off)... but how do I categorize and report the bug in such a way that it's useful? Take a screencap of a website that uses a specific font that looks terrible? Is that a bug in Firefox, Cairo, the font itself, Ubuntu, or what?

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[dotancohen]

If you file it in Launchpad, then the devs will assign it to the proper component. Definitely include a screenshot. Is the problem only in websites? Link to the bug here and I'll triage it (I use Kubuntu, though, but I can install an Ubuntu virtual machine).

The Ubuntu bug tracker is great for iffy bugs because the competency level of Ubuntu users is assumed to be rather low. However, sometimes (and I hope that this won't be the case with this bug) the devs cry "opinion" and don't work on the bug. But the whole fonts thing is well enough known that they may appreciate the input from someone who does know a bit on the subject.

Thanks!

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[viridari]

Bugs filed with Ubuntu are routinely ignored. There is a huge drive for forward movement, new features, but almost no emphasis on cleaning up the myriad bugs. Why should I waste my time reporting bugs if Canonical isn't putting resources into resolving them?

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[dotancohen]

That's why I mentioned Novell and Redhat as two places to file bugs will they will be solved, and not ignored. If you can cite specific examples, I will happily help get the bugs filed at the right places.

Re:Another one!

[iamhigh]

Awww crap. Kubuntu Karmic Koala. That won't be good for business.

Can't believe the /. trolls haven't picked up on that one yet.

Re:Another one!

[pushing-robot]

Ah, that explains the "no more brown" bit.

"the horribly alliterative Ubuntu family"

[John Hasler]

Shouldn't that read "the appallingly alliterative Ubuntu family"?

WTF?

[theolein]

...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.