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Ubuntu "Karmic Koala" RC Hits the Streets With Windows 7
oranghutan writes "Computerworld is reporting Canonical has made available the Release Candidate of its latest Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu 9.10, on the same day Microsoft launched the long-awaited Windows 7. 'The upcoming Canonical release, which is code-named Karmic Koala, is the latest version of the popular flavor of the Linux OS. The development release on Thursday pushed the OS one step closer to final release, which is due on Oct. 29, according to the company's release schedule Web page. An image of the OS is available for download on Ubuntu's Web site. Test versions of Karmic Koala RC available for download include the server, desktop and netbook versions.'"
no one cares
The 2009-10-29 release date was chosen over 8 months ago, several months before Microsoft announced their release date for Windows 7.
No, I don't think it would have made a difference when they released it. Canonical sticks to a strict release cycle every April and October and they won't alter their release date just to try and compete with other operating systems. They're appealing to a fairly different user base, anyway.
People who are weighing the option of Windows 7 vs Ubuntu 9.10 as their primary OS are going to make their choice regardless of which one came out a week earlier.
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This bug was reported on Oct 15th, and fixed on Oct 22nd. What more do you want?
Of course if you're a Microsoft slave, you can wait for a bug to be fixed "when we get around to it", which will probably be in SP1 in 4-6 months or so - depending on how buggy THIS Windows version is... (sometimes they have to release the SP faster, like with Vista).
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
It's so very tempting to mod this Informative...
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910overview
Clones are people two.
Right click on "My Computer" and select "Properties". You will see the Windows version number there. That option is available on such operating systems as Windows 95 (4.00.95), Windows 98 (4.10.1998), Windows EffingSucks (4.90.3000), Windows 2000 (5.0), Windows XP (5.1), Windows 2003 (5.2), Windows Fistsya (6.0) and the curiously named Windows Seven (6.1).
So, unless you are a die-hard Applista or just started using computers this year, you probably do remember your Windows 4 and 5 boxes very well.
The (only) RC is dropped one week ahead of the final release? That's not really enough time to even get feedback from the test userbase, much less actually do anything about the bugs that might show up. So, are we to assume that the RC is basically just a marketing stunt?
Considering that is not the purpose of a release candidate, of course not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle
The term release candidate (RC) refers to a version with potential to be a final product, ready to release unless fatal bugs emerge. In this stage of product stabilization (read QA cycle), all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more Beta cycles with no known showstopper-class bug.
RC just means no new code will be added at that point, so no new testing is needed, as all the code/features in it by that point were tested in development/alpha/beta stages.
There of course could be bugs in the RC, but that is true of the final release just the same.
These days an RC is used more to get users outside of your normal beta testers to use it, and make sure it works with the basics and didn't majorly break anything else that used to work in previous versions.
Assuming that happens, the RC is basically renamed to release.
Commercial software calls it RTM (release to manufacturer) which burns and presses the final CD/DVDs, and for open source that is the day the ISO is copied to the main download mirrors.
I guess Ubuntu will have to cope with the other 6 releases before Windows Vista III the terminal. Ubuntu unashamedly release is timed to contain the latest Gnome, http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.28/ of course it includes its own release notes as well http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910. I'm sure your probably aware of good stuff in EXT4; GRUB2; Empathy; Software Centre that have been heavily documented everywhere including serious numbers of Application Improvements in Firefox and OpenOffice. Linux itself continues on spewing greater and improved hardware support which include the usual greatness http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux26Changes Check out 2.26.28 - 2.26.31 oh and X and Mesa and... Oh is that a Win 7 cry for attention I know whats new and Better Vista don't cut it!
Why not? The community support is better, there's a server version with the GUI stripped out that works well, and for what we're using it for (one MySQL database server, a webserver, a Zabbix performance monitoring server for other systems, and an email gateway) Ubuntu works just as well. Our desktops and most of our servers are Windows (not by my choice, but I have to live with that) so about all we're using Linux for is a few disjointed systems.
At the time I was migrating all my systems to virtual machines anyways to make management easier (and I've always had hiccups with live-migrating machines - regardless of os - from physical to virtual), so I decided when I rebuilt them to go with Ubuntu instead.
We are running OpenBSD on some of the other systems (DNS and a lot of our routers) but the main network admin handles those systems (I've used FreeBSD some but have never even tried OpenBSD).
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
You lost us at the wording "Why not?"
No professional ever changes for the sake of changing.
The community support is far from better, it's UBUNTU. Redhat/CentOS has a world of following. Besides, how many Oracle or install on Ubuntu by support-release?
Ubuntu hasn't proven itself as anything better than another way to do what Red Hat/CentOS has done in the server world.
Our entire data center is Red Hat/CentOS, with XEN virtualization and clustering. While I'm a Debian/Gentoo person, I've noticed the merits of using something industry-accepted when in a publically traded company.
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