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Ubuntu's "Lucid Lynx" Enters Beta
ActionDesignStudios writes "The upcoming release of Ubuntu, titled 'Lucid Lynx,' has just entered the beta cycle. Alongside the usual desktop and server versions, a special version has been released that is designed to run on Amazon's EC2 cloud service. This release of Ubuntu does away with the brown 'Human' Gnome theme we've all become accustomed to, replaced by a new version Canonical says is inspired by light. The new release also includes much better integration with social networking services such as Twitter, identi.ca and Facebook, among others."
That's funny, after upgrading I still have Human as an option. It's just not the default for new installs.
This must be some new definition of "does away with" which actually means something completely different.
Humans are now obsolete and will be done away with, is what it means.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
This is possibly more insightful than it seems. Canonical seem to be pushing more and more in their own direction, rather than anything the Ubuntu community does. This is good for Ubuntu, but potentially bad for users as more and more changes are made to the GNOME interface, the browser etc etc.
"Anonymous could not immediately be reached for further comment." - International Business Times
It almost makes sense.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Why? What's the point of having more than one window open if everything's always maximized? I've seen it many times, but I've never understood it.
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Ubuntu is the mainstream Linux GUI and it uses windows to display applications. The way in which windows are controlled matters a great deal. As Shuttleworth says it's not a democracy and he can choose, but all software has users and if they're not convinced that changes are made for the best reasons then of course they're going to do what they're allowed to do: talk about it.
This change hasn't been justified on any grounds. It puts the 'Close' button near the 'File' menu and other drop-downs which makes it easier to misclick and close applications. It's not a common layout across WIMP GUIs. It's an unnecessary and pointless variation on what people expect.
Very easily? So it's a multichoice box somewhere in the GUI then?
The non-easy solution was to modify or make a gconf key. Is that really the easy way of doing it?
I think that the dream of a mainstream community-based OS is dead now.
At least Fedora does not have these delusions of grandeur. It is a testbed for Red Hat, I'm OK with that. I don't want my OS to be interesting, for fuck's sake. I want it very predictable and unobtrusive. Is it too much to ask?
entropy happens
You didn't complain when Windows 7 entered beta or RC. This is tech news. Get used to it or head over to digg.
OMGZZZ!!! Lucid Lynx enters beta!!! is slashdot having a slow news day today?
Ubuntu enters beta every six months. It's news for those of us who like beta-testing Ubuntu.
Just because a story appears on Slashdot front page does not mean that you have to click "Read More" and then have to come up with something to comment. Go ahead and skip an article if you don't find it interesting. No seriously, go ahead. No one is going to stop you. You won't get an achievement saying "Did not comment on articlezor!".
The new release also includes much better integration with social networking services such as Twitter, identi.ca and Facebook
Why should an operating system "integrate" with a social networking service?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Both of these are pretty much show-stoppers, especially the ATI issue. Is a month long enough to sort out a problem this serious?
They've probably been planning around this longer than a month already. Anyways, as for ATI, x.org shouldn't have to plan around ATI's schedule, especially with their history of support.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Ubuntu enters beta every six months. It's news for those of us who like beta-testing Ubuntu.
And it's more important than that for those of us that like to stick with a LTS version of Ubuntu; this is the first Beta in a while.
Not only that but Mark's Comments towards the end of this bug report posted in a previous slashdot story have really opened my eyes as to what a dick he really is when talking to his users.
There's lots of reasons to keep the close buttons on the right by default and yet Mark can't come up with one reason to move them, just a lot of nonsense about "his plans" which he doesn't want to share.
He is absolutely not being a dick. Just take a look at the rubbish people are throwing his way. Nothing he's said could be considered harsh to any but the most sensitive and fragile of souls out there and it's usually those fragile fools throwing the most mud.
The design team made a decision, and they've said they'll take on board any reasonable criticisms but most of what's going on is cry babies with their, "Listen to me, I want it this way, just because, and if you don't do what I say then I'll take my bat and ball and use another distro."
It's fine to take the view that you don't like where the buttons are and it's easily changed too. Just because someone wont do what you want just by crying and screaming at them via bug reports, etc. without being reasonable is hardly unusual. If I demand you to stop reading Slashdot just cause I want you to with no good reason and being a baby while I ask would rightly be met with a no. It's not the end of the world where the buttons are now and there's a way to put them where you want. How most of the posters can justify their positions on this in any way mystifies me.
Ubuntu enters beta every six months. It's news for those of us who like beta-testing Ubuntu.
I disagree, based on the current amount of time for which the beta has been out. Those of us who like beta-testing Ubuntu should have known this, oh, 4 or 5 days ago, when it happened.
For those of us who like beta-testing Ubuntu, this is olds, not news.
Let q be a radix > 1. I am in ur base-q, killing 10 d00ds.
Sounds like they filter all the crap out for you already, leaving only music by real musicians. You should be happy for that, less risk of making a mistake when buying music.
A logical one.
It's not logical at all on a platform which puts the menu bar right below the window title. Wanted to click "Edit", but hit the close button instead? Too bad.
As I have already commented, I think this is a horrible idea. Windows is not going to change its window buttons, I have to use Windows, and I dread this change. And, if you have to put the buttons on the left, the most-commonly-used button (the Close button) should be in the left corner, so that in the common case where I have a maximized window, it's easier to hit.
I went ahead and read through Mark Shuttleworth's comments about the bug. In summary: they want to try some new cool stuff, they want to shake things up and not be bound by the past, they have some ideas (not described) for ways to use the right-hand side of the menu bar. (He was even talking about moving the scroll bar away from the right side of the window, on the grounds that few people use it, and scroll wheels/touchscreen interfaces are becoming the big new thing. This doesn't give me the warm fuzzies either.) They are shipping the beta like this to see what actual reactions are to this idea.
I went ahead and listened to the podcast also (the relevant bit starts around 0:39 into the podcast). Ivanka Majic said many things, but IMHO did not adequately explain why they think this is a good idea. Some vague comments about how they are actually testing things. She said many commendable things, such as talking about how new users can find it really hard to even understand just what Ubuntu is. And she said something that sounded like her department was behind the "papercuts" project, of which I firmly approve. But if you are trying to understand what the heck is going on with those crazy buttons, you can skip the podcast.
So, if (like me) you dread these new buttons, the best thing you could possibly do is to actually get a copy of the Ubuntu beta and try it out; then post, not just opinions, but informed opinions supported by personal experience. "I tried to click on the Edit menu and closed my window" (if that actually happens to you) should be much more persuasive than "I looked at your screen shot and I can already tell I hate it".
By the way, check this out: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1430585
So, I'm planning to download the Ubuntu Beta ISO image, and install it (possibly in VirtualBox), and try the thing out. Then I will add my voice to those commenting on the new buttons.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Brown is replaced with purple and black by default. Good luck making a racist analogy with that.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
cof *regedit* cof!
People LIKE olds - its what they're familiar with.
I know this is going to seem like trolling, but humour me here. What is it, that people honestly see in this distribution?
I used both Jaunty and Intrepid; Jaunty for probably two months. I've been using Linux for 15 years now, and I honestly feel that Ubuntu was, without any hyperbole, the single worst Linux distribution that I've ever seen. I absolutely hated it.
Why? Sound (ALSA) dropping out randomly and continually, kernel panics from nVidia drivers, and the completely non-orthagonal design, with Gnome being hard-welded to the rest of the system, were the three main reasons. I don't like Gnome at all, and when I tried to remove it, rapidly found that I couldn't. I generally use Ratpoison in either Linux or FreeBSD.
Then there's the horrid mess that is upstart, and the usual Debian tendency to change absolutely everything they can, purely for the hell of it, such that even basic things like setting up an fstab for the most part doesn't work. Hard drives get mounted some other way, that I wasn't able to find. Add to that, the "quiet splash," options in GRUB, which remove the ability to debug a faulty installation, leading to the infamous "black screen of death." I honestly felt that the overall design was seriously less transparent than Windows; and if I started really trying to change things, the entire system very rapidly started to fall apart.
Are people really so superficial, that a nice shiny Gnome theme (for the first few minutes before the system dies, at least) is the only thing that is considered important?
OK disclaimer first. I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen a screen shot yet. I haven't read anything yet. I'm still running 9.04.
But I can absolutely see reasons to support this.
I recently enabled the Group and Tab Windows in Compiz.
I was staggered by the functionality and possibilities, but frustrated by the usability. Right click on title bar? Nothing. Anything in the Windowing menu (Top left under icon)? Err, nope. AFAICT, the only way to make any use of it is knowing the key stroke combos. It's like learning all over again! And this is the only way to control the GUI itself! No integration into the Windowing UI?
So, from my perspective, you need a way to control the newer MDI technologies, and if they stick it in the window bar where _/[]/X was, stick that same _/[]/X wherever you want.
Eye candy will definitely win some converts. If it's an opportunity for Ubuntu to lead and someone else to react, then what have you got to lose?
ws
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
Aside from being convention it's predictable and convenient since its order never changes depending on if the window can be minimized and / or maximized. If there is a risk in closing a window (e.g. unsaved work), then the app can simply override the default close behaviour to allow the user the chance to cancel. This would have to happen regardless of where the close button is.