Slashdot Mirror
Next Ubuntu Linux To Be a Maverick
VincenzoRomano writes "While the latest version of Ubuntu is still smoking hot, the Ubuntu development community is already working on the next step. Both the wiki and the bug tracking system at Launchpad have already been set up for Maverick Meerkat, which will be version number 10.10. This confirms the usual naming and numbering schema and the fact that the final release should be due in October. This next version, which obviously won't be Long Term Support (LTS), should sport a lighter and faster environment with GNOME 3.0, a.k.a. GNOME Shell, among the main advances. Everything has been explained by Mr. Shuttleworth in his own blog since the beginning of April. The first alpha release is not due earlier than the end of June, so maybe it'd be better to take advantage of the Lucid Lynx while the technical overview of the Meerkat starts getting more details."
I go from LTS to LTS. But those incrmental upgrades are great. It gives the bleeding edge people something to do, and it let's me keep tabs on what will show up in the next LTS.
You aren't into OSS development much, are you?
See, as some others pointed out, the long term support releases are there for the more conservative / more stable environments. You can upgrade every 2 or 3 years and have your peace.
Some of us are actually curious and like to see new stuff at times. We like new releases. We play with them and see how they do or break, then we post bug reports and stuff. We check out the regular releases and are happy with that.
One important thing the Linux community realized was, that building something for two years in your basement and then trying to release something perfect will most probably end in havoc.
On the other hand, releasing often, getting feedback, keeping in touch with users is much more effective.
Another good example for this is the Linux kernel: an new version is released every 3 months. Works great, is stable and everyone can calculate on when to integrate. Also developers don't have to wait ages for the merge window when they can add their own code.
ps. And there are nice changes in a lot of places, though the focus of this long time release was obviously more on the stability part and a lot of people on the previous LTS release were awaiting this one eagerly.
The Slashdot Trolls all agree; Ubuntu is the worst OS ever made, and only caters to retards!
Which means it actually may be getting close to the year of the Linux Desktop. After all, it's actually becoming usable by "morons", a.k.a. people that have a life.
The problem with this is that many good applications won't support the release for the same amount of time.
Boxee is an excellent example, at least for the last Ubuntu LTS release. They dropped support for it as soon as the next Ubuntu release came out - not an LTS release.
I use Lubuntu 10.04 & PPA repos (testing) on my 5 year old laptop. I like it in general - responsive, clean, simple. However, it does not 'Just Work'. To wit:
1) Lack of meaningful network tools - Pyneighborhood is the worst solution I've ever seen to this. WiCD & network manager like to fight it out over who starts which day. I STILL can't browse my LAN.
2) Plymouth - this one has settled down but it was a pure nightmare when I first installed it. I ended up removing GDM entirely to stop the hanging on startup.
I applaud the Lubuntu team and the complaints above are only my observations - I am looking forward to future releases and the maturing of Lubuntu as a distribution. As a probable future refugee from Kubuntu, I beg to not become part of the system and stay close to LXDE. Gnome is the king, the rest are pawns.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'