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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."

230 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Great.... by mangu · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's hope it comes with the 302 engine

    1. Re:Great.... by sootman · · Score: 1

      I was thinking of James Garner or Tom Cruise.

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    2. Re:Great.... by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      For a maverick, I was thinking Sarah Palin.

    3. Re:Great.... by H0p313ss · · Score: 2, Funny

      For a maverick, I was thinking Sarah Palin.

      12.04 Promiscuous Palin?

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    4. Re:Great.... by tzot · · Score: 1

      12.04 Promiscuous Palin?

      Although I loved your suggestion (sorry, no mod points) and laughed, I'd like 12.04 to be called “Pretty Polly”, and have Peter Sellers as Hrundi V. Bakshi in a flowery (colour issues solved!) default background.

      --
      I speak England very best
    5. Re:Great.... by sznupi · · Score: 1

      There's a bright side - now google searches for "maverick" have a large chance of returning Ubuntu instead of her...

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    6. Re:Great.... by riT-k0MA · · Score: 1

      11.04 Nasty Newt

    7. Re:Great.... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Nope.

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110478/ is tops.

      I think it should be that wonderful book "Worth the Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick, and the Heroes Who Inspired Him.".

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    8. Re:Great.... by sznupi · · Score: 1

      Hm, I'm a bit surprised; even though I didn't mean the absolute first result, just the first page...on which she is barely, only somewhat, featured.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    9. Re:Great.... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Who she?

      Oh, you mean the quitter.

      Just shows that not all of the web is faux news.

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      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    10. Re:Great.... by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      Who moderated this as a Troll (0)?

      Does the moderator want to post a rebuttal to the fact that the mutter window manager for GNOME Shell constantly uses 50% CPU when it's doing nothing (i.e., the shell isn't even showing)?

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
  2. Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by Kelson · · Score: 5, Funny

    I see that they're aiming for October 28. You'd think someone would have tried to aim the "Perfect 10" for a 10/10/10 release date.

    1. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, too bad that date is politicized because it is the national day of Taiwan/ROC. It could be interpreted as attempting to honor Taiwan and by extension provoke the PRC. You might think it's silly, but believe me, the PRC tracks every little thing that happens in connection with Taiwan, even things that might only be coincidentally symbolic.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    2. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by Kjella · · Score: 5, Funny

      A "Perfect 10" is 36-24-36, if 10-10-10 is your idea of it seek professional help ;)

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by thePsychologist · · Score: 5, Informative

      28 is a perfect number. It is the sum of all of its proper divisors. 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.

      --
      "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
    4. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      no no ... a perfect 10 is a 6 that swallows

    5. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Only if she's 5'3".

    6. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by somegeekynick · · Score: 1

      And the digits add up to 10.

    7. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      They release a version at the end of October every year. Has this never happened on the 28th before?

    8. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by mickwd · · Score: 1

      Jesus, lighten up on the paranoia.

      It's a six-monthly world-wide release of one particular distribution of a free computer operating system, not the start of military manouevres in the Pacific basin.

    9. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by SIR_Taco · · Score: 1

      That's my birthday you insensitive clod!

      --
      I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
    10. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      It's not my paranoia, it's the PRC's, and it's very real. We're talking about people who think that IBM's 'smarter planet' slogan is an insidious harbinger of undermining China's sovereignty.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    11. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by pipatron · · Score: 3, Funny

      Actually no, the end of October has never been on the 28th.

      --
      c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */
    12. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by drummerboybac · · Score: 1

      *wha pisssshhhh" What no love for Sir Mix a Lot here?

    13. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      36-24-36? Only if she's 5'3"!

    14. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

      Meh. I've seen better.

      --
      You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    15. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by halfEvilTech · · Score: 1

      actually that would be 96 :)

    16. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      What do you think of when you think perfect ten? Men's synchronised diving?

    17. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by alx5000 · · Score: 1

      It just keeps on giving!

      --
      My 0.02 cents
    18. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by dotancohen · · Score: 1

      That's my birthday you insensitive clod!

      Posting from the womb, are we? Get off my... uh... well, all right, enjoy yourself a bit first.

      Mine is also 10-10, but 33 years ago!

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    19. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      That was a parody of sir mixalot done by wierd al yankovick.
      So it's love for sir mixalot and wierd al.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    20. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by HyperQuantum · · Score: 1

      28 is a perfect number. It is the sum of all of its proper divisors. 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.

      Why does that include 1 but not 28? Each number can be divided by 1 or itself, so why use (only) one of those two? It would be more logical to exclude both.

      --
      I am not really here right now.
    21. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Think.

      If you defined a perfect number as the sum of all its divisors including itself there wouldn't be very many perfect numbers, would there? (hint: how many numbers are the sum of a set of positive integers including themselves?)

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_number

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      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    22. Re:Should have aimed for 10/10/10 by HyperQuantum · · Score: 1

      Think.

      If you defined a perfect number as the sum of all its divisors including itself there wouldn't be very many perfect numbers, would there?

      Read it again.

      That's why I suggested to exclude both.

      --
      I am not really here right now.
  3. Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Em+Emalb · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm waiting for Naughty Nautilus myself.

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    Sent from your iPad.
  4. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by gzipped_tar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Forget those underwater invertebrates. Naughty Nymph FTW.

    --
    Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  5. Sounds good! by Scholasticus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know, I know, "'Ubuntu' is an African word meaning 'I'm too stupid for Slackware'" ... I don't use it myself (I use another distribution, not going to plug it here), but I've installed it for a number of friends and family members, and just installed Lynx for my brother, because: 1) Ease of install/configuration 2) Pretty easy transition from Windows 3) Lots of software in the repos And some other reasons. LL is pretty sweet, so I think Shuttleworth & Co. are on the right track in many, if not all, ways. So I think the announcement is pretty exciting. Gnome 3 looks very promising ... so next June' Maverick Meerkat could be pretty interesting.

    1. Re:Sounds good! by Elektroschock · · Score: 1

      And then there is Lubuntu. The "just works. no complexity" flavour of Ubuntu.

    2. Re:Sounds good! by MonsterTrimble · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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'
    3. Re:Sounds good! by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ...just installed Lynx for my brother, because:

      1. Ease of install/configuration
      2. Pretty easy transition from Windows
      3. Lots of software in the repos

      I agree with your first two points, but since does a web browser need repos?

    4. Re:Sounds good! by Abcd1234 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I know, I know, "'Ubuntu' is an African word meaning 'I'm too stupid for Slackware'"

      Funny, I thought it was African for "I used Slackware years ago, but now I have better things to do with my time"...

    5. Re:Sounds good! by DiegoBravo · · Score: 1

      After trying to install LL from a CD, I was a bit disappointed because (like in the previous releases) it couldn't work with wireless card (don't remember the brand; is in a Vostro 1520 more than a year old), needing some proprietary driver (also provided by Ubuntu)... which in turn required an Internet connection for downloading (without an UTP cable and some port, it's a catch-22.)

      Those proprietary drivers should be included in the images (just another necessary evil.)

      Besides, kudos for the Ubuntu people. I hope to start the painful reinstallation for all my machines in the following days, in order to enjoy the extended support frame.

    6. Re:Sounds good! by Miseph · · Score: 1

      Alternatively: I have better things to do than install Debian.

      There are people in this world who just don't care enough to spend hours setting up a system to get the absolute highest possible performance when they check their email. Crazy.

      --
      Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
    7. Re:Sounds good! by mangu · · Score: 1

      Funny, I thought it was African for "I used Slackware years ago, but now I have better things to do with my time"...

      Well, that's exactly my experience. I tried Yggdrasil in 1995, but it was only with Slackware, in 1998, that I started using Linux seriously.

      Today, unless there are specific reasons to do otherwise, I install Ubuntu and forget about the system.

    8. Re:Sounds good! by fabs64 · · Score: 1

      This. Yes, seriously, I've had my share of administering servers, I just can't be arsed doing the same for my desktops.
      Underneath it's debian unstable anyway so I can get done anything I need to, and I don't have to think about how to configure the desktop, because to be honest I don't really care and the canonical people *do*.

    9. Re:Sounds good! by BikeHelmet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The thing about Ubuntu and its sister distros is... don't be an early adopter.

      Whenever a new release comes out, it's packed with hundreds of strange bugs. The forums get flooded by people with all sorts of issues. Then within a few months, 95% of them are fixed.

      The best time to hop on 10.04 will be 2 months from now. Ubuntu is firm about their 6 month releases, but it'd really work better if they went with 8 months. Do a feature freeze after 4, then spend 4 getting it rock solid stable, and doing proper regression testing.

      THAT would make me happy. ;)

    10. Re:Sounds good! by mjwx · · Score: 1

      I know, I know, "'Ubuntu' is an African word meaning 'I'm too stupid for Slackware'"

      Funny, I thought it was African for "I used Slackware years ago, but now I have better things to do with my time"...

      I thought it meant "I cant be arsed configuring Debian".

      But as anyone who has studied a non-Latin language could tell you, there is rarely a direct word to word translation.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    11. Re:Sounds good! by DirePickle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's funny--I used to use Slack back in the day and have been using Ubuntu for the past couple of years, but I'm seriously considering going back to Slackware again. When everything works out of the box Ubuntu is great, but if anything is broken it seems to actively try to inhibit you from fixing the problem.

    12. Re:Sounds good! by sznupi · · Score: 1

      8 month release cycle...so you want openSUSE? ;p

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    13. Re:Sounds good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You have WICD *and* network manager installed?

      That's just pure PEBCAK.

    14. Re:Sounds good! by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      I guess it depends on your aim.
      If emulating Windows with a Linux platform is the key, but accidentally falling into OS/X territory, then Ubuntu is where ya go.
      If you're looking for something remotely server based, you choose anything but.
      I don't care if they say they have a server platform, it's about like Windows saying they have a server. Anything with a primary gearing of being simple to use is by very definition the antithesis of a server since it means a billion layers.

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    15. Re:Sounds good! by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      The premise was that it has a unique interface control syntax to it.
      Thus, spending hours getting everything right, if you're not a debian guru already.
      It's true, whether you like debian or not...

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    16. Re:Sounds good! by nusuth · · Score: 1
      You would do well to forget about the system because it will drive you nuts if you don't. I installed 10.04 the other day and had a few nagging problems, like being unable to boot (due to grub being on wrong partition), random hang ups on boot (enabling NX bit fixed it, go figure!), being unable to update mysql (it hangs while configuring mysql, and if you kill the process, you are left with broken dependencies which synaptic cannot fix.) I gave up on 10.04 at this point, because I was only installing it to use lazarus and mysql. You see, three tasks out of four failed: install (went wrong), boot (went wrong), install lazaurs (suprisingly, worked), install mysql (went wrong again.) I am not a long term ubuntu user but I have used all versions from 8.04 to 10.04 and every new version is worse than the older one. Server versions are fine but the desktop and notebook versions are going backwards.

      Linux Mint works much better for "install and forget" kind of use.

      --

      Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!

    17. Re:Sounds good! by the_womble · · Score: 1

      WICD and Network manager packages should conflict, so you should not be able to have both installed.

      For a light desktop I use Mandriva with LXDE. I used to use Mint XFCE which is also quite nice.

    18. Re:Sounds good! by blackest_k · · Score: 1

      Driver issues dont you just hate them but here is a tip

      boot the live cd first before installing and check your net connection works out of the box.

      With Lucid I found my E620 modem was only recognised as a mass storage device out of the box.
      After some digging I found the problem and solution it was down to the usb mode switch package that wasn't in the default install.

      So back in 9.10 I downloaded the lucid debs (usb mode switch and usb mode switch data) and stored them on the mini sd card in my modem.

      Booted into the Lucid live Cd and installed the two packages with gdebi.
        with a reinsert of the modem it was detected properly this time
      and i set up a profile and connected.

      happy I had a working solution I did the install to the ssd and repeated the installation of the two debs with gdebi.

      So as you see it isn't catch 22 if you figure out a way round the problem.

      Of course I had installed lucid to the ssd and had to revert to 9.10 before I found a solution to the modem issue also an E156 modem worked out of the box (it's my unlocked spare). Edimax do a nice usb wifi dongle (with mac drivers too). This works out of the box with ubuntu,

      So using alternative hardware is another option.

      A third option would have been using the dongle on a desktop system sharing it with my lan (quick and easy connect eth0 to the wan port on a router and your desktop looks like the internet to the rest of your systems).

      I have refined this idea using tomato firmware on the router i can redefine the gateway port.
      So my netbook connects via wifi to the router the router has the lan ip of the netbook as the gateway address (192.168.3.121) the router is fixed at 192.168.3.1 and theres a 2nd router (optional) wirelessly linking to the first extending the range at 192.168.3.2 and also providing a local wired port for my sat box).

      Tomato can also do WOL so I can go to the admin page wake up the desired desktop/file/print servers machines via the router use ssh or sshfs to get access to the resources on the desktop and send a halt signal when I'm done to put them back to sleep.

      Another neat trick with ubuntu is to use adhoc mode to set up a small lan. I created a local network called "magic" port forwarding from my modem to wifi again, and the end result my little netbook was giving internet access to 2 windows Laptops letting 3 of us get connected on the one dongle (the 2 girls were impressed).

      absolutely no reason why you couldn't set up shares and pass whatever files you want to...

      Might be able to go one step further and mesh with other netbooks extending the range further...

      Ubuntu and linux in general really does let you do more with your hardware and if you dual or triple boot or use virtual machines you can have it all (sometimes at the same time).

      Did I mention my instant mac (mac install to a usb hdd plugged into a dock with built in audio and an edimax usb card. in one of the usb ports. Booting from usb with most systems gives you a mac with working sound and network (It's proof of concept only never found a good reason to use OSX other than checking website compatibility ).

    19. Re:Sounds good! by Threni · · Score: 1

      That's why I upgrade to 10.04. It's LTS and I'm sticking with it until the next LTS has been out for a few months. I think Ubuntu is great (it's nice consigning Windows to a VM) but it can be hard work to fix issues unless you're some sort of pro and/or you do it all the time.

    20. Re:Sounds good! by Elektroschock · · Score: 1

      Try Linux Mint LXDE edition.

    21. Re:Sounds good! by BikeHelmet · · Score: 1

      There's plenty of unfixed bugs listed for the betas and RC, which make it into the final release.

      Correcting them before release wouldn't hurt, even if more are found afterwards.

    22. Re:Sounds good! by socceroos · · Score: 1

      That does sound odd. What's your hardware?

    23. Re:Sounds good! by nusuth · · Score: 1
      I assume you are talking about NX bit because all others are known bugs. I am not near that computer right now, so I can't give you much detail. It is a non-overclocked Core i7 920, 6 GB ram, radeon hd 48xx (IIRC 4850) I have downloaded desktop 32bits version (don't ask) on Saturday (presumably a few days after the boot bug at release got fixed) and installed on /sda5 (sda1 is a non-boot NTFS partition, there are no other partitions on disk.) The install went without a glitch. At first reboot it boots into windows because grub is on wrong partition. I change boot order, and can see grub screen. However the computer locks after grub when normal boot is selected. Booting windows always works fine, while rescue mode sometimes works, sometimes locks up at different points in boot (always before during kernel phase.) If rescue mode works, there are no further problems (including X.) During one lucky boot I did three things:

      1) I installed closed source ati driver

      2) I deleted quiet option from grub menu to be able to see kernel messages without rescue mode

      3) I saw a warning about NX bit being disabled in the BIOS and entered BIOS during next boot, enabled NX bit, continued booting.

      There were no further boot problems.

      --

      Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!

    24. Re:Sounds good! by socceroos · · Score: 1

      Are you sure your problem wasn't solved when you installed the closed source ATI driver? Because the NX thing is only a warning about -ro RAM - it shouldn't ever affect boot.

      The reason I'm thinking it was your graphics driver is because Plymouth has been causing some issues in this regard during boot.

    25. Re:Sounds good! by nusuth · · Score: 1

      I am not sure. In fact I don't see how could any of the three things I have done are relevant. I don't think the fix is due to ATI driver because the hang happened well before X (there is a known issue about gdm failing without proper drivers, mine was not that.) I don't think ubuntu uses ATI driver to display boot splash screen :) Also recovery mode sometimes did not work even though it had nothing to do with anything graphical. Anyway, if you are somehow related to ubuntu development and need a proper bug report, I can do that. /. is not the way to go.

      --

      Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!

    26. Re:Sounds good! by socceroos · · Score: 1

      Anyway, if you are somehow related to ubuntu development and need a proper bug report, I can do that. /. is not the way to go.

      True! =)

      A bug report would be great - when you've got time, mate.

      I still reckon it might be Plymouth. =) It does indeed use the graphics driver during boot, along with KMS (kernel mode setting). The whole idea is for a smooth and graphical transition from clicking the power button to being greeted with GDM - hopefully minimising all the screen flickering during boot. I would suggest that the open source ATI driver is causing issues using KMS during boot (all used by Plymouth). Anyway, much appreciated on the extra info!

  6. Ubuntu 6 month cycle by mxh83 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The 6 month iterations are plain stupidity, IMO. Hardly anyone wants to "upgrade" that often, and when it's out, we all realize that it's the same old crap in a different color.. No real usability improvements.

    1. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by FictionPimp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

      The 6 month iterations are plain stupidity, IMO. Hardly anyone wants to "upgrade" that often

      If you don't want to upgrade every six months then don't do it.

      Just let me know if you have any other really tough problems that you need my help with.

    3. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Hardly anyone wants to "upgrade" that often

      Why then does reality disagree with you? Or is there someone holding a gun to their head forcing them to use Ubuntu or to use the six month releases over the LTS ones?

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by MBGMorden · · Score: 3, Interesting

      From release to release? Yeah, the improvements tend to be incremental so you're not going to see anything Earth-shattering. That's just the "frog boiling in the pot" effect though. Compare Ubuntu today with Ubuntu from 3 years ago, and you'll notice HUGE usability improvements. Despite having been a Linux user in a "dual boot and learn it but still spend most of your time in Windows" fashion since 1997, Ubuntu is the first distribution that fully converted me. I'm still on Windows at work, but at home? It's been 3 or 4 months since I've touched Windows. And for the first time, I really haven't felt much of a need to.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    5. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Seth+Kriticos · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The 6 month iterations are plain stupidity, IMO. Hardly anyone wants to "upgrade" that often, and when it's out, we all realize that it's the same old crap in a different color.. No real usability improvements.

      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.

    6. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by John+Whitley · · Score: 1

      Nonsense; "user visible" changes are very different for different people when it's a distro consisting of thousands of packages. Ubuntu's system is also far better than "release never", which was the seeming mantra of Debian stable for many years, and apparently RHEL's entire business model.

      For my part, I like having reasonably vetted releases which bring incremental improvements. It's a happy medium between (e.g.) surfing Debian unstable just to get some new feature in one oft-used package and "stable" versions which are so stale that paleontology grad students write their dissertations on them.

    7. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by migla · · Score: 1

      But it's not just "the same old crap with a different color". Even if we'd agree that whatever ubuntu develops itself is not much every half year, all the upstream packages will have newer versions.

      --
      Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
    8. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      I update Debian Sid weekly.

      apt-get update.
      apt-get upgrade.

      Tada!

    9. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      He doesn't even need to go with LTS. Karmic won't drop support until the release of Maverik+1.

    10. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by capo_dei_capi · · Score: 1

      No, an upgrade is very straight-forward, if you don't use the GUI stuff, and only takes maybe an hour of actual work. Just replace the name of the release in apt/sources.list do an aptitude update; aptitude upgrade then get rid of the bloat that comes with it, and your good to go. Unless there's a major change in DE version, after which you may have to look around for a new theme that you like.
      The Ubuntu people usually warn you against this way of upgrading, but in 3 years of using Ubuntu I have yet to experience an install breaking on me after an upgrade.

    11. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      I update Debian Sid weekly.

      Ditto. For my (offline) home computer. ;-)

    12. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by FictionPimp · · Score: 1

      Yea, but the reason I like staying on LTS is that they always support LTS to LTS upgrades. If you stay on any other release you can't always jump right to the latest, you have to hit the releases in-between.

    13. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by fluffernutter · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually I agree with this.. I was going to post asking what goodness exists even in 10.04.. Facebook this cloud that... Personally I don't CARE. What INTERNAL things are better?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    14. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by ProfMobius · · Score: 1

      I agree. That's why I prefer Fedora.

      --
      EULA : By reading the above message, you agree that I now own your soul.
    15. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by fbjon · · Score: 1

      Did you miss the part about LTS? The long term support is there precisely for the reason you describe.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    16. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Sancho · · Score: 1

      A 6 month release cycle doesn't mean a 6 month support cycle. You get 18 months of security updates for each regular release. You get something like 3.5 years of support for LTS desktop, and 5 years of support for LTS server.

      The only OS vendor I know of who does better is Microsoft, who will EOL Server 2003 in a few months, and who still hasn't EOL Windows XP after nearly 9 years. Of course, XP is an extreme example--Vista will probably get about 6 years of support.

    17. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by xaxa · · Score: 1

      Presumably those businesses would put their money on supporting the LTS (5 years for a server, 3 for a desktop) releases.

      Isn't that roughly the same times as MS Windows?

    18. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by xaxa · · Score: 1

      I've never had any problems with sudo do-release-upgrade. It seems to do pretty much the same thing, except it will roll back changes if there's a problem.

    19. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by icebraining · · Score: 1

      Debian was always released from one to two years since 1.1, with the exception of sarge. I personally use Sid, it's been very stable despite its name.

    20. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 1

      Help me, please! He'll be back any minute. I'm too young to upgrade my distro!

    21. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by dotancohen · · Score: 1

      Actually I agree with this.. I was going to post asking what goodness exists even in 10.04.. Facebook this cloud that... Personally I don't CARE. What INTERNAL things are better?

      The close buttons are on the left, and the wallpaper is purple. Oh, and it's useless for ATI notebooks:
      https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/537640

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    22. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Chang · · Score: 1

      Windows 2000 hits end of life this summer. 2003 enters extended support which ends in 2015 - this was extended due to poor uptake of Windows 2008. They currently offer 10 years of support but they often extend if uptake of the follow on release is low.

      RedHat and Novell support their enterprise linux OS products on a seven year cycle.

      Novell even leaves the downloads availble for up to 10 years.

    23. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Sancho · · Score: 1

      Ah, you're right. I was neglecting Extended Support.

    24. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      The "gun" forcing users to upgrade is to be able to upgrade their applications.

      I think few Ubuntu users really care for stuff like the Ubuntu Update notifier being moved from the taskbar to a separate program or other little tweaks like that.

      Backports helps to an extent, but only so far.

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    25. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by dudpixel · · Score: 1

      when "upgrade" means "click a button a wait for all your software to update to the latest versions", i'd say most ubuntu users are quite fine with it. if they were requiring everyone to do a fresh install every 6 months it might be different, but they dont.

      how well the in-place upgrades work I'm not sure - but I'll find out in 6 months time wont I?

      --
      This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
    26. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by plan10 · · Score: 1

      You are complaining that people don't want major changes to a system every 6 months, and that the upgrade really isn't that major in the same sentence.

    27. Re:Ubuntu 6 month cycle by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Just replace the name of the release in apt/sources.list do an

      aptitude update; aptitude upgrade

      This is amazingly bad advice and we are dealing with the fallout of such on the Ubuntu support forum/lists all the fucking time. Yes, it is possible to upgrade with aptitude, but (1) don't do it if you need to ask how, and (2) "aptitude upgrade" is WRONG.

      "upgrade" is aptitude's deprecated command for package upgrades in the current distro release. Its up-to-date name for the same command is safe-upgrade. It is safe because it is guaranteed never to remove packages. This is nice in general, but if you upgrade from one distribution release to the next, it is very likely to get you into dependencies that cannot be resolved. "aptitude full-upgrade" (deprecated: dist-upgrade) is the command you want; it will also remove packages if that is needed to resolve dependencies.

      Most users should simply follow http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  7. Awww... by Kirin+Fenrir · · Score: 4, Funny

    They didn't accept my name, "Menstruating Mongoose". :(

    --
    Caffeine is my anti-drug!

    Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
    1. Re:Awww... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      masturbating macaw?

    2. Re:Awww... by Crayon+Kid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's because of "mongoose". Shuttleworth was bitten by one as a child and has it in for them. Now, had you proposed "Menstruating Meerkat" on the other hand...

      --
      i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
    3. Re:Awww... by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      It's probably because they favor African animals. Change it to an African animal and they'll be sure to accept it.

      --
      Qxe4
    4. Re:Awww... by Gramie2 · · Score: 1

      So I guess the mongooses (mongeese?) I saw in Zimbabwe were tourists?

    5. Re:Awww... by dudpixel · · Score: 1

      this one intrigued me...I wanted to ask, but then i was afraid of what you'd tell me...

      --
      This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
    6. Re:Awww... by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Sorry to be a grammar nazi but your submission was probably rejected due to the use of the present participle, i.e. -ing.

      Shuttleworth prefers adjectives, so in this case "Menstrual Mongoose" may have made the short list!

  8. sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've used Ubuntu as my primary desktop OS since 8.10, and I can say without reservation that 10.04 is the worst of the bunch. Why? They broke everything! And I'm not just talking about button placement. I fixed that in the first 10 minutes. The reason why I'm abandoning Ubuntu are simple: they dropped the quality ball on this release.

    First I noticed that VirtualBox doesn't let you use bridged network unless you manually install some kernel drivers. Googling found that people had this problem for at least 3 months, and they still didn't fix it in the release. Second, upgrading uninstalled my Java plugin for Firefox, so I had to manually add the symlink. Third (and by far the worst), my 6GB machine became non-responsive in the first 24 hours of uptime -- on the same machine that typically had months of uptime on 8.10 through 9.10 (I only rebooted for security patches that required a reboot).

    In conclusion: if they don't fix these problems in the next two weeks, I'll abandon Ubuntu for another distribution, and I'll never consider using Ubuntu again.

    1. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

      +1 (if I had the modpoints)! It seems that Canonical is definitely favoruing eye candy and new features in spite of under-the-hood brokenness. It's really sad to see *any* distribution of Linux become like Windows. Really sad. :( Of course, there is always Debian to fall back on :)

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    2. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by tom17 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm in a similar boat. I did the upgrade over the weekend from 9.10. When I went from 9.04 to 9.10 I was mostly pleased, except a few irritating bugs and the fast user switch applet was removed - this previously made wife-friendly usage in the living room a breeze. I was all excited to get to 10.04 as it was returning. This would be Ubuntu's last chance to keep me.

      Yes it returned (in a less intuitive place, the menu with your name is now all 'communication' based. The fast switching is located under the *power* icon... huh?)
      I have already had a system freeze while switching user.

      Sun Java was booted and now isn't even in the repositories. "OpenJDK is good enough for most people". I will try it for a while but I hope it is up to scratch for Java EE 6 development (doubt that). Now I have to jump through the proverbial hoops.

      The whole Indicator applet/Indicator applet session/Notification Area/Volume control/Battery meter/Network icon mess is a joke. - The combinations of icons that you are allowed ends up with far less efficient usage of space in some circumstances. The reason they made the changes? To increase efficiency of space used.

      I know some of these are minor irritations in reality, but it's mucking about with stuff like this, causing frustration with the users, that pisses me off. I know, I will get used to it.. *sigh*.

      So it's time for a switch. Is Fedora Core wife-friendly? She is begging for Win7 so I may just partition it with FC/Win7 & Hackintosh - Maybe this is the OS that will lure me, cos linux (Well, Ubuntu) only seems to be going backwards.

      Tom...

    3. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by flabordec · · Score: 2, Funny

      No!! Please!! Don't!!! Continue using their free software, please!!

      --
      "I see undead people" Warcraft III - Necromancer
    4. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by moosesocks · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I've used Ubuntu as my primary desktop OS since 8.10, and I can say without reservation that [MOST RECENT VERSION] is the worst of the bunch. Why? They broke everything!

      Seems like we hear this with every Ubuntu release... especially in the immediate days following the release. Ubuntu seems to jump the gun with releases.

      I don't necessarily take the view that quality's slipped -- the OS as a whole has markedly improved. However, they might want to do a bit more QA before pushing out releases.

      Also, isn't the "I'll never consider X again" reaction a bit impulsive?

      (PS. Did you install VirtualBox from repositories? The packages should have a DKMS trigger that fires whenever the kernel is updated. The kernel module requirement has always been there, and DKMS usually automagically takes care of any compatibility issues.)

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    5. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by timeOday · · Score: 1
      Dang, have your high expectations come from using any distro other than previous versions of Ubuntu itself? The ONLY distro I've ever used that didn't get wadded up in dependency problems now and then was probably Debian Stable, and that always ends badly when I lose the discipline to stick with the ancient packages and start mixing in new packages that inevitably poison the system. Same for RHEL.

      I can't even run emacs on my gentoo system anymore ("emacs: error while loading shared libraries: libXm.so.3")

      I really think the linux tradition of zillions of interdependent packages is misguided. What is it we think we are optimizing for? Disk space? It's not worth it. The most reliable packages, such as mplayer, are that way because they just bundle all their dependencies, and don't try to use any versions of the libraries you might already have lying around.

    6. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by escay · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Seems like we hear this with every Ubuntu release...

      that's probably because only the ones with problems after an upgrade speak up to air their grievances. the ones for which the upgrade went smoothly (i'm one of them, i upgraded with the beta in fact) are invisible because they don't have much to say. i'd give more weight to a percentage number of users who have had upgrade issues.

      and i agree with you, GP ditching the distro entirely does sound like a knee-jerk reaction - although i realize the button placement issue did cause much heartburn in the community (i switch between linux and mac so that change was godsend for me).

    7. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Interestingly, 10.04 is the first release in a couple of years that has worked without a hitch for me. I installed it on a whim, hoping that it might include a driver with hardware-accelerated 3D for my RV730 video card. I was pleasantly surprised that not only does it include that driver, everything I have tried has actually _worked_, and the experience is a marked improvement over what I was running before.

      The only issue I ran into is that GDM would not read my ~/.xsession, but it's not entirely clear if that is a bug or a design choice, and, regardless, there is a fix for it.

      For the rest, it's stable, it's fast, it's beautiful, and it's even an LTS release. It's been a while since I've experienced that from Ubuntu, but they seem to have gotten everything I care about right this time.

      Keeping in mind your experience, I am curious as to how people in general fare with this release. I share your observation that Ubuntu has been caring more about new features than quality, and I was hoping that they had found their way back to putting together top quality releases. I would really like to know what the trend is, qualitywise.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    8. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by sentientbrendan · · Score: 2, Informative

      The problem is that Ubuntu's bug tracker is a black hole. Bugs don't even get triaged on a regular basis, let along fixed.

      If you look on the forums, bugs are fairly quickly identified and fixed. Often problems and solutions make it into the bug tracker; however, that's where the pipeline ends. Fixes almost never get checked into mainline.

      Ubuntu is still the best distro in my humble opinion, because of the wide variety of up to date software available for it. However, each release gets worse in terms of quality. Their bug intake it like the US national deficit. They ignore the problem in the hopes that it will go away, but it won't. Eventually Ubuntu will simply not be usable.

      Really, if Canonical would admit they have a problem, and publicly start recruiting community members to triage and fix bugs, they might be able make a dent in the backlog.

    9. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by chapstercni · · Score: 1

      I am still running 9.04 for servers, and my desktop.

      9.10 was a pita. Random crashes, etc. Incompatibilities... you name it.

    10. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Well, I pulled a CD of the last RC, and couldn't even boot it. There wasn't any way to report the problem, as I've got no real idea what the issue was. I'm hoping that if I wait a week or two and pull another CD everything will be fixed, but I don't know how to tell.

      (It might be that "use nomodeset while booting" problem, but if the CD won't boot into a live system, I don't think I'll trust it on my system. Not even if there *is* a hack that would let me slip past the barrier.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    11. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by Luke+has+no+name · · Score: 1

      Ya! All or nothing! Never look back! THAT will teach them.

      Personally, I've had very few problems on my 10.04 laptop, desktop, OR server. Some, but not many. Also, your citation about your "6GB machine" implies a memory leak without citing your top / free output. Troll, coward.

    12. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by greg1104 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Often problems and solutions make it into the bug tracker; however, that's where the pipeline ends. Fixes almost never get checked into mainline.

      And in the three years I've been tracking Ubuntu development and its related bugs, I have never seen a fix for an issue I was running into backported to a LTS version. Far as I can tell, there's little beyond security fixes actually backported. This is why all my server deployments remain on RedHat/CentOS, where the bugs I run into are aggressively backported, not just the "fixed in next release" I see even on resolved ubuntu issues.

    13. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by xaxa · · Score: 1

      my 6GB machine became non-responsive in the first 24 hours of uptime

      Possibly an indexing service? I noticed nepomuk was indexing about 900GB of data, things seemed better once I disabled it.

      (I sort-of like the idea of the clever searching tools, but I'm not disorganised enough to need them. Perhaps if it integrates well with KMail I'd have a GMail like search available locally, which would allow me to use KMail again.)

    14. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by Bambi+Dee · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sun Java is in the "partner" repository. You have to un-disable (...) it first.

    15. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 1

      I agree. I waited to upgrade to 9.10 because of the horror stories I heard, and after a few months upgraded because I wanted a newer version of some package (can't recall what it was now) and everything worked better for me. I wish I had done it sooner. So this time I upgraded right away. I've only had two issues. The bridge networking issue the OP had (which I haven't even been using in a while, so not much of an issue for me) and the other was the first time I rebooted (at the end of the upgrade) I had no title bars showing on any windows, which was very odd (and a problem since I couldn't type into the terminal window for some reason) but another reboot fixed that and I've had no problems of any sort since.

    16. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by badpazzword · · Score: 1

      10.04 user since the whereabouts of alpha 4. No regressions here. Just sayin'. :)

      --
      When ideas fail, words become very handy.
    17. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by BikeHelmet · · Score: 1

      I'm considering migrating from Ubuntu to Debian stable for my NAS.

      9.10 was pretty funny. It thought my 3114 PCI card was an nVidia RAID Array. It only took them a few weeks to get that fixed, but I still reverted to 9.04, and it's got me thinking about Debian instead.

    18. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      I figured that with only a paper left to write in my school semester, I'd risk it and upgrade.

      It went flawlessly. Everything works fantastically well, just like it's been working for the last 2 years.

      I know it doesn't help you, but I'm happy to provide a counter-point to your doom-and-gloom scenario.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    19. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by tom17 · · Score: 1

      Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but these annoyances do not give me brownie points with the wife when I want to have a no-windows home... :)

    20. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      The user switcher thing was nice, so simple even a child (pre-schooler) could use it. Just click on it, it lists the available users in a dropdown list, select who you want to be. Very handy for family multi-person computer use cases.

      There's a "User Switcher" applet available that you can put on the top panel, but it's not the same. You have to click on it, then on Quit in the dropdown, and then on Switch User in the dialog, and then (finally!) select the user to switch to.

      As far as OpenJDK, it's not bad. It runs Netbeans (Java IDE) without a problem (i.e., the same as it works with Sun JDK) YMMV.

      By the way, has anyone been able to get antialias text to work with Netbeans on Ubuntu (with either OpenJDK or Sun)?

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    21. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by horza · · Score: 1

      "Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but these annoyances do not give me brownie points with the wife when I want to have a no-windows home... :)"

      You could use the couple of hundred bucks you're saving on Win7 to buy her a nice present?

      Phillip.

    22. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by tom17 · · Score: 1

      Well it's actually Mothers Day coming up here and my kid needs to 'buy' her something and she wants a Dell Mini...

      Not that i've ever bought a standalone windows license so i'm not really 'saving money' so to speak.

      Tom...

    23. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by Mgns · · Score: 1
      You have to un-disable (...) it first.

      Bzz! The word we're looking for, Tom, is "enable", that was "enable" for 500.

    24. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by Bambi+Dee · · Score: 1

      But that would not convey the same sense of an inconveniently pre-disabled feature.

    25. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by aldwin · · Score: 1

      One thing I've found with k/ubuntu (had it with both, for the last several releases) is that they use up all of a CD. To the point where a lot of CD-Rs (esp if cheap) have issues booting/installing the LiveCDs. My solution is to burn it onto cheap DVDs, works like a treat.

    26. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by tom17 · · Score: 1

      Run into a problem already, the GlassFish admin console in NetBeans 6.8... does not work with OpenJDK.
      http://www.mail-archive.com/openjdk@lists.launchpad.net/msg03437.html

      Tom...

    27. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      You probably already know this, but you can have multiple versions of Java installed on Ubuntu (and maybe Debian).

      You can switch among those at will:

      sudo update-alternatives --config java

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    28. Re:sorry, but Ubuntu failed hard this release by tom17 · · Score: 1

      Yeah I just installed the sun java from the partner repos. I'll just use it as the default but openJDK is still there if I ever 'need' it.
      It's just annoying that they choose to remove the more compatible version from the main repos. Oh well :)
      At least these kinds of problems are usually encountered by the kind of people that can fix them. However if there is a compatibility problem in a Java Applet on a web page then the troubled user may not have as much luck if they aint a geek...

      Tom...

  9. What everyone from the UK will be asking by onetwofour · · Score: 2, Funny

    Will it be appearing on http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/ ?

    1. Re:What everyone from the UK will be asking by turgid · · Score: 1

      And is Sergei behind it?

    2. Re:What everyone from the UK will be asking by moderators_are_w*nke · · Score: 1

      Don't think he has time. He already have worms.

      --
      "XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, use more." - Anonymous Coward
  10. Release early, release often. by khasim · · Score: 5, Informative

    The 6 month iterations are plain stupidity, IMO.

    But it gets current code out there and in use.

    Hardly anyone wants to "upgrade" that often, and when it's out, we all realize that it's the same old crap in a different color.

    That's where the LTS releases come in. If you don't want to upgrade, you don't have to. For years.

    In the meantime, the other people are hammering on the short-release cycle code.

    1. Re:Release early, release often. by IANAAC · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's where the LTS releases come in. If you don't want to upgrade, you don't have to. For years.

      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.

    2. Re:Release early, release often. by ducomputergeek · · Score: 1

      I used to use Blender a lot as I liked to do 3D stuff for fun, but not enough to soak $1k every year or two into Lightwave. Well, everytime it seemed like I'd download the latest and greatest, everything changed. Animations had been spending years on suddenly had to be redone because of major changes to the particles engine, the GUI layout would change and by the time I learned where the buttons had moved or what all the new buttons did it would be time for an upgrade. I finally gave up and loaded my ancient version of lightwave.

      Conversely we found out with our project that rapid develop and agile didn't work once it was actually deployed and we had customers to deal with. Basically, any major updates more than once a year and we'll get angry emails and phone calls on how things changed. Even when we give a 3 month "beta" period for people to try the new way or use the old way. Also, now, compliance documentation has to be done early or every time you release a new version. The cost of writing and maintaining such documentation means we do it once a year.

      --
      "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
    3. Re:Release early, release often. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      The problem with that is that often users will want to upgrade some things but not other things. For example people might not be interested in the new themes, or switch from HAL to DeviceKit, or the new kernel, or major desktop environment changes that change UI all over the place and break binary compatibility, but they might want to upgrade Firefox 2 to 3 or being able to use that new app which was released last week.

    4. Re:Release early, release often. by chrb · · Score: 1

      The problem with this is that many good applications won't support the release for the same amount of time.

      True if by "support" you mean "no newer versions". That is frustrating when new versions get bug fixes. On the other hand, the old versions that have already been released will still work. And you do still get back-ported security updates, which is essential for corporate deployment.

    5. Re:Release early, release often. by bcrowell · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's where the LTS releases come in. If you don't want to upgrade, you don't have to. For years.

      For me, the big problem with that is that I can't update my apps without updating the OS as well. This is just the way debian/ubuntu is designed. With jaunty and karmic, I had to upgrade in order to get bug fixes in my apps, but then I got new bugs in the OS.

      If I'd still been running Hardy until last month, then I would have been running some ancient, buggy version of Inkscape, for instance. On the other hand, by upgrading I got sound completely broken by pulseaudio.

      What OS guys don't seem to understand is that end users don't really care about the OS-level features that seem so exciting to an OS guy. We just want the OS to work so that we can run apps.

    6. Re:Release early, release often. by camperdave · · Score: 1

      I used to use kpovmodeler. I found it easy to use and quite powerful for my limited needs. Sadly, my recent upgrade from 8.04 to 9.04 broke kpovmodeler. I couldn't do an unistall/reinstall because kpovmodeler was no longer in the repositories. The software has been without a developer for a couple of years now, and as such, no longer qualifies to be included in Ubuntu. Now, if I want to render something, all I've got is Blender - overly complicated and powerful. It's like using a chainsaw to spread butter. Sometimes all you need is a simple little tool.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    7. Re:Release early, release often. by oatworm · · Score: 1

      A lot of the newer stuff is also available for LTS in Backports. Not all of it, of course, but enough of it where you can, for example, install the latest version of OpenOffice.org or something similar.

    8. Re:Release early, release often. by sznupi · · Score: 1

      Where's the logic in reverting to ancient version of lighwave but at the same time unwillingness to hold on to the previous release of Blender?

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    9. Re:Release early, release often. by orasio · · Score: 1

      Boxee is not an excellent example. It's just a particular case.
      People who find bugs in Ubuntu usually help fixing them upstream. In this case, it can't be done, because Boxee is proprietary software.
      They do they own releases, and they decide when and what to fix.
      The thing is that proprietary stuff doesn't work OK with processes meant for free software. Similar things happened to me with vmware (switched to virtualbox ose) and nvidia drivers. But Ubuntu doesn't have to pamper proprietary software. If they don't give good support, tough luck.

  11. Majestik Moose by mikemsd · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was really hoping for Majestik Moose. Seemed like the obvious choice to me.

    1. Re:Majestik Moose by Em+Emalb · · Score: 1

      That one isn't as good as my submission (IMNSHO):

      Magnificent Millipede FTW!

      --
      Sent from your iPad.
    2. Re:Majestik Moose by Tobenisstinky · · Score: 1

      Beat me to it...

      --
      wha'? where am i?
    3. Re:Majestik Moose by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      I suddenly regret having posted in this article...

    4. Re:Majestik Moose by spazdor · · Score: 1

      Moose and Maverick?
      WHAT could they be trying to tell us.

      --
      DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
    5. Re:Majestik Moose by genericpoweruser · · Score: 1

      We apologize for the fault in the comments. Those responsible have been sacked.

      Mynd you, Moose bites kan be pretti nasti...

      --
      A fool and his lamb are worth two in the bush.
  12. Get 64 bit working properly by Threni · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Seriously. I shouldn't have to dick around googling for out of date articles explaining which repository, script etc etc I need to download and arse around with to get Flash and Java working in the browser.

    1. Re:Get 64 bit working properly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

    2. Re:Get 64 bit working properly by vertinox · · Score: 1

      How about having flash and java working being able to be installed out the box without having to go to the console?

      (Oh snap)

      I like the console more than most people, but in order for Ubuntu to be more successful, they have to make it easier to install programs without having to open the console.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    3. Re:Get 64 bit working properly by Homburg · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure if you're trolling or not - you don't have to open the console to install most software on Ubuntu. You can install flash and java on a freshly installed Ubuntu installation just by opening the Software Center. For software that needs another repository, you can add that by clicking "Edit/Software sources" in the Software Center. For software distributed directly as packages, rather than via a repository, you just need to download the package and click on it in the file manager.

    4. Re:Get 64 bit working properly by Artemis3 · · Score: 1

      To install flash, you go to their page and download their 64 bit "alpha", and put it in ~/.mozilla/plugins
      For SUN Java you need to add this repository:

      deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner

      Remove openjdk and install sunjava all from synaptic.

      --
      Artix
      Your Linux, your init.
  13. Maverick Meerkat?!? by Locke2005 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought for sure they were going to name it "Masturbating Monkey"!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Maverick Meerkat?!? by migla · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought for sure they were going to name it "Masturbating Monkey"!

      But that was all ready taken by OpenBSD (or given to them by Torvalds, to be more precise):

      http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-211239.html

      --
      Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
    2. Re:Maverick Meerkat?!? by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      To which the OpenBSD people emphatically replied, "We are NOT monkeys!"

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  14. danger zone by zerodl · · Score: 1

    next release will be Goofy Goose. though half-way into development it'll get a bad spin and will crash on startup.

    --
    - -= Napalm means serious BBQ =-
  15. 10.04 - Best Ubuntu Yet! by David+W.+White · · Score: 2, Informative

    I went against my earlier decision to wait a few weeks after the official release, and upgraded the night 10.04 came out. For the first time since I'm using Ubuntu from 7.04, nothing broke! I mean - network, virtual box, mail everything still worked. My only problem was getting use to the placement of the control box on the left instead of on the right. In terms of speed, I haven't seen any visible improvement in startup, but shutdown occurs in way less time than 9.10. This is the best Ubuntu yet!

  16. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

    Well, since they already passed on Mincing Mollusc, I doubt they will have the exoskeleton for it.

    --
    I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  17. Maverick? by CosaNostra+Pizza+Inc · · Score: 1

    This begs to be a Sarah Palin joke.

    1. Re:Maverick? by Dayofswords · · Score: 1

      I made a poll on the ubuntu foums on what people thought of the name

      options:

      Love it!
      It's ok
      Don't care
      Hate it
      Its's cute!
      When did Animal Channel and John McCain get together?

      http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1445838

      (yes i made a typo in the poll)

      --
      Someday we'll hit the human carrying capacity. And the band will just play on.
  18. What's next? by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

    In defiance of spelling nazis everywhere, I propose the next release be named "kneeling gnu".

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:What's next? by Cywiro · · Score: 1

      You mean "in defiance of pronunciation nazis everywhere". Kneeling Gnu is not an alliteration, the "g" in gnu is enunciated.

    2. Re:What's next? by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      the "g" in gnu is enunciated.

      Really?!?

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  19. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by aftermarketgirl · · Score: 1

    Oh, I remember this joke! Very clever. Can I order some new joke format please? Something about how Shuttleworth is an astronaut and therefore wears diapers, somehow connecting that to how he's being a baby about button placement. Thx.

  20. Gnome 3? Don't bother by Trufagus · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Steve Jobs is preparing a patent attack. Apparently it is impossible to create a GUI without violating their patents.

  21. Mod me down, you know you wanna. by TheDarkener · · Score: 1, Troll

    Sorry, I'm just an ex-Ubuntu fanboi. 10.04 changes, again, Ubuntu's focus on the desktop. I need more stability than whiz-bang features that aren't-so-mature-yet. I use Ubuntu for LTSP networks for many people, and cleaning up all of this "Ubuntu One / Social Networking / ever-changing-logout-shutdown dialog / notification panel / network-damager / blah blah blah" type of newly pushed feature stuff each and every release is tiring. I 3 Debian stable+backports for mission-critical LTSP desktops! They don't change but the upstream code. They don't try to re-brand and cuztomize every aspect. Don't get me wrong, I still think Ubuntu is great for a single-user desktop. Just not servers of any kind. It just seems to me that the more a distro changes from upstream (in most cases), the more has the potential to break. I applaud the Ubuntu community (which I am still a part of) for pushing for such change and making it such an attractive alternative to Windows, but to me, personally, I think Debian is probably my best fit.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    1. Re:Mod me down, you know you wanna. by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      Actually, I'd rather mod you up than down. I concur with your observations, even if your presentation could be improved a bit. Alas, my mod points disappeared just before I found a post I felt like modding ...

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    2. Re:Mod me down, you know you wanna. by rrohbeck · · Score: 1

      Try the Alternate installer. No flashy stuff, Debian base plus some Canonical improvements, and then you can add what you like.

    3. Re:Mod me down, you know you wanna. by fabs64 · · Score: 1

      You're right. Debian is your best fit, that's the beauty of multiple distributions.

      Why you chose Ubuntu for your use-case in the *first* place is the bit that's beyond me, and I say that as a happy Ubuntu user.

    4. Re:Mod me down, you know you wanna. by BikeHelmet · · Score: 1

      Because of the ease of use/management.

      Ubuntu was - very briefly - a drop-in replacement for XP, which almost anyone could figure out.

      Now Canonical is making some silly design choices that are pushing away from that. People are getting confused, rather like the XP->Vista switch.

    5. Re:Mod me down, you know you wanna. by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      I need more stability than whiz-bang features that aren't-so-mature-yet.

      Then why would you be an "ex-Ubuntu fanboi"? It's been clear for years now that Ubuntu's focus is on the desktop. There are plenty of good server distros. Why make a stink here about getting modded down when you're just picking the best tool for the job?

      Do you just like getting whipped on slashdot like in real life?

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    6. Re:Mod me down, you know you wanna. by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

      I guess you forgot that Ubuntu was the one that spearheaded the whole LTSP-5 development and integration into the distro.. Ubuntu has, for a while, been the easiest distro to install LTSP on (after Edubuntu started the whole thing). But now, things are different, and other distros have caught up.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  22. Gnome shell by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

    Playing with it in Debian, I find gnome-shell to have extremely poor performance. The dependencies (mesa) suggest to me that it may require compositing. What about the computers that aren't capable of compositing?

    1. Re:Gnome shell by Homburg · · Score: 2, Informative

      GNOME Shell doesn't just require compositing (which almost all computers support - compositing works fine with the generic VESA drivers), it requires OpenGL which (effectively) means it requires accelerated 3D. Computers which don't have accelerated 3D will have to stick with metacity and the panel, I think, which will still be in GNOME 3.

    2. Re:Gnome shell by Spewns · · Score: 2, Funny

      GNOME Shell doesn't just require compositing (which almost all computers support - compositing works fine with the generic VESA drivers), it requires OpenGL which (effectively) means it requires accelerated 3D. Computers which don't have accelerated 3D will have to stick with metacity and the panel, I think, which will still be in GNOME 3.

      And it's written mostly in javascript. If that isn't bad enough, the javascript engine used is Firefox's. (Last I heard.)

    3. Re:Gnome shell by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Playing with it in Debian, I find gnome-shell to have extremely poor performance. The dependencies (mesa) suggest to me that it may require compositing. What about the computers that aren't capable of compositing?

      As usual, don't believe the /. blurb, it looks very much like Gnome 3 won't be the default in 10.10

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  23. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by DaleGlass · · Score: 1

    I'm waiting for Yiffy Yaffle.

    It's going to come with an awesome background, have Second Life preinstalled, and a desktop applet to watch the latest submissions to Fur Affinity.

  24. Just leave now, and save yourself the trouble by Vectormatic · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ever since ubuntu became usable without command line hacking (somewhere in 2007 by my account), they started fucking up other parts. They started adding in new flashy shit that no-one really needs, and forgetting about actually getting a STABLE distro out there. In 9.10 everything pretty much works on my desktop (wish i could say the same for my laptops, which fuck up on every release), except for the piece of misconfigured shit that is pulseaudio. If i try to play certain DVDs in vlc, all sound will play, except for the fricking voice tracks.. it takes endless fucking about to get this to work. And every single release the last few years has had these type of issues on nearly all of my systems. nearly everything works, but they never forget to royally screw at least one thing up, preventing themselves from becoming a true user friendly distro.

    10.04 will NOT make it onto my main systems for day to day use, if i ever find the need to upgrade from my current ubuntu settups, then fedora is first on my list.

    --
    People, what a bunch of bastards
    1. Re:Just leave now, and save yourself the trouble by blincoln · · Score: 1

      They started adding in new flashy shit that no-one really needs, and forgetting about actually getting a STABLE distro out there.

      Kubuntu 10.04 is much more responsive on my laptop than the last release. Unfortunately, whereas the last release was rock-solid stable on that laptop (once I manually edited xorg.conf to disable some arcane feature whose use was causing the bottom half of the display to be garbage), this new release is pretty sketchy. So far I've discovered that when recording audio in Audacity, there is a ~90% probability that all of X will crash (with an error along the lines of "Unable to write bytes: broken pipe") when I hit the stop button, or after it's been recording for awhile.
      That specific error seems to have cropped up frequently (but in regards to different components) in the various 10.04 releases (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu). :\
      Maybe I should look into another KDE-based distribution.

      --
      "...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
    2. Re:Just leave now, and save yourself the trouble by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I don't quite understand why, if they have a VLC maintainer, they don't actually take a bit of time to actually make it work for Ubuntu. I think VLC's probably the most-used media player out there.

      VLC has a shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+(left/right) which is used to move forward/backward 5min. But Ctrl+Alt+(left/right) is defined as "change virtual desktop" in Ubuntu. So why don't they set the shortcuts for "Long backwards jump" and "Long forward jump" to something else for the Ubuntu VLC package?

      Secondly, most of the time when you open up VLC, you can't access the menu through the keyboard (Alt+key). You have to use the mouse.

      Papercuts, death, 1000 ...

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    3. Re:Just leave now, and save yourself the trouble by Vectormatic · · Score: 1

      i'm not quite sure it's a vlc thing, sometimes pulse-audio also completely refuses to play sound from my browser (yes i know, flash is an ugly mess, especially on linux). So i just blame ubuntu for wanting to go with this flashy new pulse-audio thing without actually taking the trouble to make it work well. They must have tested on one machine for five minutes and called it a succes..

      On a side note, downloaded 10.04 yesterday, to put into a VM in virtualbox OSE on my 9.10 install, and what do you know, even after installing the guest additions, it will not go above 800*600

      I think i'll just give up with ubuntu, if i'm still gonna have to edit obscure config files every install, i might as well get something usefull and stable

      --
      People, what a bunch of bastards
  25. Ubuntu 10.10: Maverick McCain? by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

    No, thanks, I'd rather wait for 11.04.

  26. Just out of curiosity what happens in 7 years ? by aepervius · · Score: 1

    What happens after Zealous Zebra ?

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:Just out of curiosity what happens in 7 years ? by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      What happens after Zealous Zebra ?

      That was my thought as well. At "M" they are half way through the alphabet.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    2. Re:Just out of curiosity what happens in 7 years ? by pmontra · · Score: 2, Funny

      You start with AA AA, as in Adventurous Amazing Awesome Apes.

    3. Re:Just out of curiosity what happens in 7 years ? by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      We haven't had "Adventurous Aardvark" or "Cautious Cuttlefish" yet (so we've got about 6 years to come up with something). Although Canonical didn't seem to care that we had "Hoary Hedgehog" when "Hardy Heron"'s turn came.

    4. Re:Just out of curiosity what happens in 7 years ? by grikdog · · Score: 1

      Atavistic Aardvark, of course. I'll probably break down and run Windows 7, though, just to reconnect with those apps that don't work on Mac, iPiddle, or Wine. Also known as the real reason you bought a computer. That said, yes, at the moment my wife and I run Jaunty Jackalope, our daughter runs Karmic Koala, and we all share a good-sized Smartdisk CrossFire and a simple manual backup procedure, viz., cp -auv /home ./media/CrossFire/. so we don't have to lintpick our way through a tar.bz2 to find Thing Needed.

      --
      ``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
    5. Re:Just out of curiosity what happens in 7 years ? by silentsteel · · Score: 1

      Or, aarghing aardvark. Subsequent naming will not quite work this way, unfortunately.

      --
      I cut it three times, and it's still too short.
  27. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by sakdoctor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    11.04 will be called Nocturnal Neckbeard.

  28. I don't get it. by jvillain · · Score: 1

    How is it that every single thing that happens at Ubuntu becomes a story on /. ? A new name is prime for a press release or an announcement on their site. It is a waste of bandwidth on /. . Some of the stuff that gets posted here goes beyond minutia and straight to trivial.

    1. Re:I don't get it. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      How is it that every single thing that happens at Ubuntu becomes a story on /. ? A new name is prime for a press release or an announcement on their site. It is a waste of bandwidth on /. . Some of the stuff that gets posted here goes beyond minutia and straight to trivial.

      Yeah, that's ridiculous! Slashdot would never carry a story like that about Windows, or OSX? Oh wait, except, it has every time there's been a new release.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:I don't get it. by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      I agree with you. There are a lot of things that get posted to /. that I don't consider worth my time. And there are a lot of Ubuntu stories. On the other hand, one person's "not worth my time" is another person's "wow, interesting!". I guess with a lot of Ubuntu users out there, everything Ubuntu does _is_ actually interesting to a large part of the /. readership - and considering the number of comments on this story, the latter part certainly does seem to be true.

      So I guess the best thing you can do when a story is posted that doesn't interest you is to just ignore it. Once interest in a particular kind of story drops far enough, I reckon that kind of story will cease being posted.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    3. Re:I don't get it. by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is heavily focused on Linux, and Ubuntu is the #1 Linux distribution.

      Even if it's not the distro that a Slashdotter may personally use, it's likely the distribution that that Slashdotter has put their friends or family on.

      Complaining about Ubuntu coverage on Slashdot is like complaining about MS Office coverage on a Microsoft MVP site.

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
  29. The Slashdot Trolls all agree by Beelzebud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:The Slashdot Trolls all agree by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``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.''

      That, actually, is why I use Debian and Ubuntu. Several years ago now, I gave up on operating systems that required me to perform a lot of maintenance or care a lot about libraries, bleeding edge, performance, and disk space, and got something that Just Works. Debian did that for me, and then Ubuntu, and although especially Ubuntu has stained that track record in the past couple of years, they still seem to be doing better than many other operating systems. I certainly seem to spend less time working for my computer and more time having the computer working for me, compared to other people and compared to what I did before I discovered Debian.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    2. Re:The Slashdot Trolls all agree by Pengo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Haha :) +1

      I've been using Linux since the early days, and was on the linux desktop back when KDE was 1.x , I've long since abandoned Linux on the desktop since OS X has come out and been strong. (I'm a linux-server junkie, but no chance for using it with my desktop) I just don't have time to deal with all the crap-software and second rate desktop environment. Shitty hardware support, terrible video drivers. (I use dual 30inch monitors on a modern NVidia gfx card). The drama list goes on and on.

      I was playing with this release of Ubuntu this weekend on a testing workstation i have at home, and I was thinking for myself for the first time in years. Maybe I'll give Linux a shot again as a workstation replacement at work vs. OSX on my Mac Pro. I love to try new things, but previous linux desktops have just been a steaming pile of shit compared to the fit and finish of OSX.

      I write Java software for deployment on Linux servers, I'm hardly a "retard", but from reading Slashdot today you'd think it's the end of the fucking world with this release of Ubuntu. I just found it ironic that it's the first version of linux in 5 years i've considered to let back on my desktop.

      Maybe it is the year of the Linux Desktop. :) Great post!

    3. Re:The Slashdot Trolls all agree by Draek · · Score: 1

      If that were true then Windows Vista would've been a smashing success and Windows 7 would've been a complete and utter failure of an OS.

      Not saying that this Ubuntu release is bad, mind you (haven't tried it yet so I can't comment), but sometimes Slashdot's opinion *is* correct, y'know.

      --
      No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
    4. Re:The Slashdot Trolls all agree by BikeHelmet · · Score: 1

      The Slashdot Trolls all agree; Ubuntu is the worst OS ever made, and only caters to retards!

      Any time I discuss any OS, I get modded informative/insightful, then modded down as troll.

      I think it must be my writing style. I post facts and harsh criticisms about all operating systems and their feature regressions. I must be a troll.

    5. Re:The Slashdot Trolls all agree by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      The reason people are dissing Ubuntu is exactly because it's doing stuff which makes it hard for "morons" (i.e., normal people):

      -arbitrary default placement of window controls
      -regression in many bugs (video cards, etc)
      -usability (user switcher, update notifier removed)

      and so on.

      I haven't seen a single post saying that Ubuntu is being made too easy to use.

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
  30. I don't care what they name it. by drunkennewfiemidget · · Score: 1

    I just wish they'd spend less time with eye candy, and more time making it stable. It seems every release of Ubuntu becomes less and less usable than the last. My parents computers started crashing randomly, my wife's laptop crashed and took the filesystem with it, etc. Sure debian's older, but at least I can put a computer on it and expect it not to lock hard.

    My parents and wife are on debian now, and I continue to play around with different distributions for posterity, but often find myself running back to debian or gentoo.

  31. On the other hand... by IANAAC · · Score: 2, Interesting
    They fixed some things too.

    Most notably in my case, was the use of an external monitor at a different resolution than my netbook.

    That was horribly broken in 9.04.

    As for uptime, I've only had mine running a couple days on and old Eee 701 (albeit with 2G memory), but it's been solid, so far.

    1. Re:On the other hand... by Again · · Score: 1

      They fixed some things too.

      Most notably in my case, was the use of an external monitor at a different resolution than my netbook.

      That was horribly broken in 9.04.

      I had the same problem in 9.04 on my netbook. 10.04 doesn't work perfectly for me though as desktop effects get disabled when an external monitor is plugged in.

    2. Re:On the other hand... by dotancohen · · Score: 1

      They fixed some things too.
      Most notably in my case, was the use of an external monitor at a different resolution than my netbook.
      That was horribly broken in 9.04.

      Good thing you're not using an ATI video card:
      https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/537640

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  32. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by macraig · · Score: 1

    I wasn't trying to be anonymous. Dammit, stupid Thunderbird RSS feeds!

  33. Alpha 1 is early June, not end by bhassel · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's important to say to the impatient among us that the first alpha release is not due earlier than the end of June,

    Actually, the release schedule page has the first alpha release on June 3. The second alpha is end of June (actually July 1st.)

  34. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by init100 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Obese Owl?

  35. Get Alexandr Orlov to do promo work by ed · · Score: 1

    It makes sense

    I have been using another distro on my main machine for a little while, Archlinux, but I had a look at 10.4 on my testing machine and it has a slick look about it, and so far, on an evening's writing work, does the basic stuff.

    I'll give it a proper hammering over the next week

  36. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Nikker · · Score: 1

    Winner winner chicken dinner!

    --
    A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
  37. So... I won't be installing this then... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

    ...will it be “slow” and outdated, with a high risk of dying before the next release, and then in a quick move be replaced by the unstable and weird “Pathogenic Palin“? ;)

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  38. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Optikal · · Score: 1

    What, no narwhal? Everyone loves narwhals.

  39. "Menstruating Maverick" by openfrog · · Score: 1

    The negative associations to anything "maverick" are so overwhelming that I have to question the business sense of who has opted for it. Yes, please give me anything else, including Menstruating Mongoose.

  40. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

    I'm waiting for Naughty Nautilus myself.

    There goes a Narwhal!

  41. Re:Insert... by Sebilrazen · · Score: 1

    He's old and getting forgetful, he was bound to accidentally put the same thing on the list twice. Hopefully only twice.

    --
    "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
  42. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Sulphur · · Score: 1

    These aren't the invertebrates you are seeking. Nothing to see here. Move along.

  43. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by rrohbeck · · Score: 1

    And Kubuntu will be Naughty Konqueror? Nah.

  44. shucks by serbanp · · Score: 1

    Already used up half the (latin) alphabet.

    What are they going to do after Zany Zebra?

    1. Re:shucks by dotancohen · · Score: 2, Funny

      Already used up half the (latin) alphabet.

      What are they going to do after Zany Zebra?

      0x2134 0x9343

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  45. Silly mods by greg1104 · · Score: 1

    Hint: if you read something that doesn't many any sense to you, like "Only if she's 5'3", but it might be a joke, do not mod it as "offtopic". Just leave it alone for those us who get pop culture references to evaluate. (That's a "Baby Got Back" reference for you kids who weren't listening to pop radio in 1992)

  46. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Tmack · · Score: 1

    ornery ostrich

    --
    Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
  47. Re:Gnome 3? Don't bother by Luke+has+no+name · · Score: 1

    [citation needed]

  48. I just had to say by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

    "simples"

  49. Maverick? by formfeed · · Score: 1

    If it's a maverick, will it come with a dim but scary sidekick?

  50. Playing around with Ubuntu 10 by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

    I installed Ubuntu 10 on a VM to play around with, and the first thing I noticed was the obvious effort to make it look like OSX and also Windows 7. It's almost like they took the worst elements of each of them and put them into one OS.

    Sorry, but it is what it is.

  51. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Snarky+McButtface · · Score: 1

    And I was hoping the last release would have been Lusty Llama...

  52. Updating apps without updating OS by sd.fhasldff · · Score: 1

    There are a few options here:

    1) Enable the backports repository (and perhaps even -proposed, if you're desperate).

    2) Check if the the app devs make a package available for download.

    3) Download the source and compile yourself ;)

    It's worth noting that there's a simple reason why new versions of apps are not supported on old versions:

    Dependencies.

    Take a look at pretty much any package for Ubuntu and note how many other packages it depends on. In the Windows world (or indeed Mac world) the vast majority would be included when compiling (instead of linked to). The problem with the inclusion-model (aside from bulky programs) is that you don't get security updates applied centrally. Not that the link-model is perfect -- you noted it's biggest (IMHO) weakness.

  53. Fools rush in ... by Macka · · Score: 1

    Well that's what you get for making the stupid decision to be an early adopter on your primary desktop. What kind of idiot installs a dripping wet software release on the system they depend on every day. You should either install it on a test system first, or in a VM to see if it's going to run smoothly or cause you a head ache. I'll bet you didn't even bother to do a full system backup before hand, and just jumped in with both feet.

    Fools rush in where angels ... 'n all that !
     

  54. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by Orbijx · · Score: 1

    ... I facepalmed as soon as I read that (metal plate in wrist brace to forehead OW).

    I'm also afraid to click on the first link more than I am the second while I'm sitting at work, for fear of grotesque Mammalian Mammaries.

    --
    One of these days, I am going to flip out. When I flip out, I'll be back in five minutes.
  55. Re:Maverick Meerkat? Meh... by DaleGlass · · Score: 1

    It's actually a nice picture IMO, but yeah, that might look a bit odd at work.

    Though you really should be more worried about the second one, as that's the front page and all sorts of things can appear there.

  56. Ubuntu Survival Tips by petrus4 · · Score: 1

    I'm currently using Jaunty Jackalope, and have been for around 3-4 days now, after the video card in my aging FreeBSD box finally gave up the ghost. Jaunty sure as hell might not be FreeBSD, but it is surprisingly tolerable; especially after the nightmare I had with Intrepid.

    With that said, I've learned that there are a few things you can do, to make Ubuntu bearable.

    1. The first single thing I do on any new Ubuntu install (I've used Hardy, Intrepid, and now Jaunty) is the following:-

    sudo ed /boot/grub/menu.lst
    %s/quiet splash//
    wq

    This causes the system to display its' bootup messages again, so that if it becomes unbootable, you actually have a prayer of the problem being diagnosed and fixed.

    2. Avoid using an nVidia video card. I had one in the system I was using Intrepid with, and it gave me constant problems. This machine has an onboard Intel card, and it has been perfectly fine.

    3. If you know how to, rip out Pulse/ALSA and compile OSS 4. Pulse causes audio distortion at even moderate volume, for some inexplicable reason.

    4. If you can get gdm to recognise it, use something other than GNOME. I've been meaning to reinstall Ratpoison.

  57. Re:And no one cared... by socceroos · · Score: 1

    Everything before the comma (two words) was worth reading. Even if not entirely accurate (read: possibly misleading), its interesting. The rest is trollage.

    I would say that Ubuntu 10.04 has definitely taken Ubuntu to its highest peak yet, but I don't think thats the best we're going to see. I'm very excited about their decision to include paid-for applications into the Software Centre. If Canonical can get some serious partner traction and convince some big players that there is a market (even given the 'interesting' way they collect usage stats) I believe that Ubuntu could really be pushed to heights beyond what I thought desktop Linux was capable of.

    I am seriously looking forward to the next two years of Ubuntu development and I await the new Cloud and Software Centre features in 10.10. If Canonical can play their cards right then I think we're in for a good ride! =)