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Ubuntu 10.10 Beta Released
RandyDownes sends word that Canonical has released the beta version of Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat). The release announcement boasts faster boot times, GNOME 2.31, and a speedier version of Evolution. In addition, "The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new 'Featured' and 'What's New' views for showcasing applications, and an improved package description view. You can now easily access your package installation history too." The release notes and download page are both available.
Bottom middle?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
This is a beta version. The final release is scheduled for October (10.10)
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I'm still getting 10.04 working!
It's Saturday evening... maybe linux users have lives? ;)
It's a beta release and we're all happy with the LTS release right now?
Ubuntu 10.04 has got to be the most fragile Linux I've used in ten years. Are there any filesystems that can't be mounted? Then NO BOOT FOR YOU!
I'll admit I like how fast it boots when ureadahead works, but I'm willing to wait an extra minute for the boot to finish, if that means I actually do get to boot instead of having to boot from a rescue CD and comment-out or "noauto" the problem filesystem in fstab.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
They replaced it with Gmail?
Microsoft isn't on any cycle. They are lost in the woods.
If you're like me and don't like the risk of upgrading all the time, pick a LTS ("Long Term Support") release, and stick with it for the next 3 years. Lucky for you, it sounds like you installed 10.04 which is an LTS release.
You could say the same thing about "Protestants and Catholics", "Muslims and Christians" or even "Theists and Atheists". For exactly the same reasons.
It allows (in theory) for the faster development of the system. The new code goes through a short testing cycle and gets out into the public twice a year.
No matter how much effort you put into testing, it always seems like the majority of the bugs are only found once it is released.
Is there any particular advantage to having a new OS every half-year (versus Apple's two year cycle or Microsoft's 3-4 year cycle)?
Well, it fits into the "Release early. Release Often." philosophy that made linux what it is today. Apart from that, one advantage is that all of the hard core folk can install it and give it a good thrashing over. All of the major hardware work-arounds will have been sorted out, major weaknesses will be eliminated, etc. A year from now, you'll have a good yea-or-nay feel for whether it is worth it to upgrade to that release.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
7300LE and 8800GT aren't good enough?
Seriously, I *always* have to tweak modelines and shit, and yes I'm sure it's the television I have, but in Windows it at least looks "OK" out of the box.
P.S. Also, you are the exact Linux user that makes the community fucked. "It works for me, maybe you're a moron and your hardware sucks" is not a very good response. I thought Linux was supposed to be able to run on *anything* right?
I have been using Ubuntu since 6.04, and really like it. However usually when I try to upgrade from 1 version to the next it crashes and I end up just installing the new version from scratch. Hope it is different this time.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Use "i915.modeset=0"
Ubuntu! Bringing Linux to grandma's desktop today!
It depends. In my case, if my parent's computer messes up, I'm the one they call for tech support anyways, no matter what the OS.
Saying "I'll probably get modded down for this" in a post is the best way to get it modded up.
It's no worse than doing a regedit import which I've had to do to fix presumably Grandma-ready Windows issues.
X was designed in the 70's and it's really really showing its age.
What you just described is basically a rolling release distro. Try Arch Linux or Gentoo. Ubuntu isn't the only Linux distro. If it's not doing what you like, you should check other ones out.
This is my gripe about Ubuntu and much open source or "free" software. Ok, first, yes, it's free, so I have no right to complain. Second here's my complaint: they keep putting in effort in places that really don't seem important while neglecting those that do matter. A possibly non-Ubuntu specific example from this month. I upgraded to 10.04 which brought in a newer Thunderbird. This Thunderbird places its user directory in a different directory than the version I was using then makes a symlink to there from the old location. Result Beagle no longer works on TBird mail. I *really* liked Beagle's mail treatment. So now I either have to learn how to remake Beagle (and learn to use Mono?) or remake TBird. Beagle is no longer supported and Tracker doesn't do what I want. So I'm in for some significant work either way just because somebody wanted to change the name of a directory.
And yes dual monitor support is a little screwy too... it's something I expect to "just work" in this day and age. And even ignoring the button placement the default theme just looks terrible with TBird (folders with new mail are de-emphasized???) and some other apps so I have to go looking through themes to find something I want... more work because someone screwed around with something that didn't need changing.
Most people have better things to do with their time than try to overcome the effects of tinkerers with too much time on their hands. I'm getting to the point of either finding another distribution to use or abandoning Linux altogether.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
In addition to what has been said in your other replies, Ubuntu is based on Debian (testing specifically).
No, Ubuntu pulls from unstable.
The summary mentions that Evolution will be faster. Can any beta-testers report on whether it is much of an improvement?
I'd been increasingly unhappy with Evolution. It's very, very slow; it usually fails to display HTML email, which is increasingly common, and it often freezes for thirty seconds or so when I try to do it. I use Gmail and Google Calendar, but prefer to use a local client; Evolution offers integration with Google services, but that integration is clumsy. For instance, to "archive" email in my inbox, I have to click the "delete" button.
So, I finally got around to installing Thunderbird. In order to get the functionality I wanted, that I'd had in Evolution, I had to install several addons: Enigmail, Lightning, and Provider for Google Calendar. Importing contacts was a bit messy, and I haven't worked out yet how to sync Thunderbird's address book with Google Contacts. There's less thorough integration of Thunderbird into the GNOME interface.
Yet despite those difficulties, Thunderbird is much, much better at the core functions for which I'd been using Evolution: email and calendaring. It is faster, displays messages more cleanly, and integrates better with Google services.
I've been seeing complaints from Ubuntu users for years that they'd rather have Thunderbird as the default client, and that it works better than Evolution, save for the less thorough integration into GNOME. Having made the switch, I'm really at a loss why Ubuntu and GNOME are sticking with Evolution, and not at least treating Thunderbird as a peer.
Exactly. I get so tired of the "waaaah, my grandma cant do $X without help on it" complaints. Our elders are always asking for help with their computers no matter what software is on it. If they need help, either help them, or tell them to buy a support contract (or buy one for them if you're nice and can afford it).
Eventually they'll die and wont need tech support anymore.
Soon after that technology will start confusing the shit out of you and you'll be asking your kids for help.
Get over it.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
I know perfectly well what my grandma is using her PC for, I will set up everything for her anyway.
If there's a problem, I am still the one who is being asked about it, so I better use a system which doesn't break that easy.
So yeah, my grandmas* don't know what ssh with reverse forwarding is, but they have it set up so I can log on to them any time from anywhere (their PCs connect to my shell server). Important is, they can't break anything, they don't have root password. If there's an issue I can fix it in no time using ssh or (forwarded as well) vnc. Hell, they don't know what a terminal IS, that's what I'm for!
Could they install or configure an OS themselves? No. Can they use any OS I show them how to use (where the browser is, where the pictures are etc.)? Yes. Have I been bothered more often when they weren't using Linux? Hell yes!
So Linux IS grandma-ready.
*ok, my grandma doesn't have a PC, but my mom an my aunt do and technically they are grandmas.
Never had this problem. Perhaps you should use a better video card
Why is this always the ultimate answer to all Linux hardware problems from the zealot crowd? "Oh, your hardware is crap. Go buy good one!". With "good" implicitly defined as "works in Linux". Well, my hardware doesn't work in Linux, but works just fine in quite a few other OSes. Why do neither Windows nor FreeBSD have any problem whatsoever with my wireless card, but Linux (any distro... went through 5 in the last 6 months) can only list networks and not connect since new (read: broken) Ralink drivers were put into mainstream kernel? Why both Windows and FreeBSD can switch sound from speakers to headphones when the latter are plugged in, but Linux cannot (and I can't be bothered to find out if the problem is the mess that is ALSA, or the mess that is PulseAudio)?
Don't give me that "crappy hardware" line. It's getting as tiresome as suggestion to reboot whenever there is a problem with Windows. How about actually fixing shit (or, at least, not breaking shit that is already there and works)?
Is Empathy still the default IM client? I've installed Pidgin and I don't regret it for a second.