Slashdot Mirror
Ubuntu 10.10 Release Candidate Launched
tuXx writes "On Thursday, Canonical rolled out the official release candidate of its upcoming Ubuntu OS version 10.10, codenamed Maverick Meerkat. The release announcement has a feature list, and a review of the RC is up at ITWorld. It's available for download at the Ubuntu wiki site. If all goes well, the stable release is planned for Oct. 10th."
On 10/10/10!
Whoo!
Why is this story marked brown while every other are the regular gray?
http://saveie6.com/
to the article in a single page here
Does this version clean up the mess that is their init system? Some init scripts were sysv, some were upstart-native in 10.04, and there was no commandline utility that made sense of it all.
I ran into that problem in the *server edition*, what is more central to a server installation than managing services?
This feature has stirred up lots of debate. With the uncertainty of XMarks they may be trying to capitalize on the panic.
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
Funny, I didn't realize I was included in your "us." Cry a river and go submit a Fedora story. If it makes it through the gauntlet like this story has then good, otherwise stop crying over sour grapes.
Shh.
Fedora: One release a year. Ubuntu: Releases every six months or so; hence why the extra press.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
I'm an Ubuntu fanboy myself, and I find it irritating that test releases make the news on slashdot. Then it just becomes a "ubuntu sux!" flame-athon, since folks are still finding bugs.
But it is understandable that slashdot reports as it does. Ubuntu is "in". It is the most interesting and latest linux distro out there. Redhat/fedora had years to make a name for themselves, and they did, but now what? Is Redhat doing anything cool? If they are, be sure that Ubuntu will steal it (ie. just get it through importing gnome). And all the cool stuff that Shuttleworth is doing (that some love to hate) is only in Ubuntu. Love it or hate it, it is interesting and not in Redhat. Basically, everything cool in FOSS is either in Ubuntu only, or in Ubuntu also. And most people don't care about the actual differences between each distro. So if you want to talk about FOSS, might as well be with Ubuntu.
I think most other sites are going to be reporting on Ubuntu, and slashdot is just trying to stay ahead of the curve by reporting the release before everyone else.
Is Redhat doing anything cool?
Redhat is like having a wife of decades. You imagine what it would be like to have the young hot thing, then you realize that you prefer your partner of many years. You know her well but you still learn new things, She changes a little every year but not so much as to be a shock. She's comfortable. You remember when she was a young thing called Red Hat - yeah, red head baby! She was the IT girl and you had her. But as you get more mature and tired, you want something tried and true. You know she's reliable and she'll be there for you. The young chicky, though exiting and doing all the new and unpredictable things, just adds too much excitement to your life. I know, regardless of what happens, my darling Fedora will be there and perform.
You used RHEL 5 recently?
That old bitch needs to go. Some of us would like to use iotop, even if there are alternatives and many other new features that RHEL 5 is too out of date to have.
RHEL 6 should solve this.
There doesn't seem to be much of a response to this article, which is unusual. There must be ... dozens of us using Ubuntu at this point. More seriously, how many try out the RCs? I generally jump on them if they have new major features, or fixes for any remaining problems I have with my machines. I only have one insignificant problem left on all of my machines and 10.10 doesn't have the upstream fix yet ,... so I'm waiting to the gold release.
Is Pulseaudio still required? I really got fed up in Ubuntu 9.10 when they made the volume control stack Dependant on it. If you removed PA, you would get a "waiting for sound system to respond" message when trying to select an audio device... and your graphical volume control would break. There is a third-party PPA to fix it, but that is a pain.
I'm also not happy about the integration of a system to purchase proprietary software. Proprietary vendors have no respect for me or my property, and I don't want them having root-level access on my machine. For all I know, the proprietary vendor could start installing rootkits or hidden device drivers, similar to the way many modern Windows games work.
Also, put the buttons back on the right!
These are all reasons I switched to Debian.
Don't worry, your eulogy will be written like this: "People - Billy Gates died last night"
No one will be complaining that People != Billy Gates.
It's been all over the forums for months that they broke it in 10. Lots of 'fixes' and lots more people who the fixes don't work for. It's kept me on 9 the whole time.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
42... The Meaning of Life Day!
Will it fix the hang with forzen graphics, mouse, and keyboard so many people are experiencing?
And the rest of the computing media pretty much has given up on even pretending desktop Linux ever going to be something greater than a 1 percent OS.
* A mishmash of competing desktop interfaces
* A mishmash of competing user interface toolkits and standards
* A mishmash of half-assed sound solutions
* A mishmash of half-assed clones of commercial applications
* Amateur typography - rampant kerning and other text layout problems
Sounds par for an OS worked on by Bearded GNU Freaks sitting around at home playing World of Warcraft on their secret Windows partitions and taking bong hits all day instead of showering, driving to work, and putting in 40+ hour work weeks fixing and implementing stuff that matters to users rather than whatever crap they happen to feel like working on.
In my opinion they release new versions too quickly. I know there are a lot of differences between versions, but what I'd like is if they slowed it down by a bit.
That way, they could release each new version as a dramatically different thing than the previous ones. At this rate, Ubuntu 11.x will be roughly the same as Ubuntu 9.x
I don't think it should be like that. Also, someone up-comments (I figure that's how I refer to someone above me in the list) pointed out the horrible mess that the init scripts are. This is absolutely true.
Someone find them and mod them up, please.
You obviously don't have a clue. Open source has already won everywhere but the desktop. Infrastructure! Infrastructure! Infrastructure!
They must build a partnership with Oracle (and support their database) in order to be seriously considered in enterprises and (finally) get some profits. BTW I don't like Oracle at all, it's just my opinion collected from some real companies that currently pay for RedHat and Suse support.
Given the option to buy commercial software is an excellent idea. You don't have to buy it and the opportunities for then to make money from an App Store is great idea. I am annoyed that they did not offer an opportunity to buy the Humble Bundle game bundle with a consistent easy way to install then. Hopefully they are wooing game developers as I type.
As for buttons on the right...put then on the left...and while your at it install a dynamic wallpaper, faenza icons, conky colours, and a dark dark theme, get compiz scale/wall working from the bottom corners, and install awn. I'd say use the droid font, but the new Ubuntu font looks amazing.
If all your hardware works...and you are more interested in stability(after your fixes) over features...and your happier with Debian stow release cycle go with it. Whats interesting is people today are moving towards rolling releases. It excites me because I use Gentoo because I am one of these people and a stable supported version seems like bliss.
First, Pulseaudio sucked for a long time but it's finally usable as of the last release.
Second, what the fuck are you on about proprietary software not respecting you. Access to other people's work to do as you see fit isn't a human right, a right as a citizen or a computer user. Demanding that you be given the right to redistribute, modify, resell, etc. their software is more about *you* being disrespectful about how you treat other people's property.
Also, the apps never get "root-level access" unless you execute them with super user privileges.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
LOL I love this comment so much. Yes Ubuntu moved the taskbar buttons to the left...and what else. As for as I can see Mac features that are exclusive to Apple simply do not exist...they certainly did not invent the desktop analogy. Hell the company was drowning before they but there desktop on a *NIX Platform. If Ubuntu have copied anything, they have created a "Brand", they have not focused on innovation, they are not great contributors to Linux; Debian; X; Gnome; OpenOffice. They have developed a font; packaged a sensible collection of Applications that fit on one CD; commercialized their offering with paid support; Cloud Storage, Music Store...and now Commercial Applications, and its about time. Short of wooing some game companies they have been fantastic.
I'm personally looking forward to systemd init replacement.
Fedora: One release a year. Ubuntu: Releases every six months or so; hence why the extra press.
It's not the extra part that bothers me, it is literally twice as much press for Ubuntu and I just don't see how you can justify ...
uh...
never mind.
Does anyone know if the OOo quick-starter prevents shutdown like it did with Ubuntu 10.04?
And have they fixed the lesser issue of the quick-starter icon having a white background (versus the default tray colour of black/dark-grey)?
Also, the apps never get "root-level access" unless you execute them with super user privileges.
Installing a deb runs a number of scripts as root that can do whatever the hell the packager likes (either directly or if the packager wants to obfuscate what is going on by running binaries from the package).
Don't install debs you don't trust!
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
No, really, what's new? Anything? More daemons rewritten by Canonical for no reason? Or did they just make the "Ubuntu One" logo bigger this time?
Worthless article.
It's called ISO 8601 and it's about as logical as it gets!
http://www.iso.org/iso/date_and_time_format
I too am constantly surprised that OSX only has a market share on the most conservative sites that is only five times the market share of Linux, and they have massive advertising campaigns, armies of fanboys, massive media mindshare, iThis disappointing really
we LTS users don't want to be ripping and replacing OS every six months. takes a long time to get everything tweaked just right and so we don't care about RC releases and we don't care about six month releases and we don't care about 10.10
Mark, if you are reading, please let 11.04 be called narcoleptic newt, ...
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
So... don't install the proprietary DEBs... I fail to see how making such software easily available puts you at risk.
I tried Mint on my Atom HTPC, I installed Ubuntu 10.04 over it pretty quickly. I couldn't stand the Windows XP menu, and some of the other graphical elements seemed a bit underdone or amateur (like the update manager). It was nice that it saved me the five minutes needed to install codecs, but that is about the only benefit I found. The default theme is better than Ubuntu's, but the default Ubuntu theme generally only lasts around a day on a fresh install. It had the same problem with sound over HDMI as Ubuntu, and really didn't offer any noticeable improvements.
But then again I'm used to Ubuntu, been running it on and off since 7.something or another, and pretty much constantly (on my laptop) since 9.something or another. It might be perfect, for all I know. Sadly it doesn't matter, since running Ubuntu or Mint of an Atom box with an Ion chip is like delving into some nasty circle of hell where anything using flash (Like Hulu) is impossible yet taunts you constantly like a vulture. I wish my old Mac Mini could handle 1080, the Linux box would turn into a headless server. I prefer Ubuntu to OS X, but it is barely usable (at least the HTPC, my Laptop, also running 10.04 works fine).
Go-go NVIDIA drivers!
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
Do you trust open-source software? Have you actually looked at the code to make sure that it isn't doing anything sneaky? You know that people can analyze the code and behavior of proprietary software as well, albeit with a little bit more difficulty. That's how all those exploits for Windows came about.
I'm jaundiced you insensitive clod.
Original poster here. Well, I certainly consider having games secretly install hidden device drivers that interfere with my CD burner as not respecting me. Am I wrong? Does the imaginary property brigade own my PC when I install some of their software? Do they get to do whatever they like, including running intentionally cloaked processes in the background? See also, Sony Rootkit. How about tampering with my boot sector?
Some of us have gotten tired of this crap over the years. I want a reliable machine where I won't have to worry about predatory capitalist pigs compromising the functionality or security of my machine to (maybe) make another few bucks. How about a vendor classifying a "Genuine Advantage" utility that phones home repeatedly as a security update, in order to get it on machines with auto-update enabled? That one happened too. Good thing we've got gigs of RAM. We can just allow all this crap that works for someone else to run in the background! This is why commercial software on my machine belongs in a contained environment. I don't trust it.
BTW Thanks for putting words in my mouth. I guess thats what people have to do to win an arguement around here.
The linked review is pretty damn weak. It mostly goes over the installed software without actually talking much about what it all does and how it all works together. And the author "doesn't understand" why MP3 codecs or Flash Player are not installed by default, even though they are a click away when you need them. I would expect an IT professional to understand the licensing issues here, and how they come in to play when shipping a FLOSS distro. Ubuntu handles it quite elegantly, IMO, but to do what he wants would violate some laws (stupid, bad laws, but laws nonetheless).
:q!
Maybe that is why they call it pulseaudio.
Says the troll at 10pm on a Friday night...
Good thing about OSS is that it doesn't need high market share to be a success. The people who use Ubuntu on a daily basis are quite happy with their desktops, but don't let that stop you from whining about how it's not acceptable to YOU.
I agree with you.. although I probably should run Stable instead of Testing, at least I have the Experimental level as a buffer to find bad things before they make it to me.. I think it is a legitimate worry, that perhaps there is not the levels of vetting that the apps in the distro have gone through.., but I suspect to be successful these paid apps would avoid shenanigans, as it absolutely would not be tolerated in the Linux world.
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
101010b == 42d
I installed the Netbook Remix with the Unity UI on my Acer Aspire One ZG5 and I *hated* it. Slow, unclear, and very buggy. And this was the last beta. I don't understand the concept of combining the start menu with an off-line and on-line search function in one action. That made launching programs a tedious and frustrating experience. I don't think that this is a direction that Canonical should take at all.
Can anybody explain the appeal of Unity to me?
is , will it stop loading the 8169 driver for Realtek 8168 cards? (causing them to lock up requiring a cold restart)
I'm an African-American, you insensitive clod!
Yes, so DON'T INSTALL proprietary apps if you don't like it. No risk.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Releases are big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely,
mind-bogglingly big they are. I mean, you may think it's a long haul to
release a single Linux package or application, but that's just peanuts
to a Linux distribution release.
Read much Douglas Adams lately??
Ha!
Redhat was hot back in the day when they used to take out full page ads in the Linux Journal of a guy in a trench coat in a red hat passing some briefcase off to another guy in a trench coat.
RHell seems to be known these days for an old and decrepit (in terms of RPMs available) enterprise version whose purpose is to be certified to run Oracle, and a perpetually broken testing vehicle named Fedora.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
I am glad Ubuntu keeps shipping new versions at a regular pace but I would advise to wait a few weeks before upgrading. It is cautious to let others try it first and detect any problems. In any case, I must say that the last versions of Ubuntu I tried worked pretty well out of the box.
As if Linux users never get fed up and abandon it for other platforms, noooo that never happens. I started using Linux on the desktop around Kunbutu 7.10 (Gutsy), because at the time Vista was sucking major balls and Macs weren't that interesting. Recently I bought a ASUS Eee PC 1001PX, and I had to manually upgrade the kernel to a newer-than-Lucid kernel just to have wireless work. The internal speaker played but if I plugged in headphones then nothing. It's 2010 and Linux is still struggling with the very, very basics. And just surfing the net flash sucks less on Windows than on Linux and there's still no usable free replacement, despite gnash and lightspark. Never mind other plug-ins that plain old don't exist for Linux.
I dual boot to Windows 7 and I'm seriously considering abandoning Linux and just run Windows + as much open source software as I can on top. Another reason is games, WINE keeps getting better but if you want to play something on release day it pretty much never works, or there's a load of tweaks and workarounds and glitches. It's great if you have the patience to begin playing a year from now I guess, but every new games exposes new bugs. And I have filed bugs and bisected in git and even got a patch in WINE, it just never ends. There's also other great services I'm missing out on, like free Spotify, it won't work under Linux unless you have the Premium version.
Take a look at this. Linux has the two last months been at its lowest since October 2008. It hit a high of 1.17% and is down to 0.85%. Even if you're so kind as to exclude all non-desktops and just go witn Win+Mac+Linux, it's down to 0.88%. That's called unhappy users leaving. Sure Linux can't die but it can be marginalized again to a bunch of people shouting "I'm not dead yet". The netbook/nettop push that gave Linux is small boost is pretty much gone, all I see now on low-end laptops is Windows, Windows, Windows. The 1001PX I bought should have been an ideal Linux candidate - but it only came with Windows so I had to wipe and install Linux myself.
In fact, I think the whole open source desktop is struggling badly. Firefox which has been the flagship of open source is losing market share now in the last year, while Chrome keeps breaking new records. And Google both makes Chrome and is Firefox's main source of income, how long before they decide to put all the money and push behind Chrome? Yes I know of Chromium but parts are missing so it's no more Chrome than OS X is BSD. OpenOffice, or rather LibreOffice is playing "divide and conquer" with themselves while Microsoft and Apple laughs. The year of the Linux desktop is never if it keeps going like this...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Is Pulseaudio still required? I really got fed up in Ubuntu 9.10 when they made the volume control stack Dependant on it. If you removed PA, you would get a "waiting for sound system to respond" message when trying to select an audio device... and your graphical volume control would break.
I feel your pain. Although I am still using jaunty, I have a stable situation whereby to turn on my laptop's external speakers, I have to plug earphones into the headphones jack [sic]. Trying to switch to alsa didn't work, and I'm not sure I was the problem or the software was bungled.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
If all goes well, the stable release is planned for Oct. 10th.
IMO, this is an abuse of the word "stable." I run ubuntu/kubuntu on a number of machines, and I can say with authority that what Canonical calls "stable" can be a horrid pain in the ass. I run this stuff because I sometimes want to be on the bleeding edge, but it's painful. Canonical's definition of stable != Debian's definition of stable, that's for damn sure.
Then just do that.
Ubuntu is still a success for me however much it sucks for you. It's year of the desktop for ME. It will never be year of the desktop for YOU. Obviously your laptop was built for windows, just use that.
Ubuntu is a success for canonical as well. I have read on Mark's blog about him striking deals for 10,000 desktop OS replacements and Canonical is making money without needing Mark's millions any more.
Ubuntu doesn't need billions of users like windows has to be a success. The users are content, canonical is happy. The only people complaining are the whiners like you whose trying to use Ubuntu on some weird hardware configuration and the parent who most likely doesn't even use the OS.
First, Pulseaudio sucked for a long time but it's finally usable as of the last release.
It's been usable all along if you just followed PerfectSetup. It's unfathomable why the Ubuntu maintainers don't seem to be able to do this...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
> Apple simply do not exist...they certainly did not invent the desktop analogy
but they did use the bible from the guys that did invent it.
>they have been fantastic.
They've done an above average job, but I wouldn't consider it up to professional standards.
The poor quality of the Gnome file manager is a perfect example.
They're also increasingly getting away from the what the average user wants to do with a PC.
Cloud computing? There are stories everywhere about companies being hacked and data stolen,
Internet root DNS servers being down for 18 hours, etc.
I don't want someone who doesn't care about my business or my data being responsible for it.
It's a niche market and they should be focusing on nailing down basic functionality still.
They wouldn't even have to write it themselves. A bounty would probably work just fine.
-- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
So your whole argument boils down to "LALALALALA I can't hear you we're happy here in fairytale land, I'm happy, everybody happy". Canonical is still losing money, you better check your facts. The last time we got a definitive answer on that (it's a private company so no public books) was in March 2010 when the new CEO took over. "We're not profitable now.". Linux is losing users which I backed up with statistics while you just throw insults, but hey great that you're trying your best to get rid to someone who has used Linux as my primary desktop now for three years (I dual boot for the games). You're a fucking retard. It's sad that the Linux community has to put up with pathetic pricks like you.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Version 10.10 gets released on 10/10/10. That's 5 10s. 5X10=50. I turn 50 on that day. So it's all about me.
Time's fun when you're having flies. - Kermit the Frog
You are replying to my post about it being a success to me and how OSS doesn't need to be popular to be a success.
Being "Not profitable" is not the same as making money.
If Asay says they predict to make more money then last year how can you argue with that? Since they're an ltd anyway there's no way for you or I to know.
Your replies have included how it doesn't work on your hardware and some weird stats on linux popularity which I have no interest in anyway since my post was about how popularity doesn't equal success. Also web stats tell nothing about computer usage. So some % of linux users didn't get counted in the past two months.. meaningless data that you're trying to give meaning to.
Getting back on topic.. you basically didn't read my original post to begin with at all.
So I insulted you.. I called you "a whiner", and you are. You completely ignored any context to my post and went on a rant about how Ubuntu doesn't work on your laptop and because it doesn't work on your laptop it's the end of days! users are dropping like flies because Kjella can't get his laptop to work!
You complain about me insulting you then call me a "fucking retard" and a "pathetic prick". Seems to me a bit of a double standard and really you deserved being called a whiner the way you replied out of context to anything I said.
Also I'm not trying to get rid of you.. YOU YOURSELF SAID YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE IT! SO DON'T!
If some thing isn't working for you to the point where you can write a four paragraphed drama piece about how it sucks so bad.. why do you bother to continue using it?!
In conclusion I think the linux community can live without negative people like yourself which contributes nothing but whining. I on the other hand have at least tried to fix problems rather then give ultimatums about going back to windows if my unique situation isn't fixed.
No, what I reacting to was the part that said "everybody who uses Ubuntu is happy". So it's working out great for YOU, fantastic. But not for a lot of other people, users or ex-users. People are dissatisfied and leaving. I'm considering leaving. And yes, I mean everything I said because both the post you replied to and mine are all like "How DARE you say it's not good?! You whiner!" I'm sorry if that bursts your bubble. I'm sorry that you can't handle negative opinions contrary to your own. I tried backing that up with figures to show that no, it's not just me but you want to make it a personal assault so I call you for what you are. And yeah, try pinning the "contributes nothing but whining" on me to make yourself feel good - attack is the best defense right? Save your pathetic "shut up and like it" tactics for the n00bs.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Strawman argument because I never said everyone was happy with Ubuntu and you're still not even understanding what I was saying with regards to the context of what the parent before me was talking about.
Dude, you seem to have a reading comprehension failure somewhere. You don't seem to be able to understand basic English.
Here are some basic points I've already made tons of times:
- The parent I originally replied to was making a point that popularity == success. I replied that it's not and daily users of Ubuntu are happy and Canonical is happy which I consider a success in itself. You don't need to be on a billion desktops to be a success.
- I agreed with you, you don't like Ubuntu, you're leaving. Fine, it's not working out for you; leave and be happy with windows or another OS. Your using another OS has zero effect on me or anyone else since you weren't contributing anything anyway. What you use is up to you.
- I only called you a whiner because you're replying off topic about something irrelevant to my point and the parent before me. You are going on and on about hardware problems that only you're having and trying to make the point that because of that people are leaving Ubuntu.
- You claim you gave proof, you showed a two month drop is web statistics for people who have "linux" in their browser's user agent and somehow you claim that as proof people are leaving Ubuntu. I've already explained why this isn't proof however on second look even your interpretation of these statistics is wrong. From looking at the statistics you've provided the "linux" user agent remains hovering around 1% +-0.3%. You can confirm this by looking at how it has risen and dropped in the past.
- Even if we go under the crazy theory that you're correct and that people are leaving Ubuntu it has nothing to do with my original point.
- you keep trying to make a point about popularity when my original post was that popularity isn't the only measure of success; that most people are happy with their desktop; that Canonical is happy and the only people that aren't don't use Ubuntu anyway.
- The only one getting personal is you. You're the one calling me a "fucking retard". You keep trying to make yourself look like a victim, like i'm trying to tell you to "shut up and like it". Throughout my communication with you i've always said the same thing. If you don't like it, don't use it. Why you've continued this charade is beyond me and the only thing I can think of is because your pride is hurt.
I have to agree with the flash/hulu sentiment. My EeePC had flash/hulu working beautifully with the stock Xandros install. However, due to other issues, I switched over to UNR, and flash performance sucked. I never could quite figure out what Asus did to make everything work properly. Anyway, with the latest flash from Adobe and 10.04, things are "better". Not quite as good with Xandros, mind you, but better than before. My occasional attempts with 10.10 didn't fully exercise flash, but it seems like it got a little bit better.
If you are installing or upgrading in Virtualbox, the guest additions (which include the auto-resize video driver) won't install correctly, you get an error: Warning: unknown version of the X Window System installed. Not Installing X Window System drivers.
the solution?:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-x11
A quick fix to put the buttons back on the right top corner : change desktop themes, I think my personal favourite "Clear Looks" is still available,
but almost any other theme that's not the default has the buttons on the right.
There is also a hack in the config scripts, but I'd have to dig for it ...
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post
that is because adobe are a bunch of dicks and won't make a VDPAU backend for flash. (even though they had to do it anyway for tegra2 ARM procs)
Every other Ubuntu upgrade kills half a day getting my PC working again. Vanilla installs are pretty good, but having forgot my last catastrophe, I decided to jump the gun and go 10.10 final beta on my primary PC. Mistake. Installer had an issue with fglrx, had no video, just a purple screen requiring what seems to now be a requirement: a second pc to ssh into the box to fix it. VirtualBox now has issues too, and compiz is broken because it refuses to activate my binary video driver. 3 strikes...
So I decide to try a true vanilla PC upgrade. I did not find 2 of those issues before doing this, but that one seems to go ok, so I have hope. Might as well go to the next box... upgrade my laptop... another fail. My Broadcom STA driver now just doesn't work at all, so my notebook without wireless is now considered a desktop with a tiny screen and a cramped keyboard.
After finding out that Ubuntu stopped including aptitude in the default install (while Debian recommends it over apt), "Hardware Drivers" is now known as "Additional Drivers" which is now missing the Broadcom OSS driver option on my laptop, and Software Sources is hidden by default, I'm wondering WTF is going on over at Canonical HQ... upgrades still as flaky as ever, especially with proprietary drivers, and power tools rapidly disappearing from default seems like a few steps backwards. If I want to deal with proprietery driver issues I may as well go back to Debian.
It is simple to avoid all hardware related issues with all Linux distros today, especially those related to WiFi, Sound, Video, etc....
Follow this advice and NEVER have problems again, ever.
Purchase your hardware ONLY from Linux Vendors, my favorite is ZaReason. Another is System 76. I know there are many more.
I just updated to Ubuntu 10-10 last night on my Breeze Pro 4220 (starting at $399, still under $816 with quad core, 4GB RAM and 1GB HD) and it is working like a champ! I love getting 4 cores, 4GB RAM and a GB hard drive for under $816...love it!
If you want to run Windows (for games) I get that, purchase Windows 7 separately and install it, the method you choose will vary and is up to you...but at least you KNOW IT WILL WORK.
Linux has more device drivers than any other operating system in the world, ever. The only reason anyone has problems is always related to proprietary hardware/software/BIOS crap...all of which is easy to avoid, purchase from a Linux vendor ONLY.
Same with Android, buy only hardware where you have Linux root access, avoid all other proprietary chips/hardware.
Follow that advice and no more problems, ever.
It is that simple.
My next PC from ZaReason will also run CentOS, Damn Small Linux and Fedora in addition to the latest greatest Ubuntu. If I have learned anything from all the Microsoft Windows BS over the years, its never put all your eggs in one basket. Also, if you only have two choices, you have no choice.
Yeah, Linux is great for infrastructure, but Linux on the desktop is still a turd. Sure, it's a turd with lots of nifty graphical stuff built in thanks to . And where did Linux win on the back-end? Well it wasn't in replacing Windows servers, it was in replacing servers running proprietary UNIX versions, AIX, Solaris and HP/UX or in devices such as DataDomain restorers where having access to a powerful OS that lends itself to running specialized systems allows vendors to create great new products. And even on the back-end Linux's victories are confined to certain areas. Yeah, you'll find lots of companies moving from Oracle on Solaris or Oracle on HP/UX to Oracle on Linux, but you won't find anyone moving from Microsoft Exchange to Linux systems running Postfix/IMAPD.
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I'm amazed that OS X only has five times the market share of Linux considering that the Linux desktop is such an abysmal piece of shit compared to MacOS X or even Windows 7.
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