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Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Out Now; Raring Ringtail In the Works
An anonymous reader writes "The six month cycle that Canonical adheres to for Ubuntu releases has come around again today. Ubuntu 12.10 'Quantal Quetzal' has been released. There's a whole range of new features and updates, but here are the most important: WebApps — treats online services as if they are desktop apps (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook); Online Services — control logins to all your services from a single window and get them integrated into search results (e.g. GDocs for file searches); Dash Preview — right click any icon, get a detailed preview of what it is; Linux kernel 3.5.4; GNOME 3.6; Nautilus 3.4; latest Unity; No more Unity 2D, fallback is the Gallium llvmpipe software rasterizer; Default apps updated (Firefox 16.01, Thunderbird 16.01, LibreOffice 3.6.2, Totem, Shotwell, Rythmbox); Full disc encryption available during install; Single, 800MB distribution for all architectures." It's now available for download. The next version, due in six months' time, will be called Raring Ringtail.
But really found the integration with webservices annoying. Switched back to Debian and I'm happy with that.
Most of them are campy but not ridiculous. Quantal? Really? Not only is that silly sounding, but it doesn't even follow along the kind of names they have been using.
quantal, adj.
1. Physics
a. Of or relating to a quantum or a quantized system.
b. Existing in only one of two possible states.
2. Biology Of or designating an all-or-none response or effect: a quantal reaction.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
I am waiting for the Zapping Zebra
From the announcement:
The timing is such that users can experiment before deciding if they want to invest in Windows 8 or go with an alternative and bypass that confusing new user interface Microsoft will be shipping.
(emphasis mine)
I'm even more eager for Trolling Tuna, which will usher in the year of Linux on the desktop.
Since Canonical is following (or leads) Mozilla in releasing on a quick schedule, does this also mean Canonical will be pulling this release tomorrow due to a security flaw?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
So after I get my new laptop this weekend I'll throw on 12.04, wait for the massive wave of updates to abate and then upgrade. I can handle that!
BTW, I'm running Peppermint 3.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
If you switch to Debian you hardly ever have to update. Well, I did have to update libexif this a.m. but, just saying.... ;)
Honestly, I kind of miss the old days of having to edit and recompile the kernel just to get sound, printing and, if things were going really well, a network connection. After 15 years, Debian is still a happy part of my life and will be to the end.
Everyone knows how big of an abortion Unity is, and aside from that it seems that Shuttlebuntu continually tries to find new and exciting ways to piss of what's left of their userbase. It's all about the pretty, and not about functionality, unless it's to do with gathering userdata and showing ads. I'm sure he probably said something to the effect of "Oh, cloud this cloud that....let's integrate social networks so we can spy on our users and target our ads even better to those who install our OS."
Ubuntu is taking the approach of Microsoft - all pretty crap, little functionality, selling out their users, and so much abstraction that it forces the users to be perpetually ignorant of how their computer actually works. You need SOME basic understanding with Linux, otherwise you'll end up in package dependency hell.
Instead of just following tutorial after tutorial from their wiki and OMGBuntu, why not take a break and learn more about Linux first, so you can set yourself up with a distro that works well and doesn't feel like something that's being funded by governments of the world to try and spy on the people who use linux...like Debian, Archlinux, or really anything that's not run by someone like Shuttleworth.
I downloaded and installed Cinnamon 1.6 DE for Ubuntu 12.04 a few weeks ago. I'm hooked on it. I've been reading up on Mint and it seems very appealing. That'll be my next desktop distro. I guess the next version is due out in a month.
Now that both Unity and Gnome have their own completely separate APIs for online accounts, it's time to start thinking about making life easier for application developers (instead of harder.)
Why haven't we created a single, standard shell API? Is it that so much to ask? Us app developers shouldn't have to spend extra time customizing our applications so they work under each shell.
Users shouldn't have to worry about whether or not their app's features will work with their shell. Why should they be forced to care?
No, it's time to put standard APIs in place and stick with them. Linux is supposed to be about choice for the user, not about preventing interoperability.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I vote for Stubborn Sturgeon.
You know, since they seem to be so insistent on all this UI "revolution" nonsense.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
It was always available, you just had to download the "alternative" install disk that would run the text-based debian-installer.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Honestly, I tried Ubuntu countless times, recommended it to a bunch of people, used it on some computers for a while, but they should really concentrate in getting the bugs worked out. Unfortunately, I am afraid, I will not use Ubuntu anywhere myself anymore. Don't take it wrong, I like the fact they want to put the linux desktop where it should be, but each release breaks more often that the former one, and I really don't understand why. As sad as I am to say that, each Ubuntu release looks more and more broken, in fact it even reminds me of Windows.
I will stick with Debian on my desktops/laptops, I am currently using testing/wheezy, which is way more stable than any current Ubuntu, even the LTS releases...
And yes, I know I will be flamed to give my opinion and I am repeating myself, but Ubuntu should really work out bugs instead of pushing eye candy.
I gave up with the idea of an useful sig...
Why haven't we created a single, standard shell API?
Not disagreeing with you, but... http://xkcd.com/927/
"Is that dad? Either that or Batman's really let himself go."
You know, I've been down on Unity as much as the next guy, until a wild thing happened: my 13 year old son sat down in front of it, never having used it before, and started navigating and using it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I was shocked, he didn't have any of the old UI paradigm hangups that I have, he looked at it with completely new eyes, and was immediately productive with it, using it in ways that had not been obvious to me.
After seeing this, I really had to reconsider my Unity griping. These guys really know something about usability, and while yes, there are flaws, they seem to be getting ironed out.
Drinking habits can be dangerous. You can choke on the cloth and the nuns will wonder where their clothes are.
http://xkcd.com/927/
To get rid of the annoying adware/spyware in Unity.
$ sudo apt-get remove unity-scope-musicstores unity-lens-shopping
what do real nerds run? i was running fedora but it didnt support my logitech keyboard properly.
i reinstalled ubuntu for their software center, which reminds me of coolgames.
I recently to a spin on the PPC linux road, after aquiring a free, used PPC platform from a friend.
Dropped on Ubuntu PPC. Completely unusuable with the Unity UI, because it gobbled down resources like an amphetmine junky. I am talking, unusably slow here. Like click the mouse and wait 10 seconds slow.
Boot to a root console, nuke unity, and install gnome 2. Oh, what a releif it was!
I'm sorry, but I am of the opinion that software should be be written to take as little horsepower way from user applications as is inherently possible, while retaining reliability and quality.
Unity seems to operate under the premise of "resources are abundant ad cheap, and I can squander them like mad all I want and get away with it. It's revolutionary!"
Nice, I actually like Unity when I first used it. I like my GNOME2 interface alot, but I was willing to give it a try and, I liked it...or at least things about it.
That said, I also had issues with it, that made it somewhat useless for me (I often have 2 firefox sessions going with different profiles, it had no mechanism to deal with that, as the dock icon for firefox could only track one of them, and I couldn't have 2 that each tracked a seperate one... there were other issues, but I don't recall now what they were)
Anyway, I recently, in anticipation of this, installed Debian on my new desktop...with the full intention of using stable, which lasted 3 days before I upgraded to wheezy to get working sound on the new hardware.
Now I am using GNOME3....and while its very very similar to the Unity I used a year or so ago, but, seems to work a lot better.
The main thing I really miss now is encrypted home dirs via encfs and pam automount out of the box. I have been looking into how to convert the Debian box, but, haven't done it yet.
So have you (or anyone) tried gnome3 instead of unity on Ubuntu? Maybe I will switch back for now?
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Quantal Quetzal
...
Wasn't that the villain Daring Do fought, or something?
A PPC platofrm? You mean the one Apple threw in the garbage and who's latest operating system can't run because that would be ridiculous?
Man, I'm with you! This is the proof I've been waiting for! Mountain Lion 10.8 is shit! Clearly 10.3 and below were better. Apple has lost their ways...
Seriously. If you search for 'titanic' and don't type fast enough you may see adult content.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/18/ubuntu_12_10_review/
Or see the bug "No obvious way to restrict shopping suggestions from displaying adult products".
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-lens-shopping/+bug/1054282
I think the devs and the people responsible are underestimating the degree to which this is a major fuckup.
Real nerds run whatever the hell they feel works best for them and don't bother with trends.
As great as open source is that indeed is one of the two elephants in the room (the other being documentation*.) Bugs get completely ignored as new versions get rolled out and then later marked as "Won't Fix". Firefox fixing their memory leak "any day now" is the running joke.
The only other option is start publicizing the old (critical) bugs that the devs conveniently keep ignoring.
How about starting by listing the bugs?
* Obviously there are exceptions: FreeNAS has done a fantastic job with there 8.2 User Guide!
It was more an idle curiosity thing. And yes, ancient crapple hardware.
But you know, linux is presumably more friendly with antiques than other OSes... so, why does OSX 10.4 run waaaaaaaay better than ubuntu?
Maybe I'm a wide-eyed optimist, but I see a lot of potential in Ubuntu to bring desktop Linux to a whole new level.
Mint Maya with XFCE is out, and simply useable. 'nuff said.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I am a nerd and I like Debian stable.
I know what you're thinking. Did I forward 65,535 packets or 65,536 packets?
My GF is a happy Unity user as well (it helps that she went straight to 12.04, bypassing the buggy releases). It still doesn't work for me, but it's mainly because of the dock. It really messes up my workflow. I dislike it on the left, especially when using 4:3 monitors. The auto-hide functionality is terrible, it manages to make it both too easy to activate by mistake (like, say, when you want to hit "back" on Firefox) and too hard to activate on purpose (you sort of have to hit the area a bit too hard with your mouse). It's a shame, because I really like the dash. You can search a lot of different things, it integrates with package managers so you see not only you have, but what you can download, lenses are useful and being able to search a given program's menu items is great. Still, I can't bring myself to use that dreaded dock, so I'm using KDE.
Only on the Commodore 64 was Å the last letter of the Swedish alphabet, due to the PETSCII values assigned in the nordic ROMs.
The last letter of the Swedish alphabet is Ö, and "Å Å" is pronounced "Ångström Ångström".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m
But you know, linux is presumably more friendly with antiques than other OSes... so, why does OSX 10.4 run waaaaaaaay better than ubuntu?
Because, hilariously, the Ubuntu interface has more fancy gimmickry in it. Also, the OSX driver for whatever video was in there was probably better than the OSS driver is.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This tweaked my interest with the mention of no more Unity 2D? I used to have an old version of Ubuntu on my desktop (10.04) then after several upgrades to 12.04 that eventually screwed up the kernel along with startup/shutdown issues I had to switch to Unity 2D for some sanity. Replacing it now with some kind of software rasterizer seems to me like such a kludge fix in my mind designed to piss off pepole even more and force them to switch to an alternative even quicker.
At any rate I've been using Linux Mint 13 KDE tweaked on my desktop and love it and have Kubuntu 12.04 on my girlfriends laptop and currently using Xubuntu 12.04 on this old clunker of a laptop (Dell Inspiron 1300) from 2006. Point is I love KDE and its stable on Mint (apparantly even more stable then Kubuntu) and heck even XFCE is a lot more usuable on an old laptop.
Old habits die hard when you're like me and 34 yrs old and using computers since the early 80's... Unity just offends me. :P
You must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait! - Gimpy
The auto-hide functionality is terrible, it manages to make it both too easy to activate by mistake (like, say, when you want to hit "back" on Firefox) and too hard to activate on purpose
Fact. Why are they so dead-set against config options? Just make me scroll or click or dig some other way to get to them so they don't confuse the mundanes.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm running Mint 13 with MATE. I'm happier with that than with any other recent OS release, on any platform.
Be aware though, my nerd quotient may not qualify as "real", depending on your prejudices. YMMV, etc.
WALSTIB!
I already had Randy Racoon shirts printed!
I was testing out and as soon as I saw ads popping up, I moved to Mint (after a brief and very painful visit to Fedora).
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
"Productivity" for 13 years old and for productivity for adults are different. Unity works as long you are 13 and the only thing you need is facebook.
I can't say I'm comfortable with the direction Ubuntu is heading regarding privacy, online services and "apps" and more.
The whole Amazon shopping "lens" is by far the most blatant issue. I'm sorry, no operating system (or truly, any program) should build in covert, opt-out only targeted adware/spyware/affiliate, especially without informing the user. The error is all the more egregious because it is made by an OS that is supposed to be respecting your privacy, tuned for the user's benefit, and generally operating under the ethos of Linux and the open source community. How much trouble could it have been to let the user decide for themselves which elements the search/lens system would use? Those that had any sort of affiliate/financial benefit, upon its first activation would provide a notification to the effect of "Please note that the Amazon lens appends the Ubuntu referral/affiliate ID to searches made on the website. This means when you purchase an item on Amazon that you found using the lens, Ubuntu will receive a small portion of the proceeds. Please note that we at Ubuntu do not receive any record of what item your purchased or any other personally identifiable data related to your Amazon transaction. We encourage you to leave the affiliate ID opted-in as it helps us to bring all the great software in Ubuntu to you without cost, but if you wish to opt out simply uncheck the box to your right. You may also enter another affiliate ID if you check the box below and enter the information of your preferred supporter". With this honesty, I can gather that many users would leave the affiliate ID intact. It is completely unacceptable to not provide this information.
Thanks to Canonical demonstrating their lack of ethics when it comes to the Amazon lens, I'm increasingly suspicious that the OS is not designed with user preference and privacy, but instead puts covert financial benefit ahead of everything else. For instance, I think the lenses and web-apps themselves are dangerous from a security standpoint as it seems that by incorporating both local and remote/Internet results and programs, without the discreet choice of the user to do so, it obfuscates what data resides where, especially amongst the less technical users who need the most protection. There should be clear definitions of local, offline data and remote, online data and all users should have to make the conscious choice to say "Yes, I want my desktop search or application to interact with and pull data from the Internet, and this is exactly how". I also have to wonder how much of the data prevalent in these searches is being harvested - if Canonical is willing to covertly include their Amazon affiliate in the default desktop search of their OS, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't just as covertly take any information that their WebApps/OnlineServices/Lenses etc... and make it available for sale.
Users of a Linux OS, much less the vanguard desktop Linux OS which acts as the face of Linux to many newcomers, shouldn't have to worry their OS is being designed to undermine user experience, preference, and privacy for profit. It damages the entire Linux and open source community, which have brought many users to their distributions by saying "Hey, we're not like those guys. We put user experience and ethics before profit. Look, its all Free and Open etc...". While it isn't exactly fair to the entire Linux and FOSS community, Canonical's actions will bring down judgements of hypocrisy and be an easy sticking point for critics and competitors. I know many will say "Just apt-get remove XXXYJASDJFDFDSD if you don't like it" or "Switch to another distro", but realize that especially for those who are new to Linux/FOSS, they aren't going to stick around for that if they have a bad experience - they'll just leave.
Linux and FOSS have made some huge gains in the past few years, especially on the desktop. Look at all the new development and interest brought simply by the announcement that Steam will be coming to Linux.
OSX does have one big advantage. It's written for a very limited range of hardware, which allows for far more extensive testing and optimisation. It's also high-volume enough to get the full support of the hardware manufacturers. If PCs only came in fifteen different models, you can be sure linux would run just as perfectly on them all.
Try MintPPC http://www.mintppc.org/ - it works well even on the old G350 iMacs. It's essentially Mint Debian with LXDE.
Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Real nerds made their own Sun Type 5 keyboard (with real keybeep yeah!) interface,
from the print design in Eagle to the print manufacture to the programming of the
controller chip to the working gadget, and have it hooked up to a Linux Mint box.
No. Ubuntu is now so slow and resource hungry that skipping a letter just won't be possible.
As great as open source is that indeed is one of the two elephants in the room (the other being documentation*.) Bugs get completely ignored as new versions get rolled out and then later marked as "Won't Fix". Firefox fixing their memory leak "any day now" is the running joke.
It's no different from commercial version in that respect; only commercial software vendors won't communicate that they're not going to fix it or that its a bug at all to start with, and you have no visibility to their bug databases.
And, FYI, many security vulnerabilities present in Win7 have been reported or related to reported bugs in Windows going back over 15 years.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
I may be much more experimental on my own but I acknowledge that a trend is farther reaching than the confines of nerd-dom so I personally use Ubuntu with hopes that it will be a useful shared experience with my less nerdy friends, family, wife...
That is indeed true -- the differences is that companies (tend) to go out of business if they don't value their product, i.e. fix bugs.
Maybe the point is open is just as bad as closed but open has one small advantage: transparency.
In the end, that is what will eventually win out.
That, and sharing of software / algorithms.
Thanks, but no thanks.. More than happy to stick with 12.04LTS till after 14.04LTS is released.. Been on that schedule since going from 6.06 to 8.04.. I usually wait till at least the .1 update on each LTS before I migrate to it, as I have better things to do then upgrade every damn six months... When Canonical announced that Unity was going to be the default WM in 12.04, and after I tried it out for a couple of weeks and damned near tore my hair out by the roots, I began looking for a replacement for my soon-to-be-EX-favorite distro.. Fortuantly I found Cinnamon, and with it installed on Ubuntu 12.04, it makes Ubuntu usable again, and its again my favorite distro.. Sure hope the Unity fiasco is a one-time burst of insanity and not a precursor of more insanity at Canonical/Ubuntu...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
WebApps — treats online services as if they are desktop apps (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook)
Do. Not. Want.
Well maybe you don't. But millions of people use gmail, and some of them use ubungu. I know several people who have made the jump of forwarding all of their email accounts to gmail and using that exclusively as a mail client, because honestly it is a better client than the desktop alternatives (thunderbird/evolution/kmail). Making gmail a full-fledged citizen on ubuntu means it can behave just like a desktop app, with a gmail icon in the launcher, notifications arriving together with those from other applications in the system, etc. I for one am looking forward to this feature.
Dash Preview — right click any icon, get a detailed preview of what it is
Why? Should this not be the job of the file manager? Doesn't it already do this?
Well, maybe you're not searching through your file system. Maybe you search for an application to install, and can see a screenshot before clicking. Maybe you are searching for a song in your music collection, you get a preview of the album art, and a button to enqueue it or start playing it. And so on, with many third-party extensions likely to be coming. Is this useless eye-candy? maybe, but it is a lot more than the file previews in your file system browser, and I bet that after a bit of experimenting and tweaking some cool stuff will come out of this.
For the record, I use it too now and while I did need some adaption time, it's just fine for daily usage. The versions prior to 12.04 were horrible though.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Now try to open a second one.
ctrl + alt + t
ctrl + alt + t
ctrl + alt + t
ctrl + alt + t
now I have 4 terminals open, how many do you want?
I like the Debian concept very much, but I do not like that the Debian toolchain is configured with absolutely no hardening. If you run a webserver from the Debian repository and a zero day attack is launched against it, the attack will be 100% successful, because no hardening mechanisms like stack smashing protection, position independent executables etc. is configured. If you use a web browser from your Debian installation and visits a webpage that contains an exploit against the browser, or any other component used by the browser, then your machine will 100% be owned. I know that the libtiff4 library has been vulnerable to an exploit for months, so if your Debian browser hit a malformed tiff image that contains the exploit, then nothing will stop it from executing. The Ubuntu toolchain has been configured with a lot of hardening so it is much harder to successful exploit security holes in packages on Ubuntu. The hardening may be the reason why Ubuntu seems to be less stable than Debian, because it can interfere with the software.
Now to the good news. The problem with the Debian toolchain should be solved with the next stable release (Wheezy), packages will then be compiled with hardening mechanisms. Then I can finally deploy Debian everywhere.
Everyone knows how big of an abortion Unity is, and aside from that it seems that Shuttlebuntu continually tries to find new and exciting ways to piss of what's left of their userbase. It's all about the pretty, and not about functionality, unless it's to do with gathering userdata and showing ads.
Actually, many of us that actually like to get work done like Unity. I'm sorry if you're too stuck in your ways.. I like hitting my super key, starting to type "fire" and then hit enter to have it load firefox. To me, it much faster than taking my hand off my keyboard, using the mouse to go to some point on the screen, and click through menu's. (that is sooo windows 95!!) I also like that it only took a few times to realize when I type Calc I prefer Calculator instead of OpenOffice Calc.
I also like the side tabs, which are much more functional than along the bottom like the old gnome, especially since everything is widescreen now, and vertical space is precious.
You are welcome to use crunchbang (to be fair, I like Crunchbang too), Lubuntu, Xubuntu, KUbuntu, Fedora, Slackware, etc.. if you prefer.. but making a giant generalization about how EVERYONE KNOWS its bad is just plain wrong. For those that have taken the time to learn it, it can actually improve your workflow.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
That is indeed true -- the differences is that companies (tend) to go out of business if they don't value their product, i.e. fix bugs.
Maybe the point is open is just as bad as closed but open has one small advantage: transparency.
In the end, that is what will eventually win out.
That, and sharing of software / algorithms.
Agreed. With Open you have the ability to get your bugs fixed in spite of the company going out of business. Of course, if you don't fix enough relevant bugs, then you will lose your customers (users) too, or someone will fork it and fix them for you.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
There is actually a sensitivity setting under Appearance --> Behavior, but the highest sensitivity isn't as sensitive as it could be and the algorithm they use seems a bit flaky and inconsistent in general.
The thing about Canonical is that they seem to have some understanding and sense of direction when it comes to details. I'm pleased to see that they've made the workspace switcher button movable in 12.10. That means that you could put it high enough up on the launcher that it doesn't hide. They've also made it so that you zoom down to a workspace by single clicking instead of double clicking. These two changes mean that workspace switching with the mouse could be done reflexively, which means that users could learn to do it as part of their workflow. I'm also very pleased to see close window buttons on the windows in the window spread. I only wish the windows in the spread would stay where they are and not rearrange when you close one of them, because that makes it difficult to close many windows at a time (and it's kind of chafing on the eyes too).
Maybe they'll work on the launcher auto hide functionality for 13.04. It seems like an important thing if you use it. I feel I can afford to dedicate 32 pixels on the side of my 16:9 display to having my apps visible at a glance.
Usually I don't complain about /. because it and its users are still rather amazing overall. But every time there is an Ubuntu story you people are just being idiots mostly, and this particular story is the worst. It's like my grandpa complaining about progress in general whenever something remotely new happens. Nerds came up with progress in computing, and now you want it to stop in 2005? Well not going to happen. The genie is out of the bottle, you released it and forced everyone to deal with it whether they like it or not. Only fair that you have to as well. If you don't like Ubuntu, don't use it and stop whining. Sheesh.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Yes, it's actually quite good for netbooks. My desktop monitor can rotate to work in "document mode", though, which is incredibly handy but would make the vertical dock incredibly funny.
I'm a couple score past 13 and use and learned to like the bomb, err, Unity just fine (admittedly didn't at first). I use it on decent hardware (latest 15" Samsung 9 with upgraded memory and SSD) and it's smooth and productive.
Real nerds run whatever the hell they feel works best for them and don't bother with trends.
I tried that, but carrying a purse... had consequences.
Your 13 year old was not "productive" with anything - he was just looking for your porn stash.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome 3 classic. I'm happier with thWHEEEE COMPIZ CUBE! WHOOOOOSH! FWOSH! SWHOOM! WHEEEEEEE! scale SCALE scale SCALE spin spin spin spin...
That is indeed true -- the differences is that companies (tend) to go out of business if they don't value their product, i.e. fix bugs.
Meh, there's plenty of proprietary software out there that is buggy but they stay in business because they deliver what most of the users want most of the time. Open source has a tendency to throw out the old and in with the new despite nobody actually asking for it, because it's supposedly in some way better - often supported by use cases written by their proponents that cherry pick the advantages and ignore the drawbacks. It's like saying DVORAK is superior to QWERTY, so let's just drop QWERTY support. You know what? I don't care, I got 25 years of muscle memory of QWERTY and it works more than good enough, if you start fucking with that you're only introducing pain. Maybe I'm just an old fart but my Win7 desktop (and before that KDE desktop) looks very similar to the Win95 desktop I had 17 years ago. And I like it that way.
It's great that you introduce new things, but for the most part there's no reason to remove things that work but far too often it's the victim of rewrite mania where you only implement the new way and the old way well you shouldn't be using that anyway so get with the program. Despite all the wailing over Microsoft's ribbon many open source apps decide to throw me a curve ball like that too and while in theory you can get around it there's usually a lot of pain involved in not using the mainline version that's actively developed and supported or switching distros that all tend to have their own quirks. It's something of a 90/10 rule, at least 90% of the time I just want something that works well in a way I know, the last 10% I can experiment with - but preferably not feel experimented on. I don't want to be a forced guinea pig for your (probably bad) idea.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
12.04 here with LXDE/Openbox and KDE/Gnome installed for the apps. It just works.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
look kids! unprocessed LinuxMint innards!
What I have mild concerns about is the use of the 3.5 branch of the Linux Kernel. This branch is already flagged as 'EOL', so I can't see any updates past 3.5.7. I'm not aware of any Ubuntu version upgrading a major kernel branch between releases (although I may be wrong). Is this an issue?
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - Blake
With every release, part of me wants to stick with what I have. It is all set up and customized to my liking. The other part wants the new features available in the latest version. But since upgrades still commonly don't work well, I have to to start all over with a fresh install.
I would be happier with every 12-18 months or maybe even 2 years. Maybe I should try Mint Debian...
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
last I saw on the mailing list, you had to compile from the git head to get functional code. What ver is in the repo?
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
> Still time to rename their next release to Roaring Ringwraith, though.
Yeah, but, what is the name of the release *AFTER* "Zippy Zebra"? Does Ubuntu shut down after that?
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
Hatred has nothing to do with it and your misuse of the term is dishonest. It's actually called personal preference.
because honestly it is a better client than the desktop alternatives (thunderbird/evolution/kmail)
Honestly, gmain is a worse email client because it is polluted with a lot of advertising which significantly devalues the overall experience. Not to mention all the data mining they're not paying full value for. And the fact that, just like every other advertising venue ever devised, the advertising will keep increasing until the net value to the consumer of the venue+advertising is just marginally above zero.
No nonsense about "targetted advertising". That's one of the advertising industries big lies. "Targetting" just means that two ad's in a thousand are relevant rather than one ad in a thousand. The practical difference from the point of view of the target is nil.
As great as open source is that indeed is one of the two elephants in the room (the other being documentation*.) Bugs get completely ignored as new versions get rolled out and then later marked as "Won't Fix". Firefox fixing their memory leak "any day now" is the running joke.
It's an old one, though. I think there was a benchmark a while back that showed that Firefox (14? 15?) was actually the most efficient browser for certain usage scenarios (namely a very large number of tabs open simultaneously). Mind you, it's still by no means lightweight but its memory usage does stabilize after a while and Chrome wouldn't be much better for extremely heavy use.
And yes, I do easily reach 100-200 simultaneously open tabs.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
I've used GNOME3 on Ubuntu for a few releases now, you just need install the gnome-shell package, and I much prefer it to Unity.
I did hit a user switching issue with 12.10, but that has been resolved by swapping lightdm to gdm, and it might just have been something with my setup. I haven't tried the new Ubuntu GNOME version yet.
Otherwise, efficient technical support is impossible. Techs must have confidence guiding people through all aspects of the GUI.
I am tried of Unity, which all but killed Ubuntu.
I am tired of hearing Unity as described as "controversial." Nuclear war is controversial; Unity is just bad.
I grow weary of being told that removing useful features, such as a dual-pane mode in Nautilus file manager makes it somehow cleaner.
I am tired of form over function. Gnome 3 looks great, but the command bar should be persistent, and not hot cornered.
I am tired of being told I should spend money storage that I should have locally. I use big files, and unless someone fronts me a T1, I am not going to be doing my graphic stuff and video editing in the cloud.
I am tired of people joining open source projects, just to build interface into them, or monkey-wrench them.
rant{ /current/ Tegras being 1/10 as fast as a desktop chip,
With Apple gaining market share, threatening the open hardware market it feeds from,
With Android not having the capability to use heavy-hitter applications,
With Nvidia's
With AMD doing badly,
With Intel laughing in their sleep and selling 10 month-old processors for only $10 less,
With the near demise and total whoring of Ubuntu,
With Mint still not being strong enough,
With Nvidia crippling the GTX kepler gpu's just when GPU computing just when it was catching on,
With marketing people totally overrunning the computer industry, telling everyone what we need,
We need change.
}
I still don't see the pure Gnome version of Ubuntu yet. If they don't do it well, perhaps Ubuntu should die off, and all Linux desktop users should all switch to Mint.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
I'll stick with Lubuntu, less is more ...
AccountKiller
Pretty much the average ubuntu user. See how they integrate research on amazon by default. That's a interesting experiment, but I am doubtful people will want to buy on every research, and the more category you display, the less precise your result is ( since there is more result ), but the less result you display, the less people will buy something giving you money, so there is a obvious issue there ).
In the mean time, most people who want to contribute something to free software go to more hardcaore distribution such as debian, arch, or use alternative such as fedora, opensuse, etc. Ubuntu is seen as a gateway to free software, the one you try but that people only keep because they do not have the skill to use something else.
So we cannot blame Canonical from understanding this fact, and aiming at the current users of the distribution. In fact, they are doing what they said in the bug number 1, trying to move the monopoly of Microsoft, and for that, you have to cater to users not interested by the technical details, or by contributing back ( contributing with work, not small amount of money, because this would just be like buying with all the difference you may have ).
On the other hand, RHEL provided hardening since a long time :
http://www.awe.com/mark/blog/200701041544.html
That's also a policy in Fedora ( https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#PIE ). I guess for Debian, the issue was just to have someone do the job, and that likely mean "make sure this work on all platform", which can slowdown a bit. But as you say in the end, this was deployed.
No nonsense about "targetted advertising". That's one of the advertising industries big lies. "Targetting" just means that two ad's in a thousand are relevant rather than one ad in a thousand. The practical difference from the point of view of the target is nil.
I hate the idea of targeted advertising. When I'm on the family laptop at home I don't want my gmail account displaying loads of invitations to visit further anal blonde cheerleader webcam chatrooms, and trying to explain to the wife where they got that idea from.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
/tumbleweeds
OSX 10.4 is an antique - it's coming up to 8 years old. In any case, Ubuntu probably isn't the best distro for older hardware and the PowerPC version is only community release, not 'official' Ubuntu.
I just donated $20 and am downloading. I really like how you can choose where you want your money to go.
They've taken two approaches to raising funds (donations + shopping integration), while keeping Ubuntu free in the ways most of us care about vs. RedHat, who took a more restrictive route using their trademarks. If you like Ubuntu and are OK with either of these methods of fundraising, I suggest you support them. If they have more funds to make improvements and don't lose their way (queue the Unity comments), Ubuntu could easily surpass Windows and OS X in utility and value for the average user (not just for nerds and grandmas).
I'm not saying it needs to, but how cool would it be for a Free software OS to become the new "industry standard" as Windows has been for the last 15 or so years. I think it takes a leader/company with big resources and a solid plan to make it happen. We'd still have our options as to alternate window managers, etc, but we'd finally be free of working with the black box that is Windows.
You all should bow to Canonical and thank them for Ubuntu : the fact that it exists gives you the ultimate satisfaction of not using it.
Jicehix
Thanks for the input. Actually, after I commented, last night I solved my last show-stopper with wheezy...encrypted home directories. Turns out I mistakenly thought that Ubuntu used encfs and I was looking to set that up.... I never realised that the ecryptfs package existed.... turns out to have been quite easy.
So it looks like, for now anyway, I will be back on Mother Debian for a while.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I really appreciate Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin, and have it running very well on a number of machines...actually most of the machines that my family uses on a daily basis. I think that Linux in Ubuntu has finally become a real contender as a consumer desktop OS. The setup is easy, hardware support is broad, the OS is very stable, and the bundled apps cover most average consumer use cases 'out of the box'.
But Ubuntu has image issue that it seems people are unwilling to acknowledge. If it is their intention to be a widely used desktop OS, then they need to simplify and clarify some things about the distribution. The version numbers (the YY.MM 'version numbers') and names (adjective animal) for the distribution do not make sense to normal people. XX.04 is to denote what appears to be Ubuntu's 'stable' release seems nonsensical. The 'LTS' release that is every second XX.04 release is also confusing. Mix in the October (XX.10) more unstable release...and it is just a bowl of confusion for the average consumer.
I think that Ubuntu needs to change this naming to have a simple name for only their 'LTS' releases, and just drop all the animal code-names...so Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin should simply have been Ubuntu 12. If it is the 'flagship', then it should have a simple and concise name.
Then name the next releases 'developer previews' or 'betas' until the next 'flagship', 'long term support' type release. Perhaps this means they may need to change the nature of 'long term support' or add enhancements to their flagships interface more quickly. But businesses and most average consumers need a simple, stable, and functional OS...which seems to be where Ubuntu is going with LTS releases. Now they need to make it easier to understand the direction they are going with versions of their product. The Fedora Linux project learned this already, though they still hold on to even worse codenames than Ubuntu does (e.g. Beefy Miracle) and haven't made their 'desktop' easy for the average consumer.
I'm not the average consumer, so it is nothing for me to change and tweak a handful of different things to make Ubuntu (or Fedora, or whatever) look and feel exactly as I would like, or add all the apps and features I want. But the average consumer doesn't want to have to change a bunch of settings, and then run some command lines manually, and then install a bunch of extra stuff just to use Ubuntu (or Linux in general). But average people shouldn't need to think about any of this, which is a huge reason why Mac OS X and (increasingly so) Windows are more often the choices of average consumers.
I guess my point is that Ubuntu, and Linux in general, as well as other open-source applications, need to be named more clearly and simply...and easier to install and use....or even easier to choose in the first place....for the average consumer. I want more than just Ubuntu enthusiasts to choose and use Ubuntu, and Ubuntu needs to acknowledge that it isn't just about development, but also about the way the product is marketed and perceived.
Obviously I'm not tackling the complexity or effort required to make some of these changes, which I acknowledge as being pretty huge ones. Just entertaining one
possible course of action to address specific issues.
I had almost the exact same thing happen. The family workstation that the kids use for homework went 'T-U' via HD failure. Replaced HD and threw down 12.04. Just released it back to the kids with user accounts setup, everything brought up to date...that was it. They started using it (12, 9 and 9) and had ZERO problems with it. May as well have been using it for years. The only real comment was the lack of MS Orifice...err, Office. So, they are all now running Thinkpads of their own, each with 12.04 loaded and have zero issues. To each his or her own I guess.
Hatred has nothing to do with it and your misuse of the term is dishonest. It's actually called personal preference.
Fair enough. That was a response to the "lamest name ever" thread topic.
because honestly it is a better client than the desktop alternatives (thunderbird/evolution/kmail)
Honestly, gmain is a worse email client because it is polluted with a lot of advertising which significantly devalues the overall experience.
Keep forgetting about ads... ever heard of ad block pro?
Not to mention all the data mining they're not paying full value for.
That is a real and valid concern. But for everyone who has a gmail account, using the gmail web app or an imap client changes nothing in terms of privacy.