Ubuntu, Kubuntu 13.10 Unleashed

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Ubuntu, Kubuntu 13.10 Unleashed

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 17, 2013 @02:45AM from the when-it-rains-it-pours dept.

llebeel writes "Canonical announced its free Ubuntu 13.10 Linux operating system (OS) release, on the same day as Microsoft's remedial Windows 8.1 service pack update. We speak to Canonical founder and Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth who tells us what to expect." Adds reader jrepin: "Kubuntu Linux 13.10 has just been released and is available for download. It comes with KDE Software Compilation 4.11, a new application for discovering and installing software, a simpler way to manage your system users. and a new Network Manager applet gives a simpler UI for connecting to a range of network types. You can now setup Wifi networking from the installer making it easier to install updates and extra packages during the install." ZDNet has a fairly tepid review of the incremental rather than startling improvements of the new release, and notes "Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, due for release on 17 April next year, will now perhaps come as even more of a shock if its promised big changes are fully realised."

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Proper ZDNet Link by mike.rimov · 2013-10-17 02:58 · Score: 4, Informative

ZDNet link was bad. Proper one is Here
Ubuntu good for linux? by EmperorOfCanada · 2013-10-17 03:04 · Score: 5, Interesting

I think in the early days Ubuntu was very good for linux. It showed that you could have a linux install that was fairly user friendly. Then it got better and better. But then suddenly it seemed to become Mark Shuttleworth's Ubuntu. Now it seemed to be a Red Hat envying I want to become a tech billionaire Ubuntu. Next it was an iPhone envying I want to be Steve Jobs Ubuntu. The key symptom of this being that it was both trying to appease the Linux crowd all the while annoying them to death all the while making sure their PR department was working overtime.

Then along came the Linux Mints, they saw what Ubuntu had been and focused on that. As someone who is asked by many people "What kind of computer should I get?" I will only be advising Linux mint for those people where Linux is a good fit; that is those people who surf the web, send gmails, watch YouTube, and type the occasional document.

The worst part of this for Ubuntu is that with all the hype hype hype they could make Ubuntu pretty awesome and I still wouldn't believe it and ever go back.
1. Re:Ubuntu good for linux? by Maskull · 2013-10-17 03:29 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  These days, I prefer to think of Ubuntu as being akin to Mac OS X or Android: it's an operating system which is built on a Unix core, but it doesn't want to be a "Unix OS". So you shouldn't expect it to act like a normal Linux distribution, because it's intentionally trying to hide all the things you expect to be there. Personally, that's not what I want.
2. Re:Ubuntu good for linux? by umafuckit · 2013-10-17 03:53 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I think in the early days Ubuntu was very good for linux. It showed that you could have a linux install that was fairly user friendly.
  
  Other distros, like SuSE, had achieved this before Ubuntu was released.
  
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3. Re:Ubuntu good for linux? by div_2n · 2013-10-17 04:39 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  It's not rocket science. Rightly or wrongly Canonical has decided that the future of general computing is in the mobile space and they are working on getting Ubuntu there and bridging the gap between the mobile computing experience and the desktop computing experience.
  In simplest of terms, they're trying to make a distro that can be both a phone and a desktop all in the same device. Again -- rightly or wrongly -- they have decided that they needed to move certain things in house to best accomplish that goal (Mir) and needed a specific interface they were in control of to scale between display form factors (Unity).
  If you are a person that thinks this direction is wrong and will hurt Linux in the long run, then you belong in the "bad for Linux" category. I'm a person that thinks this is absolutely the best way for Linux to finally have its "year of the desktop" similar to how Apple made their comeback but with a twist -- by providing a compelling mobile experience with a device that just so happens to be able to double as someone's desktop when they want a bigger screen.
  Pay attention to plunging desktop sales numbers. As people find ways to make mobile devices and tablets their only computing devices, this strategy will start to look smarter and smarter. Whatever else you think of Canonical (and by extension Ubuntu), this will either make them or break them.
Re:Also: Xubuntu 3.10 by binarylarry · 2013-10-17 03:07 · Score: 4, Funny

Xubuntu 3.10 now has support for virtual memory!
Awesome! Maybe my new 56k modem will have a working driver!

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Re:Holy Coincidence Batman by SJHillman · 2013-10-17 03:09 · Score: 4, Funny

That's a good one, now how about a crazy theory about why the moon landing and the last public Beatles performance were in the same year?
Re:Biggest problem with Ubuntu: Upgrades by DeathToBill · 2013-10-17 03:17 · Score: 3, Informative

I agree. I don't get all the Unity hate here. It's a GUI that lets me do most things without moving my hands from the keyboard. What's not to like?

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Re:Left out an important one by binarylarry · 2013-10-17 03:18 · Score: 4, Informative

GNOME is the only DE more fucked up than Unity.

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Re:Biggest problem with Ubuntu: Upgrades by fph+il+quozientatore · 2013-10-17 03:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

People like what they're used to, even if it's not necessarily the best thing.
That's why it takes an awful lot of work to convince someone to switch from Windows to Linux, especially when they are at a point in which regedit-hacking is "natural" and "easy" to them.
That's why neither Emacs nor Vi have adopted standard rest-of-the-world shortcuts such as ctrl+c, ctrl+v, after they've been around for, like, 30 years?
That's why you can't remove an option or change something in a software without disrupting someone's workflow (I'm too lazy to look up the relevant xkcd).
My answer is: forget about these old get-off-my-lawn users grumbling and go on, especially if what you are doing makes sense from a usability point of view. Focus on making things easy for new users instead.
(I guess I can kiss my karma goodbye - I have probably offended every possible category of Slashdot users here.)

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Re:ZDNet Article by Stewie241 · 2013-10-17 04:00 · Score: 3, Insightful

Yeah, but think of all the page views they get by simply taking a bunch of screen shots and writing two sentences for each screen shots. Gone are the days when you have to write 15 full paragraphs to get a five page article. Now all you have to do is take a few screen shots and make up inane sentences to go with them.
What's more, is that they don't even manage to ruin the surprise of what the experience is actually like.
Re:Biggest problem with Ubuntu: Upgrades by Mathieu+Lu · 2013-10-17 04:26 · Score: 4, Informative

oblig xkcd: http://xkcd.org/1172/ ;)
Re:"promised big changes" by 0123456 · 2013-10-17 05:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

linux 'fragmentation' is a real problem.
as soon as some distro gets their gui for mgmt working, they change it and start all over again ;(
Windows fragmentation is a real problem. As soon as we get used to the latest version of their GUI, they change it and start all over again.