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Ubuntu 15.10 'Wily Werewolf' Released (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Posted by Soulskill on from the onward-and-upward dept.

LichtSpektren writes: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" is now released and available, along with its alternative desktop flavors (MATE, Xfce, LXDE, GNOME, KDE, Kylin). This release features Linux 4.2, GCC 5, Python 3.5, and LibreOffice 5. The default version is still using X.org display server and Unity7; Mark Shuttleworth has said that Mir and Unity8 won't arrive until Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus." Not much has changed beyond package updates, other than replacing the invisible overlay scrollbars in Nautilus with the GNOME 3 scrollbars.

Phoronix brings us the only bit of drama regarding this release: Jonathan Riddell, long time overseer of Kubuntu, has resigned with claims that Canonical has "defrauded donors and broke the copyright licenses." Another reader adds a link to a Q & A session with Riddell.

9 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Ugh by metrix007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I never liked Ubuntu. I cam from Slackware and it always left a horrible taste in my mouth.

    Cutting edge, poorly tested software like PulseAudio was included in a desperate attempt to keep up with windows, and easy to manage config files was replaced with junk like NetworkManager..and then Unity happened.

    How is it these days? Better? How does it compare to Mint or Fedora or Debian? How did it become the only real viable desktop distro aside from maybe Mint?

    --
    If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
    1. Re:Ugh by LichtSpektren · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Speaking as a user of Ubuntu MATE: It has the best hardware support of any distro I have ever used, it has the best selection of default software (except that obnoxious GNOME Keyring/Seahorse, which I replace with KeePass X). I have not had any problems with PulseAudio, NetworkManager, or systemd.

      Mint is about just as good honestly, so if you have some moral qualms against Canonical (e.g. because of the Amazon search plug-in), it's a perfectly viable alternative. Fedora is too crashy for me to use--that's just my experience. I like Debian a lot, but I have to fiddle with the defaults far too much for my taste (I give lots of Ubuntu MATE USBs to my friends and co-workers to try out, it's a lot more user friendly than Debian is).

    2. Re:Ugh by LichtSpektren · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't use Ubuntu because it's cool, I use it because it allows me to get my work done. I'm sure Fedora is perfect for its users, but in my experience it's less stable.

    3. Re:Ugh by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You must not have been paying attention ~10 years ago. Ubuntu rose to #1 because they put an emphasis on easy installation, and achieved it at a time when all the other distros were broken in one way or another. Back then, installing Linux was always a bit of a chore; there was always something broken that you'd have to go manually fix, which of course dissuaded most casual users who weren't familiar with the Unix command line, manually installing device drivers, editing your "easy to manage config files" with vi, etc.

      Ubuntu came along and managed to make an installer that really worked, and a casual user could pop into a CD drive and install without any command-line intervention. The rest was history.

      Of course, other distros finally caught up mostly, but Ubuntu was the first one there.

      Of course, that was long before they came up with crap like Unity, the Amazon lens, etc., and this was also well before Mint came along, since Mint is itself an Ubuntu derivative.

      My advice: if you want an easy-to-install distro where you don't have to screw around with stuff, and want a sane though more traditional UI, just pick any one of the Mint flavors. I like the KDE one personally, but the others all have their fans too and seem to be good. All of them have more traditional UIs, and haven't gone for the radical new UI concepts seen in Gnome3, Unity, Windows8+, etc. The whole reason Mint is so popular now is because of Unity; before that, Mint was a tiny derivative of Ubuntu, but then Unity and Gnome3 both came out and pissed everyone off, and Mint launched two projects that were Gnome2 derivatives, and tons of users switched from Ubuntu to Mint in response.

    4. Re:Ugh by LichtSpektren · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Mint is superior to Ubuntu in many ways. The only reason I prefer Ubuntu MATE to Mint MATE is because of the automatic security updates and backup tools, which are more convenient for when I install Linux on my co-workers' or friends' computers.

    5. Re:Ugh by reiscw · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I run Ubuntu on a desktop and four laptops (two ThinkPads, an Inspiron, and an older HP G60). I upgraded them all yesterday to 15.10. It has gotten a lot more stable lately (15.04/15.10). It used to be that when I ran it (back it the 13.04 / 13.10 / 14.10 non-LTS releases) that you'd get a lot of random crashes ("your system has encountered a problem"). With the 4.2 kernel and the bug fixes they've been putting into Unity it works pretty well. I'm not a full-time developer (a math / cs teacher), but I like Unity. I like being able to do super+F to search files, super+A to search applications. It is a very keyboard friendly interface (at least to me it is).
       
      The other thing that makes it better (again, to me) than Gnome 3.14/3.16/3.18 is that it also utilizes space better (no annoying title bars, and integrating application menus into the top panel is also nice). I used to run Debian (stable) for stability but now that Ubuntu is getting more and more stable (and frankly, more stable in my opinion than Cinnamon on Mint) I've moved pretty much full time to Ubuntu.

  2. Ubuntu with tweaks by iTrawl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Installing cairo-dock, and, optionally, running xfwm4 as the WM, makes Ubuntu actually very usable in my case. Greased lightning usable. And cairo-dock even has some bling thrown in! It put it to the left and made it autohide, so it kind of looks like Unity when in use.

    I like Unity's menu-in-titlebar feature. I lose that with cairo-dock, but that's compensated by not having a gnome-style top bar - well... you do, but it goes under the applications and comes up when you hover the clock (which overlays a small part of the titlebar (when application is maximised) that is otherwise useless anyway).

    The root of my preferences lies in this need: as much space for _my_ application and as little as possible for the OS, but easily accessible when I need its functions, without running any occult desktop environments :)

    --
    "Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
  3. Re:Scamonical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They aren't. Riddell has had a bug up is his ass since Canonical made Kubuntu an entirely community supported distribution and laid him off as the sole employee who worked on it. Ever since then, he whines like a spoiled brat about Canonical every time he doesn't get his way about some trivial shit. One example of his childish behavior was the crying about Canonical not rubberstamping an expense for some pizza for some hackathon event for Kubuntu. He wanted blank check approval for the expense before the event, and Canonical told him to submit a expense request afterwards and they'll pay it then. Of course, since he works for another company he could easily asked them to provide the funds for his little pizza soiree and then be compensated by Canonical later, but instead he chose to yell and abuse the Ubuntu Community Council because he still hasn't got over his butthurt at being let go. Kubuntu is going to be just fine. In fact, it'll be better off without that fucker.

  4. Better HW support in Linux: desktop or laptop? by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I actually ditched Windows completely due to better hardware support on Linux

    For desktops or laptops? GNU/Linux seems to support desktop hardware fine, but lately, Windows supports small (10.1" or 11.6") laptop hardware better. I've been having trouble finding an 11.6 inch or smaller laptop that works well with GNU/Linux.*

    The amount of fiddling on Ubuntu is minimal, but still there (still had to download graphics-drivers manually to get it to work), however, is nothing compared to all the fiddling I'd have to do on Windows and still not be happy / in control.

    On a few laptops such as the EeeBook, volunteers for the DebianOn project couldn't get sound, Wi-Fi, or suspend working at all. Should I instead ask on Ubuntu Forums for what small laptops sold now work well with Xubuntu 15.xx?

    * By "works well", I include at least graphics, multi-window window management, audio, Wi-Fi, suspend, and a bootloader that doesn't beg the user to wipe the drive every time it is turned on the way a Chromebook with Crouton does.