Ubuntu 16.10 To Be Powered By Linux Kernel 4.8 (softpedia.com)
Reader prisoninmate shares a Softpedia report: We've been monitoring the Ubuntu 16.10 development cycle for quite some time now to see what Linux kernel version the upcoming GNU/Linux operating system will be based on, and for now, it remains powered by the same kernel packages as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus). Also, it looks like Ubuntu 16.10 has been switched to a universal local DNS resolver service. However, the Ubuntu Kernel Team published the other day a new installation of their weekly newsletter, informing the community that Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) would soon be rebased on the latest stable Linux 4.6 kernels. Then, it will move to the Release Candidate builds of Linux kernel 4.7, and after that, the operating system will finally be switched to Linux kernel 4.8.
powereD, rebaseD, switcheD, publisheD, ... ? Even the development cycle of Ubuntu is taken over by systemD.
why is this news?
Be or ben't
Just told my Grandmother the great news. She can't wait to try this out!
Version 16.1 (Xenial Xerus) kernel 4.8. Non-linux people look at the wide quagmire of distros and are baffled, many interested people who would like a desktop alternative get turned off by the impenetrable complexity and holy wars of the community (systemd, whatever the hell that is, I don't give a crap, vi, emacs, etc). Then you get to Ubuntu as the one targeting non-linux folks to join up, and are confronted with this BS. Xenial Xerus? Really? You picked a revision number, why add a really stupid moniker to it?
Keep it simple stupid. But I guess the folks that like stuff to be simple and just work are not the target for linux, and are actively mocked as not worthy. The whole thing is pretty much turning into what Ham radio guys did about 20 years ago. Sad sots staring at their own navals while the world marches on.
Linux a pool of contradiction. "We have a GUI as good as Windows/OSX!" But then GUI users are mocked, and frankly the GUI is only half heartedly implemented, sort of a facade. Real work is done at the command line, and important settings are only available by knowing where esoteric files in a variety of scripting languages live that then must be modified using an editor the proudly user surly.
The parent comment were probably get modded down merely for mentioning systemd, but it does bring up an important point: GNU/Linux is no longer just GNU/Linux. As time goes on, it's becoming more and more a case of GNU/systemd/Linux.
What worries me about this situation is that we're seeing the "GNU" and the "Linux" portions shrink, with systemd subsuming more and more of their functionality on an ongoing basis.
The centralization that's now happening is really concerning to me and others. It's not in the spirit of open source software, and it's not in the spirit of the UNIX philosophy.
The GNU (and other open source) software that has traditionally made up Linux distros was developed in a far more open, collaborative way than systemd has been developed. GNU and other open source software typically supports many UNIX-like OSes, and even some not-so-UNIX-like OSes, too. But systemd supports Linux, and only Linux (which may not necessarily be a bad thing, to keep it from spreading). GNU and other open source software is typically developed in cooperation, rather than in a dictatorial fashion like we've seen with systemd, where the wider user community has little to no impact on its direction. Additionally, the GNU and other open source software is typically more isolated and modular, so individual components can easily be swapped out with alternatives, which isn't really an option when using systemd.
While some people might welcome this change, I think it will just be a huge problem in the long run. GNU/Linux has become GNU/systemd/Linux today. But soon it will become just systemd/Linux, as systemd subsumes the userland software. And if the trend continues, it will just become systemd as systemd subsumes the kernel, too. Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and the other mainstream Linux distros won't be Linux distros any longer, but rather they'll just be systemd distros.
That 4.7 was a spooge-sucking cunt who should HAVE TO SUCK THORNY DILDOS IN HELL!
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
I don't know the rest of you, but I have a somewhat complicated dns configuration here, and every ubuntu upgrade breaks my config. I wish they stop messing with dns resolvers. resolvconf is already shit, I hope this "universal local DNS resolver service" is better, if not, I will upgrade ... to something else.
I recently switched to Gentoo, and I'm probably not going back.
I got fed up with Debian and derivatives never having updated versions of packages that I needed (sometimes packages are YEARS old) and I also don't like the way systemd is being deployed (it is WAY too immature and buggy, and developers are cowboys), and plenty of other nagging issues (like pulseaudio dying for no reason at all).
With Gentoo, I have a system that is customized to my needs, while still being relatively easy to manage. The initial setup was painful, but it is more or less smooth sailing once you get networking, X and Firefox up and running (it'll just be "emerge this" and "emerge that" until you have the system you want).
In case anyone is wondering, having to compile things every time you install a package, surprisingly, doesn't take THAT much time if you have a decent-ish cpu (core i5) and memory, and set the global compile flags appropriately.
I strongly recommend trying Gentoo, if you haven't already. Try it in a virtual machine at first, and see how you like it. You might love it or hate it, but it won't be a waste of time, since there is a good chance you will learn a few things just from installing Gentoo.
The parent comment should not be modded flamebait. It obviously isn't. It makes numerous true, although painful, observations about the sorry state of Linux distros today. Instead of trying to censor that description of reality, the Linux community should take it to heart.
The fact that Linux is at maybe 1% or 2% of the desktop/laptop market, with Windows at about 85% and OS X taking the rest, completely backs up what the parent wrote. This is even after the Windows 8, and to a lesser extent Windows 10, disasters, which gave Linux a perfect opportunity to take some of Windows' market share.
Some fool will probably come along and bring up Android at this point, but the reality is that it is nothing like traditional Linux distros. Android is basically just the kernel, with what's essentially a proprietary software stack running on top of it. This backs up what the parent is saying: Linux is only successful when all of the traditional software running on top of it (the GNU tools, systemd, X, GNOME/KDE/Xfce/etc) are thrown away and replaced, and the typical user has no idea at all that the Linux kernel is even present.
I was a Linux user for many years. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s I believed it really had a chance at becoming a viable alternative to Windows. But then it's like the Linux community decided to collectively go stupid and ruin their offering with shit like systemd, GNOME 3 and Unity. Linux became unusable for me. Now I use OS X, even if it is proprietary and costs more. At least it works.
I wish Ubuntu would get with the times and drop this release crap.
Fancy name for yet another systemd warez that replaces a popular non systemd warez project. http://fullcirclemagazine.org/...
Those distros you mention are not replacements for modern, mainstream distros like Debian or Ubuntu in any way.
Slackware is ancient, and requires far too much work to get it reasonably usable. Maybe it's good if you're a hobbyist Linux user who likes to tinker on the weekend, but Slackware is just not an option for anyone who needs to get real work done quickly.
Gentoo isn't much better than Slackware. Its compilation approach isn't an option for most people, too. They don't want to wait minutes, hours or even days before they can start using software. They don't want to pay for the electricity needed to power the compilation. They don't want the extra wear-and-tear on their hardware.
CRUX is a niche distro. Niche distros aren't an option because they can be much harder to get support from when things go wrong, there's much less of a guarantee that security issues will be found and fixed promptly, and the long-term viability of these distros is very questionable. When there are only one to three people working on a distro, it's a huge risk to use it for anything serious.
Devuan is a fucking joke. I followed its early development, and the first few months were a lot of infighting. Certain factions would accuse others of being "systemd trolls" and nonsense like that. Debian, even with systemd, is still far better than Devuan is. Of the options you listed, Devuan is by far the worst.
While the shitty niche distros you mention aren't viable replacements for real Linux distros, it turns out that FreeBSD is actually an excellent replacement. It has a large user community. It has responsible and responsive developers, and frequent maintenance and releases.
We aren't seeing Linux users moving the shitty alternatives that you proposed. We're seeing them abandon Linux altogether, and moving their systems over to FreeBSD! That should scare the living hell out of the Linux community. It's losing some of its best users, administrators and developers to FreeBSD. Over the long run, this can be a disaster. These are the kinds of users that the Linux community needs to keep if it wishes to remain viable.
blah blah blah, systemd pissed in my fiber one flakes and now im constipated, waaah, gnome developers shaved their neckbeards. boohoo, my ED medication isn't effective anymore, only gay pron gets me hard now, lol losers....
Hey, my IP address is 127.0.0.1 too!
News at 11. It still uses systemd so I have no interest.
Multiply by 10 and then kernel.org can compete with likes of Chrome (v 51.0) and Mozilla (v.47.0)