Slashdot is heavily focused on Linux, and Ubuntu is the #1 Linux distribution.
Even if it's not the distro that a Slashdotter may personally use, it's likely the distribution that that Slashdotter has put their friends or family on.
Complaining about Ubuntu coverage on Slashdot is like complaining about MS Office coverage on a Microsoft MVP site.
Yeah, I don't quite understand why, if they have a VLC maintainer, they don't actually take a bit of time to actually make it work for Ubuntu. I think VLC's probably the most-used media player out there.
VLC has a shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+(left/right) which is used to move forward/backward 5min. But Ctrl+Alt+(left/right) is defined as "change virtual desktop" in Ubuntu. So why don't they set the shortcuts for "Long backwards jump" and "Long forward jump" to something else for the Ubuntu VLC package?
Secondly, most of the time when you open up VLC, you can't access the menu through the keyboard (Alt+key). You have to use the mouse.
The user switcher thing was nice, so simple even a child (pre-schooler) could use it. Just click on it, it lists the available users in a dropdown list, select who you want to be. Very handy for family multi-person computer use cases.
There's a "User Switcher" applet available that you can put on the top panel, but it's not the same. You have to click on it, then on Quit in the dropdown, and then on Switch User in the dialog, and then (finally!) select the user to switch to.
As far as OpenJDK, it's not bad. It runs Netbeans (Java IDE) without a problem (i.e., the same as it works with Sun JDK) YMMV.
By the way, has anyone been able to get antialias text to work with Netbeans on Ubuntu (with either OpenJDK or Sun)?
The "gun" forcing users to upgrade is to be able to upgrade their applications.
I think few Ubuntu users really care for stuff like the Ubuntu Update notifier being moved from the taskbar to a separate program or other little tweaks like that.
I guess the Mac-wannabe syndrome of Ubuntu is extending into copying Steve Job's reality distortion field.
While Ubuntu with Gnome 2.x running with the compositing window manager compiz takes negligible CPU time, Gnome Shell running with the integrated mutter compositing window manager takes 50% CPU doing nothing!
I think one of the reasons people are concerned is that it's not just "leftists" (long hair, tie-died, peace necklace) that are getting bashed.
It's "normal" people just sitting in their minivans getting beaten up.
You don't carry around your political affiliation on your shirt collar, so cops are just as likely to beat up conservatives as leftists, which is why more and more people are freaking out about police power and abuse of it.
Sorry, I can't see what you're saying. He just explained that Windows has the same behavior. Ctrl+C doesn't work for copy in either Gnome Terminal or the Windows Command Prompt because people expect it to mean "cancel current command".
All other Gnome programs use Ctrl+C and P. And Shift+Insert (the standard CUA key shortcut for paste, also used in Windows) works in Gnome Terminal.
If you really want to change the copy/paste shortcut, you can do that (turn on "editable menu shortcuts", and press your desired shortcut while the menu item is highlighted).
OK, then, your WM buttons are moving to the left bottom corner of the window in the next release.
What's that you say? Damage?
Can't get used to it? Or, rather, is it that you don't feel that you should have to arbitrarily moving stuff around and telling people who object that they're fuddy-duddies?
>For the amount of effort it takes - it's not hardly worth the whining I've been seeing online
The whining is because of the people behind the curtain at Ubuntu refusing to listen to the community, nay even given some kind of explanation (a half-hearted version of which wasn't even deigned to be given at the outset), and seem to think it's OK to come out with changes right before UI freeze time thereby allowing no response from the community.
That and Ubuntu was supposed to be the "normal" distro, where things are as much as possible in line with the expectations of users of most other computing systems.
In practice, LTS are just like any other 6-month release, only that Canonical promises to provide updates for longer.
There doesn't seem to be any greater level of QA for LTS releases or any sense of responsibility to not include the latest and greatest just for the sake of it or even just include arbitrary and pointless changes in an LTS (viz. moving the WM buttons to the left).
In Hardy, the last LTS, they messed up a lot of people's sound with PulseAudio without it being fully debugged.
Even though I run Ubuntu because I got tired of being p0wned by viruses on Windows, I don't dare to blithely run a distupgrade.
Instead, I have a couple of different 10-20 GB operating system partitions. One has Karmic 9.10. Another has the Lucid beta. I wouldn't overwrite a working system.
Even after a release comes out, and I've upgraded, I don't necessarily trust the daily updates to not wreck a working system.
For some reason or another, Ubuntu just doesn't seem to understand that the most important thing to most users is stability. You can't use new features if your X is messed. And you won't want to use your computer if your wireless doesn't work. Double annoying if it worked before and doesn't now.
People aren't criticizing Ubuntu because it's becoming too easy to use and bug-free without a lot of manual configuration.
They're criticizing it because Ubuntu is -Making itself deliberately harder for normal users to figure out -Preferring putting buggy beta modules into releases (even LTS!) to stability -Not giving respect and listening to the user community
They're basically doing everything that makes things harder for the newbies that people like us tell to try Ubuntu.
Yeah, it was supposed to be a "feature" that you get a notification that you have new mail, a download's complete, or whatever, but you can't click on it to open the notifying program. You have to "know" which program is the one that sent the notification, and search for it on the taskbar/window list, possibly on a different virtual desktop. Hard for newbies, and annoying for oldies.
>It's not an isolated incident. It's a pattern.
That's the main point. It's a red herring to say people are upset over a bunch of buttons. The reason they're upset is that it's one more example of not even pretending to respect the community while offering up weird, buggy, decreased functionality, all the while claiming to be so much better because some Mac re-treads say so.
1. Ubuntu: We're planning something (we don't know or we're not telling) for the right side. So we're moving the window buttons to the left to open space on the right.
2. User: The left's open right now, just use that.
3. Ubuntu: Well, we can't put the new (nebulous) stuff on the left because we're moving the window buttons to the left. And the reason we're moving the window controls on the left is because we have to put something on the right because that area is all empty because we're moving the window controls to the left.
Anyways, the real reason for the hue and cry was that the process excluded the community, and people felt that the move was a continuance of past similar blunders (PulseAudio), and presaging future ones (like the X bug): Making arbitrary decisions without the community's input leading to buggy and problematic behavior.
This. Too much emphasis is being placed on the standard "if you don't like, make your own distro" response.
There's little respect for the role the community plays. Even the last time there was a discussion about this on Slashdot, most of the posters sided with the "It's Mark's baby" line of thought.
The thing is, Mark's distro is nothing without the community of people using it.
Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot is heavily focused on Linux, and Ubuntu is the #1 Linux distribution.
Even if it's not the distro that a Slashdotter may personally use, it's likely the distribution that that Slashdotter has put their friends or family on.
Complaining about Ubuntu coverage on Slashdot is like complaining about MS Office coverage on a Microsoft MVP site.
The reason people are dissing Ubuntu is exactly because it's doing stuff which makes it hard for "morons" (i.e., normal people):
-arbitrary default placement of window controls
-regression in many bugs (video cards, etc)
-usability (user switcher, update notifier removed)
and so on.
I haven't seen a single post saying that Ubuntu is being made too easy to use.
Yeah, I don't quite understand why, if they have a VLC maintainer, they don't actually take a bit of time to actually make it work for Ubuntu. I think VLC's probably the most-used media player out there.
VLC has a shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+(left/right) which is used to move forward/backward 5min. But Ctrl+Alt+(left/right) is defined as "change virtual desktop" in Ubuntu. So why don't they set the shortcuts for "Long backwards jump" and "Long forward jump" to something else for the Ubuntu VLC package?
Secondly, most of the time when you open up VLC, you can't access the menu through the keyboard (Alt+key). You have to use the mouse.
Papercuts, death, 1000 ...
The user switcher thing was nice, so simple even a child (pre-schooler) could use it. Just click on it, it lists the available users in a dropdown list, select who you want to be. Very handy for family multi-person computer use cases.
There's a "User Switcher" applet available that you can put on the top panel, but it's not the same. You have to click on it, then on Quit in the dropdown, and then on Switch User in the dialog, and then (finally!) select the user to switch to.
As far as OpenJDK, it's not bad. It runs Netbeans (Java IDE) without a problem (i.e., the same as it works with Sun JDK) YMMV.
By the way, has anyone been able to get antialias text to work with Netbeans on Ubuntu (with either OpenJDK or Sun)?
The "gun" forcing users to upgrade is to be able to upgrade their applications.
I think few Ubuntu users really care for stuff like the Ubuntu Update notifier being moved from the taskbar to a separate program or other little tweaks like that.
Backports helps to an extent, but only so far.
Lighter, faster GNOME Shell?
I guess the Mac-wannabe syndrome of Ubuntu is extending into copying Steve Job's reality distortion field.
While Ubuntu with Gnome 2.x running with the compositing window manager compiz takes negligible CPU time, Gnome Shell running with the integrated mutter compositing window manager takes 50% CPU doing nothing!
I think one of the reasons people are concerned is that it's not just "leftists" (long hair, tie-died, peace necklace) that are getting bashed.
It's "normal" people just sitting in their minivans getting beaten up.
You don't carry around your political affiliation on your shirt collar, so cops are just as likely to beat up conservatives as leftists, which is why more and more people are freaking out about police power and abuse of it.
Sorry, I can't see what you're saying. He just explained that Windows has the same behavior. Ctrl+C doesn't work for copy in either Gnome Terminal or the Windows Command Prompt because people expect it to mean "cancel current command".
All other Gnome programs use Ctrl+C and P. And Shift+Insert (the standard CUA key shortcut for paste, also used in Windows) works in Gnome Terminal.
If you really want to change the copy/paste shortcut, you can do that (turn on "editable menu shortcuts", and press your desired shortcut while the menu item is highlighted).
>My pet peeve is that they removed the button from Nautilus that let you switch between the breadcrumb and text views for the path.
I hear you. And thus continues GNOME and Ubuntu's crusade to make people learn to use Gconf-editor.
I set /apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry
to true.
Once you do this, though, you can't switch back and forth between breadcrumb and text views because the button is gone.
OK, then, your WM buttons are moving to the left bottom corner of the window in the next release.
What's that you say? Damage?
Can't get used to it? Or, rather, is it that you don't feel that you should have to arbitrarily moving stuff around and telling people who object that they're fuddy-duddies?
That's the point.
>For the amount of effort it takes - it's not hardly worth the whining I've been seeing online
The whining is because of the people behind the curtain at Ubuntu refusing to listen to the community, nay even given some kind of explanation (a half-hearted version of which wasn't even deigned to be given at the outset), and seem to think it's OK to come out with changes right before UI freeze time thereby allowing no response from the community.
That and Ubuntu was supposed to be the "normal" distro, where things are as much as possible in line with the expectations of users of most other computing systems.
For me, it's the software upgrades. I.e., updated versions of application programs.
Yeah, there's backports, but they only go so far.
Well, that's the theory, anyway.
In practice, LTS are just like any other 6-month release, only that Canonical promises to provide updates for longer.
There doesn't seem to be any greater level of QA for LTS releases or any sense of responsibility to not include the latest and greatest just for the sake of it or even just include arbitrary and pointless changes in an LTS (viz. moving the WM buttons to the left).
In Hardy, the last LTS, they messed up a lot of people's sound with PulseAudio without it being fully debugged.
Well, for one thing you can't test two crucial often-buggy items in a VM:
1) Compositing window managers. Gnome shell runs only with compositing.
2) Grub on a real machine.
Also, you're not testing whether Ubuntu works with your hardware, but rather with the VM. Which, really, is the point of testing the new release.
This.
Even though I run Ubuntu because I got tired of being p0wned by viruses on Windows, I don't dare to blithely run a distupgrade.
Instead, I have a couple of different 10-20 GB operating system partitions. One has Karmic 9.10. Another has the Lucid beta. I wouldn't overwrite a working system.
Even after a release comes out, and I've upgraded, I don't necessarily trust the daily updates to not wreck a working system.
For some reason or another, Ubuntu just doesn't seem to understand that the most important thing to most users is stability. You can't use new features if your X is messed. And you won't want to use your computer if your wireless doesn't work. Double annoying if it worked before and doesn't now.
Would you like to share a better definition?
He means that he has completed 2 years in jail just waiting for the trial, and that he should be let off for time served now.
>"So why would they spend $5000 on it?"
Gamble. If it's a dud, they lost $5k. If it's real, they gain $50k, $500k?
"He called AppleCare, and they are not Apple employees"
Doesn't matter: they are acting as agents of Apple.
The police reporting clause refers to " the owner is unknown or has not claimed the property".
That doesn't apply here because Apple abandoned the property.
And I would use mod points if I had any.
People aren't criticizing Ubuntu because it's becoming too easy to use and bug-free without a lot of manual configuration.
They're criticizing it because Ubuntu is
-Making itself deliberately harder for normal users to figure out
-Preferring putting buggy beta modules into releases (even LTS!) to stability
-Not giving respect and listening to the user community
They're basically doing everything that makes things harder for the newbies that people like us tell to try Ubuntu.
Yeah, it was supposed to be a "feature" that you get a notification that you have new mail, a download's complete, or whatever, but you can't click on it to open the notifying program. You have to "know" which program is the one that sent the notification, and search for it on the taskbar/window list, possibly on a different virtual desktop. Hard for newbies, and annoying for oldies.
>It's not an isolated incident. It's a pattern.
That's the main point. It's a red herring to say people are upset over a bunch of buttons. The reason they're upset is that it's one more example of not even pretending to respect the community while offering up weird, buggy, decreased functionality, all the while claiming to be so much better because some Mac re-treads say so.
Erm, yeah, here's that circular thought process:
1. Ubuntu: We're planning something (we don't know or we're not telling) for the right side. So we're moving the window buttons to the left to open space on the right.
2. User: The left's open right now, just use that.
3. Ubuntu: Well, we can't put the new (nebulous) stuff on the left because we're moving the window buttons to the left. And the reason we're moving the window controls on the left is because we have to put something on the right because that area is all empty because we're moving the window controls to the left.
Anyways, the real reason for the hue and cry was that the process excluded the community, and people felt that the move was a continuance of past similar blunders (PulseAudio), and presaging future ones (like the X bug): Making arbitrary decisions without the community's input leading to buggy and problematic behavior.
This. Too much emphasis is being placed on the standard "if you don't like, make your own distro" response.
There's little respect for the role the community plays. Even the last time there was a discussion about this on Slashdot, most of the posters sided with the "It's Mark's baby" line of thought.
The thing is, Mark's distro is nothing without the community of people using it.
Here's hoping he (finally) learns that.