Ubuntu 12.10 Now Available
ubuntu.com
ubuntu.com
Well done Canonical..well done.
Here's a nice alternative for those having problems with the site. http://releases.ubuntu.com/quantal/
That objection doesn't make any sense because those complaints are unrelated to the complaints people have about Windows 8. If you want to say that directly attacking your competition is un-classy, fine (although a better criticism might be that directly attacking your competition is known to be ineffective marketing). But to say that specific random shortcomings of Ubuntu have any bearing on the matter is silly.
1. Attacking your competition is definitely not classy.
2. The suddly introduced shortcomings of Ubuntu are being ignored and regularly hidden away under the wave of marketing from (1).
Or do I misremember that?
Windows 8 will be cheaper than previous Windows upgrades but lets not forget about the pillars of free software and why to support it.
Perhaps this is all just arguing semantics, but the idea that motives matter is important to me.
For what it's worth, that slogan seems to have been changed now: the home page now just says "Your wish is our command." Though I'm sure critics will still see plenty of irony there.
I've been running Windows 8 since the RTM went to MSDN. I adjusted to the cheese-moving pain of Windows 8 within a week.
Four months into Ubuntu with Unity I eventually adjusted to the cheese-moving pain of Unity by switching to Mint.
Ubuntu has no leg to stand on when it comes to new versions of an OS making unwanted changes to UX.
[Before anyone chimes in here, I know you can set up Ubuntu to work with other desktops than Unity, but IMO there's not really a compelling reason to stick with it when the out-of-the-box experience is inferior to another distro.]
I've noticed that a lot of the criticism comes from people who tried Windows 8 in a VM, where it's difficult to hit the corners, and people who dabbled with dual booting it or using it on secondary machines, without truly committing to learning the new interface.
But there turned out to be a simple solution: the Windows+letter shortcut keys. Start with the Windows key (literally), or use Windows+I for quick settings (power, wireless, etc.), Windows+X for power tools, or any of the other Windows+letter shortcuts.
I posted several of them here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4663376
After getting used to those keys I started to like Windows 8 after all. I'd always used the Windows key to open the Start menu on Windows 7 and earlier, there were just some new Windows+letter combinations in Windows 8. Handy stuff.
I'm not saying you should switch back to Windows 8 again, but if/when you do, just go through the whole alphabet trying every Windows+letter combination to see what they do. You won't need those four corners any more.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/evernote-web/lbfeh...
For whatever reason there's no counterpart for Firefox, just Evernote's Web Clipper addon and Readability.com clones.
There's also Springpad which has its note-taking addons for both browsers.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/springpad/?sr...
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/springpad/fkmopoam...
I've used Mint's LMDE distribution and liked the desktop in it, but the community around it doesn't seem too big, which makes me a little nervous.
I installed Ubuntu 12.04 with the intention of ripping out Unity for a tiling window manager, but gave it a day or so, and that was enough to realize that with minimal adjustment to keybindings etc., it was pretty much exactly what I wanted with the exception of the loss of spatial file browsing which still annoys me,but then again I rarely use use the gui for finding files so it's something I can live with.
Sorry, that slogan is a bit much given how bad the recent Ubuntu releases have been.
Unity had a few bugs which seems to be fixed in this release but nothing annoying enough for me to switch.
Ironically, I also ran two screens on an ATI card which I bought to support their open source efforts. The nVidia was much better!
http://brainacle.com/multiseating-with-kde-and-xbmc-like-a-b...
If you think Windows 8 is going to be a pain, I don't recommend moving to Ubuntu. BTW, I really like Ubuntu. I don't like that sales pitch though.
You don't have to use Unity. I see Unity as a potential innovation driver but something I probably won't use for a long time. You will have to switch to an unfamiliar UI, but you get to decide which one it will be. And if you use Gnome or KDE, you will have a ton of control to make the UI bend to your will (assuming you don't mind banging your head against it for a few hours to get it configured just right).
Changing the default is the only way you can get rapid improvement in a market. Making it easy to switch back satisfies those who are significantly upset with the change. It is the best compromise I have seen between progress and supporting legacy users.
Also, unity only changed the desktop. The apps you run were the same. Metro has a different UI paradigm for the apps themselves.
OSX is the most user-friendly of the 3. However with Ubuntu you get freedom in all senses of the word. People complain that Ubuntu has hardware issues, yet they never tried building a Hackintosh, not to mention that you're not allowed to do it anyway. Of course you have more problems on Ubuntu with hardware, but there is hardware supported out of the box and for the others for any issue you may have at least you'll find a solution.
For me Ubuntu represents freedom. Freedom to fix issues with it, freedom from a gatekeeper, freedom to own it entirely in every possible way. I see that few people, few devs actually, place emphasis on the ability to own something. And then they get pissed off when the gatekeeper changes the rules. Well, you make your bed, you sleep in it and so on.
Now, some quick searches reveal that if you don't have a backup, it is still just a matter of forcibly install dpkg, debconf, apt and apt-utils with appropriate switches to prevent the dependency resolution from complaining, copying the dpkg.status backups that are automatically copied to /var/backups/ to /var/lib/dpkg, and then force a "reinstall" of all the packages that are listed as installed to get the rest of the data (.info files etc. back).
If you somehow managed to wipe out both /var/lib/dpkg and /var/backups _and_ not have a backup of your system, I'd have little sympathy, but even then you can restore most of a system by getting package lists for your specific distro version and force reinstalls of all the base packages. Restoring dpkg info for any custom installs would be a bit more work, but not worse than getting an iso of the distro, mounting it, and obtaining a list of matching packages for the files in your system directories.
But the latter is not necessary. Your system will keep working. You'll just run into occasional problems installing new packages and having to force installs when something pulls in a package you actually have installed but don't have a record of.
Make sure you disable the shopping lens before searching in public. Amazon searches can be NSFW!
Don't search for analyze in a school or Saudi Arabia.
I think that this is unacceptable default behaviour but currently seems to be a WON'T FIX.
If the bug I linked to is fixed it should be marked as such quickly because theRegister's initial review of 12.10 links to it and refers heavily to it http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/18/ubuntu_12_10_review/
Either it is fixed (and that should be properly indicated) or it should be taken seriously and fixed VERY quickly. The attitude of don't care/won't fix isn't acceptable for a public release by a supposedly professional commercial organisation or really anything beyond hobbyist scale. Canonical/Ubuntu is too big to let this default behaviour out of the door. If they can't fix it instantly they should disable the whole feature (as default) until they can fix it.
Edit: I've checked the diff again and maybe combined with server side changes it may resolve the issue. The point remains that the open issue should be properly closed.
Very impressive.
And say hello to the pain of not finding suitable drivers for half your devices.
Nowadays, I've found that I can install Ubuntu on more laptops and desktops and get better driver support from the initial install than even Windows can in many cases.
With Windows, I've had to scrounge around for drivers and pray they're compatible with Windows 8 Professional 64bit Premium Plus Bonus edition on the same laptops.
No official Google Drive[0] support (but we do have Dropbox)
No official Garmin Connect[1] support
[0]: http://askubuntu.com/questions/161273/is-there-a-google-driv...
[1]: http://askubuntu.com/questions/505/how-can-i-use-my-garmin-d...
Apart from that I totally have to agree with you - even the proprietary graphic card drivers haven't given me any real problems for the last 2 years.
But, again, all of this isn't much of an issue anymore.
(Also Google loves Linux and particularly Ubuntu. I'm not sure why they are dragging their feet on Google Drive but it's not because they don't care)
Having 'Device Manager' full of yellow question marks is _common_, even in Windows 7. http://i.imgur.com/zembU.jpg Anyone who thinks otherwise either has kept their Driver CDs, has the original installation still on the machine, or is just plain lucky
When it comes to laptops number one becomes the wireless card.
I usually avoid video issues by making sure the computer has an nvidia card or laptop has an nvidia chipset- learned my lesson there.
The current Linux kernel supports more devices than any single Windows release. Linux also supports more legacy devices than Windows Vista or Windows 7 and supports numerous architectures not supported at all by Windows.
In the case when there's no support for certain hardware, it's often the manufacturers who are at fault. They don't spend the resources to create the drivers or they make it difficult for the Linux community to make them.
In Windows 7 everything works perfectly out of the box. Two external monitors, no problem (Ubuntu only supports one). Wireless mouse, no problem.
I finally found out that there was an incorrect drive letter allocation (stuffed if I know why). We frigged around trying to allocate a drive letter through admin settings. We finally got it to work, but it wouldn't recognise the file system. We reformatted it and it worked fine.
Then there was the time the keyboard wouldn't work under Windows 7. It appeared and disappeared. It also worked under Ubuntu.
The point is that your mileage will vary depending on the hardware and operating system. I find Linux easier to fault find, whereas Windows is a disaster to fault find. My Windows faults normally end up with "just re-format it and start again".
In terms of recovering from faults Windows is much easier for me which isn't surprising since I've been using Windows for a long time. I find things like the Device Manager to be more user friendly than looking at kernel logs.
(I also have an external WD drive, no problems)
EDIT: By the way power management in Ubuntu on this laptop is all broken as well. It doesn't detect closing the lid, I have to go through some voodoo sequence to get it to sleep.
In fact, the last time I ran into any issue wasn't on a desktop. It was Ubuntu server on a newly launched Cisco UCS blade nearly 2+ years ago. At the time, I'm not sure what if anything could recognize a VIC out of the box (Ubuntu does as of 11.04).
On my Ubuntu desktop, my video capture dongle is barely supported. It tries to upload the proprietary firmware every 60 seconds. (I created a blacklist in my module config to stop it)
NONE of these are the fault of Ubuntu or the Linux community. But I do understand the sentiment of Joe "just found out about Ubuntu from a geeky friend" Smith thinking it sucks cause he can't use his slick new AMD GPU without a bit (or a lot) of pain. To be fair, that pain exists on Windows too.
This sort of thing has been there around Linux for ever. I have reached a stage where I am just too bored to do the endless investigation and fixing any more. I will just use Windows, which contrary to all the complaints that people keep making, actually "just works"
Sure it is, it's a short, inciteful quip that required little effort and provided absolutely nothing in the way support yet produced a 30-odd comment tangent, a solid 20% of all commentary. Pretty much the definition of a reasonably successful troll.
>I will just use Windows, which contrary to all the complaints that people keep making, actually "just works".
Because one of your anecdotes is worth more than all of theirs.
Drivers for our HP printer for example? 200MB+ download for OS X and Windows. Works the moment you plug in the USB cable on Ubuntu and have been for years.
But, Ubuntu is still the best desktop and server Linux and you can always install Xfce if you're a power user although it feels weird compared to the excellent Gnome 2.
Until Unity, Ubuntu was unstoppable IMHO. It's still good though.
Back when Metacity was young, you could hardly move without hearing screams from people about how lame a window manager it was, especially compared to things like Sawfish and FVWM. It's really quite surreal to hear people decrying the lack of a built-in power user stuff like Metacity today. Of course we're talking about the whole desktop environment, but still, I hear what I hear.
In any event, if you're a power user, you're going to screw with these defaults until you're blue in the face and I see no evidence that Ubuntu is going to take away that luxury. But I'm back from OS X now because I feel that coming with Apple.
But I think I see what you're getting at. I have a slight aversion to 37signals products for this same reason. We idolize people who do great work, and cut them too much slack. We have a few generations of people who want to be Steve-o simply so they can be abusive and anti-social while receiving praise.
Until recently I found Apple products to be excellent. They're still really good, but the equation used to be good versus great, and it's turning into good and free versus excellent and constrained. I don't know where the tipping point is, but I feel myself getting near it.
Out of curiosity, why do you say Ubuntu is a better server linux than it's daddy, Debian?
Unity works, it is still a lockout and I feel like a visitor to my Desktop since Unity. This was not how earlier Ubuntu felt with Gnome. For games (due to performance) Xfce is good and would be ok for general use I think.
If I use Ubuntu on my laptop, and Ubuntu says something about Windows 8, am I going to stop using Ubuntu because I am so offended on Microsoft's behalf? Not really.
That's not a change log but new features are listed here http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/whats-new
> I also don't see an easy way to upgrade from 12.04 which is what I currently run.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/upgrade
I never had any problems with it but some people prefer a clean install.
Fire up Terminal and run 'update-manager -d' and it should show up.
Stay classy Canonical...
Getting nearly 1 MBps speeds via torrent.
chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
Then choose the gnome session - Unity isn't affecting you at this point.
One workaround is to install CCSM, rebind the dash key to some key combo you'll never actually need, then set your key bindings normally.
...or install Xubuntu.
What I'm really looking for is the sort of upgrade/rollback process I'm used to creating for my production apps. One-button upgrade, one-button rollback.
Looks like Ubuntu isn't there yet. I suppose the easy thing is just to get another disk, clone my existing setup, and do the upgrade. If I don't like it, I'll just swap in the backup disk.
Regardless, it's easy to not lose your setup, run the latest OS AND not do in-place upgrades.
Just put /home on a separate partition and you're done. Use dpkg to make a list and restore a list of applications (same with repos). A few files to backup and a few minutes to wait for the apps to redownload. Completely clean system. Same apps. All the while /home was untouched.
#apt-get -f missing
fixes many of these post-upgrade problems. YMMV!
From the USB install;
dd if=/dev/{ubuntuDrivePath} of={someOtherDrive}/{backupFile}.img
dd if=/dev/sda of=/media/data/backups/workstation.img
To restore, boot into USB again, and execute:
dd if={yourBackup} of=/dev/{ubuntuDrivePath}Before you get all bothered by this, go and read Bug #1: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1