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Planning Dapper +1, The Edgy Eft

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wed Apr 19, 2006 05:32 PM
from the score-one-for-creative-names dept.
Software Debian Linux
Christian Jensen writes "On the ubuntu-announce mailing list, Mark Shuttleworth announced the plans for the next Ubuntu release - 'The Edgy Eft', the successor to Dapper Drake." This release is being touted as both cutting edge (edgy) and containing several comparatively "young" software additions ('Eft' being a 'youthful newt, going through its first exploration of the rocky territory just outside the stream.') like Xen, XGL/AIGLX, and others.
+ -
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Related Stories

[+] Ubuntu 6.06 'Dapper Drake' Beta Available 90 comments
Beuno writes "Ubuntu 6.06, aka 'Dapper Drake' has just gone into a stable Beta phase after 5 very successful Alpha versions. There have been a ton of improvements ranging from a new spiffy graphical installation, Gnome 2.14.1, Kernel 2.6.15.6, X.org 7 and a new and improved caramel colored theme. The server version has had kernel tweaks and an easy LAMP installation. A full list of new features and screenshots and be found at the official site. Downloads at the usual place, just try to use torrents please."
[+] Previewing Dapper And Edgy 144 comments
Frank Clarkson writes to mention a ZDNet article about the upcoming release of 'Dapper Drake', Ubuntu Linux. They also give a mini-preview of Eft. From the article: "'I'm promising to impose (almost ;-) ) zero from-the-top requirements for Edgy, this release is entirely up the to development team to envision and implement,' he wrote. 'Almost everything that lands in Edgy will be driven from the development team, who get to play with whatever new technologies they fancy along the way. So that should give us a nice big bump in infrastructure and bling.'"
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  • Almost panicked there... (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub (11606) <slashdot@grub.net> on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:34PM (#15161015) Homepage Journal

    Planning Dapper +1, The Edgy Eft

    I read that headline eight times. I ran to the mirror and smiled to make sure both sides of my mouth were working. Then I made sure both my arms lifted fine. "Hrm...", I thought, "I didn't have a stroke. Why does that headline make no sense?"

    • Re:Almost panicked there... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2006, @07:22PM (#15161547)
      Mod parent +1 Dapper.

      • Re:Almost panicked there... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Mozk (844858) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:14PM (#15161225)
        Ubuntu verion numbers are the date when they are released. For example, 5.10 was released in October of 2005. Generally the versions are spaced six months apart, so the next would have been 6.04, but it has been delayed till June, so it will be 6.06. A version of 7.x would be in the year 2007, on the xth month.

      • Re:Almost panicked there... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by aaronl (43811) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:35PM (#15161331) Homepage
        Linux won't install onto NTFS (complete lack of documentation from MS does not help), but it will install into a vFAT partition. The compression is possible, though not likely, and I doubt the file encryption will ever be supported. If you install Windows into a FAT partition, then you can use UMSDOS to install Linux onto the same, and you need no other partitions.

        If you wanted to use Captive in the way you're talking about, then you would need a partition to load the Linux kernel and support binaries, and you could then have all of your other files on the Captive NTFS partition. Nobody has done this because it's both not really worth it and not very efficient.

        Linux can use swapfiles. Swap partitions are just a generally better way.

        • Re:Almost panicked there... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by FauxPasIII (75900) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @07:30PM (#15161589)
          > Linux can use swapfiles. Swap partitions are just a generally better way.

          Since Linux 2.6, the latter half of that statement isn't really true anymore.
          As I understand it, it used to be the case that to use a swap file meant that
          any swap I/O would have to hit the filesystem code, but that as of 2.6, that
          is no longer the case. Swap files are the same speed as swap partitions and
          a lot more flexible. =)

      • Re:Edgy Eft: moderation: Stupid Name -2 (Score:4, Funny)

        by Almond Tree (741341) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @08:27PM (#15161827)
        "Edgy Eft is a stupid name" by an obvious connoisseur named Poopie. All is right in the universe.

      • Re:Edgy Eft: moderation: Stupid Name -2 (Score:4, Insightful)

        by killjoe (766577) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @09:07PM (#15161966)
        These are code names, not the name of the product. The name of the product will be ubuntu + versionnumber just like all the other software packages in the world.

        You are merely complaining because they let you know what the internal code name for the project is. Sheeesh, get a life will you.
          • That's right, noone except testers and developers should ever have to type that. Regular users should have no business being in that file (it isn't completely true yet, but that's "should" for you - they are getting there).

            You can do it, if you want to switch from an earlier version manually and dist-upgrade, but if you wait for a CD instead, as a regular user can be expected to do, it will take care of this for you.

            I am not sure if it's actually finished yet, but the update-manager is supposed to be able t
  • I got better. But it did make me a bit, you know, edgy...

  • Edgy? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by grasshoppa (657393)
    Why must everything be "Edgy" now a days? When I think of edgy, I think of some dude strung out on too much caffiene and cigs.

    If that's cool, whatever, I'm out of touch anymore anyway. But it still doesn't paint a good image.
  • As an Ubuntu user and fan, I'd just like to say: for fuck's sake, stop it with the stupid names! Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, Edgy Eft. Seriously, I feel like a jackass enough saying "Ubuntu". I don't understand, are they actively trying to discourage people from using it?

    • Re:What's in a name? (Score:5, Funny)

      by ch-chuck (9622) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:46PM (#15161087) Homepage
      Names matter a lot to those who don't understand what's behind it. For years I marveled at how you would start Windows 3.1 by typing "win" at a dos box. Very shrewd. If a *nix programmer did it, s/he would probably have made it a short snappy abbv for "Load Operating System and Execute Restart", and not think a thing about what it spells to the laity.

      Or "Load Unix and Start Running" ;)

    • They think they are being clever (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Sycraft-fu (314770) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:55PM (#15161135)
      It's real prevelant in the OSS world, unfortunately. Clever names that, well, aren't. OGG Vorbis is a good example. It just sounds... Odd. It's not descriptive of function and doesn't have a cool ring to it. I think that's part of the problem with adoption. MP3 sounds cool (so does AAC). They are the nifty-technology acronyms and they are easy to say.

      OSS people need to think more marketing driven. Had I been the one in charge of making the Ogg Vorbis thing, I probably would have looked at calling it something that made reference to MP3. Call it MP5 maybe, for 5th Gen Music Packer. Something that's clearly intended to draw a reference to MP3. If not something so direct, then think up a cool acronym, and figure out something that works for it. AAC is good, nice acronym, good name (Advanced Audio Codec). Sounds all high tech and shit.

      Same thing with shit like GIMP. Ok so the full name, GNU Image Manipulation Program isn't horrible, but calling it GIMP is fucking stupid. For nearly everyone the assocation is either Pulp Fiction, or a crippled person. Not something you want. Now Photoshop, that's a good name. Says what it does, sounds cool, conjures up ideas of picture editing, which is indeed what it's for.

      So I'm not at all suppirsed to see Ubutnu (which is odd to Western ears at any rate) doing stuff like this. I'm sure they think it's terribly cool and clever, and I'm sure many people agree with them. However I'm also pretty sure they haven't thought it over marketing wise.

      • OSS people need to think more marketing driven. Had I been the one in charge of making the Ogg Vorbis thing, I probably would have looked at calling it something that made reference to MP3. Call it MP5 maybe, for 5th Gen Music Packer.

        But then, that would have been really stupid, because MP3 doesn't stand for "Third Gen Music Packer" and there is no Audio Layer 5 of the MPEG standard, so your name would actually have had nothing to do with MP3. I'll take a silly-sounding brand name over a technically ina

      • OGG Vorbis is a good example. It just sounds... Odd. It's not descriptive of function and doesn't have a cool ring to it.

        A "cool ring" is something of a subjective matter, don't you think? Personally I think that Ogg Vorbis sounds far cooler than MP3.

        Same thing with shit like GIMP. Ok so the full name, GNU Image Manipulation Program isn't horrible, but calling it GIMP is fucking stupid

        Yes, if they'd called it something else---why, it might have become the world's most popular open source graphics applicatio

        • Re:They think they are being clever (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Sycraft-fu (314770) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:28PM (#15161296)
          No, it's not entirely subjective. There are lots of firms that get paid to research this shit. There are names that work, and names that don't, and you can test for it.

          By the way GIMP is not a popular image editor, not even close. It's "popular" with the Linux crowd in so far as it's all that ships with most distros in that category and it's one o fthe only ones available. However it's by far in the minority. Photoshop (and it's lightweight Elements version) are the most popular, with Paint Shop Pro being second. I don't know after that, wouldn't supprise me if it was Paint.NET.

          Using Ubutnu as an example is a bad idea because you are talking about OSS people who can use works like "grep, awk, and sed" in a conversation and not find it at all weird (you should see the look mom gave me when I was talking about grep, it got even more confused when I spelled out the acronym for her). Also I wouldn't tout it too heavily. Popular? Sure,. More popular than RedHat or Debain? You'd have to prove that to me.

          You are confusing markets. Geeks don't tend to care much about shit like what something looks like or what it's called. You can call your webserver ShitServ for all I care, if it's a good product, I'll use it (though I might change the version stright it reports). However I am talking about mass-market stuff here. For normal users, style matters a LOT. Look at the iPod. It wasn't some magical MP3 player that was tons better than any other. No what it did was make MP3 players cool. They weren't a geek toy anymore, but something that was hip to own. All about the style and the marketing. If you took the same player, but made it shit-brown and called it the AHPMP (Advanced Highly Portable Music Player) and advertised it was spartan ads, you'd sell all of none, despite the functionality being the same as the iPod.
      • The vast majority of people on this world don't use English as a mother language. They don't even speak it, for the most part, regardless of whether it's the world's most widely spoken language or not. Do the names for various software applications mean the same thing to them as they do to you?

        Is Ubuntu less offensive to a Corsican reading the newspaper "u ribombu" or a Zulu businessman using Linux to do his backoffice?

        Does GIMP sound the same when read by a Frenchman, or by someone from China who doesn't e

    • Re:What's in a name? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Eberlin (570874) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:56PM (#15161140) Homepage
      I'm sure it's been visited before -- here's a list of names we're used to...but would seem strange without some sort of common usage or marketing force behind them:

      Windows NT, ME, XP, Vista, Xbox
      OSX...Jaguar, Panther
      Apache, IIS
      iPod, Nano
      MS Excel, Powerpoint
      Yahoo, Google

      Ubuntu -- Humanity to others. Now as far as the naming conventions of hoary hedgehog, breezy badger, dapper drake, and now edgy eft...get over it. There are lots of fscked up names for projects and sure, it'd be better if they had more appropriate names, but they're still as useful. It's a matter of pulling enough of a marketing spin on things, that's all.

      I like and use ubuntu (well kubuntu, really). I don't care about the naming conventions. If nothing else, it's a conversation starter. "Yeah, at home I run dapper drake" -- "dapper drake, what's that?" "oh, it's a version of a linux distro called Ubuntu...you know how Windows has all these version numbers and strange names? Ubuntu's folks decided to use animals in theirs. Kinda like Apple and their big cats."

      To each his own, bro...and as long as the Ubuntu folks come up with good stuff and package it in that wonderfully user-friendly manner, I'm all for it. Now if they call the next version "fscked-up falcon" I may reconsider. Nah, I'll probably still use it.
    • As an Ubuntu user and fan, I'd just like to say: for fuck's sake, stop it with the stupid names! Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, Edgy Eft. Seriously, I feel like a jackass enough saying "Ubuntu". I don't understand, are they actively trying to discourage people from using it?

      For fuck's sake, stop being 13 years old. If saying "Ubuntu" is enough to make you feel like a jackass, you've got some issues. And anyway, I cannot really understand how "Ubuntu" is any worse than "SuSE." Furthermore, names like Dapper Drake are code names for release targets, not brands.

      • Re:What's in a name? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by TheDarkener (198348) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:59PM (#15161455)
        For fuck's sake, stop being 13 years old. If saying "Ubuntu" is enough to make you feel like a jackass, you've got some issues.

        Not if you're trying to convince a company to use Ubuntu you don't... To the non-Linux crowd (99% of the population), telling your public relations people that you just "Uninstalled Windows XP Professional" and installed "Ubuntu Dapper Drake", they're gonna get a mental image of a Dapper Dan doll in the woods or something.

        I agree that the names could be better - but it all depends on who you're talking to. Engineers love weird names like that, it promotes a sense of fun and optimism instead of something mundane and "work"ish. I don't see anything worse about the name "Ubuntu" than "Google" or "Yahoo" at all, at least Ubuntu means something significant.

        So "Ubuntu 6.06" to the marketing types, and "Dapper Drake" to everyone who's not trying to fit the mold I guess.

    • It's called fun (Score:5, Insightful)

      by QuantumG (50515) <qg@biodome.org> on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:26PM (#15161291) Homepage Journal
      Maybe you've heard of it. That's what us open source developers do, have fun. If you don't want to use our software, fine, don't.

      What's the difference between open source software an proprietary software?

      Open source software is made by engineers.
      Proprietary software is made by managers.

    • Yeah, but just think how much fun the F release will be. :)

    • Re:What's in a name? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rsidd (6328) on Thursday April 20 2006, @02:00AM (#15163095)
      I just love it when random slashdotters whine that Mark Shuttleworth, one of the richest South Africans, one of the first space tourists, the man who sold Thawte to Verisign and made enough to basically retire on, doesn't know how to market his products...

      If you think Ubuntu is a dumb name, that's your problem. Lots of people seem to like it fine.

  • I'll wait for Flat Flounder or Garish Grasshopper (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ScentCone (795499) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:39PM (#15161049)
    Yes, Ubuntu, we get it. I mean, I know version numbers in press releases are so corporate and everything, but but some day (say, when they're releasing Zoroastrian Zebra or whatever) they'll look back on this little phase and feel a little silly. Like when you see your really cool high school yearbook shot about 10 years later, when it's so absolutley, positively, not cool (and worse: you realize it wasn't then, either!).

  • It's great to plan ahead, but... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by betasaur (12453) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:42PM (#15161063)
    "We can afford to take some risks with Dapper+1, because Dapper has turned
    out so well."

    I love Ubuntu and all that, but jeez, get it out the door first!

  • New Icon? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by stinerman (812158) <nathan...stine@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:50PM (#15161112) Homepage
    This is rather off-topic so I'll expect the usual down-mod.

    Perhaps /. should get a new icon for Ubuntu instead of using the Debian one. Yes, I know that Ubuntu is based on Debian Sid, but seeing that Ubuntu is arguably more popular than Debian (based on Distrowatch stats), perhaps an Ubuntu section/icon would be in order?

  • Alphabeticism? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by vishbar (862440) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @05:54PM (#15161132)

    Are they going in alphabetical order?

    At first, they had Hoary Hedgehog, but then they went Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, and Edgy Eft. If they're going to do this, what happened to the 'C'? And why not start with an 'A'?

  • Good letter (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FishandChips (695645) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:00PM (#15161155) Journal
    It's hard not to warm to this announcement, imho. It is written in a clear style by someone who comes across as open, approachable and not afraid to take risks. Such a contrast to corporate chiefs who bark out orders, rubbish their competitors or spout incomprehensible jargon written for them by a marketing droid. OK the names for Ubuntu releases may be a bit eccentric but this cool, direct approach is what attracts me to Linux. It's my PC to do with as I wish and it absolutely doesn't have to have a toad from the office or authentication central inside it.

    Just my 2 cents, but I think Ubuntu does have some pretty big challenges in front of it quite apart from incorporating "edgy" new technology. It needs to find a self-sustaining financial model and some kind of interface with business and the enterprise, which the Dapper release is meant to kick off, I believe. Anyway, Kudos to them.

  • youthful eft? (Score:3, Funny)

    by dotpavan (829804) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:12PM (#15161211) Homepage
    confirmed: the homepage would be myspace.com :)

  • Brainstorming... (Score:3, Funny)

    by 9mm Censor (705379) * on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:36PM (#15161333) Homepage
    Freakin' Franklin Gonzo George Holy Holistics Invisible Irwin Joyful Juliet Kingsized Kings Laughable Lables Micky Mouse Nourished Nigerians Outstanding Opensource Pornographic Phonographs Quenched Quickens Real Reasons Super Skidmarks Triumphant Tubas Upsidedown Umbrellas Victorious Villans Wicked Wakasachi Xtreme Xenocide Yelling Yams Zaney Zoolander (its linux, fuck copyright)

  • 'The Edgy Eft' (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2006, @06:51PM (#15161411)
    Specific Magic Weapons
    The Edgy Eft
    Stats: Planning Dapper +1, (1d4+1, 20/x3)
    Special: 3 Times per day, the wielder can activate this weapon using a command word (anything alliterative), causing it to gain +2 to attack and damage against any single foe designated in the previous round. This effect lasts for 1 hour. The target may be changed at any time by pointing it at a new target and shouting 'emerge /bin/target!'

    Description: This light walking stick seems to have an air of ease-of-use surrounding it, despite being an exotic weapon. It is made of solid chrome, with a gemstone at the top emmiting rainbow colors randomly at all hours, thus earning it it's nickname.

    Minimum CL (coder level) 10. Must know C and be a worshiper of Linux to create. Market Value: 0gp*. Cost to create: 10,000gp

    *Must be installed by a cleric of Linux, who typically demand pizza and cola in exchange for their services.

    • The target may be changed at any time by pointing it at a new target and shouting 'emerge /bin/target!'

      Are you suggesting this weapon was first forged in the Dales of Gentoo?

  • Add Beagle! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MrNonchalant (767683) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @07:08PM (#15161489)
    If they're experimenting with new stuff (Xen and XGL are pretty risky already) why not add Beagle? It's matured pretty rapidly and with both Vista and Tiger sporting real-time search capability now is the time to get it into Linux.

  • Eft? F'd? (Score:5, Funny)

    by frohike (32045) <bard.allusion@net> on Wednesday April 19 2006, @07:39PM (#15161619) Homepage

    I can't be the only one who heard "F'd" mentally when reading that headline... hopefully that's not a statement on the release or users who choose to install it. :D

    (I love Ubuntu and their funky names.. bring it on!)

  • Obligatory Image of an Eft (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RingDev (879105) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @10:34PM (#15162315) Homepage Journal
    http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mnh/nature/salamand/thumbs /images/red-eft.jpg [gov.ns.ca]

    Just so the Photoshopers have a starting point ;)

    -Rick
    • Won't that hurt your credibility, if you have different releases of different quality?

      Not really. From day one with Dapper Mark has planned for it to be a higher quality release. For example, he plans to support it longer than the rest. Why did he do this? Well for one many people don't like an upgrade every six months. I talk to some people that think that Windows upgrades (like SP2) come around too quickly. The Dapper release is for these people. If the corporate world wants, it can skip from Dapper quality release to Dapper quality release (as such will be released every two years) while being supported the entire way.

      A problem with Dapper is that "higher quality" also means "more boring." Ubuntu is meant to be on the bleeding edge, but with Dapper less risks were taken. Edgy will fix this problem and bring Ubuntu back to the edge once more.

      Wouldn't it be smarter to have a "risk team" playing around for the next release while the current release is being polished so that when the rest of the team starts working on the next release there's already been enough time on it to make sure it is production quality?

      There are many things needed to make a production quality Linux OS. Ubuntu is a slave to its release cycle- if the programs are ready when Ubuntu releases then it will be a good release. Dapper is more "corporate worthy" than say Breezy because when it releases it will have many landmark pieces of software in it - a non buggy OpenOffice 2, Firefox 1.5, etc. Mark can't change the release dates for all software used in Ubuntu, so some releases will just have to be worse than others for this reason.

      Plus, making every release of equal quality will cost a lot more....

        • I love answering questions about Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)

          by poofyhairguy82 (635386) on Wednesday April 19 2006, @08:11PM (#15161749) Journal
          OKay.. I see what you're saying. But how will people know which releases are which. (meaning laypersons)

          The Dapper quality releases will be strongly tied to future corporate plans. Plus in every release announcement they will clearly state that the Dapper quality releases get extra long support.

          Yet the overall quality of the other Ubuntu releases will never hopefully lower to a point where they are unusable by lay persons. I would hope that the kinds of people that a Dapper release was made for (IT managers) would be able to figure out which releases to use where.

          Also, I didn't realize that ONLY this release was going to have the extended support. I thought it was from now on they were making releases that would get the longer support. So the in-between, risky, releases will use the breezy support model?

          Every two years will bring a Dapper quality release. The way Mark has described it before, its as if the releases in between those two years are basically building up to these Dapper quality releases: [ubuntu.com]

          Our current plan is that the Dapper Drake (Ubuntu 6.06 if we hit our June 2006 release date goal) will be the last of this first "set" of releases. So post-Dapper we have the opportunity to define a new "feel" or overarching theme. It would be unlikely to be... blue. But it might be substantially different to the current Human theme.

          Each of these in between releases will get the same level of support as all the Ubuntus before Dapper.

          I personally have been excited about Edgy long before it was announced. Once you get the hang of it, its easy to spot which Ubuntu releases are for you.

          The first releases after the two year major releases will have changes in styles and will be very distinct and maybe a little crazy- just like Warty was when it hit back in the day. All the exciting things the major release had to skip during the year can be added to this release. Mark has already said that Edgy will bring a new color scheme- exciting!

          The second release after the major release will be the best of the in betweens- the craziness of the previous release will be polished down some and the time when these releases will come (Spring) is after all the major releases at the end of the previous year. Hoary was really great for this reason.

          The third release after a major release will be the most compromised- many new things might be dumped on this release so the Dapper quality release can use the release as development time for its more boring platform. Long before Breezy came out I was scared because it in a bad time of the year for a distro release (right before the new Open Office, Xorg and Firefox were released) and because it had to take on large bites (modular Xorg before Xorg was ready, GCC transition for PART of the system, etc.) to make life easier for Dapper. As a result Breezy seems to be the most buggy release (yet many of these problems - like floppies not working and an unstable OpenOffice- has been fixed post release).

          Then we have another Dapper quality release and the IT managers of the world can pay attention again. Long live Ubuntu.

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