Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Drawing Near

daria42 writes "Ubuntu developers are finalizing preparations for the release of the next version — dubbed Feisty Fawn — of the popular Linux distribution in mid-April. Overnight, Ubuntu developer Tollef Fog Heen announced Ubuntu's main software repository had been frozen — with no changes allowed to the code — as developers got ready to issue a fifth major test version ("Herd 5") of the next version of Ubuntu."

AWW damn!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck, I just spent $399 on Vista Ultimate!!!!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you forgot to include the cost [microsoft.com] of Office 2007 Ultimate? - $679!

You do know that Ubuntu comes standard with OpenOffice and all the other essential applications most Windows users miss out on (unless they pay extra)?

Re:AWW damn!!

[MartinG (52587)]

No.

What is illegal is abusing monopoly power in one area to force your way into another.

So bundling MS office with Windows would be illegal because they own and control both and are a monopoly. Ubuntu is nowhere near a monopoly.

Re:AWW damn!!

[FrostDust (1009075)]

Yeah, that's what I used to say, but care to venture a guess as to why Wordpad can't read .DOC's in Vista?

Re:

[mabinogi (74033)]

no, it was setting IE as default and then preventing OEMs from making Netscape default under threat of losing their right to distribute Windows.

Merely including a product for free is not illegal.

Re:

[IANAAC (692242)]

Openoffice and Ubuntu are completey separate entities, owned by two completely different companies.

Windows and MS Office come from the same corporation.

But even if you don't consider that, I doubt that Microsoft would ever just throw in Office for free (even if it were bundled, you be paying a premium). Office is their main cash cow.

Re:AWW damn!!

[lixee (863589)]

why is it illegal for microsoft to include office in windows yet it's ok for linux to include openoffice with it?

What on Earth is this guy doing on /.?

I'm using feisty since herd 1

[vivaoporto (1064484)]

And I can say is that Feisty is a big improvement over Edgy, both in hardware support and software "smoothness". It is a pity that Xorg 7.2 will not be ready for Feisty launch, but this is certainly a candidate to bring an alternative to Windows on the Desktop.

X.org 7.2 will (perhaps) be in feisty

[MrvFD (711808)]

Actually Xorg 7.2 is currently on its way to feisty, thanks to efforts by a community member, working together with Debian and helped by some Ubuntu core developers: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/200 7-February/023252.html [ubuntu.com]

The xserver-xorg-core is already version at 7.2 (or "1.2") now, with the rest of the modules going in gradually. With the modularity of X.org nowadays, it's not certain that all the newest driver work will be in, though. For example the ati driver has seen only some important patches backported to feisty, while there has been a lot of development and reworking without a proper release of xserver-xorg-video-ati lately.

Re:X.org 7.2 will (perhaps) be in feisty

[lavid (1020121)]

I'm pretty sure the X.org 7.2 merge is pretty close to complete. It borked a bunch of stuff, beryl, compiz, 3d stuffs, when they only half merged it with the repos last week. From what I see right now all the X.org drivers (except fglrx, ATI's proprietary driver) are at 7.2 as are the xorg server bins. I'm sure there are some modules still to be upgraded especially since Compiz hasn't worked for me since last week. There are plenty of threads about this on http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ [ubuntuforums.org].

Why Xorg 7.2 is so important?

[pato101 (851725)]

Please would you point major features of Xorg 7.2 so it is a pity it does not get included? (not pretending to troll, I'm just ignorant).

Re:Why Xorg 7.2 is so important?

[squiggleslash (241428)]

I've never used it, but I believe the usual pattern is that the latest version of something contains the device drivers for the one device you need support for, except that it's actually for a similarly named chipset from the same company and doesn't actually work with your card, but it does feel slightly faster, but has a whopping great memory leak that means you have to reboot your computer every few days.

Windows users, take note:

[ABoerma (941672)]

You know you've stumbled into an *NIX-centric discussion when people say 'reboot every few days' like it's a bad thing.

Re:Why Xorg 7.2 is so important?

[jeevesbond (1066726)]

There are some details on the release page [freedesktop.org] on the Freedesktop wiki.

From that page:

X11R7.2 supports Linux, BSD, Solaris, Microsoft Windows and GNU Hurd systems. It incorporates significant stability and correctness fixes, including improved autoconfiguration heuristics, enhanced support for GL-based compositing managers such as Compiz and Beryl, and improved support for PCI systems with multiple domains. It also incorporates the new, more extensible XACE security policy framework.

Release notes should be on the download page [x.org], they're marked 'forthcoming' at the moment, but wait a day or two and they should appear.

Re:

[pato101 (851725)]

Why don't you go read the X11R7.2 changelog?

Because I get lost in technical acronysms (just see below)

The inclusion of XCB is one of the major changes. It replaces the fuctionality of Xlib, but offers an Xlib compatibility layer. XCB is the way of the future, my good man.

Sweet. When I read the changelog- thanks for the link- I didn't notice how important XCB was. You have made me follow the XCB link and understand what it is about and why it is so important. Thanks for pointing it :).

Re:

[Short Circuit (52384)]

I misread your post as saying Hurd 3 was here. Queue "WTF" reaction...

No changes allowed

[Bob54321 (911744)]

Ubuntu's main software repository had been frozen -- with no changes allowed to the code

As opposed to freezes where you are allowed to change things...

Re:No changes allowed

[plover (150551)]

Our standard joke regarding code freezes at work is "If this is a freeze, I wouldn't walk on it."

But I suppose you have to be from a place where they do a lot of ice fishing before that joke makes any sense at all.

Re:No changes allowed

[John Nowak (872479)]

You sure sound like a bunch of fun guys. :-)

Re:No changes allowed

[jeevesbond (1066726)]

This might sound harsh, but they don't care whether you know what a code freeze is. In fact if you don't know what that is why are you reading Slashdot?!

It's not like Microsoft, Canonical didn't create some press-release to tell everyone: 'We're freezing our codebase! Make sure all technical journals know!'

This story got on to Slashdot because of geeks avidly following Ubuntu's development process, which--unlike Windows--is totally open. If you don't know what a code freeze is: don't worry, just wait for the release. The fact you don't know is not Canonical's fault or problem.

If you do want to know: first imagine all the software projects Ubuntu uses (the Synaptic package manager on my system tells me I've currently got access to 20,304 bits of software, so much for the old: 'There isn't any software available for Linux' argument). When the devs start working on a release they use the newest versions of whatever software is available. As the new version of Ubuntu nears release though they have to be certain all the software will work together, so they do what's called a 'code freeze'.

A code freeze means they don't use any newer versions of software that are made available. They just make sure that whatever is now in the software repositories works. The reason for this is to stop any unforseen incompatibilities creeping in when a new version of a software package is used.

Here's a scenario:

The devs are working on the new version of Ubuntu: Happy Hippo. A new version of Firefox (no pedants, I am aware of the policy regarding Firefox, this is just a common software package and something the reader will identify with. No corrections needed!) has been created since the last release, so they import it into the software repositories. Call it: Version 2.

Before the code freeze a new version of Firefox is released (v2.1), with an autoPr0n feature many people love. This is imported into the new version of Ubuntu: Happy Hippo.

The code freeze happens... But a new version of Firefox is released afterwards (v2.2), with an enhanced autoPr0n feature (many people are calling this the next 'killer app'). Unfortunately, this is after the code freeze, so the new version of Firefox does not get imported.

Imagine if the devs didn't do the code freeze, and the new enhanced autoPr0n feature (in v2.2) caused a problem with The GIMP. But the devs had already checked Firefox, but not the latest version.

So the code freeze is necessary, although you don't necessarily need to know about it. :)

Skip this one

[pkspks (881839)]

I'll wait for the "zombie zebra"

Re:

[xs650 (741277)]

'I'll wait for the "zombie zebra"'

Don't get your hopes up, I was waiting for Farty Ferret. Now it will be nearly 26 years before the Fs come back again.

Been using it for about a month...

[physicsnick (1031656)]

I've been beta-testing Kubuntu Feisty for about a month now, and it's amazing. It's already a huge improvement over Edgy. Everything is so intuitive and easy to use; Feisty is going to kick ass.

Some of the new stuff they've added are a new wireless network manager by default, big improvements to the package installation system, easy codec/flash installation, lots of user interface tweaks... It looks so polished now, I love it.

Here are the Herd release announcements, containing a subset of the changes Feisty brings:
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/FeistyFawn/Herd1/Kubuntu [kubuntu.org]
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/FeistyFawn/Herd2/Kubuntu [kubuntu.org]
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/FeistyFawn/Herd3/Kubuntu [kubuntu.org]
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/FeistyFawn/Herd4/Kubuntu [kubuntu.org]

Breaking news!

[jotaeleemeese (303437)]

Feisy Fawn is even closer as I type!

Tollef Fog Heen came back from lunch and just turned on his screen. Now that is progress.

Oh man, we live excilarating times.

Please check back for updates:

In one hour Tollef Fog Heen will finish to write an email.

In three hours Tollef Fog Heen will complete one icon missing in one of the menus in the graphic installer.

In 5 hours Tollef Fog Heen goes home. Nooooooo! Ubuntu development stalled! Stop the presses....

Will Feisty Fawn be an LTS release?

[ELiTeUI (591102)]

Dapper Drake (6.06) was an LTS release. Edgy Eft (6.10) was not an LTS release. Does anyone know if Feisty Fawn will be LTS or not?

Re:

[physicsnick (1031656)]

It won't.

The one after it might be. I've heard the release cycle as of Dapper was meant to be first an LTS release, then a release with radical new changes (ala Upstart), then a polished release-of-awesome, then back to LTS again. That's probably just speculation; take it with a large grain of salt.

Feisty Fawn shpping - Debian slipping as usual

[Kjella (173770)]

I actually thought Debian was closing in on a release quite soon when they slipped their December release goal. Well, it's now March tomorrow and they still haven't even gotten RC2 out the door. Yes, I can understand the "when it's ready" but if you run into so long delays that you could have an intermediate release, then it's better than no release at all. At this rate, Ubuntu might have their next LTS version out before Debian does...

Not sexy enough

[ciaran.mchale (1018214)]

Feisty Fawn is not sexy enough. I'm going to wait for the Nubile Nymph release.

Smoother update process?

[Tarlus (1000874)]

I hope the upgrade-via-apt-get process goes much more smoothly this time... I had a lot of troubles going to 6.10 last fall using this method, and I noticed a number of other people did, too. I ended up having to just download the ISO and install fresh because I messed up my existing installation beyond repair just by trying to update... Either way, it was worth it, since I love the improvements that Edgy introduced. It is by far the slickest distro I've used.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you upgrade to Feisty Fawn by just updating your list of apt repositories, do NOT do a dist-upgrade to their apt servers on release day since thousands of other people will be doing it at the same time. The load will slow it down just about to the point of timing out (at least in my experience). If you want to upgrade to it on release day, I'd recommend using bittorrent to get the ISO (faster this way) and then doing an apt-get dist-upgrade with that CD-ROM as a new apt repository.

Re:

[radarsat1 (786772)]

If you want to upgrade to it on release day, I'd recommend using bittorrent to get the ISO (faster this way) and then doing an apt-get dist-upgrade with that CD-ROM as a new apt repository.

Actually I really wish they'd incorporate bittorrent into Apt. That would be pretty cool. (Have it fail to an http server of course if bittorrent doesn't work or is too slow)

I looked this up before and found there is at least one [fsf.org] project trying to do it [launchpad.net].

I think bittorrent could be improved if it allowed a simple http s

Re:Smoother update process?

[Quila (201335)]

that way you could just use the bittorrent protocol and it would download from the http server if there were no seeders.

Or have a server that's always seeding instead of an http server. Anyone who wants a file to be always available should have this anyway.

Actually, I'm not too excited.

[DoofusOfDeath (636671)]

I find myself at a funny point now. Ubuntu is certainly my distro of choice, and its the only OS I really use. But now that it works well enough for me to focus on my work rather than having to wrestle with the OS, I don't really care that much about one upgrade to the next.

I've did install Feisty Herd 4 (+ update) on my HP laptop to see if they fixed the ACPI issues that have always plagued me. (Won't suspend or hibernate when I close the lid.) No real improvement there (although if I manually make it suspend, it does act a little more normal after waking up than it does with Edgy.) But without that improvement, I just find myself kind of, I dunno... content with Edgy. It's a nice but slightly disappointing place to be.

Must be said

[Necreia (954727)]

"Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Drawing Near"

> Command? (A)ttack (S)pell (I)tem (R)un:

Colour me crazy...

[B5_geek (638928)]

I have been running *Ubuntu since the Warty days (as my only workstation OS), and I do love it.

I use KDE on the backend with fluxbox as my WM.

Will Feisty allow me to install Beryl/Compiz via apt and give my eye-candy for flux?

(A) I LOVE with speed and configurability of Flux.
(B) I am envious of all the neeto window-manager effects that compiz allows
(C) I am not willing to run Gnome or KDE as my WM in-order to get the eyecandy.

Am I crazy-insane or insane-crazy?

All I need now from Ubuntu is..

[cheros (223479)]

(1) the splash to stay 'Ubuntu' even though I use Kubuntu' - why can't I choose?
(2) a decent server. I tried Fedora but found the interface inconsistent (maybe I should have read more docs), OpenSuSE does the job with Yast but to get cups to server printing to a couple of Windows boxes is a pain but it's so far the quickest to setup re. serving Samba, Apache, MySQL for people like me that have not so much time to plough through man pages and docs (though I'm not exactly a stranger to CLI - I've been using

Oblg. Xkcd...

[RyuuzakiTetsuya (195424)]

"I'm sorry, I'm not really into Pokemon."

Re:Frozen code?

[Trip Ericson (864747)]

It merely means that the code and repos have been frozen in order to allow for anything that's broken to be fixed and made ready for a public, stable release.

Development continues anyway, just that the code for this release has been frozen except for bug fixes.

At least, that's my understanding of it.

Re:Frozen code?

[jimstapleton (999106)]

it's not perma-frozen, and the actual projects aren't stopped.

It's the version of the code that is in the repository specifically for ubuntu that is frozen. This is a common release process to make sure everything is relatively solid and stable. It happens on most OSS OSes as they go through the final stages of testing and planning.

Yes, try Kubuntu

[metamatic (202216)]

I just switched from Ubuntu to Kubuntu, because Ubuntu is infected with Mono.

While KDE has way, way too many UI tweaks available in its preferences, I just switched the theme to Plastik and stopped fiddling with everything else. Other than that, KDE beats Gnome in every way.

Patents, patents, patents!

[jotaeleemeese (303437)]

Now I should throw a chair at Miguel de Icaza or something.

Re:Fast going cold on Ubuntu

[Trip Ericson (864747)]

Your problems sound more like Gnome problems than Ubuntu problems; I should know, I didn't like Ubuntu on my first shot because I'm partial toward KDE (which I had going on Fedora). I made the switch to Kubuntu and haven't looked back.

It combines the wonderful Ubuntu codebase and DEB packaging system with the KDE interface. I certainly recommend you try it.

Re:Fast going cold on Ubuntu

[hey! (33014)]

You don't need to run KDE. You just need the dependencies installed. Naturally, though, if you do use KDE stuff its going to increase your memory footprint.

Maybe if you prefer KDE you should use Kubuntu. I haven't had your problems with Evolution because I use Thunderbird.

I've been using Gnome on Ubuntu; I started out preferring KDE strongly, but after using Gnome for a while ... I still prefer KDE. But I understand the point of Gnome. It's not that one is perfect and the other is trash. Adjusting from one to another simply involves a series of small irritations as your unconscious expectations are violated, until you adjust. I found the Gnome file dialogs irritating at first; but they get the job done, only in a different way than I expected.

Re:Fast going cold on Ubuntu

[pato101 (851725)]

Do not need to try Kubuntu instead: you can just install the kubuntu packages in your ubuntu install, by doing just this:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Alternatively, you may play with xfce if you like by adding xfce packages as follows:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

Mod Parent Up

[physicsnick (1031656)]

GP, simply hop into a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get autoremove

No need to reinstall anything; it's that easy to switch. If you liked KDE in Mandrake, you'll surely like KDE in Kubuntu.

Re:Fast going cold on Ubuntu (mail migrate)

[MancunianMaskMan (701642)]

migrate your mail: I installed my own IMAP server (courier-imap, use Maildir-format to store mail in individual users' $HOME, configure system-wide fetchmail to deliver email to users). That way you can change tour mail client on a daily basis, since they all support IMAP, and your mail stays in the same place. As an added bonus you can use email on other computers in your house if you have a laptop with WiFi ot something like that. Once you've set your IMAP up, you can darag-and-drop historic email from your "old" evolution email into IMAP, close evolution for good, and run Kmail, thunderbird, mutt, ot whatever else you like.

Re:

[plover (150551)]

I say, boy, I say don't be makin' sport of his name, now, y'hear?

Nice boy, but doesn't listen to a word I say.

Sincerely,
Foghorn Leghorn

Re:Whatever happened to version numbers?

[Bazman (4849)]

Ubuntu version names are (now) alphabetical, so Dapper Drake preceded Edgy Eft, which precedes Feisty Fawn. The names are always Adjective Animal ('eft' is another name for a newt).

There are also version numbers, so that Edgy Eft is 6.10 (meaning year 2006, month 10). The releases are supposed to be every six months in April and October.

Barry

Re:how about WoW?

[physicsnick (1031656)]

Actually, WoW really does work right out of the box with Wine. It has entirely Gold or Platinum status on WineHQ:
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=648 2 [winehq.org]

On that page there's a hugely overcomplicated guide on getting it working; Feisty will tremendously simplify things, especially since it comes with Wine 0.9.30. Here's how you'd install WoW in Feisty:

1) Install your video card drivers. This involves clicking Applications->Add Applications, clicking Advanced, and choosing nvidia-glx for NVidia cards or xorg-driver-fglrx for ATI. Much simpler than on Windows.
2) Restart X (press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE).
3) Put the WoW install CD in the drive.
4) Browse to your CD-rom (/media/cdrom) and double-click Installer.exe
5) Do the Next-Next-Finish dance
6) Double click the icon on your desktop to launch the game.

So it's pretty much identical to Windows, except the CD won't autorun. :/

Oops, forgot OpenGL

[physicsnick (1031656)]

You also need to tell Wine to use OpenGL by adding a couple lines config file. It's step 4 in the appdb link I posted. So one additional step.

Does Upstart = Launchd?

[Kadin2048 (468275)]

Is upstart based at all on Apple / MacOS X's launchd? They created that basically to speed up OS X's boot time, and it did so dramatically. I believe that it's Apache (or BSD?) licensed and Apple was hopeful that it would be included in other systems and become the standard way of doing things, although there was a lot of cynicism that the mainstream Linux/UNIX community would never give up init and rc, regardless of the technical merits of any replacements. Granted, it doesn't give you the System V-like mu