Slashdot Log In
Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Drawing Near
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Feb 28, 2007 08:40 AM
from the millions-rejoicing-in-the-street dept.
from the millions-rejoicing-in-the-street dept.
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."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
AWW damn!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:AWW damn!! (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.stupids.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday July 03 2003, @11:37AM)
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!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:AWW damn!! (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.malti.org/)
I'm using feisty since herd 1 (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.vivaoporto.com/)
X.org 7.2 will (perhaps) be in feisty (Score:5, Informative)
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 (Score:4, Informative)
(http://dalcomp.net/)
Why Xorg 7.2 is so important? (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 27 2006, @03:46AM)
Re:Why Xorg 7.2 is so important? (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Friday November 09, @04:36PM)
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: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why Xorg 7.2 is so important? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.apaddedcell.com/)
There are some details on the release page [freedesktop.org] on the Freedesktop wiki.
From that page:
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.
No changes allowed (Score:5, Funny)
As opposed to freezes where you are allowed to change things...
Re:No changes allowed (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.apaddedcell.com/)
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.
Re:No changes allowed (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 12 2007, @09:41AM)
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 (Score:4, Funny)
Fast going cold on Ubuntu (Score:1, Informative)
However as I have been using Ubuntu, I'm finding I like it less and less. Gnome turned out to have a bunch of annoying issues (Mounting a remote FTP server is just a mess, for example). Evolution is nowhere near as good as KMail and contains so many irritating and obvious bugs I'm currently only sticking with it because migrating my five-years worth of email into it was such a pain in the ass I don't fancy going through it again. I attempting to install KMail from Add/Remove Programs at one point but as it simply doesn't work because large parts of KDE are not installed correctly, and anyway it seems dumb to run half of KDE just to use one application. There is nothing comparable to K3b for Gnome in the repositories. Enabling additional repositories isn't as simple as I was led to believe. A lot of the software that is in the repositories seems to be very old versions, and even more of the software there seems to be half-finished or half-baked (Gnomebaker and QDVDAuthor are two recent examples). There are now enough issues that irritate me about Ubuntu as there were with Mandrake before it, so what have I gained? If anything it seems to have been a retrograde step: at least with Mandrake I have KMail and K3b!
I guess my next step will be the try Kubuntu instead, and at least attempt to get back some functional basic applications. Frankly, I relish the thought about as much as I fancy the idea of a root canal.
Re:Fast going cold on Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.rabbitears.info/)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://kamthaka.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 30 2005, @03:18PM)
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
Re:Fast going cold on Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 27 2006, @03:46AM)
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 (Score:5, Informative)
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) (Score:4, Informative)
Frozen code? (Score:1)
(http://www.superbusnet.com/)
Re:Frozen code? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.rabbitears.info/)
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? (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday February 06 2007, @09:13AM)
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.
Hurd! (Score:1, Funny)
Skip this one (Score:5, Funny)
Been using it for about a month... (Score:5, Informative)
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]
Faster, Feisty, Faster! (Score:2, Interesting)
how about WoW? (Score:1)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:how about WoW? (Score:5, Informative)
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=64
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.
Whatever happened to version numbers? (Score:2)
(http://www.careerlink.com/)
Re:Whatever happened to version numbers? (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Sunday July 13 2003, @10:38AM)
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
Herd 5? (Score:1)
Breaking news! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday January 22 2002, @05:54AM)
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? (Score:3, Interesting)
Feisty Fawn shpping - Debian slipping as usual (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Not sexy enough (Score:4, Funny)
(http://ciaranmchale.com/)
Smoother update process? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://tarlus.homeip.net:12345/)
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:Smoother update process? (Score:5, Informative)
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. (Score:3, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
> Command? (A)ttack (S)pell (I)tem (R)un:
Maybe someday (Score:2)
Feisty desktop / liveCD feedback .... (Score:1, Interesting)
The desktop/liveCD now set's it's time and date over the network, that's a welcome improvement.
The gnome control center is a new addition, this cleans up the menus, I'm not quite sure if I like it yet or not.
The update-notifier daemon was running again on the desktop/liveCD, this is a regression.
General clumsiness during bootup of desktop/liveCD, awkward pauses, blank screens, graphic glitches.
Not possible to lock screen in a liveCD session if one creates a new user or if one creates a password.
Memory usage was up on the liveCD, perhaps this will come down as we get closer to release.
Persistence feature needs to be improved to auto-detect the proper media.
We need a USB-key version of the desktop/liveCD.
Non-standard support? (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://www.clapboard.org/)
Then I tried it on my main system (where I do a lot of video and photo editing, so I'm unlikely to switch full time), but came up empty when Ubuntu didn't work with three monitors.
Is this version of the OS going to address needs like my relatively-standard non-standard display issues?
Colour me crazy... (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://o2kewl.net/)
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?
Do previous Ubuntu releases get renamed? (Score:2)
(http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3675.html)
Roadmap for future Ubuntu names (Score:2)
Happy Hamster
Icy Ichthyosaur
Jumping Jehosaphat
Killer Klown (from outer space)
Lame Liger
Manly Man (Mugabe Memorial edition)
Numb Nut
Oppresive Opposum
Permissive Penguin
Quaaludinous Quail
Raw-throated Rhinovirus
Submissive Sasquatch
Tasty Tuna on Rye with Lettuce and Tomato, Soda, and Side of Fries
Unpredicable Unexpected Cotton Rat (really, look it up)
Valorous Vampire Bat
Wet Weasel
Xenu's Xliii
Yawny Yeti
Zootropic Zygophyllacea Scale
Oblg. Xkcd... (Score:4, Funny)
Does this thing do dual monitors yet? (Score:2)
Xubuntu? (Score:1)
Herd 5, where art thou? (Score:1)
Re:Tollef Fog Heen (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Zero Install (Score:1, Informative)
http://0install.net/ [0install.net]
Re:Tollef Fog Heen (Score:1)
Re:What I need!! (Score:2)
(http://www.blissx.co.uk/)
Re:Zero Install - not on by default (Score:2)
(http://stylus-toolbox.sf.net/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 15, @11:50AM)
Re:Tollef Fog Heen (Score:2)
Re:Less with the stupid names already (Score:2)
Re:Feisty Fawn? (Score:2)
the "Feisty Fawn" is just a codename