What Normal Users Can Expect From Ubuntu 8.10

notthatwillsmith writes "With Ubuntu 8.10 due to be released in just a few days, Maximum PC pored through all the enhancements, updates, and new features that are bundled into the release of Intrepid Ibex and separated out the new features that are most exciting for Linux desktop users. Things to be excited about? With new versions of GNOME and X.Org, there's quite a bit, ranging from the context-sensitive Deskbar search to an audio and video compatible SIP client to the new Network Manager (manage wired, Wi-Fi, VPN, and cellular broadband connections in one place)."

What normal users can expect

[kidde_valind (1060754)]

A brown desktop background?

Re:What normal users can expect

[solevita (967690)]

Indeed.

When using previous Ubuntu versions, the first thing I would do after installation was the theme to something less brown. I downloaded and installed the 8.10 beta the day it was released and it was beautiful - no need to change a thing - I loved it.

Sadly an update replaced the beta's wallpaper with, what I imagine is, the wallpaper for the final release. It looks like crap so I changed to a solid brown background.

Ubuntu are employing people to do design work now and it really shows. Yes, you get a brown desktop background, no, this isn't what Microsoft or Apple would sell you (unless you've got a Zune, I guess), but yes, it looks wonderful.

An operating system is more than the colour of the background image, of course, so I really shouldn't be labouring the point so hard, or feeding the troll; if you don't like it you could change it - don't judge the whole thing on its theme. Having said that, in 8.10 brown works well.

Re:What normal users can expect

[alex4u2nv (869827)]

Its either that, or the naked people! (ubuntu calendar) [google.com]

Re:What normal users can expect

[Tubal-Cain (1289912)]

And it encourages those that don't like it to explore the customization features.

Re:What normal users can expect

[psychodelicacy (1170611)]

I think it's more likely to be viewed as the color of the earth, sand, wood, that kind of natural stuff. But if you want to think about gay sex instead, don't let me spoil your fun...

Re:What normal users can expect

[lysergic.acid (845423)]

yes, changing your desktop wallpaper is a sure sign of intelligence and creativity. i approve of the logic of your statement.

i mean, changing your desktop from its default background is much more important than configuring your firewall, re-installing device drivers/your personal applications, restoring backed up files & documents, or setting up your network connection.

and nothing says "i'm a tech savvy hipster" like changing your desktop background to one of the throwback stock wallpapers that came with your OS--like a close-up shot up of wet leaves of grass/a frog/a butterfly, wind-blown sand dunes, tranquil autumn leaves, or any of the other kitsch backgrounds that expresses your personality--after all, what better way to show your sense of individuality than by personalizing your computer with a determined set of wallpapers, user avatars, and desktop icons?

so are you the skateboarder, guitar, soccer ball, or the chess pieces?

The one Ubuntu feature I want most:

[Cordath (581672)]

Proper Bluray media support.

I don't care if I have to pay for it. I just want to be able to play all Bluray media, including stuff with only HD audio codecs that are currently unsupported in Linux.

Now, I know some of you think this is unnecessary fluff. However, if Linux wants to compete with Windows it has to tackle the crucial stumbling blocks that force people to continue using Windows. Linux has lots of great home theater software and many aspirations towards filling that niche, but they amount to a hill of beans without support for all HD media.

Re:The one Ubuntu feature I want most:

[Directrix1 (157787)]

Does VLC not support this yet?

Very little apparently

[dlevitan (132062)]

I'm using Kubuntu 8.04 right now. The article claims "The last six months of development have brought tons of new functionality that make running Linux easier for all users". I hardly see anything awe-inspiring. Here's my perspective as a current KDE user:

1. GNOME: I see nothing revolutionary or even exciting here. Ekiga is their picture for this. That's definitely a niche app. Better bluetooth support and resolution controls are good I guess. I've had the on KDE for a few years now I believe.

2. X.org: Hotplugging mice/keyboards "works now"? Well, it works now for me with 8.04. They must've had to dig deep to find something like that. So does resolution switching and xrandr support for multiple displays (which is a huge deal, but has already been around for a year).

3. New kernel: always good for my laptop which typically get a few more things running more smoothly with each kernel release

4. Network manager: Anyway who has a 3G connection probably has a laptop. And laptop's need network profile. I need one for work and one for my apartment. Ubuntu doesn't support these and this article doesn't mention anything new. Everything listed is minor improvements. Personally, I have to use wicd, which is decent, but isn't quite as well integrated as networkmanager.

5. Guest account: I see no point for this. Either you trust the person or you don't. And you can create your own guest account if you really want to and switch to it. At least I can do that from KDE. I suppose one click is nicer than click, type in guest/guest, and log in. So maybe a worthwhile feature, though hardly earth-shattering

6. Flash video: Eh, what was stopping things from working before? I assume this just means version 10 is supported. Which is great, but 64 bit support is still lacking so I'll still have problems with it. No, not an ubuntu problem, but I can complain anyway.

7. Secret hidden folders: Just use truecrypt. This doesn't even encrypt your home directory based on the article. And you need to go to the terminal to set it up?

8. Config-less x.org: Now this is nice. Hopefully it'll work well. I haven't had to use an xorg config file for a few years now beyond the default, though to support multiple monitors I've had to include a virtual screen line. Hopefully this will fix that problem.

Personally, I'm more intereted in Kubuntu dropping KDE3 in 8.10. KDE4 can be set up well, but it certainly doesn't support everything that's in KDE3 and still isn't quite as smooth (though I actually like it a lot).

Eclipse

[epine (68316)]

I wish Ubuntu would get their act together on Eclipse.

From http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1265/ [ubuntu.com]

msarro wrote on the 25 Mar 08 at 01:50

This has almost 550 vote ups, more than just about anything else on this place, and yet according to launchpad this isn't even supposed to make the hardy release? C'mon guys, 3.3 is a year old, and 3.4 will be in testing shortly after hardy. Some of us like to have a scripted install so we can get ubuntu installed, run our shell script, come back an hour or two later and have everything installed. Yes, it can be downloaded and run from a folder, but we can do that with everything. So if that's the retort people are going to keep kicking back at us why are we even bothering to include apt?

My attempt to run Ganymede from a folder was unsuccessful. Maybe it was the AMD64 thing, I never figured it out, and I don't want to.

Ibex appears to be stuck at 3.2.2. That's Callisto from July 2006. If Jaunty remains stuck at 3.2 in April 2009, I'll begin to seriously wonder about things. Does July 2002 to June 2005 ring any bells with Ubuntu management?

I've read other threads which suggest that Fedora enjoys a small monopoly on the developers who are proficient at packaging Java applications.

[[Had some problems posting from a public terminal. Sorry if my repost ends up becoming a dup.]]

My Experience

[spandex_panda (1168381)]

I would like to add my 0.02. I installed Ubuntu 8.10 about a month ago due to getting a new pc with an intel ich - 10 (or whatever) chipset where hardy (the great stable one) wouldn't recognise my hard drive (pain in the arse).
So I installed intrepid and in the beginning there were constant application crashes, nvidia issues, then my wireless card stopped working and I couldn't even compile serialmonkey's drivers!
But now I am siting pretty, new vlc, new gnome, new gimp, open office 3.0 (from a ppa repo), new deluge ... its all great. Nvidia drivers work flawlessly and I even got 2 screens working (a 22 inch samsung and a CRT TV) without manually editting xorg.conf!! (amazing!). Virtualbox [virtualbox.org] runs in seamless mode so I can use the few windows apps I can't live without (mostly for Uni) and ... its really great!

So in conclusion, if you want the latest and greatest free software then I highly recommend that you try Ubuntu 8.10, it works fabulously for me. If you want a super stable free software OS then use 8.04.1.

Re:kubuntu?

[Kjella (173770)]

KDE4. No more KDE3, if you want that stick with hardy. So if you have already made the jump with KDE4 packages on hardy I'd guess "not that much", if you haven't well better read up on all the news in KDE4.

Re:kubuntu?

[kesuki (321456)]

kubuntu 8.10 is coming along too, i've got the beta running, because the 8.04.1 update hosed my system. broke the x.org server, sigh.

8.10 kubuntu although still in beta has been pretty stable, there was one program that crashed on me, but didn't affect me, and there is an annoying bug with trying to configure the ethernet manually using the 'tray icon' (it won't ask for a password, and the ethernet can't be configured without a password) although, it seems like that icon is mysteriously gone today (there were some 27 updates today) plasmoids are really cool, they let you put useful widgets anywhere on the desktop, on the system bar, etc. but there aren't very many plasmoids right now.

I think it was a troll for the moderators.

[khasim (1285)]

#1. As you mentioned, you need to unmount a partition to modify it.

#2. "...the garbage the LiveCD left on your drive."
But the LiveCD does not leave anything on your drive.

#3. "...because the liveCD requires the NTFS partition to be mounted..."
But the LiveCD does not require that any partitions be mounted.

I think that it was just a troll and one of the moderators did not know any better and mod'ed it up.

Re:Newbie Question

[by Anonymous Coward]

Is Ubuntu the easiest version of Linux to set up?

No. Try Mandriva and PCLOS for the easiest - they've still got the jump on Ubuntu for "it just works" with no fiddling. And their Control Center feature is better.

Otherwise I prefer and use Ubuntu. Been using it for three years on three boxes.

Ubuntu /does/ seem to work without fiddling for some people, and no doubt a few will flame here that I'm some sort of Microsoft Shill or whatever, but that's my experience. When I install Mandriva or PCLOS, those just work from GO, and I really wish Ubuntu would have a good look at what they're doing different.

Haven't installed Ibex yet. I was one of the approx 25% of beta testers who had a wretched time, so filled out the bug reports and am now going to wait a month or two past release before trying the final.

Re:Newbie Question

[nine-times (778537)]

What version of Windows XP are you using? Any time I've installed XP from a normal disk, it requires at least agreeing to some license agreement, partitioning, formating, configuring your network to some degree, choosing username, clicking "Next" a bunch of times, some other random stupid things I'm preobably not remembering, and then installing several drivers. I'd love a copy of XP that installed as easily as hitting the "install" button.

Anyway, yeah, Ubuntu is about as easy as installing Windows-- potentially easier because it's likely that it will recognize more of your hardware without installing drivers. Also, you can boot up the install CD as a LiveCD and try using the OS before you install.

Re:Newbie Question

[marco.antonio.costa (937534)]

In my experience it's more JustWorkish than Windows. My ancient Bt878whatever capture card and Chinese junk Bluetooth adapter were both a pain to set on Windows. On Ubuntu I just get a recognized capture device and a nice little BT icon on the tray. :-)

Haven't looked back since. Kudos to Shuttleworth and employees.

Re:Newbie Question

[by Anonymous Coward]

You know what doesn't work for me? Dual monitors. Every time I try to use dual monitors with Ubuntu it gets all confused and ends up giving me two copies of a 640x480 desktop or some crap like that. I've never had it work without writing my own xorg.conf which makes all the video control panel stuff break.

Why can't I just have what I have in Windows - A properly working Xinerama type desktop (not Twinview)? I don't want all my dialogs centered on the seam in the middle and I don't want to maximize across both monitors. Has any progress been made in this area?

Re:Newbie Question

[Falstius (963333)]

As a Linux Zealot with Mod points, I'd love to mod your exaggerations down. But, I use dual monitors and it never works as well as it should. On my laptop, I can only clone screens. On my desktop it works well except that compiz gets confused with dual monitors (so I turn it off). The latest Fedora and Ubuntu are making strides but it is still extremely disappointing. I love Linux, I'd never go back to Windows but I really wish dual monitor setup was better.

Re:Newbie Question

[jonaskoelker (922170)]

You never just "click install" on windows xp..
1) Pop in disk
2) First you have to [...]

Almost correct.

1-5) as you said.
6) Look at the popup that says lsass.exe will shut down your box in 30 seconds
7) Pull the box off the network
8-12) Do step 1-5 again
13) Download antivirus without connection to the network. Pixies and leprechauns are helpful here.
14) Install the antivirus
15-16) step 6-7

Based on a true story. I can't tell you how much I hated windows when I saw the sasser popup.

Re:Newbie Question

[Draek (916851)]

13) Download antivirus without connection to the network. Pixies and leprechauns are helpful here.

Which is why you should always install XP with at least one of the following:

a) Behind a firewall (may not be completely safe, though).
b) With a laptop besides you.
c) With an Ubuntu LiveCD.

Option c) is specially funny though, all things considered, but it's the one I usually recommend. In fact, many of my friends' PCs used to have a relatively small FAT32 partition for LinuxWindows file exchange during install/troubleshooting, before Linux got reliable NTFS support.

Re:Newbie Question

[daoine_sidhe (619572)]

He'll hit +5 because he's right. I install Windows XP every day, multiple times per day, on every piece of hardware you can imagine. As a matter of fact, what he described as the windows setup (which you claim is overstated) actually left out a few steps. Starting at what he should have listed as step six, you still have to install device drivers (this requires multiple reboots as you cover all hardware), install AV software, product activation (may require a telephone call if you've re-installed too many times, or changed any hardware), windows updates (more reboots)...

He was modded up because he was right. The entire Ubuntu installation, configuration, and applying all updates takes less then 1/2 hr (no, I'm not exaggerating, try it) and is finished while Windows XP is still formatting the disk.

Re:I love the antivirus tag, so funny!

[LingNoi (1066278)]

Unless there is a rootkit in an ubuntu or debian package you're not making a lot of sense.

Even if there were you got the name and email address of the people who made the package and also the people who were responsible for checking the package.

You can even take that package and compare it to the original upstream version using diff.

You are just talking bullshit. Hence why you're probably posting anonymous, because you know you're talking nonsense.

Re:PowerPC Ubuntu Help

[JackieBrown (987087)]

Not be be a fanboy, but you can use Debian for a PPC supported distro.

Re:What I noted about upgrading from 8.04 to 8.10

[ricegf (1059658)]

I never upgrade Windows OR Linux - I reinstall both on a clean partition.

I have two partitions, for the current and previous install respectively. When it's time to upgrade, I copy my user data from previous to current; reformat previous and install the new OS there; and flip partitions in the boot loader.

That way, if the new install isn't all I'd hoped, I can easily boot into the previous partition from the grub menu. And I don't have to worry about a Windows or Linux upgrade almost working (yes, I've had problems with both).