Shuttleworth Announces Karmic Koala

An anonymous reader writes to mention that Mark Shuttleworth has announced the next release in the horribly alliterative Ubuntu family, "Karmic Koala." The new version hopes to include a newer, shinier, faster startup, better small screen support, a spruced-up desktop look (no more brown), and many minor tweaks and updates. "A newborn Koala spends about six months in the family before it heads off into the wild alone. Sounds about perfect for an Ubuntu release plan! I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in Barcelona, and before that, at a Jaunty release party. Till then, cheers."

Front page news

[Anonymous Coward]

...they're finally getting a new theme?

Seriously, of all the things to mention in the summary, you focus on the not-brown?

There's a page long rant about cloud computing, about the eucalyptus project, and why the release is named koala. And you mention that, like every release, there's talk of it possibly not being brown?

Re:Another one!

[iced_773]

kola...isn't that a KDE program? Then again, shouldn't this whole release be KDE-only? I mean, it's all K's...

Re:The problem with eucalyptus ...

[MichaelSmith]

Yes I had the thought that we should be using eucalyptus oil as biofuel. There certainly is a lot of the stuff around.

Re:Another one!

[PitaBred]

If it's so bad, why do you know it so well?

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[MediaStreams]

The text alignment and kerning problems are something I really can't understand. Every time I do my yearly 'let's give Linux a try again' it is depressing to see the same horrible font choices, text that is never properly aligned in text boxes, and kerning problems.

It's like trying to put out a newspaper or magazine that doesn't have any real professional page layout people working on it. It is so jarring to read that it really doesn't matter what the actual content is.

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[dotancohen]

Please, file bugs with specific examples. You are probably right: the people of that particular profession are not on the dev team and the devs that are working on Ubuntu probably don't even _know_ what they are doing wrong. Better yet, file it at Redhat or Novell, where the cashflow to hire the right people exists (Canonical won't do it).

Re:Cool

[MadMidnightBomber]

Debian unstable is like a Windows RTM, except it's more stable.

PS. Don't mod this funny like you did last time, it's fucking true.

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[Chandon Seldon]

This is mostly nonsense.

Some of these issues are real some of the time, but nearly all of your post just sounds like you're complaining that things aren't exactly the same as what you're used to.

The latest Ubuntu works beautifully for anyone who actually wants to get stuff done rather than complaining that the "open file" dialog doesn't automatically grow when you change your font size preference or whatever.

Re:And just like a koala

[Hillgiant]

So a bit like some children then ?

Some? You are obviously not a parent.

Re:Meanwhile Linux Continues To Be A Trainwreck

[Chandon Seldon]

I like Ubuntu better than Windows

Then stop spreading the same boring anti-Linux nonsense.

but for God's sake do we need 15 apps that do all the same thing?

Not your call, not my call, not anyone's call. Programmers are free to work on what they're interested in doing. Distributions tend to pick sane defaults, and there's no need to complain about having other options.

Can we please get rid of the nag message if you try to login as root?

Who cares? If you're really an expert and know better, turn the message off.

Linux has no chance on the desktop until the basic UI gets professionally done.

You'll keep complaining about it until... get this... you choose to stop.

Re:Another one!

[aurispector]

When they get to "P" it damn well better be "Platypus".

Re:U!untu

[sammyF70]

You should consider changing the pack of twats you hang around with, or just be happy they actually use it, and educate them gently.
Or you might want to hang around with Apple evangelists and get frustrated by their belief that Apple invented The Mouse, or with MS evangelists who think Ballmer was the first one to practice chair-throwing as an alternative form of stress relief.

The ones I can't stand are those linux users who look down at Ubuntu because it is actually easy to use and offers the advantages of a linux based OS to the technically challenged masses, on the ground that they were "Here First". Just because you used to code by punching holes in paper cards doesn't make you any wiser. It just means you're old.

Re:Cool

[minvaren]

Everything is different, but the same... things are more moderner than before... bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers... San Dimas High School football rules!

Re:U!untu

[onefriedrice]

Actually, I think the only Linux users who are irked by Ubuntu's popularity are probably younger people who think they're 133t by using something more difficult. Those of us who are "old" (is 23 old?) are more likely to be uninterested in Ubuntu only because we already know our own distros and the workings of a Unix system in general. Most of us oldies are too chill to waste time talking down Ubuntu. Look to your own peers for irrational Ubuntu-bashing.