Ubuntu 10.10 Beta Released 291
RandyDownes sends word that Canonical has released the beta version of Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat). The release announcement boasts faster boot times, GNOME 2.31, and a speedier version of Evolution. In addition, "The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new 'Featured' and 'What's New' views for showcasing applications, and an improved package description view. You can now easily access your package installation history too." The release notes and download page are both available.
Upgrade or Full install... (Score:3, Interesting)
Canonical's priorities (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:So where's the "close" button this time? (Score:5, Interesting)
It has to be decent or half decent at least, so you don't get so many calls.
It has to be consistent too, so that you don't so many calls and so that when you get the calls you don't waste extra time trying to figure out where the fuck is the close button is.
That's why many large corporations aren't rolling out Windows 7 over night, and they even upgrade Windows 7 machines to XP when they buy them. Windows 7 changed many things for little gain (Vista doesn't even exist as far as many corps are concerned
So the fact that "Desktop Linux" can't even get simple stuff like this right isn't going to help acceptance at all. Think long and hard about where you want to put your menus, close buttons, cancel and OK, and then STICK TO IT. Stop fucking around with it.
Unless of course you have a powerful reality distortion field like Steve Jobs.
p.s. Those stupid wobbly windows and zillions of themes aren't worth anything when it comes to productivity. Making it easy for users to change themes just makes it hard for Support to help them over the phone if they pick something really different.
Re:So where's the "close" button this time? (Score:2, Interesting)
What's the story with Evolution? (Score:3, Interesting)
The summary mentions that Evolution will be faster. Can any beta-testers report on whether it is much of an improvement?
I'd been increasingly unhappy with Evolution. It's very, very slow; it usually fails to display HTML email, which is increasingly common, and it often freezes for thirty seconds or so when I try to do it. I use Gmail and Google Calendar, but prefer to use a local client; Evolution offers integration with Google services, but that integration is clumsy. For instance, to "archive" email in my inbox, I have to click the "delete" button.
So, I finally got around to installing Thunderbird. In order to get the functionality I wanted, that I'd had in Evolution, I had to install several addons: Enigmail, Lightning, and Provider for Google Calendar. Importing contacts was a bit messy, and I haven't worked out yet how to sync Thunderbird's address book with Google Contacts. There's less thorough integration of Thunderbird into the GNOME interface.
Yet despite those difficulties, Thunderbird is much, much better at the core functions for which I'd been using Evolution: email and calendaring. It is faster, displays messages more cleanly, and integrates better with Google services.
I've been seeing complaints from Ubuntu users for years that they'd rather have Thunderbird as the default client, and that it works better than Evolution, save for the less thorough integration into GNOME. Having made the switch, I'm really at a loss why Ubuntu and GNOME are sticking with Evolution, and not at least treating Thunderbird as a peer.
Re:Maybe this time... (Score:3, Interesting)
Never had this problem. Perhaps you should use a better video card
Why is this always the ultimate answer to all Linux hardware problems from the zealot crowd? "Oh, your hardware is crap. Go buy good one!". With "good" implicitly defined as "works in Linux". Well, my hardware doesn't work in Linux, but works just fine in quite a few other OSes. Why do neither Windows nor FreeBSD have any problem whatsoever with my wireless card, but Linux (any distro... went through 5 in the last 6 months) can only list networks and not connect since new (read: broken) Ralink drivers were put into mainstream kernel? Why both Windows and FreeBSD can switch sound from speakers to headphones when the latter are plugged in, but Linux cannot (and I can't be bothered to find out if the problem is the mess that is ALSA, or the mess that is PulseAudio)?
Don't give me that "crappy hardware" line. It's getting as tiresome as suggestion to reboot whenever there is a problem with Windows. How about actually fixing shit (or, at least, not breaking shit that is already there and works)?
Do they still use Empathy? (Score:2, Interesting)