 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 404, 9 May 2011 |
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Welcome to this year's 19th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Ubuntu 11.04, probably the project's most controversial release to-date, was unveiled recently to a variety of opinions focusing on the user interface changes. Does the Unity desktop fulfil its promise to be a more productive working environment? Read our first look review of "Natty Narwhal" to find some answers. The Ubuntu theme then filters down to the news section where we link to a selection of views published recently in popular Linux media before we quote Mark Shuttleworth in an interview with OMG! Ubuntu! Further down in the news section Clement Lefebvre provides some interesting information about the upcoming Linux Mint 11 "Katya", Debian opens a discussion on the possibility of a stable rolling-release branch, and Barry Kauler reveals his thoughts about the next version Puppy Linux. Also in this issue we have an alluring interview with two PC-BSD user interface designers and information about the roadmap leading towards the release of openSUSE 12.1. Happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (47MB) and MP3 (38MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
A look at Ubuntu 11.04
 April 28th brought the arrival of Ubuntu 11.04, a new release of Ubuntu which comes with the nickname "Natty Narwhal". This version includes the new Unity graphical interface, improved package management and additional Ubuntu One features. Version 11.04 is a regular release, as opposed to a long-term support release, and will be supported through to October 2012.
Before downloading the latest release from Ubuntu I had a chance to put some questions to Canonical's Director of Communications, Gerry Carr, and he was kind enough to talk about the highlights of the new Ubuntu.
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DW: What has been the focus for Ubuntu 11.04? What new technologies have been improved on or introduced?
GC: 11.04 is the realisation of two to three years' work, and there have been a number of changes and enhancements made to this latest instalment of Ubuntu. Of greatest significance has been the migration over to the new Unity interface, which offers a rich and intuitive, yet greatly simplified, user experience. With Unity, users can personalise their PC by adding and accessing applications in a way that's become familiar and proven popular in the smartphone and tablet market. The same Ubuntu 11.04 interface can be used on any machine or any screen, on netbooks, notebooks or desktop PCs.
We've taken a cue from smartphone functionality and have started to bridge away from the tree and branch (file and folder) concept and over to one where users can choose applications with a single click and add apps through clicking or dragging. The dash is our way of delivering apps, music and video together into a single location where they can be instantly discoverable. The search capability of 11.04 has been turned on its head, as well; we've followed the notion that search is at the centre of how people use their PC. With this new interface, users can key in a few letters or a category to find exactly what they're looking for as intuitively as possible. That really encapsulates 11.04: a system that is responsive to user intention.
Through the Ubuntu One cloud service, users will be able to enjoy syncing, file sharing and music streaming for both Android and iPhone. Android users will also be able to import contacts from Facebook and fully sync with GMail.
Ubuntu's Software Centre has also been significantly upgraded; the expanding software catalogue now includes a wider range and choice of free and paid for applications and games, users can review and rate software and adding new applications is easier than ever. Canonical is introducing a cloud-based free trial of 11.04, so that users can access and try out Ubuntu without having to download a thing. The trial will be available in the next few weeks at Ubuntu.com.
Of course, the system offers the same secure, stable, virus-free environment, the same speed and compatibility with PCs and plug-in peripherals and devices it always has.
DW: The Unity desktop is a big new feature. Why the move to Unity and will fans of the old GNOME desktop be able to switch back to GNOME?
GC: Unity is the next stage in a well sign-posted path to bringing Ubuntu, and therefore free software, to as many people as we can. To do that we need to be as good as, and offer a real alternative to, the experiences that users can get on other platforms. We feel sure that most people who try it will enjoy it considerably more than the paradigm they've been used to. The new interface is certainly different, but not for the sake of being different: the changes are deliberate, designed to be intuitive and really useful for the user. There is the option to switch back to Ubuntu 'classic', should a user wish to.
DW: Ubuntu often makes changes to the user interface (moving buttons, trying on bright purple wallpaper, changing scroll bars). Is there a concern Ubuntu will become too alien to people? Or do you think Ubuntu is leading the way and others will follow your path with time?
GC: What Ubuntu 11.04 brings is the opportunity to challenge and disrupt that status quo. Rather than a loveless decision to replace the machine with another Windows one because that's all there is - this is a chance to make a really individual choice that has big advantages in terms of look, feel and how the system operates.
We think 11.04 and the work that has been done to the interface really gives it that launch pad to start bringing on board a much more mainstream audience and we are doing all we can to make the leap as painless as possible. We will have live demos, interactive screen grabs and a simple step-by-step guide to download and install. Once exposed to Ubuntu and especially the experience that Ubuntu 11.04 brings to them, we are sure that millions more will choose to make their own choice in what they run on their PC.
Right off the bat, we knew we needed to bring features on board to make a compelling reason for people to switch. Windows is such an engrained technology it's practically omnipresent and people don't even stop to think about the alternatives to it. As part of the extensive user research we've conducted - and continue to conduct - we've found that users might make the switch to an open source operating system for a host of reasons ranging from either a poorly performing machine or an extremely expensive one. It is an increasingly more common aspect of the consumer experience to feel an underlying dissatisfaction with what's gone before.
DW: The free ShipIt CD program has been cancelled, but I understand Canonical still plans to get CDs out to end users in other ways. Could you talk about how Canonical will be getting discs out to the communities?
GC: We are going to make large numbers of CDs available to the Ubuntu Local Communities (LoCos) through a ShipIt-lite program. We are asking the LoCos, who are much better placed than Canonical in many ways, to find creative ways to get CDs to those that need them. Also, every single person who has a CD is a potential distributor -- it is after all free to copy, modify and redistribute. We will also continue to make the packs available through the store which are sold more or less at cost price (plus shipping).
Everyone is still welcome to simply go to the Canonical store and buy and redistribute CDs. All that changes is that there is no need for an official blessing from Canonical and we will no longer list the websites on ubuntu.com. We encourage them to continue to promote Ubuntu and provide this great technology in their local market.
DW: Ubuntu is typically thought of as a desktop distribution, can you tell us what improvements we'll be seeing on the server side?
GC: Ubuntu 11.04 offers exciting opportunities for businesses to improve the reliability, security and manageability of desktop, cloud and server deployments, challenging the traditional license or subscription fee model and embracing open source technology. This release comes at a time of accelerating corporate adoption of Ubuntu, and delivers a range of improvements specifically relevant to the corporate environment.
Ubuntu Server 11.04 adds the OpenStack "Cactus" release as a technology preview, downloadable through the Ubuntu software repositories. Ubuntu features the most tightly integrated implementation of OpenStack on an operating system available today – giving companies evaluating OpenStack a great opportunity to assess the latest release.
For desktop deployments, Ubuntu 11.04 offers corporate users a choice of Unity -- a new, simplified and modern interface -- or the option to retain the "classic" Ubuntu interface.
DW: Canonical has taken flak for keeping the Ubuntu One server-side code in-house. Why has the server been kept closed and when will the code be opened?
GC: Ubuntu One is a commercial subscription service - and none of it is a requirement to run Ubuntu. For commercial reasons we've decided not to open source the server-side code. That decision is not under active review.
DW: Thank you, Mr Carr.
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Installation and first impressions
I grabbed the ISO image for 11.04, selecting the 32-bit Desktop edition. The ISO is just under 700 MB, filling a regular-sized CD. I decided to start my experiment on my desktop machine (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, NVIDIA video card). Booting from the disc brings up a graphical splash screen which quickly gives way to a window asking us to select our preferred language and choose whether to run the installer or try the live desktop environment. I chose to install right away.
The installer begins by checking system requirements and asks us if we'd like to install all available updates during the install process and, further, if we would like to install third-party software. The additional software includes items such as mp3 codecs and Flash. This first time around I asked the installer to include third-party packages. Next up we're asked if we'd like Ubuntu to take over the entire disk or do "something else". I think this is an attempt to streamline the process, giving us two choices, rather than throw several install options at us. I decided to take the vague-sounding "something else" option and was brought to the partitioning screen. The partition manager is well laid out and mixes flexibility with intuitive controls. Support is included for the ext family of file systems, ReiserFS, JFS, XFS and Btrfs. Once we've sliced up the disk and confirmed our choices the installer moves to the next screen and begins partitioning and copying files in the background. We're next asked to pick our time zone, confirm our keyboard layout and create a new user account. The user account screen gives us the option to encrypt our home folder. We're then presented with a slide show that talks about Ubuntu's features while the installer copies its files.
After about fifteen minutes I noticed that the progress bar had stopped moving and clicked a button to see details of the installation. The installer had reached the point of downloading third-party software and, probably due to it being release day, my connection was quite slow. I opted to skip adding the extra software, the installer finished and I was asked to reboot the computer.
Starting the machine I was shown a blank, bright purple screen for about twenty seconds, followed by a fairly standard-looking GNOME login prompt. I entered my login information, the screen went blank for a few seconds and then a pop-up appeared telling me my video card wouldn't handle the new desktop environment, but I could choose "Ubuntu Classic" from the login screen. At this point I expected to be taken back to the login prompt, but instead the OS crashed. Not just X, but the entire system went down and I had to perform a hard reboot.
On the desktop
Returning to the login screen I found that my session options were "Ubuntu", "Ubuntu Classic" and "Ubuntu Classic with no effects". I chose the third option and was logged into a standard GNOME 2.32 desktop environment. As usual, the application menu was placed at the top of the screen and the task switcher at the bottom. No icons were placed on the desktop. My first impression of the new wallpaper was it looks like someone is shining a bright light through grape jelly. Personally, I think this is slightly more attractive than last year's rust on plain purple look, but it's still not something I find easy on the eyes. Also on the topic of look & feel, Ubuntu places window buttons to the left of windows, rather than the right. I don't think the choice really matters one way or the other, except I have around twenty years of habit working against me. Fortunately such minor things can be quickly changed through GNOME's Appearance tool. I brought up the Appearance options, clicked my preferred theme and the app crashed. Returning to the Appearance app and selecting the theme and background I wanted worked the second time around.
Ubuntu 11.04 - the classic GNOME desktop
(full image size: 524kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
If I may backtrack for a moment, I was a bit surprised that the NVIDIA video card I occasionally use for gaming wasn't up to running the Unity desktop. Checking on the forums turned up several other people reporting similar issues with the Unity & NVIDIA combination and it's apparently a driver issue. I suspect switching to the closed source NVIDIA driver would give me full functionality, but I decided to skip that option and instead waited to try Unity on my laptop machine.
Some other early impressions I had were that the documentation Ubuntu comes with is quite good. The supplied pages are well written and organized in such a way I think novice users will be able to navigate them easily. I noticed early on that there were software updates available in the repositories, and update notifications were turned on, however no notification appeared on my desktop letting me know new packages were ready for download. Manually launching the software updater allowed me to see and install available updates.
Early in the 11.04 development cycle Mark Shuttleworth wrote on his blog, "A wit said of Google Wave that 'if your project depends on reinventing scrollbars, you are doing something wrong.' But occasionally, just occasionally, one gets to do exactly that." Now, obviously, this is going to be a personal choice issue, but I think trying to reinvent the scrollbar in Ubuntu was a poor choice. I think I see what they were trying to do, the new scrollbars take up less room at the side of the window, which is good, in theory. However, in my experience, the new design fell on its face in a few ways. For example, I found that moving my mouse over the new, thin scrollbar would cause a control to pop-up, allowing me to manipulate the slider. Well, sometimes the pop-up would appear and sometimes I'd fine myself waving my mouse back and forth over the thin scrollbar without result, or the pop-up control would appear and, when I moved my mouse over it, the control would disappear again.
This made what used to be a simple click-n-drag into a longer, frustrating process. Assuming the control behaved, I found that I could drag it around easily enough, but clicking the up/down buttons caused the scrollbar to jump up/down an entire page, rather than the smooth scrolling I've grown used to. My third issue is that not all applications use the new scrollbars. The GNOME applications do, but many others (including the default ones which come with Ubuntu) do not. Firefox and LibreOffice, for example, use the regular style of scrollbars. This means that users do not have consistent UI widgets and I found that it breaks flow. On a positive note, I found the fonts included with 11.04 to be pleasant and easy on the eyes.
Ubuntu 11.04 - browsing the web with Firefox
(full image size: 427kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Software and package management
Since I've mentioned a few applications, let's take a look at what is available in the menu. Ubuntu comes with Firefox 4.0, LibreOffice 3.3.2, the Evolution e-mail client and the Shotwell photo manager. Also in the menu are the Empathy IM client, Gwibber for social networking, the Transmission BitTorrent client and a terminal server client. We further find the Banshee media player, a disc burner, the PiTiVi video editor and a sound recorder. There are a few small games, Tomeboy Notes and the usual text editor, calculator and archive manager combo. GNOME comes with plenty of apps for adjusting the look and feel of the desktop and there are also programs for creating user accounts, setting up printers and finding files. In the background we find the 2.6.38 release of the Linux kernel.
For handling software, Ubuntu includes the traditional Synaptic package manager and Ubuntu's Software Centre. Synaptic, of course, is quite powerful and flexible, but doesn't have the most newbie-friendly interface. The Software Centre has been touched up a bit. I found that it was more responsive this time around than it was last year. The Software Centre breaks packages into three groups: free software from Ubuntu's repositories, free (as in cost) software from third-parties and commercial software from third-parties. Items are further divided into categories, helping us to quickly find multimedia apps, games, office software and so on. Each software item includes ratings and reviews, letting us know what other people thought of the package. In the past I'd considered the Software Centre a good idea that needed some polish and speed improvements and I think the program has now reached maturity. It's easy to find software and either add or remove it and we can queue multiple actions at whim, where other package managers usually force us to wait until one set of tasks is completed before embarking on another. Finally, the Software Centre includes a history log, showing us what items have been added or removed recently.
Ubuntu 11.04 - the Software Centre
(full image size: 374kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Hardware support
Regarding hardware, aside from not being able to run Unity, I found that all of the devices on my desktop machine worked well. My screen was set to the appropriate resolution, sound worked out of the box and performance was quite good. Last year I complained of the Ubuntu One service chewing up CPU cycles whether the client was in use or not and that appears to have been corrected. I found the system to be fast and responsive during my desktop trial.
Moving over to my laptop computer (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 3 GB of RAM, Intel video card) I found that the install process was the same, but there were a few important differences in the end result. The first was that when booting from the hard disk I was no longer shown a blank purple loading screen, instead I saw the expected Ubuntu banner with progress lights under it. And, upon logging in, I found my Intel video card to be compatible with Unity, letting me try out the new interface. In fact, all of my laptop's hardware was handled properly, giving me a good screen resolution, sound working out of the box and my Intel wireless card was picked up without any work on my part. Performance was good and the system was responsive. One glitch I did run into early on came from using the laptop and booting from the live CD. Running off the disc brings up a window asking if we'd like to try Ubuntu or install it. Any time I selected "Try" the system would show me a busy mouse cursor and hang. A little experimenting revealed that clicking the window's close button would force the Try/Install program to close and the Unity desktop to load. If the window wasn't manually closed then the machine would remain stuck on that screen.
Ubuntu 11.04 - the Unity application menu
(full image size: 249kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Unity
Regarding Unity, there's been a lot of talk about the new environment and people seem strongly divided on the issue. Personally, I can't say I love it, but nor do I hate it. There are definitely things I don't like about it, but some features, I think, will be helpful to people, especially newcomers. It's quite a different approach to the desktop and there is certainly a period of adjustment moving from classic GNOME (or KDE for that matter) to Unity. In the upper-left corner of the screen there's a launch button which brings up a screen that's basically a greatly enlarged application menu with a prominent search function. To the left side of the screen is a quick-launch bar running the full height of the desktop. This bar contains commonly used applications and clicking one of the large icons loads its app. Clicking the same launch button again focuses the app, if it was behind something.
So the side bar doubles as a launcher and task switcher. Across the top of the screen is a blank bar that, when the mouse is moved over it, will display the menu bar for the application currently in focus. Applications don't take their menu bar with them, it's always at the top of the screen, much the same way OS X behaves. Personally this is probably my least favourite feature of Unity as it means people with larger screens (or multiple screens) need to focus an application window and then move the mouse to the top of the screen to access the menu where, before, if the program's menu was visible, it could simply be clicked. I found that this put quite the speed bump in some tasks.
Unity features virtual desktops (four, by default) and clicking on the pager icon shows a zoomed-out preview of each virtual desktop and we can double-click on the workspace we want to use. I found that using the right-hand workspaces caused the quick-launch bar to disappear unless the mouse was positioned to the left of the screen. I've been looking for a way to move the quick-launch bar or force it to remain visible and haven't found a solution yet. When the bar fills up with open/available applications we can scroll through the icons by simply moving the mouse to the top or bottom of the launch bar.
Using the new application menu and getting used to searching for items instead of browsing a menu tree has taken some getting used to for me, but I have to admit it's fairly well implemented. I've been able to find programs both by name and, usually, by description so far and I think it's something new users will pick up easily, especially if they're familiar with smart phones. Over-all I think Unity has made a good beginning, but there are some things I don't like about it, mostly in regards to customization. Or, more specifically, the lack of customizing options. I also find it weird the universal menu bar at the top of the screen is always available, but the text on the menu bar is invisible until the mouse moves over it. Since the bar itself doesn't hide, I can't understand why the designers chose to make the text invisible until my mouse is already hovering over it. I think the developers have gone with good defaults for netbook machines, but the layout doesn't translate well to large screens or multiple-screen systems. And, of course, the video card requirements seem a bit much. There's really nothing here which should demand 3D acceleration, it's still very much a 2D environment with a few simple effects that have been available to low-end cards for years.
Conclusions
In conclusion, I'd have to sum up my experiences with Ubuntu 11.04 as being generally good, but largely inconsistent. As an example, all my hardware was detected and worked properly, but when the OS couldn't find a suitable graphics card on my desktop machine, it crashed. Attempting to work from the live CD on my laptop caused the machine to hang until I forced the installer window to close. The classic GNOME interface is well put together, but scrollbars now vary in form and accessibility from app to app. The Software Centre is probably the best it's been, intuitive and helpful, but it seemed to request my password almost randomly. Usually I'd be asked for my account password with every new package installation, but sometimes the prompt would be skipped and I never did find a conclusive pattern.
The update notification didn't work on either of my test machines. Unity is, for smaller devices, probably a good UI, but I really feel it needs to be more flexible if it's going to catch on with full-sized notebook and desktop users. The default applications which come with 11.04 are well thought out and, of course, Ubuntu offers over 33,000 packages in the repositories, making it easy to find what we need. I'm of the opinion there are good features in this release, but 11.04 definitely suffered from being rushed out the door while it was still beta quality. Ubuntu aims to be novice-friendly, but this release is buggy and I think they missed the mark this time around. I'm limiting my recommendation of 11.04 to people who want to play with an early release of Unity.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Ubuntu Unity opinions, Linux Mint 11 features, Debian and rolling release model, Puppy Linux update
 Ubuntu's latest release continues to evoke long discussions on many popular websites and user forums. Is the new Unity desktop really such an unpleasant and unnecessary change? For some it's a "yes", at least according to Alastair Otter who claims that "Ubuntu Unity is not all that unifying": "Unity feels unfinished - it feels like an afterthought in this release and not very nicely integrated. Perhaps it would feel better if the various elements of the interface adopted the same colours as the rest of my desktop." PC Pro's Barry Collins shares the sentiment in "Ubuntu Unity: the great divider": "Even some of the most die-hard Ubuntu advocates amongst the PC Pro readership have expressed their disgust at the interface, which was first introduced in the now defunct Netbook Edition last year." However, there are others, like PCWorld's Katherine Noyes, who argue that Unity could be a great user interface for those users who have grown up on Microsoft Widows: "I'm still in the process of messing around with Unity and deciding if it's something I want to keep. The more time I spend with it, though, the more I think Natty Narwhal may indeed be the first Linux release truly designed for newcomers to the operating system."
 Of course, there are bound to be radical opinions every time such a dramatic change takes place. But what does Mark Shuttleworth, the Ubuntu founder, thinks about Unity? Here is an extract from an interview by OMG! Ubuntu!, published last week: "Q: Are you satisfied with Unity in the recent Ubuntu version? Shuttleworth: Yes, though I recognise there are issues, and I would not be satisfied unless we fixed many of them in 11.10. In the end, when we reviewed bug lists, stability and experience, Unity was the best option for the average user upgrading or installing. There are LOTS of people for whom it isn't the best, but we had to choose a default position. I think we walked that line admirably. I appreciated the open discussion that was had, and it made me more confident in the final position; that decision is best taken by the desktop team, and they were arguing in favour of Unity, and they had my support for that." Nevertheless, even with the positive tone, the Ubuntu leader accepts that there are things that will need to be addressed in the next release: "There's lot to learn, that can only be learned in reasonable time by getting code into a wide deployment. Some decisions I regret and we'll evaluate alternatives, some we'll tweak."
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 The Linux ecosystem is now so broad that even a die-hard Ubuntu fan can easily jump ship if necessary. One distribution that could benefit from the present discontent with respect to frequent major changes in Ubuntu is Linux Mint, which has always maintained a more conservative attitude towards upstream changes, even reverting some of them if the users prefer it. Clement Lefebvre talks about the upcoming release of "Katya" whose first release candidate is hitting download mirrors as I write this: "Linux Mint 11 comes with GNOME 2.32, the traditional Linux Mint desktop layout, mintMenu and the same desktop elements featured in previous releases. Compiz is installed by default and so is fusion-icon, which lets you switch easily between Compiz and Metacity. Software selection: LibreOffice replaces OpenOffice.org as the default office suite; Banshee replaces Rhythmbox as the default music player; gThumb replaces F-Spot as the default photo application; Gwibber is no longer installed by default. Changes: the update manager is faster than before and comes with numerous bug fixes and multiple UI improvements; the desktop settings tool is now desktop-agnostic and serves both generic settings and desktop settings specific to GNOME, KDE, Xfce, etc." The final release of Linux Mint 11 is expected "by the end of May".
Linux Mint 11 RC - the classic GNOME desktop with the usual Mint enhancements
(full image size: 416kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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 For even more conservative Linux users there is always Debian, with its infrequent stable releases and a well-tested set of rock-solid applications. Furthermore, Debian's "testing", "unstable" and "experimental" branches exist for the more adventurous among the distro's user base. But what about a well-tested and stable, but rolling-release Debian? Discussion about such possibility appeared recently on the debian-devel mailing list and here is a tentative summary by Lucas Nussbaum: "There's some user demand for rolling releases. For evidence, one can look at the usage of Debian testing or unstable which clearly goes further than the Debian development community. Or at the quickly growing market share of Arch Linux. Or at the interest in Linux Mint and aptosid. Or at the DPL's report of his interactions with the press." As always in Debian, there are many opinions, possibilities, pros and cons. But as the author concludes, the rolling-release concept for Debian's "testing" branch does have a certain positive vibe: "I have the impression that advertising testing as a rolling release usable by end users is generally considered a good thing. The renaming of testing to rolling is not as consensual, but most opponents have a 'whatever; if you want' position."
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 Finally, a quick update on the development of Puppy Linux, whose upcoming version 5.3 could see a switch from Ubuntu packages. Barry Kauler reports on his blog: "A forum member sent me a message expressing concern that the proposed next official flagship Puppy, version 5.3, might not be based on Ubuntu packages. See discussion on 5.3 here. The choice of which distro's packages are used is not really up to me. It is really a question of who will 'run with the ball'. Playdayz had the determination and stamina to bring 'Lucid' Puppy to release status and to coordinate a series of upgrades. Now he wants a rest and that is well-earned. It was Playdayz who choose Ubuntu packages, and the choice for the next Puppy (5.3) is also up to whoever is going to manage it. For those who want to see a 'Natty' Puppy, well, it is up to you to do it. There is room for more than one mainstream official Puppy. Currently we have two 'official' puppies, Lucid and Wary, the latter built from packages compiled in T2. There is no reason why we couldn't have Wary, Upup and Spup going into the future, as long as each is targeting different audiences."
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| Interviews (by Jesse Smith) |
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In the eye of the beholder
 Open source projects are often started and run by coders. The new feature lists that accompany releases usually talk about technical changes and advancements. This may seem natural until we consider that many of our first impressions of a project are not based upon its technical capabilities. Rather, most of our early observations of a product, whether we're consciously aware of it or not, will revolve around things like colours, layout and font. What does the distribution's website look like, is it easy to navigate, how big is the project's ISO, is the boot menu intuitive, is the loading screen text or graphical, how long does it take to boot, is it easy to find options on the login screen, is the wallpaper attractive, how hard is it to find what I want on the application menu? Most of the preceding questions deal with design and aesthetics rather than technical concerns. Technical enthusiasts tend to downplay the role colours and placement have in our lives, preferring to focus on behind-the-scenes capabilities, but it's hard to deny white text on a fuzzy background, white text on a clear background and tiny black text on a white background will invoke different feelings.
With this in mind, it might seem odd that many of us can name half a dozen or more developers involved in major open source projects, but most of us probably can't come up with a name to associate with our desktop background, icons or menu layout. We often see raging debates on the best colour theme for a distro, whether window buttons should be on the left, the right or not even exist, and what font is ideal for avoiding eye strain, but we rarely think about the people who put those touches into our operating systems. In an effort to shine a spotlight on the designers who make using computers a more pleasant experience I got in touch with Jenny Rosenberg and James Nixon, who work for iXsystems (a major sponsor of several BSD projects, including PD-BSD and FreeNAS), and asked them to tell us about the work they do.
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DW: Let's start with a little background about yourselves. Where did you come from and how did you come to work with iXsystems?
JR: My name is Jenny Rosenberg and I am a graphic artist operating from my New Jersey design studio. I began working with iXsystems in 2008 after a friend referred me to Denise Ebery - Marketing Director of iXsystems. I have since had the pleasure of working directly with Denise, James Nixon - Webmaster and Usability Expert, and Matt Olander -- Chief Technology Officer, to develop a variety of branding solutions with iXsystems. It was such a great experience working with James on the custom PC-BSD desktop wallpaper set to blend with his GUI styling and I am so proud to have been part of the operating system design process.
JN: I come from the wonderful state of California where I've spent most of my life on the drums or the Internet. While browsing the web, a friend of mine instant messaged me asking if I could help out a friend with a corporate website. At the time, I was designing fan sites for local bands and blogs for friends -- so I thought this would be a great way to branch out and gladly took the project. Shortly after, I relocated from sunny Southern California to the beautiful Bay Area to take on a full-time position at the iXsystems headquarters.
DW: How do new designs get included in the operating system? Does the artist or usability expert come up with new designs and push/present them to the team, or does a manager come to you and say "we need a new look"? Could you walk us through the life of a new design from conception to its inclusion in the OS?
JN: New designs usually coincide with a release of PC-BSD and are often inspired by the release name. Design ideas come in from all directions and include input from Kris Moore, Matt Olander, Denise Ebery, Jenny Rosenberg, myself, and many others. Often I will e-mail Jenny and Denise with a design goal, ASCII art, or a quick mock-up created with the GIMP. Jenny responds with a few rounds of comps after the initial design requests. Each round of comps includes change requests made after the initial request. Once the team reaches a decision, the design gets packed up and committed to the project.
JR: I have had the honor of working directly with open source community leaders, Dru Lavigne - Director of Community Development for PC-BSD and Kris Moore - Director of PC-BSD Software Development. I recently worked with Dru to develop the cover art for The PC-BSD Users Handbook -- a collaborative effort that is created at the PC-BSD wiki. Kris had a great idea for the new AppCafe application icon in PC-BSD 9.0 and invited me to work with him on the illustration. I've also collaborated in two upcoming projects, the newly redesigned PC-BSD website and enhanced PC-BSD logo and logomark.
Open Source leaders and iXsystems managers cohesively work together to promote creative ideas for development and explain the selected ideas to me. I will revise and finalize designs until the best solution is chosen, based on team feedback.
DW: Open source operating systems are made up of a lot of components. Does the PC-BSD/iXsystems team work with other projects (such as KDE) to create a certain look or to improve consistency?
JN: I do not actively work with other projects to create the overall "Look and Feel". Although, the critiques, suggestions, and feedback from iXsystems employees, the community, and my own personal experiences aid in improving the consistency and usability of the PC-BSD operating system. Utopia for me would be actively working with the UI developers from KDE, LXDE, and GNOME to create a unified look and feel across all desktop environments.
DW: A lot of smaller open source projects suffer from a lack of good artwork and UI design. Do you think there is a shortage of good designers and artists in the open source community, or are developers not reaching out to embrace people who have UI designing skills?
JN: Good artwork comes from talented artists and clean designs come from a well-trained eye and several years of experience. Some projects lack "good" artwork simply because they do not care, while others lack the resources to contract the "good" artists. Most projects have volunteers at varying skill-levels contributing artwork and design ideas. The long-term volunteers usually have "the vision", while the short-term volunteers see an opportunity to gain experience and notoriety. Projects benefit from both types of volunteers, but long-term volunteers are more likely to understand, meet, and exceed the expectations of the community. Perhaps some developers do not see a need for a polished, professionally designed project -- I , however, do.
JR: I believe that there is amazing talent available and ready for open source projects. Artists and designers are an integral part of the development of a project. Designers polish and complete the look and feel after an extensive amount of work has gone into its creation. An amazing open source project could turn off users or be overshadowed by an unattractive interface.
DW: How do you receive feedback from the user community? Do either of you lurk on the forums, receive e-mail form users, do you go to BSD conferences, invite people into your office to look at mock-ups?
JN: I tend to shy away from the forum and IRC, these communication venues can become time-consuming. I attend several BSD conferences every year and often take notes on the most common complaints as well as praise. Most mock-ups are shown to several people in (and out) of the office via e-mail. A couple of occasions I have had the privilege to volunteer at the FreeBSD booth while next to KDE. They usually have things to say about how KDE looks on FreeBSD.
JR: I receive feedback a few different ways, from open source community leaders and the iXsystems team, to reviews and comments on open source community forums. I was very honored to hear the positive feedback from Skullfire, a PC-BSD forum community member, about the wallpaper set and James' GUI design theme and styling. It thrilled me to hear that someone appreciated a design project we worked so hard on, I loved to hear it! I've also gotten to mingle with attendees during MeetBSD 2010, which was such a great experience. I believe that community feedback is very important and I appreciate it.
DW: PC-BSD may be the only open-source project I've seen that changes the wallpaper every few minutes by default (editor's note: Kororaa does this too). Was this done to make the environment appear more dynamic, was it a way to show off more artwork? Will this feature be present in future releases?
JN: The ever-changing wallpaper was intended to showcase new artwork while also demonstrating what can be done with the desktop. For some, this is a cool feature they may use for their own artwork or personal photo collection. Others may see this as annoying 'bloat', excessive, or just plain silly. Personally I enjoy exposing extra features by default to bring awareness that a feature exists -- potentially attracting more users to customize their desktop, or at the very least, to help brand PC-BSD one wallpaper at a time.
DW: How are conflicting opinions resolved during the design process? For example, if half of your feedback says the user base wants one look/layout and the other half wants to go in a different direction, what happens? Does the team vote, or does one person make the decision?
JR: I am always happy to provide continued edits and variations. The team will vote on revised designs to meet a compromise that everyone agrees on.
DW: Up to this point PC-BSD has had one desktop environment, KDE, but version 9 will include support for GNOME, Xfce and LXDE. Does this present new challenges for the designers and artists?
JN: It sure does, but the goal remains the same. In previous versions of PC-BSD, one may notice the effort that went in to getting Fluxbox to look like KDE. Now that we're completely breaking away from the KDE paradigm, a lot of the same effort will need to go in to the other desktop environments. At the very least, this should include a unified icon set, window decoration, and color scheme for all supported window managers. In the past, we've had severe issues with file downloads within apps like Firefox or Thunderbird associating with the correct applications. A band-aid used in the front-office of iX was to simply call kfmclient from a shell script and KDE would handle the rest. Now that we are breaking away it has become clear this issue will present itself again -- and for any user not using KDE. Without the proper 'mimetypes.rdf' file populated with file type associations, neither Firefox nor Thunderbird will function properly with downloaded files on PC-BSD. This will be one of our biggest challenges when facing usability issues.
DW: Different colours and patterns can invoke subtle responses in people (red is often associated with anger, blue with tranquillity, green is said to stimulate learning), what sort of response do you want people to have to your designs?
JR: I want people to feel the energy in the composition. The entire piece should flow and be balanced (breaking the grid * included), have a visual hierarchy and use harmonious colors and adequate contrast. I love to embellish and enhance colors by blending them until they come to life. I love shine and radiance! Some designers are more mellow and minimalistic with their approach which can be very clean and polished looking while I tend to create vibrant, active, and lively pieces. I want people to stop and take a second look and get lovingly lost in the details.
DW: There are many types of interfaces to design for now, from smart phones to netbooks to desktop machines with multiple screens. Do you think it's better to try to find a one-size-fits all design or should designers be looking at making specific designs for each type of device?
JN: A healthy combination of both, of course. For web interfaces, I tend to design for netbooks, being the least common denominator. A design that looks great on 1024x600 pixel monitor, however, may not always look so great when maximized at 1920x1080 pixel resolution so I tend to bounce back and forth until the design is presentable in most resolutions. I see a need to design separate (and perhaps native) interfaces for the iPad/iPhone/Android because users of these devices often have high expectations. One-size-rarely-fits-all.
JR: Good design will work on a range of interfaces all the way to printed products. Keep in mind, there will most likely be tweaks and small changes to accommodate direct uses, but each particular use should reference elements of a continued theme.
DW: Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?
JN: Recently I have been designing the FreeNAS Open Source Storage user interface for the latest release of FreeNAS version 8.0. This has been one of the most exciting, inspiring, and influential projects I have worked on. Exciting because we prevented FreeNAS from becoming "Yet Another Linux Project". Inspiring because we had the opportunity to introduce a re-designed interface and freshly architected platform to an already mature project. I had a great experience working on many aspects of the FreeNAS interface, from the database schema to the shiny icons to the AJAX empowered interface -- this project was truly amazing to be a part of. Many of the same people involved with PC-BSD had a hand in the new release of FreeNAS including but not limited to Jenny Rosenberg, Josh Paetzel, Warner Losh, Xin Li, John Hixson, Matt Olander, and a handful of developers around the world. Working with this team for the last few years has been awe-inspiring to say the least. My thanks goes out to everyone involved and the FreeNAS Community for their dedication and helpful bug reports. I look forward to the next design. Thank you.
JR: Thank you for interviewing me and taking the time to read, it was an honor and a pleasure!
* * * * *
Thanks to Jenny and James for taking the time to talk about what it is they do behind the scenes to set the scene.
* In a follow-up e-mail I asked Jenny if she would explain "breaking the grid" as I wasn't familiar with the term. She responded: "When designers work on any project, be it a website or a magazine article, they begin by building a grid to clearly balance the hierarchy of information between typography, graphics, and white space. Designing on a grid promotes your eye to flow easily between areas of organized information. Once designing on a grid is mastered, a graphic artist can experiment with unique and innovative layout solutions by breaking away from the grid layout."
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| Released Last Week |
FreeNAS 8.0
Josh Paetzel has announced the release of FreeNAS 8.0, a FreeBSD-based system providing free Network-Attached Storage (NAS) services: "I'm pleased to announce the availability of FreeNAS 8.0-RELEASE. FreeNAS 8.0-RELEASE supports NFS, CIFS, AFP, FTP and TFTP as file sharing mechanisms. It also supports exporting devices via iSCSI as an iSCSI target. Active Directory or LDAP for user authentication. The ZFS and UFS2 file systems are supported. ZFS is the primary file system and enables usage of many features, including quotas, snapshots, compression and replication that are not available in UFS2. This release is based on FreeBSD 8.2, but this version of FreeNAS is called 8.0 as there are future plans to add functionality that will get the versions catch up." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details and errata.
antiX M11
antiX M11, a lightweight offshoot of MEPIS Linux designed to run on computers with as little as 64 MB of RAM, has been released: "Just over a year since the release of antiX M8.5, the antiX team is pleased to announce that antiX MEPIS 11 'Jayaben Desai' - a fast, light, very flexible and complete desktop and live CD based on Debian 'Testing' and SimplyMEPIS - is now available in full, base and core versions (for i686 and i486 kernel). This release defaults to a fully customised IceWM Rox desktop (Fluxbox, wmii and dwm are also installed) using a SimplyMEPIS 2.6.36 kernel, our own assistants to help configuration, and the usual range of applications for desktop use. Latest Iceape (2.0.13) for Internet needs, AbiWord (2.8.6) and Gnumeric (1.10.14) for office use, GMMP and Goggles music manager (0.12.1) for audio, gxine, MPlayer and GNOME MPlayer for video...." Continue reading the release announcement for further information.
antiX M11 - a SimplyMEPIS-based distribution for older computers
(full image size: 534kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Alpine Linux 2.2.0
Natanael Copa has announced the release of Alpine Linux 2.2.0, a community developed operating system designed for x86 routers, firewalls, VPNs, VoIP boxes and servers: "The Alpine Linux project is pleased to announce immediate availability of version 2.2 of its Alpine Linux operating system. This release introduces several new features: a new Linux kernel branch based on 2.6.38 with all of the Alpine patches either re-based or included in upstream Linux sources; new support for the x86_64 architecture; SHA512 password hashing security; preliminary support for grsecurity Role Based Access Control; enhanced disk partitioning and installation tool (setup-disk); improved package management tools (apk); support for read-only boot file systems; added GNOME desktop environment...." Read the full release notes for additional information and package changes.
VortexBox 1.9
Andrew Gillis has announced the release of VortexBox 1.9, a Fedora-based distribution with the ability to turn an unused computer into an easy-to-use music server: "We are pleased to announce the release of VortexBox 1.9. This release adds updated versions of many of the packages that make VortexBox work so well. This version includes a new kernel for better hardware support. The DVD ripping package has also been improved and, of course, we added the latest version of SqueezeBox Server (7.5.4). The DAAP server has been updated to support Apple TV and you can now stream music directly from your VortexBox to your Apple TV including cover art. VortexBox can even stream your FLAC collection to Apple TV even though Apple TV doesn't support FLAC." Here is the brief release announcement.
Sabily 11.04
Sabily 11.04, an Ubuntu-based distribution with a collection of Islamic software and an integrated web content filtering tool, has been released: "The Sabily team is proud to announce the release of the new version of Sabily 11.04, code name 'Al-Badr'. What's new: new 'Al-Badr' pictures and wallpapers, new Plymouth and GDM themes; Unity and Unity 2D available, but Ubuntu classic (GNOME 2) set by default; new Firefox persona. New applications: Islamic Date - a Firefox extension that displays Hijri date; Zakat Calculator provides Zakat calculations; gufw - an easy-to-use Ubuntu firewall; DesktopNova (replacing WallpaperTray); autoKey - to avoid typing frequently encountered words; recordMyDesktop - records desktop sessions to a video file (Ogg Theora Vorbis file); Anki - an extensible flash card learning program...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
Sabily 11.04 - an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring Islamic software
(full image size: 642kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
SimplyMEPIS 11.0
SimplyMEPIS 11.0, a new version of the user-friendly, Debian-based distribution featuring the KDE desktop, has been released: "Warren Woodford is pleased to announce the release of SimplyMEPIS 11, the latest version of the renowned SimplyMEPIS Linux operating system that is designed to be easy to install, easy to use, and easy to make your own. SimplyMEPIS 11.0.00 is released for i386 and amd64 platforms. It's configured with a 2.6.36.4 kernel, the KDE 4.5.1 desktop, and many applications, including LibreOffice 3.3.2, Firefox 4.0.1, VLC 1.1.3, Amarok 2.4.0, Kdenlive 0.7.9, Digikam 1.9.0, GIMP 2.6.10, and Inkscape 0.48.1. Additional applications are available for easy installation from the MEPIS and Debian package pools including Dropbox, Skype, Scribus, Eclipse, Evolution, WINE and thousands more." Read the full press release for further information.
SimplyMEPIS 11.0 - a new version of the beginner-friendly, Debian-based distribution
(full image size: 1,157kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Parted Magic 6.1
Patrick Verner has announced the release of Parted Magic 6.1, a specialist live CD providing a large collection of utilities for hard disk management and data rescue tasks: "Parted Magic 6.1. This version of Parted Magic includes a new X.Org build and some bug fixes. The Nouveau X.Org driver for NVIDIA chips is used by default now. The black screen problem with the Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics Controllers has been fixed. A mess of other minor issues were addressed. Updated programs: alsa-lib 1.0.24.1, ddrescue 1.14, file 5.05, Midnight Commander 4.7.5.2, tar 1.26, X.Org Server 1.9.5 (all compatible drivers and libraries too), Linux kernel 2.6.38.4, Mozilla Firefox 4.0.1." Visit the project's home page to read the release announcement.
Zenwalk Linux 7.0 "Live"
Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the release of Zenwalk Linux 7.0 "Live" edition, a complete and installable Zenwalk live CD: "We are happy to announce the highly awaited Zenwalk Live 7.0, which will allow more people to try out Zenwalk without having to install it first. Zenwalk Live 7.0 is based on the sophisticated Slackware-Live scripts. Zenwalk Live consists of standard Zenwalk ISO packages following the main Zenwalk release, with the latest Xfce desktop and applications, and is shipped with a new artwork theme, additional localization packages for Icecat and Icedove, and the NVIDIA proprietary driver. It also comes with full support for inputting and displaying Japanese. You'll get the latest stable software including the most recent patches and bug fixes." Continue reading the rest of the release announcement for more information.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
openSUSE 12.1 roadmap
 The openSUSE project has published a preliminary roadmap towards the distribution next stable release, version 12.1. The development will officially launch later this week when the first milestone release will be presented to early testers; this will be followed by five more milestones and two release candidates. The "gold" release is scheduled for 10 November 2011. For more information please see the project's roadmap page.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- SlimPup. SlimPup is a puplet of Puppy Linux. It's designed to be very slim, clean, minimalistic, and easy on the eyes. SlimPup uses the Openbox window manager, Rox file manager, and has many favourite applications like Google Chrome, GIMP, Gnome Media Player, Audacity, Geany, and more.
- Ubuntu GNOME Remix. Ubuntu GNOME Remix is an Ubuntu-based distribution which includes the upstream GNOME desktop, rather than Ubuntu's Unity user interface.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 16 May 2011.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Where is it? (by TobiSGD on 2011-05-09 09:25:12 GMT from Germany)
There is a distro out there that has a long history. It is the base for a bunch of great other distros. It has its last release on April, 28th (when it was done, as bug-free as it can be). Distrowatch seems to think it isn't even worth a word. Its name is Slackware.
2 • Right: unity is a small problem when compared with hardware problems (by meanpt on 2011-05-09 09:30:59 GMT from Portugal)
I'll not discuss unity: i like it, it's simple and everyone coming from whatever other distro or OS will be working immediately to get things done. After that I think unity still have to learn everything from the recent tablet user interfaces, even from other desktop solutions available. Now, ubuntu seems to be targeting 200 million users on the next 4 years, as a broad medium term and strategic objective, but it's easy to jump with a number without establishing the roadmap to achieve that target, mainly by establishing goals by what mr shuttleworth calls function and form factors. And to achieve anything like that ubuntu will have to do more than supporting the everything intel computers, whatever the form is in stake.
3 • Really great attitudes (by NK on 2011-05-09 09:31:58 GMT from United States)
I really admire both the sentiments that Mark Shuttleworth and Barry Kauler show here. Shuttleworth is willing to admit the shortcomings of some of the decisions (esp. in the wake of some harsh criticisms) made while Barry is more than willing to entertain alternate design ideas concerning packaging. I really think it shows the best of the open source ethos, and can only lead to good things imho.
4 • Where is it? (by No One on 2011-05-09 09:32:58 GMT from France)
Slackware 13.37 was announced in last week's issue.
As appropriate to its release date.
5 • Right: unity is a small problem when compared with hardware problems (by skin27 on 2011-05-09 11:02:01 GMT from Netherlands)
Good review of 11.04. My experiences were somewhat the same (as I have a large screen and a nVidia card). The concept of one desktop environment for multiple devices is nice, but their still needs to be some adjustments on the used screen size.
For newbies is installing with different install methods (like Wubi, USB, CD, Virtual Machine) and hardware detection really important, because as one of these fails they easily quit. Making the user experiences on different hardware and installation with different methods more consistent is an important area to focus on.
6 • Ubuntu gets bombed but not Puppy for major changes? (by PFYearwood on 2011-05-09 11:24:29 GMT from United States)
Ubuntu gets cursed for changing its default desktop from Gnome to Unity and many users threaten to jump ship. Yet, this week, Puppy announces that the maintainer of Puppy Lucid gets to take a break and that will end the Ubuntu connection. It will be up to the next maintainer to select a package base for Puppy 5.3. Where is the outrage for this announcement?
Yes, Ubuntu made a major change for Natty. I tried it and still use Lucid. I also used Puppy in the past, keeping it for a liveCD distro. But, every time I download the latest version of Puppy, it is very different from the last version. Puppy gets a pass on criticism for its many changes. Why?
I guess it is because Puppy has such a small following and Ubuntu has become the Linux version of MIcrosoft. It made the mistake of being successful.
Paul
7 • random request of password (by som on 2011-05-09 11:55:07 GMT from India)
"but it seemed to request my password almost randomly"
well i am using ubuntu for sometimes now and i am still learning it.the seemingly random request of password is also noticed by me.later i found out that if i had used synaptic or terminal in recent past to install application,then software centre stopped asking for password for sometime.so,i thought ubuntu is probably caching the password for sometime for the sake of user ease.is not it so?????????
but i found this in all ubuntu releases starting from 8.10;not only in 11.04
8 • Unity, Software Centre, and Open Source (by MarkSouth on 2011-05-09 12:16:23 GMT from Switzerland)
Jesse, thanks for the Natty review. I'm still curious as to why Ubuntu finds it so much easier to cope with your laptop's wireless card.
I tried Ubuntu 11.04 on a LiveCD. The Unity interface was easy to use and if all I ever wanted to do was web browsing and office work I would never need to change anything. Yes, I'm a geek who likes to customize stuff, but most people only ever change their wallpaper, and sometimes not even that.
It's interesting to me that many people first criticize GUIs for needing too much clicking and not using the keyboard, but now many criticize Unity for using the keyboard to search for apps.
In Ubuntu, the Software Centre (and also Synaptic, and sudo in the terminal) keep the system password cached for a few minutes (about 5, apparently). This has been the way Ubuntu has worked for several years now, at least since 8.10 as mentioned by #7.
I would like to see more source code opened. I don't see any business risk to Canonical from opening the Ubuntu One server code, since their business edge is in the service operation and the sunk cost is presumably quite large (much larger than the code cost).
Regarding open source, has Puppy ever open sourced the code? It was promised long before my departure from the project, but as of today the site still states that referring users to the individual component sites for source complies with the GPL - in contradiction with what I've read elsewhere.
Pressing for source code to be opened is something that Distrowatch could throw its weight behind, and it would be a great contribution to the world of free and open software.
9 • @2, @5; Hardware Problems (by cba on 2011-05-09 12:21:57 GMT from Germany)
Ubuntu simply cannot fix the problems that nouveau still has with a lot of NVidia graphics cards, because they do not have the know-how to fix it. In this case they stand on the shoulders of the Nouveau project and Red Hat/Fedora. In contrast to Ubuntu/Canonical, Red Hat pays a Nouveau developer in order to fix the issues, Ben Skeggs, whereas Ubuntu does nothing in this regard, although it would help them most.
10 • Unity (by Eric on 2011-05-09 12:28:31 GMT from Netherlands)
For years we have been laughing our ***es off with Windows: in order to close this OS you have to press the start button.
Now Ubuntu comes close to this 'joke': In order to access your system settings, you have to press the sut-down button...
11 • Ubuntu Review (by dragonmouth on 2011-05-09 12:30:15 GMT from United States)
Jesse, thanks for an honest review of Ubuntu, mentioning some of its warts along with its good features.
I wish my impression of Ubuntu was as positive as yours. From the beginning, none of the versions of Ubuntu have properly set the resolution for my video card/monitor setup. The setup is capable of 1600x1200 but Ubuntu has always defaulted to 800x600. Other distros allow some way to correct such glitches. However, Ubuntu, in its infinite wisdom of protecting the user from himself, does not permit him to edit config files nor does it provide a GUI method of making corrections. For a self-proclaimed "newbie friendly" distro, not allowing the user to make changes is rather unfriendly.
12 • NVIDIA (by Smellyman on 2011-05-09 12:33:39 GMT from Hong Kong)
The latest proprietary drivers for NVIDIA suck so bad right now on linux. I have found out that my GF 7300 LE card is particularly troublesome. It can't run Gnome 3, Unity or latest builds of KDE.
NVIDIA hopefully sorts it out. the Nouveau drivers are working ok right now on Kubuntu, but I would really like to to get back to the proprietary drivers. Unfortunately they just work a lot better than nouveau.
13 • @PFYearwood (by dragonmouth on 2011-05-09 12:39:10 GMT from United States)
PFYearwood said: "Ubuntu has become the Linux version of MIcrosoft. It made the mistake of being successful."
Their mistake is not in "being successful", their mistake is in letting success go to their collective heads and becoming as restrictive, as arrogant, as dictatorial in their attitude towards their users as Microsoft is. They may be the developers, but they definitely do not know what is best for me, the user.
14 • Unity: my impression (by Leo on 2011-05-09 12:51:22 GMT from United States)
As I commented last week. I took Unity for a ride, and I tend to agree with Jesse. It is a nice concept, but still not mature. My benchmark is Kubuntu. IMHO, KDE4 scales much better to large/small screensizes (I run it on a 7 inche, old eeepc, in mid-sized laptops and on a huge monitor, ir rocks in all). But Unity has a nicer, workflow oriented, simpler interface. Let's see how it evolves!
15 • unity (by pera on 2011-05-09 12:51:47 GMT from Serbia)
Unity can't run on my HP laptop with ati x1250 card,while gnome-shell can run,and also compiz.
Unity is in beta stage yet.
16 • Unite, etc. (by VW72 on 2011-05-09 13:10:32 GMT from United States)
After using Unity for a few weeks (final beta through now), I thought I would hate it, but actually, it's not that bad. I found that it is customizable, but you must edit script files with a text editor. You can change icon sizes and what appears when right clicking on an iterm in the menu/dock.
My biggest complaint has to do with the unified menu and window controls being separate from the application windows. Several times I closed the wrong windows. Very frustrating. All of the mousing from window to menu was very tiring, too. I later discovered that holding down the alt key brings up the menu and then the mnemonics work. I also found that the unified menu can be disabled and then windows behave as you would expect.
For comparison, I also tried gnome3's gnome-shell. Both it and unity are very similar. By comparison, gnome-shell seemed more polished, but unity seemed more finished. I know both are subjective terms, but in reality, both need more work to be ready for mainstream use.
On my netbook, Unity makes a lot of sense, given it's small screen. On my desktop, not so much. On the other hand, once you figure it out it is not that bad.
However, and this is a big however, I have to use Windows machines all the time. Having such a large departure from what has become the defacto standard (like gnome 2 panel layout) is really problematic. If all I used was Unity, then either it or Gnome-shell would be easy enough to adapt to. However, if you use wither Windows or OS X, then years of habits get in the way of the "new" interfaces.
This isn't an issue for smart phones or pads, as such devices have always had their own interfaces. Besides, most often, these are used for social networks, checking email/calendar and browsing and have been designed accordingly. Very few people would want to replace their real computer with such a limited device.
In short, Unity (and Gnome-shell) proved to be much better and easier to use than I expected. However, given that much of my computer use revolves around non-Unity interfaces, it is always difficult making the transition back and forth. It's not that Unity does it better, it just does it differently.
As such, I find I am much more productive if I use XFCE which functions the way I am use to.
17 • RE:Unity stuff. (by Eddie on 2011-05-09 13:27:46 GMT from United States)
Jessie's review of Ubuntu 11.04 was fair to an extent. I had no problems with the hardware detection on my desktop or my laptop but every case can be different. Yes it is still new and it will improve much. It is much more stable and usable now then when KDE4.0 appeared. As far as people complaining about not being able to tweak everything it would be rather foolish to allow newbies to start editing config files and such. There are ways to change things regardless of what anyone does say about it. This distro is not geared toward the Linux veterans, as everyone here who complains about having there freedom to config taken away from them claim to be, It is geared for the new user. People should not be so self centered and chill out a little. There's plenty of different Linux to go around.
18 • Ubuntu, Unity (by fernbap on 2011-05-09 13:37:57 GMT from Portugal)
"Ubuntu has become the Linux version of MIcrosoft. It made the mistake of being successful."
No, that has nothing to do with success. Don't make me invoke the old stereotype "if it isn't broken, don't fix it".
"Their mistake is not in "being successful", their mistake is in letting success go to their collective heads and becoming as restrictive, as arrogant, as dictatorial in their attitude towards their users as Microsoft is"
And this is also an unbalanced opinion. Microsoft tried what all monopolistic companies always try: to remove the option of choice from the user base. MS is already paying the price, and i don't see how MS will ever be able to revert its downward trend.
Personally, i think the idea behind all recent changes in ubuntu (starting with moving the buttons to the left) is to create a unique UI that the user can associate with the brand, in the same way that Apple does.
That can backfire, but perhaps Shuttleworth is right on this one. The success of Apple depends much on its uniqueness.
As to Unity, i think the concept in itself is wrong. Ubuntu could have improved on gnome instead of trying to replace it, making a "ubuntu layer" in the same way Clem produced the "Mint layer". Unless the idea is creating Unity exclusive applications, which is a disturbing thought in itself.
19 • desktop design (by Robert W. Hayden on 2011-05-09 13:42:39 GMT from United States)
It was interesting to see your interviews re desktop design. Just last night I downloaded a recent distro also covered above. The background was ugly and made the desktop icons hard to see or read. Menus were an illegible black on dark grey, with options to alter any of this deeply buried and unclearly labeled. This seems to be a common problem with vanity distros that showcase the creators' artistic or software preferences but offer no added functionality. This could be skirted by testing each new distro on a few over-60 users who do not already know where things are hidden. Perhaps each new distro could come with a big desktop icon that toggles between the Wow! look and something functional. Maybe it could even boot up in functional mode so people can find the icon;-)
20 • Slack and Ubuntu (by Jesse on 2011-05-09 13:46:42 GMT from Canada)
>> ".Distrowatch seems to think it isn't even worth a word. Its name is Slackware."
We mentioned the release of Slackware last week. If you're looking for a review, we'll probably have that next Monday. I wasn't sure which one I was going to review first, but Ubuntu downloaded much faster and made the choice for me.
>> " I'm still curious as to why Ubuntu finds it so much easier to cope with your laptop's wireless card."
It's usually a firmware issue. You can get more info here: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20110328#qa
>> "However, Ubuntu, in its infinite wisdom of protecting the user from himself, does not permit him to edit config files"
How do you figure? Editing configuration files on Ubuntu works the same way as it does on other Linux distros. if you can't find a GUI tool to change your config, you can always use a text editor.
21 • Unity (by Richard Carlson on 2011-05-09 13:57:20 GMT from United States)
I'm giving Unity another try on my desktop system. With my present hardware it appears like I am running a tablet on my system whch has a 23 inch screen, 4-core processor, 16-gig ram. I'd like to seem more bells and whistles with custom adjustments made available. I guess time will tell what and when 'improvements' will be added to the mix to make this a viable alternative.
22 • Major Ubuntu shortcomings (by AnklefaceWroughtlandmire on 2011-05-09 14:21:52 GMT from Ecuador)
If Ubuntu wants be go mainstream, they have two major problems, neither of which are solved or even ameliorated by Unity:
1. The current state of 3D graphics drivers on Linux is an appalling mess. More often than not, 3D effects cause system freezes, lockups, and total crashes. Even the most common graphics cards suffer from this problem on Linux-- I can testify to this with Intel graphics on 3 different laptops, and the reviewer on this issue ran into the same issue with Nvidia. For this reason, enabling 3D effects out of the box, and worse still, making your default desktop environment depend on 3D graphics is a disaster waiting to happen. The train wreck known as Linux 3D graphics is not Ubuntu's fault, but they can't simply ignore the problem. They simply can not forcefully subject their users by default to the plethora of bugs and instability that comes with 3D graphics on Linux.
2. Ubuntu needs some GUI desktop-agnostic system administration tools. Despite all the fanfare around Ubuntu about its ease of use, the most simple system configurations can only be accomplished by reverting to the internet and searching for arcane terminal commands and config file tweaks. This should NEVER be required of a user. I'm referring to the most simple things like setting the default OS in GRUB, enabling/disabling the firewall, or changing the hostname. And worse yet, most GUI configuration tools that do exist for Ubuntu are tied to certain desktop environments. Try to set the system time in IceWM for example without reverting the command line. So, Ubuntu, please answer your users' requests. Most users have never requested a buggy new-age 3D interface. But there are ancient bugs and feature requests for 3D configuration tools. Windows has them. Mac has them. Ubuntu doesn't.
I hope somebody from Ubuntu reads this and accepts this as constructive criticism. I am a full-time desktop Linux user, and I hope that Ubuntu can improve it.
23 • Re: 22 (by Andy Prough on 2011-05-09 14:35:37 GMT from United States)
"Ubuntu needs some GUI desktop-agnostic system administration tools. Despite all the fanfare around Ubuntu about its ease of use, the most simple system configurations can only be accomplished by reverting to the internet and searching for arcane terminal commands and config file tweaks. This should NEVER be required of a user. I'm referring to the most simple things like setting the default OS in GRUB, enabling/disabling the firewall, or changing the hostname. And worse yet, most GUI configuration tools that do exist for Ubuntu are tied to certain desktop environments. Try to set the system time in IceWM for example without reverting the command line. So, Ubuntu, please answer your users' requests. Most users have never requested a buggy new-age 3D interface. But there are ancient bugs and feature requests for 3D configuration tools. Windows has them. Mac has them. Ubuntu doesn't."
But then if Ubuntu had centralized GUI config tools that worked on all desktops, what would you call it? openSUSE-Buntu?? Face it, if you want to use YaST, you might as well install openSUSE 11.4 and enjoy KDE 4.6 in all its glory, and leave the iPhone wannabe's to their Unity and Gnome shells.
24 • Where is ...? (by Tom on 2011-05-09 14:56:20 GMT from Puerto Rico)
Where is Centos 6 ?....
25 • @22, 23 (by Stan on 2011-05-09 15:34:46 GMT from United States)
Not just YaST; Mageia, Mandriva, and PCLinuxOS have the Control Center, which IMHO works even better than YaST. Even Fedora and derivatives have system-config-* (where * can be printer, services, etc...), so even some advanced distributions have it available.
All the above only require GTK+ (and GTK2-perl for MCC, or PyGTK for system-config-*), so are fully desktop-agnostic unless you consider GTK+, Python, and/or Perl major hindrances (in which case you're probably using a system better suited for MS-DOS). There *are* choices for those that want graphical system configuration options.
As for myself, though, I'm old-school, give me well-documented configuration text files any day.
26 • @22: Re: Major Ubuntu Shortcomings (by Muhammad Fahd Waseem on 2011-05-09 15:35:28 GMT from Pakistan)
AnklefaceWroughtlandmire is spot on. In Pakistan, where a Windows 7 Ultimate DVD can be bought pirated in your neighborhood mall for just $0.5, it's actually difficult to convince someone to use Linux because of exactly the two points.
I should not have to mess with drivers and tweaks just to get acceptable performance
Also, I really do need a powerful configuration utility that works 100% of the time, not just 80% of the time.
The closest that any distribution that has gotten to the second point is probably openSUSE with YaST. Still, it's not close enough.
I use Linux. But it's annoying to keep wondering that 'I'm on Ubuntu right now, but if I wanted to do this better, I'd have to reboot to openSUSE, or if I wanted to do that better, I'd have to reboot to Slackware'. It's just sad.
27 • Distro reviews (by Trademark91 on 2011-05-09 15:39:23 GMT from United States)
I find it funny and sad that even distrowatch is beginning to equate ubuntu with linux. Over the last few weeks, the majority of the distrowatch weekly articles have been about ubuntu and the latest disaster known as 11.04. Ubuntu, a relatively young distribution, has released a buggy update. It crashes not only X, but the entire system in the livecd, the installer, and the installed system. At the same time it is forcing a new desktop environment down its users throats (users which were very happy with the previous desktop and did not ask for change), which is compatible only with machines featuring 3d graphic capabilities. Not only this but the new desktop is still basically beta software (if that), crashing often and not well imlemented.
About a day before, the oldest surviving linux distribution, one that has been around almost as long as linux has, released its latest version. This version was stable and thoroughly tested, implemented a lot of new changes, and runs beautifully on virtually any computer on the market or in homes today. It kept its users very happy, and runs fast, stable and secure without sacrificing any functionality. This distribution is named slackware, it has released version 13.37, and it has not recieved a word of acknowledgement from distrowatch, while ubuntu has gotten large articles for weeks now closely following its prerelease, release, and now post-release. Well done distrowatch for your fair coverage of linux distributions.
/sarcasm
28 • RE: #27 (by Andy Prough on 2011-05-09 15:48:35 GMT from United States)
DW has given constant updates regarding the Slackware release candidates, the 13.37 release, and the release of related distros that are based on Slackware. In fact, I probably have seen more coverage of the 13.37 release than any previous Slackware release thanks to DW coverage.
Where have you been the past 3 months? Do they not have internet there? Is someone printing DWW and sending it to you by carrier pigeon?
29 • Re: 20 (by jaycee on 2011-05-09 16:03:19 GMT from Australia)
Jesse wrote: "We mentioned the release of Slackware last week. If you're looking for a review, we'll probably have that next Monday. I wasn't sure which one I was going to review first, but Ubuntu downloaded much faster and made the choice for me."
I'm sure many Slackware users would agree with me when I say that I'd be happy for you to take longer than a week to prepare your review of Slackware 13.37. This release is the most 1337 of them all, so you shouldn't feel pressured to review it quickly at the expense of depth, simply because it was released two weeks ago.
The review Caitlyn Martin gave of Slackware 13.0 for Distrowatch Weekly, Issue 323 (20091005), was very thorough, and probably wouldn't be altogether different to a thorough review of Slackware 13.37, given Patrick Volkerding's conservative attitude towards changes. However, her review focused on Slackware's "simplicity and ease of use" from a beginner's standpoint, not from a KISS standpoint. Also, she only briefly mentioned Slackware's website, forum (i.e. lack thereof), documentation, the reasons behind the included packages (and neglect of Gnome), and reasons for its "archaic" approach to package management - these are areas worthy of greater elaboration. If your review of Slackware 13.37 were to include these aspects, I'm confident it would be considered to be an essentially complete review. Of course, the result would be very lengthy, let alone that there's only so much time you can devote to a review without it interfering with everything else in your daily life that keeps you occupied. Still, considering the lack of reviews since its release, I'm confident Slackware's users would really appreciate you taking your time using it to give an in-depth report of the attributes of Slackware 13.37 and your experiences with it over a longer period of time than is usually afforded to other Linux distribution releases. In short, release your review when it's ready. :-) And thanks for reviewing it in the first place! Your work is much appreciated!
30 • OMG, UNITY it isn't! (by TG on 2011-05-09 16:28:39 GMT from United States)
I know my way around Gnome 2 very well having used and enjoyed it for many years. I'm used to being able to find and launch applications, navigate to files and folders, tweak my desktop entirely to my liking and change system settings with a few clicks of the mouse. Prior to installing Ubuntu 11.04 I anticipated that Unity would be equally user friendly. However the fact is that in its present form Unity is a nightmare of layers of ill conceived overkill crafted in denser layers of almost impenetrable confusion.
System settings should be easy to find, right? Unfortunately they're not in Unity. Someone decided they should reside not where people might logically think to look, but on the log-out menu! It wasn't until I was absolutely desperate to bail out of Unity that I finally found them – completely by accident. Again, you're presented with everything you don't need while digging down to what you do need gets lost in a disorganized shuffle with things so severely locked down that there's no apparent way to change them for the better. Gnome 2 is light years ahead of Unity when it comes to providing a powerful yet fully configurable interface for its users, yet it's being discarded in favor of something as ill conceived and poorly implemented as this?
Certain applications I rely on weren't showing up in the system tray. A bit of Googling revealed there is a 'whitelist' of 'approved applications' in Unity, applications that are 'permitted' to have an icon in the system tray. What's that all about?!! While this application whitelist can be circumvented by some terminal hacking, still some new and less experienced Ubuntu users will find themselves floundering when applications they install fail to show up in the taskbar.
One of the things users love about Linux in general and previous versions of Ubuntu in particular is that everything has always been highly configurable. If you don't like things the way they come out of the box you can change them to something you do like. In that light the new Unity Launchbar is a massive step backwards. When trying to set up the Launchbar the way you want almost nothing is configurable. You can't change its position. You can't get rid of it. You can't change its icons for better looking ones. You can make it a bit smaller if you install Compiz Config Settings Manager, find the Unity plugin and configure it. And you can make the icons blink instead of pulse. But that's about it. By default it shows icons for all your running applications, rather than for those running only in your current workspace. And there's no easy way to change that either. Also the workspace switcher icon does not let you know which workspace you're in or which other workspaces have running applications.
Having found Unity so incredibly disappointing, still I had an ace up my sleeve. I could log out of Unity and log back into the familiar, powerful, and inspirational Gnome 2 desktop by selecting 'Ubuntu Classic' from the logon screen. Ahh! Back to sanity! Back to favorite time savers like the desktop cube. I could hardly wait. My fingers raced through the logoff/logon procedure. At last! There it was! The classic Ubuntu desktop I have come to know and love so well. Honey, I'm home!
But wait, what's this? There don't seem to be any desktop effects enabled. Well I'll just enable them. OK, now what's going on? The desktop effects tab is no longer there. I discover that we users apparently don't need it anymore. Desktop effects are supposedly 'on' by default. Except they aren't. What kind of deal is this?!
So I open Compiz Config Settings Manager and disable desktop wall, then enable desktop cube and cube rotation. I'm told that I need Open GL. I accept. I'm told I need compositing. I accept. Instantly all my window menus and borders disappear. The desktop cube doesn't cube and fails to rotate. I look at my graphics drivers. Aha! There's the problem. The Nvidia driver is downloaded, installed and activated - but not in use. Never seen this before! How the hell do I tell the system to use the driver? Perhaps an uninstall and reinstall will help?
Five minutes later I'm staring at the blank screen of my computer monitor as my system refuses to boot at all. Despite booting from a live CD, no amount of tinkering with xorg.conf will allow me to boot into the system. Finally, it's back to the familiar, beautiful, Ubuntu installation screen once more. Following another fresh installation and some more Googling I learn that the message that the driver is activated but not in use is a 'known bug'. Now I know!
I simply gave up trying to configure Ubuntu classic with desktop effects. When Compiz is enabled as the window manager, the system immediately reverts back to Unity. When I select Metacity, CCSM loses all it's settings and refuses all requests to enable the cube without compositing. With compositing enabled all the menus and borders disappear. No two ways about it, Ubuntu Classic as a viable option is truly broken.
So what's the real problem? Why doesn't Unity work? Basically because it takes away choice. It takes away that sense of freedom we've come to love about Linux. It clamps down on individual input and expression to the point of destroying it. Some claim that these things don't bother them. They say they can live with what this and be happy with it. I certainly won't argue with anyone who thinks like this. We're individuals with differing ideas about things, and Unity will have those who like what they see and decide they can live with it.
Nevertheless personal choice, freedom to change things to suit oneself, and expressing our individual likes and dislikes in the way we configure our desktops are things that Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular has always been renowned for. These are the reasons that a modern Linux desktop environment like Gnome 2 will beat Windows hands down every time, the reason that Ubuntu's move to Unity in its present rough cut unfinished form is so disappointing.
We expect to see huge improvements in Unity as time goes by. Mark Shuttleworth is determined to make things right with his new desktop project, and no one should doubt that he will do just that. Talented people out there want to help him make it work the way it should, and given enough time they will succeed. However I no longer want to actively participate in the ride until then. There's too much real life to be lived to spend time beta testing Unity, so I'll be moving on to more accommodating distro destinations until Ubuntu regains its balance and recovers its rep.
31 • re: Unity review (by Anonymous on 2011-05-09 17:19:55 GMT from United States)
I suspect switching to the closed source NVIDIA driver would give me full functionality
You could have tried reading the documentation before hand where you would have seen that you do in fact need hardware accelerated OpenGL for Unity, something the nouveau driver does not provide. Doing so may have impugned your geekiness, however.
People with nVidia cards that want to test Unity without installing can use virtualbox or VMWare.
32 • Unity (by Tony on 2011-05-09 17:26:45 GMT from United States)
I respect the changes that Ubuntu has made in Unity, and there decision to move beyond Gnome 3 and control their destiny. I don't buy all the negative comments regarding the change to the new Ubuntu Desktop environment because all new software comes with it's bugs and features and this is the first release which is to be expected to have some defects that will be resolved. Furthermore, all users are free to not use Unity (11.04) and leave to a different distro. That's the beauty of Linux, the freedom to choose. I choose to continue using Unity and continue to be excited about the new features that will arrive in the next release.
33 • @30: And that's not all... (by MacLone on 2011-05-09 17:27:47 GMT from Mexico)
Well, Unity is not all that bad but yes, i agree most of your statements are right. One of them is that i don't own a smartphone, ipad or similar so why i should use my keyboard to find the heavy mess of files and programs? It was much much
easier to use the mouse over a simple Mint menu or other
gnome menu. It was an improvement? not for the desktop and not for me.
We all have the same problem with Gnome Shell. Gnome shell is a lot easier to browse for files and programs but its almost the same mess compared to use any good old gnome menu.
34 • Slackware (by RobertD on 2011-05-09 17:32:37 GMT from United States)
Let's not forget all the work that's going into revising Slackware essentials. Its an invaluable resource for Slackers and Linux enthusiast alike.
I too wouldn’t mind if the reviewer took as much time needed to cover all aspects of Slackware. I'm personally looking for more than just - Slackware lacks a package manager and its installer uses an ncurses type installer making it not as user friendly as Ubuntu or some other graphical type installer.
I know their website says one thing but lets be real. Slackware is used by the type of user that likes to get their hands dirty.
Look forward to it Jesse.
RobertD
35 • Unity Based on False Premise (by Brent on 2011-05-09 17:35:54 GMT from United States)
@21 (Richard Carlson) makes an excellent point about Unity making his 23-inch monitor seem like a giant tablet. I'm only running a 19+ inch monitor, but that is still roughly 6 times the length and 36 times the area of an HTC Aria phone screen. Even my oldest PC, a 1GHz Athlon with 768MB on the MOBO runs numerous Linux distros (and Win XP) handily, complete with wobbly windows effects just for fun.
Yet Canonical would have me believe that I should use the same single-tasking window approach of a cell phone on my desktop? Give me an interface break!
On my desktop, I lay out 3 or 4 windows for simultaneous viewing without even overlapping in GNOME, KDE, or even--gasp--Windows. Compared to the cell phone, I have a million-acre ranch of screen real estate to play with. Give me menus; they're not some arcane way of accessing programs--excuse me--apps and data. Give me simultaneous multi-viewing of windows, not simply switching between widows like on a 3.2-inch cell phone or a 7-inch tablet.
And give me fat scroll bars, I have screen area to burn. And I don't have a touch screen. Those new skinny scroll bars in parts of Nasty Narwhal's GNOME implementation (check out gedit, for example) are neither ground-breaking nor user-friendly. Cell phones have been using minimalist scroll bars for some time, but they work in that environment only because of the touch screen. To scroll, you move the entire screen content, not the scroll bar. The bar is just a visual indicator of where you are in the content. In gNarly Narwhal, the skinny scroll bars are exactly backwards from anything approaching functionality. Thank heavens 3rd party applications like Firefox and Libreoffice don't use them. Yet.
I do not drive a 24-foot truck using the exact same techniques as I use in a sub-compact car. And the almost nonexistant instrumentation in that old, tiny Aeronca Superchief 2-seater airplane I flew in as a child most definitely does NOT scale upwards for the cockpit of a Boeing 757 or a giant Airbus.
To sum up, one size (or in this case, one UI design) does not fit all. Desktop computers and their large monitors have capabilities that Unity seems at best to ignore and at worst to actively obstruct. Multiple visual environments (big monitors, small netbooks and tablets, and tiny cell phones) demand multiple ways of visually interacting with their respective devices. Has the design community at Canonical really learned nothing in the last 30 years of interface design?
36 • #30 unitoy (by zykoda on 2011-05-09 17:52:14 GMT from United Kingdom)
Excellent "analysis!" Looks as though you could extend it further. What's clear is that unity is beta and not better. Tablets and mobiles may be happy with unitoy but for serious linux fans and program devs it is sadly lacking at present. Three out of my four machines won't run unity or gnome3 and gnome fallback is, as you point out, "broken". Fortunately there are other choices for the interim.
37 • @31 - well well well (by meanpt on 2011-05-09 18:16:07 GMT from Portugal)
"People with nVidia cards that want to test Unity without installing can use virtualbox or VMWare."
well, you may also add the last batch of ati cards and when summing them up, guess what: we, nvidias and atis will be all running virtualboxes and vmwares .. nice touch ... in fact, I installed the latest fglrx and never found unity again ... but we are all missing a point here: where ubuntu fails on hardware, so do all the other distros.
38 • UI Design for Mice vs Touchscreens (by Brent on 2011-05-09 18:28:19 GMT from United States)
In my previous post, I mentioned the fact that skinny scroll bars only work effectively in conjunction with touch screens. What I should have added is that touch screens and mice demand sometimes mildly different, sometimes radically different strategies and approaches to UI design. And when they are available simultaneously on one device, together with a keyboard, the game gets much more complex.
As for Canonical eventually "getting it right" with Unity, as some have said, that will more than likely happen. But even once they have gotten it right, I am not at all certain that the destination they will have led UI design to is one where I want to go.
39 • #37 (by Andy Prough on 2011-05-09 18:29:55 GMT from United States)
"but we are all missing a point here: where ubuntu fails on hardware, so do all the other distros."
Not "all" other distros. I've got a Geforce GT 440 card running just fine under openSUSE. OneClick install of drivers too - can't beat it! I'm telling you, KDE 4.6 - very nice!
40 • @36 . gnome 3 (by mandog on 2011-05-09 18:35:15 GMT from United Kingdom)
Perhaps you need to change Distros gnome3 works perfect on my Arch Linux setup in both shell and fall-back that was not the case with either Suse or fedora. as they constantly break and freeze. as for unity it does not even reach the desktop on my nvidia based desktop. They all need to drop the default built in nouveau drivers and go back to vesa. Then make it easy to set up drivers the nvidia/ATI way then they are installed correctly and simply. Instead they go down this cloak and dagger road that you can only install drivers using very complex methods and scripts which totally undermines nvidia/ATI even Ms lets you setup nvidia/ATI as they should be.
41 • Mepis 11 (by Jay on 2011-05-09 18:36:32 GMT from United States)
Congratulations to Warren Woodford and the whole Mepis community on the release of Mepis 11.
With all the complaints about the Natty Narwhal, people should try Mepis 11. It is KDE based, so for some this may be a barrier. But for KDE fans, it is a winner !
Mepis is Debian stable polished to a gem-like finish, and at least for now, a very current set of kernel and applications. Very stable with a great community for support.
-Jay
42 • @35 one size may fit all, just not well (by VW72 on 2011-05-09 18:45:24 GMT from United States)
I agree with your comments regarding Unity. One size may fit all, but as with clothing it doesn't fit anyone well.
I sometimes wonder if all of this angst against Unity is misplaced, however. Compared to gnome-shell, Unity is more usable. I wonder if it was inevitable that the Gnome 2 interface was not going to be available anymore, that maybe Unity was Ubuntu's response to try and improve gnome-shell. If so, then yes, it was an improvement, but still not very good.
I think both Gnome and Ubuntu should have taken a peek at KDE's solution. On a full size monitor, you get a full size screen. On a small monitor, you get the netbook interface and you can switch between them if you like. It also appears, they have plasma desktops for mobile devices in the works.
Maybe this is actually gnome's approach, since the desktop shell sits atop gnome, like the plasma desktop does on KDE. However, if it was, it would have made much more sense to release with a standard and stable interface and then add your other platform ones so people could choose what worked best for them. Unfortunately, that is not the style of gnome developers, letting people choose options.
Even if gnome wouldn't take that approach, it seems that Ubuntu could have or even should have. The concept of the the UI being divorced from the underlying desktop manager is appealing, particularly when developing for different platforms. And, while, smart phones and pads may be the next big market, it seems foolish to alienate the current existing market.
At least with linux, when the manufacturer (Ubuntu and/or Gnome) destroy the UI, you, the user still have the choice to install a different one -- unlike both Windows and OS X. Too bad new users won't know how to do that and if Ubuntu is the distro new users choose first, it will probably leave a very bad opinion of Linux (and yes, Ubuntu is not synonymous with Linux, but for new users it seems that way).
43 • puppy sources (by technosaurus on 2011-05-09 18:52:10 GMT from United States)
FYI, The puppy sources are available ... unmodified sources in a single giant tarball in the ibiblio repo and patches/modified sources @ bkhome.org/sources ... have been for years. Yes it may be inconvenient to have to download a 1gb tarball for a 5kb package - feel free to split it up and mirror or use upstream or tht2 mirror.
44 • Ubuntu Unity (by PeterBlackburn on 2011-05-09 19:06:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
Cannot even look at unity for some reason ubuntu ignores via as in the hp2133 netbook.
45 • PC-BSD (by Auronandace on 2011-05-09 19:27:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
Glad to see PC-BSD get a mention (even if it was mostly to do with artwork). I'm really looking forward to 9. Having xfce on PC-BSD will be epic.
As a side-note, it would be nice to have some bsd reviews from time to time. I recently installed openbsd 4.9 and was very impressed. It is suprisingly good to use as a desktop OS; even has LibreOffice in the repo!
Keep up the distrowatching.
46 • All for new things (by KJ on 2011-05-09 19:41:27 GMT from United States)
I don't use Ubuntu myself due to a preference for OS X, but I like to keep tabs on them simply because they keep changing things around and trying new things. It's certainly true that new doesn't always work out, but at least they're brave enough to have a go at it instead of just delivering the same project every six months with a new wallpaper. Sometimes good things do come of it.
47 • Fuduntu is Awesome (by Roy H Huddleston on 2011-05-09 20:00:14 GMT from United States)
I just love it. I think it is the best distro out there. :)
48 • BSD (by Jesse on 2011-05-09 20:40:07 GMT from Canada)
>> "As a side-note, it would be nice to have some bsd reviews from time to time."
In the past year or so I've reviewed FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, GhostBSD, Jibbed and PC-BSD. I took a look at some other off-shoots, but they generally didn't work on my hardware and so didn't get a review. I'll probably review PC-BSD 9 when it comes out, but the rest don't change much from one release to the next so there isn't much point in reviewing them again for a while.
49 • Systray and window switching (by PowerForward on 2011-05-09 20:42:39 GMT from Finland)
Try using Pidgin on Unity and remaining sane. Systray icon is not there and the user is not properly notified on incoming chats. Looks like it is time to jump into Mint once they get the new version out....
50 • @34 (by Antonio on 2011-05-09 20:48:54 GMT from United States)
``Slackware is used by the type of user that likes to get their hands dirty. ``
I use slackware, but I don't like to get my hands dirty. Maybe you mean know what is ``under the hood`` right?
bash-4.1$ cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 13.37.0
bash-4.1$ uname -a
Linux GHS-E213-2 2.6.37.6 #3 SMP Sat Apr 9 22:49:32 CDT 2011 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
bash-4.1$
51 • Unity (by James LaRue on 2011-05-09 21:09:49 GMT from United States)
I upgraded to Unity and have been playing with it. I happen to like Gnome, but find that playing with different environments is good for my brain. I learned Gnome, I learned Windows, I learned OSX, and I bet I can figure this one out, too. It's funny to me that on Distrowatch - with its 318 active distributions - that anyone could complain about lack of choice. On the other hand, Unity's approach really is substantially different from all the others. That makes it an interesting experiment, don't you think?
52 • BSD (by Django on 2011-05-09 21:35:04 GMT from Netherlands)
@48 What about DragonflyBSD then? It looks like it has a few nice improvements like Hammer FS.
53 • DragonflyBSD (by Jesse on 2011-05-09 21:42:19 GMT from Canada)
>> "@48 What about DragonflyBSD then? It looks like it has a few nice improvements like Hammer FS."
Dragonfly was one of the BSDs I tried, but couldn't get it to work with my hardware.
This summer I'm considering making a switch to one of the BSDs for a few months. Playing with an OS for a week is one thing, but I think it could be interesting to see what it's like to use one for an extended period of time.
54 • BSD (by Rudolf Steiner on 2011-05-09 21:51:08 GMT from United States)
Jesse,
If you plan on running BSD on your laptop I would advise OpenBSD as it is much more friendly when it comes to wireless. The config files are straight forward and the drivers are just as easy to install. This is my opinion of course but I do have experience with the various BSD's available.
RS
55 • Untiy... (by smartjak48 on 2011-05-09 21:53:09 GMT from United States)
Having used Linux since the late '90s, I thought I'd hate Unity. Not! I was on Ubuntu 10.10. Got a pop asking if I wanted to upgrade to 11.04. Oh hell, why not? I did and I love it. The changes are much ado about nothing. Come on folks. Things change. Don't belly ache. I happen to like it. And feel it's the future. If it's not your cup of tea, move one the one the stogie distros like Slackware.
56 • By the way... (by smartjak48 on 2011-05-09 21:56:40 GMT from United States)
By the way, I still use Debian (Wheezy) on my desktop. I've got the best of both worlds. A cutting edge distro like 11.04 on my laptop and go to distro like Debian on my desktop.
57 • Randomly asking for password! (by LuxPro on 2011-05-09 22:08:51 GMT from India)
Re:7
The password is not cached - it is remembered for between 5 and 15 minutes; suppose you can decide but didn't get to figuring out where. Actually doesn't matter. Notice a bunch of keys on the bar at the top. If the keys are there you are not asked for the password; if the keys are gone you must rekey the passwords.
Someone find out where to change the number of minutes.
58 • Slackware (by Woody Oaks on 2011-05-09 22:09:57 GMT from United States)
Or should I have said "Linux"? Of the major distros, Debian, RH-Fedora, Mandriva, SuSE (originally a Slackware derivative), and a few others, Slackware is the cleanest, fastest, and simplest platform for running executables and other files: That's the purpose of an operating system, to run other stuff and not just itself. Right now, Slackware 13.37 with xfce and LXDE is managing 11 Gigs of files on my old 550Mhz, 384Mb beigebox - not brilliantly, but acceptably. I'm not sure if Patrick is drawing a bead on phones and tablets, but they would make a great target for this "oldest" and now with 13.37 "perhaps the best" of distros.
59 • Wireless (by Jesse on 2011-05-09 22:28:51 GMT from Canada)
>> "If you plan on running BSD on your laptop I would advise OpenBSD as it is much more friendly when it comes to wireless."
I'm not sure what you mean by "more friendly". I've checked and FreeBSD includes both the drivers and the firmware for my Intel card. OpenBSD includes the drivers, but not the firmware. The firmware isn't available under a license compatible with the OpenBSD ideals, so the developers don't include it. It is possible to get the required firmware on OpenBSD through a third party packages, but it's a bit round-about.
60 • Xubuntu vs Ubuntu 11.04 (by Gustavo on 2011-05-09 23:22:58 GMT from Brazil)
Unity? No thanks. This is Xubuntu 11.04 live CD session after some simple panel configuration. No packages downloaded. XFCE 4.8 has great transparency effects.
i53.tinypic.com/wvgm.png
Give it a try :)
61 • @30: OMG, UNITY its not! (by J.Timms on 2011-05-09 23:42:43 GMT from United States)
Your review of your Unity experience was good. Ubuntu 11.04 can be described as a “love it or leave it” distro. If you like Unity then you'll love Ubuntu 11.04. If you dislike Unity then it's time to leave Ubuntu and find another distro for your desktop.
I’m with you in the latter category. To me Unity is completely unnecessary, a solution in search of a problem - only the problem doesn't exist. Unity adds nothing of value and is simply in my way most of the time. I won't be using Ubuntu 11.04 as my regular distro. I tried hard to like it but like you I could not warm up to it.
Maybe netbook interfaces will prove to be the wave of the future. If so I’ll be one of those booting into “classic” interfaces or using a distro with a slimmed down desktop environment like XFCE instead. Eye candy and “coolness” are often more trouble than they are worth. If I wanted a netbook interface, I’d buy a netbook. However my desktop computer with its wide aspect monitor is not a good fit for the Unity experiment.
Despite my personal dislike of Unity there are folks out there who might really enjoy it. Especially those using netbooks or tablets. More power to them if they do. If someone wants to try an alternative, take a look at the new Linux Mint or one of the other Ubuntu derivatives that don’t use Unity as their desktop environment. There is no good reason not to any longer, especially if you are a long time Gnome user on a full sized desktop.
62 • ubuntu 11.04 and IPv6 and wireless (by Thomas Leer on 2011-05-10 00:09:50 GMT from Belgium)
Ubuntu's unified highly-available archetypes have led to many typical advances, including IPv6 and 802.11b. The usual methods for the natural unification of public-private key pairs and erasure coding do not apply in this area. Nevertheless, Ubuntu Linux systems alone should be able to fulfill the need for peer-to-peer models.
As far As I know, ubuntu 11.04 marks the first algorithm harnessed specifically for pervasive technology. It should be noted that Ubuntu's stack methodology is copied from the development of scatter/gather I/O. This might seem counterintuitive. The basic tenet of this method is the analysis of 802.11b. But I haven't found this out yet.
Has anyone here tried to setup a mass wan IPv6 network unifacation with ubuntu 11.04? Because in our school it's working great. And i think it's one of ubuntu 11.04 greatest features.
63 • BSD Wireless Cont. (by Rudolf Steiner on 2011-05-10 00:25:06 GMT from United States)
Jesse
I say its easier becasue generally there are fewer steps needed to get wireless up and running.
If your fortunate enough to benefit from the great work of Damien Begamini your wireless card will most likely work flawlessly.
Also, There have been great strides in suspend and hibernate.
The only negative that I have experienced is shorter batterly life.
But their all great in the own right so any one you choose will most likely be a fun experience.
RS
64 • @20, 34: Slackware (by TobiSGD on 2011-05-10 00:59:22 GMT from Germany)
"If you're looking for a review, we'll probably have that next Monday.":
Fair enough, I will wait for that.
"Slackware lacks a package manager":
Slackware has pkgtool, the set of installpkg, removepkg, upgradepkg and makepkg. If you don't want to use them you can use slackpkg, also pre-installed. For building packages it has makepkg and you can install sbopkg (or build Slackbuild-scripts manually). More than enough package managers I would think.
"making it not as user friendly as Ubuntu":
User-friendliness is a myth. What is friendly for me may not be friendly for others, and vice versa. I would assume what you mean is newbie-friendly. And when I see these posts here and in other forums regarding Unity and some weird (at least in my eyes) choices of Canonical for Ubuntu, it seems not to be that newbie-friendly anymore.
65 • KDE (by Pumpino on 2011-05-10 03:13:56 GMT from Australia)
The only good thing about Unity is that it will lead some users to experiment with superior distros, such as Fedora. Once they've tried Gnome 3 in Fedora, users will be disappointed and try an alternate desktop environment such as XFCE. They'll find XFCE is fast but still overly simplistic, so they'll try KDE and realise what it's like to experience the beautiful interface offered by a project that listens to its users. KDE and Fedora all the way. :)
66 • @60, yes! (by rick on 2011-05-10 04:09:39 GMT from United States)
I don't see what the fuss is about (maybe because I'm too much of a n00b to remember the KDE4 rollout, or even the OSX rollout, just to hear in retrospect how big of a train wreck those both were), but I think the Gnome3 Panel/Unity movement is going to pave the way for the "lighter" traditional style DE's like XFCE and LXDE to move to the forefront. That screenshot looks great, practically as good as anything in Gnome 2.62. I can remember the best you could hope for with XFCE was a Mac OS9 level of clunkiness and, um, "vintageness".
67 • Unity & Jesse (by Fed on 2011-05-10 04:45:32 GMT from United States)
You write, Jesse "much the same way OS X behaves". I would like to ask you, whether you use OS X at all or sometimes, and when was the last time you used it?
68 • #66 (by Andy Prough on 2011-05-10 04:47:16 GMT from United States)
"I don't see what the fuss is about (maybe because I'm too much of a n00b to remember the KDE4 rollout, or even the OSX rollout, just to hear in retrospect how big of a train wreck those both were)"
The KDE project warned users NOT to install KDE 4.0 on production machines when it first came out as it had lots of bugs. The only "train wrecks" were the PCs whose owners refused to take the developers' advice, and immediately switched over from KDE 3.5. Anyone who waited about a year for it to develop got a very nice experience. Ubuntu and Gnome could have learned from this little history lesson.
69 • Unity & Jesse (by Fed on 2011-05-10 04:52:13 GMT from United States)
You write; "Ubuntu aims to be novice-friendly, but this release is buggy and I think they missed the mark this time around. I'm limiting my recommendation of 11.04 to people who want to play with an early release of Unity."
Are you trying to play god here? Or are you telling us to stay with the old methods and systems?
You write; "The Software Centre is probably the best it's been, intuitive and helpful..."
May I ask, do you really use Ubuntu as your main OS and for everyday use?
70 • Unity v. Ubuntu users (by Wammus on 2011-05-10 06:34:26 GMT from Belgium)
Ubuntu is a Linux distro. Which means that every user of Ubuntu is supposed to act as a Linux user and is used to hack some code, edit some configuration file, look for solutions on the web.
If an Ubuntu user is not able to get to grips with Unity, he/she is not a Linux user. If hat kind of user is complaining that Unity is not 100% error free OOTB, then that user should refrain from using any Linux distro and revert to the paid, closed source alternatieves.
I've been using Unity since the Beta2. I have a fully functional Launcher, numerous indicators on the top panel, all the applications I want and it took me less than an hour after installing Natty to get to that point. Up to now I find Unity a refreshing new way of interacting with a GUI based on the Linux kernel.
So, what are all those complaints I read here about? Is it about Unity or about the inability of Ubuntu users to tweak and hack the code of the Linux environment ? I tend to go for the latter.
71 • Ubuntu 10.04 (by Edwin on 2011-05-10 11:23:56 GMT from United States)
Just installed Gnome 3 to Ubuntu 11.04, so I have now Gnome Classic, Gnome 3 and Unity.
One might ask why I installed Gnome 3.
Unity is not bad at all, but Gnome 3 was very easy to work with. I tried it with Fedora 15beta. I am quite happy with the way Gnome 3 works. Its easy on the palm of the hand. One movement to th etop right hand corner is all you have to do see what is beneath the window you have opened and few clicks and you get what you want done. After all, that's the idea of any OS should be! Cheers!
72 • Post 30 (by Phillip on 2011-05-10 13:03:03 GMT from United Kingdom)
Err, I think Linux has too much choice. Talk about swinging the other way. How many flavours of linux are ther on distrowatch ? How many Different DE's ? How many package managers ? How many see my dongle as a dongle, but others dont see the dongle, but see my 3g mobile ?
If I wanted to use unity I would be forced to upgrade my hardware. Whereas with Win XP and Win 7 my hardware works perfect, no bloat and faster than unity 11.04. KDE 4.6 is now so slow on my machine as well, so Im forced to consider moving away from linux. Talk about vista making a mistake, linux wants to forget the bloat, you can make a de look fantastic without all the eye candy and trying to keep the gui girleys happy.
Ive also seen too many distros (linux isnt windows) who need to have the slab menu, well blow me, guess whos following vista and win 7 ? Does that make linux the inferior OS because its following instead of leading ?
73 • @70 (by TobiSGD on 2011-05-10 15:03:20 GMT from Germany)
"If an Ubuntu user is not able to get to grips with Unity, he/she is not a Linux user. If hat kind of user is complaining that Unity is not 100% error free OOTB, then that user should refrain from using any Linux distro and revert to the paid, closed source alternatieves."
So you mean as Linux user I shouldn't prefer distros adn WMs/DEs that are released stable, and not a beta? I use Slackware, and before that I used Debian. Both distros are able to release perfectly stable distros. So in your mind I have the right to complain about Canonical's release policy? You think that a distro whose spokes person says that "Unity is the next stage in a well sign-posted path to bringing Ubuntu, and therefore free software, to as many people as we can. To do that we need to be as good as, and offer a real alternative to, the experiences that users can get on other platforms." should release in a state that other distros wouldn't even consider as a beta? And when the users complain about a buggy release they should go to Windows (which is also buggy), instead of using a distro whose developers are giving their user a stable experience?
Wow, that is a really strange attitude: Use it or die, but don't complain about its bugs.
74 • @72 (by TobiSGD on 2011-05-10 15:07:16 GMT from Germany)
So you want to abandon Linux, just because you can't run Unity or KDE? Ever heard about XFCE, LXDE or E17? You can even make the simpler DEs looking really good.
So you complain about too much choice, but then want to quit Linux, because 2 of the meny DEs/WMs are not as usable to you as you like? Why not try a different one, instead of complaining about too much choice?
75 • OMG, MINT it is! (by TG on 2011-05-10 15:11:57 GMT from United States)
Opinions are sharply divided on Unity, Ubuntu's new desktop shell. Something to keep in mind however is that we're talking about Linux, the land where choices abound. Those who don't like Unity can easily replace it with something else. If they don't want to drift too far from Ubuntu's home port they can, as others have mentioned including Jesse in his excellent DW review on Monday, choose from one of the Ubuntu 11.04 spin-offs that are not implementing Unity as their desktop environment.
Yesterday I downloaded and installed the release candidate of Linux Mint 11 'Katya' to give it the same sort of trial run that I afforded Ubuntu 11.04 and Unity. Not only is Mint 11 based on Ubuntu, but it's currently the No. 2 distro in terms of popularity on DW, behind only Ubuntu, having earned its excellent reputation over the years on the basis of its well polished usability.
For those like myself who sorely miss having Gnome 2.32 available in all its unsullied finery in Ubuntu, without Unity present to muddy the water, yet who find the underlying Ubuntu substructure something they depend on, Linux Mint 11 looks to be the heir apparent to that recently abandoned throne.
I slipped a spare 250GB SATA test disk into place on my Dell desktop, booted to a newly created Mint 11 'Katya' DVD, and began the adventure. Within minutes "the traditional Linux Mint desktop layout, mintMenu and the same desktop elements featured in previous releases" were available to me. From that point the installation flowed as smoothly as ever, and before long I rebooted to a fresh Mint 11 desktop with everything working as it should.
Something to note is that Compiz is installed by default in Linux Mint 11, along with "fusion-icon," a feature that lets users switch easily between Compiz and Metacity.
The Mint Project Team recently wrote; "With the upstream changes in Unity and GNOME 3, some of the big Linux Mint projects (netdiscovery, restoration snapshots) were postponed and more time was given to ensure this release would feature a functional yet traditional desktop." They went on to say; "In many ways, Linux Mint 11 feels like a more modern and more polished version of Linux Mint 10. In contrast with the many distributions adopting new interfaces, Linux Mint 11 will feature the best Gnome '2' desktop you've ever (seen)."
Along with most other major Linux distributions, Linux Mint has now abandoned OpenOffice.org in favor of LibreOffice. Banshee has replaced Rhythmbox as the default music player, and rather than Shotwell for photos like in Ubuntu, Mint 11 uses gThumb. Gwibber is no longer installed by default.
Linux Mint 11's software manager loads "marginally faster" featuring refined templates and a new splash screen. Additionally it has been upgraded to show exactly how much data will be involved in a download, how much space is required on the hard drive, and which packages will have to be installed and/or removed.
Other Linux Mint 11 improvements include a faster update manager and a desktop settings tool that is desktop-agnostic, offering both generic settings and those specific to particular desktops, such as Gnome, KDE and Xfce.
While we are still some days away from the final release of Linux Mint 11 'Katya', having run its release candidate I can say it has proven to be everything that my experience with Ubuntu 11.04 Unity unfortunately wasn't. If there was ever a distro that deserved the title "Ubuntu Done Right," one positioned to stand in place of Ubuntu on the classic Gnome 2.32 pinnacle that the parent project has walked away from, Linux Mint is that distro - a project well worth taking a closer look at.
76 • unity (by Josh on 2011-05-10 15:14:10 GMT from United States)
I for one like unity so far. It may not be up to par yet, but it will get there. I find it does make some things faster, like frequent applications I use but don't want to put an icon on screen or on a panel. I just type in a few letters and click, done. One of those apps is ccsm. Though, activating new features in ccsm will cause your session to probably be useless until you log out. That's something that should have never happened considering it works with gnome just fine. Another thing, and I'm not sure why, but one time my monitor completely shut off. Still had sound, and restarting x gave sound at the gdm login, but no video. I had to do a hard reboot to bring my laptop's monitor back. That's never happened with any linux distro, including 10.04 which I use now. I'll let unity get finished and maybe by 12.04 it will be much better. I'll try gnome 3 this week. But I must say, I was pretty surprised by unity. I thought I wouldn't like it, but I've found it quite useful. I don't like the global app menus, but that feature is removable. I don't like the idea of releasing a 80% ready UI to the masses to find more bugs, but it is a good concept. Unity has configuration, you just need to look for it. I've been able to change icon sets and everything as the normal way with gnome. Though, it still needs more.
On a sadder note: For skype users who haven't heard, Microsoft has bought skype. From what wikipedia says, it will be integrated into windows live. Glad I don't use it.
77 • MS Skype (by Pan on 2011-05-10 15:21:10 GMT from Canada)
MS just bought skype, let's see if they keep the Linux skype client. It would be very easy and strategic to drop it, change the underlying protocol to eliminate compatibilty and lose only a small percentage of users and help to isolate Linux from the mainstream. Possibly the same treatment for the Mac client too.
78 • Skype (by Jerome on 2011-05-10 15:30:16 GMT from Canada)
Funny that the Skype protocol relies on ultrapeers not protected by a firewall to operate. Fits perfectly in the Windows environment :-)
A good alternative is the google talk browser plug-in. Although closed-source, it's based on existing VoIP standards and google at least seems to be Linux-friendly.
79 • @74 (by Phillip on 2011-05-10 15:46:16 GMT from United Kingdom)
Here we go, the typical Linux user "If you dont like it, then go back to windows" blah, blah, blah. There are too many people using linux to score brownie points, KDE, Gnome and Unity are just bloated, they are following the vista way, and at least vista put ther hands up and amitted they made a mistake. The DE devs love having their egos stroked, when they should have learned from the vista mistake and not gone the same route.
You talk about choice, but the choice we have with linux is too much, in fact its confusing, too many people wanting to create their own distro to look good, just look at the discontinued section and count how many people created their own distro, realised how much work it was and gave up.
Plus a lot of linux users are just plain immature, and a portion of them are i.t guys. And how do I know this ? I read too often people using words as Microshaft, Windoze and M$, its pathetic and childish. Plus looking at the bloat, I have no problem running win 7 on a inspiron 1200 (1.2ghz) with all the bells and whistes running, so why is kde running slow ? because the devs listen to the eye candy brigade who dont actually use their machines in a working environment, these are the kiddies who dont actually use their machine productively, they show off their nice tarty kde desktop, tell the devs how wonderfull it is, and the devs just dish out more bloat.
Gnome, KDE and Unity, take note. In the real world, where people use their machines for business and productivity, your DE's are not going to work. Do you really believe that workers really give a damn about rotating cubes, wobbly windows, snow flakes falling down the screen ? No. Because we are too busy working, not looking at pathetic eye candy bloat. Doesnt matter if we can switch it off, should have been made as an addon.
80 • @74 (by Phillip on 2011-05-10 16:01:14 GMT from United Kingdom)
So to prove my point that Linux is bloated, heres my evidence.
I have a dell inspiron 122 with 768 megs of ram
Under win xp and win 7 I can run MS Office, Outlook and Dreamweaver fast.
If I install firefox, thunderbird, evolution and open/libre office under windows they run slow. Its click to run then go put the kettle on time, have a smoke, make a cuppa, come back, and if im lucky they may have just loaded.
Now for Linux.
firefox, thunderbird, evolution and open/libre office all run slow under linux. Ive installed crossover and physically run office, outlook and dreamewaver faster than the native linux software. Ive timed them.
Plus another fact is that the size of the linux software files are larger than the windows versions.
So now try and kid yourself that linux is still wonderfull.
81 • Unity (by Landor on 2011-05-10 16:26:43 GMT from Canada)
I'm always still amazed at the people who don't understand that Unity is being built, or at least a framework for, tablets, phones, small mobile devices, etc. It's clearly obvious.
I found that odd too, as I read last week of a person who put unity on their tablet and it was useless to them in a way. There's no way to type on a tablet as it doesn't have a keyboard. It needs a keyboard for the touch screen. So how do you find this keyboard when it's not accessible via the menus (from what I understood) and you can't search for it? You have to plug in a usb keyboard, as the person did, to find the keyboard application.
Next up, they had to figure out how to create a shortcut (launcher) for the keyboard application or they'd need to go through the whole process every single time.
It would seem that Canonical/Ubuntu has yet again forgotten to do their homework.
----
I read a rather interesting blog post from Jeff Hoogland creator/developer of Bodhi last week and just published my own article about it today for those that are interested.
http://landorsplace.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/will-fedora-ever-learn/
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
82 • #80, #81 (by Andy Prough on 2011-05-10 16:52:55 GMT from United States)
#80 - well, we all know that one guy with an old Dell and a stopwatch couldn't possibly be wrong, LOL. Might want to try Debian instead of Ubuntu if you are looking for speed.
#81 - Landor, you may be amused to hear that Shuttleworth just announced that Ubuntu is ramping up from 12 million (alleged) current users to 200 million users in the next four years. This was part of his big keynote at the Ubuntu Developers Conference in Budapest yesterday. I sure hope no one tries to force me to install Natty at gunpoint in order to help fill Mark's 200 million quota.
83 • Speed daemon (by Jesse on 2011-05-10 18:08:35 GMT from Canada)
>> "well, we all know that one guy with an old Dell and a stopwatch couldn't possibly be wrong, LOL. Might want to try Debian instead of Ubuntu if you are looking for speed."
Instead of slinging mud back and forth I think it would make more sense to run some benchmarks and come up with some numbers demonstrating load times, executable size and memory usage.
84 • IRC's (by Rudolf Steiner on 2011-05-10 18:11:02 GMT from United States)
Why should I have to filter 1,000,000 search results from google to find the answer to my problem?
Why can I not go to the approriate IRC and asked users directly that may have experienced the exact or similiar problem?
Why should an IRC channel be the last resort to go for help? What is wrong with people helping people?
I'm personally tired of the ego trip that many IRC channel operators appear to have.
Yes I RTFM and yes I did my best to solve the problem on my own. Before google where did you go for help? You asked a friend or colleague, right?
Thanks Landor. This too is a sore spot for me as well.
RS
85 • RE: 82 -84 (by Landor on 2011-05-10 18:43:07 GMT from Canada)
#82
I read that about the 200 million users. I don't know what he has in mind for it all. He's definitely a very smart business man and might have some kind of plan in mind, though 200 million seems quite a jump, basically a four hundred percent growth of what they state its user-base is now, ever year.
#84
I almost never ask about a problem in a forum, or IRC channel. The rare few times that I have I've come away with no answer to my solution and had to search one out myself.
A case in point recently with Gentoo. I was installing it and came to the point where I needed to sync (update, for those that may not know) the portage tree. I tried to do so and it failed. I forget the exact error now, it was to do with a syntax error on a specific line (obviously to do with portage, in this case, which mirror to use) in the make.conf file. I had used Gentoo's Mirrorselect tool for it, and re-checked the syntax numerous times. I was stumped. I tried doing it manually, searching for information on-line and at the forums. I could only find that it was a syntax error, but mine wasn't, it was flawless.
The next thing that came to mind was that the syntax had changed from what I knew, and in this case, mirrorselect as well. So, with that in mind, I headed off to the Gentoo IRC for a quick fix. I was told the same thing that I had read numerous times, it was a syntax error. I was already aware of that, and if I recall, I let them know that too. I then posted the line that was supposedly in error at their request and nobody replied. I thanked thme for their time and assistance and left.
Did I fix it? Of course I did, on my own. Do I know what was the reason for it? Nope, and I didn't care because I fixed it regardless. When you build Gentoo you use what is known as a Stage3 tarball. This is basically the base system at what is considered a Stage3 level. These are automatically generated, and I backed up all the files I had manually configured up to this point and uncompressed a release that if I recall was a couple weeks earlier than the current one I had used. My guess is that since the Stage3 tarballs are automatically generated something was corrupt in some way. Who knows, and doesn't matter, it worked my way.
That's the point too. In the time that I've been back, I've only been to forums or an IRC for help a handful of times. I've yet to receive one working solution too. So investigate, research, and read the manual if needed. In the long run you'll never regret the time invested since you'll always be able to fall back on it and end up with realistic solutions, like simply choosing an earlier build of a Stage3 tarball.
Sorry for the long winded example. I actually intend for that to be part of an article I write some time in the future.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
86 • @7,57 and others re. password timeout and supposed caching (by Barnabyh on 2011-05-10 19:09:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
This is set in sudoers, you can edit and set the timeout to anything you like. I think it usually is set to 0 for obvious security reasons, but is set at 5 minutes in Ubuntu and Fedora.
87 • Delicious KitKatya aka Mint11 (by capri.cornus on 2011-05-10 19:13:51 GMT from Belgium)
I disliked Mint 10 because of a malfunctioning wireless driver. But 11 is a dream, an easygoing KitKat on the tongue, everything right as it should, and swift. On this laptop I ran and run Mint 9 (multiboot), but after an hour of surfing I really think FF 4 is functioning better while sitting or riding on Katya. It is like a silent improvement you still notice, like a tweak in the engine. I like it very much. I don't understand my peers that don't want to get acquaintance with this OS.
88 • wine intel sienna 300 laptop agp (by colin on 2011-05-10 19:28:34 GMT from United Kingdom)
please please please!! improve suport for intel graphics with wine!! intel hd graphics do NOT work with wine with agp!! intel sucks on linux why has it only ever concentrate on nvidia & ati when a lot of laptops use intel hd graphics!!
89 • 81 • Unity and virtual keyboard on tablets (by Landor (by meanpt on 2011-05-10 19:59:58 GMT from Portugal)
Landor, kindly add this to your "Natty and Unity on a tablet" knowledge: currently posting from an hp tm2 in tablet mode with the onboard virtual keyboard and with the Portuguese Layout. If I wanted, I could have handwritten this with cellwriter which in turn also has a virtual keyboard. So, keywords are: onboard and cellwriter.
90 • 71 • Ubuntu 10.04 (by Edwin (by meanpt on 2011-05-10 20:10:31 GMT from Portugal)
Edwin, I agree with you in that the gnome3 workflow is presently superior to that of unity, but it doesn't make unity feel like a hog.
91 • RE: 81 (by Landor on 2011-05-10 21:02:31 GMT from Canada)
Now, meanpt, I know you like Ubuntu a lot. My 'tablet knowledge' was from a third party, and your use of the on screen keyboard doesn't negate the fact that theirs did not work. There's a lot of varying factors, like a true tablet, or one that can only partly emulate one for instance. I'll explain. :)
I'd like to also add that at best your computer is only 'kind of' a tablet, even in what you call 'tablet mode'. It's the HP TM2 'Notebook' computer with a twist-touch screen. So while it can emulate a tablet to some degree, it's truly a computer, with a keyboard.
Also, you didn't state how you were able to activate the on screen keyboard, and having a keyboard on your computer would make it far easier than someone who has an actual tablet without a keyboard.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
92 • Oops. (by Landor on 2011-05-10 21:03:52 GMT from Canada)
My last comment the subject should be: RE: 89, not RE: 81
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
93 • 91 • RE: 81 (by Landor (by meanpt on 2011-05-10 21:59:43 GMT from Portugal)
Friendly Landor, first things first: until last year true tablet computers with touch screens have been around for a long time and were of the convertible type.Nowadays people think the tablet concept is something new and tend to associate the concept with keyboardless touch screen computers or terminals.
How to activate the onboard virtual keyboard for the login screen: click on the assistive technologies icon, click on the Universal Access Preferences text and flag Use on-screen keyboard.
How to have onboard loaded at each session startup after the login screen: open system settings, click on Assistive Technologies in the Personal area, flag Enable Assistive Technologies, click on Preferred Applications, click on Custom, select Onboard, flag Run at start. Logout and on on the next login use the lower right corner to increase the size of the keyboard and key in the password. After landing the unity desktop, onboard is started and increase the size as before.
Then proceed to install cellwriter and test other applications as EasyStroke, from the universal acess set in the software center.
94 • Ubuntu-mania (by anon on 2011-05-10 23:15:34 GMT from Greece)
Was Ubuntu the only distro released last week?
95 • Design features in Unity (by Baul on 2011-05-11 00:01:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
I think the disagreements (reviews are great to read) are always important but I like the fact the the Ubuntu' developers & designers are trying something different out into the open.
I thought that was the whole point of "open software" - if it doesn't work at first - try, try and try again till it does.
I am a person who feels if there are problems with "Natty" - I can always fall back to that old work-horse "Lucid" - then have the developers have the opportunity to mess things up and see what comes up in the future.
Before I think they were being being criticised for being too conservative - now they are criticised for floating a desktop that is not familiar (a work in progress) to all consumers - advanced or not yet realised!
What the hell - is it not good that there is debate about their intentions?
B
96 • RE: 93 (by Landor on 2011-05-11 04:16:14 GMT from Canada)
See, now you're confusing me. :)
First you stated that you put your notebook into 'tablet mode' and it becomes a tablet. That I fully understood, though believe it's a notebook emulating a tablet.
Now you say that until last years true tablet computers with touch screens have been around for a long time and were of the convertible type. That's what confuses me there. :)
If your notebook was really a tablet (but HP calls it a Notebook I would like to add. :) ), then why did you have to put it in 'tablet mode' ? If it is a real tablet as you say, shouldn't it already be a tablet and not have to be placed into some 'mode' to be one? :) From what I understand the 'real tablet' computers are always tablets. :)
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
97 • 96 • RE: 93 (by Landor (by menpt on 2011-05-11 09:09:25 GMT from Portugal)
Landor, don't bother with the fuzzy logic of the words and concepts. If you want to change history, be my guest :) .Grab one of those last year's tablet concept and have a go with it, Most probably you'll never miss the keyboard, unless you're multibooting. By the way, how is the "third party" going? Is he/she trying to have something similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/user/ekoore ?
98 • @ 94 (by Brandon Sniadajewski on 2011-05-11 11:34:54 GMT from United States)
No, but it's the one almost everyone wants to talk about here.
99 • Mint 11 RC (by fernbap on 2011-05-11 15:44:58 GMT from Portugal)
Couldn't wait, installed Mint 11 RC.
Not much to say. Great, as usual, each release always better than the previous one. Some small UI inconsistencies that i think will be fixed in the next days, like the slideshow in the installer.
Now that Ubuntu went Unity, i have no doubt Mint will become the most popular of the newbie friendly desktop distros.
Now i have a difficult choice to make: keep using LMDE as my main working environment or switching to 11...
100 • @#75 & #99 - Mint 11 RC (by Mark Pace on 2011-05-11 20:24:02 GMT from United States)
Did the same as you guys. After a day of so giving Unity a spin around the block, I was so ready for the return of normalcy that when Mint 11 RC showed up I jumped on it and happily haven't looked back.
Found as you did FB (#99) that a couple of small issues showed up, one of which I filed a bug report on. Nothing major, just simple things for the Mint release team to take a look at prior to Mint Day. Soon as Mint 11 is released millions of Gnome 2 users world wide will have every reason to jump up and down and celebrate, so party hearty dudes and dudettes!
Really enjoyed your well done review of Unity TG (#75). Found most things you mentioned were things I and countless others, judging by what's being reported world wide, have also struggled with. I wish Ubuntu and its Unity project all the best, but at this point as incomplete and problematic as it is in certain areas it's less than a good fit for those who use their computers for more than beta testing platforms.
101 • @100 - Sorry about the typo TG, should have been #30 for your Unity report (by Mark Pace on 2011-05-11 20:32:38 GMT from United States)
Meant to reference #30 for your informative Unity report TG, not #75..
102 • Caching (57, 86) and Ubuntu attention level (94, 98) (by MarkSouth on 2011-05-11 22:52:09 GMT from Switzerland)
"Supposed caching" (sarcastic, no?) and "The password is not cached, it is remembered."
Hmm. Where would the password be remembered and retrieved from? Would that be the credential cache? Indeed yes. Storing things in the cache is termed "caching". You may want to check the http://www.gratisoft.us/sudo/man/1.8.0/sudo.man.html">sudo man page and search for the word "cache".
Ubuntu is getting a lot of attention because it has a new desktop environment. This arouses strong feelings and a lot of comment because those who dislike Ubuntu can use Unity to knock Ubuntu (solution: use something else from the 300 odd distros listed here), those who dislike change can use Unity to knock change (solution: don't change - Ubuntu still has flavors that use Gnome 2 as the default desktop), those who feel that their own use case should be all that matters to Canonical can complain that they weren't consulted (solution: develop a killer DE and Canonical will notice you), and supporters of other distros can make a virtue of sticking with obsolete software that has no update path (Mint Maniacs, I'm looking at you here. Solution: none, I'm afraid we're stuck with the infinitely repeated "Ubuntu done right" slogan for about the next year, or worse.)
So Unity lives up to its name by allowing people to knock change, desktop environments, tablets, other use cases, Ubuntu, and Canonical - sometimes all at once. Pretty cool if you think about it.
PS Since everyone else has expressed an opinion on Unity, I could sum mine up simply: I don't love it, I don't much like it, but I could live with it and get everything done that I need to do. Or I could use anything else I want to, and I do.
103 • @102 (by fernbap on 2011-05-11 23:56:41 GMT from Portugal)
Just to get things clear:
Ubuntu releases a production distro every 2 years. Ubuntu also releases a set of experimental releases in between. 11.04 is one of such experimental releases.
User input is very important for experimental releases, and if Ubuntu screws up, it is important that users manifest themselves.
Current Ubuntu is 10.04. Ubuntu has until April 2012 to make Unity worthy of being incorporated into a production release, 12.04.
As to Mint, your "can make a virtue of sticking with obsolete software that has no update path" is not only ridiculous but also a lie.
If you want to call sticking with gnome 2 until gnome 3 is considered stable enough a choice for obsolescence, then you are clearly one of those that consider any change as progress, even if the new product doesn't work.
The reason why Mint works, unlike many other distros, is because Mint doesn't change only for the sake of change. That is not being cutting edge, that is just being stupid, and many linux distros are stupid under that point of view.
104 • @102, Unity & Ubuntu (by Stan on 2011-05-12 00:01:55 GMT from United States)
>> (solution: develop a killer DE and Canonical will notice you)
You obviously have not been following Canonical if you actually believe that. Notice the trend of what core technologies they use. They want control, and thus do as much in-house as they possibly can. Think Launchpad, their take on app indicators, their music store, etc... Look at their spat with Banshee and how uncooperative they were with them. Sure, if you develop a wonderful DE, they might give you, at best, an "official variant" status along the lines of Kubuntu and Xubuntu, but look at how little they're publicized compared to the official Ubuntu. The only way it could possibly become the "real" Ubuntu is if you assign your copyrights over to Canonical and give their design team creative control over it...and then it's not really yours any more.
That's precisely the reason that Unity exists, in fact; they did not like the way that GNOME's design team were doing things with GNOME 3, and could not accept that.
Now the fact that both Unity and GNOME 3 seem more targeted towards tablets and other small-screen devices is another problem, but as you say, thankfully there is a choice, and mine has been KDE even during the GNOME 2.x era (except during the KDE 4.0-4.2 period, where I temporarily moved away from KDE). It's certainly possible that both could become better *desktop* DE's in a few versions, but that is yet to be seen...
105 • Desktop Interface ala Parted Magic (by RO on 2011-05-12 03:10:21 GMT from United States)
For some reason I find Parted Magic's interface one of the most appealing I have loaded. I like the colors and straightforward layout, but I think its fonts are the biggest part of that appeal in being extremely readable for me. A shame it is such a specialized distro, although I have not looked into its extensibility with productivity and entertainmant apps...
FWIW
106 • More fun with Debian Squeeze Slug Bug (by imnotrich on 2011-05-12 03:23:39 GMT from Mexico)
Never did figure out how to get that internal SD card reader working, and was also unable to get my parallel port zip drive recognized by Squeeze. BUG!
So I gave up.
Switched to a different tower, another (slightly newer) AMD64 dual core based PC. Installed the 32 bit version of Squeeze and experienced all the same bugs I have documented in prior chapters, with a few interesting exceptions:
The internal SD card reader actually works! Insert a memory card, Squeeze recognizes it and automounts. Good job!
Setting default applications using the right click menu option to open files based on extension does not save settings, nor does editing the appropriate text file. BUG! However, I fixed this by installing PCmanFM. Somehow PCman is able to save settings, where gnome/nautalis cannot.
Still no parallel port support. BUG!
Crafty (chess playing program) can't find it's own openings book. BUG! Worked fine in Lenny. You can access Crafty's openings book by using e-board, pychess or scid (if you tinker with scids configuration) but not xboard.
Wine still refuses to run/install the only 3 programs (Bookworm, Word 2000 and Radiosure) I need it to run, all ran fine in Lenny. BUG! I tried rolling back wine versions without success. It's a Squeeze issue.
But overall I was encouraged by the results - much less tinkering required than previous Debians so I (gasp!) deleted the 32 bit version and installed the 64 bit.
No big surprises except...Samba. The Samba configuration that allowed 32 bit to share Squeeze printers with my two Windows laptops? Doesn't work. BUG! I don't get this - It's the same version of samba, just different architecture (32 vs 64 bit). This is a potential deal breaker for me. May have to switch to another distro if I can't share printers.
Raptor (a 32 bit chess program that claims to work in 64 bit too) will install, but won't run. "Unable to execute child process" error. BUG!
Wine in 64 bit - no different from 32 bit. Still won't install or run the three programs I need, all of which ran fine in Lenny. I spent the entire afternoon screwing with Wine. Installed the 64 bit Wine version 1.3 something from Mepis. Thought I had something going, Word 2000 installs and runs perfectly. But the bookworm install crashes out. BUG! And while Radiosure installs and runs, the streaming radio station audio stutters every 5 seconds - no matter what settings I have chosen in winecfg. BUG!
This is likely due to Wine vs Pulse Audio. According to posts in the Wine forums, they won't be working on drivers for pulse audio because (in the past) they've spent lots of energy developing drivers for other sound systems that very soon became obscure and unpopular. Which is probably true, but me thinks Linux users will be stuck with Pulse for a long time, especially as most major distros have adopted Pulse.
Yeah I also tried the Ubuntu version of Wine, and I know that was dangerous - but I'm desperate.
I didn't have time to test parallel port support in 64 bit Squeeze, but I imagine it's going to be no go.
Folks Debian is a great distro, but Squeeze (as Debians go) clearly was released prematurely and anybody who says it "just works" with no tinkering...well, they're fibbing.
Next week - more slug bug fun with a Squeeze install on my laptop. Stay tuned.
P.S. - in both the 32bit and 64 bit installs mentioned above, not once did I get a message about missing blobs and yet certain hardware doesn't work. BUG!
107 • Good Bye, Ubuntu (by Clarence on 2011-05-12 06:27:10 GMT from United States)
The recent upgrade to the New Ubuntu with its Unity "Launcher" made me abandon Ubuntu. I could not delete those blocks on the left. On my own computer, it was forbidden to delete them. Somehow I felt Bill Gate's hand on my shoulder. You cannot even move them. And they were always there staring at me. Bizarre !!!!! What were they thinking ???
108 • Porteus perfect (by ozman on 2011-05-12 06:30:16 GMT from Australia)
I think I have just found my perfect distro, Porteus. Its the first distro I have found that detects my graphics card ATI HD5500 and enables desktop effects out of the box. Its really fast to boot and looks wonderful. Only 300mb with latest KDE desktop too.
109 • Linux Intel HD graphics (by Colin on 2011-05-12 07:48:38 GMT from United Kingdom)
has anyone managed to get wine working with AGP on intel hd graphics, I've narrowed it down to something to do with opencl. can anyone help!? when I compile wine in a terminal opencl is the only thing that I cant seem too install.
110 • Goodbye Ubuntu....Hello Fedora 15 (by David B on 2011-05-12 13:46:43 GMT from United States)
I have not been one to do much distro hopping recently (I use to distro hop a lot a few years ago). I had been using Ubuntu or Mint until I installed Fedora 15 beta on my s10 netbook. I like Gnome 3 much better than Unity especially with the Gnome 3 tweak tool. Even though Gnome 3 is very early in development I find it much more stable than KDE 4 when it was first introduced. Gnome 3 will only get better as time goes on. I remember when KDE 4 was first introduced things were not too rosy then. It's all linux but I have really been liking Fedora 15 so far with Gnome 3 tweaked a bit.
I didn't like the direction Canonicol was taking getting to be too much like Microsoft.
111 • Google Chrome (by Tom on 2011-05-12 15:04:18 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hi :)
Does anyone know what Google Chrome uses as a package manager? I was amazed to find Chrome is not listed in DW! (possibly i just didn't look hard enough)
Regards from Tom :)
112 • @105 - Parted Magic desktop (by Pearson on 2011-05-12 18:37:03 GMT from United States)
Wow, I thought I was the only one! I've actually half-heartedly considered installing Parted Magic as my primary OS just because their UI "just works". I won't, because I like to not be full-time root, but I really do like their UI.
113 • Ubuntu's Direction (by Martin on 2011-05-12 20:52:17 GMT from South Africa)
I just upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 on my desktop at home, only to find that my graphics card does not support Unity.
I think Ubuntu has lost the vision they had of bringing Linux to masses' desktops and is instead becoming a test bed for innovation. Don't get me wrong; I'm all for innovation, but not at the cost of losing your potential market.
114 • ...also... (by Clarence on 2011-05-12 22:49:57 GMT from United States)
PS. I moved from Ubuntu to Peppermint OS. It is pretty lean but I just added the programs I needed. Peppermint is very fast. With the Peppermint OS, there are several desktops available. I didn't like the Lxde interface which is clunky. And several programs just do not work in Openbox (bug?) ( but I would not use Openbox anyway... I don't like all the back-clicking. ) So in Peppermint, I simply downloaded the gnome-applets2 that I wanted and just boot into the Gnome desktop. I'm back at home. I put Peppermint on an Acer just to be able to use Skype.
115 • Ubuntu and Gnome 3 (by Edwin on 2011-05-13 08:05:48 GMT from United States)
Usually, I would have downloaded Salix, just for fun to see what's in it. I would have even downloaded Kanotix. But, suddenly, i don't appear to want to download any new release of a distro, as I am quite happy with Gnome 3.
My 1st try was Fedora 15beta. It was a very good experience. Now I have Ubuntu11.04 with Gnome classic, Gnome 3 and Unity. I can interchange with Unity and Gnome 3 and if I feel melancholic, I can even use Gnome Classic.
I wish the developers of Gnome 3 and Unity all the luck in the world! I hope they'd come up with another revolutionary DE in the near future, something cosmic!
116 • @115 - is it wizardry? (by meanpt on 2011-05-13 08:54:15 GMT from Portugal)
Any time I installed (or tried to install) gnome 3 in 11.04, I always lost Unity, which seems to be a condition and a known trade-off for installing gnome 3. How did you get both working in the same installation? I assume you change desktops within the same installation, right?
117 • Ubuntu and Gnome 3 (by Edwin on 2011-05-13 09:01:29 GMT from United States)
Well, I am now writing to you from Ubuntu Unity DE, Before that I was using the Gnome 3. Before you enter your password, you change your DE. That's simple. Gnome 3 ppa can be found in bottom of the DWW page, the 2nd new distro. Its actually how to get the Gnome 3. Very nice indeed!
118 • Ubuntu and Gnome 3 (by Edwin on 2011-05-13 09:03:16 GMT from United States)
Go to this page and you'll have your Gnome 3 in Ubuntu 11.04
http://ugr.teampr0xy.net/install
119 • @117 and 118 - the ub gnome 3 remix (by meanpt on 2011-05-13 10:49:52 GMT from Portugal)
:) ... sorry guys, third attempt and everything got ruined again:
While executing "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade"from step "4) Install UGR"
Windowed error report "Package Problem":
Sorry,the package "gnome-session3.0.1-0ubuntu1~build2" failed to install or upgrade
On the terminal_
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-session_3.0.1-0ubuntu1~build2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
So, lets call it a day ...
120 • Ubuntu and Gnome 3 (by Edwin on 2011-05-13 11:27:05 GMT from United States)
Too bad, Meanpt. Maybe you should try that without thinking it will break. I simply went through the 6 steps and I got the Gnome 3 while working with Unity. If you have a problem, maybe you should try to get Gnome 3 while using Gnome 2...I am using an Acer laptop
121 • RE:103, Why can't people understand that. (by Eddie on 2011-05-13 12:09:28 GMT from United States)
"Ubuntu releases a production distro every 2 years. Ubuntu also releases a set of experimental releases in between. 11.04 is one of such experimental releases.
"User input is very important for experimental releases, and if Ubuntu screws up, it is important that users manifest themselves.
Current Ubuntu is 10.04. Ubuntu has until April 2012 to make Unity worthy of being incorporated into a production release, 12.04."
That is the way it works. What really get me is when someone comes out and says "it was released too soon". They clearly don't know what they are talking about or are just wanting something to whine about. Another funny thing is when all the Ubuntu haters or immature crybabies still download and try out the new test release of Ubuntu. They say that want to see how they have progressed but that's just a lie. They just want more bitching power and then get pissed off when it's a good release. The same can be said of any distro basher. Grow up kids.
122 • Fedora (by RRC on 2011-05-13 13:46:18 GMT from United States)
I like Fedora and admire their irc site.
However the stopper for me is the insistence on installing LVM + which I'm not interested in and gobbles up space I might (do) wish to use otherwise.
123 • Ubuntu and Gnome 3 (by Edwin on 2011-05-13 13:47:53 GMT from United States)
I am not saying that Unity is bad. Not at all. It has its nice parts. Gnome 3 has its nice parts. What I like most is that all I have to do now is to move my cursor to the left hand top corner, and then simply move it anywhere or click on whatever you want to click on.
Too much clicks and movements hurt the palm, and Gnome 3 had taken that off my palm.
If Unity too would allow us to use less mouse movements, I'd love it too. At this moment Unity has the same amount of mouse movements as the Gnome 2, say for example like having sophisticated Macbuntu.
I believe, it is the DE that makes the people like it, rather than the distro itself.
124 • Fedora install (by Barnabyh on 2011-05-13 14:31:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hi RRC, I was quite sure that using traditional partitions was available as well, so you don't have to use LVM, but it's a bit hidden, possibly under 'manual partitioning scheme' or similar.
125 • re. Numero 102 (by Barnabyh on 2011-05-13 14:56:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
@MarkSouth: I was just answering to your post and to #57 who argued it is 'remembered', not cached. Perhaps 'supposed caching' was a bad choice of words and just the latter in the post title would have sufficed. Not to get hung up on one word, caching would be the correct term I suppose ;) .
Mainly wanted to let the poster know where s/he can configure the timeout.
126 • Gnome Shell vs Unity (by Paperless Tiger on 2011-05-13 18:38:30 GMT from United States)
Looks to me like Gnome got forked. As Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
127 • 120 • Ubuntu and Gnome 3 (by Edwin (by meanpt on 2011-05-14 09:38:10 GMT from Portugal)
Edwin, 4th attempt, same problem. This time I have a copy of the installation run on terminal and will submit it to the developers. I like Unity, mainly the way the launcher behaves, but the gnome 3 workflow suits me better as it is more tablet friendly.
128 • @ 124 (by RRC on 2011-05-14 21:17:27 GMT from United States)
Hi Barnabyh, thanks for your comment. I will ask in the irc #fedora and I don't know why I haven't done that before. :)
129 • Ubuntu Unity and stuff.. (by davemc on 2011-05-16 01:22:34 GMT from United States)
So, I was looking through this article:
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=151357
"GNOME 3
Ubuntu 11.10 will use GNOME 3. The GNOME 3 Natty PPA will be maintained with bug fixes for GNOME 3.0 and there will probably be an GNOME 3.1 PPA for Oneiric until 3.1 is ready to be included by default."
This is really kind of cryptic, as it appears to me this guy is saying that GNOME3 will be the new default for 11.10 instead of Unity. If so, that should piss off a few less people. A few less...
Number of Comments: 129
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| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Taprobane GNU/Linux
Taprobane GNU/Linux was a distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It was a live CD with a primary focus of bringing convenience to the user. The word "Taprobane" represents an ancient name for Sri Lanka, a beautiful Indian Ocean island also known as Ceylon.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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