Ubuntu 8.10 Released

[Guest Reimar]

Ubuntu 8.10 Released

After six alphas, a beta and a release candidate, Ubuntu 8.10 is here, today (October 30th), available on mirrors worldwide (see below for download links), and it's my greatest pleasure to introduce you guys to the highlights of this new release dubbed Intrepid Ibex.

It all began on February 20th, when Mark Shuttleworth announced the Intrepid Ibex, also known as Ubuntu 8.10, the next major release of the popular Ubuntu Linux operating system. Ubuntu 8.10 is also the ninth release of Ubuntu OS, and the fourth anniversary of the first release, Ubuntu 4.10.

"We want you to be able to move from the office, to the train, and home, staying connected all the way." - said Mark Shuttleworth.

Highlights of Ubuntu 8.10:

· GNOME 2.24

· Linux kernel 2.6.27

· Guest session

· DKMS

· X.org 7.4

· Network Manager 0.7

· PAM authentication framework

· Totem BBC plugin

The new desktop environment in Ubuntu 8.10, GNOME 2.24.1, brings many new and helpful features. Here are a few of them:

· Smarter terminal! How? For example, if you open a terminal window on the desktop (by using the nautilus-open-terminal extension), the path will be the one for the Desktop, not for Home!

· You can now mount archives and ISO files! What is that? Let's say, for example, that you don't want to extract an archive, you just want to take a peek inside it, or to copy just two files from there... with a simple right click on the archive, you can select the “Open with ‘Archive Mounter’” option and voila;

· Private (encrypted) Directory really works, but you have to work some "magic" in the terminal to set it up first;

· Better screenshot utility! The default GNOME Screenshot tool can now remember the second you set for screenshot delay every time you open it, it is faster, and can include the mouse pointer in screenshots;

· Smart logout/shutdown button! Fast User Switch Applet is its name, and it now replaces the regular button for system shutdown. Along the usual restart, logout, lock screen, suspend and hibernate functions offered by this new applet, it will also emulate away, online, busy and offline functions from the Pidgin application (if it's open, of course);

· The “Create Archive” window has some new features, such as "Password protection," "Encryption" and "File Splitting";

· The “Extracting files from archive” window has been improved, and will show you in real time what it does;

· The system will automatically shut down in 60 seconds if you just hit the shutdown button. I've tested it and the system shuts down in 60 seconds... However, I don't see any reason for this function, except that it's somehow cool;

· There are also a lot of new, cool and amazing desktop effects for you to play with!

Donwload: Ubuntu 8.10

[dave_boo]

Ubuntu 8.10 Released

After six alphas, a beta and a release candidate, Ubuntu 8.10 is here, today (October 30th), available on mirrors worldwide (see below for download links), and it's my greatest pleasure to introduce you guys to the highlights of this new release dubbed Intrepid Ibex.

It all began on February 20th, when Mark Shuttleworth announced the Intrepid Ibex, also known as Ubuntu 8.10, the next major release of the popular Ubuntu Linux operating system. Ubuntu 8.10 is also the ninth release of Ubuntu OS, and the fourth anniversary of the first release, Ubuntu 4.10.

"We want you to be able to move from the office, to the train, and home, staying connected all the way." - said Mark Shuttleworth.

Highlights of Ubuntu 8.10:

· GNOME 2.24

· Linux kernel 2.6.27

· Guest session

· DKMS

· X.org 7.4

· Network Manager 0.7

· PAM authentication framework

· Totem BBC plugin

The new desktop environment in Ubuntu 8.10, GNOME 2.24.1, brings many new and helpful features. Here are a few of them:

· Smarter terminal! How? For example, if you open a terminal window on the desktop (by using the nautilus-open-terminal extension), the path will be the one for the Desktop, not for Home!

And cd /De<tab key> is too hard? How is this an improvement? Are there idiots that save everything to their desktops and need to run installation files from there?

· You can now mount archives and ISO files! What is that? Let's say, for example, that you don't want to extract an archive, you just want to take a peek inside it, or to copy just two files from there... with a simple right click on the archive, you can select the “Open with ‘Archive Mounter’” option and voila;

The archive manager now allows you to extract single files.....

And what's wrong with a quick

 sudo mkdir -p /media/iso && mount -o loop your.iso /media/iso

Plus there's this little program that works wonderfully.

· Private (encrypted) Directory really works, but you have to work some "magic" in the terminal to set it up first;

· Better screenshot utility! The default GNOME Screenshot tool can now remember the second you set for screenshot delay every time you open it, it is faster, and can include the mouse pointer in screenshots;

· Smart logout/shutdown button! Fast User Switch Applet is its name, and it now replaces the regular button for system shutdown. Along the usual restart, logout, lock screen, suspend and hibernate functions offered by this new applet, it will also emulate away, online, busy and offline functions from the Pidgin application (if it's open, of course);

· The “Create Archive” window has some new features, such as "Password protection," "Encryption" and "File Splitting";

What's wrong with CLI?!?!?

· The “Extracting files from archive” window has been improved, and will show you in real time what it does;

· The system will automatically shut down in 60 seconds if you just hit the shutdown button. I've tested it and the system shuts down in 60 seconds... However, I don't see any reason for this function, except that it's somehow cool;

I could think about some that could be wrong with that; if you take your headphones off and drop them on your laptop and walk away, you could be pretty upset when you return with a cold one and the 'puter is off! And the fact that not all programs support resume you could be in serious trouble.

· There are also a lot of new, cool and amazing desktop effects for you to play with!

Donwload: Ubuntu 8.10

I hate to sound terribly negative, but there's few new items that rock my socks. Tell me about security improvements, increased hardware support, better suspend to ram/standby, improved rendering speed, enchancements to the kernel for greater stability, etc. There's a reason that this distro is disparaginly called 'noobuntu' by the old guard. In fact, the only really interesting item still needs to have "some "magic" in the terminal" done to be set up properly, and yet they want to trumpet everything that Microsoft would and ignore what really makes Linux relevant.

[endure]

I hate to sound terribly negative, but there's few new items that rock my socks. Tell me about security improvements, increased hardware support, better suspend to ram/standby, improved rendering speed, enchancements to the kernel for greater stability, etc. There's a reason that this distro is disparaginly called 'noobuntu' by the old guard.

But it's not aimed at the old guard, is it? I thought the point of Ubuntu was a Linux for everyone else?

[Ajarn_Jonesy]

I hate to sound terribly negative, but there's few new items that rock my socks. Tell me about security improvements, increased hardware support, better suspend to ram/standby, improved rendering speed, enchancements to the kernel for greater stability, etc. There's a reason that this distro is disparaginly called 'noobuntu' by the old guard.

But it's not aimed at the old guard, is it? I thought the point of Ubuntu was a Linux for everyone else?

In Place upgrades suck..... Plan to spend some time if you are upgrading an existing 7.10 or 8.0.4 version. in particular if you are running server as a vmware host.

[adammike]

GREEN INK aaaaagghhhhh

[dave_boo]

I hate to sound terribly negative, but there's few new items that rock my socks. Tell me about security improvements, increased hardware support, better suspend to ram/standby, improved rendering speed, enchancements to the kernel for greater stability, etc. There's a reason that this distro is disparaginly called 'noobuntu' by the old guard.

But it's not aimed at the old guard, is it? I thought the point of Ubuntu was a Linux for everyone else?

You do have a point; it is aimed for the n00b. It just seems that Cannonical is ignoring what makes Linux Linux and instead trying to appeal to the 'common man' (which isn't such a good idea; think how stupid the average man is and then consider a full 49% of the population is even dumber!). So WHEN the sh!t hits the fan over some boneheaded decision that n00buntu decided to do, all those monkeys with keyboards will automatically assume that n00buntu=Linux (which we should know is wrong), and get scared off back to Windows rather than exploring a different distro, or *shudder* try BSD. If you don't think that's possible, question n00buntu users; they assume that their distro IS the only Linux. Repeat the experiment with users of different distros and marvel at the difference.

Now in the grand scheme of things it is good that Linux has more users. But if those (l)users are working on an unsecured distro and something were to wrong, all the momentum that was building to apply pressure to hardware manufacturers to provide drivers will be lost.

GREEN INK aaaaagghhhhh

It's a bit of a signature for me, but just to appease you I used the hot pink in this part of the reply.

[endure]

If the 'common man' is that stupid they're probably better off sticking with Windows and Linux is better off remaining in its cosy little niche.

[Crushdepth]

I quite like Ubuntu - while many see the geek factor of other distributions as some kind of plus, I think the slightly better emphasis on usability is exactly what Linux needs. Bill Gates chuckles every time a wannabe Linux user gives up in frustration over some trivial issue (don't laugh, but I tossed my first Mandrake CD in the bin when I couldn't figure out how to open the CD drive).

New users got to start somewhere, and I'm finally starting to go mainstream with Linux on my work machines thanks to Ubuntu. Maybe, I will try some other distribution in the future, but then I am not clear on why other distributions are so much better

I wish they would fix the bloody wireless in Ubuntu though - honestly, of all the things they could break, the wireless? WPA just doesn't work and you can't hook up to your mobile phone internet either because that's busted too. Don't linux geeks use EDGE?

[dave_boo]

If the 'common man' is that stupid they're probably better off sticking with Windows and Linux is better off remaining in its cosy little niche.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but the common man is that stupid (and I know how elitist that sounds but oh well). It may seem a little niche to those same common man, but then again, I wouldn't expect them to realise there's a market outside the desktop.

I quite like Ubuntu - while many see the geek factor of other distributions as some kind of plus, I think the slightly better emphasis on usability is exactly what Linux needs. Bill Gates chuckles every time a wannabe Linux user gives up in frustration over some trivial issue (don't laugh, but I tossed my first Mandrake CD in the bin when I couldn't figure out how to open the CD drive).

I've always wondered about that; how could you bin the CD if you couldn't eject it? None the less, the farce that is perpetuated that there's the learning curve is just dumb. Didn't they learn how to bumble through Windows?

New users got to start somewhere, and I'm finally starting to go mainstream with Linux on my work machines thanks to Ubuntu. Maybe, I will try some other distribution in the future, but then I am not clear on why other distributions are so much better

There are much better distros suited for n00bs. Slax springs to mind, in fact it's a great tool to show off Linux to people or use as a recovery thumbdrive. Superlight weight, and the *.mo work wonders. Plus things just work and it has good security. Check this link, you can choose your distros to compare.

I wish they would fix the bloody wireless in Ubuntu though - honestly, of all the things they could break, the wireless? WPA just doesn't work and you can't hook up to your mobile phone internet either because that's busted too. Don't linux geeks use EDGE?

Yeah, that's due to their insistence on the regular releases. Oh, and the not actively contributing to the community and trying to cobble stuff together. But that's me just venting. I use EDGE very easily with SuSE; Ubuntu was much more of a P.I.T.A. to do.

Edited November 1, 2008 by dave_boo

[endure]

If the 'common man' is that stupid they're probably better off sticking with Windows and Linux is better off remaining in its cosy little niche.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but the common man is that stupid (and I know how elitist that sounds but oh well). It may seem a little niche to those same common man, but then again, I wouldn't expect them to realise there's a market outside the desktop.

You're not bursting any bubbles. I used to do support for medical systems and have known people who were unable to use the system if you moved an icon to a different place on the desktop.

99% of people who use computers regard them in the same way that they regard carving knives and lawnmowers - a tool to do a job. They have no interest in how it does that job - as long as it does it in a predictable and consistent fashion they're happy. If you want the hardware companies to take your driver needs seriously you're going to have to get more punters to take up Linux and in order to do that you're going to have accept the fact that many of them are uninterested dummies.

[Gary A]

Yes I agree. The common man is that stupid. When I plug in something, I want it to work. When I download a program I want it to install. The only distro I can connect to the Internet with is Mandriva. Even when connected, I download a program and can't get it to work without having to spend hours asking questions.

I still think Linux is NOT ready for prime time stupid people.

[dave_boo]

Yes I agree. The common man is that stupid. When I plug in something, I want it to work. When I download a program I want it to install. The only distro I can connect to the Internet with is Mandriva. Even when connected, I download a program and can't get it to work without having to spend hours asking questions.

I still think Linux is NOT ready for prime time stupid people.

Hmm, the downloading the program is kept simple using any package manager; if you're trying to build from source, and they should provide a list of dependencies. Install those dependencies first using your package manager and you should be golden. Actually, if they want repeat business, it's not that hard to create an *.rpm or a *.deb.

Otherwise I agree with you.