The Ubuntu team has released the 2nd alpha release en route to Edgy Eft. “The primary changes from Knot 1 have been implementations of feature
goals as listed on this page. Common to all variants, we have upgraded Xorg to the 7.1 release. In Ubuntu,
GNOME has been updated to 2.16.0 Release Candidate 1. Other notable
changes are listed on here. KDE has been updated to 3.5.4. Other notable Kubuntu changes are listed on here.”
Man, there’s some really cool work going on here.
Thanks for the heads up. Every release of Ubuntu just gets better and better. Ubuntu (and GNU/Linux in general) does every six to twelve months what Microsoft can’t manage in 5 years.
Edit: no em tag?
Edited 2006-09-01 22:16
Man, there’s some really cool work going on here.
[soapbox]
And I would just like to use the opportunity to remind everybody that the people working on all those improvements to ‘buntu (and by extension a great many of OSS projects) don’t live on good vibes alone.
If you haven’t yet done it, or haven’t done it recently, I suggest donating the cost of an extra large “supreme” pizza to Canonical.
Don’t think of it as paying for your copy of ‘Buntu.
Think of it as feeding the coders — or buying them a beer or two.
[/soapbox]
>> Every release of Ubuntu just gets better and better. Ubuntu (and GNU/Linux in general) does every six to twelve months what Microsoft can’t manage in 5 years.
The topic here being “Ubuntu Edgy Eft Knot 2 released”, how necessary was it to invoke the manufacturer of “that other OS” again as a comparison?
Beside the fact that the second line is an exaggeration, begging for flames, confirming the Ubuntu fanboy cliche, I’d say this (as a guy who tries to avoid the use of Microsoft’s products):
Imagine that some day Microsoft is dead, would Ubuntu/Linux suddenly stop being good stuff?
Let’s compare Ubuntu Edgy, if such a comparison is at all necessary, to comparable phenomena like Fedora Core 6, openSuse 10.2, or Mandriva 2007.
Why ?
Every site, magazine, TV programme will compare Linux, (any version) with Windows.
Whats wrong with us doing it ?
I agree with you, they should do comparisons of like for like, but at the minute there is no Linux based competition for Ubuntu.
The closest I have tried was Suse 10.1, but they somehow managed to hose the updates. Ubuntu update-manager works like a dream.
People have their favourite distros, in the same way that others have their favourite operating system.
Comparing like for like will not help someone who is used only to Windows or a Mac. These people need to know both what they are missing, and also, what advantages they have themselves.
Edited 2006-09-02 14:16
Microsoft has done more than that. Compare Breezy and Dapper, and then XP and Vista.
And I see that Edgy will make it easier to install things like graphics card drivers and MP3 support.
Edited 2006-09-02 00:01
Ok, so one has stated how much of an improvement 6 months can make and yet you compare XP and Vista which is 5 years. Ubuntu isn’t even 5 years old, yet look at the massive improvement from Warty Warthog to Dapper Drake and tell me that the comparison doesn’t still stand of the original poster.
For the record, Ubuntu, when a new feature is thought of, has always either tried to make it happen in the upcoming release, or they put it into the release after.
While I think a 6 month release cycle is great (mainly because I’m a Gnome fan and it’s synchronized with that), I think it does lend to a less stable system. What I would really like to see is a Debian base, that stays relatively the same on the core side, but has applications and the desktop be upgraded every 6 months when a new Gnome version comes out. This would help stability quite a bit, though of course new kernels area always nice when they add more hardware support.
I don’t really like to bash, but:
“Man, there’s some really cool work going on here.”
Really? I’m looking through the list:
“New Boot Splash” – okay, that’s a new thing actually done by Ubuntu, score one. It’s a bit trivial and behind other distros, but it scores.
“Tomboy: a better kind of note-taking” – yay, we packaged part of GNOME.
“F-spot: a better mousetrap for managing photos” – yay, we packaged another part of GNOME. (That’s mostly developed by SUSE).
“GNOME 2.16 beta 2” – hmm, the list’s looking a bit short, so let’s remind everyone that we package GNOME. Did you remember that?
“Firefox 2.0b1 – Bon Echo” – yay, we packaged a beta.
“OpenOffice.org 2.0.3” – yay, we updated a package to the latest release.
“Gaim 2.0 beta 3.1” – and again.
“Orca, a new kind of screen reader” – yay, we packaged yet another part of GNOME.
“Desktop Effects” – discussed in my previous post.
“Faster shutdown” – cool: score two.
“New 2.6.17 kernel” – yay, we updated our kernel to the latest stable.
“Python 2.5 RC 1 available” – yay, we packaged another beta.
Okay, so, total score for actual Ubuntu-centered developments? Two fairly minor things. All the rest is basically just normal package updates, any distro’s bread and butter. I’m sure it’s all well put together and works well, Ubuntu usually is, but it’s not exactly a revolutionary thing. If you were to say there’s some really cool work going on in GNOME – which, of course, Ubuntu developers are also involved in – I’d have no problem with that.
Maybe you should realize that Ubuntu’s success has nothing to do with internal developments but everything to do with how they integrate and polish from the pool of open source / free software available. And since Ubuntu is a distributor of such software it makes perfect sense to highlight the improvements they’re getting with each new release.
I was replying to the commenter who posted “Man, there’s some really cool work going on here.” It wasn’t a comment on the quality of the Ubuntu project itself.
Would I have to completely recompile everything from source if I wanted an as-is, unmodified version of KDE, you know the way they release it for download, instead of Ubuntu’s version of KDE, and also with System Settings completely taken out and just stick with KControl?
This is not a critisism, but if that’s what you want why are you using Kubuntu? (K)Ubuntus main selling point is its changes. If you don’t want those changes you don’t want Kubuntu. There are other distros that will offer you what you want with far less hassle.
no, their change as far as I can see are purely cosmetic, the change from blue to purple (<personal opinion>which I hate</personal opinion>) is the theme, you might have to change a few file. As for kcontrol, it’s still available through the command line, so just use kmenuedit to replace the call to systemsettings to kcontrol, and you get back kcontrol.
If you want a more stock KDE (I’ll agree with you on that one. I personally dislike how kubuntu tweaks quite a bit with it) but still maintain some of the niceties that you get with Ubuntu, eg. apt-get with vaste repositories and all that, why not just use Debian?
If you want a more stock KDE … why not just use Debian?
http://osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=15708 Maybe he thinks, like that article implies, that the wheels are starting to come off over at debian and it’s time to move to greener pastures. Or maybe he just wants a distro that focuses more on the desktop.
You’re suggestion is good though, that’s why I use debian
Anyway, to take a stab an answering his question: /usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/ might have something to do with it. I think if you delete that directory (and then create a new user) it should be a standard KDE. I’ve never actually tried doing that (partly cause I use debian), but it’s filled with config files for various KDE apps, and is more than likely the source of the non-upstream-defaultness.
Just a side comment, what does “apt-get install kde” do?
In the gnome case, if you want just want GNOME without all the Ubuntu customizations, you can do an “apt-get install gnome” and get the real deal. If you want the customizations at a future date, then you can do “apt-get install ubuntu” and the customizations are added on.
Aren’t the kubuntu and kde metapackages set up this way too? If that’s the case, then you can get raw KDE if you install the server version of Ubuntu (or Ubuntu or Edubuntu or Xubuntu if you don’t mind having other desktops) and do “apt-get install kde”.
I used Debian before, but changed only *ONLY* because I wanted a more recent KDE version. If Debian would release often, I certainly could change back.
$ cat /etc/debian_version
testing/unstable
$ kded –version
Qt: 3.3.6
KDE: 3.5.4
KDE Daemon: $Id: kded.cpp 534738 2006-04-27 18:04:45Z lunakl $
pretty recent to me 😉
Ok, but how much did you wait until 3.5 was released by Debian after it was available?
well in my case I wasn’t using debian at that particular time (or at least I’m not sure I was…), however consider kde 3.5.4 was only released a month ago, and it’s already in debian testing (and looking at the dates in the changelog, it looks like it went right into at least unstable), that’s not bad (speed wise).
anyhow, it looks like 3.5 was uploaded to unstable in Jan 06. 3.5 was announced by kde nov 29, 2005. one month for compiling/testing/etc is hardly a long time to wait… (shoot, I’m still using 3.4.3 in the inhouse distro I maintain/support at work)
remember, debian appears to have changed pretty fundamentally when it comes to speed of releases. stable is still going to be frozen at whatever it was at time of release, but the rest of the tree is really quite fast moving now.
simple, just select the kde meta package instead of the kubuntu-desktop package, job done vanilla kde
thingi
Kubuntu color scheme, widget style, window decorations, icons and background are really horrible and non modern. A good nature quality picture for background and blueish colors would be a better fit for a modern desktop. That violet(?) color… well, is my personal opinion as user. There are nice backgrounds, like grass (I think I found it in kde-look), and icons like nuvola, with the current color scheme are really nicer than that default look. It’s not encouraging for new users.
Edited 2006-09-01 22:49
I absolutely agree. I mean, look at this: https://wiki.kubuntu.org/EdgyEft/Knot2/Kubuntu?action=AttachFile&do=…
Is this some kind of joke?
Dapper’s kubuntu already gave me the impression that Ubuntu doesn’t have skilled art artists, but now I’m sure about that..
The worst thing about that screenshot is that the purple from the desktop and the blue from konqueror really clash. They should try to modify the color scheme of konqueror if they want to keep the purple look. As far as desktops go, how many people keep the default? I always make changes to mine.
Actually I think a purple theme that is dark and rich would look really good….maybe? It just does not look good in this instance because of the bright KDE blue that is on everything.
I like the idea of a good dark rich purple theme, gradient and glassy. Might look really good!
Possibly a good gnome idea there actually.
[CLICHEE]Something tells me not many men are going to like the new colour sheme, girls on the other hand… [/CLICHEE].
i think most colors, used tastefully in a color scheme with a nice wallpaper selection, could look great. i also think that it’s great that *ubuntu is breaking away from the standard “everything is blue” mantra of recent years (windows, osx, and the default gnome and kde installs all make extensive use of blue as the main color, albeit in different shades).
at the same time, while i love to see creativity in the way of themes and colorschemes, i wholeheartedly deplore the default wallpaper and colorscheme selections chosen in this ubuntu and kubuntu release (dapper’s default kubuntu look was pretty nice, i thought, although the default ubuntu dapper looks about the same as edgy’s).
i think that getting people to make the switch means giving people an operating system that is nice to look at. for people to continue using an operating system, it must be easy to use and stable. in my opinion, ubuntu fails at the former but succeeds in the later.
Can’t wait for Edgy Eft which is supposed to be a latest technology “playground” 😀
Is this not the same thing for which many people bash Fedora Core? I don’t mean to change the topic or start a distro/flame war, but I have yet to see much public backlash against Ubuntu’s policy of using the community as free testers. I personally don’t care, just as long as they don’t ship something as messed up as Open Suse 10.1.
Is this not the same thing for which many people bash Fedora Core?
The reason people bash Fedora is because they think it’s nothing more than a testbed for RHEL (something I don’t agree with personally). With Ubuntu, the “enterprise” release is not a separate product, it’s Ubuntu LTS and free of charge.
IF you used Fedora Core 5, it is just as stable as if not more stable than the ubuntu LTS release, nothing wrong with it.
Is this not the same thing for which many people bash Fedora Core? I don’t mean to change the topic or start a distro/flame war, but I have yet to see much public backlash against Ubuntu’s policy of using the community as free testers. I personally don’t care, just as long as they don’t ship something as messed up as Open Suse 10.1.
We are talking about the 2nd alpha release of Edgy Eft, not a final release product. Seems to me that if the developers want a testbed, this should be it. Where else would you test new features?
Cool they have a jigdo!
Thom thanks for the heads up, downloading now.
I will test it tomorrow or on sunday. Last dailies were good, let’s hope knot 2 will be too
By the way, a great piece of this knot is support for Dbus 0.90… They were around 200 packages or so modified because of it !
Edited 2006-09-01 23:47
I am a bit confused by the comments in the section on “Desktop Effects” (on the Ubuntu page). Does this mean that we NVidia people will be able to (1) get AIGLX to work by default, with the NVidia driver, and (2) run Compiz on top of AIGLX?
Yeah, I was about to post about that. For anyone too lazy to read the article over again, here’s the quote:
“Edgy will ship with X.org 7.1, which includes AIGLX. With the release of the new Nvidia and ATI drivers that now working with Xorg 7.1 (but sadly still don’t do compositing), AIGLX compositing has now been turned on by default.”
Thing is, AIGLX does not work with the current NVIDIA or ATI proprietary drivers. It only works with the ATI open source drivers on supported cards (Radeon 7500 -> 9200) and on various recent Intel chipsets. I don’t know if the sentence above is a misunderstanding or a fudge or what, but you can’t do AIGLX on proprietary NVIDIA or ATI, yet. The NVIDIA 9xxx driver series should be capable of it when it comes out, I think; I’m not sure anyone knows what ATI’s plans are.
It means that the X Composite extension has been turned on by default. So if you run xcompmgr or the XFCE window manager you can get a composited desktop, albeit without the fancy effects that Compiz etc bring.
But it says “AIGLX compositing has been turned on by default”. Not “compositing has been turned on by default”.
Can somebody please tell me if evolution will be really update concerning the Exchange Support??..
I tried to used the version from ubuntu 6.06 and SLED 10 and i couldn’t connect to my brand new exchange 2003 server..
And yes i also believe that the canonical team need better graphics skill and GAIM too, wauuu, if look very ugly it’s time for a real change.