Ars has a review of Ubuntu 7.10. They conclude: "Ubuntu 7.10 provides an unparalleled desktop Linux experience and sets new standards for power and ease of use. This release lives up to Ubuntu's reputation and delivers cutting-edge new features and solid enhancements. Although Ubuntu 7.10 is very impressive, some of the new additions - particularly Compiz and Tracker - lack the polish and robustness that they need to truly shine. These technologies are still a work in progress and give Ubuntu 7.10 a slightly unfinished feel. Ubuntu also unfortunately inherits some of the minor weaknesses of the GNOME desktop environment."
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Member since:2006-02-05
I wouldnt go quite as far with the ubuntu bashing as you do (considering what it is trying to be, and considering you compare it to stuff like fedora), but i find linux to be getting rather boring too. The exciting new stuff is all basically things that have been already done elsewhere. Sure, fancy graphics are nice for demoing it to someone used to windows or osx, but I miss the days when the work was being done on more interesting things. I think a big part of it is the massive influx of clueless users over the last few years. I used to be proud of being part of the linux "community", but nowadays it means alot less then it used to. The mac community is stereo-typed by its high priesthood, the windows community by its apologetics, but the linux community used to be all about the uber geek. Instead, now it seems to be about the ex-windows user who is too cheap to buy vista, and wants a free ride.
Personally, I am going the Belenix route, possibly Project Indiana, but we'll see about what kind of direction they go (I don't want to dump linux for a linux clone).
Member since:2006-04-19
I think that's what's doing a lot of damage to Linux in general, is all these people that want a zero-cost OS, and all this really stupid mentality of people being against Microsoft, so they're cool because they use Linux. My own personal perspective, Linux anti-Microsoft people will never be "cool" as long as they don't know how to work without a graphical desktop environment and without graphical menus. For me, with Linux, I feel depressed, with Open/FreeBSD, I feel I can whip it into a frenzy and have a great old time with it all!
Have you thought about using PC-BSD so you can just install and go, populate the ports, and edit all of like 2 system files to make a bullet-proof system to use? I hear PF as even developed a couple graphical things for editing PF stuff, although I have not tried or seen PC 1.4 myself.
Member since:
2006-04-19
I am talking about the code that they develop from the Debian unstable branch, they break and it becomes unusable, work on and send it back up stream to Debian and eventually because usable, so they do coding for that. Plus the changes in the code they make to KDE menu system, not just the Kmenu, and XFCE, changing the XFCE menu from the source code defaults. So there is that coding as well. So if someone thinks Ubuntu is an assembly of packages, ahhh no, not that simple, they do get into the source code, hence the major stability issues with Ubuntu, compared to using all the same packages and DE in Debian. I am curious to find out even if Ubuntu develops on their last release, or if they dump it all and build again from the unstable branch for the next release.
After the record, I'm starting to get tired of Linux in general anyways. Getting sick of the Linux kernel, even Andrew Morton has talked about shutting down development for 2 months and do nothing but patches and fixes for those 2 months. I'm an OpenBSD person, FreeBSD second. There are things with the BSD kernels that I lie doing and recompile, and editing system files, that I don't know how to do in Linux, I can even work with PF no sweat, but I have no clue how to work on IPTables. And also, I am more than happy working without any graphical menus, graphical desktop. I can honestly spend all only using Lynx for browsing, Finch for chatting, and Sendmail for email. As much as I am really excited about KDE4 as I am a KDE fan, if what I do does not required graphics, I default back into Lynx and keep everything in text-only mode. So this is why I've gotten tired of Linux and its distributions in general, and I think Ubuntu is one of the worst ones of all the distributions.
Since I prefer BSD everyday, I find it it eaasier to work with, and for me I think OpenBSD is very logically designed for it's network structure and system files very easy to maintain, when I looked at a couple of Ubuntu releases, I seriously wondered why this distro is even around. You see, I'm about networking and multi-system setups, I don't use it for me and my computer, or for me and my laptop, but I am about what are my options for setting up a server, a remote storage unit, my laptop to remotely log into multiple systems, and setting up a dedicated system for people I know to use as their own remote storage server with their own logins and their own directories. And so I look at Ubuntu as a play toy, and not for people who are into true technical things, get into the guts and source files. I would recommend Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, or Debian over Ubuntu any day.