"The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. Hardy Heron Alpha 3 is the third alpha release of Ubuntu 8.04, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features."
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Member since:2006-07-16
Ubuntu devs are very, very slow to fix bugs. They're too obsessed with the next big release to worry about what's happening in the current release. They're like a child who skips the main course to head straight for the desert. Once an Ubuntu release hits gold, it's all but forgotten.
Member since:2005-07-24
I was worried about you, cmost! It took you alrmost 5 hours from the story's release time to post your expected flamebait. I feared something might have happened to you. ;-)
Anyway, I have users running 6.04, 19 months old, and they are still supporting it just fine, and plan to support it for another 17, for a total of three years. That's for the desktop version. I don't happen to have any Ubuntu 6.04 servers, but that will be supported for another 41 months for a total of five years. And the upcoming release, scheduled for April, will be another 3 and 5 year support release. Normal releases are well supported for 18 months, which is not at long as OpenSuse's 24 months, but considerably longer than Fedora's 13 months.
So the facts of the matter clearly contradict your (rather inflammatory) claims.
I actually have many more users on Fedora and CentOS than Ubuntu, but I do happen to use it on one of my own machines and some of my users use it at home in addition to at work, so I keep an eye on these things.
Edited 2008-01-12 15:51 UTC
Member since:2005-09-06
Member since:2005-07-22
to me, the *buntu is very much in the same league as Fedora.
By this, I mean more of a leading edge distro (F1 Car) than a solid performer (VW Golf etc)
These distros are out there at the leading edge of innovation.
Therefore, they should not be used for production use in either Server or Desktop modes.
The decisions they have made with KDE & their LTS version is certainly strange when compared to RHEL or SLES support plans.
I do wonder if a previous comment about the rush to new tech is pretty close to the mark. This is a very common 'feature' in IT with the rush to the next set of 'emperors new clothes'.
I do prefer the approach taken by RH & Novell than Canonical.
I do not recommend people use Ubuntu or Fedora unless they are pretty Linux savvy or have a tame 'guru' on hand to help when their next upgrade goes AWOL.
Member since:2006-08-09
So, apparently it is not wrong with *every* Linux distro?
I'd recommend CentOS or Debian as well to anyone interested in just running the OS and applications and just run it for years without serious issues.
Frankly, I was surprised to see that Ubuntu, for about three years, has been unable to get my Samsung printer to work (the word Linux was written on its box, it's more or less plug-and-print with just about any other distro).
I did file a bug report, but I admit I didn't do much more than that since I left Ubuntu for what it was about 1,5 years ago.
Did run it lately, latest version.. no printing.
Now I'm definitely not the only one with this printer, it is a popular cheap laser printer that uses CUPS. Does this mean that everybody using that printer just uses another distro? Does Ubuntu think that is ok?
There are problems with other distros, but if Ubuntu wants to live up to its cool, maybe it should think of other lines than "Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly". I'm sure they are, but Canonical, in the end, has a business to run.
One used to say Mandriva was very buggy but they improved a lot with extra attention for quality control. Now many people running its latest release are very enthusiastic. It takes a long time, though, to get rid of the "it's buggy" rep.
Ubuntu has to be careful not to get that kind of reputation, because the others are not merely standing by looking how cool Ubuntu is. That includes desktop BSD's.
And once people (many of whom think "Linux=Ubuntu" these days, and the other way round) start thinking "it's free, but it's full of bugs too", this is bad for Linux as a whole. When you're as big as Ubuntu, that comes with responsability.
#edit the below line depending on if you want or do not want to sound like a wiseass
preacher_mode=off
Feel free to dispute anything I just said, I know some of the fans are sensitive.
Member since:2005-11-12
This is exactly what is wrong with Linux distro's today. They care more about the next thing then fixing show stopping bugs.
This is quite an overgeneralization. Fedora's use of bleeding edge packages could support your statement but take another distro CentOS and your argument has no merit.
Member since:
2005-11-05
Yes, it all sounds good - no pun intended - but I really hope the fine release puts the accent on quality. Earlier today I installed Gutsy Gibbon, rebooted, ran the updater to install three months' worth of Ubuntu's own updates as their own updater kindly suggested immediately the login came through, rebooted ... and no PC because no initrd. Turns out that a bug that's been around for a while, well known but uncorrected, in their kernel update package does this. Bugs in kernel packages that produce "install and explode" really are a complete no-no. Withdraw package from repos right away, etc. So I'm back to Debian Lenny where I think I'll stay, punished for straying. I wish all the best to Hardy Heron but if Ubuntu wants to continue to gain share among the masses the basics matter more than the bling, imho. A lot more.