Ubuntu 12.10 has been released, sporting the rather... Interesting tagline 'Avoid the pain of Windows 8'. Two main features are that websites can now be treated as actual applications, integrating them into Unity. The divide between local and online content when searching has also been softened, which, they claim, makes it easier to find what you're looking for. On the server side, it includes the Folsom release of OpenStack, "Cinder, for block storage and Quantum, a virtual networking API. Ubuntu's Metal-as-a-Service bare-metal provisioning tool has been updated and now supports Calxeda hyperscale hardware based on ARM".
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Member since:2005-09-27
Member since:2009-08-18
Member since:2008-07-15
:trollface:
Aww, you beat me to it.
I was going to say sure, avoid the pain of Windows 8 and experience a whole new level of pain you will never forget. Although, truth be told, Wi-Fi isn't really the main problem with Linux these days. Audio and video, as well as external device connectivity (scanners, etc) are where the real pains are. If your device works, great. If it doesn't work, you're fcuked.
Member since:2006-01-10
:trollface:
Aww, you beat me to it.
I was going to say sure, avoid the pain of Windows 8 and experience a whole new level of pain you will never forget. Although, truth be told, Wi-Fi isn't really the main problem with Linux these days. Audio and video, as well as external device connectivity (scanners, etc) are where the real pains are. If your device works, great. If it doesn't work, you're fcuked. " Yeah, but then again the same can be said for Windows XP and Vista these days. Windows drops support for hardware far quicker than Linux does. The problem is if Linux doesn't have support from the hardware manufacturer at all and no Linux developers have the device to engineer drivers themselves.
Member since:2005-07-23
Member since:2007-02-17
:trollface:
Aww, you beat me to it.
I was going to say sure, avoid the pain of Windows 8 and experience a whole new level of pain you will never forget. Although, truth be told, Wi-Fi isn't really the main problem with Linux these days. Audio and video, as well as external device connectivity (scanners, etc) are where the real pains are. If your device works, great. If it doesn't work, you're fcuked. " All one has to do is find a machine for which the supplier is prepared to pre-install Linux. It will then be a machine which will run Linux.
For example, here is the ordering page for the machine on which I am typing this very message (running 64-bit Kubuntu 12.10):
http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/products/configure.asp?c1=3&c2=1...
Scroll down the page to where you see the heading "Microsoft Windows", and ensure that no box under that heading is checked. Underneath that, under the next heading "Operating System Options", check ONLY the box "Ubuntu Linux OS Pre-loaded".
This is what I did. It saved me $117 over the recommended OS, which was "Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (32/64 Bit) [+$117]". I also ensured that no other software, such as Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business Edition [+$253], was selected, as that would be software for the recommended OS only.
All up I got the machine for the base price of $449, and I saved $370 by selecting no Microsoft software or OS, yet I ended up with a (Linux desktop) system every bit as capable, and I was assured that it was guaranteed to be able to run Linux flawlessly.
BTW, have you seen Kubuntu 12.10? Fantastic OS, it works flawlessly on my machine (as you would expect), it is as fast as blazes, and it has a vast array of excellent desktop software available at zero cost installable in next-to-no-time at the click of a button. External device connectivity (scanners, printers etc) is also flawless.
If your time is worth anything, go for such a Kubuntu option. You will save heaps of time and effort. You also get superb value for money. The total system (hardware + software) is half that of a Windows 7 + recommended desktop software option on the exact same hardware. This is easily the best way I know of to "avoid the pain of Windows 8 and experience a whole new level of pain".
Edited 2012-10-19 12:52 UTC
Member since:2010-04-06
Member since:2006-07-16
I get tired of Windows weenies dabbling with Linux and then concluding after half an hour that this that or the other didn't work so therefore Linux is crap. No, your hardware is probably crap or your knowledge of Linux is severely lacking. As a long-time Linux user (10 years now) I have learned that you do your homework before you purchase such things as new laptops, printers, scanners, motherboards, video cards and the like. It takes all of about a half hour on Google to figure out what is well supported and what isn't. Then, you simply buy accordingly saving yourself hours upon hours of headaches trying to force a square peg into a round hole and then blaming the innocent party when it doesn't work. Hardware manufactures don't write drivers for Linux and they disclose little about the inner-workings of their devices. Therefore an army of coders working for free has to reverse engineer these drivers. In my opinion, since most things simply work right out of the box, I have to conclude that these folks are doing a fabulous job! If you want to blame someone, blame the hardware vendors who don't document their devices well or support Linux in any way shape or form.
Member since:2011-08-18
Why should anyone support something that only a very small minority use? Lets see, linux 1% share, Windows 90% share. Now I was a major Linux advocate and user for nearly ten years myself, but due to the FreeTards expecting me to give up all my time to fix their crap for nothing and not even getting any thanks I decided to go back to Windows development last month. I'm upgrading to Windows 8 because it works great out of the box, no drivers were needed, but they are on the vendors sites if I need them, and I've found people are actually paying me for my coding skills, rather than having to work a second job just so I can fix bugs in the Linux Kernel, which I stopped supporting due to the direction things are going.
I won't be porting my apps to Linux. The market is too small for me to be bothered with, plus the headaches are more in Linux Land due to the Tards unable to read my install instructions which are so easy btw my 7 yr old niece can follow them.
I've already had lots of abuse on my site because of my change of OS, and so I am in the middle of selling that site, and setting up my new Windows only Blog/site.
What can I say. Linux really is useful for servers, but as I am launching Windows server based apps then Linux is of no use to me at all nowadays, and it won't get any better, its marketshare will remain low for the next ten years at least.
Member since:2005-11-16
If Linux fanboys didn't whitewash its problems then maybe people wouldn't have false expectations.
It's nowhere near as easy as that for two reasons:
1. Something that works in one distribution may not work in another, or even in a different version of it. I've bought hardware after finding guides to using it with Debian and still had no luck in Linux Mint. My Thinkpad, which works pretty well with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, doesn't have working power management in either Fedora or Ubuntu. Even if the hardware itself works, it's often the case that graphical configuration tools are only available for certain distributions, and then aren't updated to work with newer ones.
2. When Linux compatibility guides state that a particular piece of hardware works in Linux, they don't necessarily mean that every feature of it works perfectly. For example, I've seen soundcards listed as compatible as soon as stereo output works, which isn't much use if I want to record using the optical input. I've been called a nitpicker for complaining that my "Linux compatible" laptop's special buttons and sleep mode didn't work. The fact that Linux installed and booted to the desktop was enough for it to be considered fully compatible, with no problems worth listing.
Using Windows it really is as simple as checking that the hardware has drivers for the version I'm running. With Linux, researching compatibility often turns up a lot of misleading and incomplete information, with problems only revealed after actually trying the hardware. I'd rather save myself the time and hassle of dealing with that.
Member since:2009-12-27
I myself am a long time Linux user. Never did I do any homework before buying new hardware. Probably I was lucky but always all my hardware worked, even wireless printers and dual video cards setups. That is not to say I did not encounter problems: I did, several. Still, as a rule I found it easier and more pleasant to deal with those Linux problems than I do dealing with Windows' problems. Perhaps Linux lacks a company or a group of people to do for a single distribution what I do for my personal use. You see, linux works, period. In too many cases better than Windows. Hardware support in Linux is close to a non-issue to me; at least no more than Windows. I repeat: one company or group should focus effort in doing it easier for users and the tech people alike to solve driver/software problems; as it stands now, it is perceivably (but in reality, for those who know their way around both OSs, it is the same) more diffilcult to solve such problems in Linux than in Windows.
Member since:2009-08-18
Neither, I am proficient using Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Solaris.
I do this for Windows to so I don't get a crap experience.
Linux still fails short if I buy intel chipsets (usually the best support), realtek sound (usually the best supported and nvidia (their drivers on *nix are the only ones that have decent 3d support).
And something still breaks between distro releases.
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Member since:
2009-08-18
The wireless won't work
:trollface: