Ubuntu 9.04 is out as promised

Just downloaded from ThePirateBay with a steady 6 Mbytes/sec. I will seed it too for a few weeks at least.

"For the statistically minded, Canonical has shepherded nearly four releases of Ubuntu out since Microsoft launched Vista, and there will likely be a fifth before Microsoft launches Windows 7."

Groo, some of us actually spend time USING our operating systems and installing 5 pointless releases is just a way for some lonely geek to feed his ego.

Actually, I wonder if Canonical even realize that the more often a piece of software is updated, the more unstable or experimental it seems to the average person.

This principle has been known for a long time by companies like Microsoft and Apple who manage releases so that they appear within a certain psychological window. This window of opportunity is defined as after the previous release is regarded as "well-worn" by the public and before the previous version of the application is largely thought of as "legacy."

I agree with you that it is a shame that Linux-based OSs will never gain wide-spread acceptance but the fault is placed at the feet of companies like Red Hat and now Canonical. They market Linux-based OSs, either purposefully or ignorantly, towards the geek and enterprise and as a result they fail to make any inroads into the "hearts and minds" of the people that really matter - the other 99%.

"For the statistically minded, Canonical has shepherded nearly four releases of Ubuntu out since Microsoft launched Vista, and there will likely be a fifth before Microsoft launches Windows 7."

"Actually, I wonder if Canonical even realize that the more often a piece of software is updated, the more unstable or experimental it seems to the average person."

Hmmm or maybe they might think Wow great continuous improvement!!

Rather than like it or lump it Windows..

I like Ubuntu. And I want to make sure I say that before I bash the crap out of it.

Bottom line here I agree with Jon from above. They arent making it for the masses yet. They need to look at the "standard" set by MS. I know I know Ive read it all before. "Linux isnt Windows" and "Use Windows then", but the fact remains the Linux OS(Ubuntu in my case) needs to have hardware detection and a prompt to download and install the proper driver/software. As it is now a lot of hardware isnt supported in this way. When I put in a CD/DVD it should read the "standard" autoexe.ini and give me options. It needs to be more user friendly. Ubuntu has taken leaps and bounds in that direction, but its not there yet.

Features they put in a while back like auto prompt for video/audio format codex installation is the right way to go. Firefox and most of the audio programs take advantage of that feature already. This needs to expand for everything software related. And it needs to run a hardware detection on startup and go looking for what it needs to function.

Ill be installing the stable version of 9.04 this weekend after the seeds are well established. Its a really great OS and other than gaming is does EVERYTHING better than windows except the rant from above. Well worth the download to give it a try like the article says.

I've said this before here. I completely agree that Linux isn't suitable for general computer users. It's either for the too geeky or for those who don't know anything about computers because if they don't know anything, they're not going to tinker with the settings and mess it up. besides it's open source so the interface can be customized and specific distros can be made for people who don't know much about computers. like put some big icons on the desktop and teach them to click them.
Besides lack of good games is another thing which may be annoying to some users.

That is the prevailing geek theory but a century of studying the psychology of the consumer has taught us a thing or two about the human mind.

Most geeks and the readers of the INQ are "Early Adopters" - we are the people who try new things simply because they are new. So to us, it makes sense to update often - it keeps a product feeling fresh and lively.

The first problem is that Early Adopters are a tiny percentage of the market. The second and more serious problem is that they are also the least likely part of the market to remain loyal and the smallest part of the market profit-wise - Early Adopters don't pay very well.

The next group of people to buy into products are Pragmatists. To make it into Pragmatist land you have to fix a problem or answer a need that Pragmatists actually have.

Think about Ubuntu:
Does it make it easier and more intuitive to browse the web? No. It uses the same browsers as Windows and MacOS.

Does it make it easier and more intuitive to work with files on your computer? No. It uses the "unix" directory structure which simply doesn't make any sense to any person who has gotten laid in the last decade.

Does it make it easier and more intuitive to add/configure/remove devices? Of course not! Nothing is more difficult in Linux for the newbie.

What problem does Ubuntu solve for the majority of the people on earth? None.

What Pragmatists don't want is a program that is "continually improving" because that means "not done" to a Pragmatist. If the next release is always around the corner, a pragmatist will always find a reason to simply wait for the next release.

That is a very insightful and eloquent assessment of the situation (although the Linux fan boys would no doubt take issue with it).

Love it or hate, the servers are slammed and it's telling me another 7 hours left for the upgrade to complete. Data rate is running from 22k to 45k. The throngs of humanity have arrived.

Every release gets better and better as opposed to microsoft where every release just gets worse. You will not find any evil drm within ubuntu and thats good enough for me.

Didn't work in 8.10 - dropping you to a root shell is *not* an appropriate way to resolve problems with the binary Nvidia drivers. The open source nvidia drivers don't accelerate properly and don't support three monitors.

On the other hand, provided you shovel enough memory at Vista it supports multimonitor out of the box and is better and faster than in XP.

I've got plenty of Unix I use, and what Ubuntu has done is impressive, but 'ready for the masses'? No, not yet.

If I had to use Linux I'd probably choose Slackware. The installer doesn't get in the way, and it does what it's told to rather than being almost, but not nearly close enough, to a plug and play OS.

I have always been more of a fan os Suse and openSuse i find them much more professional feeling and less ruff round th edges. Ubuntu seems very fisher price with to many ruff edges.

I am downloading this now and will try one final time to get Linux to run on my new Acer 4630Z laptop. None of the several different linux distros could not get my Ralink brand WiFi running on install. If this one does work I will dump Vista.

Its NOT that ubuntu is Bad, No its good, might take few dips to convert Your System insides. Its Reasoned in Cost. For most Office use, its Great. Yet, Windows Offers More total Experiences by Far. In Ubuntu Your Shadows Will Run From Themselves. Soon Mozilla may have to reevaluate Next Gen of AI Cp/Gp/u, Or leave stunning Opening for Microsoft.

Buy Ubuntu9.04 & Save It On Shelf, Next To ALL Others. drashek

Same old goofy font and interface that burns my eyes. Writing from Vista now, my eyes not burning anymore :)

Remember Ubuntu is UNIX, NOt Language of Microsoft, nessesarily.Making Bit of Machine Hardware Compromise to Run Both. heres bit deeper dip into NEW Ubuntu 0.04 Features: includes a desktop, server and netbook edition — offers faster bootups (as fast as 25 seconds, its developers say), cloud support, OpenOffice 3.0, support for Skype and Adobe Flash, enhanced suspend and resume capabilities and faster switching between WiFi and 3G.

This Is First Mozzilla with CLOUD Support, So If thats Need or Virtulization,Whiich Is BIG Plus Here. It could step up existing Moz Server Farm.Monday Official Release. drashek again.

run lspci in a terminal and if its a Ralink Rt2860 then just google "rt2860 1.8.0.0 deb" and you find a driver which can do WEP and WPA, just waiting for a bug to iron out for WPA2

Is it easy to just use?

My experience of Linux is that if I try to do what I'm used to with Windows, then I quickly get stopped by Linux.

If I double-click a program I've downloaded, will it install? Or will I need to grep or some other "non-automated-process"?

Why isn't installing programs on a modern OS as simple as "double-clicking"?

Why isn't Linux more automated?

Why is it such a "manual" OS, needing tinkering and command line interference from the user?

I think Linux is good for time wasters and students of computers. Not for gamers, or those that want to just get on with other things.

... play a DVD without you remaking yourself into a pseudo [ or is that "sudo") Linux programmer.

<end

Is that so? Prove it. Supply fully verified data that your point is correct. Without that body of all inclusive, all supporting data of all sorts, you just expressed an opinion. And as we all know, opinions are like butts: we all have one and they're all smelly.

In the below, #1 and #2 apply here.

opinion - 10 dictionary results

o⋅pin⋅ion
   /əˈpɪnyən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [uh-pin-yuhn] Show IPA
–noun
1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
2. a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.
3. the formal expression of a professional judgment: to ask for a second medical opinion.
4. Law. the formal statement by a judge or court of the reasoning and the principles of law used in reaching a decision of a case.
5. a judgment or estimate of a person or thing with respect to character, merit, etc.: to forfeit someone's good opinion.
6. a favorable estimate; esteem: I haven't much of an opinion of him.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < OF < L opīniōn- (s. of opīniō), deriv. of opīnārī to opine

Synonyms:
1. persuasion, notion, idea, impression. Opinion, sentiment, view are terms for one's conclusion about something. An opinion is a belief or judgment that falls short of absolute conviction, certainty, or positive knowledge; it is a conclusion that certain facts, ideas, etc., are probably true or likely to prove so: political opinions; an opinion about art; In my opinion this is true. Sentiment (usually pl.) refers to a rather fixed conviction, usually based on feeling or emotion rather than reasoning: These are my sentiments. View is an estimate of something, an intellectual judgment, a critical survey based on a mental examination, particularly of a public matter: views on governmental planning.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.

<end

Wha? Ubuntu plays DVDs fine, you pop the DVD in, it says 'don't have the codecs for this matey, want me to search and install?' - you click yes, chuck in your password and badda bing, DVD plays.

Ubuntu will to 90% of what most people want to do without breaking a sweat (or needing a terminal). It's the last 10% that is a bit of a pain. Yes, there's no Photoshop - you have to use Gimp. Yes, there's not many 'native' Linux games (GPL ones: Nexuiz, OpenArena, AlienArena, Warsow, Battle for Wesnoth, Glest, FreedroidRPG, Warzone2100, (list goes on and on - NON GPL ones: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Quake 1, 2, 3 and 4, Neverwinter Nights, Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004, Fear) BUT There's PLENTY of games that will work under wine (http://www.winehq.org) with no tinkering what so ever.

Really, you should only use the 'doze these days if you lack the skills to pay the bills.

Ubuntu isn't perfect, but compared to Windows 2000, XP or Vistapoo it's fan-bloody-tastic.

Ubuntu is the best distribution out there for the average PC user wanting to go Linux, and every release has improved on the priors.

I can with fairly little effort get a machine running that will let me surf the web, play music, and even run hardware 3D acceleration to play games. So what more could I need?

Well, better quality control, so I don't see things happen like having to disable my wired network card so it'll see my wireless. Or having my mouse disappear or my keyboard go funny for no reason in a game.

And while repositories are good for making installing software almost painless, a lot of programs aren't on them, and you're stuck with shell scripts and .deb files and whatever.

I guess three things would really help Ubuntu get ahead:

1. All the linux fans do us a favor and just shut up and go away. You'll never win someone over by telling them how smart you think you are. Hasn't worked up til now, has it?

2. Commercial software support--games, professional apps, etc.

3. Focus on stability rather than six month upgrades. We don't need 14 movie editors and 5 office apps, only offer a few as the "official" package and let the fans install on their own.

I can easily see governments and offices going to Ubuntu if the LTS versions were promoted more, but as for personal users like me it's hard to stay with it for very long.

I'm a geek and well I get laid every day and most of the time before I go to work in the morning and at least once at night every day.... I love linux so for all the penis envy people out there ""directory structure which simply doesn't make any sense to any person who has gotten laid in the last decade."" and Jon Vista file structure is more confusing then it's ever been. Look Jon having an A, C, and D drive is not intuitive at all its just that your used to it. Partitioning a linux system is more confusing then a windows system I give you that but the complaints I see above is about users who know nothing of pc's so I don't think they would deal with that at all.

BTW with the sex thing I bet anyone on these comments I'm better looking then any of ya so thinking in the back of your mind that I must be some butt ugly geek that has been beaten by the ugly stick too many times and my wife is even uglier I invite anyone to Ottawa Canada and we can take a picture together and send it back so everyone in the world can judge. I'm confident of how good looking I am, are you ;)

For all the self professed linux haters I will say this, your not a tech, you do not fix systems at all, if you did you would see the benefits of Ubuntu but since your not you go to your tech friend to get things fixed. Why not ask this tech friend to get Ubuntu working on your system then come back and make your comments.

LMAO, the things people will do just to get Joe Public to even look at Linux

This is a note for all the non-Linux users out there. Don't use Linux, just continue to ignore it.

The last thing I need is more noobs asking why their $5 USB wireless stick doesn't work or complain why their camera software won't work in *buntu.

Just use Windows and be happy, leave your basement living Linux user alone. It's not like we get paid per convert.

yet, after 35 years in computing I get the impression MS users arent ready for computers yet.
Cant do this cant do that....
MS: reinventing the wheel to put under my matter transporter.

Peter Kay: there is an open-source driver for NVidia hardware that supports multiple monitors and 2D acceleration. It's called nouveau. Hopefully it'll replace nv in the next Ubuntu release.

(Unfortunately, three monitors probably won't work yet. You need more than one card for that, and even Windows doesn't support that well.)

Having less timely updates on an OS does indeed make the OS feel more "solid" mostly because it seems like the updates are far more tested. Microsoft does go through a long testing period before releasing major updates to their OS, mostly because of the large set of configurations they deal with, and that they don't want to break anything.

With Ubuntu, it's love and hate. For example, I wish more of the stuff they'd include in it was better tested before being added to the next distribution. I hate having things seem only half-baked when I try them. On the flip side I hate it when only the *next* distribution has the newest version of the program I want to use. Or that a bug will be fixed in the next release. Sure, I could download it and then compile/install it, but one of the worst parts about installing stuff manually in Linux is that it gets "lost" in the system and you can never get it back out. So I rely as much as I can on the package manager.

I also don't like how installed unmanaged software often breaks when newer versions of the libraries are installed. I don't want to have to recompile the software again and again with each new update. On Windows, most software from even MSDOS can still run on Vista. So I end up not even bothering to upgrade the distribution until I'm willing to reinstall the whole system. Some Linux installations I have are still using extremely old versions of the kernels and software. I am thankful that it is secure and stable enough to not need to be upgraded, but at the same time I wish Linux had that feeling of "long term stability" you get in other OSes.

Who cares, honestly. Don't know why this is news-worthy.

If you have to use Linuux, use a decent distro like Suse.

If you need something that works and you can actually figure out how to do stuff and play games... Choose Windows

You are not only a geek, you are disillusioned!

Boning your palm is not the type of getting laid he was talking about.

Am I crushing your delusions that all geeks need to have glasses with white tape in the center and a pocket protector full of pens. Ah well, like I said we can meet and take a picture side by side and let the world decide which is better looking.

And no my wife is not PALMala HANDerson.

It's still crap.

by any stretch of the imagination.

A toy for sysadmins not T.G.P.

Linux users/makers are still apparently battling their way out of a cult of elitist exclusion judging from much of the above.

If Linux gets inclusive it can win but to be inclusive it has be done so a garage mechanic can pick it up and use it, ie people who know stuff about other stuff than the stuff that makes Linux or even computers run.

The "you have to know to find out" point scoring approach wont work.

Thanks for the info. I had tried it and it saw wireless networks but would not connect. Your post gave me the insight on the WPA2 problem. Switched to WPA and it works. Ubuntu it killing the Vista now as I type on my gaming rig.

I have no desire to mess with Linux again. I have to ask why? Vista is OK and the Win 7 Beta is great. All my apps run fine on the WIn 7 Beta, they do not all run on Linux.
Just to sabe $150 every few years? I would rather spend the time pushing my hardware then messing with a "product always under development"

Three monitors is what I'm looking for, and open source can't do it. X.org seem to have a stick up their arse and won't support multiple cards.

Multiple monitor on one card works out of the box on all the Unixes I've tried (Linux, *BSD, not tried Solaris recently)

Windows supports multimonitor extremely well - it works straight out of the box. With Vista all graphics adaptors have to use the same driver (fixed in Windows 7), and with XP different drivers can be used provided the DLLs don't conflict (Nvidia and ATI will work, but new Catalyst ATI and pre Catalyst explodes messily).

In any case the actual issue I encountered was with the binary Nvidia driver installation and not specifically with multi monitor (it may have triggered it, who knows?). Cases where Windows can't drop to safe mode or restore VGA drivers when things go wrong are extremely rare, yet Ubuntu can't manage this without command line hacking.

I burned Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" to a CD a couple of days ago and tried the LiveCD test run on a 2.4 GHz Intel Celeron laptop that was, at the time, running Ubuntu 8.10 just fine. Firefox browsing seemed curiously slow. Yesterday I installed 9.04 on that machine and saw similar sluggish performance. Acquiring a wireless Internet connection with 9.04 takes 5-10 times as long as with 8.10. The Google home page takes over a minute to load in Firefox (<1 t there.