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Canonical sets the date for Ubuntu 11.04
LINUX VENDOR Canonical has announced that Ubuntu 11.04 will be available on 28 April.
Canonical had always planned to ship Ubuntu 11.04 on 28 April, however with a week to go it has confirmed that everything is on track for a timely release. Gerry Carr, marketing manager at Canonical told The INQUIRER that last week's second beta was the final pre-production release of Ubuntu 11.04, adding that it is "good enough" not to require a release candidate.
For Canonical, Ubuntu 11.04 is a major release, in that it will be the first where the default desktop will be Unity, instead of Gnome. Carr said that Canonical spent the past two years designing and engineering the multi-touch capable desktop system but added that Gnome will be available to users for years to come. Carr also pointed out that Canonical, through Ubuntu, is still the biggest shipper of Gnome desktops.
When asked why Canonical took the major task of developing Unity when other distributions shipped with Gnome, KDE and Xfce, Carr told The INQUIRER that "other distributions are not as focused on bringing a free desktop to the market". As for whether other distributions might offer the open source Unity desktop in the future, Carr said that he didn't know of any other distribution and held no expectations.
Aside from Unity, Canonical is working to increase that awareness of Linux and Carr said that Microsoft, not other Linux distributions, is the outfit's main rival. Carr said that he "does not mind if people choose other [Linux] distributions". To that end, Canonical will introduce a cloud based trial of Ubuntu 11.04.
Ubuntu had pre-announced that it will be offering a cloud based trial service of Ubuntu 11.04, though Carr said that will come a little after the launch. A live trial version is vital to grow the popularity of Ubuntu, according to Carr, who said that even downloading LiveCDs is a barrier for some.
Carr said that in order to try out Ubuntu 11.04 all users will need is a web browser, but he confirmed that due to rendering limitations, users will only have access to a 2D version of Unity. Nevertheless, being able to try a fully featured Linux distribution should dispel any myths about its supposedly steep learning curve.
Canonical has enjoyed considerable success with its Ubuntu Linux distribution. It has made a brave move to rejig the user interface in order to attract more Windows users to Linux. Whether it will succeed remains to be seen, but Canonical certainly can't be faulted for a lack of effort. µ
Tags: Software
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Assuming Unitiy won't be mature enough, I'll stick with the current LTS version and wait another year. Upgrading an existing Ubuntu installation in the passed turned out not to be going so well. So to be sure, I always do a clean install which I prefere to do once in two or three years. Been with Ubuntu since Gutsy and still loving it.
Totally agree KDE is head and shoulders above Ubuntu's current unity gui offering. Aesthetically is so much better. I find Ubuntu's icons for instance are Fisher Price esque, almost childlike. The default wallpaper is ugly. I admire what Canonical has done with Ubuntu and for Linux but I feel with them shifting to qt apps, KDE perhaps with some kind of dock and improved aesthetics would of been the way to go. Meanwhile Ubuntu now looks like a Fisher Price OS with a toy town gui when in fact its a very good operating system.
Totally agree KDE is head and shoulders above Ubuntu's current unity gui offering. Aesthetically is so much better. I find Ubuntu's icons for instance are Fisher Price esque, almost childlike. The default wallpaper is ugly. I admire what Canonical has done with Ubuntu and for Linux but I feel with them shifting to qt apps, KDE perhaps with some kind of dock and improved aesthetics would of been the way to go. Meanwhile Ubuntu now looks like a Fisher Price OS with a toy town gui when in fact its a very good operating system.
At first I hated the Unity Desktop, but as I use it I find it more appealing. Its a little like OS X, in that it moves the menus to the panel bar instead of the window itself. I have a Mac and it took a while to get the hang of OS X and the same applies to Unity. The only thing that is really lacking is the customization that I have become accustom to in GNOME 2. I have noticed however that with each daily release some of the customizations are returning.
Still getting numerous crashes associated with synaptic and software updates and installations, we'll see on the 28th.
I have been using Ubuntu for over two years now. I used "Google Trends" and typed in half a dozen of the well known brands to see which one was creating more interest, and chose that one. It was as simple as that.
At first, I used Virtualbox and ran Windows within Ubuntu. by having it in a separate screen, I didn't have to wait the long times whilst loading as I could get on with my other work on another screen.
I gradually sourced all the programs I needed to use and within the first six months, removed Windows from my PC entirely.
And have never looked back.
Go Ubuntu!Go Linux!
Albeit, I prefer Kubuntu and KDE.
KDE is by far the most advanced GUI of desktop computing.
It has the ability to have different virtual workspaces each empowered with a different set of wallpapers and widgets running at the same time.You have to see it to believe it.It makes windowz and macs to seem so primitive in comparison.
Linux not only is ready for the desktop but actually is the only viable desktop solution.