but why?

Story: Ubuntu 10.4 beta is bloody brilliantTotal Replies: 19
Author Content
tuxchick

Mar 28, 2010
5:39 PM EDT
The reviews on Lucid Lynx have been almost uniformly over-excited and calling it revolutionary, the Windows and Apple killer, blah blah blah. But they're awfully light on details. It's pretty, it installs easily, it does cloud stuff, and it does social networking thingies-- so? Is that all there is? Wubi is not new, a fast simple installer is not new. Is it more stable? Do the myriad inexplicable Ubuntu-specific under-the-hood changes and oddities work yet? When something breaks, are users going to be able to fix it themselves, or is it all convoluted, non-standard, and undocumented? Are basic sound, video, networking, and printing all going to behave yet?

I hate doing Ubuntu reviews because everyone does them. But I might have to just to answer some meaningful questions. Yes, it's good to see any Linux getting lots of attention, especially mainstream. But come on, can we get past it's pretty and the cool kids use it?
tracyanne

Mar 28, 2010
6:25 PM EDT
Marketing and PR are always light on details and heavy on gee whizz. We'll be seeing more of this as More Linux vendors get it.
gus3

Mar 28, 2010
6:27 PM EDT
Marcel Gagné's article is techo-fanboi-ish, but from the perspective that, if he weren't a techo-fanboi, he wouldn't have known how to deal with what happened.

http://ubuntu-user.com/Online/Blogs/Marcel-Gagne-Orbiting-Pl...
tracyanne

Mar 28, 2010
7:13 PM EDT
here's some real marketing speak, from the link provided here http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/330

Quoting:I’m not sure we’ll go as far as Microsoft has with their new Windows Phone 7 UI (links to .PPTX),


Quoting:METRO IS OUR DESIGN LANGUAGE. WE CALL IT METRO BECAUSE IT’S MODERN AND CLEAN. IT’S FAST AND IN MOTION. IT’S ABOUT CONTENT AND TYPOGRAPHY. AND IT’S ENTIRELY AUTHENTIC.


Note the use of language. the last phase being the clincher.

BTW the .pptx file works perfectly in OO.o 3.2 Impress.

hkwint

Mar 28, 2010
7:35 PM EDT
TC: You don't understand 2010, do you?

2010 isn't about printing. 2010 isn't about basic video and sound. 2010 isn't about standards.

Look at Microsoft! Anno 2010 it's about being modern. Anno 2010 it's about being individual. Anno 2010 it's about color. Anno 2010 it's about being authentic.

2010 is about being like Apple. So 2010 is about acting like Apple.

Anno 2010 it's about less is more is still less, or whatever, doesn't care because it's about magical, revolutionary and unbelievable.   Anno 2010 it's about deprecating the tooltip on the flumbawumba button. Anno 2010 it's not about how your coat is suited for the climate, but about if its color matches your pants.   Anno 2010 it's about at which side of the titlebar your buttons are, to adhere to the strict yin-yang principle. Anno 2010 it's about deprecating stuff users rely on in favour of simplicity -- relieving the user from work the user wanted to do in first place.   Anno 2010 it's about not making the mistakes KDE did, and instead inventing your own mistakes, hence 'authentic'.

2010 isn't about content.   2010 is about layout, fonts and style! 2010 isn't about what you say to the people you know, or meeting people in real life.   2010 is about who your digital social network connection _says_ you know. 2010 isn't about journalism.   2010 is about free news copied thirty times around the internet.

2010 isn't about doing a task-based review of some distro.   2010 is about saying what everybody can see: What it looks like and what apps are in it. 2010 isn't about illegally downloading music.   2010 is about supporting creation, supporting Ubuntu and buying legal music from Ubuntu One store. 2010 isn't about your freedom and your data.   2010 is about putting your data in the Ubuntu cloud -- to further & for the greater merits of the pride of the Ubuntu nation - which you should be happy & grateful to be allowed to be part of!

2010 isn't about screwing your configuration, data or your PC.   2010 is about deciding which company you want to outsource that task to.

2010 isn't about listening to your users, you don't have to hear them if you know what's good for them.   2010 is about the dictator making decisions - in favour of his users!

2010 isn't about thinking for yourself or being individual or creative.   2010 is about a company telling you're an individual, authentic and creative.

And guess what: 2011 will only be more eksaiting, magic all and unbalievabol! Now don't be a partypooper with all your practical needs, will you?
tuxchick

Mar 28, 2010
8:03 PM EDT
Oh well Hans, when you put it that way I feel ashamed. I shall check myself into the Indoctrination Center at once.

+5 for best LXer rant ever!
ComputerBob

Mar 29, 2010
10:40 AM EDT
It's a Chinese restaurant that concentrates on the feng shui instead of the food.
caitlyn

Mar 29, 2010
4:50 PM EDT
tc: You can write the Ubuntu review. I think I'll get back to reviewing the roads less traveled. They tend to be more interesting anyway.
gus3

Mar 29, 2010
5:16 PM EDT
"Ubuntu sucks. Linux sucks. Next?"

(cue the "Ubuntu is not Linux!" flamefest)
tracyanne

Mar 29, 2010
5:26 PM EDT
Actually I think Ubuntu, and particularly some of it's variants, like Mint, is very good, and I can almost certainly bring more people to Linux with it. From what I can tell so far, 10.04 looks a lot closer to something that will make the sell much easier.
jacog

Mar 30, 2010
3:58 AM EDT
Well, ok so I read it was like "oooh". And so I downloaded it, and I was like, "squee!". And booted up the CD, and I was like "woah!", and like "wooh!". And I installed it, at went like "wow". I clicked some stuff and was like "dude!"
TxtEdMacs

Mar 30, 2010
9:38 AM EDT
jacog,

Expect writing gigs soon for reviewing new Linux (pre-release) distributions. Awesome!

YBT
hkwint

Mar 30, 2010
10:36 AM EDT
Txt: You really believe so?

Jaco is preparing for reviewing Windows Mobile 7, that's all.
jacog

Mar 30, 2010
10:44 AM EDT
Already reviewed that. I was like "wtf? gtfo!"
Steven_Rosenber

Mar 30, 2010
12:32 PM EDT
I just took a look at the Debian Squeeze Alpha 1 live DVD - now that's exciting! And the buttons are on the right. Since Debian releases are so far apart, you really can see lots of changes in the upstream projects that go into it. We can talk about all the exciting improvements in NetworkManager all day, mostly that it works ...
caitlyn

Mar 30, 2010
4:50 PM EDT
Quoting:We can talk about all the exciting improvements in NetworkManager all day, mostly that it works ...


Now that is a change! OTOH, what does it do for me that wicd won't do? Why does NM still have to be a resource hog?
tracyanne

Mar 30, 2010
5:13 PM EDT
I've been testing !0.04 on a VM, mostly it's the same as 9.10, only purple. That it's mostly the same as 9.10 is BTW a good thing, as 9.10 works perfectly for me.

The button placement requires a bit of muscle memory retraining, but I don't really care. The new Social networking features, I don't give a rats about, non Geeks I've got using Ubuntu might, but most of them don't want anything to do with Social networking, so I figure they won't care about that either.

At the moment I'm seeing a good solid release with a strange colour scheme (I didn't like the brown either), that will immediately be replaced with something more interesting, and an awkward button placement (I don't like it on the Mac either)

GIMP is missing and PiTiVi is added, and F-Spot is still there, so for some people (and we are talking about non Geeks here) I still have to remove F-Spot, which means adding the GIMP is not a bother. I have to add medibuntu and the associated CODECS anyway, so no big deal really.

The over the top reviews are probably paid for, or written by Canonicals marketing people.

I'm looking more and more at Mint, for non geeks these days anyway, as it's much closer to what non geeks seem to want, and it requires less setting up. So we'll see where the Mint folks take 10.04.
Steven_Rosenber

Mar 30, 2010
5:25 PM EDT
I've been meaning to do a Wicd test. I have one Debian Lenny machine that I haven't upgraded to Squeeze, and if I could figure out how to do it w/o killing the whole darn thing, it's the Xfce install so there's no NetworkManager in there, and I will definitely install Wicd.

I have yet another Lenny machine that's too far gone to update - I'll probably do a clean install. That would be another Wicd test candidate.

To be fair, NetworkManager has been improving steadily, and with each release it does what I want it to do with more ease than before. Can't complain too much.
Steven_Rosenber

Mar 30, 2010
5:26 PM EDT
Linux Mint with a Debian base is very intriguing ...
krisum

Mar 31, 2010
2:40 AM EDT
> OTOH, what does it do for me that wicd won't do?

Don't know about you but for me it does not provide mobile broadband, or VPN setup (vpnc/openvpn/pptp). Will certainly consider checking wicd out if it provides these.

> Why does NM still have to be a resource hog?

Really? Never noticed that. Just looking at the top and nm-applet is at 13M RES (10M SHR) and the NetworkManager daemon at around 4M.

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