Gitbag

Wasn't meaning to rub it in!

It might have been an issue with Google Earth this. It's rebooting fine now after its initial jitters after install. I dunno why this software isn't in the repos any more, instead of having to do it manually from Google themselves. I'll see how things look tomorrow. Don't want to remove it based on a knee-jerk reaction to a little problem, and I freely admit I am very sensitive to them nowadays.

11.10 is officially out tomorrow apparently, as well as the RC1 of OpenSuse. Not so sure I can be bothered to have another round of Gnome 3 attempts though ..

I thought I was happily settling into Ubuntu 32 11.04 with VMware.

Yesterday, to make it more of a working OS instead of just for browsing/playing, when tried to get Thunderbird, Libre Office and VLC, Software Center kept telling me I couldn't and to check Internet connection.

Since both wireless and wired were enabled and I could get stuff I didn't want from the Software Center, I was a bit put out.

Turns out it seems I had to force Update Manager (Check) and 'No updates' turned into lots of updates.

It all went swimmingly after that.

I have my non VM HDD folders enabled as well and they have been fine, also until yesterday when they disappeared for a while.. They came back.

Thankfully while I was pratting around, I discovered VMware Player allows copying of the Virtual disk (it doesn't allow snapshots). So I have now 'backed up' and don't have to worry if I break anything or 11.10 update does.

I've been happy with 11.04. Looking forward to trying out 11.10 this weekend. There's always something that goes AWOL. Last time it was Quadrapassel but more than compensated for by getting Stellarium fully working and finding Crack-attack.

Ubuntu 11.10 gets released 6pm tonight.
For me, ios5 yesterday, ubuntu today, whats for tomorrow at 6pm...

countdown here

It's already been posted to the releases.ubuntu.com site. Just downloaded it.

Just read that Dennis Ritchie, one of the father figures of Unix and the C programming language, has passed away aged 70.

Although he was not directly involved in Linux, without him there probably would have been no Linux, Minix, HP/UX, AIX, BSD, Xenix, NextStep and OS X amongst others.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/...-ritchie-dies/

Ubuntu 11.10 officially out, just in case you didn't know.

For my part I'm gonna stick with it a while and try not to be so reactionary. MrQuike's completely right - there's always something that goes wrong, and it's not like openSUSE was totally without fault at times.

Anyone else taken the plunge yet?

Nope, i will be sticking with my Peppermint until Ubuntu sort there desktops out and let us do something simple like move the bar, or has that been sorted in this release?

Will soon have a shiny new ocelot on my laptop. I have never had any problems with 11.04 so hopeully this will continue with 11.10

All installed and working a dream.
Love the new install, lets you do the locales etc while it copies files and downloads.
Quick install too, faster than before.
MS could do with a bit of that kind of install attention.

Had a third party tick box for flash and mp3, never seen that before, but all installed ok, watching Masterchef on iplayer as I type this.

I'll stick with 11.04 for awhile and get 11.10 when it's been out for a few months.

Mssterchef!!!! What's wrong with the Great British Bake Off? And why watch it online?

Set your PVR/HDD Recorder for gawwwwds sake.

Oneiric Ocelot? Try Precise Pangolin... (although if you want a continually working PC, don't try it!)

ETA:

Brave! Though I don't think you'll see much action there till after the Ubuntu developer conference. Probably around December time.

I have a suggestion for feedback.

On the home pages for new releases, explain what the animals are.

I now know Pangolin is an anteater but why not provide a link?

Just saves a few clicks. Or is 'look it up' part of the Experience?

Be interesting to see what the guys a Mint do.
They really need to get there finger out and get there Debian following releases sorted out, and decide on what they are going to do with there Gnome versions?

Sounds like they have some funny plans thus far. I think I read something about them doing a Gnome 3 version, but they'll be continuing to maintain a Gnome 2 version too. I suppose it makes sense in some ways, but it'll surely be demanding for what must be a distro with limited resources. Still, it'll keep the more conservative bunch happy. Personally, I think they ought to have kept with Ubuntu, but tailored Unity to something more like MintMenu. At the end of the day, they are very similar things really.

just having a read of mint forums
Taken from Mint forum

Quote Clem Says:
September 28th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

alfino: It’s rolling. At the moment it’s Gnome 2, but parts of it are being replaced by Gnome 3. end quote.

i recently tried the Debian release of the Gnome version and it still didn't have the what i would consider to be the standard auto install\format etc of your hard drive, you had to manually do it, hardly the user friendly impression of mint i used to have, were it was a quick easy and all codecs installed.

edit... Also seems they can't decide between tracking stable or testing.
As you quite rightly say Kal_El they are going to have there work cut out, as they also cant seem to decide what to do with the KDE version, and they also have several other releases to keep updated.

This is the problem with having a distribution primarily based on another distribution. You're relying on that distro a) carrying on, and b) not making any major changes to the setup. What would happen to Mint if Ubuntu decided to call it a day, and in turn, what would happen to Ubuntu if Debian decided to call it a day?

As far as I can see with Mint, and I haven't studied the subject closely so I could be off the mark, but it seems that they've got a few groups of people pulling the project in different directions (Ubuntu-based, Debian-based, Gnome 2, Gnome 3, KDE) and no real coherent plan for where the distro will be in a year's time.

Linux Mint Debian is for the hobbiest or enthusiast it is not equivalent to Ubuntu and does not follow the same sort of release cycle that Ubuntu does. Mint are rolling their own 'stable' updates from the Debian testing repository and it will make for an interesting release and will probably become my default desktop but then I like a challenge

That said the amount of abuse Ubuntu gets after release you'd think that was run by a bunch of amateurs too. If you want a stable Linux desktop stick at least 3 months behind the Ubuntu release calendar.

Going over to the Mint forums, and it's clear the users are wanting to pull it in all sorts of directions. The Ubuntu forums are the same, but thank God that at least they can make a decision and focus on it, and not be pulled off course by a lot of moaning. You might not like Unity or Gnome 3, but they are clear about what they are doing.

Mint however, seems a bit confused. I'm not sure what they mean by continuing to use Gnome 2, and also using Gnome 3 without its desktop shell. And now I'm reading how the main developer might contribute to Gnome's fallback mode in order to have something approximating Gnome 2! I don't know how much of this is fact or fanboy hopefulness, but I do hope they can focus on something and stick to it without being dragged off course by complainers.

As I said above, my thoughts are they should have stuck with Ubuntu, but made Unity their own thing. Mint was created to perfect Ubuntu's rough edges. I don't see why this should change. I don't know how Ubuntu develops Unity or whether this is possible, but MintUnity could be fantastic, especially if they based it on their own MintMenu. Is that a crap idea, or would it be feasible do you think?

Rather than getting into development hell by continuing to develop a now-unsupported desktop in Gnome 2, or messing around with the Gnome 3 fallback mode, why don't developers who want to keep that traditional style of desktop move into Xfce? The basics are there, it already approximates Gnome 2, and with a little polish and customisation they could really make it their own.

Yep. My mum and dad use Xubuntu 11.04 on their old desktop and it's very good. It's a good point. Surely it'd be easier to just help improve that than trying to keep Gnome 2 going? I know Clem of Linux Mint was on the Ubuntu forums the other talking to a bloke who claimed to be forking Gnome 2 into something new called the Mate desktop, but my own personal opinion reading the discussion is that the Mate "dev" is a bit of a fly-by-night and only interested in the publicity. Hey prove me wrong, but to me XFCE is still the better option as you say.

Ubuntu 11.10 still running well here and no problems at all. Very, very happy with it.