Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2

[exploder]

I got a chance to try the alpha 2 Live CD this morning. I was surprised, alpha 2 was stable on the Intel system. The only problem I noticed was the Ubuntu App Store or whatever it's called crashed when I closed it. Plymouth seemed to work pretty decent and seems like a better choice than xsplash at this point in time. It is just my opinion but it looks like Ubuntu is trying harder to compete with Windows and MacOS with the LTS. I noticed a movie editing application was now included by default and so far Gimp is still present.

I read that Ubuntu might offer an iTunes type of experience in their app center, that's not a bad idea. I tried an earlier daily build on a machine a couple of weeks ago and saw that the boot time was considerably faster than the 9.10 release. If the Ubuntu Developers can keep going like they are and provide updates to the popular applications like they have outlined they just might have a real winner this time. I like how they are adding new technology to the LTS but in a more conservative way.

I am not a fan of brown and orange but the underlying system is looking pretty good so far. You never know, they have mentioned changing the appearance at least to some degree so maybe it will look a little better as the development progresses.

[Katzedecimal]

I have the Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 Alpha 2 installed on my Acer Aspire One and you could fool me that this is an Alpha. So far it's been running nice and steady, no wireless issues, no sound issues, no graphics issues -- yet I fully expect there will be but this is a promising start, especially for those whose machines use the dreaded Atheros wireless. Note to early adopters, though, don't try to partition just yet - it's all or nothing, due to a bug currently present in Ubiquity. The bug is expected to be worked out by Alpha 3 to Beta.

[vrkalak]

I too, have been using the 10.04 Alpha 2 release, except that I am using Xubuntu-Lucid.

I was impressed with Plymouth, as I was totally unfamiliar with it previously.

The Ubuntu Software Store was not included in the Alpha 1 release of Xubuntu, but it has now made an appearance.

As far as the Xubuntu edition, seems that the Ubuntu Devs have finally realized that the Xfce desktop doesn't need all the Gnome apps/libs/bloat to function.
The new release of Xubuntu-Lucid is much faster and lighter than previous versions.

The Ubuntu Devs have also, figured out that they have to get the LTS (long-term support) version of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 working from the start, and it shouldn't be released with a million or so bugs, like was the case, with Karmic. Seems that Karmic was thrown together at the last minute to make the release date. They are taking their time and 'really' trying to make this version of Ubuntu a 'top-notch' release.

[Gramps50]

I tried the live cd from both the cd and usb and both times jockey-gtk crashed, but that was the ony problem I had as I was looking around.

[exploder]

Seems that Karmic was thrown together at the last minute to make the release date.

That was the impression I got. Karmic would not even boot up for me until just a couple of days before it's release and then did not work right until a large number of updates were released. Lucid seems to have a more conservative approach. I expect some breakage during development but Karmic had far too many bugs and regressions in the final release. Lucid is looking pretty decent for still being an alpha release.

[Fluxx]

I've been chatting with another Linux user, and it is her impression that the last several .10 releases of Ubuntu have been unannounced pre-alpha tests for the next .04 release!!! I don't share her cynicism, but the idea makes me smile.

If Canonical makes good on their word to make the switch to using Debian testing packages to build from instead of using the unstable packages they used previously, then I think that it bodes well for them and for us. After all, who's going to have to switch to a Debian testing base if they've already done it for us? It' almost like they read everyone's mind...or forums, .

vrklak, I think that Xfce has developed enough now to not need all the Gnome dependencies to support the apps everyone wants. Whether the Xubuntu developers have just caught on, or whether Xubuntu is now using the current Xfce release, I'm not sure. Either way, you are right. Xubuntu is getting leaner.

But my wife loves Gnome, and I'm starting to admit to myself that I like it, too. So, who knows what I'll say a year from now, eh?

[Kendall]

I'm of the opinion that the Ubuntu switch from Debian "unstable" to Debian "testing" is going to cut out a fair amount of the debugging/testing here at Mint and give us a little more time to dedicate to things such as development.

I have the 10.04 Alpha 2 iso but I'm going to wait until tomorrow before I try to break it.

[Kendall]

10.04 Alpha 2 seems every bit as stable as 9.10 Final to me. I've trying to get it to break, but it seems to be taking it like a champ. The boot time is awesome, but I'm going to see what I can do about that.

Now for the fun part. I'm going to whip up a live CD using SLiM and the concurrency hack and see where this goes.

EDIT: 10.04 does not play nice with SLiM. This is good to know as I'll either need to do some serious screwing with it for Mint 9 or drop it altogether for something else (maybe LXDM?). We'll see.

EDIT 2: XDM works the old fashioned way, I might be able to get SLiM to work if I recode it for Upstart. I can't seem to find a package for LXDM anywhere and I just now found the source code.

EDIT 3: SLiM works if recoded to run in Upstart.

[exploder]

Lucid is working pretty decent for me with the exception of Plymouth. Plymouth does not fare too well with nvidea at the moment. It's funny though, Lucid seems more stable than Karmic and Lucid still has a good three months of development left. It even seems like desktop effects are smoother in Lucid and sound is better. I think that Ubuntu is just using Debian Testing for the LTS and they will go back to unstable after the LTS is released. The boot time on Lucid is pretty darn fast and who knows, it might get even better as the development continues. I have added to one bug report already and I am sure there will be more before it's all done.

[exploder]

It has been a while and things are still looking good for the LTS. There has been a lot of updates and no real breakage! So far this is the best Ubuntu development cycle I have seen. So far there is no working Plymouth for nvidea users but at least there is not a screen full of error messages and the system boots so quick that Plymouth would not be displaying very long anyway. The boot experience has been given priority and I am sure this will be fixed long before the final release. I see the crash report icon appearing from time to time for no apparent reason but it does not really hurt anything, it is just a minor annoyance and it is being worked on.

I saw some ubiquity updates that address the install issues that have been in recent daily builds. I tested the updates and they do fix the daily builds to where they will install again. The removal of HAL in favour of Device Kit seems to be working out well and things are being fine tuned to accommodate this change. There is currently a lot of buzz about Firefox 3.6 and I think it is nothing more than people being impatient for it's arrival. The new Firefox is coming but the developers are looking at ways to keep Firefox up to date for future upgrades and I really don't mind waiting with this type of change being considered.

There are not currently very many bugs considering the development status of most of the packages included by default. Gnome development still has a ways to go before 2.30.0 goes gold and the bugs that are present are nothing more than minor annoyances right now. I see fewer graphics card issues than I have seen in the past and even the open source drivers have made some headway and that is encouraging! There is still three months of development remaining and a lot will happen in that time but I would like to see the base for our LTS release in good shape for a change. I have added to a couple of bug reports so far and they seem to be organising the bug reports better than in the past.

If you are testing and would like Ubuntu to look a little more elegant then this might interest you.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/1595/screenshotmi.png

The wallpaper is semi transparent and I just set the background to bright orange to give it the color you see in the screen shot. Here is where I found the wallpaper, eightmillion is the creator of this, just scroll down until you see his post.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=978038&page=3

My biggest complaint about testing Ubuntu development builds is having to look at the ugly default artwork, the wallpaper I mention actually makes the defaults look nice. I mentioned this in the Ubuntu development forum but you can bet it will not even get the slightest bit of consideration, if it was hideous they would be all over it.

Edit: I just saw where Firefox will be bundled with the dependencies. Firefox updates are going to be much better than we have seen in the past.

[exploder]

Just thought I would throw some information out there for anyone testing Lucid. Here is the current list of bugs.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/+bugs

Here is what is currently in the queue.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/+queue

The Firefox package is going to carry all of it's dependencies from now on! When for example Firefox 3.5 reaches the end of life status the newer version will be updated in supported releases. I hope they go one step further with this but things are headed in the right direction and it is going to make things better for all of us. If things continue in the direction they are Mint 9 is going to be an awesome release!

Here is the Gnome release schedule.

http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointTwentynine/

[Kendall]

Amen. I'm yet to see anything from Canonical that is close to the degree of quality that they're trying to push with 10.04. If we have this to work off of, then the development cycle for Mint 9 will not only be faster, but be more detail oriented as well. I am worried about SLiM though. I need to try and get some Debian oriented development going on with LXDM.

[exploder]

I think Cannonical is trying to improve their reputation because of the bad press 9.10 received. Here is the current status of Firefox 3.6 if anyone is interested.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/+sou ... y-0ubuntu1

Obviously it's not going to leave the queue until all of the builds are complete and it's approved.

[Aevum]

I'll give it a shot as soon as I've some spare time, then I'll give feedback

[exploder]

I am still testing 10.04 and things are still looking very positive. I can't wait for the final and to start seeing some Mint development builds on this! Gnome is now at 2.29.6, the kernel has been updated, lots of fixes all around and best of all, no breakage so far. It is pretty clear that Debian Testing is the way to go to have an up to date, stable system. I have been through many Ubuntu development cycles in the past and this is by far the best work I have ever seen by the Ubuntu developers in a long time.

OpenOffice 3.2 beta packages should start showing up soon, I see them appearing in the queue and if what I am hearing is correct OpenOffice is going to run even faster than it already does. Firefox 3.6 is in good shape and it does render pages quicker than previous versions. I always have that "Windows killer" system idea in the back of my mind and honestly this just might be the base that it might happen with. Boot time is very fast with this release so far and Ubuntu just might meet the 10 second boot time goal they have been after. Plymouth is currently still not working with nvidea graphics but I expect to see this change in the near future from what the bug report status is. You will not be seeing Plymouth very long anyway.

I have added to 3 bug reports so far, 2 of them are already fixed. The developers are doing a great job of prioritizing and tracking the bugs in the LTS, I hope this is a continuing trend. I suggested a wallpaper idea in the Ubuntu development forum that would work well for them and make the current default theme work. Ubuntu will of course never even consider the idea I presented but I think that it would work very well for us. Clem really liked the black wallpaper that we used for the default in a few releases, we could use something with a similar style but use a semi transparent background. I have never seen any distribution release with this type of background as the default so it would be a first. Using a semi transparent wallpaper will work with any choice of theme because you can easily change the color. Here is the Ubuntu example.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/1595/screenshotmi.png

Something along these lines could work very well for us and if this style can make Ubuntu look elegant just imagine how nice LinuxMint would look. I would really like some feedback on the idea of this type of wallpaper, I think it is very versatile and has nice possibilities for an elegant default.

[Aevum]

I did try it as well and found it quite amazing. The only bad thing about it was that drivers for my graphic card still aren't available for 10.04, and the 9.10 weren't really working there

[exploder]

I did try it as well and found it quite amazing. The only bad thing about it was that drivers for my graphic card still aren't available for 10.04, and the 9.10 weren't really working there

What graphics card are you using?

[Aevum]

GMA 500 - Poulsbo, I'm on a netbook (It did find the one of my main PC, instead. Nvidia GeForge 8600)

[exploder]

GMA 500 - Poulsbo

That's the one that Intel would not provide Linux drivers for. Intel took a lot of heat over this, so I hope the situation has changed. I am not positive but I think that some people are having sucess with drivers from the xorg-edgers ppa. I will try and find some information about this.

Edit: I just asked for any available information about your graphics card in the Ubuntu development forum. Hopefully I can find out something for you.

[Aevum]

Thanks, mate. I appreciate your effort. Well, I found both some drivers for the old Gloria and for Helena, which I'm using right now, and they're working smooth. I don't know whether they're the official ones, I just hope some of those will come out also for Lucid Lynx / Mint 9.

See >> New GMA 500 Poulsbo drivers for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala