Maverick approaching final release.

[exploder]

Everyone is probably aware that Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick final release is quickly approaching. Since this will be the base for Mint 10 I thought it was important to get in on the testing and bug reporting. Most of the show stopper bugs have been fixed and the developers are still very hard at work to fix everything possible before the final release. I have been testing using NVidea graphics on two machines running the x64 builds. I would love to say that all of the graphics issues are solved but there are a few quirks here and there remaining. The proprietary drivers work pretty decent, Plymouth is still somewhat problematic with them though. The Nouveau driver seems very solid but there is still no 3D support. There is still some work being done as far as graphics and things look much better than they did in Lucid. Full screen flash works well with the Nouveau driver on x64 now!

The Software Center is leaps and bounds better than it was in Lucid! The Software Center looked primitive in Lucid compared to Maverick, it is much more streamlined, is more feature rich and includes apps for purchase. I mention the Software Center because Clem built off the last release of it, so it may have an influence on us. I see refinements to the user interface all over the place! Ubuntu has achieved elegance! Ubuntu is very generous as far as UbuntuOne, 2 GB of space is pretty generous. You can store your contacts and purchased songs on UbuntuOne and it is integrated into the system, pretty slick.

The Ubuntu fonts were included at the last minute, I have to say they look pretty nice. The fonts were designed to look decent when using various languages and it will be interesting to see peoples reaction to them, I like the idea because people always complain about the fonts and they were listening. I read a review that complained there was not much new in Maverick, I have to disagree because there are refinements all over the place and it is a big step in the right direction compared to Lucid. Mark Shuttleworth said on his blog that they were going to give graphics drivers a lot of attention in the 11.04 release, combine that with the refinements in Maverick and Ubuntu inches closer to the increase in market share that has been predicted for 2012. To look ahead even further, things will be even more competitive when the Software Center is feature complete and provides a one stop shop for package management.

What are you thoughts, comments on Maverick?

[randomizer]

I must admit that after trying the RC the only notable differences were the installer (it still has some odd behaviour), Update Manager, Software Center, the design of the window buttons, the hideous orange colour that is used for highlighted selections (works ok in menus, not on desktop icons) and the poor video playback using Totem. I reverted my main machine back to Lucid pretty quickly because I preferred the stability over slightly polished eye candy. I always remove half of the stuff shipped with Ubuntu anyway, including SC.

[exploder]

Recent updates have made Maverick run much better than Lucid for me. All multimedia is working for me and the double buffering with Apple Trailers is a thing of the past. Flash working right in full screen on x64 really made my day. My systems seem very stable so far.

Edit: I did have issues when the final Gnome packages arrived but I waited it out and things got better. I did not experience anywhere near the breakage I have seen in the past.

[mmesantos1]

Thanks for the info Exploder. I have been working on another project and have not had time to try the newest release of 10.10.

[exploder]

Thanks for the info Exploder. I have been working on another project and have not had time to try the newest release of 10.10.

You are welcome. I know there is still work being done on the kernel, it was building the last time I looked. The bug list is here.

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

It looks like a lot but when you compare it with previous releases at this stage, things look pretty good. What is so interesting is that you can actually see the direction things are going in this release and that it eventually will lead to something better. These guys are picking up the pace on things and I hope they keep the momentum going. Maverick is not perfect but it shows a great deal more quality than I have seen for some time now. I signed up for the mailing list to try and better keep up with everything that is going on.

[craig10x]

I've been testing the release candidate (live cd) for Kubuntu 10.10 and must say that although in the past, as much as i liked Kubuntu when i checked it out (as a gnome person) it didn't feel smooth and polished enough to me...it wasn't until i tried and installed Mint 9 KDE that i finally "warmed up" to KDE (and now really love it)...But Kubuntu 10.10 is a whole different thing...it is very smooth and very polished and seems to be running great...

They even greatly improved the KPackageKit (the KDE programs installer) which in the past was pretty bad (driving many to install Package Manager) but happy to report that the new version of it is EXCELLENT...it is much more attractive, improved interface and does a great job of installing programs...

Also the Ubuntu fonts are very nice and now included as well...I like it so much, i'm actually tempted to install it when the final comes out next week...I would imagine that the mint 10 kde won't be out for several months yet, and i like this very much...

[randomizer]

Does Kubuntu 10.10 actually have any real Canonical branding? Usually only Ubuntu gets branded heavily, while Kubuntu just looks like a plain Jane KDE distro.

[craig10x]

No real branding i can see in there...basically it's just pure KDE...That's what so nice about it...
In the past, it didn't feel as smooth and polished as the Mint version does...with 10.10 i think that is changed quite a bit....
It seems to have gotten more attention then it has in the past...

I wouldn't say it is quite as polished as the mint version..but it' seems to have a reached a point where it's quite nice in itself...

[michael.conner]

I've used the two betas for Lubuntu 10.10. It's definitely faster than the 10.04-based release. Pretty hard to make LXDE faster, so they're doing something right.

[gotjazz]

how's the lubuntu memory footprint?

[exploder]

The NVidea driver was updated today to 260.19.06! I was surprised, it is very rare to see a graphics driver updated this late in development.

[randomizer]

It had to be updated. There was a massive performance regression with the previous drivers and Xorg 1.9.0. If you used subpixel rendering (which is the default) then you'd see extremely slow performance. Check this out: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpos ... stcount=12

He states that it was antialiasing, but it's really just subpixel rendering, as confirmed by myself and others in a Launchpad bug report. Just scrolling through a man page was painful when I tried it.

[waldo]

I am writing this from Maverick and agree with you, Exploder. This release may be a small step in features, but it is a huge leap in refinement. There has been a great deal of attention to the details, and the overall impression is slick and professional. Mint still has a big edge in newbie friendliness, but it's got some catching up to do in visual finish.

I do like the new Ubuntu font, with a big reservation. It looks great as the font for menus, titles, etc., but it falls short as a text font for readability. For this purpose, it is not as good as the default font used for this forum. As a test, I used your opening post in this thread, which contains long paragraphs. When Firefox displays it using the default font, there is ample white space between words and lines to make it easy to read very quickly. When I forced a change to Ubuntu, enough of this white space disappears, forcing the reader to slow down to absorb the words.

You can repeat the test in Firefox this way. Edit, Preferences, Content, select Ubuntu as the default font. Select Advanced (be sure Ubuntu is the Sans Serif choice, and that Sans Serif is chosen for Proportional). Compare with the option, "Allow pages to choose . . . " checked and unchecked.

[exploder]

waldo, I tried the same thing with the fonts and totally agree with you. The Ubuntu fonts are a very ambitious project and are a clear indication these guys are very serious about grabbing market share. The default appearance of Maverick is outstanding, I never in a million years though I would ever say that about a Ubuntu release. The arrows in various apps are thin and sleek now, the dots when you type in a password are smaller and more attractive, they offer a good light and dark theme by default, the color pallet used is unique and surprisingly attractive, and you can see the difference that the 100 paper cuts project is making.

The Software Center looks like a native Gnome application now, it no longer looks out of place and you can see that this will be the default package management system in the near future. I see little annoying bugs fixed all over the place, evolution dialogue boxes displaying right, icons staying in place on the panels, and lots of other things. The Ubuntu developers are putting as much effort as possible into fixing many of the graphics card issues we have been dealing with, they are doing the best they can with what they have to work with at the present time.

I have to give credit where credit is do, the Ubuntu Developers are really trying hard to make the Maverick release a good one.

[waldo]

I do hope the designers of the Ubuntu font are aware of the readability shortcoming. It is my impression that they are creating this font as a general purpose replacement for Arial and its clones. In it's present state, that won't do. However as a font for all the peripheral parts of a page, including larger and bold text, it is really a much more elegant design than Arial. Anyway, that has little to do with the upcoming Maverick release.

I do wish they'd get the artist who did that wonderful Hardy Heron to do the default wallpaper again. I'm kind of tired of computer generated finger paint blobs.

[randomizer]

There is no way the Ubuntu font can be used for general text. It is simply too stylised for that purpose. It's great for what it is currently used for, but leave normal text for the normal fonts. Next we'll be trying to replace Arial with a Webdings equivalent

[exploder]

The whole idea of the fonts was to make various languages look better, so far the Ubuntu development forum is not showing any complaints. The best thing about Maverick is that hardware support is heading in the right direction again.My thinking is that Maverick is pretty nice right now and it will get even better after the final release. I am seeing more talk on the development mailing list about improving communication with the quality assurance team, this tells me that more effort is being put toward the quality of what is being released and I am all for that! I like Maverick, it's the first release I have liked in a long time. Maverick is by no means perfect but it is a huge step in the right direction in my opinion.

[zerozero]

And, exploder, you been following the Meerkat development closely (i just played with it in the first alpha for a couple weeks) is there any plans by Ubuntu devs to port all the improvements you can see to Lucid?
Don't forget that 10.10 is a STS and 10.04 a LTS.
Will that be done? Or will they "force" the users to upgrade if they want their bugs and regressions to be solved?

[exploder]

Improvements to Lucid are for the most part going to come from the ppa repos, a large number of the bugs it was released with have been fixed. There are not going to be any drastic changes for Lucid coming from the default repos.

[badmotor]

I have just been playing with Maverick in VB and I have to agree! It's the nicest looking release indeed. They have definitely taken a few steps in the right direction - I didn't realise you could install some codecs at install time as well... very nice.