Ubuntu 12.04

[aes2011]

...
Yeah. They get a lot of criticism thrown at 'em, but... as they'd say down this way, "tienen cojones."
Oops.

Eloquent if not elegant! :thumb:
Innovation often requires ignoring the lowest common denominator or the loudest critics. It also needs a healthy bank balance

[exploder]

Well, 12.04 has reached beta 1 and things are slowly coming along. These guys have really refined the look of things, it really has a nice default appearance. The application error I have been getting all along seems to be gone now. The new lenses they added are cool but at the moment I can't play any video with them and minitube will not play video either, it's a beta though. Ubuntu One looks pretty cool now and 5 GB of free space is great.

Flash and iced tea java are working fine, I like iced tea java by the way. Using the Radiance theme with the default wallpaper is a lot like my daughters Macbook Pro, without the giant price! I think the latest version of Unity might win over some of the people that did not like earlier versions.

[craig10x]

It certainly is coming along nicely for sure
I ran it on the live session (grabbed the daily build for March 1st in the morning, which was really the same as the beta 1 release that was put up later in the day)...
It's starting to get very stable for sure and looks superb and unity is getting nicer to work with, for sure...

I use the radiance theme also (prefer over the default theme)...and combined with the global menu (which gives you back the extra screen space when web surfing) and it's top panel, i almost feel like i am back on my old mac again (as you said, without the high price...lol)...

It's great that you can reduce the size of the unity icons and that when you have auto hide turned on (as i do) you no longer have to worry about it coming out accidentally when you go to the left size of the screen with your mouse (like when using you browser's "back" arrow key)...

Now if they would just give us the option of moving the bar to the bottom (and smaller in width of course down there)....that would be perfect
I know there is a "hack" for that...but i'd much prefer an official version...at the very least, available in the "myunity" 3rd party program...though would be even better if they offered it...

[viking777]

I tested 12.04 recently. There is only one other occasion when I had something less stable on a computer, and that was the day I tipped a pint glass of lager onto my laptop. The difference is that the lager was an accident and 12.04 I put on deliberately.

To give you an idea of how unstable it was let me say that I used Windows ME for several years and Ubuntu 12.04 made Windows ME look like Debian stable during a 'freeze' period.

I am not a Unity hater, I actually quite liked the look of it, that is why I tried 12.04 out, but never, ever will that distro cross the threshold of my hard disk again

[craig10x]

really? and that was with beta1? runs fine on my system (i didn't hard install...only ran live session)....
anyway, you really shouldn't judge a distro while it is going through the development stages (daily builds, alphas, betas) the one to get a pretty good idea of how it is, is (as always) the FINAL RELEASE (at the end of April in this case)...

It's not really fair to condemn it until you check out the final...
Even at that point, further improvements and smoothing out occurs AFTER that gets released but at least by the final you get a pretty good idea of how it is going to be...

[exploder]

I tried the beta on my desktop and it did not run anywhere near as well as it does on my laptop. The desktop has NVidea GT220 graphics and the boot experience was awful with the open source drivers. I did try the proprietary drivers and used Startup Manager to improve things but it still was not the greatest. Most of the bugs I am seeing are with Compiz and multimedia playback.

Mint uses the ideal solution for Plymouth by making it black. My desktop currently is running Mint 12 KDE with the proprietary NVidea drivers and I am pretty happy with the quality of the release. Unity just seems like a good choice for the smaller screen on my laptop. There is still a ways to go before 12.04 goes final and most of what is there seems pretty solid so far.

Clem should have a solid base to build Mint 13 on and Cinnamon seems to be getting better and more feature rich. People will really have a good variety as far as the user interface goes and 5 years of support is really appealing.

[altair4]

@viking777

I had been somewhat concerned that now that you're a big shot moderator and all that you had lost that rapier wit and mastery of sarcasm. It appears my fears were unfounded

[MALsPa]

I'm tempted to take a look at the 12.04 beta, but I guess I'll just wait. The final release isn't that far off now; if things work out, I'll probably keep it running here for at least two years, and it always seems best to start out with LTS versions even a few weeks after they're released. But I sure do appreciate getting glimpses from exploder, craigh10x, etc., of how things are progressing.

viking777's comment about 12.04's instability on his machine was helpful in reminding me that this is still a work in progress, which is to be expected. As for never letting "that distro cross the threshold of my hard disk again," that's pretty funny; to each their own. I've had great experiences with 6.06, 8.04, 10.04, and 11.04, so I'm looking forward to a good run with 12.04.

[dagon]

I tested 12.04 recently. There is only one other occasion when I had something less stable on a computer, and that was the day I tipped a pint glass of lager onto my laptop. The difference is that the lager was an accident and 12.04 I put on deliberately.

Are you absolutely sure that you managed to remove all the lager (Hint: "apt-get remove" is not an option here...)

[craig10x]

+1 malspa...and dagon, yeah maybe the spilt lager is what affected his ubuntu 12.04 install
probably some still in there messing up the "works"...

maybe viking should try it on a lager-free laptop

by the way malspa, as i mentioned, only ran it live, but the beta seemed pretty darn good to me and had some very nice improvements over 11.10...
also, it ran smoother and faster too...looks like it will be an excellent LTS release...

now that the new features freeze is in effect, they are concentrating on bug fixes and smoothing things out...

[bimsebasse]

From what I've read so far it's pretty solid already. Only a shame from a Mint perspective that all Canonical's efforts put into Unity is wasted on Mint. I'd like to see what Gnome Shell would have looked like if Ubuntu was behind it.

[viking777]

@craig10x

maybe viking should try it on a lager-free laptop

It was an old laptop - this one is alcohol free . BTW if you ever want to try it, it adds a whole new meaning to the 'Sticky Keys' feature I managed to fix it up, although it took a long time.

@craig10x

and that was with beta1?

No it was alpha 2, but I also tried 11.10 at the same time and although not quite as unstable as 12.04 it still had mysterious and unwanted features like disappearing icons from the 'Dash' - Now you see it, now you don't effect. The best feature of 11.10 (and the one that made me try out 12.04 tbh) was the 'Dodge Windows' effect of the Dash. In 12.04 they removed it Apparently never to bring it back (not even as an option) because it was 'too confusing' and people couldn't find their shortcuts when they had a window fully open. Gimme strength! I just hope and pray that the users who couldn't find their shortcuts on the 11.10 desktop can't find the Linux Mint site either or I'm leaving

@dagon

Hint: "apt-get remove" is not an option here

apt-get remove keys followed by apt-get clean perhaps?

@altair4

that rapier wit and mastery of sarcasm. It appears my fears were unfounded

I guess I am kept too busy chasing spam to think them up these days

[MALsPa]

I guess I am kept too busy chasing spam to think them up these days

I don't mean to derail the thread, but... Does it turn out to be a lot of work dealing with spam at these forums?

[viking777]

I guess I am kept too busy chasing spam to think them up these days

I don't mean to derail the thread, but... Does it turn out to be a lot of work dealing with spam at these forums?

It varies, particularly with how many moderators/admis are online at the same time. I have only had to delete one user so far today, so quite quiet. Anyway better get back to Ubuntu 12.04 or I will have to report myself

[craig10x]

well, viking777, give it another whirl when it gets released...i checked out alpha 2 and then beta1 and it did seem a lot better on beta 1...alpha 2 was a bit "twitchy"

do keep in mind that during the time period of alpha2, they were still adding and modifying new features...shortly before beta 1 was released, there was a "feature freeze" (no more new features being added) and since then its 100% concentration on bug fixes and smoothing things out...

[MALsPa]

well, viking777, give it another whirl when it gets released...

Something tells me he's through with Ubuntu for good:

never, ever will that distro cross the threshold of my hard disk again

This does sound like an interesting release, and I can't wait to see how the new Unity looks, and how things go if you add GNOME Shell to use instead. But with 10.04, I really like using Openbox instead of GNOME 2, so most likely I'll add Openbox to 12.04. Which I guess shows the kind of mixed up person I am -- that I like things like Unity and GNOME Shell, but also something like Openbox...

[exploder]

MALsPa,I like KDE, Unity, etc but still enjoy the simplicity of Fluxbox. I think the thing that attracts me to Unity is that Canonical is trying to do something on their own and it is starting to attract manufacturers. Ubuntu has some original ideas and some of them are pretty cool. Even the idea of pressing the super key to display all the shortcuts is a good idea and they made it look good. HUD is cool and I saw where the KDE developers are planning a similar feature. Scopes and Lenses is a cool idea too and even the naming convention is a good marketing idea.

Fresh ideas are what it is going to take to see Linux in the mainstream and things are changing really fast right now. I remember years ago when you had to know all of the specs for your monitor or risk it blowing up in your face, things have come a long way since then! It used to take hours just to get Linux installed on your hard drive, now it takes minutes and the installer sets up everything. Things have really changed in the last 10 years!

[exploder]

A kernel update came in today and now plymouth looks pretty nice with my ATI graphics, (using the open source drivers). Thanks to some help I can use HUD now! I was holding alt instead of tapping it. 12.04 is getting better each day.

[MALsPa]

Folks (like me) who have not tried it might like to see Muktware's preview of the 12.04 beta: http://www.muktware.com/articles/3362/q ... 204-beta-1

[viking777]

Folks (like me) who have not tried it might like to see Muktware's preview of the 12.04 beta: http://www.muktware.com/articles/3362/q ... 204-beta-1

Hey, thanks for posting that MALsPa. I wondered what the hell that awful replacement for a run dialog was all the time I was testing Ubuntu 12.04, now I know, it is called a HUD . The only thing I can tell you about it is how much it annoyed me that I couldn't have a proper run dialog box instead.

By now you must think that I spew out all this stuff deliberately just because I like stirring things up or I hate Ubuntu, but neither is true. I am genuinely amazed
at some of the awful decisions they have made in this distro. Hud looks like being the second worst. But ditching 'Dodge Window' mode for the dash is streets ahead in the race to be the stupidest decision ever to be made in the Linux world.

And no, I am not a Luddite, because I think gnome-shell is great, and so could Unity be if they only stopped deliberately trying to destroy it as soon as they invent it.