Ubuntu 8.04 Released

Nate2 writes "The Hardy Heron has taken flight: it's the second LTS (Long Term Support) release of the world's most popular distro. New features include the Wubi Windows installer and Firefox 3 beta 5. Grab a copy here, and check out Linux Format's overview of the release."

I can't understand Firefox3 beta5

[MistrBlank]

It's beta. It's also widely unsupported right now and doesn't work with several plug-ins I love to use. I do like some of the built in features of it, and use it on several of my systems, but I don't see it as belonging in an OS Release.

Re:I can't understand Firefox3 beta5

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a Long Term Support release, obviously they didn't want to have to support Firefox 2 for another 5 years.

Re:I can't understand Firefox3 beta5

[tolan-b]

They'll release 3 final to the repositories when it's released and probably reroll the installer CD I'd have thought.

They could really do with a bit more flexibility on their launch dates though.

Re:Firefox 3 Beta 5? Really?

[snl2587]

This would be why I usually wait a month or so before I upgrade to the newest version of Ubuntu. I expect open-source stuff to have bugs but they fix most of them; it just takes little time. For now I'm hanging on to Gutsy until the rush dies down.

As for the WPA password...did you check the Keyring settings? Chances are that a config file was modified, switching the default save setting...if I had to guess.

New Icon

[somegeekynick]

Slashdot should start using Ubuntu's symbol instead of Debian's. Oh and, I'm downloading via the torrent right now.

Re:Terrible. People should know about this!

[Anonymous Coward]

The channel operators

So wait, let me get this straight: people went on IRC, asked particularly stupid questions, and got banned for it?

Stop the presses, we've got headline news right here!

Re:You can also get it shipped

[dumeinst]

I hope you donate to the project in this case

Re:Great release unfortunately no Abiword 2.6

[Rik Sweeney]

Happy Birthday!

Re:You can also get it shipped

[caluml]

*That's* the answer to get Linux on the desktop (and lots of work for people who can support Linux). Flood the nations with free Linux CDs - AOL style!
Make out it's a time limited free offer - and that it's usually £129!

Re:Slooow!

[jedidiah]

This is Linux, not Windows. Don't pretend there's some sort of fire when there isn't one.

It won't kill you, or cause you machine to become part of some botnet, just because you
upgraded a week or two later...

Re:Curious about Ubuntu

[cptnapalm]

"If[...]you don't know why you'd want/need linux, then there probably isn't much point."

Oddly, I didn't know why I'd want/need linux (aside from being told it was a lot less crash prone than Win 95) until I had been using it for awhile. It was only after getting comfortable with it that I really started poking around and discovered the myriad of neat things I could do with a home computer that I never thought of doing because, on Windows, it wasn't just there.

It is like WAY back when I had a C64 and it came with BASIC so you could write your own programs. Because it was just there, I did. With DOS 5, Windows 3 and 95, it wasn't just there so I never even thought about doing anything like that.

legality, legality...

[damn_registrars]

Uh, yeah, except that: isn't it kind of ILLEGAL to download copyrighted stuff via torrents?

Is...was....err....was that a joke?

That could be either a joke or someone who is just underinformed. Being as torrents get the most attention (in the mainstream, at least) for illegal traffic, it shouldn't surprise anyone to encounter people who actually believe that all torrent traffic is illegal.

And of course, there are copyrights involved with Ubuntu Linux. However most of them are more than a little bit more permissive than those on "Enter Sandman".

Re:You can also get it shipped

[zuggy40]

IMO it's still not fast enough for those of us that must have the latest, greatest stable version of Ubuntu. However, the shipit disks are a great way to prove that Linux and Ubuntu is professional quality. A burned CD looks illegal, a printed CD in a nice case looks like something worth whatever the cost, then when you tell them it's free, their sold.

Re:Kubuntu

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, good distro have both at the same time. Why changing the os to change the WM ?!?

Re:Terrible. People should know about this!

[Dragonslicer]

Not 20 -minutes- before the official announcement was made, anyone asking whether or not the ISO on the main page was indeed the final release (which it was) was banned. Anyone who posted a link to the ISO, the .torrent, or even the MD5SUM of any of the files was banned.

This is because the files could potentially be modified at any time before the official release announcement. If you download a .iso file an hour before the official release, and that file gets replaced half an hour later because of some problem with the disc image, you're basically screwed.

Re:Firefox 3 Beta 5? Really?

[superslacker87]

sudo apt-get remove firefox && sudo apt-get install firefox-2

Not that difficult.

Re:Kubuntu

[nahdude812]

Yes, you can have KDE and Gnome both installed at the same time. sudo apt-get install kde-desktop. This'll change the bootup logo to be the Kubuntu version, but on the login screen you'll be able to choose your session, and choose KDE or Gnome depending on what you feel like getting into.

I go back and forth every few months personally. I like the simplicity of Gnome, they make the features I want most easily available to me.

But then I'll find some corner case which I simply can't do with Gnome (eg Gnome mis-detecting a file type and refusing to let you open it because the file contents don't match the extension), then I fire up KDE for a while, revel in the many, many options to tweak, dork around with those for a while before discovering this stuff actually gets in the way of my productivity when I'm not just tooling around, and end up going back to Gnome again.

No matter what desktop I'm using, I end up using programs from the alternate environment. For example, I always use Kate as my text editor, Amarok as my media library, and Kopete as my IM client (all KDE apps).

Re:I Want My First Personal Linux Machine

[xtracto]

I'll give you an example of why not:

Right now, in your Linux machine, open a terminal window and install that program to create music with music sheet and then play it. Something similar to GuitarPro.

So, what will you do? first, you have to know how do you *install* things (the command to install??? aptget? apt-get? apt_get? or aptitude or optitude?? mmm lets tray install? or was it depackg? or dpkag? or rpminstall? or yam? or yem?

After you find one of those commands who do not return "bash: auptda-get: command not found" you have to guess what is the sub-command (or parameter) that will actually install whatever you want to install... mmm lets try dpkg install... o shit no luck, dpkg get mmmm dpkg add??

Well, you know that there are some stuff called man pages which tell you some information. mmmm lets see "man..."

What manual page do you want?

Oh crap, what page number i should use for the installation of programs?
and so on and so on...

until you know that apt-get install will install your program... but you have one problem
"apt-get install guitar program" just tells you that there is no program called guitar program so, what is your program called?? how do you know your what is your program called...

aah well. That is only for installing a program. Imagin trying to do some more complex tasks.

The fact that you think it is very easy to use the command line is because you already know what to type. The probelm with the command line is that when you *do not* know what to type you have 256^n (number of keys ^ number of letters to type) different possibilities to try.

Whereas in a GUI you either have checkboxes or lists or whatever (unless you use one of those open source frontends that, when you go to the configuration screen, they just give you a blank text box asking you to input the parameters... shit, WHAT PARAMETERS?)

Re:Started the download 20 minutes ago

[qualidafial]

Just download the Alternate CD, burn, pop it in.

This is a server installation, so it doesn't do anything when I "pop it in" other than mounting.

Whatever happened to reading the release notes?

I'm brand new to Ubuntu and Linux in general, so finding the release notes is a bit like finding the highway plans in the city building's 4th floor basement in a disused lavatory behind a locked door with a sign stating "beware of leopard." Eventually I found the release notes on ubuntu.com but it wasn't obvious where to find it, and it took some time just to navigate there due to the site being unreliable while it's getting the crap beaten out of it.

I swear this is the last time during this upgrade cycle that I write anything to help people

Given your bedside manner, I'd like that in writing.

..who haven't done their homework.

I've been struggling to teach myself this shit for a long time, and despite trying very hard to learn on my own and use the available resources, I still get lost sometimes. So I ask questions from those who are likely to know. There's no need to be condescending.

Re:Started the download 20 minutes ago

[houstonbofh]

The scary part is that the OP believes this. That means the *IAA actually has the general public believing that torrents are illegal. Here we have proof positive that there is a legal use, as every 6 months the net gets a huge kick in the teeth from LEGAL downloads, but the general public doesn't believe it. Unless we fix that we have lost the war, regardless of the facts.

Re:Started the download 20 minutes ago

[qualidafial]

you post on Slashdot and run a server, so I assume you are interested in computers and capable of reading docs

It's a hell of an extrapolation to assume that because I read slashdot and am interested in computers, that I would have the slightest idea where to look for the release notes, no matter how obvious that may seem to you.

This is the, I dunno, 5th Ubuntu release I witness, and time after time people don't do the logical thing. I have spent countless hours on the mailing list to help them out, when all they would have needed to do is: http://www.google.com/search?q=ubuntu+8.04+release [google.com] or, god beware, go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ [ubuntu.com] and follow the release announcement. I was a newbie too, but I tried to do my homework before asking other people for help. It's called courtesy.

I spend time helping folks on mailing lists too, but rather than berating them for not reading the docs, I just give them the URL they need. Sometimes folks just have a hard time finding what they're looking for and there's no need to bite their heads off.

Re:Kubuntu

[AshtangiMan]

Maybe I'm the only one, but ITunes is a great music server, and I use it exclusively without ever having gone to ITunes Music Store. There is nothing about using ITunes that demands or requires DRM. ITMS does have most of it's music DRMed (or so I hear) but again this has nothing to do with ITunes the music player/organizer program.