Episode 84 - Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

[Chess]

In this shortened episode: a brief discussion of my upgrades and installs of the newest release of Ubuntu Linux, 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon; Listener Tip on the bash shell's double-exclamation point history operator; email feedback.

http://www.linuxreality.com/podcast/episode-84-ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon/

[Oldbones]

I put my reaction to 7.10 on myblog.

Main gripe

Don't bother with Gnash, the open source flash plugin for Firefox, it's just not ready yet. Also, Upgrading to 7.10 means losing the ability to run VMware Player/Server easily via Automatix.

otherwise, non-computer people still have a little bit of difficulty.  My ex-girlfriend wasn't able to play DVDs on her own after I had made a clean install.  She's familiar with Ubuntu, but only after I set her system up prior to her using it. 

She switched to Linux after her windows system went belly-up.     She didn't have the original Ethernet-driver-CD and Ubuntu got her Internet up and running without hassle. 


I think Ubuntu is awesome, but to convert people it will take Linux people who take the time out for the newbies.  This show has certainly walked me through many tough spots.

I make sure to bring up Linux as an option and offer my personal expertise when helping people out for the first time.  Ubuntu lets a n00b like me accomplish this.

D9C

[Claudio]

I put my reaction to 7.10 on myblog.

Main gripe

Don't bother with Gnash, the open source flash plugin for Firefox, it's just not ready yet. Also, Upgrading to 7.10 means losing the ability to run VMware Player/Server easily via Automatix.

otherwise, non-computer people still have a little bit of difficulty.  My ex-girlfriend wasn't able to play DVDs on her own after I had made a clean install.  She's familiar with Ubuntu, but only after I set her system up prior to her using it. 

She switched to Linux after her windows system went belly-up.     She didn't have the original Ethernet-driver-CD and Ubuntu got her Internet up and running without hassle. 


I think Ubuntu is awesome, but to convert people it will take Linux people who take the time out for the newbies.  This show has certainly walked me through many tough spots.

I make sure to bring up Linux as an option and offer my personal expertise when helping people out for the first time.  Ubuntu lets a n00b like me accomplish this.

D9C

I had the same problem with Gutsy, and it seems to be a problem many are having even with all of the required settings and components installed.

[thelastknowngod]

ill agree with you to a point, oldbones. ubuntu is pretty great if someone takes the time out to set it up for a new user. non-geeks have a little bit harder of a time with it but these same people would have problems with windows as well so they arent really loosing anything,

i think until legal issues in the us surrounding copyrights and codec distribution are resolved with linux there will be these issues. i dont think the majority of problems faced by new users is the fault of linux... its the M$ world we live in.

(oh and guinness is the best )

[mjjzf]

Did you hear the latest Lugradio? They test releases, and their results are very indicative of "having come a long way, but just not there for the beginner".

[Oldbones]

I have to speak to the controversy of including Compiz Fusion...

Ubuntu gets a big thumbs up from me for including this standard.

It pushes the development on what I find to be a critical component for moving people to Linux. I was drawn into Linux through eyecandy and freedom to design my own desktop.  But it was the former that brought me here, and not the latter.

I think Compiz Fusion give the new  Linux user what they want, high-tech eyecandy for their labors.

D9C

[Claudio]

I don't know....after a while, the eye candy just gets old quick.  Even in GNU/Linux, it gets old.  I would much prefer a well-performing desktop environment to one that's flashy.  Not something I could do in OS X or Vista (if I were ever to actually use the latter, which I wouldn't), so I just have to kind of deal with the eye candy there.  Still, even in OS X the eye candy isn't obtrusive.  Compiz Fusion gives you the control to make it subtle and usable, or go all out and wow everyone.  However, just like real candy, too much eye candy can make you sick.  This is why Vista falls flat, relying on too much eye candy and then not having anything monumental once the sugar rush wears out (unless you mean monumental failures ).  Personally, both OS X and GNU/Linux give the user a nice rich center underneath the sugary coating.

[Oldbones]

to be honest, I went on to explore fluxbox and disabled Compiz by default.  I have no use for it when I'm trying to check my emails in the morning.

But given the choice, I'd rather show off 3-D graphics to my rugby friends than the file tree of the wireless WEP network I've hacked across the the street (I didn't really do that ).   It's great for the new person to Linux who gets that "Ooooh aaaaah" moments for themselves, relatively pain free.   I think it eases the transition into digging for answers. 

Nostalgic moment - when I first learned

Code:

ctrl + alt + Left Click

- I must have rotated that cube hundreds of times before thinking, "what else can I do with Linux?"

D9C

[asgard_command]

I never used compiz with Fiesty, but so far I'm liking it in Gutsy. It does seem very odd to me that the settings manager isn't included by default. If compiz is going to be installed surely everyone would want the settings manager. I also think the settings are very obscure and poorly explained. A simple short explanation of each plugin and the options available would have been good.
It probably would make a good guest episode similar to the way the gimp episode went. The show could show you someones full featured flashy desktop then just walk you through recreating it.

[Oldbones]

I'd like to find a cheatsheet that would work well with Gusty and I could print it off for people who are trying Linux out.  I've been hunting for links on trailfire.com keyword: Linux.  It gives you many links with commentary.

I run the marketing and merchandising for my rugby club w/ 100% Linux.  Actually, it's why I didn't like Gnash, because I need the latest Flash to run splashcast and other "web 2.0" stuff that I want to implement.  I've been a marketing consultant for a little while now and I have to say, when the Linux people grab a hold of some new thing, it's going to be successful.   
 

D9C

rugby trailfire

[Claudio]

I never used compiz with Fiesty, but so far I'm liking it in Gutsy. It does seem very odd to me that the settings manager isn't included by default. If compiz is going to be installed surely everyone would want the settings manager. I also think the settings are very obscure and poorly explained. A simple short explanation of each plugin and the options available would have been good.
It probably would make a good guest episode similar to the way the gimp episode went. The show could show you someones full featured flashy desktop then just walk you through recreating it.

While it would have been nice to have it installed by default, I doubt that many new users would have wanted to.  They would have probably just settled with the two basic options that are already available.  Since the 3D effects aren't configurable at all on OS X or Vista, this wouldn't have phased them a bit.  FOr all you know, having the Compiz settings manager available to the average user would probably have resulted in a broken X session due to misconfiguration.  Those that know how to fix things with Xorg would probably not care, but it's a daunting task for the average user coming from Windows or the Mac.

[Oldbones]

(oh and guinness is the best Smiley)

Indeed!
Can't wait to get off of work! (4pm my time.)

[Datalanche]

Been a while since I posted here, heheh. Good show Chess! You sounded a little tired, though. Maybe it was the iriver. 

ATi's proprietary driver, fglrx, is a lot of fun. By fun, I mean "wanna kill it with rockets, lasers, kitchen knives... whatever is in front of me." It works to a point, yes, but I'm rather annoyed at its lack of progress. Installing the one in the Gutsy repos will render hibernate and suspend totally nonfunctional, as the 8.40 driver has no clue how to deal with the new SLAB allocator. Your system will just hang. Also, the 8.42 driver isn't meshing in too well with Gutsy when you manually install it. At first, I was quick to blame the driver(it's always been the problem before!), but I've seen reports of success with it in Debian, so maybe there's something about Ubuntu's configuration that's throwing it for a loop. Either way, I've about decided I am either going Intel or NVidia with my next machine. ATi just hasn't been fun. I've since went back to the open driver. It runs everything I need except Google Earth. But it's making progress, at least it will open now! Too bad the rendering is unusably slow with some screen corruption when you uh... move anything. heh

Binary blobs aside, I'm rather liking Gutsy. It's not anything too revolutionary, but it works. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm actually starting to somewhat like the Gnome environment. I haven't used KDE too much, except for my two must-have media apps, Amarok and Kaffeine. I'm looking forward to Hardy. Aside from loving the name, I hope to be able to stick with it for a while, since it will be LTS.

[Oldbones]

This just in on Lifehacker.com

Windows/Linux: Popular, free virtualization software VMWare has released a beta of its next Server platform, which allows users to run other operating systems inside their own. The 2.0 beta adds support for running on Windows Vista Business and Ultimate editions, Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, and other systems, as well as a new browser-based interface and better support for USB devices. A somewhat-helpful PDF user guide is available at the download site, but I'm waiting for a handy step-by-step guide to come along before diving in too deep in Linux (I unfortunately have only Vista Home Premium at the moment). If you managed to get 2.0 up and running, share your experiences in the comments. VMWare Server 2.0 Beta is a free download for Windows and Linux systems.

[thelastknowngod]

i have been using virtualbox and i like it a lot more than vmware. there are some options that virtualbox gives you that vmware doesnt. VB runs fast enough for me and it is really stable. check it out.

http://www.linuxreality.com/forums/index.php/topic,1898.0.html