Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#141

Post by alyandon » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:20 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #133

alyandon wrote: post #129

Is it now possible to perform basic tasks like specifying font and icon sizes without installing third-party tweak tools or manually editing text files? I know a lot of work goes into these releases but when basic desktop functionality has been missing/broken since the 11.x series and fails to be addressed with each new release it starts to become depressing.

Ubuntu is a lot more tolerable when you just decide to live with the fonts, window decorations, icons, as the defaults. Just like you have to on the Mac. I could tweak a Linux box all day long . On a Mac I just turn it on and go to work. Now the hard part is deciding between GNOME3, Unity, LXDE...

I guess I find the icons and fonts sizes for the default Ubuntu desktop are (for lack of a better term) Fischer-Price sized and I just can't comfortably work with it.

While I can deal with installing additional packages in order to gain control over such settings it just strikes me as a little ironic that such things are not easily configurable in one of the major desktop focused Linux distributions.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#142

Post by takluyver » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:25 PM UTC

Unosolo wrote: post #56

Poor GPU support (lack of drivers) is still a major deal-breaker for home and media use. As of now hardware should still be selected on the basis of available driver support and it's a major obstacle and the situation doesn't seem to have improved significantly since 3-5 years ago.

I suspect it can't improve much more without a paradigm shift. That could be OEMs shipping Linux pre-installed along with working hardware and the necessary drivers. Or it could be having a better abstraction so that Nvidia & ATI can keep parts of their drivers closed without the regular version mismatches with the open source world. I think that's part of Canonical's plans for Mir.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#143

Post by lacker » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:28 PM UTC

niggler wrote: post #50

What happens after the Z release (coming up in 5 years)?

Aahing Aardvark

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#144

Post by apawloski » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:33 PM UTC

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #33

Seriously, can anyone tell me if they fixed the partitioner? I spent enough times dd-ing and rebooting before giving up. :(

I haven't had a problem with the partitioner in years. What was your experience?

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#145

Post by jcastro » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:33 PM UTC

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #100

stefanve wrote: post #15

I played with the beta and I have to say that it is way more polished than 12.04/12.10. I have played for many years with Linux (since early 1990s) but it was always to much of a hazel to use it as my main os. But since 12.04 I fully switched from OSX to Ubuntu the only thing I kind of missed was the polish of osx. 13.04 makes lots of things nicer and more fluid. I actually like Ubuntu better than osx. One thing left…

It's weird, I've been on Linux for almost 20 years and Ubuntu as my main computer for 10 and for me it's the opposite. I find OSX has finally almost caught up to Linux with Mountain Lion. It's crazy how many OSX features come from the unix world but in a delayed, better looking fashion. The last missing major piece for OSX was good multiple workspace management, which came in the form of mission control and the touch…

> The other Ubuntu regression which annoys me to no end and again is the same in OSX is that clicking on a dock icon when you are in a workspace and there is an instance of the app opened in another workspace makes you automatically jump to the other one instead of opening a new instance in the current workspace.

If you middle click the icon it will open a new one instead of taking you to an existing one.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#146

Post by takluyver » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:33 PM UTC

vy8vWJlco wrote: post #134

vy8vWJlco wrote: post #27

They supposedly address the privacy bug: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/04/ubuntu_13_04_review/

Well, I wish I saw the other review (or downloaded it) before getting my hopes up. It looks like they didn't fix f*ck all. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/ubuntu_13_04_review/ Note to self: continue to expect the worst in people. (Edit: no malice understood, just brooding...)

There's a simple off switch for all online results in the dash, and it works. The dash is being improved so you can disable individual result sources, but that work wasn't ready in time for this release. I don't think there's any particular malice in the delay.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#147

Post by iso8859-1 » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

zikzikzik wrote: post #136

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your hands are on the keyboard that's fine but I also need a good solution for when I am using the pointing device.

Do you regularly use the pointing device with both hands?

How would you press Control-Alt-KeyLeft with less than both hands?

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#148

Post by claudius » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

omegaham wrote: post #127

claudius wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Said user should then have a system administrator to set up the system. Really, you either read the manual to learn such things or you get someone to do them, expecting a system as complex as a computer to work out-of-the-box is nonsense.

What you seem to be saying is that in order to use a personal computer, you should be an expert. I disagree, and I'm glad that most people disagree as well. User-friendliness is important regardless of what system it is, even Linux. Have you noticed that the most successful distributions of Linux are the ones that are most friendly to beginners? This elitism is destructive and serves only to make the "experts" smug a…

> What you seem to be saying is that in order to use a personal computer, you should be an expert.

No. What I am saying is that a) using a device is different from administrating it and b) in order to administrate a device you have to be an expert. You don’t expect to buy a car and never ever go to a workshop with it, because, you know, you shouldn’t have to be an expert to service your car. Similarly, expecting to be able to service a PC without being an expert is as futile.

> Have you noticed that the most successful distributions of Linux are the ones that are most friendly to beginners?

What metric/definition of successful are you using? [0]

> (third paragraph)

Exactly. Your point being?

[0] Hint: Number of users is not a measure of quality, and hence not necessarily a measure of success.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#149

Post by TallGuyShort » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

takluyver wrote: post #140

TallGuyShort wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that we should do everything we can to be user-friendly and not allow what I'm about to suggest to take the form of "elitism", I think we underplay the importance of helping the user understand the system. I think your typical user should understand SSL before they do online banking and shared libraries before they let their work rely entirely on their computer, in the same sense that I think you should…

We have abstraction layers precisely so that you can use things without understanding them. It's not just computers, every day we use all kinds of technology without properly knowing how it works. Of course, sometimes those abstractions are leaky, and we have to change a tire or apply an update. But suggesting that typical users should read up on SSL (and therefore asymmetric cryptography) before they use online bank…

I've personally seen people click through the most alarming-looking certificate errors and start entering their bank login credentials. I've driven in cars with people who had put up with that knocking sound in the engine for months because it wasn't getting any worse. If your mother did any of these things, I would be very worried about her financial and physical safety.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Released

#150

Post by anoncow » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 4:35 PM UTC

claudius wrote: post #110

dave1010uk wrote: post #57

Warning: according to the known issues in the release log [0]: * Skype won't start (without a fix [1]) * Google Chrome won't install (without a fix [2]) [0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RaringRingtail/ReleaseNotes [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/skype/+bug/1155327 [2] https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=226002#c...

The Skype bug looks like a Multiarch problem and there appears to be a workaround in the bug report: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1 skype which is trivial to implement either in a custom .desktop file dropped in ~/.local/share/applications or a custom launch script in /usr/local/bin (or whatever comes before /usr/bin in your path).

Will this be fixed in an upcoming ubuntu or skype update?