10 things not to like about Ubuntu 10.04

[Liam Proven]

On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 5:00 PM, Dylan McCall <dylanmccall at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 7:42 AM, Fred A. Miller <fmiller at lightlink.com> wrote:
>> 10 things not to like about Ubuntu 10.04
>> <http://ct.zdnet.com/clicks?t=548916224-f09aff1f3240c763b781087d83996fa3-bf&brand=ZDNET&s=5>
>>
>> The latest version of Ubuntu may be one of the best operating systems
>> out there. But TechRepublic's Jack Wallen took a hard look at the OS and
>> sure enough, he found a few areas for improvement.
>
> It's just a bit of light opinion-spreading, but I found that article
> kind of inaccurate. I should make some corrections. And while I'm at
> it, I'll inject my own opinions :)
>
> 2. Samba is not in by default because it isn't free. It would be
> _awesome_ if this used PackageKit to install it magically, though. (Or
> does it? I haven't needed to install it in ages).

Utter tosh. Samba is completely free, 100% FOSS. Where on Earth did
you get this nonsense from?

The reason Ubuntu does not pre-install the Samba server is that by
default Ubuntu has *NO* server functionality installed, by design.
This means that it is a secure client OS - nothing can connect to it
as it has no open ports.

It is perfectly capable of connecting to other machines, such as
Windows via SMB, Unix hosts via ssh & NFS and so on.

It is a client, not a server. This is a design decision and IMHO a
very sensible one.

It is trivially easy to add Samba in if you want it.

> 4. New init system? The thing that is responsible for the quick boot
> time? Bad because it has different commands? That's cheap. Jack,
> you're running out of ideas ;)

Agreed, he really is.

> 5. Interesting! Yeah, the music store has felt pretty clunky to me so
> far. I'm sure it will get sorted out, but I hope it doesn't bite
> anyone before the store offers more stuff to Canadian users.

Never bought downloadable media online; probably never will. I like to
own something physical. I do download some music from the P2P nets but
mostly these days I stream it over Spotify.

> 6. The Nouveau driver is replacing the NV driver as the default, and
> to that end it is a considerable improvement.

Not tried it. I'm sure you're right, though. I updated to 10.04 from
9.10 where I already had the closed-source/binary drivers installed.
It worked seamlessly.

> 8. I agree. Looks like the next version of Gwibber will work much
> better. I would love to see some clarification about why DesktopCouch
> seems to have had such a horrible impact on Gwibber, and (with that in
> mind) whether or not I should be concerned about using it. For now, I
> am very happily using Pino.

I use Yoono in Firefox as my social networking client; I prefer it in
the browser than as part of my desktop.

> 9. There is Google Chrome love, and lots of it! A stable build of
> Chromium is in the repositories :) Chrome is closed source, so it
> isn't there _yet_. Chrome and Chromium have a great deal of Ubuntu
> love, though.

I run full native Chrome & it works fine. Download the .DEB, install
it & it adds its own repositories for updates. It works fine.

I think Ubuntu should stick with Firefox for now, and I don't think it
should bundle more than one browser, so the /status quo/ is just fine.

> 10. I think a better thing than a welcome screen is a redesigned
> desktop. Desktop computing is no longer centred around the file
> manager; people use applications to get to their content. (I think we
> can blame the web for this one, and Apple is cementing it). Why, then,
> is the file manager front and centre when the user logs in?
> _Applications_ should be given that visual priority. Moblin and Sugar
> do this neatly. Figure this out and the next step after logging in is
> intuitive, without us needing to _make_ it “intuitive.”

Well, yes. The desktop is gradually on its way out. Possibly the iPad
and Android (as more varied machines appear) will help this process
along, as will things like ChromeOS.

But for now - I see no conflict between a welcome screen /and/ an
improved (or replaced) desktop. Let's have both!

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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