9.10 is a black eye for Ubuntu

Angus MacGyver macgyver at calibre-solutions.co.uk
Sun Nov 8 21:15:03 UTC 2009


On Sun, 2009-11-08 at 19:37 +0000, Aaron wrote:
> thomas wrote:
> > Ray, it is good that you had a trouble free experience.
> >
> > But, most of us did not.
> >
> >   
> Looking at this logically for a moment, most people who have a trouble 
> free experience will not post on a technical support list, because they 
> do not need technical support.
> 
> I think instead of threads titled "9.10 is a black eye for Ubuntu", 
> users should either ask for help by stating the issue they are 
> experiencing as clearly as possible or post a bug report (Or do a 
> combination of both).
> 
> The original poster that started this thread does not state what the 
> issues are.
> 
> For me, 9.10 has been an improvement over 9.04. Upgrades and new 
> installs have been painless (So far, one netbook to go) and the issues 
> that were present on the beta and RC are mostly gone. (There is a fix in 
> the proposed branch that will fix a SMB/Samba issue).
> 
> 

My 0.02....

I've "played" with Ubuntu since 4.10, and used in "anger" since 6.06.
I've used other "big" distro's such as Fedora,SuSe - and lot's of the
smaller ones over the last 11 years - and to be honest, all have some
issues - somewhere....

Fedora - package management used to suck so badly, I'd rather remove my
eyes with a blunt pin, though last time of looking (circa FC10), better,
but overall still not even close to a usable system IMHO.

SuSe - The YAST tool it was the best, and worst...
Not too bad for workstations - but servers - I hated using Yast with a
passion - just ended up getting things twisted.. (from my perspective)


Ubuntu IMHO is by *far* the best all rounder for machine(s) that should
"just work" - the least amount of effort for a perfectly usable desktop
machine - and even internally facing servers.

If I want to go "hard core" and get a really customised machine, DMZ
hardened, no GUI, serial console, tiny install footprint, hand built
packages, legendary reliability I don't even bother with linux - I go
*BSD.


I've got a number of 8.04 LTS installations, workstation, laptop and
server - and until another LTS comes out, (10:10 ???) then some of these
machines will remain on 8.04...

However - due to various reasons I needed some extra bits in
9.04(primarily ufraw and Gimp for my new camera - and as needed more
disk space - thought a new install would be best), and other than a
minor twitch or two (and lockup - which I now think was hardware failure
related) was perfect. (and now hardware fixed - still is)

That was an new install - but with a package list extracted from 8.04
and then deselected in - which gives me new underlying OS, and all the
packages I am used to but with newer versions.
(An upgrade might also do this - but not on a different hard drive)

I've just got a new laptop whilst my old one was being repaired (IBM
T61p graphics failure - hence the lockups) and put 9.10 on there, again
fresh install.


Upsides over 9.10...
It's faster to start
It *feels* quick - even on a slower machine.
The option to encrypt it now obvious/visible on the install.
My 3G broadband dongle "just works" (9.04 was a *real* pain -didn't have
one when I had 8.04 so can't compare)
Moovida is just peachy and I liked Elisa from OpenSolaris
Much nicer "alert" system - like for new mail, network connection
notification
Right click removable media and  "Safely remove drive" option has been
required for a while for users coming from MacOSX or Windoze and again
trivialises things which is good..


Downsides.
Wireless was flaky until I installed backported modules



Common to 9.04 and 9.10 
Installing flash via synaptic or as part of the Ubuntu Software
installer to install multimedia bits broke BBC iPlayer so I couldn't
watch the F1 - through strangely all other Flash content on BBC worked..
(I'm going to test and document this, 'cause even uninstalling and
getting the 64bit beta flash from Adobe doesn't fix the issue)


I cannot comment about anything KDE - because I just don't use.
I'm a Gnome user, and have been for what seems like an eternity, and
this fits me as I also use a Gnome environment on Solaris/Opensolaris
and FreeBSD - and as it "just works" - I can't see any good reason to
change.
If your problems are with KDE - then maybe looking at Gnome or XFCE
might be the answer for a "working" system. (again my 0.02)


9.10 therefore for me at least, is great, not really much more than an
eyelash in the eye (wireless) -  although that doesn't mean my 8.04 LTS
machines are going to move to 9.10, they are LTS for a reason - Long
Term S(tability|upport)


AM






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