back to article Ubuntu 13.10 lands on desktops, servers and (er, some) phones

As had been foretold, Canonical on Thursday announced the release of Ubuntu 13.10 in flavors for desktop PCs, servers, and mobile devices, going as far as to describe the new version as "a milestone in computing history." "The exact same Ubuntu OS runs on ARM phones and modern HP Moonshot ARM servers, and provides exactly the …

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  1. Goat Jam

    "Ubuntu 13.10 brings the usual raft of fixes"

    Did they fix that obscenity where, after a (GUI initiated) kernel update it pops up an unclosable* dialog that has a single "Restart" button on it?

    You know, just like Windoze does.

    * Yes, you can use kill -9 to obliterate it but I should not have to resort to that bullshit.

    1. handle

      Not as hard to close as you think

      Yes, I was surprised by this too, but you don't have to resort to a terminal: you can right click on its icon in the launcher and close it from there.

      1. Goat Jam

        Re: Not as hard to close as you think

        "you can right click on its icon in the launcher and close it from there"

        No. No you can't

        1. handle

          Re: Not as hard to close as you think

          Maybe you can't, but I can, and judging by the thumbs up, I'm not the only one.

    2. Steve Davis

      Strange, never seen that one.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Canonical promises to support it for three years on the desktop and for five years on servers."

      And that's the Longo Term release out in April next year! No wonder pretty much no one uses Linux on the desktop...XP had 12 years of full support.....

      "You know, just like Windoze does"

      No, can't say I do. Windows reboots can be postponed and the message box dialog closed....

      1. Hans 1
        Boffin

        No, can't say I do. Windows reboots can be postponed and the message box dialog closed....

        You forgot to mention "Windows reboots can be postponed TWICE" after that, Windows reboots without further notice ...

        Windows, the OS for idiots

  2. Jordan Davenport

    which means Canonical promises to support it for three years on the desktop and for five years on servers

    While true for LTS releases prior to 12.04, unless they've gone back to their old model, LTS releases are supported for five years both on the desktop and servers.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, the promo says it's a computing milestone that's ready for anything, and the spokesman says it's the *first* step *toward* something which will in the future be usable by developers and tech types. And the mobile version works on two devices and may destroy them

    You know what? I retract my claims that the Linux world isn't ready for primetime: With marketing doublespeak like that on tap, it's pretty clear they're finally ready for the big leagues!

  4. Charles Manning

    One size fits nobody

    Ever tried putting a steering wheel on a bike? Or on a horse?

    The idea of one distro for servers, desktops & phones is pretty broken.

    1. David Hicks

      Re: One size fits nobody

      Why is it broken?

      It's not like Windows where you get forced to use the same interface.

      1. handle
        Happy

        Re: One size fits nobody

        Ever heard of a false analogy?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: One size fits nobody

        "It's not like Windows where you get forced to use the same interface."

        You mean like the choice of Modern UI or Desktop on Windows 8? Or the countless third party shells that you can install?

  5. Tristan Young

    I will never go back to Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth and company have ruined Ubuntu, and it is no longer worthy of the computers I administer.

    Ubuntu brought me to Linux with v6.06, and it made me very happy. Around v9.06 it was really starting to pissed me off, and by v11.11 I was so completely fed up with the BS bugs and changes that I dumped that crap and installed Windows 7 Pro, and couldn't be happier.

    I might return to Linux someday, especially now that gaming is starting to come to Linux in a more serious fashion. But hell, it won't be a Canonical distro. I absolutely hate Ubuntu. I would go with some other one.

    1. I like noodles

      I might return to Linux someday ... ... But hell, it won't be a Canonical distro. I absolutely hate Ubuntu.

      I am currently using Mint at home and Windows 7 at work after getting seriously pissed off with Ubuntu after using it for a number of years. I used to like Ubuntu a lot when it was maybe Edgy Eft or Fiesty Fawn.

      But I have a suspicion that it's the journey that I'm not enjoying, and that the destination where it finally turns up might just be very much to my liking. Never say never...

    2. Naich

      > I dumped that crap and installed Windows 7 Pro, and couldn't be happier.

      Christ, that's going a bit far. Canonical would have to implement a feature that randomly jabbed me in the bollocks with a spike before it was worse than Windows for me. I don't mind the new stuff myself, but for those who dislike the direction Ubuntu is going, changing to Mint seems to make them happy.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I might return to Linux someday, especially now that gaming is starting to come to Linux in a more serious fashion."

      You're a gamer? WTF were you thinking even trying Ubuntu? Stick with Windows mate, and leave the serious operating systems for those of us who have serious uses for our computers.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "You're a gamer? WTF were you thinking even trying Ubuntu?"

        Quite - Windows has better gaming graphics performance and is faster at copying large files around like ISO images.

        And of course you have far fewer security patches to worry about on a current version of Windows....

        1. Hans 1
          Boffin

          Quite - Windows has better gaming graphics performance and is faster at copying large files around like ISO images.

          Absolute, utter, bulllshit ... Windows has some benefits over Linux, but IO performance is not one of them ... Linux is even faster in SMB/CIFS than Windows server - so, shut up.

    4. animas_cowherd
      Linux

      Nice to see

      a user of Windows for the last two years still hanging out on the Ubuntu threads.

  6. GTX

    uh huh...

    "...and if you don't know what you're doing, you'll realize it right away..."

    Mais oui, excellente! Laughed my assterisk off at that one - and ain't it just the truth?

    Separates the men from the boyz, the wimpz from the linuzealots - it's just the way it is!

  7. RAMChYLD

    Holding off the upgrades

    Until I can be sure that all the third party repos I am using have been updated too. Otherwise It'll be a PITA.

  8. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Linux

    Editorial mistake

    Quote

    Otherwise, Ubuntu 13.10 brings the usual raft of fixes, updates, and minor new features that you'd expect of a new Ubuntu version.

    Methinks it should be (based upon releases since 10/2009)

    Otherwise, Ubuntu 13.10 brings the usual raft of fixes, untested beta software, new bugs, increasted user frustration, updates, and minor new features that you'd expect of a new Ubuntu version.

    Canonical has obviously been studying the Redmond modus operandii.

    From my experience, LTS apart, an Ubuntu release starts to become usable just before they withdraw support for it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Editorial mistake

      Yup, Ubuntu is a bit too bleeding edge. That's why I'd modify this line in the article:

      "Canonical spokesman stressed that we shouldn't think of Ubuntu 13.10 as a consumer-ready mobile OS"

      To read:

      "Canonical spokesman stressed that we shouldn't think of Ubuntu 13.10 as a consumer-ready mobile OS or enterprise-ready server OS"

      As you say, it takes a long time for each release to become something that's approaching reliable - even the LTS ones.

      1. Dr. Mouse

        Re: Editorial mistake

        As you say, it takes a long time for each release to become something that's approaching reliable - even the LTS ones.

        That's why I tend to stick with Debian (stable) for servers. Although it tends to be quite a way behind the curve, at least it's stable (and incredibly so, IMHO).

        I couldn't tollerate the missing features for a desktop, but on a server give me stability and reliability any time.

  9. James Hughes 1

    Usual raft of anti-ubuntu people chiming in

    So I'll just say that I get on fine with it. Does everything I need - usual web/email + desktop apps, plus cross compiling for Raspberry PI's and Eclipse. In fact the one Ubuntu machine is now used by the whole family with their own log ins since the Windows PC died, and it all works well.

    I even think Unity is OK.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Usual raft of anti-ubuntu people chiming in

      Glad that it floats your boat, but I wouldn't touch Ubuntu in a commercial setting. It's OK for home desktop use, although Mint seems to offer something more in keeping with what users rather than Canonical want. Ubuntu's biggest contribution is giving Debian a leg up in usability though, as it's now much more coherent and easy to use while remaining stable.

  10. Mike Flex

    'milestone in computing history'

    > Canonical ... describe the new version as "a milestone in computing history."

    As it's the last release before a LTS release wouldn't it be more accurate to describe it as a collection of dodgy betas squeezed in to make the cut-off for the subsequent release?

  11. Tromos

    More like a millstone in computing history.

    Vastly overrating the importance of simply another version of a Linux distro, slowly sinking down the rankings as more and more people turn to Mint/Debian/whatever. Possibly a flyspeck in computing history would be about right.

  12. AlanC

    Like others, I really think Canonical are focusing on the wrong priorities here. I've been using Ubuntu as my sole desktop OS for most of the last 5 years and am really pretty happy with it - even Unity doesn't annoy me as much as many. But still there are rough edges - small things that don't work quite as you'd expect, or essential configuration settings that can only be made from a command line.

    But what constantly makes me question whether I should continue is the desktop applications. I'm no fan of Microsoft Office but on the whole it does at least work, whereas I'm constantly hitting problems with LibreOffice with things that just don't work, random crashes, etc.. Actually the Writer is pretty good (and I prefer it to MS Word) and Calc isn't too bad, but the one that really worries me is Impress (the PowerPoint equivalent) - random font changes, completely arbitrary and inexplicable changes to styles, bullets, numbering, make it barely usable for anything serious. These applications are rich in function - they just aren't reliable enough yet.

    So, if Canoncal want to gain more traction with Linux on the desktop, they should give a lot of support to LibreOffice (or to Apache for OpenOffice), to bring those apps up to a fully professional quality. The rest of the attention should be devoted to removing all the remaining rough edges in the OS, of which there are not too many these days.

    And only when they've done that and have nothing useful left to do, should they even think about playing with tablets and phones.

  13. handle

    Works for me... sort of

    Update went without a hitch, apart from telling me that my 898MB download would take approximately 1 second to complete with my connection. Looks the same as before, except the lock screen says "en" on it and there's a corresponding character map/keyboard layout widget. Switching off Bluetooth still removes its icon, the keyboard illumination, fan and wifi hotkeys still don't work, but finally the SD card reader does - yippee! (Samsung Series 7.) No need to use the new widget, somewhat laboriously, to help me type "plus ça change"...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmmmm.

    One OS for Mobile, Desktop and server....

    That sounds awfuly familiar.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Better options than Windows 8

    I don't like Unity. However I'm not sure why it causes so much fuss these days, because the advantage of the Linux world is that there are many alternative options.

    Anyone wishing to use the features of Ubuntu has the following options - either 1) Go for the obvious and go for Mint, MATE is rock solid and brings back the Gnome 2 environment and makes an excellent XP replacement, and Cinnamon is shaping up really nicely, and seems very stable too (no crashes at all since Mint 15). 2) Kubuntu / Xubuntu or whatnot, 3) Install Ubuntu and put an alternative desktop environment on there instead, 4) Use pure Debian and add what you need.

    I don't really compare it with the Windows 8 / Metro farce, where the alternative is to stay on Windows 7 (which will eventually become unsupported), or use 3rd party programs which Microsoft could easily stop at any time. Plus no one really knows what the long term roadmap is for Windows 9 and beyond, where as at least Mint and for that matter Ubuntu (and many other distributions, be it CentOS, OpenSuse or Fedora) are clear what their long term goals are.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "I don't really compare it with the Windows 8 / Metro farce, where the alternative is to stay on Windows 7"

    Or just set Windows to boot directly to the desktop and enjoy an OS almost like Windows 7 but faster and more secure...

  17. midcapwarrior

    same old, same old

    "the first stepping stone on that journey which is aimed at developers, OEMs, silicon vendors, carriers and more technically-minded enthusiasts"

    Just like every other flavor of linux

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