Ubuntu 15.04 to bring 'Vivid' updates for cloud, devices this week

Canonical says Ubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet," the latest version of its popular Linux distro, will ship this week, following a two-month beta period. Along with the desktop version – which Canonical says is "the favorite environment for Linux developers" – the release will also deliver a range of variants, including special …

[Anonymous Coward]

Debian community?

There I was thinking that Debian was merely the poor relation of the Ubuntu community?

After all isn't Ubuntu supposed to be the FOSS world's equivalent to Windows coz it runs from phones to Datacenters?

{I'll stick with CentOS and SUSE thanks with my tongue firmly in my cheek

[wolfetone]

Re: Debian community?

I would say Ubuntu is the better looking, attention seeking cousin of Debian.

Having used Debian for years, and currently using Ubuntu for a short time before Debian 8 comes out, Debian is still far and way the better distro. Ubuntu has more commercial clout, but Ubuntu would be nothing without the Debian community.

[Teiwaz]

Re: Debian community?

Ubuntu, Centos, Suse, Fedora, Debian, Arch, Gentoo, Slackware......

The various 'default' desktop identity aside, each distro has it's own unique angle (or angles) which will appeal to different users with different needs or purposes in mind.

I've used a number of different distros for varying amounts of time...

Suse 6.3 thru 10.1, Red Hat 6 (I think, I actually bought the 'personal' box version), Mandrake/Mandriva (2003 thru 2008), Ubuntu 9.10 thru 15.04, Archlinux, Puppy, slackware, Slitaz, Gentoo, Crunchbang,

They ALL have their plus and minuses. I really should try out more.

[TheTick]

"instead of on a single, unified menu bar at the top of the screen (like OS X)"

Like Amiga Workbench.

[John Sanders]

The unified menu in the Amiga's Workbench

Was hundreds times better implemented and polished than any unified menu on any Linux desktop, and had features still not found today on most desktop environments.

I'm not implying that Linux Desktops are wrong by any means.

Ah the happy Amiga memories.

[Code Monkey]

"Vivid Vervet"

Will the next version rhyme with "Lanky Walrus"?

[Teiwaz]

Re: "Vivid Vervet"

Given the prediliction for cute furry (Koala, Meerkat, Ringtail, Tahr, Vervet)

I might be inclined to put money on 'Wombat' (I'm not given to gambling though).

I can't think of a likely adjective beginning with 'w' offhand, but the word that rhymes with 'lanky' is generally perceived as 'not good' (odd, I generally enjoy 'lanking') and Canonical generally go with something positive upbeat or bright.

[Charles 9]

Re: "Vivid Vervet"

I think "wacky" is a likely candidate. If they need something more obscure, perhaps "whistling".

[Christian Berger]

Ubuntu Phone

I recently got one of those Ubuntu Phones and I have to say it's completely different from what you expect. You need to register with Ubuntu just to get a shell, the default screen tells you about the weather somewhere in the world and shows you news stories in Spanish (WTF!?).

Doing an apt-get is not supported and doesn't work by default. You need to first set your device into a read-write mode which needs special equipment.

So essentially Ubuntu Phone takes out all the good parts of Ubuntu (i.e. the Debian parts) and replaces them with crap.

[phil dude]

Re: Ubuntu Phone

as the owner of a few Linux phones (N900, A780, N9), the getting a shell bit is the absolute best thing about it.

Better still is ssh'ing into the phone, makes it %10000 more tractable.

The N9 even had Vnc builtin - so you could share the phone with your desktop.

I am now an Android refugee.

In short there are a lot of screwed up things about the interface between the computers in phones and the computers everywhere else.

This may sound nutty, but Stallman's insistence of the GPL is looking more true every day.

I seem to be accumulating evidence of deliberately disabled hardware that is making the point.

How many other readers have deliberately nobbled hardware?

P.

[John Sanders]

VNC

"""The N9 even had VNC builtin - so you could share the phone with your desktop."""

I struggle to understand why Google rather than changing the bloody interface every odd day doesn't spend some time adding something like a VNC server to the stock OS, or someone else for that mater (Are you listening CyanogenMOD?, don't you want a distinctive feature? Give us VNC via ADB/Network)

[Charles 9]

Re: VNC

I think Google making under-the-bonnet changes to the Android graphics engine. Most 3rd party VNC servers broke with Kit Kat, and I don't think Lollipop improved matters.

[DrXym]

Menus

I really don't know why they ever went with a global menu. It might have been a useful space saver for people on low res screens but for everyone else it sucked. It was always possible to revert the behaviour from the command line but I guess it's good they're deprecating it entirely.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Menus

Think phones. They can have low-res screens and limited physical real estate, so for them a Mac-style menu could make more sense.

[Anonymous Coward]

KDE 5 is looking really really good but is far from the finished article. I'd only install for testing purposes and wait a few months yet before using it every day as there are a lot of apps still to be ported and further stabilising of the codebase.

[asdf]

Re: In related news.

I wouldn't laugh too hard. Kdbus is how Poettering and Red Hat plan on doing an end run around the GPL on the Linux kernel. I could see Red Hat forking the Linux kernel if they don't get their way and Kdbus on everyone's computer. It does get rid of that nasty viral GPL nature of having to share one's work when you borrow(steal?) others work.

[asdf]

Say no to crack

Nothing in its history has shown the world more that Linux is not Unix than systemd (which showed Linux is heading towards Windows lite). The BSD people had it right long ago and here I thought it was semantics. Well PC-BSD is rough around the edges for the desktop (in may ways think Linux in the late 90s) but I have finally made the transition and am so grateful to not have to worry about the svchost.exe cancer that is systemd infecting my system going forward. I have even gotten used to Lumina so I don't have to worry about DEs developed on Linux not being able to be ported in the future (its coming sadly along with a lot of other FOSS becoming Linux only). Fug Red Hat for their divide and conqueror effort to cash in on others work.

[Rick Giles]

Re: Say no to crack

systemd is a fad and they will drop it in Linux kernel 5.0