Log In | Register
13 Comments
Print
advertisement
Ubuntu produces lots of wonderful new innovations with each new release - the Restricted Drivers Manager, the Screens and Graphics application, Add/Remove...
Once these apps are shipped, however, their development stalls, and in subsequent releases of Ubuntu, the same application is included unchanged.
Take, for example, Migration Assistance. This was a wonderful addition to the Ubuntu installer (Ubiquity) with the release of 7.04 that allowed you to migrate many settings and documents from an existing Windows XP installation to the new Ubuntu installation. The specification give some hope:
Support for Windows 2000 and Vista, as well as Mac OS X support will be added.
However, none of that was included in 7.10 which by now has been released. It's Launchpad overview says that implementation is "deferred". Too bad, because in its current state, Migration Assistance can definitely be seen as an unfinished job.
One can only speculate what will happen to applications that came with 7.10, such as DisplayConfig-GTK (the Screens and Graphics application) that only supports two screens, or the Ubufox Firefox plugin, which allows a user to install Firefox extensions and plugins using Add/Remove... but still contains some rough edges.
Of course, we should not forget that there still are some applications that do get developed. For example, 7.10 brought some subtle but useful changes to Add/Remove.... However, considering the many and ambitious plans for 8.04, the Ubuntu developers should take care to make sure applications don't get abandoned. Furthermore, they should keep in mind that 8.04 is a Long Term Support release and should therefor be careful with adding lots of new innovative features without thoroughly testing them. If there's one release that needs to be reliable, then it's this one.
PS. Yes, it's not that big a problem - this just made for a catchy headline ;)
Update: A perfect example: since Dapper (when the Ubuntu installer Ubiquity was released, I believe) Ubiquity isn't fully visible on resolutions of 800x600 or lower. Still not fixed.
12 Votes- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
Published to:
- Vinnl's Column, All of Newsvine
- Groups: Linux Users
- Regions: none
- Public Discussion (13)
- Linux Users
What's this?
Who's leading the conversation?
This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user
has on the current conversation.
The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd
row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera).
Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group
is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the
left, in their corresponding group.
Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the
number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative
one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their
relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.
5.9
0.9
{"commentId":1266281,"authorDomain":"Extremist-Moderate"}
But, it's way more fun coding exciting new innovations rather than getting stuck tweaking and debugging the same application, release after release, right? :)
{"commentId":1266281,"threadId":"188820","contentId":"1161343","authorDomain":"Extremist-Moderate"}
- 3 votes
#1 - Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:55 PM EST{"commentId":1267301,"authorDomain":"vinnl"}
{"commentId":1267925,"authorDomain":"Extremist-Moderate"}
Well, I suppose this is an example of all problems being relative....as I really don't see Ubuntu as having a big problem. In our lab's network (small--and I'm just de facto IT guy) I've 3 Ubuntu systems, 1 RedHat, 2 Win2000, 5 XP, 2 Macs and a dead SGI that I can't get rid of because it makes me sick thinking how much it freaking cost. And guess which OS I find easiest to keep happy?
Alright, I admit it's XP....but Ubuntu is still well into what I think of as the "normal" home user stage of deploy-ability. Updates and such are more friendly in Ubuntu than Windows in my opinion.
And it's free! That is such a monumental winning feature I really don't understand why that aspect is so underwhelmingly discussed. Once comfortable in Linux...something with a far shorter learning curve than I think most suspect...you drop out of the "pay Gates" every 4 years cycle.
Also, while I can't speak about unsupported proprietary software developed in Unix/Linux....I can say that few things make you hate software/instrument companies more than hearing that following their acquisition of your important system's publishing company...no driver/bug/or support of any kind is available for the software that currently runs your several hundred thousand dollar instrument. But....the latest version of XP compatible pieceofcrapsoftware will blah, blah....whatever....like we had other options....and after all its only a single site license, so what's 42 grand amongst friends.
Wow, I'm @!$%#ing about old news. Sorry...but trust me when I say that Ubuntu, really any Debian distro....@!$%# it, Linux in general is a vastly under-appreciated resource. Hopefully their will never come the time when everyone remembers how good they HAD it back when Linux was a player....
{"commentId":1267925,"threadId":"188820","contentId":"1161343","authorDomain":"Extremist-Moderate"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1266905,"authorDomain":"leonidas"}
{"commentId":1273975,"authorDomain":"clearcache"}
I think you're describing the "big problem" with software, not just Ubuntu. There's very little motivation for developers to release incremental improvements, patches, etc when more significant projects are looming on the horizon. And, for once, developers and the "business types" would be in complete agreement - because while there's little motivation for a developer, there's even less return on the effort. It can take as much - or more - effort to refactor existing code for minor improvement as compared to major leaps with new features and releases.
The users are the ones who suffer, but I see this as a larger issue impacting the entire industry, not just Ubuntu. This is all the more reason for evangelists, analysts, developers, etc who really care about their product to work hard and make the v1.0 release of a product worthy of the title "non-beta".
{"commentId":1273975,"threadId":"188820","contentId":"1161343","authorDomain":"clearcache"}
- 2 votes
#3 - Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:09 PM EST{"commentId":1275456,"authorDomain":"vinnl"}
{"commentId":1276358,"authorDomain":"clearcache"}
Yeah, I don't disagree. I'm just saying that Ubuntu isn't alone - all software suffers from this, to a degree.
{"commentId":1276358,"threadId":"188820","contentId":"1161343","authorDomain":"clearcache"}
{"commentId":1276426,"authorDomain":"leonidas"}
{"commentId":1276795,"authorDomain":"japark"}
I don't really like Ubuntu. I am running Debian (the distribution Ubuntu is based on).
The problem I see with Linux in general is a problem with all distributions. When you get everything running well and they do a kernel upgrade, everything you compiled breaks and has to be recompiled with the new kernel headers.
I suppose it is not necessary to install upgrades if the system is working ...
{"commentId":1276795,"threadId":"188820","contentId":"1161343","authorDomain":"japark"}
- 1 vote
#4 - Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:54 PM EST{"canLink":false,"threadId":"188820","isPrivate":false}
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.
Start Tracking
Stop TrackingCOMPANY STUFF:
LEGAL STUFF:
- © 2005-2009 Newsvine, Inc. |
- Newsvine® is a registered trademark of Newsvine, Inc. |
- Newsvine is a property of
