First Look at Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex"

[gary4gar]

The next version of Ubuntu's free Linux operating system, dubbed "Intrepid Ibex," is due out Oct. 30, but the beta release is up for grabs. Although the desktop hasn't been reshaped, the features tweaked just a little bit, and most of the work focused on compatibility and usability (not that those are bad things, by any means), there are still some neat new tools and tweaks that are worth checking out. Read on for our picture-filled take on the new Ubuntu. Installation and boot-up

The basics of putting a live CD in your drive, trying the desktop or installing the system are basically the same as with Hardy Heron, with a few welcome differences. The most confusing/imposing part of the process, the partition editor, shows you a graphical view of what you're doing, thereby explaining what each option does a lot better.



Ibex also supports importing browser data, backgrounds, music and pictures from Windows XP and, new to this version, Vista. Once you've installed the system and booted up, you might notice a new setting in the multi-boot menu: "Last successful boot." That's an indication that Ubuntu keeps track of which Linux kernels actually work for your system, and lets it delete old ones and prevent them from cluttering up the boot menu.



Desktop changes

There's a chance, however small, that Ubuntu 8.10 might just get the graphical overhaul that was promised for 8.04. Ibex uses a slightly updated version of the brown/orange-centered "Human" theme—status bars glow, a few icons were changed, and buttons have a warm glow. Other than that, the desktop is a pretty familiar affair:

What you will notice around your desktop are the improvements to Nautilus, the baked-in file browser and desktop manager. Tabbed browsing is the biggie, but there's also easy-eject icons placed in the sidebar for hot-plugged drives and partitions, and the built-in encrypted private directory.

A lot of tweaks have been made to Ubuntu's network manager, which was more than a little finicky with certain wireless cards and non-standard set-ups. It now handles 3G and cellular connections better, doesn't freak out at having multiple connections (e.g. wireless and wired), and contains many other fixes. I particularly like the "Auto Linksys" mode, which is great for traveling or setting up at less-tech-inclined spots. (Edit: Turns out 8.10's "Auto" mode can actually be set to any router SSID it finds; "Auto HomeRouter," for example.)

External monitors and graphics in general have gotten a good bit of attention, and, at least in the case of my ThinkPad/LCD combo, I got a kind-of-working setup right from boot-up. In general, Ubuntu has worked at killing off the need to ever have to manually hack around in the archaic xorg.conf file—the entirety of my Ibex file is thumbnailed at right (Edit: Taken from the VirtualBox install I did for boot-up screenshots, but the copy on my hard-installed Ibex is nearly identical). Having said that, I still had to manually tweak the resolution on my LCD monitor, and a logout/reboot messed my taskbars some, but I could easily drag and drop windows between screens. Unfortunately, that's only just below par for a modern OS, so let's hope a great settings tool gets written or revamped soon.

Finally, the administration window for enabling proprietary devices—NVidia graphics cards, wireless chips without open-source drivers and the like—has gotten a bit more explanatory as to what it's doing, and offers a choice of drivers for those experiencing bugs. Not sure if I enjoy seeing this much imposing text to just get 3D desktop effects working.

Other good things

Here's a few of Ubuntu 8.10's other highlights:

• "Guest" log-in: If a friend/significant other/shoulder-peeker wants to check their Facebook page, and you're afraid of what curious hands can do to your system, you can log out, boot into "Guest," and the user can't change any settings or alter/access files. (So, why wasn't this here before?)
• Better SAMBA: With support for IPv6, clustered server support, and other wonky improvements.
• Persistent permissions: If you get asked for your password by, say, Synaptic file manager, you can have your system remember that you're the head honcho by checking a box. That way, it doesn't ask again when you need to sudo something or make another change.
• Built-in BBC player: This is really cool but, unfortunately, busted in my beta build. Totem, the built-in media player that can already access YouTube videos natively, will get access to the BBC's free content.

Copied From Here

[Faun]

subtle changes

[MetalheadGautham]

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade anybody ?

[infra_red_dude]

Tried out Intrepid. For a day to day user, I don't see any reason why he/she should upgrade. A lot of wireless issues still persist.

As with other OS', I felt this version was a bit more sluggish than its previous version. But lets wait for the final version to be out.

Originally Posted by gary4gar

Hey.. I know that screen!
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PS: I get news that the pixmap engine has been changed in Intrepid. Guess I need to re-work on Mac4Lin now!

[Dark Star]

Many things have changed the artwork and softwares..Ubuntu includes a type CC Cleaner utility though it a was Mandriva which has included 1'st i.e Sweeper There is Pen Driver Installer and lots more , acc to zdnet 8.10 is just like Service Pack nothing great.. and after using KDE 4. I would never use Gnome distro

P.s : Sites like Lifehacker , techiMoe, are ubuntu biased the reviews they provide of other distro is just total ****.

[thewisecrab]

I just got Ubuntu 2 months ago, so going by your views, I dont think it is neccessary to upgrade..is it?

[infra_red_dude]

Actually if everything is working fine and you've got an updated system, frankly for a normal user I don't see any performance improvement on the existing hardware. Of corz there are many underlying changes which are definitely an improvement but to the end user the changes are subtle.

[Faun]

banshee

[gxsaurav]

Still many things needs to be revamped from a UI & UX point of view. Why show a general user things like dev/sda/blah blah & not just the partition name like the 2nd screenshot posted by Anirudh.

If they want to win the consumer desktop area, remove everything technical from the UX.

[Faun]

well...actually Lin is never meant to win or compete

A theme change is needed, but that too is optional as there are many lying in *art.org

[Dark Star]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

Still many things needs to be revamped from a UI & UX point of view. Why show a general user things like dev/sda/blah blah & not just the partition name like the 2nd screenshot posted by Anirudh.

If they want to win the consumer desktop area, remove everything technical from the UX.

Every partition in Windows are detected/displayed as separate Medium that's why its easy to name the disk, while in Linux partitions are displayed as sub-directories thats why its sometimes hard to recall the partition .. You can re-name partitions using ntfsprog for NTFS, e2label for ext2/3, jfs_tune for jfs, xfs_admin for xfs..

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

Still many things needs to be revamped from a UI & UX point of view. Why show a general user things like dev/sda/blah blah & not just the partition name like the 2nd screenshot posted by Anirudh.

If they want to win the consumer desktop area, remove everything technical from the UX.

Thats coz in all UNIX and UNIX-like OS' everything is a file, including a device. Thats the traditional approach on a system. But yes, they can create Links to the device which would be easier for the first-time user.

Originally Posted by T159

A theme change is needed, but that too is optional as there are many lying in *art.org

No second thots... the UI sux big time. Look at Mandriva, openSUSE or any damn distro out there. Even using the most basic theme, they make it look good with simple things.

Many people like this brown UI, but for me this its "disgusting"!

[Rahim]

I repeat myself," Yeh toh baba aadam ke zamaane ka theme hai."

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by infra_red_dude

Thats coz in all UNIX and UNIX-like OS' everything is a file, including a device. Thats the traditional approach on a system. But yes, they can create Links to the device which would be easier for the first-time user.

Dude, even I am familier with the file system nomenclature of Unix. All I was saying that instead of writing dev/sda1 in that partition manager, why can't they just show "windows vista" "linux"..etc etc, the partition label, not the device address.

The days of brown is gone, glossy black is in.

Like in that Resolution selection window, instead of showing 2 rectangle boxes, why don't they just show some monitor's icon.? These are the UI & UX quirks I was referring to.

[Faun]

^^well in Windows you label the partitions too
But in linux partitions are not labeled by default, thats why the more consistent /dev/sdx is used.

But yes if they can make it compulsory to have label then it will be good for newbies to understand.

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

Dude, even I am familier with the file system nomenclature of Unix. All I was saying that instead of writing dev/sda1 in that partition manager, why can't they just show "windows vista" "linux"..etc etc, the partition label, not the device address.

Yes thats what I was mentioning.

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

The days of brown is gone, glossy black is in.

I dunno whats in.. but Brown should be definitely out. Its fugly.

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

Like in that Resolution selection window, instead of showing 2 rectangle boxes, why don't they just show some monitor's icon.? These are the UI & UX quirks I was referring to.

Dude... come over here and see the guys working on Linux. All day they are only bothered about performance enhancement. Hardly anybody thinks about the UI. Thats the sad part and that was what I mentioned when the LFY guys interviewed me.

Originally Posted by T159

But yes if they can make it compulsory to have label then it will be good for newbies to understand.

Yes, these are the tiny hindrances which are slowing down the Linux adoption rate by first-time-curious users. Its not about hafing the best thing internally, its about how you present it.

[gxsaurav]

GNome seriously needs a UI re-design. What's the point of just performance if the User Experience is this ugly when Mac & Windows give better UX.

Linux devs should understand... performance alone won't help if the experience is bad

for example, those toolbar buttor with beveled background is what MS was using in Win 2000 (example)

[QwertyManiac]

I find /dev/sd$# much simpler in identifying the order of the disc ($) and the partition number (#) than the abstract labels that Windows uses (A, C, D).

Ubuntu had a brainstorm idea back sometime (On April 1st, I believe) that would restructure the system folder heirarchy into much simpler ones. And it was indeed tagged as "lets copy osx", "nightmare" and "impossible" and was voted down severely. I don't support the change either, the current way is pretty neat and simple to those who see it the right way, not the Windows way.

@gxsaurav - If you are so concerned about the UI issues, and wish to contribute directly, please join in on the KDE mailing lists and contribute UI designs there. Qt's cross platform with native looks on every platform its on, and also has loads of Vista specific support (if not WPF, whatever that be). You can use Qt Software's (formerly Trolltech) designer tool to construct them up. Also integrates with Visual Studio and Eclipse.

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ True, for a seasoned UNIX user the Drive C/D etc. just doesn't fit in. The problem here is that there are many categories of users out there and its impossible to satisfy everyone of them.

As a matter of fact Mac OS X uses the same kind of naming scheme but just that it labels the mounted volumes. Also it wouldn't make sense naming the partitions during install. I mean, its just pointless! But once installed its a good idea to give an alternative - use the traditional way or use labels.

There are a lot of things out there which would do good to first time users, if implemented. But then of corz we need to strike a balance b/w the new and experienced users. However, one sad thing is that for approving new stuff for new versions of Ubuntu there is a lot of politics internally

[gary4gar]

I eventually concluded that Linux was never going to make the big improvements to desktop computing that I wanted to see, and, therefore, that it'd never get non-trivial market share.real lesson is the difficulty -- perhaps the impossibility -- of large-scale changes in Linux architecture this late in its history. so users should adopt it as it is- in its current state.

As Said by a Great man

[hellknight]

Not a great improvement over 8.04.. seems to me.. well.. OpenSUSE is still my favourite.. flirting with Mandriva these days.. never got that BSNL broadband working for more than 10 mins on OpenSUSE.. works fine on Mandriva and Ubuntu.. I like that enabling prop. driver feature.. seems neat...

[gxsaurav]

I need to get to photoshop to show U guys what I mean...the current Dev/sda1 method is good.. .just the representation isn't

[CadCrazy]

^^ Then show

[gxsaurav]

I am in a cyber cafe dude, away from home. No Photoshop here

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

GNome seriously needs a UI re-design. What's the point of just performance if the User Experience is this ugly when Mac & Windows give better UX.

Linux devs should understand... performance alone won't help if the experience is bad

for example, those toolbar buttor with beveled background is what MS was using in Win 2000 (example)

You seriously need to take a look at some of the REAL good looking stuff available for gnome. Check out the aurora engine and pixmaps engine once. This is not about linux devs, since they don't design the themes. That is left to the themers, while the menus and buttons are dependant on the toolkit used, and I think GTK2+ sucks, but its still looking good enough. The problem with ubuntu is that they use a horrible theme, which has something to do with some wierd african philosophy which nelson mandela endorses and I don't give a damn about. BUT, it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to make gnome look awesome.

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

I need to get to photoshop to show U guys what I mean...the current Dev/sda1 method is good.. .just the representation isn't

What has photoshop got to do with linking the device to a label??!!

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

You seriously need to take a look at some of the REAL good looking stuff available for gnome. Check out the aurora engine and pixmaps engine once. This is not about linux devs, since they don't design the themes. That is left to the themers, while the menus and buttons are dependant on the toolkit used, and I think GTK2+ sucks, but its still looking good enough. The problem with ubuntu is that they use a horrible theme, which has something to do with some wierd african philosophy which nelson mandela endorses and I don't give a damn about. BUT, it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to make gnome look awesome.

Frankly, GTK2+ sux big time. Its got some scaling issues. Qt is much better, but harder.

[gxsaurav]

is it that hard to understand? I needed Photoshop for copy that image, edit it, & repost it here

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ I still don't get it. The issue being discussed here is to rename /dev/sda1 to something like Root or Home. If I understand correctly thats what is being said. What has photoshop gotta do with that? Or am I too dumb and missing something?

Anyways, the most useful thing I found (to the end user, of corz) is the tabbed Nautilus. Obviously, if the update is pushed via repos even the prev. version users will be able to get it. Other good things: private folder encryption, new samba and the much awaited network manager.

[QwertyManiac]

Split is more useful in a file manager. Dolphin provides that! But tabbed browsing is welcome, saves the task-bar space.

I wonder if they can fit in an integrated terminal window somehow..

[Quiz_Master]

No reason to upgrade!
I ain't getting any networking issues anyway
The only thing isn't working in my Ubuntu is my Dell 1530's WebCam. No biggie... I might install Kubuntu though, just for KDE4.1