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63 Comments
- cinnix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+47@giveer:
The Linux community is not at fault for your lack of driver support, but rather the manufacturer for not rolling out any Linux drivers themselves. Mind you the community seem to do well rolling their own reverse engineered drivers, given the fact that there are enough people out there that need that particular driver. - giveer, on 10/12/2007, -10/+48 pssst: if you don't know what they're talking about, don't assume it's because you're smart and they're stupid.
One thing I bet you I WON'T see though is, and I know most people don't use this function anyway, but it would sure be handy for me: An improved system so Ubuntu could actally...y'know.. USE a laptop's onboard modem rather than needing me to go to Hell and back to try and get it to work. Mind you, that driver installation thing would help a bit. - Disease, on 10/12/2007, -5/+39A lot of websites have jumped at the chance of showing you the latest pieces of Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn. But they all have focused on the same things, the very same features that Ubuntu has touted as being the staple of Feisty Fawn. Yet there's a lot more under the hood that really makes life in Feisty a lot easier. Most are due to the enhancements of Gnome 2.18, but since they're not really covered well, especially in the context of Ubuntu, I think it's worth noting. None of these features alone make or break the system, but they most certainly add that little bit of personal touch to the system, removing many of the little frustrations, even adding some of their own in the process. See the screenshots and the details as I walk through each feature that I find adds real value to the Ubuntu name.
For reference purposes, I'm running the absolute latest version of Feisty Fawn, originally installed from the Herd 5 alpha version, but updated and patched beyond the Herd 6 beta. The test system is my Dell XPS m140 laptop with integrated Intel Centrino wireless, sound, and video running at 1280x800 resolution; it's pretty standard for laptops from the past two years.
Refresh: Network Settings
To go with the new integration of Network Manager for handling wired and wireless connections, an update to the old Network applet was made. Now, when editing the settings for an interface, there is the option "Enable roaming mode", which determines what interfaces are available to Network Manager, and what interfaces should use the old style of boot-time configuration. By checking the box (the default for all interfaces), Network Manager knows that it can take control. This is a good addition, because I never liked giving absolute control to Network Manager in previous versions of Ubuntu, and having the choice of which it handles at least makes me feel better inside.
Screenshot
New: Restricted Drivers Manager
For those with devices that require binary drivers, like Nvidia or ATi graphics cards, or certain wireless cards, installing the proper support has been a process of running to Synaptic or the command line and installing a few packages, usually including linux-restricted-modules. Well, there's now a new applet in the Administration menu call "Restricted Drivers Manager" that will supposedly take care of installing everything for you. It's also helpful enough to detect your hardware and decide what needs to be installed, or in the case of my laptop, understand that nothing needs to be done.
Screenshot
-OR-
Screenshot
New: Desktop Effects
Following in the same form as Fedora Core 6 and other distros, Feisty Fawn now includes the Desktop Effects applet, which enables the Compiz compositing manager. You get a simple On/Off button, and a choice of two features to enable: wobbling windows and a cube desktop. Now, I know Compiz is a bit behind on the features race when compared to the likes of Beryl, and I know Compiz seems the more stable of the two. But the desktop effects applet seems really weak to me,
Is there really only two options available for Compiz users? I assume there is much more to choose from, but we're limited to these two choices, and the cube does not always work for me either. Ubuntu took the time to add a nice warning message (see below) in the latest Beta, I would certainly appreciate if they could take the time to add at least two more choices for Compiz. But maybe I've been too spoiled by Beryl. I'm not sure, but the desktop effects applet leaves me wanting more, and I'm using them only until I can take the time to get Beryl installed again.
Screenshot
New: HPLIP Toolbox
For users like me, with an HP scanner/printer combination, configuration and usage of the extra features has been pretty limited. I have a Photosmart PSC2110; it's a few years old, but it still works great, and the drivers for it have been available since Hoary. However, I have been out of luck when trying to tweak the printer to run at higher quality output. But now, we have the new HPLIP Toolbox to the rescue. Once your printer is installed with CUPS, you can use the toolbox to check on ink levels, set more detailed profiles, and more. Personally, I haven't dealt much with HPLIP yet, but it should be a great addition for all the HP printers in the world.
Of note is that the PyQt packages must be installed before using HPLIP, and are not included by default with Feisty Fawn. And you don't realize that's the problem, because choosing the item from the preferences menu yields absolutely nothing; no error messages, just a desktop that sits there doing nothing. The only way to see the problem is by running it from the command line.
jreese@...: ~$ hp-toolbox
error: PyQt not installed. GUI not available. Exiting.
error: PyQt/Qt initialization error. Please check install of
PyQt/Qt and try again.
How helpful. Puzzled To fix this is pretty simple, but shouldn't be neccesary as far as I'm concerned. Open a terminal window, and type this command to install the necessary package to enable the HPLIP Toolbox:
sudo apt-get install python-qt3
Screenshot
Refresh: Keyboard Preferences
The Keyboard applet has gotten a set of fresh functionality, adding the ability to choose your keyboard model as well as your keyboard layout. It's got plenty of keyboard models to choose from, and it is supposed to aid in setting up the special multimedia keys on your keyboard. However, on my Logitech diNovo keyboard at home, I am still unable to get the media keys registering to the system at all, even with the new keyboard model options, but I think that is a Logitech issue, not a Gnome issue. The "layout options" tab also has a lot of options to choose from now; almost too many, as it seems a bit cluttered in my mind. Lastly, there is a new Accessibility button that links to the Keyboard Accessibility applet, a nice addition for the lazy or confused.
ScreenshotScreenshot
Refresh: Keyboard Shortcuts
While there's nothing new in the interface itself, there is the added functionality that changing hotkeys will take effect immediately now, regardless of hotkey type. This is as opposed to previously, when changing some of the more advanced hotkeys, like media keys, would require a restart of the X server to take effect. This was a minor, usually one-time annoyance, but I am glad they got it fixed.
Refresh: Screen Resolution
While I still find it annoying that the Screen Resolution applet cannot add or modify your list of resolutions in any way, they have at least improved it slightly for us LCD users. There is now a third dropdown box, which allows selection of screen rotations, useful for LCD screens that can be rotated to portrait modes. Any bit of customization no longer requiring editing the xorg.conf is fine in my book.
Screenshot
Refresh: Screensaver
The only thing added to the Screensaver applet is a Power Management button that starts the respective applet. This is a great addition for when editing screensaver settings, and then realizing the other options are elsewhere. It also helps Windows users who are used to that implicit way of moving from one to the other. However, I still notice a conspicuously absent "Settings" option, which I feel is one of the worst "features" of this new screensaver applet since they dropped the XScreensaver version. And where is the option to choose what screensavers appear in the Random rotation?
Screenshot
Redesign: Sessions
The reworked Sessions applet is lightyears ahead of its preceding version, boasting a much cleaner interface, better customizability, and more features to boot. The "Startup Programs" tab has now been moved to the primary position where it belongs, and now only looks cleaner, but allows you to have a custom name for each item, and gives you the choice of disabling or even deleting all the default entries. Current Sessions has stayed relatively the same, but the biggest changes is in the Session Options tab. Gone are the options to ask on logout and show splash screen (mostly useless), and gone is the (absolutely useless) list of different sessions. Instead, we now have the option to save our current session as it currently looks, and the choice of automatically saving on exit. This was a much-needed simplification, and the ability to save the current session without logging out will make things much easier.
ScreenshotScreenshot
Refresh: Sounds
The Sounds applet has received a new Devices tab, which allows the user to choose their default sound devices, and test their choices before closing. This goes a long way to making things more friendly for owners of computers with on-board and add-in sound cards. Selecting the proper inputs and outputs is a breeze, although the sound tests emit a brutally annoying tone that only stops after you click OK. Couldn't they have chosen some sort of calming / comforting ambient noise, or at least something that won't suck the life from your brain the moment it stars playing?
Screenshot
Refresh: Theme Details
When customizing a theme in the Themes applet, the Theme Details dialog box now has a new Colors tab, which allows you to set various color settings for your theme, assuming the control set has the proper information to take advantage of this feature. Ubuntu's Human theme does not, for instance, but the included Clearlooks theme does. This is a very minor feature, but an addition for theming power tweakers no less.
Screenshot
Get the Word Out
So now you know that Feisty Fawn is about more than just the applications changes. It's got plenty of changes behind the scenes as well. I hope we can get the word out; too many people feel that Gnome is going nowhere, and too many review sites are missing the important changes that really change the overall user experience for the better. New applications are useful, and new artwork is snazzy, but none of that really affects the minor annoyances that people face on a daily basis. Gnome has been doing a lot of work on the little details, and I applaud the developers for that type of discipline and focus when everyone is complaining of not seeing and new big items. No amount of polish on the fenders and trim will make a car run smoother or faster, and the same goes for Gnome. Let's let people know what's really going on with Feisty Fawn and Gnome 2.18. - DualCortex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Great review. As panickedthumb from the Ubuntu forums said, "I find it almost deplorable that every review I read of Feisty beta spent more time on Sudoku than they did on the network manager options."
- bigtomrodney, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Yeah because Windows 95 had plug and play and USB support in its release. Awesome.
You must have been up all night thinking of that smartass line. - griz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23stou,
"***** even apple users refer to their OS with the version numbers... "
No they don't.....not at least since Jaguar.
Most people know.
Tiger = current
Panther = past
Leopard = future
Unless they are patching with a 10.x.x update they don't bother going by a version num. - miked123, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19If you don't see why it's a big deal... do some research. This is not a developer's hobby toy.
- DevastatorIIC, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18Instead of "Ubuntu Feisty Fawn", I think he means "in the latest Gnome". As such, it's a good review. But I don't see any of that in my Feisty KDE install :-)
- wvdavis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15@ stealthgear - It's better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are a fool than to open it and remove any lingering doubt.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Some of these are Ubuntu-specific programs, like the Desktop Effects and the Restricted Driver Manager. Not all of these are GNOME either, like the HPlip toolbox.
- consonance, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12@truegodofwar
I declare you officially banned from the Internet until you turn 18. - Nerevar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'd like to see a version of this article for Kubuntu.
- chubbstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8i thought feisty really tackled alot of the modem/wifi problems that edgy suffered from. am i wrong?
- dkarlson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Sudoku? Well, I'm in. :)
- DKasler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I don't know... Duggmirror doesn't have a copy.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12Great list. I havent seen any of these things, because the page is DOWN!
- lpcustom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The first thing I do with any Linux distro, after install, is get some better fonts. I prefer Lucida Grande and I'm not even a Mac user. I just like that font.
- psxman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5>Samba needs a GUI.
Um, Samba has a GUI.
Desktop>Administration>Shared Folders if you mean configuring sharing
Places>Network Servers>Windows Network if you mean accessing shares. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Page won't load so I can't comment on the article. However, I have recently installed the beta for feisty fawn on one computer and used a live cd on the other. It is pretty good but it is rough around the edges.
Like touchpad support. Adjusting the mouse sensitivity or acceleration settings have no affect on the speed of the mouse, it's annoying. I can't disable tap to click either. There should be some multiplier for the mouse speed regardless of how the input is received.
On the old desktop, firefox crawls in ubuntu. It runs great on XP, but when I have multiple tabs going in feisty, scrolling stops working and the mouse gets real jerky.
Changing the resolution. Took me half an hour to finally get 1440x900 to work. Had to gksudo edit something in /etc/X11/xorg.conf Even then I had to download an applet to be able to choose the new resolution I had just added. The included settings manager wouldn't let me.
File sharing. It's a pain in the ass. I had it working, but now it fails. Samba needs a GUI. Also changing a FAT partition to be accesable to others doesn't work. When I change it, ubuntu snaps the settings back without giving me a clue why. Half an hour of frustration later, I get it to work with the terminal and ftab
Battery Life. In Windows my laptop can go for twice as long as in ubuntu. Something about processor frequency scaling. - Schpariel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4> On the old desktop, firefox crawls in ubuntu. It runs great on XP, but when I have multiple tabs going in feisty, scrolling stops working and the mouse
> gets real jerky.
Are you sure that you're not running in "vesa" mode?, check the "Driver" entry under the "Device" section in your xorg.conf - ordminute, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Millions of people use it now. Around 8 million seem to have stuck with it in the 3 years since it's appearance. It's growing at about 30% a year. People seem to really like it, so it's likely you'll come across alot of talk about it in future. Given the uptake it's not unlikely you'll be using Ubuntu - in some form - at some point. Whether that be at school or in the workplace.
- anjinash, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I dunno.. I could get more behind that if I recognized the word "speach".
Speech recognition, on the other hand... that could be cool. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I was arguing about this with a friend the other week. I'd really love to easier multiple monitor setup as well.
He said : "You can only look at one thing at a time, who cares?"
My response : "Well, you can technically only have sex with one woman at a time, but I bet you wouldn't turn down a threesome." - oobuntu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i wonder if the guy logged the bugs that he found. (e.g. the python/hp toolbox problem)
- ubuntuedgy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm not a developer, although I do work in IT. I have messed with Linux since it first came out, but always found it lacking but fun. For so long it was not ready for 'prime time'. The latest distros of Linux though (Fedora and Ubuntu to name 2) are right there.
It's free, it does everything I need an OS to do, it is secure (far more than windows), it is updated with a passion!, and it has gotten to the point that you really don't need windows except for many games (unless you choose to use windows...fine), and best of all it is free! It is a perfectly functional OS that is easy to install, easy to use, lightweight, and secure. I don't hate Microsoft or Windows! But I am a linux fan boy right now. Ubuntu, especially, has really impressed me. I no longer use Windows in the office. At home....well, Windows is easier for Wow right now, but even that is getting better. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm typing to you from feisty fawn right now =) so far so good! i had some nvidia issues at first but, they are cleared now. My hp psc 1400 works "out of the box" for scanner and printer options. I was able to configure my logitech mx 1000 to use the forward and back buttons for firefox, etc.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I use linux (Ubuntu FF) for everything I do. printing resumes, school work etc.
If I just have to print something off, I use Open Office, if I have to email it, I use MS Office in WINE to fix the formatting.
The only thing I can't do is most games. Doesn't matter for me, all I ever played was BF2 (which I heard works with Cedega but I'm too lazy to try) and SNES roms (which work fine in linux). I've also gotten pretty damn good at reversi and tetris.
I kind of miss Outlook, but that's about it. Evolution does what I need just fine (I prefer it over Thunderbird).
Windows is EXCELLENT at business software, but Linux is catching up fast. - sid0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5You'll probably bury me for this, but the Ubuntu font looks really ***** compared to Segoe UI with Cleartype on.
- generalloy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"
File sharing. It's a pain in the ass. I had it working, but now it fails. Samba needs a GUI. Also changing a FAT partition to be accesable to others doesn't work. When I change it, ubuntu snaps the settings back without giving me a clue why. Half an hour of frustration later, I get it to work with the terminal and ftab
"
I agree with this, post here to comment on the issue: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/32067
psxman: Samba still doesn't have a gnome GUI for adding users (this is why 'sudo smbpasswd -a' is necessary for Ubuntu--there needs to be a GUI for this) and configuring "user/share" or encrypted passwords. Red Hat and Fedora have a utility called system-config-samba that should be in upstream Gnome but unfortunately isn't.
Samba doesn't let you share the passwords between a Samba account and a Linux account, so you have to manually set up a samba account using sudo smbpasswd -a. - dmsean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3RE: giveer
wtf's a mo-dem? - unversed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@truegodofwar
I don't know if Ubuntu has it as i'm a Debian guy, but i always found SWAT to be awesome for setting up samba server. It is a web interface.
If you don't have swat just:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install swat
you can access it by loging in using your favorite web browser typing in your LAN IP and its on port 901
hope that helps you out a bit :) - robbyt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3email broadcom and ask them to support linux :D
- shanesemler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I just installed Feisty Fawn beta today and I'm already liking it alot more than Edgy. I'm glad they ditched the awful Gnome control panel thing. The color options is a nice feature add. Now if only we could get options for screensavers back.
- generalloy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When Feisty Fawn is released, you should also be able to download new upstart scripts to speed up the boot time. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2264992#post2264992
- cdmarcus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@truegodofwar: There's "gsynaptics" (install through Synaptic) for touchpad setup, but it... sucks. So you should try the command line. synclient -l lists variables you can change, and you can change variables by running synclient VariableName=VariableValue. It resets next time you reboot, though... I haven't yet googled how to save the settings.
- Neiby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I also wonder why Ubuntu is so popular. It's almost as if the Digg community isn't aware of other distributions. There are others out there even easier to use, like PCLinuxOS, but you hardly ever hear about them. Distrowatch seems to indicate that PCLinuxOS is becoming more popular lately, but it's still second to Ubuntu, which seems to have taken over the world. At least according to Diggnation, anyway.
- tylerjames, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@dkasler
dugg for actually checking instead of just posting the link! - Vinvin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The feed shows the full story ;-)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/leetcode - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Fedora 7 has a nice new panel for handling dual head. I've not tried it yet though since being a beta it has other issues to solve first.
- Spr0k3t, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Hmm... Technical answer
News: Technology: Linux/Unix & #1 on Distrowatch.org for quite some time now.
Non-technical answer:
Fanboys, it's not Microsoft or Apple. As an operating system, it's more than just a developer's hobby toy.
Take your pick, either way seems correct. - spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Vista uses a version of Dragon Naturally Speaking - a product that has been in development for about 15 years. It would take huge resources to duplicate that - especially for a distributed development effort.
- NickyBatts, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The second Ubuntu has drivers for Broadcom devices, is the second I am going to switch to it.
- FirstPersonShow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I booted the current version of Ubuntu on my laptop (Dell D600) using the Live Install on the CD. It automatically recognized my built in wireless card, but my other two tests left me dissapointed:
1) webpage with flash popped up asking if I wanted to install the plugin, but when I clicked yes, it failed. Retried, but still no-go.
2) right-clicked on an MP3 file from a podcast website and the media player couldn't play it! I can accept it not handling WMV or WMA and maybe .move or aac, but MP3?!!! Come on!
I'm not a Windoze fan, I work on and evangelize about Linux at work for server setups. But, come on, why such hassles on the desktop?! - endersshadow, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Some of this stuff is the same as it is in Edgy. See: hp-toolbox, Keyboard Preferences, Screen Rotation. Also, you can use network-manager in Eft, too, though you do have to install that by hand and it's not preinstalled...
Neat little updates, though. Just some of the stuff he didn't do his homework on at all. I just redownloaded and reinstalled Edgy a week and a half ago...so I dunno if they pushed some of this stuff downstream, but it seems to be the exact same for me for those that I mentioned.
Can't wait for Feisty to be released, though =D - OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's hard to configure Linux in a universal way to get good battery life on any laptop. If manually configure it you can usually get on par what a decent windows configuration will have, but it's a lot of reading and occasionally requires a kernel recompilation. One day Linux will get enough polish to just automatically be laptop friendly out of the box. Another laptop issue is that Linux never seems to notice if your trackpad is capable of two-finger mode to emulate an extra mouse button plus do scrolling.
- giveer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@dmsean
hehehe .. yeah, I know, I know.. it's a stupid coincidence of events why I can't use wireless or ethernet on the lappy, but the short story is if I could at least dial out to something - it'd help me greatly. Would a usb to ethernet work? maybe I'll snag one of those... - Disease, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What I don't get is why things like that can't be implemented with the release...
- upasaka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use ubuntu at work and at home. ( i work at a pretty cool place, they let me choose my OS) I use it because of the following reasons:
1) awesome forums/support. They take this seriously. You dont see a lot of RTFM n00b stuff, which is pretty common in other forums. I like that atmosphere.
2) I switched from debian, because of ubuntu's release schedule and easy configuration... im lazy
3) Yes there are other distros out there that are equally as good, gentoo comes to mind, but, again, im lazy and compiling all my packages is a pain.
4) i checked out a few other distros (who doesnt :) ) recently, but realized that apt is my friend, and i hate RPMs.
5) Critical mass: Ubuntu has so many users because it has so many users. If your friends are using it, then chances are you will. This adds to the fact that it is somewhat of a media darling at the moment, which removes some of the fear factor new users get when you mention linux. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For mp3z i use xmms, you can go to 'add remove" and just check xmms, as for flash i think you can
sudo aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree
sudo update-flashplugin
works on edgy for sure. - killerofkiller, on 10/12/2007, -8/+9wow...
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