# Ubuntu 10.04 beta 1



## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/beta1

Anyone tried it yet? Does it suck just as badly as 9.10 did? Am I going to have to switch back to Windows?


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## Duality Jack (Apr 5, 2010)

how bad was 9 
I am tempted by the netbook version


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## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

The Drunken Ace said:


> how bad was 9
> I am tempted by the netbook version


9.10 was bad enough that I'm still using 9.04. 

I want to give 10.04 a try, but I don't feel like formatting my computer if it goes wrong.

Windows has its drawbacks, but there's something very alluring about not having to deal with ALSA and PulseAudio.


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## ToeClaws (Apr 5, 2010)

*chuckles* Oh come on, 9.10 wasn't that bad.  I have migrated three systems (all quite different architecturally) to 9.10 cores and apart from some initial issues, it was good in the end.  Am I a fan of some of the changes?  No - I liked the way some of the older versions of things like GRUB or the GDM worked, but such is progress.   I well agree though that 9.04 was the better of the two.

I have not had a chance to try out the 10.04 betas yet - hope to get a chance before vacation this Thursday. :/  10.04 is a major milestone for Canonical in that they had a lot of specific goals they wanted to accomplish with Ubuntu by or on the release of the v10 code.  

Of course, the REAL gem I look forward to is the next release of Mint based on the 10.04 core.


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## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

Tell me if they still have the system beep disabled. If they do, I don't think I'll bother with it.

(And yes, it really _is_ that big of an issue for me.)


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## ToeClaws (Apr 5, 2010)

net-cat said:


> Tell me if they still have the system beep disabled. If they do, I don't think I'll bother with it.
> 
> (And yes, it really _is_ that big of an issue for me.)



If I get a chance to test I can check for you.  How would I find out?

I find that ironic though 'cause for around 15+ years I've gone to great lengths to disable the system beep.  What do you use it for?


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## CannonFodder (Apr 5, 2010)

9.10 actually worked well on my computer, I'm going to wait till the stable version though.


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## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

IRC notifications, mainly. I run IRC in irssi over SSH, which only gives me bell.

I often times run with my receiver off or have another input selected. When that's the case, I don't hear anything that gets piped through my sound card. So, I don't hear IRC (or Pidgin) notifications.

It's actually why I tell people my preferred method of contact is IRC over one of the instant messengers. You can't seem to set Pidgin to use the system beep. Not having it makes it nearly impossible to to chat with someone if it's not the center of my attention. (And it rarely is.)

As for how you can check, open a Terminal. Enter "echo '\a'". (Assuming you have one plugged in and haven't blacklisted the pcspkr module.) If you hear a beep through the motherboard speaker, it works. If not, I'll be giving this one a miss for Win7, I think. (I'll miss having a proper UNIX terminal and automatic updates for all my installed programs, but that's about it, honestly.)

And disabling it has always been easy. "sudo modprobe -r pcspkr"


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## ToeClaws (Apr 5, 2010)

Ah.  I avoid the problem by using e-mail.   Used to use IRC like 12 to 16 years ago (I'm honestly shocked people still use it), and IM 7 to 10 years ago, but never liked how annoying it was to try to use if you had to talk to more than one person at a time.  Then again... I'm also old, bitter and can't concentrate anymore. 

I'll check it out for you if I can.  There must be some way around it though - having to resort to the horror of running Windows for something like chatting seems a bit extreme.


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## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

This is the solution I finally found for 9.10. Looks like it took them about three months to figure it out, and it involves building your own metacity package. :|

And this is far from the only problem I have with Linux. I'm hoping new and improved nVidia drivers will address some of the problems. But I also know that pulseaudio and ALSA will still suck and cause problems.

I've resisted switching back to Windows because I know I'll have issues with that, too. But this problem is a debilitating one. And an OS install is an OS install.


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## ToeClaws (Apr 5, 2010)

net-cat said:


> This is the solution I finally found for 9.10. Looks like it took them about three months to figure it out, and it involves building your own metacity package. :|



Grah... that's awful. 



net-cat said:


> And this is far from the only problem I have with Linux. I'm hoping new and improved nVidia drivers will address some of the problems. But I also know that pulseaudio and ALSA will still suck and cause problems.



Sound has never been a strong point with Linux, but pulseaudio really takes the cake for being a piece of crap.  Again... I understand the logic behind migrating to it, but damn... they could have at least waited until it, oh, WORKED maybe?  To me, it's about as operational as an alpha release of software, and I find I still use Windows XP and audio apps there for any serious audio work. 



net-cat said:


> ...And an OS install is an OS install.



In pure technical terms, yes, but there are legal and ethical ones too, which is where I have problems with Windows 7.  It's a same too 'cause I think Windows 7 is a very nice product, it's just bound by a rather unfair EULA. At least to me anyway.

Burning the beta to a CD now...


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## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> In pure technical terms, yes, but there are legal and ethical ones too, which is where I have problems with Windows 7.  It's a same too 'cause I think Windows 7 is a very nice product, it's just bound by a rather unfair EULA. At least to me anyway.


What, specifically? Microsoft's EULAs all tend to be large amounts of semi-legal sludge, which is why I tend to ignore them.


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## ToeClaws (Apr 5, 2010)

net-cat said:


> What, specifically? Microsoft's EULAs all tend to be large amounts of semi-legal sludge, which is why I tend to ignore them.



*laughs* Well yeah, I have pretty much done the same too for years.  I guess in my old age I've decided to take more of a stand against it and refuse to pay them money for a product that is not fairly licensed to the user.  Restrictions on the copies I can run and what I can do with it need to basically go away.  I also was very disappointed back in the Vista era with DRM.  When the MPAA and other copyright psychos approached Microsoft hoping for them to side with them on DRM, Microsoft a) was under no obligation to do so and b) would have been the one giant of a corporation that could have put the nail in the coffin for DRM by saying "No".  But they didn't, and that was a real slap in the face to consumers rights.  But that's history now, and topic for a different thread. :/

Back on topic: Okay, booted the beta1 32 bit on two systems (laptop and desktop, which both run Ubuntu normally).  There was no beep on either the sound card's output or the PC Speaker.  I tried forcing the PCSPK module to load (which it did) but it made no difference.  I don't know if things would differ with an installed version versus the LiveCD - will have to wait to see if I can install to a test box for that. :?


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## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

No, I suspect it wouldn't make a difference. They may have added an option for it, but I doubt it. Debian and Ubuntu developers tend to have an "if it works for me, it works for everyone and anyone who disagrees is wrong" attitude.


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## ToeClaws (Apr 5, 2010)

Don't you mean...

"_Nearly all_ developers tend to have an "if it works for me, it works for everyone and anyone who disagrees is wrong" attitude."?

'Cause I can think of LOTS of other examples of that.


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## net-cat (Apr 5, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> Don't you mean...
> 
> "_Nearly all_ developers tend to have an "if it works for me, it works for everyone and anyone who disagrees is wrong" attitude."?
> 
> 'Cause I can think of LOTS of other examples of that.



True dat. But the Ubuntu/Debian community is particularly annoying and conceited about it, in my experience.


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## Runefox (Apr 5, 2010)

I might as well give it a try. I've been looking to replace my dead Gentoo install with something for a while, so I may as well. I was thinking Slackware, but hey, I'm much more familiar with Debian-based anyway.

Gonna grab the x64 variant.


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## ToeClaws (Apr 6, 2010)

net-cat said:


> True dat. But the Ubuntu/Debian community is particularly annoying and conceited about it, in my experience.



Heh, agreed.  I think that is an unavoidable side-effect of trying to make something for the masses though - the more you make it for everyone, the less it's made for any-one.

In that regard, I wish I weren't so damn lazy 'cause I'd take the time to build up an Arch install to get around that issue.  But yeah... taking many hours/days to build a system the way I want doesn't mesh well with the schedule anymore. :?


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## Bianca (Apr 6, 2010)

I've thought about giving it a try, but until there's an official WoW client for Linux I never can :\


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## net-cat (Apr 6, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> In that regard, I wish I weren't so damn lazy 'cause I'd take the time to build up an Arch install to get around that issue.  But yeah... taking many hours/days to build a system the way I want doesn't mesh well with the schedule anymore. :?


Indeed. If I had that kind of time, I'd be working my way though the FreeBSD ports tree and tweaking all the fiddly little options that make it think that Apache is a necessary part of an X11 system. (That's about where I gave up after my last attempt.) Sadly, I don't have that kind of time.

This leaves me with Windows or an Ubuntu variant.



Bianca said:


> I've thought about giving it a try, but until there's an official WoW client for Linux I never can :\


I've heard from people who play WoW (not me) that it actually works decently under Wine in windowed mode. Though Wine as a gaming solution is only for people who game casually*. (Like me.)

* That is, people who don't insist on running their games at eleventy billion by 42 gajilion resolution at 2.71e9 frames per second with 87 GPUs SLI'd together.


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## Duality Jack (Apr 6, 2010)

I play morrowind and such under wine, its satisfying


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## ToeClaws (Apr 6, 2010)

net-cat said:


> Indeed. If I had that kind of time, I'd be working my way though the FreeBSD ports tree and tweaking all the fiddly little options that make it think that Apache is a necessary part of an X11 system. (That's about where I gave up after my last attempt.) Sadly, I don't have that kind of time.



Yar - FreeBSD was/is fantastic for custom builds.  In the late 90s I used to always maintain a system or two, even though it took a day or two to compile stuff, heh.  But as I took on a career, free time kinda evaporated and so did heavily customized OS's. 

There is PC-BSD nowadays, which is a sort of Ubuntu-like shortcut for FreeBSD, but like Ubuntu because it's made for the masses, it has some bad features - like KDE as the shell.  Taking a super fast, super efficient OS like FreeBSD and putting KDE on it seems to kinda defeat the point. :/


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## net-cat (Apr 6, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> Yar - FreeBSD was/is fantastic for custom builds.  In the late 90s I used to always maintain a system or two, even though it took a day or two to compile stuff, heh.  But as I took on a career, free time kinda evaporated and so did heavily customized OS's.


Actually, I use it on my server, still. It doesn't run X11 or anything and it doesn't take long to build the few daemons and programs I actually need.

(nginx, php, python, perl, mysql, wget, irssi, screen, zsh)

That and they've eliminated the need for make buildworld for security updates.


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## Tycho (Apr 6, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> Of course, the REAL gem I look forward to is the next release of Mint based on the 10.04 core.



Isadora, right?


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## Ricky (Apr 6, 2010)

net-cat said:


> Actually, I use it on my server, still. It doesn't run X11 or anything and it doesn't take long to build the few daemons and programs I actually need.
> 
> (nginx, php, python, perl, mysql, wget, irssi, screen, zsh)
> 
> That and they've eliminated the need for make buildworld for security updates.



9wm is where it's at


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## Irreverent (Apr 6, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> Of course, the REAL gem I look forward to is the next release of Mint based on the 10.04 core.



7 was really tight.  Mint 8 just plain....sucks.  I'm waiting for them to release April Foo OS first.


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## Runefox (Apr 7, 2010)

Well, not having used 9.10, I'm not sure how different it is, but I have to say that Ubuntu 10.04 boots into X remarkably quickly (as in, the phase where init scripts normally churn along pretty much turned into a modeswitch and a mouse cursor followed quickly by a desktop), and contains the new radeonhd driver that provides 3D/xv acceleration (and HDMI audio) out of the box for the Radeon HD 4xxx series, so no proprietary drivers needed whatsoever for once. Also picked off my X-Fi out of the box, which is something that I've always had to mess with previously. Still not a fan of the choice to move the min/max/close buttons to the left side; Going to have to fix that. Also, the built-in status/chat applet seems to be tied to Empathy rather than Pidgin, which is a pain. Then again, I never use it anyway, and it can be removed easily enough.

Multimon works out of the box, and the built-in monitors applet also worked perfectly. My secondary monitor was picked off and while the resolution defaulted to the lower monitor's (it defaults to clone mode), separate resolutions and monitor placement was a breeze. Video also plays back flawlessly while being moved to/from, as you'd expect.

The general responsiveness is also quite excellent. But with that said, I don't have much to compare to aside from Windows 7 and Debian Lenny on a P4 1.5 at the moment.

Some of the more useful effects (like full-screen zoom) aren't working properly on the RadeonHD driver, but that's nothing big.

Also, I replaced Nautilus with PCManFM, which sweetens the deal considerably.


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## Lazydabear (Apr 8, 2010)

Runefox said:


> Well, not having used 9.10, I'm not sure how different it is, but I have to say that Ubuntu 10.04 boots into X remarkably quickly (as in, the phase where init scripts normally churn along pretty much turned into a modeswitch and a mouse cursor followed quickly by a desktop), and contains the new radeonhd driver that provides 3D/xv acceleration (and HDMI audio) out of the box for the Radeon HD 4xxx series, so no proprietary drivers needed whatsoever for once. Also picked off my X-Fi out of the box, which is something that I've always had to mess with previously. Still not a fan of the choice to move the min/max/close buttons to the left side; Going to have to fix that. Also, the built-in status/chat applet seems to be tied to Empathy rather than Pidgin, which is a pain. Then again, I never use it anyway, and it can be removed easily enough.
> 
> Multimon works out of the box, and the built-in monitors applet also worked perfectly. My secondary monitor was picked off and while the resolution defaulted to the lower monitor's (it defaults to clone mode), separate resolutions and monitor placement was a breeze. Video also plays back flawlessly while being moved to/from, as you'd expect.
> 
> ...


 

A friend of mine tested out Beta he used Flash Drive to Install it, It is real fast.


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## Slyck (Apr 16, 2010)

I love it. Beta 2 that is, never used b1. But, I've done the following to it. To be fair, it is sucks by default.

1. Removed quiet and splash from grub.cfg and bumped the menu timeout to 1 second.
2. Changes tho looks. Phallic knob colors aren't much better than pumpkin pie puke colors. Made both toolbars be almost transparent, moved em to the bottom, and fudged it so all menus / icons are on the bottom one and the window picker on the one above it. Enables special effects.
3. Installed VLC, qbittorrent (<awesome), GIMP, Chromium, Seamonkey and flash player. Added repo's too.
4. Stripped the start up apps to the bare necessities.
5. Proceeded to say "good riddance" to the hardware abstraction layer's ways of adding 10 seconds to boot time. Thanks for removing it from bootup, Canonical. My comp boots faster than ever. Can't wait for the final version!


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## Slyck (Apr 16, 2010)

x


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