Ubuntu Wily gaggle builds 15.10 beta beachhead The next Ubuntu – 15.10, nicknamed Wily Werewolf – is beginning to take shape but, as before, the first beta code out of the gate doesn’t belong to the main desktop. Rather, that honour belongs to the familiar clutch of Ubuntu fellow travellers – Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu MATE and Lubuntu. The amount of new …
Um, pretty sure you'll find Grub is present and correct Sir... v2.02 beta2 to be, er, precise.
GNOME 3.16 also offers some new scrollbars, which are now only displayed when needed.
Oh, joy. The fun of trying to scroll using vanishing scrollbars. The final straw for Unity as far as I was concerned, and the reason I moved to Kubuntu and Mint.
Look, one reason for having scrollbars is that it actually gives an indication that there is something more on the screen lower down. If a scrollbar only appears when it's needed, you may not even realize that there is something on the page below the bottom of the screen.
I am getting so sick of aesthetics being given priority over functionality.
"Please tell me they don't mean that they will only appear on a mouse over"
Oh yes. Because everyone nowadays is using tablets and phones, and that extra 10px of width is crucially required, don't you know?!
One of the first things I've been disabling on Ubuntu installs for a very long time. Hopefully the Gnome ones aren't quite as idiotic as the Ubuntu ones, otherwise, they'll be disabled pretty sharpish too.
Hmmmm........
Arthur C. Clarke's Superiority MAY apply.
That being said, I love my KDE. I tried XFCE but it gave me headaches for some reason, just couldn't get the hang of it. But then again, KDE iconography has mutated yet again, I guess we are living in a highly mutagenic fashion environment.
I've been using Ubuntu Wily for a couple of months now. Few issues in quite a while.
Re: Scrollbars.
Yes they are invisible even if there is 'something more to see'. (On Nautilus). They are present on Firefox all the time when there is 'something more to see' though.
No they don't 'only appear on a mouse over'. They appear when the mouse/pointer is moving (or arrow/page keys are being pressed), and disappear within 2 seconds of pointer/mouse/key activation. (On Nautilus)
Still work in progress of course, things might change before release.
No they don't 'only appear on a mouse over'. They appear when the mouse/pointer is moving (or arrow/page keys are being pressed), and disappear within 2 seconds of pointer/mouse/key activation.
So, very much like Microsoft Office 2013+. A feature that makes no sense to me. If it can be disabled, okay. If not, this version is not for me.
@g00se - I'm using Ubuntu 14.04 (with Unity). Firefox has its own traditional scrollbars, but for the rest the scrollbars don't actually disappear. They just shrink down to a narrow orangish line. When you move your mouse over it, it expands out to normal width, but in a greyish sort of colour, and you can drag it up and down.
The "hidden" (actually just small, not hidden) bar corresponds to the traditional slider. It changes size and position depending upon how much there is to display and where you are in the scroll space. When expanded out, it also incorporates the little triangle scroll buttons which are normally at the top and bottom of a traditional scroll bar.
What is missing is the "bar" the slider would normally slide in. That is, you get the slider and the scroll buttons but not the empty bar the slider would move in - you just get the slider hanging out over the page when it's expanded to full size.
So no, they don't only appear on a mouse over. You can at all times see if there is more to scroll and where you are in the scroll space. The slider just shrinks down to take up less space when you're not using it. The same is true for both vertical and horizontal sliders.
I didn't like these scroll bars at first, but I changed my mind after having them for a while and appreciating getting more usable screen space as a result. I work with a lot of open windows in multiple workspaces, and I appreciate getting every little bit of usable space possible while still being able to see things at a glance.
As an aside, the desktop wars seem to be just as bitter as ever, surpassing even the vi/emacs conflict. Take negative comments about desktops or distros in forums with a very large grain of salt, because a lot of them are pretty obviously written by people whose knowledge of that particular desktop doesn't extend beyond having looked at a few screen shots (I'm not referring to you - you asked a serious and relevant question).
I've used KDE, Gnome 2 (and perhaps 1, but I can't recall) and Unity extensively. Of the three, I prefer Unity because it has a simple interface that lets me see at a glance what is going on, and it was a very easy learning curve when I switched from Gnome 2 (unlike when I went from KDE to Gnome 2). After first using Unity for about 20 minutes, there was no way I wanted to go back to Gnome 2, which was ironic since at the time I was evaluating it so I could write a blog post on how rubbish it was going to be (because it wasn't Gnome 2). I've no problems with recommending it to anyone who just wants to get work done.
For me, the final straw with the then-new Gnome environment was the completely non-intuitive alt-tab behaviour coupled with completely breaking sloppy focus. I know that I'm probably in the minority re sloppy focus but the combination of the two just made me give up. Not that these are the only things that are just plain stupid---like not having control over widget positioning in the top panel, to name just one---but that was just the straw that broke this camel's back. At least I managed to change the scrollbar behaviour within 5 minutes of seeing it.
I've been using Linux Mint 13 with MATE desktop for over two years now and will probably update to Mint 17.x early next year, if I can be bothered. Apart from the default installed applications (which I can change anytime I like), what difference would I notice if I switched to Ubuntu MATE? (Forget themes and desktop wallpaper, that's just eye-candy.)
A few months ago I installed Ubuntu on a laptop with the intention of trying to make it my main development system. Wow, what a mistake. After wasting a day trying to get Unity to work like a sensible desktop environment I gave up and went back to Windows. Don't down vote me yet! I then tried installing Kubuntu in a VM and it looked just like I remembered it from a few years ago when I was using Linux everyday. The lack of progress wasn't a selling point. So I installed Mint Cinnamon. Wow, what a refreshing change. Pretty much everything worked out of the box and the interface is sensible. Now if only they could fix the fact that basically every package I need to work has to be installed manually I'd probably switch over.
"Now if only they could fix the fact that basically every package I need to work has to be installed manually I'd probably switch over."
Yes, its should just *know* what you want to do then get on with it. As well as disposing Andrex, via a robot arm and a gentle circular motion at the appropriate point.
Yes 'cause Windows automatically comes with Office, and Adobe Creative Suite also pre-installed as well right?
Just helped my SO set up a spankin' new Windows 10 laptop, and it actually is jam packed with menu items that will, with just one click, install Office and about a hundred other things.
Was quite intrigued that even after we installed trusty old Office 2012 (I think) off CD, it still had defaults set to Office 365, which wasn't even turned on.
That said, it still amuses me that I can do fresh install of Mint and have almost every application that I use up and running in less than twenty minutes. It took three times that long just to get her printer working on Win 10.
I remember doing that and wondering if my monitor was going to get fried...
Been there... fingers hovering over CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE. just in case.
Of course then someone decided that we don't need to have that enabled by default (as if I'm going to accidentally hit it). Same goes for PointerKeys. Grrr--I hate "progress".
Some people have the unfortunate requirement to connect to Exchange at work. Well, there's OWA, but Outlook is the obvious fat client.
I have had some success getting Evolution to work with the MAPI provider, but fast it ain't. And a server update could break it at any time.
-A.
Evolution + EWS connector works out of the box with Exchange. Calendar, contacts, etc all there. You can't do rules though but if you use Outlook to set them up, the server will run them for you when you use Evo.
Recent versions are very stable and survive suspend/hibernation and server reboots. I'm using 3.12.11 on the work machine and 3.16.5 on my laptop. Day in day out.
BTW - a server update once took out MAPI (or OA - can't remember) for a while. Me, a Mac user and mobiles were the only connections!
Now if only I could install Mint on a free disk and boot from the bios options without needing Grub I'd be happy. But it doesn't see to be something easily achieved, unless someone knows better.
[I want to preserve my Windows setup as "cleanly" as possible while evaluating Mint and I'm in no hurry to revisit the angst of sorting out the MBR if things go wrong]
Just install grub on the "free disk" rather than the one you've got Windows on... no? You could even detach your main drive while installing, if you feel nervous.
Alternatively, most distros run surprisingly well as a "live"/"frugal" install from a USB stick. There's also nothing to stop you following "live USB" creation instructions to put a "frugal installation" onto your "free disk" if you fancy...
You could even boot the ISO file "live" directly from wherever on the Windows disk you happened to download it to by using Grub/Grub2 installed onto a USB stick or optical disc...
Have fun
Really? I'm doing precisely that. I have Mint on one disk, Win10 (boo, hiss!) on another, and select them from the BIOS on boot (it defaults to Mint though).
I installed Mint from a USB pen drive after using of those live USB compiler thingymagubs that you point to the Mint iso and let it do its thing.
It wasn't what I'd call difficult to achieve by any means.
It doesn't disable the GRUB installation, it enables the ability to choose which disc to install GRUB to during the install.
IIRC, you used to be able to do that from the standard installer, not just from the graphical installer on the live disc, but they removed that feature for some reason.
Google turns up plenty of hits on how to install GRUB to something other than the primary HD.
All Ive heard from friends and colleagues who installed Plasma 5 was that KDE does NOT have the option to have different widgets and wallpapers on the virtual desktops.
All were 'thrilled' beyond belief when they finally figured out what was happening.
But most of them went into very, very blue language when they found out that this regression will NOT be fixed by KDE devs. I think the best lines involved them trying to become more like GNOME devs once were "we know better than you whats best for you".
Most of them could deal with the long path to switching every functionality over to Plasma5 but to be told, nah, were not having this option anymore (while pushing that dead, dead, dead Activities horse up a hill), thats when it hit the fan. The solutions given by KDE devs (to use Activities) in no way solves the problem. Its as if they cant/dont want to understand.
I find it extremely hard to believe that there is in the new and improved infrastructure something that prevents something so simple as multiple wallpapersfrom being used.
Because, if it is true then your next gen technology sucks, (I think the terminology used is the best one) because it should allow you to do more, not less.
And if it is GNOMEitis, then its proof that some people will never learn.
Why not just have one Virtual Desktop and use the Activities as Virtual desktops? (as the devs have suggested)
The two metaphors of Activities & Desktops have always seemed 'virtually' the same metaphor (to me) anyway. I don't understand why the idea of using activities (if it's the only way to get different widgets/wallpaper on each 'desktop') is so objectionable. No actual functionality has been removed, merely some duplication.
Or just stay with KDE4 for the time being and hope someone decides to fork it like Trinity.
Or the devs could listen to the users and give them what they want, rather than passive-aggressively pushing users around into alternate and ultimately unnecessary (by some) software by "upgrading" software whilst removing features, when all that needed to be done is maintain existing features that are not broken and used by many.
I'm stuck on Kubuntu 14.10 on 2 of my VMs as every attempt to upgrade to 15.04 has resulted in either a completely blank desktop, what seems to be lightdm and ssdm both running at once, or a plasma desktop where the panel disappears after a few seconds and nothing else works.
I don't suppose upgrading to 15.10 is just going to work, or am I going to have to flatten the machines and start again?
I've been fool enough to try KDE and Gnome more than once before, and slapped for my naivety thinking they might have actually improved. They haven't, and they never seem to either. They still lag noticeably on a high-end box, gobble up far more memory than they ought to, and then there are of course the general bugs and exceedingly questionable navigation procedures that make me wonder just how high the end user needs to be to catch up to the developers that have deluded themselves into believing they're doing something clever.
"Fool me once... "
As usual posting as A/C ( without any reason) tends to remove any serious credibility from your post.
In my experience KDE uses more resources than other Linux desktops but it's still quick even on modest hardware unless all the (large number) of mostly trivial effects are enabled.
@ Chemist - Agreed on (needlessly) posting as A/C.
The resources issue is, in all probability the reason per desktop widgets and wallpaper are not going back in KDE, especially since the functionality to have them exist in activities.
I found per desktop wallpapers and widgets choked my system, and without them it's quite snappy. To many activities 'on' at a time also causes sluggishness.
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