Ubuntu 8.10 now available for download
By Nilay Patel 
posted Oct 30th 2008 11:01AM
posted Oct 30th 2008 11:01AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Thanks for the info
fglrx and ATI driver hell.
... and nvidia too. I swear I was so excited to try Ubuntu, but this whole "Terminal" thing to solve problems is driving me nuts! It's either I'm not used to it or the whole idea of a Linux based desktop is not friendly at all, whatever they try or do.
Over 2 hours of trying and testing to just install nvidia drivers, with no success.
@Saad Rabia:
Same here! I tried way over 2 hours.
you guys should try Envy, it does everything for you:
http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html
I'm not a Ubuntu expert, but I am very familiar with Fedora, and I assume there should be something similar to the following:
In Fedora, there are the core repositories that are full of most of the applications you need that are all nice and legal. For those programs, drivers, and files that are less clearly legal, there is a Fedora repo called Livna (there are others, but Livna seems to be the big one). You can install an RPM from Livna's website and it automatically adds their repo to your GUI package manager. Livna makes their own variants of both ATI and nVidia drivers that work extremely well, and you can install them through the package manager once you add the Livna repo. All in all, you can do it all without ever opening a terminal or typing a command.
I'm fairly certain that there's something like Livna for Ubuntu and that it's only a google away. The only trick is knowing that you have to add the extra repository, and as much as that sucks, it's the best way to keep Linux OS developers free and clear of legal woes related to things like closed-source drivers, dvd support, and various codecs.
On the plus side, once you do have that extra repo added, installing software is idiotproof and everything you install is always kept up to date through one central piece of software. I can't stand it when my windows install on my laptop has HP updates, windows updates, adobe updates, firefox updates, AVG updates, and other random software updates all competing for bandwidth, resources, and space on my task bar.
how to install Nvidia driver:
go to system->admin->harware drivers
click "install Nvidia driver 175"
restart.
not that hard, right?
@jason
Yeah, try that with a GTX260 or a GTX280 installed.
Not so much fun.
@ Saad Rabia and GB, I think you've done it wrong.
I've used Kubuntu with both nVidia and ATI cards and never once had to touch the command line to install and configure the closed drivers.
There is a built-in GUI tool that pops up and tell you there are proprietary drivers available for your hardware. Use the Add/Remove Software GUI to add the appropriate closed-source drivers, and everything Just Works. Twice on my desktop and twice on two laptops, one with nVidia and one with ATI.
If you have to touch a command line, you are over thinking it.
you could'nt install nvidia proprietary driver ?
hum.. have you ever installed an application on a computer whatever the OS .. I'm sorry to ask but this is about the easiest thing to do so...
system->admin->harware drivers
install nvidia 1xx driver (I thiunk it's 175)
and wait.
it's done.
kinda easy.
and don't tell me you couldn't find help .. it's on the official site of ubuntu there are tutorial for like any click you have to make.
I'm not saying Linux or Ubuntu is fully user-friendly or that anything is easier on linux, I'm just saying THIS particular thing is Extremely easy so I find it hard to believe you ever actually tried to do it and failed..
Tell me about wifi or Wine issues and I'll say yes there is alot to do there to make it as easy as windows, but installing a graphic drivers was an issue some 3 years ago..
When I installed 8.04 it simply prompted me to install the restricted drivers for my 8800gt... I didn't have to touch the terminal.
Try configuring an AGP based Radeon adapter. It's sheer hell. I've experience horrible lockup issues for the past 3 years (too stubborn to give in and by a new card or motherboard) and now find out that ATI has dropped r300 based chipset support in new drivers. Of course, this is nothing against Ubuntu or Canonical. In theory I should be able to install the driver from restricted... Only plus of using horribly broken drivers is that it taught me the innards of Linux.
*buy. No editing comments?
Saad, you are obviously smart enough to handle Linux. It's not that hard to make a Linux system work. The learning curve is probably at the command line and solving some weird problems but the challenge is wonderful because you can learn so much. I learned a lot more about computers from Linux than I ever did with Windows or Mac.
OH, it just occurred to me! Saad, are you saying that you were using the binary in terminal to install a nvidia driver for linux? You can't do that. You have to get out of xwindows and install strictly from the command line, not in a terminal window.
@Saad Rabia
You are definitely doing something wrong. I've installed Ubuntu with a few different Nvidia generations, and it is a very simple process -- no command line wrangling required.
the question is already answered, but the "less clearly legal" repository you want would, I believe, be under system > preferences >software sources then check multi-verse and universe and restricted and the other one.
Its downloading sooo slooow. DAMN YOU COMCAST!
You are not Comcastic!!
Ever since Oct 1 maybe? Their usage cap isn't the only thing that got implemented. They also are going back to the old ways of cutting your bandwidth to nothing if you ever downloaded a large file or two. At this point, I'm thinking of switching to DSL.
Yes Comcast is no good at all. Also they kinda stole their Comcastic ad motif from Enzyte, so...
but they are Craptastic
holy crap i'm getting 11 MB/s! But yeah, I'm only 20 metres away from one of the Ubuntu download servers, and using the same network as the server.
I get very fast download speeds from Comcast... Are you sure the slow download isn't due to the demands on their server right now surrounding a new release?
It doesn't seem to be Comcast's fault, I was getting
...
It's okay. It still feels like something is missing.
Performance gains? I thought Ubuntu was only getting slower by each release: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=13022
I can't wait for this version to destroy my hardware!
I know they say, "Don't feed the trolls", but I feel obligated to point out that that was an upstream kernel bug, NOT an Ubuntu-specific one, as Engadget and many others suggested. Also, if you read the bugtracker, you'll see that it wasn't nearly as bad or as prevalent as rumour made it. It was also fixed in the beta release, so there are no issues with that now.
"... what're you waiting for?" 8.10.1 to be released shortly no doubt :)
...do Ubuntu dev's ever use the GUI? or just command line all the time, becasue how could anyone be happy with how that looks... especially when your in a position to do something about it?
... and yeah I know you can customise it all you like, but thats not the point
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD7QraljRfM
I know, its an old video, but linux GUIs are for those of us that are slightly obsessed with continuous tweaking. Trust me when i say that linux customizations are lightyears ahead of what windows and mac are doing today.
But the custimization factor IS the point.
Gnome (the default GUI for Ubuntu and many other linux distros) is simple, clean, and a little bland. Why? Because that keeps system requirements down. You want to have a pretty desktop? It's easy to add a lot of pazzaz, and a lot of us linux users do, but by default it's simple enough to install on machines built 10+ years ago.
ROFL...Gnome ...Ubuntu and keeping requirements down in the same sentence..... ROFL
That's the whole idea...you can make it look as you want extremely easy...ridiculously easy in fact. The theme selector can't be more to the point and if you want eye-candy just activate the options you want in the compiz fusion panel. I installed ubuntu on my mom's laptop and she can't be happer; she loves how she only types a word in the package installer and it automatically looks for the apps. It made me lazy too when I started using ubuntu.
If you want something more focused on looks but at the same type filled with useless software that you might never use fo with KDE (kubuntu), or if you have limited resources use XFCE (xubuntu, which BTW is AWESOME. I installed it back when my pc had only 512 MB of RAM but liked it so much that even when I upgraded to 2 GB is kept it...so smooth and stylish...).
Performance gains? Did somebody not read the Phoronix article?
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_bench_2008&num=1
Ubuntu has been getting slower, and that's not a 'performance' gain.
Well of course it's getting slower... It's adding more features, so it's going to be using more RAM and processing power. As operating systems get more and more powerful, hardware becomes more and more obsolete, and you end up having to upgrade. It sucks, but it happens. Look at the amount of power Vista uses compared to XP, for instance. Or how much XP uses compared to 2000.
"Performance gains" =/= "faster operating system"
Name 1 OS that doesn't get slower as it upgrades.
Goatee Man,
'Name 1 OS that doesn't get slower as it upgrades.'
Gentoo, Slackware and other more flexible/customizable distros. To be honest tho, you can get the same results with other distros... but with a lot more work. Bundled in features slow the OS down, your right about that.. and that's what distros that try to give everyone everything fail at being great with performance.
Well, I found it nice that engadget is posting about linux in general never mind the slight flaws in reporting ;)
Here here!
Yes, but when are Annoying Alias and Crappy Codename gonna be released?
Shortly after Applefanboi Asshole is sent back to the vendor.
This counts as humor these days? Christ, I've been using Linux every day for the past 13 years. Doesn't mean the code names for Ubantu aren't stupid as hell.
Because big cat names have a lot more to do with operating systems? C'mon.
Sometime after Jumping Jackalope and Kinky Kangaroo :P
i'm pretty sure they're slated for release right after masturbating monkey
Welcome to Gnome Crap
Kubuntu 8.10 is also released, and it looks pretty nice.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
...Or you can be completely ignorant.
No I'm not, but ubuntu is gnome centered, and the integration of package, network, etc. manager is worse on kubuntu than in ubuntu. kubuntu is just a flavor of a gnome centered distro.
Arguing about Gnome vs. KDE is so 2003. Get with the times.
I hope this version fixes the issues with Nvidia graphic card.
I keep looking at Ubuntu as my OS X alternative for "semi-dumb" terminals (friends/family that really only need to surf the web, email, look at photos, etc.) and it seems like it's 90%+ there, which is really what I need.
The only thing holding me back is the install. I wasn't able to find anything about the USB install on the site after looking around for a few minutes. Is there a direct line or something I'm missing?
Do you want to install [i]from[/i] a USB drive or [i]to[/i] a USB drive?
Both, if possible.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick
Installation from a USB stick.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/10/15/ubuntu-810-persistent-flash-drive-install-from-live-cd/
Installation to a USB stick.
Should do the trick, haven't tried the second one but the first is tried and tested, and can easily be done from within Windows.
Ack! Shane, those instructions for installing to a USB stick are old, at least for the live usb thing. Intrepid now has an application in its repositories called "USB Creator". Just feed it a live cd iso, or a live cd, and it will turn your flash drive into a bootable, semi persistent Live USB disk :)
ubuntu itself provides a usb installer now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Live_USB_creator
you can boot from ubuntu live cd and install it into a usb thumb drive using that thing. and then your usb thumb drive will work exactly like a live cd.
alternatively, I personally prefer using...
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNetbootin
which downloads ubuntu and then shove it straight into a usb thumb drive. all you have to do is execute it (on either Windows or Ubuntu), select the distro (not just ubuntu), and wait.
Ah yes, but this Live USB creator is only useful to those who already have Intrepid installed! The link I gave gives instructions on how to do it no matter which OS you currently have installed.
it uses less RAM than the old version, and feels smoother, I'd call that a performance upgrade
Try amarok.
i definitely would be an Ubuntu user, but i do a lot with music, and it seems that whenever i play music files with ubuntu, there is a high distortion. also i have yet to find a decent media player. something to the effect of windows media player, which can keep my library nice and organized as well as tag all my files. that's the only thing holding me back. and all codecs i tried to install did not help either. same ol distorted music
try vlc? its basic i know but atleast u wont have the codec issue?
I have found that aTunes works really well for playback on my machine... its sorta like an iTunes/Amarok clone written in Java (it works on Windows and Mac (maybe?) as well)
USB drive install sounds NICE. Reviews are here (9 out of 10!!)
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-8-10-review.html
You know, I was a big fan of Kubuntu since it brought a couple of my neanderthal computers back to life. But I hate using the ndis wrapper. It does not reconnect to my n/w on a reboot and promptly disconnects 30s after the first connect. Every single time. And as much as I hate using itunes (moot in linux anyway) I can't find a stable enough alternative in gtkpod or something similar. They work okay-ish but have some bugs like shredding my album art, ID3 tags etc. Gah. I suppose I could RTFM and all that but meh, I bought a vaio recently and Vista FTW!!
@Dirtyvegas Maybe your wifi/network is already supported by a new kernel, without the need of ndiswrapper. ndis is a last resource thing.
i just ordered the cd... takes "6 to 10 weeks" wow...
It usually takes 1-3 WEEKS TO ARRIVE when its launched at first after that it can take up to a week to arrive. So it should take around 3 weeks.
I don't feel like Ubuntu gets much better with each release. Jumped ship and am now a very happy OpenSUSE 11 user. Much better integration with KDE in any case.
I used it too, but the resource management sucks...
A few programs slow everything down.
Dude, that was an alpha kernel issue that was independent of any one distrobution (such as Ubuntu). It was never released for general public consumption.
Just because you don't get it doesn't mean you should scare others away from it.
ubuntu has a problem with wireless card manufactured from broadcom..
so if you have broadcom's wireless card its useless to try ubuntu. unless you use lan ..
i am trying ubuntu from last 3 yrs. and everytime i shift back to xp just because of this problem..
I had that problem with my HP years ago. Those drivers have to be reversed engineered, cuz broadcom is gay. But there is something called NDISWrapper that takes care of that driver. You install it and give it the windows driver nd it uses that. NDISWrapper is a little touch to configure if you have no experience, Linux Mint makes all that stuff a little easier. Its Ubuntu but it includes MP3 and DVD support out of the box along with NDISWrapper an application for video drivers that are hard to find, and yea its a little easier than Ubuntu if you have hardware problems.
Same with most Linux distros. The problem is that Broadcom refuses to either produce a linux driver, or provide their product specifications to independent linux programmers so that they can produce a driver. It sucks, and it is a huge barrier to using linux on laptops or with wifi networks in general, but it's no fault of the OS.
The good news is that you can use a tool called ndiswrapper to get broacom's windows drivers working. It's tricky, and sometimes doesn't work, but it is possible.
Generally speaking, if you can't find a linux driver for your hardware, it's probably because the hardware company or one of its component suppliers is a giant, collective douche.
They just fixed that with this release.
I just bought an XPS m1330 and installed ubuntu on it (vista? pffft!). It had a broadcom card. Had to install restricted drivers but the distro recognised the card and prompted me to install it over a wired network. In other words, worked for me.
Last time I installed 8.04 in my Dell Inspiron 1501, it automatically recognized and configured the crappy Broadcom WiFi chip. It Just Worked. Ubuntu has the reverse-engineered and open-source bcm43xx driver built-in. If you still can't get it to work, you are doing something wrong.
Better to AVOID Broadcom for making bad chipsets with closed specifications. This is THEIR shortcoming, not Ubuntu's.
It supports the Broadcom hardware just fine now... without the condom. ;)
Give it a try, I just installed it on a computer with that hardware.
for broadcom wifi there are new drivers in this release!!
After spending a good hour trying to figure out how to install adobe flash for firefox in ubuntu 8.04 yesterday, i gave up. Linux is not even CLOSE to being user friendly yet. What is so hard about having a "setup" file that launches an installation program anyway? I know windows may not be the greatest thing ever but come on, at least installing a very basic/common thing works without having to download, extract, launch a terminal, run several scripts.
Funny... I think the exact opposite.
Installing an app in linux has never been as easy, and if you're not able to do that you should not question ubuntu, you should question yourself.
And don't bring the "download, extract, launch a terminal, run several scripts." argument. It only shows your ignorance.
Oh, you poor people. Completely corrupted by Windows' difficult ways to the point that you ignore the easier alternatives when they are staring you in the face!
Flash practically /installs itself/ in Ubuntu. WTF were you doing?!
Last time I tried running firefox in ubuntu without flash, it popped up a window asking whether to install it. All I did was click [Next] a few times. So yeah, I call bullshit on your post.
With most applications the package managers handle clean installs and help you find all sorts of applications from the repositories.
These are actually quite abit better than how Windows handles installs as they remove cleanly as well, not leaving bits and pieces floating in directories and the registry.
Other applications that fall outside the package managers & repository system (third party apps that aren't quite as friendly for the most part) do require some extra effort but usually either A) Install the exact same way as other applications do so take the same set of commands or B) Have step by step instructions written to help people out in several places on community forums. The Linux community tends to be very friendly to helping people get things done so some forum searching will find some good solutions pretty easily and if something more is required there are some very dedicated people that are happy to help out live in IRC channels.
I know this isn't so simple as windows installers can be but various factors are involved ranging from increased user computability before install to issues with the software being originally designed for windows (and then ported over or emulated through WINE).
Though installs and autodetection keeps on improving some of standard system operation for linux is going to be either a compromise to get away from Windows or a labor of love, according to how you see it.
Personally I'll take the lower overhead and the occasional request for root passwords over Windows system bloat and UAC, compromising some irritating setups and some emulation for a move away from Windows.
Apt-get is life.
If the automatic install doesn't work all you do is go into synaptic package manager and search for flash. Install the restricted adobe plug-in, restart firefox and you now have adobe flash.
I think there is a deb package for Adobe 10 on adobe.com making it even easier to install. Download, open the file, click install. Enjoy!
here here, windows is a good os on the bases that its just easy to do stuff. now im going to get rated down because i said "windows" and "good" in the same sentense, for the record i do think linux is a good os but its not user friendly at all.
@ thazlett: while I only use linux, I think windows is also a good OS, with its own shortcomings and improvements. But I also think that linux is user friendly, and its friendly to both newbies and power users. I myself prefer to use a terminal for a lot of tasks that now have a GUI alternative, and I really like that Ubuntu has kept them. But I've also noticed that people that have never used ubuntu or linux before have managed to do their day-to-day tasks on it.
@urandom yer i take it back, it is user friendly in some parts, but i have an example (thought there is probably a really easy solution to this) i love compiz, however its disabled when i install the nvidia drivers as i have a dual screen set up. iv been pulling my hair out trying to get compiz working again. gave up in the end. my idea of user friendlyness is clicking afew buttons. but doing the command line stuff isn't (altough alot of the commands you need to get stuff you done are all over the internet in forums and such).
anyone else think the new windows 7 alpha looks like kubuntu 8.10?
No, it's only you.
Well ive only dabbled with linux on my server and laptop. Tried ubuntu a few weeks ago. I had to put XP back on my server as Samba was being a pain and I only had a couple of days really so time was an issue. I will try it again at some point.
I also put it on my laptop, then realised "fuck, I need photshop too much". Shame too, I like terminal, gives you a nice tingly feeling inside as its fucking complicated but you understand it :P. That on top of the fact it has broadcom wireless card :(
Terminals awesome when you know what your doing, Good for learning if you have some idea but just fucking annoying if your too ignorant to learn.
Linux to windows requires a gigantic mental leap. If you can make it, well done and enjoy a fantastic computing experience. If not, enjoy your windows world where everything is ultra-simplified to please your ignorance.
Tried The Gimp as a photoshop replacement?
If you're using CS2, you're in luck!
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?appId=17
The gimp is a powerful tool but its non-intuitive; why don't you install a virtual machine inside ubuntu and install photoshop in there? it works great (done it before, needed photoshop and zune software) unless you have to eddid some gigantic PNGs.
I've been running 8.10 for the last week on my eeePc 701. Other than some wifi driver issues(nothing to do with Ubuntu), it runs great.
I hope the PPC version fixes https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/189844 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14659
I would love to start using my G4 iMac which is under powered for modern a MacOS. The 20" LCD is beautiful, it's a shame to have it collecting dust.
my wireless doesnt work on 8.10! I have the Intel chip.
great. I have "an intel chip" too, and it works on mine. WHICH Intel chip?
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Ok nevermind it's working now, took a couple of restarts though. Strange!