15 ms·

Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish Released

147 points by nanna 8y ago

KeitIG 8y ago
As always, kudos to Canonical to deliver one of the most mature distribution. But. 2018. And still no fractional scaling. This drives me mad. (changing the text scaling is not a solution). Ok, there was Mir, Wayland is late (again)... how can this problem not be solved in 10 years? (genuine question)
- sunseb 8y ago
  Maybe it's because when you set fractional scaling you lose pixel perfect design (icons, images, and so). https://icons8.com/articles/make-pixel-perfect-icons/ https://icons8.com/articles/make-pixel-perfect-icons/
  - quantummkv 8y ago
    It dosen't happen that way on windows. I had scaling set to 1.25 and got no issues anywhere. The issue with linux is that X wasn't designed for this and Wayland is still unstable/unusable (thanks nvidia)
    - sunseb 8y ago
      I think it's an issue with SVG icons (this format doesn't support fractional scaling, but TTF fonts do).
      - baybal2 8y ago
        >I think it's an issue with SVG icons How so??? SVG is a vector format
      - quantummkv 8y ago
        The whole point of svg and (vector graphics) is that you can scale them to whatever you want.
        sunseb 8y ago
        If you do fractional scaling on a svg image, pixels will not align to the pixel grid and the image will look blury. You won't notice that on big svg images, but tiny ui icons will definitely look blurry. There was even a (never implemented) proposal to allow svg files to handle this problem. https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/SVG_hinting https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/SVG_hintin... That's why svg icons are often designed using a 24x24 pixel grid, so you can scale them at 48X48 (x2), 72x72 (x3), 96x96 (x4) and they remain pixel perfect and crisp at those sizes.
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
        int_19h 8y ago
        It's still better than scaling bitmaps, so it's weird to single out SVG as the culprit. It makes things better in general, not worse.
    - vetinari 8y ago
      Wayland is actually pretty stable. Nvidia has problem with OpenGL in Xwayland (i.e. 3d accel for x11 apps), otherwise, it should work. There are warts though, when using Wayland. When using scaling (doesn't have to be fractional, either), X11 apps are being upscaled, not downscaled, resulting in blurriness. Unfortunately, neither Firefox nor Chrome does support Wayland natively, and who wants to use their most used app on their computer in blurry mode?
      - nanna 8y ago
        Must admit I don't understand what Wayland is, or X server for that matter. Would someone mind explaining it, for someone a bit dull of mind as myself?
        Shywim 8y ago
        In short: X.org is a decade old display server that became the standard to display graphical window on the majority of Linux distribution. GNOME, KDE, XFCE and others are/were client to this display server. Wayland is a new protocol where the window manager (ie GNOME, KDE,...) is responsible of directly managing the display. Each window manager must reimplement this protocol (or use a library already doing this work) which enable them to have more control over the windows. Applications must also directly support Wayland like they did for X.org before (which was the default commonly used, so no problem) or the user just have XWayland installed on their computer to show X.org windows inside a Wayland WM but then the application may not display correctly (blur, artifcats,...)
        ch_123 8y ago
        It is perhaps worth noting that while X.org is about a decade old, it is an implementation of the X Window System protocol which dates back to the mid 80s. Suffice to say, quite a lot has changed in computer graphics/interfaces since that time, and most modern *nix operating systems end up circumventing quite a lot of X to offer modern features. Thus X brings quite a lot of legacy debt to the table which can't be easily removed.
    - int_19h 8y ago
      > It dosen't happen that way on windows. I had scaling set to 1.25 and got no issues anywhere. You do get scaled (and hence somewhat blurry) icons if you do 1.25x on Windows as well. 1.5x usually works better, because icons scaled by that much tend to hit the next size tier that is often available prescaled to look good (16x16 -> 24x24, 32x24 -> 48x48).
  - drb91 8y ago
    Who on earth would prefer that to proper scaling?
    - dmytrish 8y ago
      I use KDE with x1.3 scaling and it mostly works, but e.g. VirtualBox is unusable with scaling, pdf fonts in Okular look torn, some pixel maps scale poorly giving artefacts. Still, I don't have better options: 13" FullHD doesn't play well with 2x scaling (and even 1.5x would usable, but too big for my taste).
    - jcelerier 8y ago
      I realllyyyyyyyyyy hate blurry pixmaps
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - drb91 8y ago
        Ahh Linux, you’ll catch up in a few decades maybe.
  - oblio 8y ago
    I find this as a failing, at least partially, of desktop monitors. Once the DPS is high enough you kind of stop caring about individual pixels. However most laptops and desktops out in the wild have screens which are 1080p at best. Nota bene: I'm talking globally, developed countries are doing better int his regard.
  - rleigh 8y ago
    It's 2018. We have had SVG icons for years on Linux, which scale beautifully. Bitmap icons shouldn't be used any longer.
    - cuu508 8y ago
      On desktops/laptops, 1366x768 is still by far the most common resolution. SVG or not, but on a 13" - 15" 1366x768 screens icons need to be pixel-perfect or they will look crap.
      - Shoue 8y ago
        If you have a 1366x768 screen why would you need DPI scaling? You shouldn't be affected by this issue at all if your resolution is below a certain threshold.
- jeswin 8y ago
  Many commonly used apps do not support Wayland - yet. https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/102936/graphical-applications-cant-be-run-as-root-in-wayland-eg-gedit-beesu-gparted-nautilus/ https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/102936/graphical-a... It's available as an option at login, and mostly works without issues. The preference is sticky until you change it and I mostly boot into Wayland.
- owaislone 8y ago
  Unity7 worked well enough with fractal scaling IIRC :(
  - neverminder 8y ago
    It still does. 18.04 with Unity here, no problems whatsoever with existing fractional scaling on several screens ranging from 13 to 27 inch.
- etatoby 8y ago
  I have my Xubuntu desktop set to 1+3/16 if I'm not mistaken (which in 96dpi units is 114) and everything works well. I'm not sure what you mean.
- severino 8y ago
  I don't know much about the issue, but is this fractional scaling thing a problem only in Ubuntu, or Linux in general? (If specific, I guess it should be easier to fix now, once they decided to use GNOME as their desktop environment, right?)
- pyrophane 8y ago
  Canonical can only be blamed for this if you disagree with their decision to move to Wayland and Gnome. Fractional scaling has been planned in Gnome for some time now (it was originally supposed to be in 3.26).
- k_bx 8y ago
  17.10 had fractal scaling setting on Wayland (not X.org). Not sure if you can enable it in 18.04, probably possible.
tumetab1 8y ago
I'm amazed at Canonical policy of releasing new versions with these kind of bugs open https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CosmicCuttlefish/ReleaseNotes#Known_issues https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CosmicCuttlefish/ReleaseNotes#Known_... Anyone care to recommend a distro which has better policy on quality? (for desktop usage)
- Insanity 8y ago
  Depends what you want. If you like Debian based distros, maybe just use Debian?
- quantummkv 8y ago
  Ubuntu LTS? Fedora?
- sanqui 8y ago
  The planned release of Fedora 29 was just yesterday pushed back by a week due to blocker bugs. Personally, this sort of quality control is what makes me really appreciate Fedora. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-29-Final-Delayed https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-2...
  - s_kilk 8y ago
    Sample-size of one here, but I switched to Fedora a few years back after growing tired of Ubuntu's bugs. I haven't had any real issues since, it's just solid.
    - tssva 8y ago
      Here is a counter sample of one. I switched to Fedora from Ubuntu. Eventually switched back to Ubuntu once I got tired of my system breaking in some new way each time Fedora released a new version. Ubuntu has been rock solid for me.
    - bpye 8y ago
      I'll make it a sample-size of two, Fedora has been rock solid on my desktop and my Chromebook-turned-laptop. Relatively recent software but no noticable bugs. I am using Nouveau and Intel graphics drivers so I'm not sure what it's like if you want Nvidia's proprietary stuff or AMDs, but for me it's great.
brendaningram 8y ago
Unfortunately, I think Canonical has lost their focus on the desktop user. Every version of Ubuntu since 16.04 has had major issues for me. I have given every one of them a chance to redeem themselves, right up to today trying 18.10. Still no dice... For me, as boring as it sounds, Debian 9 (Stretch) with XFCE is rock solid as a daily driver. I'm not some fuddy duddy doing nothing but text editing either. I code every day with Golang and Postgres 11 using VSCode. I make music using Bitwig (and sometimes Ardour). I use Shotwell and Gimp for my photography. I run the latest Krita in the (probably vain) hope that I can become a better artist. And I write my always-in-progress novels with the latest Libreoffice 6.1 and FocusWriter. So to the people asking for a distro that has a better policy on quality, I don't think you can go past Debian.
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  I havent had issues with Kubuntu honestly, but that's for my needs. The only thing that's gotten awful is the Nvidia driver I'm being offered up breaks my distro. I am never buying Nvidia after all the issues with them, I'm hoping AMD can push forward superrior graphics drivers for Linux, but I have had more issues with Nvidia on any OS I use (including Windows) than I ever had with AMD / ATI (only with Linux, or overclocked till it died). I'm kind of excited about trying out Ubuntu Budgie though, it looks pretty smooth.
  - philliphaydon 8y ago
    I switched to budgie but got bitten by Nvidia bug which prevented Ubuntu loading. None of the solutions I tried from forums worked so I threw in the towel. I haven’t touched my home computer in a few months but when I do I’ll be going to fedora.
  - bakhy 8y ago
    Did you check if the "nouveau" OSS Nvidia driver was still installed? Happened to me all the time, so I got used to always checking and removing it manually before letting him reboot.
- stplsd 8y ago
knocte 8y ago
Two quick questions for anyone that has already tested it: - Does it include a dark theme by default, or not yet? :-/ - Can you install flatpak with `apt-get` or do you need to install some apt sources first?
- kjullien 8y ago
  You can install any theme you want... This is linux, not macos. The point is for you to customize to your liking. Same for flatpack, I don't see why you expect it to be bundled over snaps (which is included if I recall) or appimages...
  - knocte 8y ago
    > You can install any theme you want... This is linux, not macos. The point is for you to customize to your liking. Not that easy without security risks. See: https://askubuntu.com/questions/854253/how-to-install-a-custom-gtk3-ubuntu-theme-without-having-to-add-a-ppa https://askubuntu.com/questions/854253/how-to-install-a-cust... That's why I ask if it has been included by default, in the preferences menu or wherever the theme preferences are. > Same for flatpack, I don't see why you expect it to be bundled over snaps I didn't ask if it's bundled. I asked if it's in the default repos to install it remotely (opt-in) without changing the repos configuration.
    - hocuspocus 8y ago
      You can install ubuntu-budgie-themes, they come with Pocillo, including a dark variant.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- marenkay 8y ago
  `apt install flatpak` totally works. Why wouldn't it?
  - 8y ago
martinsbalodis 8y ago
Does 18.10 solve the Dropbox sync problem?
- hannasanarion 8y ago
  You mean the fact that Dropbox only supports unencrypted ext4 now? No, that is Dropbox's new intentional behavior, they have no plans to resume sync support for linux.
  - marenkay 8y ago
    Couldn't you just fake it in a container pretending it was ext4? Apart from the real question: why Dropbox when you can rsync and others.
    - lorenzhs 8y ago
      Obligatory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 (yes that's a four-digit post ID)
    - hannasanarion 8y ago
      ... because dropbox is cross-platform, user-friendly, doesn't require use of the commandline or configuring an upstream source, has a web interface, simple sharing with others, etc etc etc etc Those kinds of "can't you just..." or "why use [easy user-friendly popular thing] when you could [complicated nerdy feature-bare alternative]" answers are rarely helpful and typically come across as condescending. Yes, there are complicated containerized or fancy disk volume spoofing workarounds, and there are also alternatives (I like SpiderOak), but none are as simple as using dropbox was.
      - another-cuppa 8y ago
        That's the risk you run when you choose convenience over sustainability. If you spent some time and used syncthing you'd get something that won't just disappear some day.
ymannn 8y ago
Hello fingerprint scanner!
- marenkay 8y ago
  Can you elaborate on that? I saw the fingerprint scanner libraries being added but does this add a significant amount of the hardware installed these days?
- pasta 8y ago
  Can you explain? I've been using my fingerprint scanner for years.
Tepix 8y ago
Great to see a new release. Looks like TLS 1.3 is supported OOTB. To get nginx with TLS 1.3 support currently required compiling from source on Bionic. "The Ubuntu project is currently evaluating replacing OpenSSL 1.1.0 with backported OpenSSL 1.1.1 in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Bug 1797386" Fingers crossed...
vmp 8y ago
Personally, I've only ever had issues with Ubuntu Server and have since switched back to Debian. I don't know if I'm extremely unlucky or if the choices I make are really that bad; - I've hit a bug with amavisd and bitdefender[1] - Recently, Ubuntu pushed for 'netplan' instead of ifupdown and that didn't work with an empty bridge for LXC[2][3] - They broke a (convenience) script for remotely unlocking a LUKS rootfs[4] - postconf segfaulting every 5 minutes[5], nothing bad but it just looks ugly in the server logs That's the major annoyances that I've experienced in the last 3 years. Never had anything like it on Debian. :/ [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/amavisd-new/+bug/1525930/ https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/amavisd-new/+bug/1... [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1736975 https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1736975 [3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1773997 https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1773997 [4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/busybox/+bug/1651818 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/busybox/+bug/16518... [5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/postfix/+bug/1753470 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/postfix/+bug/17534...
- hyperbovine 8y ago
  Most Debian packages are years behind the current stable release. This debate is as old as Ubuntu itself. It is the very reason Ubuntu exists. Stable, free, current: pick any two
- bpye 8y ago
  netplan seems to be a nightmare, I ended up falling back to ifupdown when trying to setup libvirtd.
nanna 8y ago
A point that's not been discussed in the Ubuntu vs Debian discussion here is the difference in communities. A major reason I prefer Ubuntu - ok specifically Kubuntu - is because I find the community around it warm, welcoming, positive, encouraging and inclusive, whereas I found the Debian-user email list cantankerous to say the least. I'm glad there's a place for the kinds of posters out there in the world, but it's not for me. Horses for courses, as we say in the UK. Linux isn't just a bunch of software that I can use, but a community which I am a part of.
- retSava 8y ago
  OT: cantankerous - bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative thanks for the vocabulary expansion!
  - unstuckdev 8y ago
    I (and probably the person you replied to) take all these words for granted. It didn't occur to me someone hadn't heard of them. Check out the thesaurus entry for cantankerous for some more useful, related, and probably less common than I think terms: https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cantankerous https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cantankerous
    - retSava 8y ago
      Thanks! And I don't wish people to stop using less common words - I do enjoy an expanded vocabulary, just for the record. The comment was just to save others a couple of clicks :).
  - nanna 8y ago
    Must admit that the OT (OP?) needed some help from a spell checker to write it though ;) To add that the word generally springs to my mind everything you said, plus elderly.
apexalpha 8y ago
Despite recieving enormous amounts of backlash and criticism from the tech comunity every release Canonical is the one company making Linux desktops available for less technical people and I applaud them for doing so! Rocking the latest LTS here, and Ubuntu server on my homeserver. Wish them all the luck!
- hyperbovine 8y ago
  Honestly though, how many non- technical people do you know who run any form of Linux? Steve Jobs came along and gobbled up that market 15 years ago.
  - another-cuppa 8y ago
    The parents and girlfriends of technical people (like mine).
    - kyrofa 8y ago
      Yep. Siblings, wife, and in-laws here.
  - nanna 8y ago
    Not sure what the definition of "non-technical" is but I'm finding that among friends who've never heard, say, of emacs, they're increasingly getting tired of how corporate macOS feels, and they feel cheated into having to buy new hardware when apple has dropped support for theirs. I think the question of linux adoption is more just about spreading the word and supporting people to migrate, rather than advocacy of the need.
    - tomschlick 8y ago
      > and they feel cheated into having to buy new hardware when apple has dropped support for theirs When has Apple dropped the ball on support there? mac OS Mojave supports machines made in 2012...
irq-1 8y ago
Lubuntu 18.10 will have LXQt -- it's still beta: https://lubuntu.me/cosmic-beta-released/ https://lubuntu.me/cosmic-beta-released/
milankragujevic 8y ago
Curiously I can't install it on a laptop so I've hot to go back to 16.04. None of the new versions want to install, get stuck at Installing grub2...
- tbiteteitb 8y ago
  Are You online or offline while installing? 18.04 won't install in my laptop if I was not online. Something needed to be downloaded to properly finish the setup process.
  - milankragujevic 8y ago
    Online, though my internet doesn't work properly today, so it may be that... I'll try again later...

147 points by nanna 8y ago

As always, kudos to Canonical to deliver one of the most mature distribution. But. 2018. And still no fractional scaling. This drives me mad. (changing the text scaling is not a solution). Ok, there was Mir, Wayland is late (again)... how can this problem not be solved in 10 years? (genuine question)

sunseb 8y ago
Maybe it's because when you set fractional scaling you lose pixel perfect design (icons, images, and so). https://icons8.com/articles/make-pixel-perfect-icons/ https://icons8.com/articles/make-pixel-perfect-icons/
- quantummkv 8y ago
  It dosen't happen that way on windows. I had scaling set to 1.25 and got no issues anywhere. The issue with linux is that X wasn't designed for this and Wayland is still unstable/unusable (thanks nvidia)
  - sunseb 8y ago
    I think it's an issue with SVG icons (this format doesn't support fractional scaling, but TTF fonts do).
    - baybal2 8y ago
      >I think it's an issue with SVG icons How so??? SVG is a vector format
    - quantummkv 8y ago
      The whole point of svg and (vector graphics) is that you can scale them to whatever you want.
      - sunseb 8y ago
        If you do fractional scaling on a svg image, pixels will not align to the pixel grid and the image will look blury. You won't notice that on big svg images, but tiny ui icons will definitely look blurry. There was even a (never implemented) proposal to allow svg files to handle this problem. https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/SVG_hinting https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/SVG_hintin... That's why svg icons are often designed using a 24x24 pixel grid, so you can scale them at 48X48 (x2), 72x72 (x3), 96x96 (x4) and they remain pixel perfect and crisp at those sizes.
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
        int_19h 8y ago
        It's still better than scaling bitmaps, so it's weird to single out SVG as the culprit. It makes things better in general, not worse.
  - vetinari 8y ago
    Wayland is actually pretty stable. Nvidia has problem with OpenGL in Xwayland (i.e. 3d accel for x11 apps), otherwise, it should work. There are warts though, when using Wayland. When using scaling (doesn't have to be fractional, either), X11 apps are being upscaled, not downscaled, resulting in blurriness. Unfortunately, neither Firefox nor Chrome does support Wayland natively, and who wants to use their most used app on their computer in blurry mode?
    - nanna 8y ago
      Must admit I don't understand what Wayland is, or X server for that matter. Would someone mind explaining it, for someone a bit dull of mind as myself?
      - Shywim 8y ago
        In short: X.org is a decade old display server that became the standard to display graphical window on the majority of Linux distribution. GNOME, KDE, XFCE and others are/were client to this display server. Wayland is a new protocol where the window manager (ie GNOME, KDE,...) is responsible of directly managing the display. Each window manager must reimplement this protocol (or use a library already doing this work) which enable them to have more control over the windows. Applications must also directly support Wayland like they did for X.org before (which was the default commonly used, so no problem) or the user just have XWayland installed on their computer to show X.org windows inside a Wayland WM but then the application may not display correctly (blur, artifcats,...)
        ch_123 8y ago
        It is perhaps worth noting that while X.org is about a decade old, it is an implementation of the X Window System protocol which dates back to the mid 80s. Suffice to say, quite a lot has changed in computer graphics/interfaces since that time, and most modern *nix operating systems end up circumventing quite a lot of X to offer modern features. Thus X brings quite a lot of legacy debt to the table which can't be easily removed.
  - int_19h 8y ago
    > It dosen't happen that way on windows. I had scaling set to 1.25 and got no issues anywhere. You do get scaled (and hence somewhat blurry) icons if you do 1.25x on Windows as well. 1.5x usually works better, because icons scaled by that much tend to hit the next size tier that is often available prescaled to look good (16x16 -> 24x24, 32x24 -> 48x48).
- drb91 8y ago
  Who on earth would prefer that to proper scaling?
  - dmytrish 8y ago
    I use KDE with x1.3 scaling and it mostly works, but e.g. VirtualBox is unusable with scaling, pdf fonts in Okular look torn, some pixel maps scale poorly giving artefacts. Still, I don't have better options: 13" FullHD doesn't play well with 2x scaling (and even 1.5x would usable, but too big for my taste).
  - jcelerier 8y ago
    I realllyyyyyyyyyy hate blurry pixmaps
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - drb91 8y ago
      Ahh Linux, you’ll catch up in a few decades maybe.
- oblio 8y ago
  I find this as a failing, at least partially, of desktop monitors. Once the DPS is high enough you kind of stop caring about individual pixels. However most laptops and desktops out in the wild have screens which are 1080p at best. Nota bene: I'm talking globally, developed countries are doing better int his regard.
- rleigh 8y ago
  It's 2018. We have had SVG icons for years on Linux, which scale beautifully. Bitmap icons shouldn't be used any longer.
  - cuu508 8y ago
    On desktops/laptops, 1366x768 is still by far the most common resolution. SVG or not, but on a 13" - 15" 1366x768 screens icons need to be pixel-perfect or they will look crap.
    - Shoue 8y ago
      If you have a 1366x768 screen why would you need DPI scaling? You shouldn't be affected by this issue at all if your resolution is below a certain threshold.
jeswin 8y ago
Many commonly used apps do not support Wayland - yet. https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/102936/graphical-applications-cant-be-run-as-root-in-wayland-eg-gedit-beesu-gparted-nautilus/ https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/102936/graphical-a... It's available as an option at login, and mostly works without issues. The preference is sticky until you change it and I mostly boot into Wayland.
owaislone 8y ago
Unity7 worked well enough with fractal scaling IIRC :(
- neverminder 8y ago
  It still does. 18.04 with Unity here, no problems whatsoever with existing fractional scaling on several screens ranging from 13 to 27 inch.
etatoby 8y ago
I have my Xubuntu desktop set to 1+3/16 if I'm not mistaken (which in 96dpi units is 114) and everything works well. I'm not sure what you mean.
severino 8y ago
I don't know much about the issue, but is this fractional scaling thing a problem only in Ubuntu, or Linux in general? (If specific, I guess it should be easier to fix now, once they decided to use GNOME as their desktop environment, right?)
pyrophane 8y ago
Canonical can only be blamed for this if you disagree with their decision to move to Wayland and Gnome. Fractional scaling has been planned in Gnome for some time now (it was originally supposed to be in 3.26).
k_bx 8y ago
17.10 had fractal scaling setting on Wayland (not X.org). Not sure if you can enable it in 18.04, probably possible.

tumetab1 8y ago

I'm amazed at Canonical policy of releasing new versions with these kind of bugs open https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CosmicCuttlefish/ReleaseNotes#Known_issues https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CosmicCuttlefish/ReleaseNotes#Known_... Anyone care to recommend a distro which has better policy on quality? (for desktop usage)

Insanity 8y ago
Depends what you want. If you like Debian based distros, maybe just use Debian?
quantummkv 8y ago
Ubuntu LTS? Fedora?
sanqui 8y ago
The planned release of Fedora 29 was just yesterday pushed back by a week due to blocker bugs. Personally, this sort of quality control is what makes me really appreciate Fedora. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-29-Final-Delayed https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-2...
- s_kilk 8y ago
  Sample-size of one here, but I switched to Fedora a few years back after growing tired of Ubuntu's bugs. I haven't had any real issues since, it's just solid.
  - tssva 8y ago
    Here is a counter sample of one. I switched to Fedora from Ubuntu. Eventually switched back to Ubuntu once I got tired of my system breaking in some new way each time Fedora released a new version. Ubuntu has been rock solid for me.
  - bpye 8y ago
    I'll make it a sample-size of two, Fedora has been rock solid on my desktop and my Chromebook-turned-laptop. Relatively recent software but no noticable bugs. I am using Nouveau and Intel graphics drivers so I'm not sure what it's like if you want Nvidia's proprietary stuff or AMDs, but for me it's great.

brendaningram 8y ago

Unfortunately, I think Canonical has lost their focus on the desktop user. Every version of Ubuntu since 16.04 has had major issues for me. I have given every one of them a chance to redeem themselves, right up to today trying 18.10. Still no dice... For me, as boring as it sounds, Debian 9 (Stretch) with XFCE is rock solid as a daily driver. I'm not some fuddy duddy doing nothing but text editing either. I code every day with Golang and Postgres 11 using VSCode. I make music using Bitwig (and sometimes Ardour). I use Shotwell and Gimp for my photography. I run the latest Krita in the (probably vain) hope that I can become a better artist. And I write my always-in-progress novels with the latest Libreoffice 6.1 and FocusWriter. So to the people asking for a distro that has a better policy on quality, I don't think you can go past Debian.

giancarlostoro 8y ago
I havent had issues with Kubuntu honestly, but that's for my needs. The only thing that's gotten awful is the Nvidia driver I'm being offered up breaks my distro. I am never buying Nvidia after all the issues with them, I'm hoping AMD can push forward superrior graphics drivers for Linux, but I have had more issues with Nvidia on any OS I use (including Windows) than I ever had with AMD / ATI (only with Linux, or overclocked till it died). I'm kind of excited about trying out Ubuntu Budgie though, it looks pretty smooth.
- philliphaydon 8y ago
  I switched to budgie but got bitten by Nvidia bug which prevented Ubuntu loading. None of the solutions I tried from forums worked so I threw in the towel. I haven’t touched my home computer in a few months but when I do I’ll be going to fedora.
- bakhy 8y ago
  Did you check if the "nouveau" OSS Nvidia driver was still installed? Happened to me all the time, so I got used to always checking and removing it manually before letting him reboot.
stplsd 8y ago

knocte 8y ago

Two quick questions for anyone that has already tested it: - Does it include a dark theme by default, or not yet? :-/ - Can you install flatpak with `apt-get` or do you need to install some apt sources first?

kjullien 8y ago
You can install any theme you want... This is linux, not macos. The point is for you to customize to your liking. Same for flatpack, I don't see why you expect it to be bundled over snaps (which is included if I recall) or appimages...
- knocte 8y ago
  > You can install any theme you want... This is linux, not macos. The point is for you to customize to your liking. Not that easy without security risks. See: https://askubuntu.com/questions/854253/how-to-install-a-custom-gtk3-ubuntu-theme-without-having-to-add-a-ppa https://askubuntu.com/questions/854253/how-to-install-a-cust... That's why I ask if it has been included by default, in the preferences menu or wherever the theme preferences are. > Same for flatpack, I don't see why you expect it to be bundled over snaps I didn't ask if it's bundled. I asked if it's in the default repos to install it remotely (opt-in) without changing the repos configuration.
  - hocuspocus 8y ago
    You can install ubuntu-budgie-themes, they come with Pocillo, including a dark variant.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
marenkay 8y ago
`apt install flatpak` totally works. Why wouldn't it?
- 8y ago

martinsbalodis 8y ago

Does 18.10 solve the Dropbox sync problem?

hannasanarion 8y ago
You mean the fact that Dropbox only supports unencrypted ext4 now? No, that is Dropbox's new intentional behavior, they have no plans to resume sync support for linux.
- marenkay 8y ago
  Couldn't you just fake it in a container pretending it was ext4? Apart from the real question: why Dropbox when you can rsync and others.
  - lorenzhs 8y ago
    Obligatory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 (yes that's a four-digit post ID)
  - hannasanarion 8y ago
    ... because dropbox is cross-platform, user-friendly, doesn't require use of the commandline or configuring an upstream source, has a web interface, simple sharing with others, etc etc etc etc Those kinds of "can't you just..." or "why use [easy user-friendly popular thing] when you could [complicated nerdy feature-bare alternative]" answers are rarely helpful and typically come across as condescending. Yes, there are complicated containerized or fancy disk volume spoofing workarounds, and there are also alternatives (I like SpiderOak), but none are as simple as using dropbox was.
    - another-cuppa 8y ago
      That's the risk you run when you choose convenience over sustainability. If you spent some time and used syncthing you'd get something that won't just disappear some day.

ymannn 8y ago

Hello fingerprint scanner!

marenkay 8y ago
Can you elaborate on that? I saw the fingerprint scanner libraries being added but does this add a significant amount of the hardware installed these days?
pasta 8y ago
Can you explain? I've been using my fingerprint scanner for years.

Tepix 8y ago

Great to see a new release. Looks like TLS 1.3 is supported OOTB. To get nginx with TLS 1.3 support currently required compiling from source on Bionic. "The Ubuntu project is currently evaluating replacing OpenSSL 1.1.0 with backported OpenSSL 1.1.1 in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Bug 1797386" Fingers crossed...

vmp 8y ago

Personally, I've only ever had issues with Ubuntu Server and have since switched back to Debian. I don't know if I'm extremely unlucky or if the choices I make are really that bad; - I've hit a bug with amavisd and bitdefender[1] - Recently, Ubuntu pushed for 'netplan' instead of ifupdown and that didn't work with an empty bridge for LXC[2][3] - They broke a (convenience) script for remotely unlocking a LUKS rootfs[4] - postconf segfaulting every 5 minutes[5], nothing bad but it just looks ugly in the server logs That's the major annoyances that I've experienced in the last 3 years. Never had anything like it on Debian. :/ [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/amavisd-new/+bug/1525930/ https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/amavisd-new/+bug/1... [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1736975 https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1736975 [3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1773997 https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1773997 [4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/busybox/+bug/1651818 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/busybox/+bug/16518... [5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/postfix/+bug/1753470 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/postfix/+bug/17534...

hyperbovine 8y ago
Most Debian packages are years behind the current stable release. This debate is as old as Ubuntu itself. It is the very reason Ubuntu exists. Stable, free, current: pick any two
bpye 8y ago
netplan seems to be a nightmare, I ended up falling back to ifupdown when trying to setup libvirtd.

nanna 8y ago

A point that's not been discussed in the Ubuntu vs Debian discussion here is the difference in communities. A major reason I prefer Ubuntu - ok specifically Kubuntu - is because I find the community around it warm, welcoming, positive, encouraging and inclusive, whereas I found the Debian-user email list cantankerous to say the least. I'm glad there's a place for the kinds of posters out there in the world, but it's not for me. Horses for courses, as we say in the UK. Linux isn't just a bunch of software that I can use, but a community which I am a part of.

retSava 8y ago
OT: cantankerous - bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative thanks for the vocabulary expansion!
- unstuckdev 8y ago
  I (and probably the person you replied to) take all these words for granted. It didn't occur to me someone hadn't heard of them. Check out the thesaurus entry for cantankerous for some more useful, related, and probably less common than I think terms: https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cantankerous https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cantankerous
  - retSava 8y ago
    Thanks! And I don't wish people to stop using less common words - I do enjoy an expanded vocabulary, just for the record. The comment was just to save others a couple of clicks :).
- nanna 8y ago
  Must admit that the OT (OP?) needed some help from a spell checker to write it though ;) To add that the word generally springs to my mind everything you said, plus elderly.

apexalpha 8y ago

Despite recieving enormous amounts of backlash and criticism from the tech comunity every release Canonical is the one company making Linux desktops available for less technical people and I applaud them for doing so! Rocking the latest LTS here, and Ubuntu server on my homeserver. Wish them all the luck!

hyperbovine 8y ago
Honestly though, how many non- technical people do you know who run any form of Linux? Steve Jobs came along and gobbled up that market 15 years ago.
- another-cuppa 8y ago
  The parents and girlfriends of technical people (like mine).
  - kyrofa 8y ago
    Yep. Siblings, wife, and in-laws here.
- nanna 8y ago
  Not sure what the definition of "non-technical" is but I'm finding that among friends who've never heard, say, of emacs, they're increasingly getting tired of how corporate macOS feels, and they feel cheated into having to buy new hardware when apple has dropped support for theirs. I think the question of linux adoption is more just about spreading the word and supporting people to migrate, rather than advocacy of the need.
  - tomschlick 8y ago
    > and they feel cheated into having to buy new hardware when apple has dropped support for theirs When has Apple dropped the ball on support there? mac OS Mojave supports machines made in 2012...

irq-1 8y ago

Lubuntu 18.10 will have LXQt -- it's still beta: https://lubuntu.me/cosmic-beta-released/ https://lubuntu.me/cosmic-beta-released/

milankragujevic 8y ago

Curiously I can't install it on a laptop so I've hot to go back to 16.04. None of the new versions want to install, get stuck at Installing grub2...

tbiteteitb 8y ago
Are You online or offline while installing? 18.04 won't install in my laptop if I was not online. Something needed to be downloaded to properly finish the setup process.
- milankragujevic 8y ago
  Online, though my internet doesn't work properly today, so it may be that... I'll try again later...