
Ubuntu Releases 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin - cobychapple
http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/
======
cryptolect
Ok, I've just tried my 12.04 / Unity laptop with my 22" monitor.

The thing is, I have my laptop on the left, and 22" on the right. So I want to
set the Unity launcher to the right hand side of my main screen, the 22"
display, so that it doesn't get in the way of scrolling to the laptop's
screen.

Sounds simple right? Switching the launcher from left to right? Wrong.
[http://askubuntu.com/questions/123552/unity-launcher-on-
righ...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/123552/unity-launcher-on-right-side)

In short, I'm advised to switch to a whole different desktop manager for that
simple functionality. What a crock of shit.

I still like it for laptops, but this inflexibility ruins it for multi-
displays. BRB, installing another desktop manager...

A few more links on the subject:

<https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/740391>

[http://askubuntu.com/questions/33605/can-i-move-the-unity-
la...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/33605/can-i-move-the-unity-launcher)

<https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/668415/comments/2>

~~~
sgentle
Yes. I am generally supportive of Unity but this is one thing I just can't
understand. I get the rationale for avoiding a bottom dock on a widescreen
monitor, but the left-hand side doesn't even make sense (browser back button
is on the left, window close button is on the left - any time I try to use
either of them I accidentally trigger the launcher). The best solution I found
was to use ccsm and change the hotkey to anything other than "left screen
edge" or something similar.

The launcher then auto-hides permanently, but you can still cause it to appear
with the windows key. Disappointing, really - there's no clever artistic or
design reason to disallow a right-hand dock. It just seems like a case of
hubris and ignorance.

~~~
lloeki
> I get the rationale for avoiding a bottom dock on a widescreen monitor

Depends. I have set my OSX dock to autohide at the bottom, and I'm glad I
don't have to move across to reach it. Flick down, boom, Dock. It works even
better than it sounds since it works along the edge, not solely where the dock
is. Even with multiple monitors, my dock is at most one screen-wide away (even
in a triple head setup), while a left-bound dock is two (even three) screenful
away.

Also, I seem to unconsciously end up with the pointer in a vertically centered
zone. Horizontally it comparatively could stay in any place, left, center or
right. Statistically that might be the case too since going up for a
(application or status icon) menu will later have me bring the pointer down
since I click on a menu entry.

What's more it seems more natural and producing less strain for my eyes to
peek up or down than to the far left. Indeed when I want for something to
'disappear' (like the pointer when typing) I move it sideways, never up or
down.

Hence since I'm at most a screen width and half a screen height away form the
dock, 'flick, boom, Dock' works only at the bottom.

While all of this may apply only to me (and I used a left-bound dock for a
while myself, but ended up reverting back to the bottom edge) I understand
that some may have other habits and prefer a left-, or right-bound dock. This
is why both Gnome 3 and Unity drive me insane, because even if I had a lengthy
experiment with a side dock it just doesn't make sense to me, and this is
really infuriating to not let people have their way in this case.

(besides, vaguely related to the subject and multi head setups
notwithstanding, I find it infuriating in Gnome 3 that the left edge does not
reveal the dock and the right edge the workspace switcher. the whole thing
just _begs_ for it)

------
philjackson
I'm here to collect my OSS karma as I contributed a couple of the wallpapers
to this one.

~~~
noahc
Downvoted. Twilight frost is an awesome background though.

You should add more info like "Hey, a little OT, but here's how the process
works. Etc" to avoid down votes for lack of contribution.

~~~
philjackson
Your downvote was lost in the sea of upvotes making this my most upvoted
comment ever...

The process for choosing an Ubuntu wallpaper goes thusly:

* A new, public flickr group is created.

* People bung their photos/art in there.

* The previous 'winners' choose the next wallpapers.

~~~
noahc
Maybe my comment helped make it the most popular comment ever. If so, I'm glad
I could help!

So, you had two of your photos chosen for this release or no? Is that rare?

Thanks for the context in how it works. Do you see any trends in what gets
picked over what doesn't. I assume more abstract is usually better?

------
revorad
If you have any issues (in addition to the ones already mentioned by others
here), please let me know.

If you're interested in buying Thinkpads with Linux pre-installed and fully
tested, please sign up here - <http://giniji.com/ubuntu_laptops.html>

</plug>

~~~
TY
Just signed up. Would love to hear more about your business. It's really a
pain to find a laptop that would not suck under Linux for any of the important
dimensions (wifi, battery life, external monitor support, working fn keys and
etc).

I know of System76 and etc, but their hardware doesn't inspire me much
(spoiled by Apple).

~~~
rbanffy
> It's really a pain to find a laptop that would not suck under Linux for any
> of the important dimensions (wifi, battery life, external monitor support,
> working fn keys and etc).

I have nothing but good things to say about Dell computers. Of course, I am a
bit careful not to choose ATI or Nvidia graphics or anything that seems
designed to run only Windows. The v131 I'm using now works perfectly (and came
with Ubuntu preinstalled). Having a version that comes preinstalled with Linux
is a good indicator the machine will work properly with it.

~~~
revorad
The trouble with Dell laptops is that the quality variance is really high.
Mostly anecdotally speaking, I've found that the number of people who had a
terrible experience with Dell and the number who had a good one are about
equal.

The most common problem is the battery conking out after a year or so, and
then the replacement choice is either a ridiculously expensive one from Dell
(which costs a third of the laptop itself!) or a cheap Chinese gamble from
ebay. The screen hinges also break sooner than later.

Still, I think on the cheaper end, Dell laptops are better than Acer and
Toshiba. Their keyboards are not amazing but at least they don't try to do any
cute stunts with them. The Vostro is surprisingly well built.

Shame the Ubuntu version is not available in the UK (or maybe I just failed
their website easter egg hunt).

~~~
rbanffy
I had to buy mine in the US. :-(

I don't think they are available in Brazil either and, in any case, the
keyboard layout is not to my taste.

------
rufugee
I'm one of those weird folk who run three monitors, and even though 12.04
promised better 2+ monitor support through Unity 2D, I still find it lacking.
Perhaps it's the way I have it configured, but I use two nvidia cards with
xinerama, which means I'm forced to use Unity 2D (no compositing support).
Unity 2D just isn't as stable or usable. I really, really hope they put more
effort to fixing this in 12.10.

~~~
andyl
Have you tried Gnome? I also use 2 monitors, and hope that Gnome on 12.04
supports multi-monitors well.

~~~
obtino
I'm using 3 monitors in 12.04 under Unity without a hitch! Then again, I'm
using 1 ATI video card (with 3 outputs) and the proprietary ATI driver.

Unity has great support for multiple-monitors. Many, if not most, of the
problems are due to: X, the video card drivers and Xinerama.

~~~
rufugee
Yep...in case anyone comes back to this thread, I purchase an AMD Sapphire
Radeon FLEX HD 6770 1GB DDR5 PCIe 2.1, and Unity works perfectly across all
three now using the proprietary drivers, and setting the "Multi-display
desktop" option for each monitor in the amdcccle utility.

------
cryptolect
As someone who went to Fedora 16 after the initial Unity debacle, I've been
using 12.04 on my laptops, and I must say, it's generally been a pleasant
experience.

I still haven't tried with multi-screens, so I'm not sure how well it works
there.

After a few tweaks, I'm rather chuffed with 12.04: \- Change icons down to
32x32 \- Auto-hide drawer \- Change theme to Radiance \- Set terminal font to
10 and colors to white on black / Linux colors.

I recommend people give it a second chance, particularly on laptops.

~~~
luser001
OT: There was an "Ellen" clip or something that was posted somewhere about UK-
vs-US slangs words and iirc 'chuff' was there (the USAian didn't know what it
was). I had to look up the definition to understand 100% whether you were
pleased or displeased. :)

PSA: chuff == Brit slang for to please or delight
(<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chuff>)

------
tero
Xubuntu seems to be out now:
[http://torrent.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/precise/release/d...](http://torrent.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/precise/release/desktop/xubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386.iso.torrent)

I've been teaching the beta for a while now, I like it. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS comes
with new vagrant, puppet and arduino 1.0. And with Xubuntu, you can use a
traditional desktop. Some of my experiences teaching with the beta
<http://terokarvinen.com/2012/xubuntu-12-04-lts-on-vappu>

~~~
glesica
Yes!

I've been using Xubuntu 12.04 for a few weeks now (beta) and it has converted
me back from Debian/Mint. If you don't love Unity, give Xubuntu 12.04 a try
before you mess around trying to hack a different DE on Ubuntu.

In the past, Xubuntu felt kind of awkward, at least to me. It felt as though
XFCE was sort of mashed on top of Ubuntu, with too much Ubuntu showing through
the cracks. But 12.04 feels like 100% its own product.

------
nextparadigms
If Canonical is reading this, please put up a torrent link on the main page
with both versions. Obviously your servers can't handle the load right now.

~~~
nimeshneema
You can easily reach to this point
<http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/alternative-downloads> Find the
torrent links here

~~~
qznc
Is there something torrent-comparable for "apt-get upgrade"?

~~~
amalag
They should work on apt-diffs first which Redhat already does. The torrent
idea may not be practical because your machine would have to be running the
torrentable-apt-get to act as a peer. I doubt many people would want to leave
that running and the short 10 second connections would not be enough to
sustain the swarm.

------
oconnore
As someone who has been using 12.04 + Unity on my primary work computer since
Alpha with minimal issues, this is awesome! It works great! Download it!

~~~
derrida
Yeah, this was the first beta I've tried that didn't have one major hiccup.
Maybe because it's the LTS edition?

------
floydprice
Been using the Beta releases for a while now and I'm hooked, Unity has matured
in to a really well thought out and compelling desktop environment.

My absolute favorite feature is hitting the alt key (from any app) and being
about to navigate the menus and options e.g. in FireFox Alt > Type "Edit" and
i see all the options available - Very Slick and means i can use the keyboard
to effectively navigate all apps now, Previous versions of unity didn't really
lend themselves to this.

------
alexmuller
Desktop release notes are at
[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuD...](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuDesktop)

~~~
jamesgeck0
> Hibernate (suspend to disk) has been disabled by default, as it was found to
> be unreliable, very slow and confusing to have two suspend modes. See bug
> 812394 for details. If you want to re-enable it, please follow this recipe.

As someone who runs Ubuntu on a laptop with a dead battery, that's somewhat
unfortunate.

> The mail client Evolution may delete folders and their contents as they are
> renamed or moved around in IMAP (and IMAP+) accounts. It is recommended to
> copy folders and contents before attempting to move or rename them. (957341)

Ouch! I'm surprised a bug that big with a default application wasn't a release
blocker.

~~~
mseebach
>> Hibernate (suspend to disk) has been disabled by default, as it was found
to be unreliable, very slow and confusing to have two suspend modes.

I'd guess from the phrasing that suspend-to-disk can still be enabled, it just
isn't by default.

~~~
jamesgeck0
Yes, it can be, and the next bit says as much. I've pasted in the rest of the
bullet point to clarify. I was just disappointed that such a thing has to be
enabled manually now.

~~~
StavrosK
I find STR reliable, stable, fast and good enough that I think hibernation
isn't really needed any more...

~~~
lukeschlather
Hibernate is a must-have for long travel without outlet access.

------
keithpeter
I'd like to know how the 10.04 -> 12.04 upgrade goes in places that use the
Long Term Support (LTS) Ubuntu releases as end user machines. The change in UI
is quite radical if you have not worked thru' 11.04 and 11.10 6 monthly
releases. It struck me that there may be people here who have access/work in
organisations with large deployments.

I'd be interested in knowing about the training issues that arose and what
action was taken, and how people like the new interface. Sort of a high volume
test of Canonical's user testing driven design.

I imagine most of the large volume upgrades will be taking place after 12.04.1
is released sometime June.

I've contributed a poster for the coffee area...

<http://spreadubuntu.org/en/material/brochure/1204-poster>

------
octopus
Finally with Ubuntu 12.04 we have a smooth Unity experience. I've used the
12.04 since beta and it just works.

~~~
mise
Yup, this thread is interesting. An Ubuntu release, and I haven't read many
complaints about Unity thus far down the page.

They lost me to Mint in their last couple of releases.

~~~
scott_w
It's possible that you've just explained it: The people for who it became such
a problem have already migrated away.

I don't have any numbers for that, but even if it's a small shift, then it
could be that most people weren't too fussed anyway.

~~~
octopus
We as humans and programmers are creatures of habit, Unity by being a
relatively new technology will break some habits in our work ritual. Give it a
few years and nobody will complain about this.

~~~
Peaker
I don't think Unity is simply different. At least as of 11.10, it was
different _and_ objectively worse.

~~~
mise
So the question is, has 12.04 made a leap in the right direction, enough for
it to be at least _as_ good?

------
sajithdilshan
I've been using Ubuntu 12.04 for the past month and must say it is pretty
stable for a beta version and I'm so glad that final version is out. Hoping to
stick with it until Ubuntu 14.04

------
scribblemacher
Has anyone tried using this on a netbook? My wife is interested in trying
Linux, and I was thinking Ubuntu (or Lubuntu) might be a good choice for her.
Speed is an issue for her and one of the reasons she's not satisfied with
Windows. I'd introduce her to Gentoo, but I don't think she'd appreciate the
joy of GNU make.

~~~
dripton
My netbook is running Lubuntu 11.10. It was previously running Ubuntu 10.x
Netbook Edition and Ubuntu 10.04. They work. (I like Gentoo too, but I don't
want to do much compiling on a netbook.)

Most GUI programs aren't designed to use in 1024x600. For example, it's hard
to actually read email in Thunderbird because there isn't much room for text
after subtracting pixels for window decorations, menu bar, toolbar, header
bar, and status bar. I think a netbook would benefit from a tiling window
manager, but I haven't got around to installing one yet.

------
Garbage
For the guys who are complaining about Unity, you can give a try to gnome-
panel

 _sudo apt-get install gnome-panel_

~~~
jrgifford
Yes, and there is a full set of instructions on how to get it looking just
like gnome2.x <http://askubuntu.com/q/58172/6005>

~~~
runeks
Nice! Thanks for posting. I would totally switch to Unity if it were more
customizable (a lá the GNOME's panels).

~~~
jrgifford
You're welcome! It will be customizable, but not to the extent of the GNOME
panels. Part of the other problem is that it's still new, so developers don't
want to build a lot of stuff with it.

------
viraptor
I installed beta 2 and run into issues with disk power management. By default
it had a very small timeout to spin down. Fixed manually with hdparm -S, but I
didn't see any updates that correct it. If you notice your drive clicking all
the time, there's your fix...

~~~
freehunter
I had this problem when watching movies from the disk, oddly enough. It kept
shutting down the hard drive when it was reading from the memory buffer, then
when the buffer ran out it needed to pause while the drive spun back up. I
haven't tried the final to see if it's fixed.

------
XERQ
We built and added Ubuntu 12.04 to our provisioning system for cloud servers
at SSD Nodes (<http://www.ssdnodes.com>). It boots very quickly on our
hypervisors at just 5-10 seconds.

/plug

~~~
nl
Interesting.

I'm pretty sure your claim about the 45,000 IOPs being the most of any SATA
SSDs is no longer true.

The (consumer grade) Intel 520 SSDs claim 80,000 random write IOPs, and I
think I remember seeing the cheaper SATA SSDs on the Dell R720s doing 100K+
(obviously the SAS SSDs do more as do FusionIOs and PCI based express flash)

But to bring it back to Ubuntu - do you use the Ubuntu OpenStack distribution
or what?

~~~
XERQ
You're probably right, it was actually Micron's claim that we used (end of
first paragraph: [http://www.micron.com/products/solid-state-
storage/enterpris...](http://www.micron.com/products/solid-state-
storage/enterprise-sata-ssd/p300-enterprise-sata-ssd)).

They're still ridiculously fast. Once we can justify the expense, I would love
to get Fusion-IO's or the Micron P320h's on our platform.

Regarding Ubuntu, we're just using the vanilla Ubuntu 12.04 server
distribution for our image templates. Of course, if people wanted OpenStack we
would support it and possibly create another template for easy provisioning.

------
babarock
Has anyone tried to dist-upgrade? Does it work well?

Around the time I was a Ubuntu user (around Hardy 8.04), dist-upgrade would
usually break your box and was discouraged by Canonical themselves. If I
recall correctly.

~~~
graywh
dist-upgrade won't upgrade you to the next release, just updates your current
release. You want do-release-upgrade. And I've never had a problem with dist-
upgrade.

[http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com/2010/02/dist-
upgra...](http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com/2010/02/dist-upgrade-
misnomer-confusion.html)

~~~
babarock
True, mea culpa. I meant to talk about do-release-upgrade. It's been so long
I'm a little confused with the terminology :)

Seamless release upgrade is crucial if you want to have a high frequency (6
month) release cycle. Glad to see they made progress with this.

------
portmanteaufu
Is there a reason that Canonical doesn't make upgrading via torrent more
front-and-center? It seems like on huge release days like today they'd want
the swarm to lend itself a hand.

~~~
jiggy2011
I guess probably to simplify things, the less links to "get" the product the
better, especially if they are going after less savvy users who may also
believe that bittorrent is illegal or shady in some way.

~~~
area51mafia
They could just build it into do-release-upgrade and use bittorrent behind the
scenes, then nobody would really be the wiser.

------
wiradikusuma
i'm thinking of triple-booting my 2009 MBP with Ubuntu (already Bootcamped
with Win7). anyone has experience with Ubuntu on MBPs? any problem with
hardware? i need a lightweight-but-nice-looking OS for day-to-day Java
development (i use IntelliJ), Lion is taxing too much.

~~~
argarg
Running ubuntu as my main OS on my 2011 MBP for a while. Everything works and
is stable except for the wireless driver, which you have to compile yourself
and only supports wireless G. Things may have changed in the last months
though. I don't know about the 2009 MBP hardware.

------
scribu
To set up my optimal configuration, I have a bash script that I run right
after installing Ubuntu.

Based on the fact that I was able to remove lines and not add new ones to this
script, I'd say this release is pretty good.

Gripe: Ubuntu One still takes ages to sync up.

Praise: Sticky edges for multiple monitors; they're really handy when
scrolling or otherwise doing something near the edge between the screens (and
can be turned off if you don't like them).

------
morsch
I usually praise the rich ecosystem of custom packages and (PPA) repositories
available for Ubuntu. It means you get the stability and security of a
distribution-maintained main repository as well as the up-to-date or even
cutting edge nature of developer-maintained repositories.

Unfortunately, it's a huge pain in the ass when updating. Packages in PPAs are
built with a specific distribution in mind, and distribution release x
packages aren't supported in release x+1. I think the recommended routine when
upgrading is to purge all custom PPAs you are using before you upgrade. And
then add them back, if available, after upgrading. Of course, you might not
even need the PPA since x+1 might already have the program version you need.

Still, upgrading is already a somewhat fragile process, and using lots of PPAs
makes it even more prone to breaking. The upside is that it's really easy and
safe to clean install over an existing install, particularly if you've got
/home on it's own partition.

~~~
rbanffy
Isn't this handled automatically? I remember the upgrade disabling things like
Google and Virtualbox repos.

~~~
morsch
Apparently using ppa-purge is only necessary for certain critical PPAs like
x-updates. Still, I think the process is fragile even if it's mostly
automatic: who's to say the version you end up with after the upgrade is
compatible with the one from a PPA you had been using before the upgrade.

------
read_wharf
Ubuntu is more than Unity.

If you don't like or have trouble with Unity, try one of the other Ubuntu
variants. I _love_ lubuntu (lxde-based), it's just windows and a panel.
Anything that gets between my windows and panel (like Unity) gets thrown over
the side without even a wave goodbye. Lubuntu is what xubuntu once aspired to,
lightweight and simple.

Here are all the ubuntu variants:

<http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/>

What is Ubuntu? It's the "easy" Linux distro built on a highly curated version
of the debian repository and their apt package system. Mainstream Ubuntu also
has Unity. It has a large user base, and a large developer community. It's a
nice place to be.

When Unity first hit my laptop, I went running to Mint, only to discover that
they've made a search deal. I then looked at other debian-based distros, but I
missed ubuntu's curated repository. While flirting with other debians, I
discovered lxde, and then lubuntu. I'm there, for now.

------
beagle3
I have an exopc slate that I'm trying to use with Linux, and have had no luck
for the last year.

12.04 doesn't make it better -
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/utouch/+bug/801988> has all the
details (for the W500, but it's the same bug). Touching the screen with two
fingers causes X to blow up. Touching with one finger at the wrong place
causes X selection to lock-up for a few minutes. I'm almost tempted to go to
Windows 7... I hope it gets fixed soon.

Meego 1.2 is able to use the touchscreen without multitouch (but is otherwise
unusable as a distribution).

Does anyone have good experience with any ubuntu distribution on an eGalax /
DWAV capacitive multitouch screen?

------
FelixH
As much as Ubuntu has matured over the years, I am pretty disappointed how
many things are broken out of the box still. Being behind a proxy is a major
pain as ever, as well as getting ATI graphics drivers to work properly.

~~~
rbanffy
> ATI graphics drivers to work properly.

You can't exactly say you haven't been warned.

~~~
FelixH
the ATI card wasn't up to me and it is really the proxy support that is the
most disappointing. There are bug reports dating several years back that still
haven't been addressed

------
sciurus
Looks like ubuntu.com can't handle the load. I'm getting errors from squid
when I try to visit <http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/whats-new>

------
pimentel
I really can't stand Unity. Does this work OK with Cinnamon, for example?

~~~
reactor
It has really come a long way, you may try it now. I was also in the league of
people couldn't stand for Unity when it launched, but now I'm using it for
couple of weeks now, its been very pleasant.

~~~
kijin
There are two kinds of people who hated Unity when it first came out. The
first kind of people were mostly unhappy about Unity's bugginess and lack of
functionality. These folks should be OK by now. The second kind of people just
don't like the UI paradigm that Unity represents. Nothing they can ever do
will make them happy with Unity.

After all, that's why Ubuntu has alternative DEs! I use Xubuntu on my netbook
and I'm lovin' it. (Unity 3D is too much for that little bugger.)

~~~
Random_Person
I switched to Xubuntu as well when Unity hit for all of my machines. I think
I'm going to give Unity a shot this time on at least one of my laptops and see
what happens.

It has occurred to me that most things I want to use require GDK anyways, so
XFCE isn't all that light weight any more.

~~~
kijin
You're right, XFCE isn't all that "lightweight" when you add in all the things
you need to make it usable.

XFCE still feels faster than GNOME or KDE on old hardware, probably because it
doesn't use any semi-transparent 3D gimmicks. It is also shaping up to be a
very good option for those who prefer the old GNOME look. The panel and most
other UI elements are even more configurable than I remember GNOME 2 to have
been. I'll be sticking with Xubuntu 12.04 for quite some time.

~~~
Random_Person
I'm conflicted really. I am used to the old GNOME desktop, so XFCE just feels
like home to me... I'll miss right-clicking my desktop for instance... but I
feel that in order to better support customers going forward I need to get
used to the UI's that they will be using.

I do very little Linux support currently, but there are talks of deploying
Linux in our schools very soon and I can't see them using anything other than
Ubuntu. It will do me well to have familiarity with the product. I'm upgrading
my desktop to Xubuntu 12.04 now, but I think I'm going to switch my secondary
laptop to Ubuntu and start getting used to it.

~~~
keithpeter
I've had teenagers using a couple of netbooks in classes running 12.04. No
fuss, just handed them the netbook to access Moodle course in-class during
group work, along with a few College windows laptops.

No problem. Just needed a word about how clicking on the 'cog wheel' to close
Firefox won't work (windows controls hidden until mouse over). They just
clicked around the interface to find things.

~~~
Random_Person
That's really what I expect from implementing Ubuntu in our current
classrooms.

West Virginia is making a BIG push on the school districts to have a 1:1
student/computer ratio. Most districts going forward with it are purchasing
netbooks to cut costs. Their technology budgets are already thin and they are
desperately looking for ways of trimming even more to make room for more
machines.

~~~
keithpeter
Campus wifi? A central server running Moodle as the VLE in each school? It
could work very well for them. The further education college in which I work
has Windows, but they have installed GIMP, Inkscape, Audacity college wide.
Some great work with Audacity, people find GIMP a bit harder. Inkscape isn't
used much (but then neither is Adobe Illustrator).

~~~
Random_Person
Most of the larger schools (Middle/High) already have campus wide wifi. Some
of the larger elementary schools do as well. The big push right now is for VM
Ware. Some of the counties are going to a district-wide WAN for serving up VMs
from a central NOC.

~~~
keithpeter
That sounds great. Wifi/Internet enabled netbooks in a class one to a group
can encourage discussion and _carefully planned_ research if the teacher just
thinks through the pedagogy a bit.

------
agumonkey
Booted the .iso cold from a usb key, desktop came up way faster than expected.
For non old computer _, it might be a very good consumer OS.

_ : fast on C2D 1.6G, 50% of the 4G of ram were used quickly.

~~~
konstruktor
<http://www.linuxatemyram.com/>

~~~
agumonkey
still, kubuntu 12.04b2 is around 400Mb.

I understand cache policy makes comparisons dumb, but I sleep better when my
computer has less to manage.

That said since it boots as a live cd .. a lot might just be the root fs.

 _selfacepalm_

~~~
sciurus
If needed, you can make Kubuntu use even less by installing kubuntu-low-fat-
settings

~~~
agumonkey
Thanks, since last kde update were performing so fast I forgot about this :)

------
cristiantincu
Please excuse my ignorance, but what exactly does “final beta” mean?

~~~
fingerprinter
Homepage hasn't been updated yet. I heard they are shooting for a 12.04pm UTC
release, so just about nowish :)

~~~
nextparadigms
So is it final or still some beta version? I keep seeing beta 2 everywhere.

Also, I'm not too familiar with it, so why does it imply that the 64 bit
version only works on AMD CPU's? Is there no 64 bit version for Intel?

~~~
tresta
amd64 is the name for the architecture that both intel and amd use in their
64-bit desktop processors. It has that name because it was originally amd that
released the architecture (and intel used itanium at the time).

~~~
ticks
They should consider renaming that ISO to something more affordable - I had no
idea that it was compatible with Intel CPUs.

~~~
slurgfest
everyone* already knows what amd64 means

* almost everyone who cares

------
mmcnickle
After building a new machine for work this month, I was looking for a new
distro to install due to the hassle I had with unity before (11.04 with 2
monitors -- it wouldn't even place windows on the second screen).

Out of loyality (ubuntu user since 5.04) I gave the 12.04 beta a go and was
genuinely pleasantly surprised with unity. I've opted to keep 12.04. The
multiple monitors works well for me (though not an exotic set up 2x23" matched
monitors, Nvidia GFX).

------
Osiris
I just spent over an hour last night upgrading one of my laptops to 11.10
because 12.04 was still beta. I guess I should have just waited one more day.

~~~
fl3tch
If you were coming from 11.04, you'd have to upgrade to 11.10 anyway, since
you can only upgrade from one release directly to the next one, or one LTS to
the next. That's why I suspect you were on 11.04 and not 10.04 (it's not
possible to upgrade directly from 10.04 or 10.10 to 11.10).

The alternative would have been a clean reinstall.

So basically you did the right thing.

------
BrainScraps
Been using this for the past month or so - performs well, stable, and I'm
still getting used to the HUD. Once I become a master of the HUD, I'll be all
set.

I did have to do some tweaking to the default workspace management keybindings
to be truly happy with the install, however. But if someone is coming in
without any preexisting biases, the defaults may suit them just fine. (Hit the
Super or "Windows" key for a guide)

~~~
duck
Just to be clear, you have to _hold_ the Super key to see the keyboard
shortcuts. Also, here is a good overview of the Unity shortcuts:
[http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/what-are-unitys-
keyboar...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/what-are-unitys-keyboard-and-
mouse-shortcuts)

~~~
BrainScraps
Thanks for clarifying that. I disabled that feature a while back, so I forgot
it was a _hold._

------
mdesantis
I'm using it from the beta1, and I must say that it is awesome; apart from
those notifications zero-interaction zero-configuration, I hate them!!!

~~~
freehunter
The notifications in the newer Ubuntu really do irritate me. In releases of
old (if my memory is correct), notifications could be clicked to bring up the
program that was notifying you. Now they just go semi-transparent and can't be
clicked, so I have to open the program manually. Not a huge deal, but it could
have a better UX by being interactive (I'd love to be able to reply to a chat
message within the notification window, ala Digsby).

~~~
beagle3
> Now they just go semi-transparent and can't be clicked

I'm running 10.10 and it's the same as you describe. Which I think is the
right way to do it, for anything that pops up unexpectedly.

Thunderbird (and others) doe notifications the way you describe, but I don't
think ubuntu (or any other distribution, or even osx for that matter) ever let
you click directly on the system-wide notifications.

~~~
desas
In ubuntu they used to work like that until 10.04. In other distributions it's
still common IIRC.

Ubuntu swapped out the common notification daemon for one called notify-osd.

------
jeffnappi
Been waiting for this! Testing and moving our 50+ Ubuntu 10.04 fat client
desktops to 12.04 as soon as I can.

~~~
keithpeter
If 12.04 is like other LTS releases, it gets stable after 12.04.1 is out,
around June.

See my other post on this thread about 10.04 -> 12.04 upgrades. Are the users
of your 50+ desktops 'end user' or technical?

------
snowwindwaves
My old Lenovo r51 is still on hardy heron 8.04. I used to read the release
notes for Ubuntu to see if I could upgrade hassle free. There was a new Linux
intel video driver which was a step back for a while: poor video play back and
no compiz. Maybe it is time to get that ssd and upgrade os!

~~~
Danieru
I did the same thing for my desktop.

Turns out the SSD was faulty but 12.04 is great!

Maybe only upgrade one thing at a time.

------
loboman
I upgraded a few days ago it worked fine for me. I can't stand Unity yet
however, so I'm still using Gnome.

------
nimeshneema
The links for DVD images (which include language-packs as well)can be found
here <http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/12.04/release/>

------
nilarimogard
Some screenshots and videos here:
[http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/ubuntu-1204-lts-released-
see-...](http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/ubuntu-1204-lts-released-see-whats-
new.html)

------
akulbe
I'm only seeing beta2 available for download. I've tried several alternative
links, like mirrors.kernel.org... and all I can find anywhere is beta2, as the
latest version available. #impatient :)

~~~
nimeshneema
Go to this link. <http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/> This is the final
release

~~~
akulbe
Excellent. Thanks, man. :)

------
eliben
Well, let's see if this one manages to recognize and correctly use all the
hardware devices of my Asus laptop. 11.04&11.10 were so bad for it I had to
revert to 10.04 which I'm still using.

------
krat0sprakhar
Whats the easiest way to upgrade to 12.04 LTS from 11.10? Thanks a lot!

~~~
stevoo
sudo do-release-upgrade

The fastest way to do it from the shell

~~~
sidchilling
Do I absolutely have to install updates of 11.10 before I can upgrade to
12.04? The steps on the ubuntu sites says so.

~~~
wccrawford
I'm pretty sure in the past that the upgrade software itself was updated, so
you have to update the old packages first to make sure the new stuff installs
properly.

At any rate, better safe than sorry.

------
tomrod
Bummer. My install failed.

------
codexon
Is it safe to use this on servers yet?

~~~
rbanffy
I've been playing with it on EC2 and it just works.

~~~
codexon
I just upgraded from 10.04 and it stopped my 32 bit processes from starting.

The ia32-libs package somehow uninstalled itself. When I tried to reinstall
it, it installed 300 mb worth of random libs instead of the usual 30.

~~~
rbanffy
I'm not sure upgrading servers is the best pattern to use when running on
cloud platforms. It's really easy to just launch a new instance and redeploy
your software (and make that process as automated as possible)

------
ehutch79
major pains:

workplace switching is not what was listed on the keyboard shortcuts screen.

virtualenv would not install via apt-get.

so back to osx for me.

~~~
fl3tch
What?

Ctrl + Alt + cursor key works exactly as described. Also,

    
    
        sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv
    

works like a charm. Maybe you tried while their repos were being slammed on
release day. Perhaps you should give it more than a 15 second effort. :)

------
padwan
Y U NO NAME IT PENGUIN???

------
Khloroform187
This is the last version I will give a chance to Unity...

I hope it reaches a professional level this time.

------
iamgopal
will it work on iMac ? ( last time, It didn't oob. )

------
omnisaurus
this. is. awesome.

------
gitarr
I have been at a clients location with my Ubuntu 12.04 laptop today.

The "IT guy" there and all the other (non IT) office staff asked me what this
is and how they could get it. I had to do a full 15 minutes of explanations
about Ubuntu. You cannot imagine the looks after I told them it is free.

~~~
gouranga
Firstly I will say, I like Microsoft. I'm sitting here on a Win7 laptop (dual
boot Ubuntu) and have a Windows Phone next to me.

But I don't like the culture that follows it around.

I like Ubuntu and see it as a much more positive model and a more extensible,
cheaper system. However we have some problems to contend with...

Here's how it works where I work (SME - 100 people - UK - Financial sector):

Show a user Ubuntu - "ooh that's really nice - feels better than windows".

Show a dev/architect Ubuntu - "yeah we already use it at home for everything
and we run a few VMs without letting operations know - want me to friend you
on bitbucket?"

User approaches operations for a test machine - "NO!" and a load of FUD about
how Linux is cancer and Microsoft is Jesus' sandals and "I'll replace you with
a very small powershell script (if I can get the signing right)".

Dev/architect approaches operations for a test machine - "NO!" then silence
with no attempt to get into a discussion.

Any discussion raised ends up with the "we're a microsoft shop and that's not
going to change".

This is the same company which runs everything on ESX which is Linux
underneath, has Linux-based virtual firewall and load balancer appliances,
uses Linux-based Android phones, Unix-based iOS devices everywhere and
ironically runs it's entire phone system on Linux.

At the other extreme, we have to run memcached on windows otherwise ops will
get all antsy.

Clueless monocultural operations teams that want to protect their worth are
who are causing serious problems.

We need some marketing tied to "you dont need an ops team anymore" or
"cheaper, more efficient ops teams are possible with Linux" (which they are)
and you will get somewhere.

This is the THIRD place I've seen this now so it's rife.

~~~
tomrod
Sad. I've used Linux ever since Windows Vista drivers prevented me from making
programs full screen without crashing the OS. That was when I said enough.

I started with Ubuntu, but the updates always break on me. So now I'm giving a
Debian a go. I'm amazed how much like Ubuntu 8.04-9.10 it is--the Gnome 2
desktop is nice and simple. That's unfortunately an option Canonical has taken
away from its distro.

~~~
tankenmate
If that's the case you might want to have a look at the Debian editions of
Mint.

------
lhnn
If you despise Unity, switch to Xubuntu. A minimal amount of customization
allows it to feel just like Gnome 2.

~~~
vibrunazo
Can you easily set it to quickly search for apps using Super and change apps
using Super + number hotkeys? Or something similar?

I'm not really a fan of unity, but I cannot live without those 2 features
anymore :S

~~~
lhnn
[http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/qh0q7/xubuntu_1204_th...](http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/qh0q7/xubuntu_1204_the_salvation_from_unity_here_are/)

You don't need Kupfer, since a application quick launcher is in Xubuntu.
Kupfer does launch locations as well as applications, though.

You can edit the shortcuts in Xubuntu. Their default "appfinder" shortcut is
Win+R; I bound it to Win+Space.

------
horsehead
I'm really hoping 12.04 is good. I upgraded to 11.04 on my laptop some time
ago and detested it. Went back to 10.04 after that. I'm curious about that new
search bar thing they're supposed to be implementing.

And isn't Shuttleworth coming out with a tablet Ubuntu? I thought that was
going to be this release, but i dont see it mentioned ...

------
xxiao
can't wait to upgrade, one problem i had with 10.04 is that redmine is no
longer working reliably, and hopefully 12.04 fixed that.

------
gary4gar
installed it but disappointed as my wireless doesn't work. Thought it did work
on 10.10 but NOT on 12.04.

Poor Quality release!

~~~
keithpeter
Post details of wifi &c on ubuntuforums. The testing crew will be out in force
on the forums with their workrounds/configuration hacks.

------
hdeshev
Released today? Really? On the Chernobyl disaster anniversary - April 26?

I don't believe it's a coincidence!

------
guard-of-terra
I think the funnier name is Persuading Pedobear.

