
Ubuntu 9.04 released - mcxx
http://ubuntu.com
======
quoderat
I am not an anti-Microsoft person, but after having used Linux now without
even Windows installed for two years straight, it is actually mentally painful
to use Windows.

Yeah, use whatever works best for you -- but using Windows these days feels
like I'm on my Big Wheel when I was three years old. In a rubber room.

~~~
dschobel
I've never met someone who used any version of windows because they thought it
was a reasonable way to interface with your computer, always for application
compatibility.

~~~
halo
I do. I like Windows a lot. I'm completely platform agnostic and I've used all
3 major platforms at various times but I always come back to Windows.

I think there's a quiet majority of people out there who are perfectly happy
with Windows but they don't tend to talk about it, whereas you do tend to get
a lot of outspoken Mac and Linux users who are willing to both champion their
platform as well as bash Windows at any given opportunity.

~~~
mseebach
> I think there's a quiet majority of people out there who are perfectly happy
> with Windows

I think there's a quiet majority out there who's never tried anything but
Windows, and think of their computer as nothing more than a tool, completely
oblivious to such abstractions as operating systems.

~~~
access_denied
I think there's a big majority of computer users, quietly suffering under
Windows and simply having no idea that there even exists an alternative.

~~~
derwiki
I installed Ubuntu on a laptop I gave to my father a few weeks ago, and he's
been using it exclusively. I don't think he can tell the difference between
Ubuntu and Windows.

~~~
dinkumthinkum
You know, I'm not one of those weirdos that think desktop applications are
going away. But I'd say most people who keep up with software development
believe that's the case. <rant>I think that would be pretty bad if the best
we'll ever be able to do is Javascript.</rant> Anyway, IF most apps people are
using are Web based and compatible with Firefox or a Flash version supported
in Ubuntu ... it seems less and less like there would be much point in paying
for, using, and dealing with Windows.

I think most seniors can just about already switch fine to Ubuntu.

~~~
ido
Or Java.

Applets - they don't suck as badly anymore!

------
ja27
Official torrent links here: <http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/>

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Or more directly:

[http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.04/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso...](http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.04/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso.torrent)

[http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.04/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-
amd64.is...](http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.04/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-
amd64.iso.torrent)

~~~
mattyb
I also grabbed the Kubuntu and Xubuntu LiveCDs so I can try out KDE 4.2 and
Xfce without installing the packages.

------
sant0sk1
I'm excited for the next iteration when they revamp the default theme.

Ubuntu owns but it needs to look prettier out of the box to really grab
prospective switchers.

~~~
Mongoose
People have been saying that for 2 years. "The next version" is always when
they'll dump the sordid brown.

~~~
mlok
Around me, people do like the Ubuntu look. But they're neither IT nor
marketing savvy, so they're probably wrong :)

~~~
raquo
> But they're neither IT nor marketing savvy, so they're probably wrong :)

Really, geeks and marketers can't be wrong about what normal people like,
except when that contradicts with what normal people say they like :)

------
twopoint718
Again, not an anti-MS person here, I support a large number of Windows
clients, but it is not my OS of choice.

Maybe there are user interface tweaks that one can perform on Windows (do
tell) but I can never seem to get it as minimal as running something like
fluxbox on Linux (to say nothing of ratpoison, stumpwm, or xmonad). My very
unscientific poll of the computer support staff at my office shows that there
is fluxbox, openbox, and twm. My Windows usage is cursory, so maybe I'm
totally wrong on this.

~~~
jameskpolk
One option is LiteStep (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiteStep>), which can
make the Windows UI like AfterStep. A friend of mine uses it and claims it
works very well.

Some other shell replacements exist, but I've never tried any of them.

~~~
twopoint718
That does look nice, thanks!

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pavelludiq
I've been using the Kubuntu RC for a few days now. After the disappointment
that kubuntu 8.04 was for me, im happy with this release. I've finally made
the switch to KDE4, KDE3, you've served me well, but its time to go on, and
KDE4 is finally good enough to not make me scream(as it used to do).

------
k0n2ad
Ubuntu is a fantastic distribution of a magnificent OS. I just wish I could
run design apps like Flash and Photoshop on it (and no, GIMP just doesn't do
it for me).

~~~
mattyb
Give VirtualBox (<http://www.virtualbox.org/>) a try. I run Photoshop CS4,
Rosetta Stone v3, and backup my BlackBerry inside it with minimal problems.
GIMP didn't do it for me either.

~~~
mkuhn
I use VirtualBox as well. And I also use WINE, but even though you can run
Office 2K7 (and you can't go around it as a student, in particular as a
business student) in WINE, which I do for short edits and to only view
documents, I still mainly use Office on the emulated WinXP. Office fells
snappier on the emulated machine, and especially because of Antialiasing of
fonts text is easier to read. Overall it's just nicer to work with and it
crashes a lot less... :-)

I've now been running Ubuntu for over a year for my own side business, for my
consulting gig and as a student and I haven't had any issue I couldn't solve
and one of the main solutions is to bow to the majority in some cases and use
emulated XP or WINE.

~~~
buugs
Thank goodness in my engineering department matlab or excel are acceptable.
Matlab works well in linux and is a much cheaper more powerful option than the
office student edition paired with openoffice. (My school runs 2003 office
though so thats a big difference in teachers required file formats).

The new ubuntu has better font smoothing by default however I don't think that
transfers into wine sadly but at least you found a setup that works.

------
raquo
Speaking of Ubuntu usability, I just don't understand why they _require_ me to
pick a location closest to me in order to download Ubuntu. In the age of free
IP geolocation databases they could at least fill this field with a best guess
based on my IP or a least loaded server...

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oomkiller
I tried the beta of this on my Lenovo Y510 with Intel graphics and the
performance was horrible, due to the video drivers not being updated for the
new Xorg 1.6 architecture.

On a positive note, my grandfather continues to enjoy his new Ubuntu 8.04.2
machine though, a welcome change to the Xubuntu 7.04 machine that was a 500Mhz
P3 with 128MB RAM.

------
10ren
I thought this release would also be available for ARM, as mentioned here:
<http://www.ubuntu.com/news/arm-linux>

The netbook release says it's for Atom (though the compatibility list includes
eee PC 701, which has a Celeron - by "Atom" they surely just mean intel-
compatible).

~~~
mkuhn
The ARM release will follow later, on the 29th I think.

------
bobbyi
The installer is warning that I shouldn't upgrade because it doesn't have a
driver for my video card.

~~~
mattyb
<http://ubuntuforums.org>

