Categories
Games Rant

The Email Gabe Newell From Valve Software Never Responded To

I wrote a letter to Gabe Newell about a month back, a few days after I published an article about running the Orange Box using WINE. He personally requested feedback during the Developer Commentary within the game, and as I expected – received no response.

It’s not something I take personally, as I figure he’s pretty busy. However, when I wrote a similar letter after the release of Half Life 2, I received an immediate reply in less than a few minutes – pretty astonishing. Here’s the unanswered letter that mentions the “L” word – Linux.

Since I wrote this letter, that article has received over 27,000 views – at a rate of more than 500 hits per day after the initial spike of hitting the front page of Digg.

Here is a picture of the stats:

orange-box-stats.png

________________________________
Subject: This Is Not Your Average Email
From: wayne@fsckin.com
Date: Wed, October 17, 2007 2:45 pm
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com

Gabe,

With the amount of email you likely receive, I really hope you have a good handle on GTD. 🙂

I love your games, and please allow me to extend a huge pat on the back to everyone who works for Valve on finally shipping Team Fortress 2. I’ve been waiting as many years as you have. I really enjoyed the Developer Commentary, and hope that future games that you publish include that feature.

You probably don’t enjoy hearing the “L word” mentioned over and over via email, forums, news, etc, however, I’d like to let you know that I have written a how to on playing all of the games in the Orange Box on Linux. Since it was published just 3 days ago, it has received well over 13,000 unique visitors. I’ve written dozens of articles, and most simply do not see this level of attention.

http://www.fsckin.com/2007/10/15/how-to-run-team-fortress-2-half-life-2-hl2-ep-12-in-ubuntu-using-wine/

It is easily understood that providing a Linux client simply makes your rendering engine and tool chain a little bit more attractive to those who wish to license your engine. In the same vein, trying to keep a licensed, secured, up to date Windows installation around just for your games is also an inefficient usage of my resources.

Add my voice to the growing number of people who have switched from Windows and crossed over to using Linux “on the desktop.”

I’d like to propose a toast: Here’s to dreaming of the day when we can run your _fantastic_ video games in Linux.

Best Regards,
Wayne Richardson

________________________________

Still nothing to say Gabe?

Categories
Linux

Digg “Linux Nation” for Thursday November 8th 2007

For the 9th week in a row… Seven more days pass, 15 more stories from the Digg Linux/Unix section. I like doing this piece every week… I actually missed a few of these. Maybe I don’t pay enough attention to what’s popular… I tend to spend more time in the upcoming section on Digg since that’s mildly more interesting in general.

1. How to tell if a web site sucks, a flowchart
I love this flowchart.. I’m sure this website is NOT Brain rot, Web 2.0 fluff, a fanboy site, but unfortunately I might be a “Newb ego blogger,” since my picture is in the sidebar – does it make you wanna hurl? If not, fsckin.com is the real deal. What I’m not sure of is why this is in the Linux section at the number 1 story with over 3500 diggs. Hmm. Strange.

2. BBC admits massive underestimate of Linux users
I’ll forgive them, since they greenlighted Dr. Who for yet another season.

3. Introducing the real 3D Compiz!
This is sweet! Using red/blue glasses you can view your desktop in true 3D.

4. Firefox 3.0b1 has NOT been released.
It’s actually “Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 Release Candidate 1.” Who knew?

5. Turn Your Old PC into a Webapp Monster with gOS
Lifehacker quotes me in this, so it’s worth reading. I really like gOS, I ran it for about a week and had no big problems with it, other than the fact that it’s designed for a Linux neophyte. http://www.fsckin.com/2007/11/03/interview-with-gos-founder-linux-for-human-beings-who-shop-at-walmart/

6. Linux.com :: When open source projects close the process, something’s wrong
Somewhat boring nerd drama… KDE had icons STOLEN!!!!!1111 from their public SVN repo, that were licensed under both LGPL and CC, and they cry about it. Secondly, the GIMP UI brainstorm is like throwing a penny in a wishing well. The developer mailing list shows how absolutely patheticly prepared they are for new developers to join the team. http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/lists/gimp-developer/2007-August/018376.html It’s just rotten how badly this would-be volunteer gets completely shot down… and he doesn’t come back for more.

7. Ubuntu: Just how popular is it?
Nobody knows in the end… but it’s more popular than anything else. Go figure.

8. Why Linux Will Succeed On The Desktop
From the article: “I believe Linux will become the de-facto standard desktop operating system. Though it’ll take a while for many users to break free from ties to Windows, there is good reason to believe that this day will come.” – Nicholas Petreley

9. We’re only Human after all: a review of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon
YARoU (Yet Another Review of Ubuntu) – Two weeks late.

10. Anatomy of the Linux File System
Boring… I buried this.

11. Lego-like computer building blocks run Linux
This is really cool… worth reading.

12. Ubuntu – Outside the Sandbox
Daddy runs Ubuntu and gets quizzed by geek son.
What did you like most about using Ubuntu Linux? I didn’t really find it to be any different than using Windows.

13. Up close with the Eee PC user interface
A neat video of the Eee PC UI… Blimblam!

14. Ubuntu to get visual refresh with Hardy Heron
Ok, ok… I give up, more crap about the new theme for Ubuntu 8.10. I wonder how many times this is going to be dugg before it actually is released? I bet something like once a week.

15. Linux Game Company Opens Doors
Hmmm… I think this should have been buried.. this looks totally bunk… some bullshit get rich quick scheme… they’re trying to raise $40 grand for a 2D space shooter? Lame!

Categories
Linux

Your Mother Warned You About Using Plugins For gedit

Users of any Gnome-based distribution are probably familiar with gedit, the basic text editor with a few sweet additions, such as multiple file editing with tabs.

Even regular users of gedit may not even know that it has a plugin system, or of the availability of the gedit-plugins package which is maintained by the gedit developers.

The plugins are not included by default in most pre-packaged distributions.  It’s probably not something that most users would take advantage of.  It weighs in at a paltry 2MB, but for most Single-CD-ROM distributions, that’s the difference between fitting on a CD or moving up to a DVD.

Here’s a screenshot of the way gedit comes looking out of the box:

gedit-original.png

Here is the gedit your mother warned you about (with an appropriate metacity theme applied):

gedit-mother-warned-you-about.png

WOW!  Talk about a whole new look! Is that really gedit?

I’m amazed that this kind of functionality existed in “plain old gedit!” Some of these features I discuss below are simply turned off by default, others are enabled by installing gedit-plugins

Let’s focus on the important changes I’ve made that you can see right off the bat:

  1. Sidebar File List
    Once we have more than about 8 files open at a time, using the tabbed system becomes really clunky. This solves that problem
  2. Terminal emulator at bottom
    Whoa.  This alone is going to save so much time! In the past month alone I’ve installed a dozen or so programs from source – this is going to make it stupid easy to follow along in a README file while typing in commands to install a program.
  3. Syntax Highlighting
    I often code my own HTML when writing a new post instead of using a WYSIWYG editor – there is syntax highlighting for damn near every language I can think of off the top of my head – from Ada to XML – it’s probably there.
  4. Highlight Current Line, Line Numbers and Bracket Highlighting
    See in the picture, the cursor is at the end of the line 109. Notice on line 99 the open bracket for that hunk of code is highlighted?. Snazzy.
  5. External Tools – If you’re a developer, all you need is a picture to see how awesome this is.
    external-tools.png
  6. Snippets
    Depending on what language markup you are using, snippets can be used to make repetative tasks very easy to complete. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve added html code to an image tag to make it so it loads in a lightbox – I’m not going to need to do that again!
    snippets.png
  7. Color schemes. This is built into gedit by default, no plugin needed here, but changing the color scheme can help focus on whatever is being worked on at the time and increase productivity.

gedit-plugins can use your help! Stop by the #gedit IRC channel on irc.gnome.org and make some suggestions.

If you found this article helpful, feel free to speak up and leave a comment.  Remember, always wear protection.

Categories
Linux

20 Awesome Devices That Run Linux (But Weren’t Designed To)

LINUXA common attitude among people who believe in free software is to stick it to “the man.”  For some people, that translates into spending a ton of free time porting Linux to devices that were never designed for it. 

This is one of the things that always amazes me when I read about the latest high-tech devices that been modified to run Linux.  Some of these implementations may be incomplete, and I’m not sure why someone would take a brand new device and risk bricking it…

Ok, I lied – I nearly bricked my iPhone last night in the process of updating to the latest firmware version… about a month after a working hack was available.  Something about being the first person to try out the latest hack on a $400 dollar device just doesn’t seem appealing to me.

Here’s a short list of devices that make unlikely with Linux.  Enjoy!

  1. AppleTV:  http://www.mactel-linux.org/wiki/AppleTV
  2. Browser: http://www.workspot.com/screenshots/gimp.html
  3. Gmail: http://www.hackaday.com/2005/04/14/run-linux-on-gmail/
  4. GameCube: http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/04/01/warp_pipe.html
  5. Dreamcast: http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7466555948.html
  6. HTC Smartphones: http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Xanadux
  7. iPod: http://ipodlinux.org/Main_Page
  8. Mainframes: http://parisc-linux.org/
  9. Palm PDAs: http://palmtelinux.sourceforge.net/
  10. PS2: http://playstation2-linux.com/
  11. Edit:  MSN TV2 http://www.toc2rta.com/index.php/?q=node/2
  12. PSP: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1906893,00.asp
  13. Edit: JuiceBox:  http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/run_linux_on_a_juicebox.html
  14. Edit:  Mac Classic:  http://mac.linux-m68k.org/
  15. Wii:  http://www.wiili.org/index.php/Main_Page
  16. Windows: http://wubi-installer.org/
    http://goodbye-microsoft.com/ 
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/instlux/
  17. Wireless Routers: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation http://hyperwrt.org/ 
  18. Xbox: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/linux-install.php 
  19. Xbox360: http://www.free60.org/wiki/Main_Page

Last but not least, a toaster:  http://pics.defcon.org/showphoto.php?photo=53&cat=512

I showed you mine, now you get to show me yours!  What would you like to see running Linux?

Edit… PS3, VirtualPC and USB drives were removed.

Here’s another for you all… Your Mom Can Run Linux: http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-08-03-032-26-OP-DT

Categories
Linux

Turn One Linux Computer Into 10 Workstations Easily With Desktop Multiplier

Library internet kiosks, school computer labs, or even developing countries would absolutely love a program called Desktop Multiplier.

What the hell is Desktop Multiplier? This proprietary software takes a single computer and turns it into multiple desktops, just add keyboards, mice, and monitors for each additional virtual workstation.  What does the software developer say about it?

“Desktop Multiplier is a set of standard Linux software packages that extend the X Window System to support up to 10 fully independent and concurrent workstations using a single computer box. This is accomplished by adding standard video cards, USB keyboards and mice to a single PC system and adding Userful software. Desktop Multiplier is compatible with all single and dual­headed video cards supported by X.Org/XFree86 […]”

Desktop Multiplier makes it easy to do things like adding keyboards, mice, etc – it all happens pretty easily, instead of being semi-difficult to configure 10 workstations’ inputs and outputs, it makes it easy… just press F1, F2, F3, etc while running the configuration program to assign a keyboard to a monitor.  If the mouse is connected via a keyboard USB hub, it automatically associates the mouse with that keyboard.  It’s pretty smart and makes setup a breeze.

Note:  The same effect is possible to setup by manually editing various configuration files, but this program makes it easy enough for someone with moderate intelligence and an installation manual.

I was able to succesfully install Userful onto Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 and requested a free two-workstation license and received it via email. I hooked up another set of USB inputs (which happened to be using Bluetooth, and setup my nVidia card with dual outputs to two different monitors.  Everything worked like a charm.

Here’s some screenshot of the main screen in action:

userful-main-screen.png

Saving on electricity costs when two or more people are sharing the same computer at the same time is a great way to put money in the bank.  Adding additional workstations is as inexpensive as a a new keyboard, mouse, video card and monitor – far less than the cost of an additional computer.

Let’s take a hypothetical situation of needing 10 kiosks in close physical proximity.  We’ll need 5 video cards with dual outputs, 10 keyboards, 10 mice, and 10 monitors.  We’ll go with an AMD 939 pin CPU and motherboard combination, and since a dual-core processor is only $10 more, it’s a safe bet to splurge a little bit.

perseat.png

Seems like a great way to procure multiple workstations (that just so happen to be pretty powerful) for a damn cheap price per seat.In all, including ten 17″ LCD monitors, the cost is less than $200 per seat.

Eat that, OLPC!

Categories
Linux

Roll Your Own Ubuntu With Reconstructor

When I reinstall Ubuntu, I spend the greater part of an hour reconfiguring everything the way I like it.

In particular, setting up Firefox just the way I like it takes about half that time, the rest is just little tweaks here and there. I’ve gotten pretty good over the years at configuring Firefox, including importing bookmarks, installing plugins, saving passwords, and more.

It would be safe to say that I’m a Firefox configuration god. I have no idea how many times I’ve reinstalled various operating systems since I started using Firefox, but a good bet would be something on the order of 60 times. I’ve got a bad case of operating system ADD. I write reviews on various operating systems, and add those two together and you end up with a ton of time wasted reinstalling to a base system.

A program called Reconstructor fixes the problem of needing to reconfigure everything after reinstalling.

It guides you easily through creating your own ISO and burning it to disc. The functionality is eerily similar to nLite, a program that does pretty much the exact same thing for Windows.

Here are some screenshots of the program in action to enjoy:

recon1.pngrecon2.png

reconstructor1.pngreconstructor2.png

reconstructor3.pngreconstructor4.png

reconstructor5.pngreconstructor6.png

reconstructor7.pngrecon-finished.png

After running through the easy to use GUI to copy the LiveCD over to the hard drive and create a local copy, I found my Mozilla profile folder in ~/.mozilla and copied it into ~/reconstructor/root/etc/skel to completely skip setting up Firefox whenever I install from my custom created CD. Reconstructor is pretty damn spiffy if I do say so myself.

If you can’t get enough reading material, check out Shane’s blog over at Hackosis. It’s another Linux blog that has captivated my attention for about the same amount of time it takes to reconfigure Firefox, when I should be doing something else.

Categories
Interview Linux

Interview with gOS Founder: “Linux For Human Beings (Who Shop At WAL*MART)”

My first impression of gOS is “Gee, I thought I liked Google.” To put this into perspective, on the back of my car there is a license plate frame with the words “I’m Feeling Lucky.”

This week, WalMart has begun selling a new computer called the gPC for the price of $199. Instead of using Microsoft Windows, this incredibly inexpensive Linux-based computer runs an operating system which is fittingly called “gOS”.

At first look, the systems specifications seem pretty meager, until you have a gander at the list of applications. Instead of utilizing applications on the computer locally, the gPC leverages online applications that are delivered via web browser, such as Google Docs and Spreadsheets. This is an absolutely brilliant idea. All you need is a fast internet connection (and a monitor) to use the computer.

I was able to catch up with David Liu, founder of the gOS project, and ask him some questions about his brainchild.

——————————————————-

Using Web 2.0 applications to form the core of an operating system is genius. When did you realize this it was possible?

Well, I guess a couple things happened… I got interested in Google applications, especially docs and spreadsheets, presentations; and originally, I wanted to create my idea of what a Google OS would look like.. if there were such a mythical OS. As I started looking around at all the Google applications out there, I realized that all of our “computing” could eventually be done in the Google cloud. We just needed an OS that looked really good and pointed people to Google in a really friendly, intelligent way. After seeing this, I got excited because I saw it was also commercially viable for the mainstream end user… Google makes Linux familiar.

How long has gOS been in development?

The Enlightenment windows manager plays a big part in this, and most of our team is from the Enlightenment community. That’s been going on for a long time. gOS is a little less than six months

Why build on Ubuntu, rather than another distribution natively based on Enlightenment?

I can’t comment officially on that but there is a good reason for it. Basically it has to do with the Ubuntu community and vision. I like their mantra “Linux for human beings.” I wanted to take it further.. more like “Linux for human beings who shop at Wal-Mart” (…”and who probably have never heard of Linux”) They’ve done a great job of getting the community behind this, and productively so.

How does Faqly tie into the Operating System?

Faqly is a people powered help page. In the spirit of open source, it’s a place for the gOS community can ask and answer questions for each other. For end users, they can ask about how to do certain things. For developers, they can help answer (or ask the harder questions for fellow developers, and the core team at gOS) It’s a nice place for developers to get more in touch with end users too. I think we’re attracting developers who want to see open source into the mainstream, so everything we do has a special purpose.. even a little thing like using faqly for our “F1 Help”

Similar in theory to an FAQ wiki, except much easier to use, right?

Yes, more centered around people helping people, not just a page of information co-authored by the community… essentially the same, but the interaction design and feeling of it is just more community. Faqly is still in alpha mode, and we’re the first and only group to use it yet. They’ll launch in the next month or so probably. I think faqly can hit it off with the open source community pretty well, but will be open to working with other websites too.

Why did you place Facebook on the desktop instead of another social networking site like MySpace or Orkut?

We liked the developer platform and because we just use Facebook more in our community. Everex partnered with Facebook on getting us the icon.. that helped too.

Is there a difference between what is available via download verses what ships on the gPC?

The difference is in proprietary codecs, on the gPC, you can watch DVDs, play MP3s, etc. On the downloadable version, we’ve removed those.

Was Google cooperative towards the idea?

Everex and Google had a signed agreement for us to preload the Google toolbar. I actually went to Google yesterday to demo the real gPC out of the box, literally (i took one from the line). It’s not an official “google pc” or “google os”, it is what I think one should look like though. Google knew what we were doing, we showed them screenshots mid development, etc. We’ll keep our contacts there updated as we work on the next gPC with an improved gOS.

Please don’t sell out to Microsoft.

Oh yeah… we won’t.

Thanks for you time.

Thanks also. I hope this will get more developers excited and on board with us. I think it will be a fun ride.

——————————————————-

I’d like to extend a special thanks to David Liu for interviewing with me. For those of you wishing to help out, you can find the developer section on http://www.thinkgos.com/.

Let’s take a quick look at gOS and see just exactly what it has to offer. The “Favorite Applications” that appear in the task bar along the bottom of the screen are as follows:gos.png

  1. Firefox
  2. Google Mail
  3. Google News
  4. Google Calendar
  5. Google Maps
  6. Google Docs and Spreadsheets
  7. Google Product Search
  8. Blogger
  9. YouTube
  10. Facebook
  11. Faqly
  12. Meebo
  13. Rythmbox
  14. Skype
  15. Wikipedia
  16. Xine

Other applications which are loaded include GIMP for photo editing, and the excellent OpenOffice.org 2.2 office suite. The task bar is extremely easy to use – simply click an icon and Firefox opens up the application in most cases. The Google Toolbar is bundled with Firefox as well.

If you need another reason to buy, 1 year of free 24×7 technical support comes with purchase of a gPC. That’s more than some companies offer on computers that cost hundreds of dollars more.

gpc.png

Hardware Specifications

  • 1.5GHz, VIA C7ÂŽ-D Processor
  • 512MB DDR2 533MHz SDRAM
  • 80GB Hard Disk Drive
  • DVD-ROM/D-RW Optical Drive
  • VIA UniChrome Pro IGP Graphics
  • Realtek 6-Channel Audio
  • 10/100 Ethernet Port
  • DB 15-Pin VGA Port
  • Six USB 2.0 Ports
  • RJ-11 Port
  • Headphone/Line-Out Port
  • Two Microphone/Line-In Ports
  • Serial Port
  • Parallel Port
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
  • Amplified Stereo Speakers

In the end, gOS (and by default, the gPC) is an extremely functional system that hits the sweet spot of the “online desktop” clichĂŠ with professional quality, utilizing Google Applications in a easy to use and graphically rich environment. If you’re interested in trying out Linux for the first time, I would suggest downloading gOS or checking out the gPC at Walmart.

Woohoo, I got linked by Techcrunch.

Categories
Linux

Digg “Linux Nation” for Thursday November 1st 2007

Every week I comment on the top stories of the week in the Digg.com Linux/Unix area.  Last week there was so much junky Ubuntu news, due to the release of Gutsy Gibbon, I needed to cut it out a little bit, just to keep some sanity.  This week, there seems to be a good balance so I’ve left the list as-is and we’re back to the top 15 of the week format.

1.  Ten Absolutely Stupid Quotes By Steve Ballmer
Oh, my god.  If you’ve ever enjoyed watching the Steve Ballmer developers video, you’ll enjoy this list.  I haven’t seen all of these until now.

2.  ATI Releases Catalyst 7.10 Drivers for Linux
This is pretty fsckin great news if you have an ATI video card.

“The Catalyst control center for Linux now has a new 3D user interface as well that allows users to adjust settings like anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and VSync. This release also provides support for X.org version 7.3.” – Shane McGlaun

3.  Itty-bitty, teeny-weeny Linux PCs 
Want a computer that James Bond would envy?  Something like the 3ePC from Asus might get a reaction.  I’m personally considering buying one of these.

4.  Linux Doesn’t Lack Drivers, it Lacks Complete Drivers
I think this article hits the point squarely on the head with the following quote.

“Linux may be free as in beer, but it effectively costs me $50 if it reduces my $80 mouse to the feature set of a $30 mouse.”

5.  Cracking Windows passwords with Linux
Whether you’re cracking windows NTLM passwords with rainbow tables or just using a registry tool to remove the password completely, this is a really great guide to recovering a password on a Windows XP machine.  Highly recommended.

6.  Mac4Lin – Mac OS X Leopard Is Coming to Your Linux Desktop
Well… I’ll admit I tried this guide, and it failed badly because the instructions are specifically for Feisty Fawn and Gutsy doesn’t have a few of the files in the default repositories… it still left me asking myself, “Why do this?  There are better themes out there that aren’t in a legal grey area.”

7.  Current plans for Ubuntu 8.04
This is good.  Way good.  I wrote a very comprehensive article about these plans and what I think of them (including a new default theme for the next version of Ubuntu), check it out here.

8.  Mandriva: An open letter to Steve Ballmer
Have you ever read 419 Eater?  Perhaps you did all the research, fact checking, etc to make sure these fine folks from Nigeria were able to be trusted… but I can’t say that I didn’t expect something like this to happen.  Microsoft has deep pockets, and when they partner with unsavory folks like this, it makes Microsoft look really bad.

9.  Ubuntu Certificate of Authenticity
AHHHHAHAHAHA…. I love this.

10.  New York Times opens up code
NYTimes has been releasing open source code since July, but this is a good article that explains how it all came about.

11.  Mythbuntu 7.10 hits 20,000 downloads in one week
I didn’t know that many people used Mythbuntu. 

12.  Ubuntu 8.04 to finally get a new default theme? 
Two articles this week on themes….. see my comments on it here.

13.  Wine 0.9.48 Released
Everyone’s favority not-an-emulator gets a new point release.  It’s usually a good idea to upgrade to the latest version, if you’re feeling adventurous, grab it.

14.  ATI: Linux vs. Windows Vista
This is a really good comparison of ATI video game performance in both Linux and Vista.  Very interesting results, check it out.

15.  Fedora 8 Werewolf (Screenshots)
I’ve tried out a beta of Fedora 8 and was fairly impressed.  The biggest piece of news with the latest release (for me, anyways) is Codec Buddy, which makes it easier to install codecs for proprietary formats.

That’s all for the week, if you haven’t already, check out the video where I go and delete every file on a Linux machine while it’s still running.  You might be asking why I’d do this… the answer is simple – because I can!  If you’ve ever personally wondered what happens, you can’t say I didn’t show you.  🙂

See you next week!

Categories
Linux Video

What Happens When You Run “rm -rf /”

I’ve known for a long time to stay away from the short, sweet and simple “rm -rf /” command.  It deletes every file on any writable filesystem mounted by a *nix system, but what exactly happens if you do run it?  

Do green leprechauns jump off the screen to warn you that you shouldn’t do it?  Not quite.

Here’s a video with the verbose option set to make it a little bit more interesting.  I’m running it in a virtual machine so I can capture video of all the “action” – it was a bit slow to complete, but I’ve gone ahead and increased how quickly it runs to not be nearly so boring.

Enjoy!

At the very end you can see that X crashes on the VM when I click where the trash icon would be. Rebooting results in a GRUB error 15.

If you’d like to hear a horror story about someone running rm recursively, check it out here: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/hack/recovery.html

Categories
Linux

In-Depth Roadmap Analysis For Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04

Update: Read the new version of this article revisiting all the ideas and current progress!

The Hardy Heron Roadmap has over 130 new ideas that have been proposed thus far. I’ve examined each one of these ideas in detail, threw out the ones that weren’t interesting to me, wrote an explanation for each, and sorted the list into three categories:

  1. User Experience,
  2. Networking and Security,
  3. Support

Of course, the juiciest items have already made headlines, such as the new theme that is being planned… “I for one, welcome our new hopefully non-brown themed overlords!”

What about the proposed changes that don’t deserve their own headline? Either you have to muck through that entire list, or you can simply read about it here. You can get more information about specific items by clicking on the name of the proposal, which will take you to a page that has a little bit more information about it. Without more from me, here we go.

User Experience

Ubuntu Theme for 8.04
We’re getting a new theme in the next release? Ubuntu has used close to the same theme since Warty Warthog – about 3 years, The REALLY interesting bit about this is how far this reaches… proposed changes include changes to the installer, bootup screen, wallpaper, application splash screens like Gimp and OO.org, Compiz effects, cursors, and even skinning WINE! This is going to be quite a bit of work, but in the end, well worth it.

Third Party Apt
Adding a 3rd party apt repository is more difficult than needed. Editing sources.list, or adding it to the software repository via GUI is a pain. This proposal focuses on creating a standardized file format (let’s call it .install file) which would allow a user to double click on the .install file, then apt would automatically install the program, add the 3rd party repository to the sources.list and automatically manage updates, etc. Very slick idea.

X.Org 7.3
This is something that SHOULD have been included in Gutsy Gibbon, but wasn’t quite ready… ah well, I guess we need to wait 6 months for this. The biggest feature of 7.3 are: Bullet Proof X – The driving force for this is to never boot up into text-mode if something is screwed up with the xorg.conf file. Very nifty. The direction this is headed is to make xorg.conf obsolete, and eventually run without it, which would be fantastic for new users.

Automatix-Ubuntu Team Collaboration
This is certainly a little bit controversial, since Automatix was raked over the coals for breaking upgrades to Feisty Fawn, and now they want to collaborate? Automatix makes stupid easy to install things that are in legal grey areas, such as codecs for playing commercial DVDs, or other proprietary software like Skype, Google Earth, etc. This idea would make it so that Canonical/Ubuntu does not have legal repercussions for including proprietary codecs or other software that isn’t redistributable.

Dual/Multi Monitor Gnome Configuration
Along with X.org 7.3, multiple monitor configuration within a GUI is going to be pretty awesome.

SlickBoot
This proposed change will give the distribution an improved user experience when booting up and shutting down. If you’ve ever seen a Mac boot up, you know exactly what this is trying to emulate. Transitions from the three graphical modes (text, SVGA, and high-resolution) are not really bad at the moment, but if Ubuntu can emulate how a Mac boots up, that would be pretty damn terrific.

Install on an existing filesystem without overwriting /home
This is by far one of the most annoying things that I have to deal with on a regular basis. Personally, I reinstall quite often to test out new distributions. Since getting an external 320GB drive it hasn’t been quite as painful, but for most people, they might need to backup the /home directory to avoid data loss when given the chance to upgrade every 6 months.

Improve Handling of Full Disks
Have you ever run out of hard drive space in Linux? Let me tell you, it is NOT pretty! In some cases, you can end up booting into text mode, with a read-only root partition. It is a royal pain in the ass, to say the least. This proposal is in the early stages, but suggests adding a notification that the disk is almost full, prompting you to run a cleanup wizard, and other ideas that make the problem less likely to happen in the first place, as well as (hopefully) making it easier to recover from if it does happen.

Integrate Prefetch into Bootup
Google’s 2007 Summer of Code is adding hard disk prefetching and optimization resulting in faster bootup times for Hardy Heron.

Easy File Sharing
Make sharing files between Ubuntu machines on a LAN/WLAN easier. Duh!

Single Click Install
Enable easier installation of software from the internet.

Add Remove Software Improvements
This proposes an update to the add/remove software program, which changes it into a sort of “online storefront” where the initial screen shows screenshots, top-rated or brand new applications, etc. If this is approved and pulled off properly, could be a HUGE improvement.

Simple Samba Integration
The Shared Folders utility is getting some upgrades. It will prompt the user to install Samba, no more adding users from the command line, and a simple checkbox will share all home directories on the computer.

Redesign About Ubuntu
“People are used to “About Name of Program” showing a window that gives the software version details, and copyright info. […] Ubuntu should be just as polished.” uname –r always worked just fine for me, but I can see why it’s important.

Networking / Security

Modular /etc/network/interfaces
“Split out the configuration from /etc/network/interfaces into one file per (logical) interface.” This is not a great idea, it’s a pain in the ass already to edit this and maintain correct syntax, why make it so that there are multiple files?

Dial Up Support
This will make setting up and managing Dialup and ASDL out-of-the-box, using Network Manager, very easy.

Improve support for encrypted file systems
Starting with Gutsy Gibbon, you can now install Ubuntu to an encrypted disk. The problem this addresses is adding support to install to a disk which would be auto-partitioned as an encrypted file system from the GUI, instead of using the text-mode alternate installer. Other ideas are to look for key files on USB sticks and other media, instead of just using a password.

Live CD- share this
Direct from the wiki: “Netboot server for easy setup of thin clients and machines which don’t have a CD drive.” Nice idea!

killall gksudo: Stop running GTK as root!
gksudo runs hundreds of thousands of lines of code just to show that that little box that asks for a password when trying to change administrative settings… and it is a little confusing to ask for the password before any changes are committed – why not stop asking for the password until the configuration tool tries to write to a file, then do it in a manner that doesn’t need to utilize as much code to speed things up a little bit.

Support

Measuring Download/Installation Success
In the next release, there may be some big-brother-ish ideas being included. It’s more accurate reporting that can give developers solid numbers for things like how many people download, install, and are able to run Ubuntu. The reason is to find faults in the existing procedures for acquiring Ubuntu, and address where problems arise. Hopefully these numbers will be shared with the community. One area I can already say is a significant problem is the lack of an integrated CD burner for Windows. I’ve heard many users say they’ve burned a copy of a distribution and then it didn’t boot. The primary reason for this is that they simply burned the ISO file itself to the CD, instead of burning the image properly. Now that Ubuntu is targeting a larger audience, it would be neat to have a Windows user simply download an EXE file, open it up, and it prompts to insert a new CD and then provides some additional instructions for getting it installed and setup, perhaps even give an option to print out a PDF of those instructions? The executable would also provide additional information that this proposal is suggesting be recorded.

Identifying Local Users and Groups
This would be really slick. After you put in your location( integrated into the Time Zone selection), during the installation (or post-install) you would be presented with information regarding your local LoCo team and other local resources, such as a Linux User Group in your area. I’ve never been to a LUG or LoCo meeting, perhaps because I needed to seek them out… getting a prompt every reinstall might be annoying, but it would be a good reminder that they exist.

Packaging Section On The Forum
There’s a hidden packaging section (http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=44) on the Ubuntu forums that needs to be better utilized. It is not a very active section in the forum, it either needs to be added to the main list of forums and promoted, or simply deleted.

Make screencasts available on the desktop
A Help->Tutorial Videos browser menu? This is a fantastic idea!

Forum Content Certification
Sometimes instructions provided in the forums just don’t work. Often, I’ll find a howto on installing some software for an old version of Ubuntu, and this would create a new forum team that would check the validity of instructions, approve the post, promote the information in the forums, wiki, and elsewhere, and finally involve re-checking the posts after new releases.

Getting teacher input to shape our education offering
This one implies that Edubuntu does not specifically solicit input from teachers, nor do users have a mailing list, forum, etc to voice their complaints. If this is the case, definitely a good idea to reach out and get feedback and suggestions from the people who actually use the OS, right?

Automatic bug reporting
This is certainly an interesting idea, but due to privacy concerns I don’t really want to see this make it into the release. Why emulate Windows here? It can be REALLY annoying to get MORE error popups when things crash.

Ubuntu Mobile Browser
The Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Project proposes to add a Firefox-based browser which would be completely reworked from the ground up. I’m personally very interested in this, the following quote gave me chills: “Ideally we would get a solution that would be embraced by the Mozilla community and eventually adopted as the “Firefox Mobile” solution.”

Of course, I saved the best for last….

Installing Ubuntu from within Windows
ubuntu-install.exe… nuff said… might not make it though… it is listed as ‘dangling’ which means it can’t be scheduled or has circular dependancies… no idea why it can’t be made to work.

Which ideas do you want to see make it into Hardy Heron? Do you disagree with any of these I’ve listed? Got more to add?