Monthly Archives: March 2009

>Fedora Beta Released

Posted by on March 31, 2009 No comments

>If you’ve got some time go check out and test Fedora Beta. It was released today and incorporates some very exciting features. Particularly for me:

“Further improvements to the boot process that include NVidia, ATI, and Intel video adapters, using the revolutionary kernel mode setting feature in an effort to cut boot time and provide pleasing visuals.” – and lay the ground work for better 3d and video performance, better suspend and resume, not running X as root, and a bunch more.

Ubuntu will likely adopt kernel mode setting in the Karmic Koala release but if we test it and find the bugs now we could get less bugs later. You can read the Red Hat Press Release here. And grab the torrents here.

>Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (Restarts X, don’t do it)

Posted by on March 31, 2009 21 comments

>So apparently some don’t like that Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is going away. Others say this will motivate us to fix bugs.

Once upon a time I was new to Ubuntu and was somehow accidentally pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace and couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on. I was using multiple workspaces (key combo Ctrl-Alt-Arrow Keys and editing documents). Needless to say, it took me a long time to figure out what the cause was.

The bottom line is Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is the WRONG way to help people regain control of their computer when a runaway application or buggy driver is not letting go. What if they are doing something important?
No! Going to a terminal through Ctrl-Alt-F# is still WRONG. Why should our users need to know the command line, if there system goes crazy? They should not.

Most users aren’t going to use either of those, they are going to restart the machine, thus losing all their data.

But there is a key combo many users know that on Windows can help them kill a runaway application and get back the rest of their applications. Ctrl-Alt-Del. It is by far the most user friendly way for a user to regain control of their misbehaving computer. From this discussion we do have a need for it. I’m also not planning on holding my breath for there to be no bugs in Ubuntu or any software package for that matter (that’s not to say we shouldn’t try). Our users deserve a user friendly way to keep them (and not bugs) in control of their computer.

Oh and they just moved the key combo for Killing the X server to something less likely to be pressed. DONT DO THIS! Finish reading your tabs, close your documents, etc.
Right Alt – Print Screen – K (Alternate Screen Kill, I like :)

>Jaunty does boot fast, but how about worse case?

Posted by on March 27, 2009 6 comments

>There are other posts about regular boot times, so how about the worst case, file system checks. That’s that check that runs every 30 boots or so just because we are paranoid about making sure the file system is sane.

Boot Intrepid (est) Jaunty with ext4
Normal 30 – 45 seconds 18 – 22 seconds
File System Check 5 – 10 minutes 43 seconds

Of course a lot of this is due to the use of the new ext4 file system (ext3 will be the default in Jaunty again because we are paranoid). At 43 seconds I don’t mind the file system check nearly as much. Progress. :)

>Last Chance – Ubuntu for Node 3 of the ISS

Posted by on March 18, 2009 4 comments

>Please go and vote: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/name_ISS/index.html

You can vote once a day until the 20th (or including, not sure).

This is going to be my last blog post on this so I thought I’d try my hand at convincing Firefly fans to vote for Ubuntu as a better name for Nasa Node 3.

Might be a weak argument, but wouldn’t you rather Serenity be the name for a ship, not a node?
How about the first manned ship to Mars. Any takers? :)

Also Ubuntu really does capture the concept of international cooperation better than any name on that board. “I am what I am because of who we all are”.

To recap what I hope to happen if we get in first:

  1. Colbert is currently in first place (From a very popular comedy central show)
  2. Ubuntu passes Colbert and wins the naming
  3. Colbert mentions Ubuntu on his show and eventually (preferably timed about a week after the Jaunty release) ends up inviting Mark Shuttleworth to the show.
  4. Many many more users try Ubuntu and other free software. They love it.
  5. We Win. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtdnZNYN0MM)

So, please blog, slashdot it, digg, share, and whatever else you can do to spread the word.Thanks!

>We’re Linux Video Contest :(

Posted by on March 14, 2009 3 comments

>
I had finally finished my We’re Linux video when I find out the Linux Foundations website doesn’t support Ogg :( . (I can convert to other formats fine, but still)

On a better note, Go Vote For Ubuntu again in the Nasa Node 3 contest. Bookmark it and vote Everyday.