Hi again. Time for a bit of an update and a brain-dump. Apparently my rather negative take on the current state of e17 in my last blog entry depressed a few readers, so I’m determined to put on happy face this time. Everything is just fine. No, really it is.
Well, actually…
We’ve just had our first genuinely Bad Code Day in a long while. Apparently, an update to the INSTALL file for the screenshot module didn’t want to play nice with the other kiddies and has been put in the naughty corner for a while. We covered the problem, and a quick work-around, in THIS THREAD . You could also add “screenshot” to your skip list in /etc/easy_e17.conf. It is an easy fix (thanks smartboyathome), but I can't help feeling it is one that should not be needed if anyone in the development team is using their own product. The occassional bug in a major update I can understand, but this was purely a maintenance thing - and three days later it is still doing this -
Which lead me to try to file a bug report.....
I don’t know whether any other OzOS users have ever tried to file an official bug report with the Enlightenment devs but it can truly be an adventure. I won't go into the long and tedious process of actually finding the right bug tracker to report the problem to - which is apparently THIS ONE - but not THIS ONE as you might first suspect (that's just for bugs in ewl, apparently!). Having found and registered at the correct site (I think), I find that it does not to allow you log in. The REALLY spooky bit is the error message you get after putting in your username and password:
Maybe I have inadvertently stumbled upon the secret flaw in the e17 development roadmap - It is in a loop THAT WILL NEVER COMPLETE! - that, and the fact that users can never actually report a bug or give feedback to the devs, would go a long way to explaining why we are at revision 3900 and the official version number seems to be stuck at 0.16.999.050. OK, shut up now, Aubrey.
Skip to my loo.....
Questions about skipping or installing extra e17 components come up fairly frequently on the forums so I put the basics into “How-To: Install and Uninstall extra e17 Components with easy_e17.sh” . That should cover off most of the routine issues.
Another BIG How-To.
I also posted a new How-To on using update_e17 and related OzOS tools to manage e17 installed from source (HERE ). This one also summarizes a lot of threads and supplements the various installation How-Tos on both cafelinux and the Ubuntu Forums. I’ll keep this How-To under constant review as it is probably the best place to chronicle solutions to recurring problems (of the e17 update kind, not the RAV TUX kind, OK?).
UF says Bye-Bye to Other OSs
Yes, it appears that the Ubuntu Forums have made another step towards global domination by removing all other distros from the planet. Well, they have closed down the “Other Operating Systems” sub-forum anyway. Apparently the overhead on their servers was simply too much to bear and they figure it would be “better” if other Operating Systems supported their own users. There was an OzOS thread on that sub-forum (started by someone called “RAV TUX” no less) - so no more soup for you!
This is a bit of a sad move because there was a lot of good interchange between users of different Linux distros (and even Windows and OSX users) on that sub-form. On the other hand, I can see the Admin’s point about pushing support – and server space - requirements back onto the individual distros – especially when a few of the users seemed to delight in rubbishing Ubuntu in the process of praising their preferred platform.
UF recently received a prestigious UK award for Best Support Resource. Quite deservedly so, IMO. If nothing else, it is an enormous cache of Linux support information. But as a social site it now leaves a lot to be desired.
CafeLinux has taken in a fair share of UF refugees in the past – the Brunt Beanies as I like to think of them. We give them a shower and meal and some money for the ‘phone. We often let them stay if they promise to behave themselves (and not keeping changing their username and avatar) and they are more than welcome to talk about distros other than OzOS – But NOT Arch, OK. No, no, no. Not Arch. Oh, and not gOS. Or DL (I almost forgot!). Most of the others are OK (except SUSE and Linspire, obviously). Did I forget any?
Colorful Jaunty Koalas Boot into the Clouds
And my hovercraft is still full of eels. The relentless Ubuntu release cycle rolls on, with 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope reaching feature freeze this month and Mark Shuttleworth announcing the aims for 9.10 “Karmic Koala”.
I have been running a Jaunty alpha since early January and have been very impressed with both performance and stability. I have no idea what cosmetic or other DE changes are included because I run it with e17 (of course). Boot time is noticeably improved over Intrepid (although GDM seems to add 5 seconds that didn’t used to be there). Mark S says they are aiming for a 35 second boot for Jaunty on netbooks (ie ATOM processors).
Karmic Koala will aim to improve boot times even further – and will incorporate Moblin technology in some way (probably just for netbooks). That’s great news for me. I had been playing around with the Moblin Alpha 2 demo and was intending to try something myself with Ubuntu. Nice to know someone who actually knows what they doing will now do it for me.
The other big move in KK will be a greater embrace of “cloud computing” (whatever that may be). Apparently it has something to do with this internet thingy. There’s an open source project called “Eucalyptus ” which the Koala will hang off in some way. Very cute.
Shuttleworth has also hinted that Karmic Koala may be the first “non-brown” version of Ubuntu. Check out the Ubuntu Forums for tidal wave of threads with the word “brown” in their titles – a much better use of precious server space than all that talk about other OSs!
And not forgetting ….
Debian Lenny was launched this month!
Yay! The release announcement is HERE . Interestingly, Debian has been quick to adopt the LXDE desktop as an officially supported option - (Quick! take a screenshot! - the phrase "quick to adopt" and "Debian" are so rarely used in the same sentence!)
That’s it for another couple of weeks – see you at the forum!
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