Ubuntu 8.10, what’s new?

Ubuntu 8.10 codename Intrepid Ibex coming out in November.

It’s sought out to be one of the more user-friendly and kind Linux distributions. With a simple look yet elegant, very customizable and easy adding or removal of applications, updates and whatever the normal user would use his or her computer for.  Ubuntu is in my opinion one of the best OSes out there for a normal PC-user, it’s even free!

Current build is 8.0.4 and you can still see that Ubuntu struggles with coming through to the real masses, it’s still a bit complex and difficult to deal with if you encounter problems. Most of Ubuntu’s/Linux’s user-base are average computers users and people who are familiar with troubleshooting and fixing problems on their own/with help from the internet.

Have no fear though, Canonical behind Ubuntu and a lot of people in the community are constantly evolving, tailoring and updating the operative system to be what you need and want it to be, whatever you may want. One of the truly great benefits with doing anything open source is that it is fairly open, more or less. So if you decide to create something or you have trouble with something, the chances are you’ll easily find someone who can make it or fix it for you.

Anyhow, this post is not about how good I think Ubuntu is, it’s about what’s new and very nice in the upcoming Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex release.

I’ve encountered small problems like trouble with connecting/setting up LAN, WLAN, digital tablets, MP3-players, cellphones and so on. I myself have no problems troubleshooting and sorting stuff out myself, but most desktop systems should positively be easy to use by mostly anyone, on top of that you can customize and setup the stuff you want for your more average and experienced feeling.  These problems are however looked at and being fixed in the 8.10 release, something I think is tremendous, it’s surely needed by now, hotplug support has been missing out since the first days of Ubuntu.

The following is quoted directly from Ubuntu’s 8.10 alpha page.

GNOME 2.23.91

Ubuntu brings you the newest GNOME 2.23.91 desktop environment with tons of bug-fixes and new features, some of which include:

• Nautilus file manager has tab support (by Christian Neumair) and Eject icons for removable drives in Places sidebar (by Stefano Teso, Cosimo Cecchi, Christian Neumair, and others).

• File Roller archive manager now supports ALZ, RZIP, CAB, TAR.7Z file types also (by Paolo Bacchilega and Changwoo Ryu).

X.Org server 7.4

X.Org 7.4, the latest stable version of X.Org, is available in Intrepid. This release brings much better support for hot-pluggable input devices such as tablets, keyboards, and mice. At the same time this will allow the great majority of users to run without a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Linux kernel 2.6.27

The kernel team is evaluating use of Linux kernel 2.6.27 for Ubuntu 8.10, which is included in Intrepid Alpha 6 as part of this evaluation process. This is a significant release with better hardware and numerous bug-fixes which is believed will provide overall improvement for Ubuntu 8.10. Regressions in 2.6.27 should be reported to the Ubuntu kernel team via https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux.

Encrypted private directory

The ecryptfs-utils package was recently promoted to Ubuntu main, with support for an secret encrypted folder in your Home Folder.

You can help test this new feature, by going Applications → Accessories → Terminal and typing:

• sudo aptitude install ecryptfs-utils

• ecryptfs-setup-private

Guest session

The User Switcher panel applet (package fast-user-switch-applet) now provides an extra entry for starting a Guest session. This creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges: the account cannot access any users’ home directories, nor permanently store data. This is sufficiently safe to lend your laptop to someone else for a quick email check, or to use it as a surf station for guests in your house.

Network Manager 0.7

Intrepid Ibex ships Network Manager 0.7, which comes with long-expected features, such as:

• system wide settings (i.e., no need to log in in order to get a connection)
• management of 3G connections (GSM/CDMA)
• management of multiple active devices at once
• management of PPP and PPPOE connections
• management of devices with static IP configurations
• route management for devices

More information can be found on the Network Manager wiki.

“Last successful boot” recovery entry

On each successful boot, Intrepid will retain a copy of your running kernel and make it available from the boot loader as a “Last successful boot” option. This makes it possible for old kernel packages to be safely auto-removed by the package manager, instead of being kept indefinitely.

DKMS

DKMS is included in Alpha 6, allowing kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released. This makes it possible for kernel package updates to be made available immediately without waiting for rebuilds of driver packages, and without third-party driver packages becoming out of date when installing these kernel updates.

Samba 3.2

A lot of new features have been added in Samba 3.2 amongst them:

• clustered file server support
• encrypted network transport
• ipv6 support
• better integration with the latest version of Microsoft Windows™ clients and servers.

PAM authentication framework

Intrepid alpha-6 features a new pam-auth-update tool, which allows simple management of PAM authentication configuration for both desktops and servers. Packages providing PAM modules will be configured automatically, and users can adjust their authentication preferences by running sudo pam-auth-update.

More information can be found in the Ubuntu wiki.

As you probably can see, there’s lots of problems that are being fixed. Some of the most needed in my opinion are “X.org server 7.4″, “GNOME 2.23.91″, “Samba 3.2″ and “Network Manager 0.7″. Will surely fix a lot of the current “out of the box” feeling that misses, the network manager is especially nice for the rush of new netbooks hitting the market.