CrunchBang - Code, Design & GNU/Linux

8 Responses to “Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" Released Today”

1. Hanna wrote, Saturday, April 26th, 2008

   So far Hardy has been good, I'd say even better than Gutsy. I got my splash screen back :D

2. HAL wrote, Monday, April 28th, 2008

   "I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone involved in putting the Hardy release together, it rocks!" "I'd say even better than Gutsy"

   Hey man are you crazy? Hardy is a resounding failure. Read the threads at http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=10002&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15 or http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=11746&p=73078#p73078 or http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2008/04/25/08/30/01-ubuntu-8-04-quot-oliver-hardy-qu
   for an article with useful information and links, for example….

   Even some people who were involved through all of the Hardy development releases say: "what a nightmare! I feel like I just wasted six months of my time for nothing." (see the first link)

   In Ubuntu "you can find bugs reports never fixed, never resolved, although marked for certain importance: "high", "critical" and "confirmed"…" (all versions)

   Some bugs are about Gnome as the still unfixed bug 209520 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/209520) and fortunately there is not Gnome in Crunchbang… :D Others are about Firefox, sudo etc…

   Hardy is everything but not a quality desktop release, and even less an entreprise release…

3. Philip wrote, Monday, April 28th, 2008

   @Hanna: Glad to hear it :)

   @HAL: I take it you are not impressed with Hardy? In answer to your first question:

   Hey man are you crazy?

   Quite possibly, although I stand by my praise for the Hardy developers. Also, I believe some of the comments found on the Linux Mint forums are somewhat naive, especially those concerning the bugs. I think it is far too easy to underestimate the complexity of a project like Ubuntu; bugs are a fact of life and no release is ever going to be bug free, that is the nature of a fixed release schedule.

   Peace :)

4. David Thomas wrote, Monday, April 28th, 2008

   While Ubuntu 8.04 is not perfect (what OS is), it really is a fantastic operating system. Philip is right there will all ways be bugs, and some get fixed in the next release. What really needs to be done is bug cleanup and the obsolete bugs need to be removed. I think if yu look closely you will find the bulk of those "you can find bugs reports never fixed, never resolved, although marked for certain importance: "high", "critical" and "confirmed"…" concerns in that list.

5. Alan Pope wrote, Monday, April 28th, 2008

   Interesting perspective about booting into single user mode not prompting for a password as bring a major security issue. Last I checked if you have physical access to the machine, it's owned anyway, root password or not. The only way to get around that is some kind of full disk encryption - which by the way you can do.

   Don't feed the trolls.

6. HAL wrote, Monday, April 28th, 2008

   @Alan Pope

   Let me mention just a comment from one of the links that I gave above:

   "There is a security problem, but to acknowledge this you have to use real brains.

   Debian is known for having a default configuration that makes you type in the root password before going into single-user mode. That was valid (I guess) for Woody, Sarge, Etch."

   "Not entirely. If you're alone in a garage, you can even steal the whole PC! On the contrary, if you're in a business environment where your colleague is just missing for 5 minutes, you can do a lot of harm if there is no password for the single-user level, but you can't do very much if there is such a password, and if the system has the user account locked (screensaver with password), the booting from USB and CD/DVD disabled, and no floppy.

   You need more brains to understand that there are several degrees of physical access to the machine."

   @Philip

   Peace, yes. No flame here just a few "discussions"… :-)

   @David Thomas

   "I think if yu look closely you will find the bulk of those "you can find bugs reports never fixed, never resolved, although marked for certain importance: "high", "critical" and "confirmed"…" concerns in that list."

   hmm not really but if you want to believe it…

   @ all

   "Philip is right there will all ways be bugs, and some get fixed in the next release."

   It's possible to make a very stable, very little buggy etc distro, e.g see Slackware (even if the new realase is perhaps "a little less clean") You can also read at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=769112 a pretty much correct post about regressions, stability, LTS… on Ubuntu's forums. Or the post at http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=11746&st=0&sk=t&sd=a#p72287
   about the quality.. but maybe this is a 'business definition' that "is despised by the regular Linux user but it is essential for the survival of Linux! ("using Linux does not mean doesn't only mean browsing the Internet, listening MP3s and watching DVDs, and writing CDs/DVDs"…)" :-(

   The developers are probably not interested in fixing bugs, they prefer arguably add new 'features' which themselves come with other bugs… Versions after versions some bugs appear without the old bugs are fixed…

   This is the 'new' quality of the 'modern' Linux, but even "Microsoft and Apple would not let such obvious bugs go unfixed."

   Microsoft should be happy. To quote another post:

   "because they simply don't understand what a QA process means! They simply push into a release THE LATEST AND NOT ENOUGH TESTED versions of CORE SYSTEM (the kernel is CORE and the X server is practically core too for a desktop), thus RUINING Linux.

   Once again, Microsoft must be grinning when seeing how various Linux distros are providing REGRESSIONS. Vista was accused of regressions, but the open source guys are just doing the same.

   I am using various operating systems since ages. Only speaking of Desktop OSes now: — the quality with Microsoft has actually improved over time, and XP is a usable desktop, but then it dropped severely with Vista; — the quality with Linux has improved until kernel 2.6 was released, then it's continuously decreasing, the most notable losses in quality happening after the fall of 2005 IMHO; right now, every new release of any Linux distro risks to be labeld as "Hardly Works", as it's very likely to bring MAJOR REGRESSIONS.

   And given that most of the major distros release twice a year, this is the best way to UNDERMINE what worked in Linux.

   Folks, if the stupid people will continue to buy the stupid Vista, you should know that this happens because the stupid you are releasing BROKEN releases of Linux distros." (Sorry if it's a little 'aggressive' but it is clear ;-) )

   Don't misunderstand me, I like Linux but I'm sad by the state of the Open Source today…

7. Doug wrote, Friday, May 2nd, 2008

   @HAL you have to specifically ask for the auto login without asking for a password if that's what you were getting at, it's not a default option. You don't need physical access to a machine to compromise it so really I wouldn't call that a major security issue. If you are sad at the 2state of the Open Source today" then quit writing essays on personal weblogs and get out there, learn and fix bugs!

8. Max wrote, Friday, May 16th, 2008

   I'm not just displeased with Hardy; I'm somewhat angry. The restrcited drivers burned-out my on-board wireless card. Within minutes of enabling the Ubuntu drivers, I could smell that burnt ozone scent that tells you something is very wrong.

   I shipped the notebook off to have it repaired. I'm not the only one either. Many users only have trouble making the drivers work; however, many have broken PC's as a result of this release.

   Whenever any OS breaks something in a PC it is without a doubt a serious matter. So far the bug reports on this issue have been brushed aside.

   I say Hal hit the nail on the head with his post. I agree with him.

   Unless you're one of the unfortunate that got stung by this release, don't flame Hal.