Way to Go Wayland!

With the newer version of Gnome 3.x shells, you get an option to try Wayland sessions. You have to choose it in the login screen. I have never seen Gnome running so smoothly in X previously. Wayland is very smooth and very fast. But Wayland is still a work in progress and it may first arrive only for Gnome. While I tried, my videos files didn't play in SMPlayer and I had encountered very few gaps. (These are not bugs or glitches. These are areas where Wayland team is closing up. So it is wrong to call them bugs or issues).

Manjaro with GNOME 3.20 using Wayland

Wayland is designed from the scratch at the same time, keeping all the shortcomings of X display server in mind. X is like dinosaur and had its own time during reptilian era of GNU/Linux. In no way X is inferior to any other thing. But X's days are over. It is time to make way for a more secure, less buggy and architecturally clean Wayland.

Here is a short video of Wayland in action:

Fedora tried to make Wayland by default for 24 release (which will arrive by June 2016). But due to some gaps and effort needed for packaging and testing everything, that has been postponed to some later release. KDE project is also working with Wayland support and planning to make it default display server in near future. Bleeding edge distros like Arch and Fedora may get Wayland within next 12-18 months (May-Nov 20017?).

Ubuntu on the other hand is working on Mir (another display server). It was supposed to be arriving with 16.04 LTS release but it missed. Still 16.10 may not get Mir. Unity 8 and Mir are the two crucial updates which Ubuntu users are waiting for a long time. Like Internet Explorer had its own "standards", Mir is Canonical's way of doing Wayland. But Canonical has a valid reason (at least according to them) that they are working on convergence (same OS, UI, UX across all devices) and Mir is what they need. May be!

All I can see about Wayland is exclusively positive. I am confident that with Wayland, the UI will be buttery smooth, with less bugs and more security. Also I think nobody will troll Wayland like they do Systemd. Some or other day Systemd will also become the default display server. Oh my! I myself can't help trolling Systemd ;-)

Ubuntu 14.10 - Utopic Unicorn Review

If you have 14.04 LTS installed and upgrading to 14.10, there is not much to notice except the performance and power management improvements which are under the hood. Ubuntu 14.10's blueprint has only 35 items while 14.04's blueprint had 117 items. It seems Ubuntu didn't want to leave a bad taste in the minds of users on its 10th birthday. It has become a new norm in GNU/Linux community to militantly oppose any major change.

Things that are new include, improved support for hardware, power management, SSD optimization using TRIM, better Btrfs support, all of which are due to the Linux kernel update to version 3.16. 

Now let us see what Ubuntu 14.10 - Utopic Unicorn can deliver to end users against other OSes.

Ubuntu is a trusted name among GNU/Linux users. It is well known for its ease of use, good support and stability. Also even after 10 years, the release cycles of Ubuntu went like clock works and the users are provided with latest and greatest software!

Compared with proprietary operating systems, Ubuntu stands top in addressing security issues. It supports most of the latest hardware components like sound card, USB devices, laptop hot keys etc. Most of the proprietary OSes require you to install drives separately.

The centralized software management (which is common to all GNU/Linux platforms) is also a key in maintaining the system. Everything from your core operating system to browser will be updated in one shot!

So this is not a compelling update for 14.10 LTS users. But if you think there can be any thing new in 15.04 or 15.10 or even 16.04, you need to upgrade to 14.10 now. Else you have to wait till 16.10 to get any thing new that may come in between like GNOME 3.14 or Unity 8 or Mir.

But for users of other proprietary OSes, this is a compelling release. People are waiting for a newer version of windows just for a start menu button lately! But with Ubuntu you have various choices of desktop environments which can meet our taste. Also you don't have any attached guilt of pirating the OS or wasting your money on a disk of 0s and 1s :)

Ubuntu 14.10 – Steps to Upgrade

As discussed earlier in a previous blog post, Ubuntu 14.10 is out! Finally the wait is over. Before you are going to upgrade your OS, keep in mind that 14.10 is a regular release and 14.04 is a Long Term Support release (meaning you will get security/critical updates for 5 years). So if you want the LTS to stay, don't bother updating your PC/laptop until 16.04, the next LTS version, which will be release around April, 2016. With that said, for those who always want the stability of Debian with cutting edge packages, can proceed with upgrading their OS.

Steps to Upgrade:

First update your machine. Open terminal, type the following command

sudo apt-get update

This laptop was bit outdated!

Type in the password. After completion, run

sudo apt-get upgrade

Depending upon the number of packages you have and the interval of update it can take few minutes to update your OS to latest available packages.

After this, go to “Software & Updates” click on the “Updates” tab and check the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version:” option at the bottom. It should be set to “For any new version”.

Search for "update"

Check the last option in the "update" tab

Now go to “Software Updater” and it will notify you that a newer version of Ubuntu is available.

Search for "updater"

Wow! The wait is over!

 Click “Upgrade” and you will be presented with the release notes. Click “Upgrade” here too!

It will download the “release upgrade tool” which will take care of the remaining upgrade process.

The upgrade tool will do preliminary preparations for the upgrade and calculates the packages to update as well as size of download and approximate time to download. Ensure that you have enough time and stable Internet connection. If yours is a laptop, then don't forget to connect the charger! (But sadly, there was a power cut during my upgrade process and my modem went off. But thankfully the download started from where it was left in between!)

Click “Start Upgrade” and the packages will be downloaded. After that the required packages will be installed/upgraded and obsolete packages will be removed.

After everything is over, the upgrade tool will prompt you to restart your machine.

And after that!!!

The wallpaper looks awesome!

Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn

Only two days to go, Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn is planned to be released on 23rd October 2014. If you expect either Utopia or a Unicorn, you will be disappointed for sure. But if you expect a stable and user-friendly operating system, you will never get disappointed with Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 14.10 is a normal release (supported for 9 months), unlike 14.04, which is an LTS (Long Term Support, supported for 5 years). So, if you are running Ubuntu 14.04 and not interested in upgrading your OS for next one and half years, without losing security updates, they you should ignore these versions till Ubuntu 16.04 comes to your rescue!

A laptop running Ubuntu

Ubuntu 14.10 will pack Linux Kernel 3.16 (I am already running 3.17 through openSuse Tumbleweed!) which is well tested up to Debian standards. So you get a latest kernel without compromising stability. Linux 3.16 packs better support for Btrfs filesystem, improved performance in ARM platforms (mainly for smartphones and tablets). This will aid Ubuntu to get a better ground in mobile arena.

Sadly on UI front, neither Unity 8 nor GNOME 3.14 is coming with this version. Also the uncertainty surrounding the new Mir display server also prevails. So, if you are looking for anything new in UI/graphic area, then you have to wait a bit (or even much more) longer.

But against all odds, Ubuntu is a trusted name among PC and laptop users. Its user friendly nature and bundled software make it default choice of people who want an OS that just works! This "just works!" mantra is what Apple uses to sell their products for sky rocketing prices. But Ubuntu gives you everything for free.

Top 10 Distros

Well, I have been using Free Software based distributions from 2004 (that was when I got my first own PC). I have come across many distributions. Now, I will share 10 of the best distributions I recommend people and their target audience. The list is sort of a count-down. So let us start with 10.

10. PC-BSD

BSD is not Linux. It is a UNIX clone too. Its file system, partition management, working differs greatly from Linux based distros. But this is a very solid platform and provides a secure and robust system suitable for servers and research and development labs. If you are freaky enough, you can try to install it as a dual booting system along with a GNU/Linux system.

9. Puppy Linux

Do you have a very old PC? Or have you managed to assemble a PC from junkyard? Here is a distro that can fire it up to life. Puppy Linux requires very less memory and other requirements. Of course it lacks fancy GUI and powerful tools like office applications. But it works like charm in very old hardware. Puppy is derived from Ubuntu.

8. Lubuntu

This LXDE flavor of Ubuntu is Puppy Linux for bit newer hardware. Also this packs good driver support and adds option to install latest and greatest packages. So if you have a 10 years old PC and want it to perform fast like a new one, Lubuntu is for you.

7. Gentoo

For those who doubt pre-compiled binaries in repositories, Gentoo is the answer. If you have enough time and powerful hardware, you can do the entire compilation of your GNU/Linux system right on your machine. You may find the installation bit tough. But it is rewarding. You never need to upgrade the system. You only need to update it. This is called rolling release. Compared to Fedora in which you need to upgrade frequently, this is relatively simple. Suitable for BASHers. So install once and forget how to install. You can still complain that the stage-3 tarballs are tainted by NSA ;-)

6. Arch Linux

This is the one for those who are not afraid of command line interface. You have to set up this distro by executing commands. No GUI based installation.This is much like Gentoo minus compilation. Arch is awesome and has a very good community to support. If you search for generic Linux issues, Arch wiki is where you land.

5. Ubuntu/Linux Mint

These are derivatives of Debian. Mint comes with Mate desktop environment for those who hate GNOME 3 and Ubuntu comes with Unity interface. These distros ship with lot of proprietary drivers. The reason I recommend them is because they are suitable for lazy people who just want everything working out of the box. Especially if you have laptops with locked hardware, this will work out in most cases. But the better suggestion is to choose a more open hardware and go for a better distribution.

4. CentOS

CentOS is community supported clone of RedHat Linux. This is one of the most stable and well tested distro. But it lags a lot in terms of package versions. For example, current version of CentOS (as of 26th Feb, 2014) ships with 2.6.x kernel, while a uname -r in my machine spat out 3.13.3. But this has its own plus. All packages are well tested. Almost all bugs fixed and most drivers for bit older hardware are readily available. This makes it suitable for servers and workstations. Also this distro as of now lacks fancy desktop environments. So it uses less resources and perform well.

3. OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE is community edition of SUSE from Novell. Made in Germany. IT has good driver support and an active community to help you out. If you can switch to Tumbleweed channel, you can get a taste of rolling release like that of Arch. Yast makes the system management easy. So this is the distro suitable for home PCs with good hardware configurations. It ships with awesome desktop environments like KDE 4 and GNOME 3. Everything you need in one place!

2. Fedora

This the future version of Red Hat. What is today Fedora will become Red Hat one day. It is one of the most bleeding edge distro. This makes it a bit hard to use for people with proprietary hardware. As the kernel and other stuffs are constantly updated, it may impact the system sometimes. Mostly the stable releases won't have any problem. But don't ask me about why x or y is not working after an update. This is suitable for power users with good open hardware (without proprietary graphic cards, wi-fi chips, web cams etc).

1. BLAG/Dragora/Dynebolic/gNewSense/Musix/Parabola/Trisquel

These are all Free Software Foundation (FSF)  approved distros. They may lack some drivers, no flash,  they can't play mp3s. These are not so fancy and these are not meant for kids playing flash games or adults watching porn. But if you care about freedom, these are the distributions you should run. Especially gNewSense is the distribution that Dr. Richard Stallman himself runs. You can find more information about these distributions at http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html