A few changes have been made, including Canonical’s revenue sharing deal with Yahoo.  Firefox will now use Yahoo! for a default search engine, and switching it back to Google only requires a few clicks.  According to the mailing list:

...Canonical has negotiated a revenue
sharing deal with Yahoo! and this revenue will help Canonical to provide
developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and
the Ubuntu Platform. This change will help provide these resources as
well as continuing to respect our user's default search across Firefox.

This entirely makes sense; Canonical is working on becoming self-sufficient and a revenue-sharing deal can only help this.  Right now, there is a lot of drama surrounding this issue, but I’m not going to get into that.  Arstechnica has a pretty decent article explaining this decision a little more in-depth.

That aside, the interface is proving really snappy.  Truth-be-told, I was actually fooled into thinking my Visual Effects settings had been turned to “None” from “Extra” because when I clicked on Applications, the menu opened like it did without the extra settings.  Sure enough, they were still on “Extra” and I was impressed.

There is a bug that I encountered with plymouth (introduced to provide a flicker-free startup experience) that has since been fixed.  Also with startup experiences, it appears faster than Karmic, and bootchart is reporting GDM is firing after only 21 seconds.  Whether or not this is accurate to exactly when I can login, I do not know, but it’s definitely quicker.  Improving startup time is definitely a very important goal for the Canonical Team for this release.

Ubuntu Software Center is making nice progress with its visual appeal, ease of use, installing/removing packages, as well as making a separate category for “Free Software” which will eventually accompany a list that will show separate PPA’s, software from Canonical partners, etc.

The Me Menu introduced is just that:  A representative of yourself in Ubuntu.  It should let you broadcast to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, set your status for instant messaging, and access settings for instant messaging, microblogging, and Ubuntu One.  Integrating these features into one menu will ease clutter of having to manage all of these separately.

The Lynx is a predator that depends on very considered tactical positioning for success. It’s a small cat, which fits nicely with the lean nature of Ubuntu on both the desktop and the server. It’s stylish and sleek, the bow-tie-adorned James Bond of the feline set, so you can bet we’ll make sure it’s dressed for the occasion. The lynx likes to keep things in perspective, sticking to high ground. So do we. And it’s the national animal of Macedonia, a country that has deployed tens of thousands of Ubuntu desktops in schools.

Speed is an essential ingredient in the attack of a lynx, and speed remains our goal. We have improved the boot time in each of the releases during this era of Ubuntu, and expect to complete some of the major improvements required for 10 second booting with Lucid. Fully harnessing Upstart, in collaboration with Debian, will get us even closer to the goal. [via The Fridge]

This LTS version (supported for 3 years on Ubuntu Desktop, 5 years on Ubuntu Server) will sport the Linux Kernel 2.6.32; complete HAL removal for faster boot, suspend, and resume from suspend; a new default open source driver for nVidia hardware called nouveau, which will only support 2D rendering at this time; improved support for proprietary nVidia drivers; and a new likewise-open package that provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux, and a lot more.

There was a lot of hype about Gnome 3.0 being released in time for inclusion in Lucid Lynx, but that won’t happen this release.  The Lucid Release Schedule outlines major points in the development process.

So, I got a haircut today and had about an hour long discussion with my barber about all sorts of topics.  We touched subjects varying from the new iPad, different upcoming technologies, and we ended up talking about operating systems.

I am finding myself being a smidge reserved when it comes to talking about Ubuntu, I don’t want to be “that guy,” (read: evangelist) but I do not hesitate to like to let people know that there exist free (libre, beer) alternatives to the software they’re used to.

We began talking and Ubuntu came into conversation, and, as per the usual, common questions did arise.  I felt he asked questions any responsible consumer would, and I wasn’t surprised as to his reaction to its (Ubuntu, and GNU/Linux in general) existence.

He asked me a few questions like:

• Why is it safer? No viruses?
• How is this free?
• What is “Open Source?”
• How do I get it?

One thing that is important to keep in mind when doing an Ubuntu Hour is that you should be prepared to answer questions like these accurately (or as accurately as you can, it’s okay to tell someone you’re not entirely sure).  I’d get into possible answers, but that would take a long time to write in a single post, and there are other explanations on the internet that are probably far better than I would be at explaining them.

He did seem generally intrigued and frustrated with his current setup, and liked the idea of “it” in general.  Of course, I could have gone into greater detail about a lot of things, but it’s important to know when to stop.  One thing that I will do next time I’m in for a haircut (or have spare time to run across the road; that’s all the farther away it is from my room on campus) is bring him a LiveCD to try out.  Maybe he’ll like it, maybe it won’t, but at least he is aware of an alternative.

You never know when an opportunity may arise and when you can make a difference, so be prepared.

According to the Ubuntu Hour Wiki, it’s a pretty simple event.

• Head over to a public place (like a local coffee shop, etc) and use Ubuntu in a place that you will be visible to others.
  • Of course, check with management before you do this.
• Perhaps have a sticker and/or make your desktop more easily visible that it’s something different.
  • A stock theme is pretty distinguishable from Windows or OSX, which is probably the method I’ll use.
  • Wobbly windows or the desktop cube can be eye-catching.
• Maybe have a stock of Live CD’s and some documentation about it if anyone were to ask what OS you’re using.
• Of course, follow the Ubuntu Code of Conduct while you’re there.
• Remember kids, stay safe offline – meet in a public place and take a friend.
• Document!  Send an email to the mailing list, blog about it, etc.  We’d like to hear what’s going on!
• Be approachable (it’s kinda the point)!

It’s a pretty laid-back event with little expectations.  If nobody asks one week, maybe you’ll talk to 4 people the next week.  It’s a good time to get some coffee, catch up on some work, or just browse the internet.  I’ll probably even take pictures of where I am each week.

Please, don’t forget to document, tell us what you’ve been up to, when and where you are, etc.

Here’s a list of the topics that will be covered:

• Introduction
• Switching to Ubuntu & Installation
• Command Line Basics
• Finding Helpful Resources
• Restricted Drivers
• Using Launchpad
• Seahorse and GnuPG
• Chosing Hardware That Works With Ubuntu
• Partitioning 101
• Ubuntu Equivalent Programs
• Getting Involved in the Ubuntu Community
• Trusted Software, Where to Find it, and Why
• Package Management Basics
• Using Ubuntu One
• Using IRC

Excited already?  Here’s how you can participate!

If you don’t have an IRC client installed, or don’t even know what an IRC client is, then you might want to try connecting to the channels using a web browser.  Click here to join in the discussion directly in your browser.

Use your IRC client (such as xchat, irssi or mIRC) to connect to the Freenode IRC network at irc.freenode.net. You can do this manually by typing:

/server irc.freenode.net

Then join #ubuntu-classroom for the time and date of the session you want to attend. You can manually join the channel by typing:

/join #ubuntu-classroom

To quiet various noise that happens in the IRC channels during the talk use this command (in supported clients only):

/ignore #ubuntu-classroom CRAP NOTICES SNOTES CTCPS JOINS PARTS QUITS KICKS MODES WALLOPS NICKS DCC DCCMSGS CLIENTNOTICES CLIENTCRAP CLIENTERRORS HILIGHTS

For more information, visit https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays.

I have been hesitant about upgrading in the past to 64bit for a number of reasons:  application support, driver support, flash support, etc.  Doing some reading lately (here, and here), I decided it’s time to leave 32bit in the dust and jump on the 64bit bandwagon.  If my hardware supports it, why not?

The next question I had was with my encrypted /home partition.  Is it as easy as reinstalling with the same options (read on, you’ll find out!)?  Will I have to copy my data elsewhere and copy back over when I’m done?  Can I upgrade in-place or do I have to reinstall entirely?  Is my laptop going to asplode?

My partitioning is as follows:

Screenshot--dev-sda - GParted

I was concerned about not having 64bit Karmic Koala pick-up/use my encrypted home directory automatically on login.  I decided to throw up a virtual machine of Karmic with the /home on a separate partition and used the encryption option on the user-creation box.  I then reinstalled the 64bit version on top of that using the same /home mountpoint, formatting the / mountpoint, installed with the same encryption option selected, and checked to see that a document that I had created on the Desktop was still there.  Lo-and-behold (where did that saying come from, anyway?) I had success!  The only thing left to do was the actual upgrade.

Before you start, make sure you have a proper backup of your data.  There’s the steps I used:

• Downloaded the 64bit ISO and installed that to my USB drive
• Booted from the USB drive
• Formatted /dev/sda1 as ext4 and set mountpoint as /, used /dev/sda5 as ext4 and set mountpoint /home (do not format this)
• Used the same username, password, checked the “automatically decrypt” option on the user creation form
• Install!

I logged in and all of my settings and data were there as expected.  I only had to reinstall some programs that aren’t installed by default that I use, (chromium-browser, skype, etc).   Also, I am a good boy and have a backup of my home directory (which I can discuss in a later post) just in case it went bad.

I can now ride the wave of the future (with style) on 64bit Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala! I hope this may be of use for some people.