Karmic Koala

Ubuntu 9.10, also called Karmic Koala, is scheduled to be released on October 29th, 2009.

So gear up people, Let's see what this one brings.

Oh and yes, did you know that the name of every version of Ubuntu has two distinct aspects?

One, It's always the name of some animal.

Two, from v 5.10 onwards, the names of successive releases follow alphabetical order.

Version Code name Release date Supported until Desktops Servers 4.10 Warty Warthog 20 October 2004 30 April 2006 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog 08 April 2005 31 October 2006 5.10 Breezy Badger 13 October 2005 13 Apr 2007 6.06 LTS Dapper Drake 01 June 2006[74] 14 July 2009 June 2011 6.10 Edgy Eft [75] 26 October 2006 25 April 2008 7.04 Feisty Fawn 19 April 2007 19 October 2008 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon 18 October 2007 18 April 2009 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron 24 April 2008 April 2011 April 2013 8.10 Intrepid Ibex 30 October 2008 April 2010 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope 23 April 2009[76] October 2010 9.10 Karmic Koala[77] 29 October 2009 April 2011 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx[72] 29 April 2010[73] April 2013 April 2015 And one last quick fact, the first release in even years (usually in April) is a "long term support" release, meaning that it will be supported by updates and software from Canonical for a much longer time than others. Ooh and check out the cool new "countdown to Ubuntu 9.10" gadget I just added!

Microsoft Slanders Linux

So this one is just how below the belt Microsoft can get, and more importantly, how Microsoft is beginning to actually be threatened by the same linux, whose very existence it denied for ten long years. It was 2005 at the time of linked article, and Microsoft used to never even mention that linux existed.

And looking at today's scenario, things seem to have changed.

Apparently, now Microsoft says that Linux distros are becoming a threat to windows.

Apparently, Microsoft has task force teams that work secretly to remove Linux distros from store shelves and find linux vulnerabilities.

But worst of all, is what's coming next. Pure and total lying, slander and defamation.

Apparently Microsoft made a training program for windows 7 for Best Buy workers.

And it had some of the most atrocious pieces of "education"

Now, for the benefit of those of you who are too lazy to open a link,

Lets take some examples, shamelessly stolen from the linked article (hey, only the images are stolen, the commentary is mine)

So here goes:

LOW Camera, Ipod and Mp3 compatibility? That's preposterous!

Printers and scanners do not work? No way that's true! Why? Because there's a windows driver wrapper in linux, so if a driver exists for windows, then it can be used in linux, even if that product does not have native linux support, which is VERY rare in itself.

To be honest, ALL of my laptop's hardware just worked out of the box in Linux, while in Losedows, I had to pump in a hundred drivers before things were working the way I wanted them.

Low Software Compatibility? Another Joke! Everything that you can do in windows, can be done in Linux. Even Photoshop CS4 can be run in linux. And Yes, I am talking about the windows version of Photoshop CS4.

Games Don't Run? Bah! Stupid accusation. Obviously, windows has monopolised the DirectX drivers, and that's pretty much the only reason for game incompatibility. However, some very awesome games have been made for linux, and a lot of windows games DO run in Linux, including Doom 3 and Half life 2 etc

Oh and Microsoft chose the worst example to give in this tutorial. WoW works in Linux like a charm.

Windows live essentials? Every one of them has better alternatives in Linux.

No Authorised support? Pray tell me, what is the thing we do when we get stuff from canonical?

No Video Chat? Hogwash! Pidgin and Skype natively support video chat.

Now for some more of the accusations:

Oh dear God. There are SO many words here, and I can't even bother to explain how Linux is better at each and every one of those aspects.

Linux IS SAFER. In fact, you CAN'T screw up Linux. There ARE no viruses for Linux.

And besides, talking of security vulnerabilities, there's a REASON why a majority of the world's security+stability critical servers use Linux/unix and NOT Windows.

In the last one, "Ubuntu may have hundreds of updates a Month, and hence would take a lot of time to maintain".

I actually laughed out loud.

Linux upgrades are automatic. God knows why Microsoft would say that they aren't.

It checks for updates, asks you permission to apply them, and then does it's job.

And contrary to windows, Linux does not need to be restarted every time there's an update.

In fact, as long as you don't change the kernel, you will NEVER need to restart your Linux system.

And suppose that you DO want to have the latest stable kernel at all times, you'll still need to restart less than once in a month. So in comparison, windows has updates once a week or so, sometimes even more, and needs a restart every single time for the updates to be applied.

I rest my case.

Wishing to Wave

I want Google Wave.

Google really is making waves with their new product, and seem to be all set to revolutionise the way we look at online communication.

Everything I've seen, heard, read about it is so.. Different from what we're used to.

And I really, really am sick of visiting so many pages just to keep tabs on everything. The concept of integrating everything from email, to documents, sheets, chats, photo sharing, blogging, blah all in ONE application is something I've always wanted.

Wish I get one soon.