Canonical - Please retroactivly extend Lucid Desktop support to the new 5 year window

[p_code]

Like a lot of other folks I have run in to lots of issues trying to get 12.04 running. My older hardware can't make the cut, and my newest laptop was a nightmare because of UEFI,GPT, and SECURE-BOOT issues.

Then, after all that trouble, when I finally had 12.04 up and going (at least my newest machine) Unity was a HUGE disappointment after all the hype ... YES I did give it a couple weeks, and YES I can see the appeal to a generation that grew up typing stupid meaningless crap every 15 seconds at 600 words per minute with their thumbs on their silly little cell phones (Oh GOODIE, I can get on facebook and update my status with one click!!!) - but having grown up using real computers, with real operating systems, to run real software, to solve real problems, seeing the Gnome Desktop dumbed-down to the level of an idiotic smart-phone just isn't cutting it for me. I can see some potential there, but those features should have been fly-out panels on the existing desktop, not the base interface, because I have other things to do with my PC than update facebook and send a stupid tweet to inform the world every time I belch or fart.

Lucid, on the other hand, has just been a complete joy from day one. So PLEEEEZZEE Canonical, extend the support window for Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 Desktop Release retroactively to the same 5 year window you plan for future LTS releases to give a little more overlap before you hold a gun to your users heads collectively and force them to upgrade from the last release.

This will give some breathing room and time to shake out some of the installation issues with 12.04, and tweak the interface and available software in the repositories so that it's something I actually WANT to install.

Otherwise I am afraid that I will have to dump Ubuntu completely and go with another release, because at this point I can't get 12.04 going on a few of my older machines, and would prefer ALL my computers to run the same Linux O.S. for the sake of backups and user convenience.

Using one of the alternate 'lighter' Ubuntu 12.04 releases like Lubuntu, or Xubuntu is NOT an option, because <snip>

-EDIT - because, well basically, because they don't match main releases 5 year LTS cycle and therefore don't really qualify as full LTS releases IMOHO -- (had to edit this after earning an 'infraction' for rather rudely implying that having a situation where LTS doesn't really mean the same thing from one 12.04 release to another within the Ubuntu family wasn't perhaps the brightest way to handle things - SORRY - I shouldn't have use rude language, but rather should have tried to appeal to reason - the rude language, well please chalk it up to my frustration at seeing the overwhelming user feedback on this issue ignored)

Extending the Lucid LTS cycle would provide a much more reasonable overlap between the introduction of the new 12.04 release and the expiration of support for the previous Lucid 10.04 LTS desktop release.

Canonical is already committed to supporting the Lucid 10.04 Kernel and most of the 10.04 core over that period anyway, because of the longer support window provided for the server release, so this shouldn't really be that big a deal.

What do you say???

[coffeecat]

Not a technical support request. Thread moved to Recurring Discussions.

So PLEEEEZZEE Canonical, extend the support window for Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 Desktop Release retroactively to the same 5 year window you plan for future LTS releases to give a little more overlap before you hold a gun to your users heads collectively and force them to upgrade from the last release.

The forum membership, staff included, are volunteers. This is not the place to make representations to Canonical.

[sudodus]

...
Using one of the alternate 'lighter' Ubuntu releases like Lubuntu, or Xubuntu is NOT an option, because <snip>
...
What do you say???

I think that Ubuntu 12.04.2 (the latest sub-version) is well debugged and polished. Its eye-candy needs fairly powerful computers. So for my aging computers I prefer Lubuntu or Xubuntu, and I can recommend these flavours to everybody in a similar situation. I upgraded my Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS and installed lubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-desktop and kubuntu-desktop.

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

and all flavours work. I use the Lubuntu-desktop most of the time, because it is fast and responsive. I do not recommend this, because there will be a lot of redundant applications programs and menu entries. I recommend that you download the iso files, test the flavours live and install the flavour you like (a fresh install). Add new application programs when you need them!

@ coffeecat Why did you censor the reason, why Lubuntu, or Xubuntu is NOT an option for p_code? /explanation posted by p_code/

If you want the 5 year LTS feature in 12.04, you can use kansasnoob's method

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseGnomeClassicTweaks

[p_code]

I thought that 'Ubuntu' was supposed to represent 'community' so why not give Canonical feedback in a public forum?

[mörgæs]

A forum is mainly for end users. You are free to post your opinion, but neither Canonical representatives nor (most) developers are frequent guests here.

My opinion is that Ubuntu is one of the few options for people who want the touchscreen-style interface. For people like you (and I) who prefer a mouse-and-menu system lots of alternatives are available. Xubuntu is a good candidate, and three years of LTS is a good compromise.

[coffeecat]

after earning an 'infraction'

For the record - you have not been given an infraction.

[p_code]

I think that Ubuntu 12.04.2 (the latest sub-version) is well debugged and polished. Its eye-candy needs fairly powerful computers. So for my aging computers I prefer Lubuntu or Xubuntu, and I can recommend these flavours to everybody in a similar situation. I upgraded my Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS and installed lubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-desktop and kubuntu-desktop.

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

and all flavours work. I use the Lubuntu-desktop most of the time, because it is fast and responsive. I do not recommend this, because there will be a lot of redundant applications programs and menu entries. I recommend that you download the iso files, test the flavours live and install the flavour you like (a fresh install). Add new application programs when you need them!

@ coffeecat Why did you censor the reason, why Lubuntu, or Xubuntu is NOT an option for p_code? /explanation posted by p_code/

If you want the 5 year LTS feature in 12.04, you can use kansasnoob's method

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseGnomeClassicTweaks

Thanks for the suggestions, I already am using the Gnome Classic session, sadly it seems to have all the bugs I remember disliking about Gnome 2. For example the Nautilus file search defaults to icon view, but to move files or see their details you have to change to 'list' view - which repeats the whole search - a colossal time waster. So was this fixed in Gnome3 ? - Sorry, still the same annoying behavior. But what did happen in Gnome3 is that the interface is now slower, lacks configuration utilities that were available in Gnome2, and at least for Ubuntu, comes equipped with a really hideous pop-out scroll-bar that is a royal PITA until you disable it (and no simple GUI configuration option is available to turn this off, you have to resort to command line hacks).

But the worst issue for me is that the new Gnome3 interface just flat out refuses to start on one of my favorite laptops, complaining that the graphic card doesn't meet the requirements (it does this even though I am trying to run Gnome classic WITHOUT 'desktop effects' enabled).

I don't think this is right, but chalked it up to the currently poor support level for Gnome Classic (I think Canonical had high hopes for Unity, and didn't realize that Gnome Classic would have so many users, so it's not quite fully ready for prime time and a little buggy)

This is one reason I hope that Canonical will extend the support window for 10.04, so that these issues can be sorted out before I try to load 12.04 on that machine again.

Sorry if my comments about Lubuntu and Xubuntu were cryptic, they were chopped by the moderator because I used a rude word in expressing my opinion of the fact that I don't consider Lubuntu and Xubuntu to be LTS alternatives for me since they don't support the new official 5 year LTS cycle.

I really liked Lubuntu, and it would probably be my choice, but it is simply NOT option for me since Lubuntu DOESN'T HAVE ANY LTS RELEASE AT ALL (I know that's hard to believe, since they did offer 12.04, but you can go to the Lubuntu home page and check it yourself)

As to some of the work arounds, Yes, I could manually install the official 5 year Ubuntu 12.04, then strip out Unity, zeitgeist, etc, to try to lighten it up, then install LXDE, but this is also a totally unacceptable solution -

Quoting from the official Canonical Ubuntu 12.04 'Software Center' LXDE install page -

"Canonical does not provide updates for LXDE (the lightweight X11 Desktop Environment)"

So what they are saying is basically "Install LXDE yourself, and YOYO buddy" (Your On Your Own).

So if someone finds one of those nice POSix buffer overflow bugs that seem to surface about every ten minutes in some obscure Linux library or another, and if this library is one of the hundreds related to LXDE, well then your system has an un-patched security hole big enough to drive a truck through.

Sorry to point this out, I know a lot of <snip> live happly under the delusion that ALL the software in the Ubuntu software center is regularly updated, hell, I used to think that myself, but sadly THE EXACT OPPOSITE IS TRUE - If you check for yourself, you will find that the vast majority of it has that nasty "Canonical does not provide updates" message appended.

Given the number of security holes that pop up nearly every week in the limited number of packages that ARE supported, I think it's safe to assume that many of the software packages in the 'software center' will eventually be discovered to have upatched security holes, so installing never-to-be-updated packages is a risk, which increases if the package is widely distributed.

For example the current VLC package in Lucid is goldeneye 1.06, a version that has several un-patched security holes (including some nasty buffer overflows that could be exploited for that worst of all nightmares - 'arbitrary code execution') but the package is still there, and hasn't been updated. Thank god no one ever plays video in Linux, because play the wrong clip in VLC 1.06 and your system will be P'wnd.

Canoical seems to be aware that this is BAD NEWS, because they have updated to 2.05 in Precise, and moved VLC to the 'security' repository so it will presumably get updated in Precise if further problems are found. But they didn't bother to update 1.06 in Lucid even though later versions with security patches have been available for a long time.

I don't think that's a particular good way to run things either, but I won't use any of the bad words I could apply here, because I don't want to get in trouble again - and in fairness, they DO weasel-word a disclaimer to tell you your on your own, it's just that most folks don't bother to READ what it says, and think about what that really means.

Suffice it to say, I am NOT willing to install an entire LXDE Desktop environment - with hundreds of separate software packages - with ZERO SUPPORT beyound the initial install (after that it's YOYO time)

So, again, thanks for the link and your other suggestions, but under Ubuntu's current YOYO support policy for manual LXDE installs, manually installing LXDE in the standard Unity version of Ubuntu 12.04 is NOT some magic 'loop-hole' that will get you 5 full years of support as some have said, it's just a really dumb way to shoot yourself in the foot and get ZERO support on LXDE from day one.

Of course, it would be nice to believe that if there was REALLY an issue with LXDE, Canoical would surely do SOMETHING right? - but don't fool yourself, no support, means NO SUPPORT - go to the Lucid Repository, check the version info for VLC and BELIEVE IT. If they can do something as irresponsible as leave an insecure version of one of the MOST POPULAR MEDIA PLAYER APPS in the repository, when virus exploits in multimedia files have become one of the attack vectors of choice in the hacker community - Well then, I for one believe them - "Canonical does not provide updates" means just what it says ZERO SUPPORT - and installing a whole desktop environment like LXDE with ZERO SUPPORT is simply not an acceptable alternative.

[sudodus]

Yes, I know that Lubuntu and LXDE lack LTS. See this link

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1954702

but I use it because it is working so well with my hardware. I'm prepared to upgrade it (or install a fresh version) at '12.04 end of life' in October.

Also, consider some other channel to reach Canonical, either directly via their home page, or via Ubuntu Brainstorm

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

or something else, that you might find!

[coffeecat]

@OP, since I've now had to edit two of your posts to remove disrespectful comments about other people, I've closed the thread.