Why do most people download on release day?

[picopir8]

8.4 came out today and as always I expect the servers to be super slow. So that begs the question, why does everyone download on release day? I know some people are eager to try out the new release, but if that is the case why not download the release candidate when the demand is lower and downloads are faster? There may be a few unresolved bugs at first, but it will be identical to a final release so long as all updates are applied. So there will be at most one week of it potentially being buggier than the final release. I understand some people are worried about stability but if that is the case, why not wait a few weeks after the release? That way many of bugs that made it into the final release might already have patches.

Am I missing something?

[bruce89]

Am I missing something?

An awful lot of people think that an earlier snapshot of 8.04 + a load of updates != final 8.04.

[knavarathna92]

a combination of fear from people who don't want to deal with bugs, people who want to be on the cutting edge, people who just follow whatever their update manager tells them = crowded servers.
:lolflag:
Personally, I DL'd the RC yesterday to beat the crowd, but halfway throught, my connection went from around 750 kbps to 210 kbps:(

[FuturePilot]

I don't know. I always upgrade.

[Simpatico]

Maybe they don't know that the RCs can generally be upgraded to final?

I downloaded the RC last week to test it live. Yesterday I used the same ISO to install and then upgraded. Today I haven't gotten any upgrades yet, so apparently I've been running the final 8.04 since yesterday. I can imagine the headaches with a download today.

[Ozor Mox]

I just feel more comfortable about downloading the final, officially released version. Don't know why really, still I'm using BitTorrent so I'm giving as well as taking on release day!

[justin whitaker]

An awful lot of people think that an earlier snapshot of 8.04 + a load of updates != final 8.04.

Yes they do. I don't think that Ubuntu really communicates it well enough. There should be something like "get the Release Candidate, help us with the final fit and finish, and be where all the cool kids want to be on the day of release!" added to all press releases. :)

[retrow]

If everyone downloads from servers, the servers would have a very hard time keeping up with the bandwidth demand. Thats why several folks use bittorrent downloads. I got an average of 450 kB/s.

http://banner.uits.indiana.edu/hardy/ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.torrent

[justin whitaker]

If everyone downloads from servers, the servers would have a very hard time keeping up with the bandwidth demand. Thats why several folks use bittorrent downloads. I got an average of 450 kB/s.

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4152923/ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso

I'm a little spoiled...the MIT and Northeastern Servers are right down the street, so I download locally. :)

[bruce89]

Yes they do.


http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4780057&postcount=6:


I've seen about 50 of those this past week. :|

[retrow]

I'm a little spoiled...the MIT and Northeastern Servers are right down the street, so I download locally. :)
The Gatech servers are right across our state line, but even they were swamped this morning and I was having a hard time connecting to them, let alone start a download. So it was good old fashioned P2P for moi.

[andrewbrown22]

I honestly don't know why either, but I waited until today to start my download too. I'm using Bittorrent to do so, and I'm getting a fairly good download speed, and of course I'll be uploading it for the next few weeks to help out the spread of Ubuntu..

[bruce89]

So far, I've uploaded more than I've downloaded.

[jbizz8]

I think it is more psychological then anything. I know for me, release day is like Christmas come early. Sure I can open my presents ahead of time but that kinda ruins the day. Its kind of like going to a movie premier... it sucks waiting in line but you were there!

[macogw]

I upgraded 2 months ago :) I did Edgy on release day though...never again...sooo slow

[hyper_ch]

So far, I've uploaded more than I've downloaded.

So have I... gotta make a new screenshot when I'm back home :)

[dhughes]

Go to The Pirate Bay and download the torrent there, the more the merrier, that's why torrents are so good.

But of course that's assuming someone already downloaded it and made it available as a torrent.

It should be done that way anyway with all Ubuntu releases at whatever time, put them on pirate bay.

[bruce89]

Go to The Pirate Bay and download the torrent there, the more the merrier, that's why torrents are so good.

But of course that's assuming someone already downloaded it and made it available as a torrent.

It should be done that way anyway with all Ubuntu releases at whatever time, put them on pirate bay.

What's wrong with the official torrents whose tracker is http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/ ?

[amazingtaters]

Current ratio on the 32bit image with off and on seeding since about 9 this morning-

6.524

So, in theory I've distributed 6 and a half copies of Hardy straight off of my computer and I'm still seeding, probably will for the next week or so.

More on topic, I downloaded the Beta (4 I think but I don't remember right off hand) and have just been upgrading since then. I was happy with the decision, but I can see why others would wait until release day. It's a mental thing, they want the official full release version even though the difference from the RC to that is negligible and they can just upgrade. So, I dl'd an image and am seeding to help ease the load. I suggest others do as well.

[mhenry35]

In my case, I downloaded the Beta and have been keeping it updated, it has been wonderful, and the bugs have been minimal. I'll do my update later today, hopefully the download won't be too big, and later on I'll get the release ISO downloaded with Bittorrent.

This is a very nice release, I didn't have to edit any text files or do any research, everything worked out of the box, including Intel widescreen video on laptops, even with large external widescreen monitors, as well as WIFI, and even security on WIFI networks.

I might even be tempted to recommend this one to non-geeks.

[insane_alien]

i'm on the torrent. still downloading and i've set my upload speed to greaterthan download limit so i'm giving before i get. i'm running 8.04 anyway.

[wolfen69]

Go to The Pirate Bay and download the torrent there, the more the merrier, that's why torrents are so good.

But of course that's assuming someone already downloaded it and made it available as a torrent.

It should be done that way anyway with all Ubuntu releases at whatever time, put them on pirate bay.

i see over 700 seeders. i dont think its gonna be a problem. HERE (http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/hardy/ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.torrent) is the live CD torrent.

[SomeGuyDude]

Considering I've had no updates for the past two days outside of an AWN update from the bzr from this forum, I've apparently been running the "final version" since the 22nd.

With that in mind, I also don't see why people who want to get it early don't get the release candidate and update it. Aside from getting it fast, you'll have it first.

[elamericano]

I'm hoping a reinstall will clear up some bugs, but if not I can then make a bug report saying that I'm on a clean install of the released version, not an updated beta.

[hyper_ch]

Go to The Pirate Bay and download the torrent there, the more the merrier, that's why torrents are so good.

But of course that's assuming someone already downloaded it and made it available as a torrent.

http://www.sjau.ch/rtorrent_hardy.png

[gsmanners]

8.4 came out today and as always I expect the servers to be super slow. So that begs the question, why does everyone download on release day? ...

Firstly, it isn't "begs" the question.

Secondly, it's nice to have the official release in case you need to reinstall or if you're like me and you have multiple computers and VMs to think of not to mention friends and neighbors who don't necessarily use Ubuntu already.

[aysiu]

I don't know that it is most people who download on release day, but certainly a lot of people do. Still, I'm often surprised at how many users, to this day, still use Dapper, Edgy, and Feisty.

A lot of new users, knowing that a new release is on the horizon, wait until release day to download the .iso to burn to CD. After all, why would you want to have for six months a CD of a release candidate or beta? New users can be particularly anxious and probably wouldn't think to wait a month for all the bugs to be worked out.

Some veteran users download on release day because they like to have the latest and greatest as soon as possible. Just look at how many people complain that six-month-old software is "outdated." If people can't even wait six months to get version 4.02 of something when they have 4.01, you can bet these same people will download Hardy as soon as it comes out.

Personally speaking, I download on release day because I like to update my Psychocats tutorial site as soon after release day as possible (it usually takes me a few days to get it all up to date, though).

[SomeGuyDude]

That makes me wonder... who on the forums will be the first person to install the Ibex alpha??

[hyper_ch]

Personally speaking, I download on release day because I like to update my Psychocats tutorial site as soon after release day as possible (it usually takes me a few days to get it all up to date, though).

so it is already updated?

[aysiu]

so it is already updated?
No, it usually takes me a few days to get everything updated, but I need to at least upgrade to the latest release before I start taking screenshots.

[notwen]

I tend to wait a month prior to upgrading my Ubuntu machines. This time period generally reveals any issues that might affect each of my machine's specific hardware. Hopefully a month after it's official release, the majority of these issues will have workarounds/fixes available. Of course if major issues are still abundant and affecting my hardware, then I normally wait until these major issues get resolved.

My Ubuntu machines are both daily usage machines and I would much rather upgrade my OS once I know what to expect, than upgrade and experiment w/ random bugs/fixes. I know the Ubuntu devs work hard at releasing a quality OS, but over time I've learned to value a working desktop over one that has unknown issues and I no longer have time to really tinker w/ Linux as much as I would like to.

All this aside, I still try to download and seed each Ubuntu version(desktop, server, 64 bit, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc) for a couple of weeks after it's official release. =]

[jeyaganesh]

Why not? I like to use them from beta version itself.:popcorn:

[robelliott2125]

It should be done that way anyway with all Ubuntu releases at whatever time, put them on pirate bay.

You actually trust public trackers???

Odd, considering if you were to download the official torrent, which is readily available on the ubuntu website, you'd ensure your release is the both the correct download, instead of some dodgy film, or cracked illegal copy of something completely different, along with the fact someone could have happily written crap into the codings for the install...

Now I'm a n00b on the ubuntu scene, but at least I know, if I'm going to download something which is readily availble for free from the developers and their trusted servers, I'd rather do it that way, and seed back to other people doing the sensible thing than getting complete dodge stuffs from TPB, whom, I might add, have recently been in the news for illegal means...

Your choice i guess though...

Anywhoo, I downloaded the following day, didn't get on with it, and then my grub was fubar'ed so I just reinstalled Gutsy. <3 Gutsy...

So, getting on with things now, but will no doubt upgrade to Heron once all the patches and things are sorted... Since I'm new on the linux scene, i wouldn't know where to start with errors, coding and things...

Only code I know is sudo apt-get install / remove / and update, but I am determined to know and release the full potential of my OS.

Can I just ask, is the originator of this thread just looking for something to complain about, you get something for free, yet you complain about people jumping onto servers. As other people have responded, you know for a fact, come a release date, people will queue for it. Look at films, books, cds etc. Its the 21st mentality. MUST HAVE THIS NOW!!!

[fjf]

Last two versions I got the late beta, and went to the release with some (expected) problems, but nothing major.

[Wartooth]

For me, I think I can sum it up like this: Impatient idiocy.

I'll readily admit to being an idiot with Linux. I made the jump last week from Ubuntu 6.06 to Kubuntu 8.04. The less updating and bug squashing I am faced with, the better. Just how I am. I know and accept that I'll be wrestling with a few things in the first few days, and then from time to time later on, but if I have a chance of having a little less to mess with, that's cool.

I'm also incredibly impatient. I was all giddy about having an untouched 500 GB drive for a clean install of Kubuntu. It was like Christmas or something. No, I don't have a particularly exciting life, thanks for asking. ;)

So, I waited until the 'final/finished' product and went for it.

There's also a lot of folks unaware of when things are released, and once they see it popping up on /. or other sites that it's now available, they go ahead and give it a try as soon as they find out.

[BradwJensen]

I've noticed with the finals vs. the betas that betas have a huge blurry boot loader while the finals don't.. Even when i updated a beta to final, the boot loader was still the fat, blurry boot loader. :(

So I got the final and that fixed it all. lmao

Plus now I have the final so if I need to reinstall I can use the disc and not have as many updates to get.

I really with the team would not use a different fat ugly boot loaded for betas.

[subzero316]

Since the previous version ROCKED:guitar: ppl jus cant control the urge to get the new one....As for me i prefer waitin for another 4 weeks...i also placed a dvd order...

[LaRoza]

Most people do not download on release day.

There is a surge on release day, but I would imagine that the six months after have more total downloads.

[hyper_ch]

You actually trust public trackers???

Why not? You have md5 sum available and with DHT it helps when the .torrent files are added to additional trackers also... some people just d/l everything added to a torrent so it's good that it's also added there... more people, better speeds...