Intel Reverts Plans, Will Not Support Ubuntu's XMir

[dee.]

It doesn't apply to Ubuntu now, I know because I prefer Synaptic and I need to install it every time I setup the OS.

Well maybe it was the previous LTS, then. Anyway it's not like it's an issue. If you're presented with two choices, "Software Manager" and "Synaptic Package Manager", it's pretty obvious which is the simpler, more newbie-friendly choice. Plus, Synaptic asks for your password before even launching, so that's another clue right there. Also, Mint has hints / small descriptions on each launcher when you hover on them, Software Manager says "Install new applications" while Synaptic says "install, remove and upgrade software packages". So I don't think anyone is confused which is the easiest way to install applications.

Also, Mint shows a "welcome screen" app on every launch that lets you know all the basics, until you disable it.

[johnc]

Mint is going nowhere. It's going to be another also-ran Linux distro.

[mrugiero]

Not if the shareholders get their way.

Anyway, I also heard that Dell is launching a huge Ubuntu-based laptop campaign over in China... selling them on real brick-and-mortar stores, even. So it doesn't really look like they plan on quitting on Ubuntu just yet. Maybe if the MS deal goes through.

Well, maybe I don't recall correctly, but it might be the same deal as why they ship (shipped?) FreeDOS on some computers. At that time, I think it was because they had a deal or something like that with MS where they couldn't sell a computer without an OS installed, so they just installed anything that could have been removed in a fast way to work around it.

[daniels]

The Wayland developers themselves stated that their work could have been a X11 extension.

er, that's pretty much the opposite of everything we've said.

[Vim_User]

Mint is going nowhere. It's going to be another also-ran Linux distro.

Without telling us how you come to this conclusion this is a worthless statement.

[dee.]

Without telling us how you come to this conclusion this is a worthless statement.

He's just trolling. My guess is bozley hijacked his account.

[dee.]

Well, maybe I don't recall correctly, but it might be the same deal as why they ship (shipped?) FreeDOS on some computers. At that time, I think it was because they had a deal or something like that with MS where they couldn't sell a computer without an OS installed, so they just installed anything that could have been removed in a fast way to work around it.

I don't actually think so. Ubuntu seems to have a pretty good following building up in China, they have their own localized variant (Kylin, or somesuch) and there are some Ubuntu-preloaded computers quite prominently displayed on some Chinese stores.

Also if that's what they wanted to do, they could still use FreeDOS. Certainly, some people who already own a copy of windows might buy the Ubuntu version just to be spared from paying for a redundant copy of windows, but if that was their only aim, they could do just as well with FreeDOS or something similar, no need for a fully functional OS. Also, if that was the case, they most likely wouldn't offer support or guarantees for the OS (not sure if they do that now, but I suppose that should be relatively easy to check if someone is really that interested).

[johnc]

People have been talking endlessly about Mint ever since GNOME and Canonical lost their minds and created insanely stupid desktop environments. But as far as I can see, there really isn't any evidence that Mint is doing particularly well as a distro.

Then again when you consider that all of desktop Linux is mired in 1.4% marketshare, I guess it's hard to find any solid numbers since at that point it's all in the noise.

[jayrulez]

People have been talking endlessly about Mint ever since GNOME and Canonical lost their minds and created insanely stupid desktop environments. But as far as I can see, there really isn't any evidence that Mint is doing particularly well as a distro.

Then again when you consider that all of desktop Linux is mired in 1.4% marketshare, I guess it's hard to find any solid numbers since at that point it's all in the noise.

There has been a mass migration in the minds (own little worlds) of some folks but in reality it turns out that things are a bit different. Don't tell them that though. Facts and realism is a bit scarce in these parts.

[MartinN]

The idea is for backdoors to not be explicit.

Right - so what I mean is... because we figure if it is explicit, i.e. intentional, it's possible that it can be picked up in a code review, which leaves the only option of them being undetectable as you pointed out ... or in other words, the hacker must rely on a human's weakness/error in his or her code for an exploit, and that takes time. Obvious backdoors, i.e. "if (secret word detected) exec rm -rf /" would be seen by someone (that's the hope at least)...

Although, there is also the potential for hardware backdoors, like the recent story that the FBI can turn on a microphone on any android phone.... assuming all of the code is open for review and reviewed thoroughly, the only way "in" would be through the hardware... so maybe an RF signal/code that is sent to the radio generates a specific sequence of commands/interrupts to the phone's I/O (or some other channel, maybe directly to the cpu, or via the bus to some other component, the flash... beats me...), and this looks "legit" to the CPU, yet it's innocuous to the user....

There was even a rumor of our Chinese overlords installing this type of backdoor in hardware in Lenovo PCs.... if you're a fan of conspiracy theories.