So what's the next big thing?

[SlickNick]

So what is the next big up and coming thing in Linux? Is there anything big happening that eveyone should know of?

Thus far, to me, it feels as if the Linux world is stagnating. The improvements made over the last few years are impressive indeed, but what else is happening that's exciting and getting geek knickers all wet?

I've been Googling for new things, though as you can see, I was quite unsuccessful.
And this Linux section is rather quiet, and focuses more on issues and fixes and opinions on various distro's, I keep on itching for something exciting.

 

[Happy Camper]

I think you're missing the point of using linux? The exciting part about linux is learning about all the wonderful power the OS puts at the hands of the user. Its open source, learn some python and bash scripts or something and create the exciting bit for yourself, and then share it

 

[SlickNick]

I think you're missing the point of using linux? The exciting part about linux is learning about all the wonderful power the OS puts at the hands of the user. Its open source, learn some python and bash scripts or something and create the exciting bit for yourself, and then share it

Well, that's all fine and dandy, it's open for everyone to learn. I get that, lots of free stuff, lots of power. But in this case I'm looking at it from a Desktop point of view. I am well aware of what it offers and has always offered. But somehow, I want moar! Call me greedy =D

 

[rorz0r]

Next big thing in linux, whatever they do in windows 8, but not quite as good...

 

[GforceD]

Next big thing in linux, whatever they do in windows 8, but not quite as good...

LOL so true.
@SlickNick -Linux makes a pretty good media server (mythbuntu etc).

 

[koffiejunkie]

Skype > 2.1.0.81 perhaps?

 

[SlickNick]

LOL so true.
@SlickNick -Linux makes a pretty good media server (mythbuntu etc).

Yup, that I know quite well =) I use mine for all my movies and music etc, beats Windows hands down, except for DVD playback which seems to be a bit dodge for some reason. Good thing I rip all my movies, but I have to darnwell struggle when I want to watch special features.

 

[SlickNick]

The only big change that I remember thus far, would be Ubuntu replacing Gnome with Unity. That's something that I want to try. And Mint is now doing a Debian release, and hopefully they'll work their magic and make it even better than Ubuntu.

 

[stricken]

You're right. The kernel is sharper than a razor, package management is about to go through its final phase --> Universal. i.e. A common package manager for all Linux distros. Then we will see major leaps in User Interface as input devices (touch screens, kinect like 3D sensors, etc) mature on Linux platform.

 

[SlickNick]

And I just oogled some Screenshots of Gnome 3. It's looking quite good!

 

[rorz0r]

Maybe this is subjective, but that still looks gross. Those UI elements just look so 10 years ago. The semi transparent window border is a nice touch.
What is "Theme" ? Is it a tab or something? The window title seems to be "The Widget Factory". Right underneath theme we have a black bar with some more basic looking icons, and on the left a nice grey bit to presumably undock the menu bar. The icons on the desktop are SVG'y but could look a lot better.

 

[ocky]

Wayland instead of X ? (Ubuntu and Fedora will replace with Wayland). Unity of course instead of Gnome 3 for next Ubuntu.

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/551

http://blogs.computerworld.com/17303/ubuntu_abandons_x_server_for_wayland

 

[koffiejunkie]

I can't imagine why anyone would want to use gnome. Sure, it's pretty. But it's freaking horrible to use.

 

[MyWorld]

What I'm still looking forward to is true virtualization hypervisor support.
We have Xen and KVM, but this is just the start and the tip of what is to come.

I remember a while back where a few devs had a discussion on hypervisor and what they want to achieve. I cannot find the links now, but basically we want to move away from "virtual" to "true", no virtual hardware, instead the hypervisor will allow access to your true hardware, if you have an i3 with a nVidia gfx card and Audigy Sound card, it will register like this in the VM as well.

Instead of running just a VM you will have two or more systems running at once on the exact same hardware and only "alt-tab" between the two. No dual booting, instant access to either machine running your true hardware.

I unfortunately lost the links...

 

[SlickNick]

What I'm still looking forward to is true virtualization hypervisor support.
We have Xen and KVM, but this is just the start and the tip of what is to come.

I remember a while back where a few devs had a discussion on hypervisor and what they want to achieve. I cannot find the links now, but basically we want to move away from "virtual" to "true", no virtual hardware, instead the hypervisor will allow access to your true hardware, if you have an i3 with a nVidia gfx card and Audigy Sound card, it will register like this in the VM as well.

Instead of running just a VM you will have two or more systems running at once on the exact same hardware and only "alt-tab" between the two. No dual booting, instant access to either machine running your true hardware.

I unfortunately lost the links...

That sounds absolutely brilliant! That would be an extremly usefull tech!

@ocky, I remember them saying that they are moving away from that due to some lag which X generates and causes some graphic glitches and such. Wayland is supposed to get rid of those glitches, though some have their doubts as to it because Wayland is still new, so to say.

@rorz0r, I rate that if they let us customise it, then it all should be fine. I played with Gnome shell quite some time ago, installed it from the repo, and though it was very limited, I got the feel for it. It's a different way of working, though it works and takes a tiny bit of getting used to. Would be cool if they let us disable some of the features or offer us another option of using Gnome 3.

@koffiejunkie, I'm a Gnomer. I've tried KDE and LXDE, but I keep on going back to Gnome, and I find it the best to use for myself. Perhaps I'm just too used to it. I can't use anything else for much longer than a week before getting fed up with it.

 

[ufis]

The only thing that linux still needs is for more game developers to develop for it. Once that happens Windows will lose ground fast.

 

[Ancalagon]

I think the changes that Ubuntu are introducing are very exciting. For one thing, using Weyland instead of X, as the display server (I think its called?). X was developed in a bygone era and has been patched to work, so something like Weyland is infinitely more modern and more suited to modern computer use.

Also, the fact they chose Unity over the Gnome Shell for the next version of Ubuntu is quite interesting. Some people are very critical of it, but I think it actually goes back to the fundamental tenets of open source software - do what thou wilt with it. In other words, Gnome provides the schemas and source code, and has no right to tell someone else how they can and cannot use it. Like any open source project. Not to say that fragmentation for the sake of fragmentation is good, it isnt, but there are compelling reasons why Ubuntu went with Unity instead of Gnome shell.

Oh and the scheduler patch that was included in the kernel recently apparently makes a night and day difference to responsiveness, that will be quite interesting to see.

 

[SlickNick]

I think the changes that Ubuntu are introducing are very exciting. For one thing, using Weyland instead of X, as the display server (I think its called?). X was developed in a bygone era and has been patched to work, so something like Weyland is infinitely more modern and more suited to modern computer use.

Also, the fact they chose Unity over the Gnome Shell for the next version of Ubuntu is quite interesting. Some people are very critical of it, but I think it actually goes back to the fundamental tenets of open source software - do what thou wilt with it. In other words, Gnome provides the schemas and source code, and has no right to tell someone else how they can and cannot use it. Like any open source project. Not to say that fragmentation for the sake of fragmentation is good, it isnt, but there are compelling reasons why Ubuntu went with Unity instead of Gnome shell.

Oh and the scheduler patch that was included in the kernel recently apparently makes a night and day difference to responsiveness, that will be quite interesting to see.

The scheduler patch? Is it that little piece of code that's only a few lines long which Linus himself got so excited about? I've been wondering when they'll be implementing it!

 

[Ancalagon]

Yeah thats the one. I think it might have made it into the latest kernel by now but I'm not sure.

 

[Kasyx]

...

Wait.

Just... Just wait.

Someone posts a question in the Linux section asking "what's new?", and everyone scrambles over each other to go on about Ubuntu switching to Unity and moving from X to Wayland, but what is quite possibly the biggest development at the moment is merely mentioned in passing?

Kernel update 2.6.37.

http://www.linux.com/news/enterpris...-news-linux-2637-kernel-promises-to-unlock-os

Perhaps one of the most important kernel patches in quite some time.

There's more to Linux than how pretty it looks, gentlemen.