Ubuntu Ibex to Be the Wireless One?

Generally we would cover this in our sister publication Tightwad Technica. But the changes on the wireless front for the Ibex release of Ubuntu deserves a mention here. Mark Shuttleworth breaks it here –

During the 8.10 cycle we will be venturing into interesting new territory, and we’ll need the rugged adventurousness of a mountain goat to navigate tricky terrain. Our desktop offering will once again be a focal point as we re-engineer the user interaction model so that Ubuntu works as well on a high-end workstation as it does on a feisty little subnotebook. We’ll also be reaching new peaks of performance - aiming to make the mobile desktop as productive as possible.

A particular focus for us will be pervasive internet access, the ability to tap into bandwidth whenever and wherever you happen to be. No longer will you need to be a tethered, domesticated animal - you’ll be able to roam (and goats do roam!) the wild lands and access the web through a variety of wireless technologies. We want you to be able to move from the office, to the train, and home, staying connected all the way.

My view is that this capability should have been part of the Hardy Heron LTS desktop release. I mean really, even preppy Puppy Linux had wireless enabled since the 3.0 release 18 months ago. XP has had the capability since what? SP1? That’s some 3 years ago.

But this release may bring some benefits. The configuration setup for the drivers may bring some convergence to the whole wireless drivers front. Right now it is a bit of a mess as each distro essentially develop their own methodologies for implementing the user interface. Linux would benefit from a Anaconda-like tool kit for wireless.

Further reading on Ibex here. Ibex will be in release come October of this year.