What's new in Ubuntu 10.10...

1) Simpler Installer.
Ubuntu 10.10 is expected to use a new installer that makes the installation process simpler than ever. Startup options are now placed right in the installer itself, and they include just two options: Try Ubuntu and Install Ubuntu. A simplified partitioner, meanwhile, lets users choose between automatically using the whole disk and manual partitioning, while a new Wireless Network Selection page will be added as well. These features will be particularly helpful for newer Ubuntu users.

My response:
I've started with 6.10 (Edgy Eft) and never felt it's difficult to install Ubuntu (it's the same 6 clicks process, except for the partitioning part might be a little bit tricky for newbie). Overall installing desktop Linux couldn't be more difficult than Windows unless if you're talking about pre Red Hat 7 era in 90s.

2) Processor Support.
It sounds like the Maverick Meerkat will not run on processors older than i686, or anything before Intel's P6 microarchitecture. For most business users this probably won't be an issue, but it could affect some occasional users of older machines.

My response:
I don't need to worry about this because I don't have that kind of old machine. :)

3) Default Environment and Applications.
Ubuntu 10.10 Beta uses version 2.6.35.3 of the Linux kernel, which includes numerous security enhancements over previous versions. It also updates the GNOME desktop environment to version 2.31.

Among application changes, meanwhile, is that Firefox 3.6.8 will be the default, as will OpenOffice 3.2.1, for example. Photo tool F-Spot has been replaced with Shotwell, while a new sound indicator has been enhanced to include music player controls.. The Evolution mail and collaboration software will be updated to the 2.30.2 version, which reportedly is much faster than the one in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, or Lucid Lynx.

My response:
I never use F-Spot and Evolution mail. For image editing, Gimp is my preference. Sound indicator to include music player controls sounds cool to me.

4) The Ubuntu Software Center
In version 10.10, the Ubuntu Software Center--the tool for browsing, installing and removing software on Ubuntu--will gain "Featured" and "What's New" choice icons on the front page, along with a "History" tab displaying recently installed software. It is also said to be faster and more responsive. Taken together, these improvements promise to make it much easier to track and find new software options.

My response:
This should be interesting. Might change to this instead of Synaptic.

5) Multitouch
Making the biggest splash, of course, will be the new multitouch and gesture capabilities, which will apparently make it possible for basic gestures to be chained, or composed, into more sophisticated "sentences." Toward that end, Canonical has created an open source gesture recognition engine and defined a gesture API that provides a way for applications to respond to users' gestures.

Canonical is currently targeting the Dell XT2 as a development environment for this new feature, but by release it expects it to be compatible with a range of devices from major manufacturers, and with add-ons like Apple's Magic Trackpad. Needless to say, this will pave the way toward a host of new capabilities on the Linux desktop and beyond.

My response:
Unfortunately I don't have any hardware with the capability to benefit this feature.

Note:
Text copied 97% from PCWorld news with a reference to The Fridge.

Installing Quake 3 Arena Demo on Ubuntu...

1) Download the installer from Id Software

    $ wget ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake3/linux/linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh

2) Allow the file to be executed as a program

    $ sudo chmod 755 linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh

3) Post Dapper, dash is a default shell for Ubuntu. We need to change this to bash before installing the game. To do so, open terminal and at home folder execute the following command and select <No>.

    $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash

4) Execute the installer

    $ ./linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh -target ~/programs/q3-temp

5) If the installer is returning an error like below

    Warning: unknown mime-type for "archive" -- using "application/*"
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "integrity..." -- using "application/*"
    Error: no such file "-r"
    Error: no such file "-n"
    Error: no such file "Verifying"
    Error: no such file "archive"
    Error: no such file "integrity..."
    tail: cannot open `+6' for reading: No such file or directory
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "-r" -- using "application/*"
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "Error" -- using "application/*"
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "in" -- using "application/*"
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "check" -- using "application/*"
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "sums" -- using "application/*"
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "1808389199" -- using "application/*"
    Warning: unknown mime-type for "1300192087" -- using "application/*"
    Error: no such file "-r"
    Error: no such file "Error"
    Error: no such file "in"
    Error: no such file "check"
    Error: no such file "sums"
    Error: no such file "1808389199"
    Error: no such file "1300192087"
    Press Return to close this window ...

6) Simply execute the command below and re-executing the installer

    $ export _POSIX2_VERSION=199209

7) During the installation, if there's a permission denied error on the targeted bin folder, simply create the folder manually using terminal or nautilus and proceed with the installation

    /
        /home
            /your-username
                /programs
                    /q3-demo
                        /bin

8) Launch the game

    $ programs/q3-demo/q3demo.x86

9) If there's no sound, check sound initialization section from the output, if it's the same as below

    ------- sound initialization -------
    /dev/dsp: Broken pipe
    Could not toggle.

10) Edit bootmisc.sh

    $ sudo gedit /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh

From

    ...
    case "$1" in
    start|"")
    do_start
    ;;
    ...

to

    ...
    case "$1" in
    start|"")
    do_start
    echo "q3demo.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
    echo "q3demo.x86 0 0 disable" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss
    ;;
    ...

11) Restart your machine (there should be a way to restart the service alone)

12) Launch the game with parameters shown below

    $ programs/q3-demo/q3demo.x86 +set s_musicvolume -1

13) Remove installer temp folder

    $ rm -r programs/q3-temp

14) Change back shell from bash to dash by selecting <Yes>

    $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash 

Note:
Installation steps tested on Ubuntu 9.04, 9.10, 10.04 and Linux Mint 7

Update (04/12/2009):
/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh has been removed from Ubuntu 9.10.

Solution:
Add echo "q3demo.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss into your game launcher script.

    #!/bin/sh
    # Needed to make symlinks/shortcurts work.
    # Run Quake III with some default arguments

    cd "/home/your-username/programs/q3-demo"
    sudo echo "q3demo.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
    quake="./q3demo.x86"
    "$quake" $*
    exit $?

Update (03/06/2010)
To install on Ubuntu 64 bit, need to add linux32 to the command

    $ linux32 ./linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh -target ~/programs/q3-temp

Tested on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx 64 bit.

Update (27/08/2010)
If suddenly the sound gone and you couldn't get it back, open terminal and test this command:

    $ sudo echo "q3demo.x86_64 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss

If you're getting this error

    bash: /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss: Permission denied

Just set the correct permission to the file and you're done. Tested on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx 64 bit.

Update (18/11/2010)
Installation steps working correctly on Linux Mint 10. However I'm having difficulty executing the binary. Getting error "bash: ./q3demo.x86_64: No such file or directory". Still trying to figure out what went wrong.

Update (19/11/2010)
I almost forgot. Quake 3 Arena demo is a 32 bit application. Since I'm using Linux Mint 64 bit, I need to install 32 bit library to make it work. The library was pre-installed on Ubuntu 64 bit, but that's not the case for Linux Mint. Above issue solved!!!

    $ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Now there's one more issue left. The sound. /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss file seems missing.

Update (20/11/2010)
Just found out that the ubuntu developers decided the majority of people don’t need OSS support, so they compiled the kernel without it.

Quake 3 without sound in Ubuntu 10.10
Ubuntu 10.10 no /dev/dsp

Damn!!!