OneGuyFromBarlick

It seems like only yesterday when I upgraded to 16.04!

Same here Tiz. Let's let Pluggy test the new LTS and it will get a mention on here. Then we well both upgrade and be in front of the curve again. The kids who visited me yesterday are incredibly computer l;iterate.... Harry is designing chips as part of his uni course, and we went into Ubuntu. None of them fully committed to it but I have an idea that might change after the ear-bending from me!

The same non American Libre Offiice Spell Checker bug still goes on. Needs a bit of command line magic to get the spell checker to kick in.....Haven;t investigated Stanley's favourite feature yet. The screen changer. Not something I ever use. I'm not mourning the passing of Unity on my laptop, but I don't hate it enough to put a non LTS version on my desktop.

I like uncluttered screens Pluggy so make sure you bottom that one!
See THIS for a BBC report on the latest revelations in the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. The possible number of accounts disclosed could be as high as 87 million, mainly in the US. We keep reminding each other of the dangers of straying data but this is ridiculous. A piece in PE yesterday reveals that the CEO of the Telegraph, Nick Hugh, has told his staff to forget the boring job of selling newspapers and harvest as many email addresses as possible. He told staff that 'the future is data!".

The Telegraph CEO probably read the article in The Times that I mentioned on OG a few weeks ago. It described how `tech and digital' companies are now using personal data as they use money - or, rather, data instead of money. They don't care about stock market valuations etc, the important factor for them is how much personal data they have. And you don't need banks when you deal in data. If you want to buy one of the companies you'll need data, not money.

Another aspect of these companies...Mark Zuckerberg doesn't give a damn about customers, members, users, whatever they call people who use Facebook. He happily says: ""When you're building something like Facebook which is unprecedented in the world, there are things that you're going to mess up. What I think people should hold us accountable for is if we are learning from our mistakes." Yeah well, he will say that won't he? He just assumes he can speak rubbish like that while causing potential serious trouble for 87 million people. Talk about being out of touch, living on a different planet!

Ubuntu 17.10 has workspaces as they are called. They work a little different than in 16.04. More integrated and polished in the newer version - in my view.

Whatever Pluggy, I am adaptable and will take your advice......

I see that one of the data-harvesting apps that has been banned by Facebook is the one that offered to make a genealogical table for you if you gave them your data. I remember laughing when I saw it in my Facebook days and muttering " In your dreams!". A wise decision as it happens...... I didn't realise then that they had other ways of 'harvesting' me!

In an interview with a man who was evidently well briefed in online matters, I think he was from Google, the point was raised that the root question is are online providers service providers or publishers? This is indeed the nub of the problem and it raises the question, do the providers voluntarily self-regulate or hang about and get regulation imposed on them? If governmental regulation in other areas like financial services and terrestrial media is any indication this is a dangerous power to rely on.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS has been released today Yesterday. When I get time I'll be downloading it and evaluating it. Very similar to 17.10 I'm already running on my Laptop by all accounts. No 32 bit version, but most Linux distros have already ditched 32 bit, Gnome desktop, like 17.10 and a bit more spying, but its disabled by default, unlike Windows 10.....

Pluggy wrote: ↑27 Apr 2018, 13:34 No 32 bit version, but most Linux distros have already ditched 32 bit

That could put Mrs Tiz in the market for a new PC, her present one is 32-bit.

She deserves it! Let us know when you have tested it almost to destruction P!

Ubuntu 18.04 is running fine on my Laptop for about 4 days now, I've elected to wait for it appear on the automatic update system to see how it goes on my desktop. But I have installed it as a trial on a 10 year old less than spectacular laptop (Centrino processor - Remember them ?, 4 GB of RAM, started life with Windows Vista) and it runs surprisingly well. 16.04 was a bit of a resources hog and could be quite slow, 18.04 is better in my opinion. Thay have done some work in this area apparently.

Let me know when you are confident enough to upgrade me Pluggy......

See THIS for a Guardian report on news of yet another small problem with a large computer system. Twitter have had to advise clients to change their password after lists of unencrypted data were found on an internal server.
TSB show no signs of a total fix of their problems. A significant number of clients are still experiencing problems.....

What's the verdict on the new version of Ubuntu Pluggy?

I like it, but it hasn't been put on updates yet. My desktop is still on 16.04. I'm in two minds as to whether the reason to change is compelling enough to compensate for the disruption. Most of the time you're working inside applications and the applications are pretty much exactly the same. I'm racked by indecision in other words.

When do the security updates stop? I guess that's the final date for us to upgrade.

The LTS versions are supported for 5 years. 12.04 is out of support, 14.04 has 12 months, 16.04 has 3 years.

Pluggy, let me know when you think it's the right time..... I'm quite happy where I am at the moment.....
Tiz, buy Mrs Tiz a new PC anyway!

I watched the Panorama programme last night on the pitfalls of the 'Internet of Things'. Terrifying for anyone who has embraced the technology and I will avoid it as far as possible. I know that eventually this is a losing battle but it's not a pleasant prospect......

I put Ubuntu 18.04 on My desktop a few days back. (By hand, it hadn't been put on updates yet). I still like it, but, on both my laptop and my desktop, it occasionally glitches when firing up sometimes. When you log in, sometimes you're sat looking at a black screen with a cursor and the desktop doesn't come up. Restarting the computer fixes it. but its a bit of a pain when it does it. Its quite common on 18.04 but I can't find a solution for when it only sometimes does it. Bleagh.....

Teething troubles Pluggy.... Keep assessing it!

Nearly got caught out. My computer rang alarm bells telling me I had a virus and to download My PC Repair 2018. It looked genuine but, when I clicked to download it, Firefox blocked the site. Had I not been using Firefox, I could have been in trouble.

Same thing happened to me a few months back Russ. Very very convincing scam but Firefox saved me by telling me it was dangerous..... I have all my chairs at home but it almost got me.