There are many, many Ubuntu forks actually, but I think Linux Mint 14 XFCE edition (release candidate just out!) addresses this and many other concerns. In addition Mint is more popular than Ubuntu already on distrowatch and by several other metrics. It has a no nonsense interface (FUCK UNITY, and FUCK GNOME 3), is incredibly fast (8 second boot up on older hardware?!?! YES PLEASE!), and has all the good parts of Ubuntu baked in (apt, millions of apps, etc..).

Just get rid of Ubuntu altogether. It's been crap since it's crap brown days, and still is. They don't listen to end users, they don't really advance the platform, and I'm convinced Canonical has an agreement with Microsoft to continue to suck so that MS can stay in business.

Linux Mint is the bomb.com, go try it out and forget about Ubuntu!

All I can do is LOL at this response. Steve is obviously a genius and all of us owe a lot to him, but being woefully ignorant about the obvious and repeating failings of Apple (or in this case more than likely playing stupid) is not benefiting anybody.

Apple lost the smart phone war the same way they lost the PC war back in the 80s. In the 80s everyone was using Lotus Notes. Apple made their own competing product and tried to force users to buy it. They already had Lotus Notes. By locking the platform down they alienated users, developers, and the tinkerers that drive the whole band wagon.

Then in the 90s they did something GENIUS. They took Unix (Linux), gave it a pretty menu and made it usable by all. OS X was the last good thing Apple ever did in my opinion, and I'm not alone in this opinion. OS X is great, even today, and has been since day one.

Then what did Google do? The same exact thing. They took Linux, and made it usable for smart phones and tablets. And of course, Android ROCKS.

The difference here is between iOS and Android. Android has a wide open market, open source tools, encourages tinkerers and devs at every turn (see the XDA forums). Apple is locked down. iTunes or gtfo. iTunes sucks. It doesn't run right on ANYTHING, even OS X. It's a huge monstrosity of crap, and it regularly locks out innovators and tinkerers because they might threaten Apple's precious walled garden. Well, keep defending that walled garden because every tech worth his salt is already modding their android with jelly bean and writing .apks and putting them all over the universe.

The most egregious thing Apple has done is taking the ideas of other developers, locking them out of the market and then making their own Apple version of the previous app. What do you think those devs did? They left iOS and Apple forever, and with extreme prejudice. If it's YOUR PHONE, you shouldn't need to jailbreak it.

Then the patent suits about rectangles with rounded corners, a design that has been around over 20,000 years, including the ancient Egyptians? Apple is disgusting, I don't know any serious hacker who will support that company anymore. They already lost the new battle, a Nexus 7 does 50x more than any iProduct, and it's only $199! Less than half the price of an ipad that has less usable apps, less hacking potential, less OSes to try out, less everything.

1.3 MILLION androids are selling a day now. Dump your Apple stock and buy Google, Motorola, Samsung..... You know, market leaders that can see the obvious and follow the cash. Apple is going nowhere fast, their hey day ended the second Android began doubling their market share, and it's a net benefit for every geek and society as a whole. Apple has sucked since Woz left, maybe even before. And Jobs was clearly an asshole. His walled garden legacy is going to die on the vine, and I for one welcome our new open source unlocked free market overlords.

While the rest of the I/O stuff was awesome, I see this as an already failed product. I certainly don't have a use for it, whereas I'm ecstatic to purchase a Nexus 7 at some point. Let's hope the good idea of on-shoring doesn't die with the bad idea/price of the Q.

Most of the comments here are missing the larger issue(s):

Windows 7 and Windows Vista and (so far, certainly) Windows 8 are vastly inferior products.

Yes, I know on modern hardware that Windows 7 has some narrow performance advantages. Yes I know that XP x64 lacks drivers. Yes I know all the usual stupid arguments I hear about how Windows XP is not superior.

But I work in IT, EVERY DAY. Windows XP JUST WORKS, OUT OF THE BOX, with LITTLE OR NO TWEAKING, on ALMOST ALL HARDWARE.

Yes, I've been migrating my clients to Windows 7 for the last 5 years (reluctantly). But I don't have one that didn't prefer Windows XP for at least one critical reason or another.

I'm all for the latest and greatest. I'm a tech nerd for christ's sake! But Windows Vista was a total mess, and Windows 7 (Vista 2.0) isn't great either. Sure, once you disable Aero and tons of other cruft it's usable, but it's still not as usable or simple or intuitive as XP.

I would not presume to guess as to whether vaccines cause autism, but the ingredients they've been using in vaccines for YEARS are in fact toxic. Not long ago mercury was one of the most common ingredients.

Now, I understand the science behind vaccination, and am actually PRO vaccine, but when you can the ingredients to a box of cereal, but NOT the ingredients to a shot your a directly injecting into your infant, and more importantly a giant mega-corporation's shot with a proven track record of including known toxins like mercury.....

Sure, there is ignorance out there, but blaming parents who want to protect their children is stupid. Blame the giant corporations who included mercury in the shots in the first place.

I use Gimp professionally daily. For all kinds of web work, fliers, biz cards, posters... The only thing I miss from photoshop is cmyk and the heal brush.

I would say under that metric there is Linux, Firefox, VLC, Bsnes, Dolphin (Wii Emu), Pidgin, SumatraPDF, Filezilla, Blender.... The rest of the FOSS world has some way to go.

I'd say there are a few that are getting close: Gimp, Ardour, Libre Office, OpenShot.....

The bummer is how many FOSS games are just not good enough. It's the year 2012, and there's STILL not a better FOSS Civ 2 than the original Civ 2. Almost all of the best emulators are FOSS though, so.....

Also disappointing is the audio apps. Winamp 2.81 is still the best on Windows. Audacious is good on Linux, but there's no Windows version, so.....

Dumb argument anyway. I have TONS of clients that are moving to LO. Big stodgy corporate clients, too.

...Yet another reason to log out of the US.

to replace all the members of government and the corporations that run them. This is sickening and an egregious affront to the constitution and even more so to the spirit of liberty that bore the constitution.

17 others?!?! You slut!

THIS. None of the rest of the chatter really influences anything at all. If it has power and can last all day, this might mean something. Otherwise....

He's all for civil liberty, and at this time, that is certainly what us geeks should be fighting for.

All that racist and homophobic talk is just nonsense. He's for EVERYONE'S civil liberties, and he's honest and reliable.

If you think any other candidate has any merit at all your are on Quaaludes. Unless you mention Buddy Roemer, who doesn't have a chance at all!

Ron Paul 2012. Or continue our slide into abject fascism.

Solar is clearly the way forward. We've made HUGE advances in the last few decades!

... you will be indefinitely detained....