In April 2014 Ubuntu will once again morph to a new version (14.04). It has been my understanding that Firebird will replace HSQLDB as a figurative "back-end" for Base, which is a component of LibreOffice.

My question, will the new release of Ubuntu include an updated version of LibreOffice that will include Firebird?

Since no one else is taking this on I will.

For all you Ubuntu users; there is such a thing as a search engine. Amazing things. Help you find things on the internet. Everyone should try it out.

Going by this;
http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/6062

and this;
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=34432

It looks like this was implemented before 13.10 was released. Ubuntu has a 6 month and a 2 year dev cycle. Every 2 years you get what passes for a stable Ubuntu release called a Long Term Support release (LTS). People that like the semblence of stability use the LTS. The released in between LTS releases, "regular" releases, are actually "snapshots" of development at that point in the building of a new LTS.

A rule that Canonical is a bit sloppy at following is to not put feature in an LTS that has not been used in a regular release. This adds to stability as does basing the LTS on Debian testing instead of Debian Sid as are the regular releases.

Knowing this, I would assume that it is in use now. And so will be within the rules for the LTS release 14.04.

There is also this;
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=34432

Which is interesting and fairly predictable with a brand new feature. Some distros might hesitate to add buggy package to their "stable" releases but that is no hindrence to Ubuntu.

Add to the evidence that firebird is in my Sid repo and you can be pretty sure it is in use in Ubuntu.

Therefore I think you can be happy to know that in all likelyhood firebird will be used in 14.04 and will probably be buggy.

In case you wonder about the name "Sid", Debian uses a silly naming convention just as Ubuntu dose. Instead of things like Kinky Kitty or Lounge Lizard Debian uses characters from the Toy Story movies. So we are now using Wheezy, testing Jessie and Debian unstable is always called Sid for the kid that broke everything.

After runnning Ubuntu-testing for a few years I can tell you that Sid is more stable than most Ubuntu releases.

If you are using 13.10 you should be able to check on firebird by going to Synaptic as seeing if it is installed or by running, as root;
That will tell you;
A>is it available
B>is it installed

Thanks for responding. I had already looked at the links you provided before posting. Additionally, I had included in my post above an embedded link to http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/6062. Based on my search, there was no apparent "smoking gun" stating that Firebird would be available with the release of Ubuntu 14.04. So I thought to post in case others had run across more definitive information.


Unfortunately, the implementation of HSQLDB is buggy in the version of LibreOffice that Ubuntu is using.

Ubuntu likes to run the latest and greatest. You can have that or you can have more stable software. Stability and cutting edge are mutually exclusive.

I run Sid because I like to have newer packages. I have Wheezy installed for times I want dependable stability.

Ubuntu has a lousy record on working bugs. Not glamourous work. When they do they are bad about sharing patches upstream.

They have also alienated most of their experienced user base. They could try treating users with respect but that appears to have little appeal to them.

Why, for instance, are you here instead of on the official forum for Ubuntu?

You really should think about that. No rush. Took me years.

You may want to try some other distros. They really are not interested in having a healthy community nor are they much interested in devices that use a keyboard. As, I assume you are, a serious Office Suite user you probably are using a keyboard. What they are interested in is easy access to the internet for entertainment on portable devices.

For good integration of things like LibreOffice just about any distro is going to be a better bet for the near future and probably in the long run unless things change in their attitude very soon.

I guess jeremy should provide [rant] tags .....

I count myself amongst the disaffected Ubuntu users @widget refers to. I started on Ubuntu when I attended a session at a conference done by one of the Ubuntu devs who promised the best wifi support of any distro. As I was fighting with Fedora at the time I decided to give it a go. (as it happened Shutttleworth did the keynote address at the same conference).
Was happy for quite a while - but haven't even installed it in ages.

I've been troubled concerning their policies. I would like to see greater integration in the Linux community. I don't welcome Ubuntu "tweaking" programs for "their" distro. syg00, my level of pain hasn't got high enough yet for switching to a different distro.

Friendlier, better structure, and I can get answers here.

Ask Ubuntu is a pretty good concept, but I have also been irritated with them. The zealots seem to be too eager mark posts as "duplicates". I had a couple marked that way even though they weren't. One ended-up being deleted, in another they condescended to accepted my response and removed the "duplicate" tag.

Ask Ubuntu is a structure that has now supplanted the UFs. This is because Canonical wants to have control of what is said there.

They have fought for years to control the forums. Now they require you to log in with your Ubuntu One login. To have an Ubuntu One account you need to sign their coc(k). This is a set of rules that apply to the unwashed hordes but not to Ubuntu "members'.

This has lead to leaving only Ubuntu fanboys being on their forums.

Continuous assertion that we were not to discuss policy on the "Testing and Discussion" forum lead to the loss of a majority, from 125 for 10.04-testing to 12 experienced testers for 12.04-testing. Also lead to moving the testing forum out of the Programing and Development section of the forums to the flamewars and gossip (Community Discussions) section. Still with the assurance that no one connected with Canonical was going to see any discussion on that forum.

As no one was going to see our discussions we were not to carry them out.

A good part of the reason that they have a worse record now with bugs is the lack of experienced testers doing testing with installed dev versions on real hardware.

You would not believe the difficulty that 3 of us "old" testers had in 11.10-testing to convince "new" testers that there was really no point in testing in VB.

I have not been over to look at the "testing" forum for a couple of cycles now. Hopefully some of the new testers are shaping up into good testers. It will take years to rebuild the number of testers. This means that there will be less diversity in the hardware on which Ubuntu is tested. As most bugs are actually hardware specific this means, in turn, that you will encounter more and more bugs on new releases.

Ubuntu has never turned out a release that is a bug free as it should be. Most people know that you should wait at least a month before installing regular releases and about 3 months for LTS releases. I think this will increase.

Testers are the people that supply most of the support for a new release. They are the ones with 6 months of experience running that release. They know the problems and how to deal with them. There are no where near enough to give that support now. On Ask Ubuntu or the UFs.

There are at least, including me, 3 old testers on this forum. At least one was directed here by me. I am glad that I joined this forum before ever installing Ubuntu. Actually found a like to the UFs in some thread here.

I am not actually trying to rant here. I have given that up about Ubuntu. These are just facts. I think, and I emphasise "think", that Ubuntu is not a reliable distro at this point. I am not happy about that at all. It is where my Linux adventure started and there were an awful lot of fine folks, at one time, on the UFs. They have, for the most part, all disappeared from there.

Canonical can't become more intigrated into the Linux community. They want the Linux community to integrate with them. There is a big difference there. It will not happen because the Linux community doesn't want to be controlled by one organization and Canonical doesn't want it any other way.

Many of their ideas are good ones on the surface. Closer cooperation, coordination and so forth. For a business this is great. This has little to do with the way the kernel people are set up (Linux Foundation) or the Free Software Foundation (GNU) is set up.

Linux has been around for 20 some years and is very sucessful. Gnu has been around longer and is just as suceessful. They don't need some relative new comer to the game kicking over the game board and changing the rules that have worked well for decades and continue to work well.

More coordination would, in a lot of ways, be a relief to users. It would also criple the very thing that is driving Linux, right now, to being in the lead of so many lines of computer inovation.

Microsoft contributes more code to the Linux kernel, yearly, than Ubuntu ever has counting all Canonical devs as Ubuntu. That is just sad.

I really would, were I you, set aside a small chunk of drive (20gig?) and dual boot with some other Linux distro as a "spare tire" type install. Just so you have something you are somewhat familiar with when Ubuntu suddenly becomes more dictatorial.

Widget, I fully sympathize with what you are saying. Furthermore, as time progresses I have a growing appreciation for what you are saying. Which also is a reflection of why I have posted my HSQLDB/Firebird question since I have not seen adequate disclosure from Canonical concerning what will be in their next release (other than MIR). To be fair, the HSQLDB/Firebird question may really be more of a LibreOffice issue than a Canonical issue. When the transition would take effect has not been disclosed, but has been publicly posted in various forums as "coming". Reminds me of the perpetual repetition of the phrase "Winter is coming" in "Game of Thrones". I've been delaying the implementation of a pet project for that reason, but it may be just time to get-on-with-it and deal with any fall-out when it occurs.

Thanks very much for some inside observations that I normally don't see.

There used to be, somewhere in the Ubuntu wiki, and linked from the release schedule;
https://www.linux.com/news/software/...ource-projects

a list of tasks for each of the sections, sometimes by the week sometimes my the month and always by any live link for particular steps.

I see this is no longer the case.

Felt pretty funny to see the tool chain was up on Oct. 24 and I had not upgraded to it. We used to switch our sources.list to the next version a day or 2 after the release of a new version. Toolchain always is up before the official date for it. Just try apt-get update and see if it got anything. If not try later. I usually tried morning and evening. Some others checked more often.

Also none of us approved of the names for the versions. Kinky Kitty for 9.10 was my fault. Another tester was responcible for Lounge Lizard. I see they are now working on Ticklish Toad.

How was Sexy Sloth?