Nongeek perspective announces availability of Xbuntu 6.10

Under the heading `Xubuntu 6.10 Available' Nongeek perspective states

"Today Ubuntu 6.10 has been released. Also Kubuntu and Edubuntu were released. Xubuntu "has not yet officially been released, but you can already download the final stable image, so it's also available."

Nongeek (as his friends call him) does go on to warn:

"be aware though, that there may be some problems upgrading from the Dapper Drake version when using update-manager".

When I read this sort of thing on Blogs of Note(TM), it warms the Cockles 2.3 of my heart (beta testing version).
In these difficult times, I'm always reassured to read of the young men and co-reproductive units of Western civilization taking an interest in the burning issues of the day. Not for them the vapid and passing concerns with terrorism, the war in Iraq, ID cards or Islamofascism. No, they take up the banner of open source software and bravely carry it through the wastes of indifference and political obloquy until now, now, at long last (eagerly anticipated since the Battle of Rourke's Drift) Xbuntu 6.10 is here.

Was it DeGaulle who said `anyone under 30 who is not a programmer is a scoundrel, while anyone over 30 who doesn't use Xbuntu (version 5.28 or later, but excluding the disastrous beta version of 6.1) is an idiot?'
I am ashamed! Truly I am!
For several years now I have been boring my coprocessor and our two subroutines with diatribes about the lack of depth of modern youth only to read this news and more:

"Xubuntu now has a nicer looking website too."

I am simultaneously ashamed and proud.
`Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!', is not too strong a sentiment.
Of course even so rare a soul as Nong p. (if I may be permitted the temerity of so addressing him) is clearly not above the occasional blemish. How else to explain the slightly rattled:

"7 Reasons To Keep Using Firefox
Is IceWeasel the solution to Debian and Mozilla trademarks issues? I don't know right now. I really think Debian have the right to fork Firefox or any other Free Software project but, in this case, I think it is better to keep using Firefox instead of IceWeasel."

This is not the sterling clarity (R) we have come to expect from Np in our admittedly brief acquaintance. This is not the sort of visionary statement which made his a Blog of Note. `Pull yourself together, Nong', one is tempted to cry.
`Remember the St Crispian's Day speech from Henry V! Where would Hal have got if he'd said "I don't know right now"? The Frogs would not have dealt kindly with that sort of wishy-washy sentiment. What we want here is leadership, Np, leadership. "Give me IceWeasel or give me death" is more the sort of thing we're looking for.My web-browser, right or wrong.' Without this sort of resolution, the Frogs would have forked Harry, I'm sure.

Nong does recover a bit in the update:

"Now they're planning IceDove for replacing Thunderbird and IceApe instead of Seamonkey. They have the right, I insist, but I think it's useless. I'll keep using Thunderbird too."

This has a certain vigour which is more like the Xbuntu post. There is both style and substance to the slogan `I'll keep using Thunderbird 2(sp.)', while the Voltairean tone of `they have the right, I insist, but I think it's useless' is no coincidence.

On the whole, I think Np needs to recover the consistency and firmness of his classic post on desktop environments entitled

KDE or Gnome? I Prefer Xfce, Thanks

Here his maturity of tone shines through. There is a faultlessness of phrasing in what follows:

I don't want to contribute to the old and useless discussion about what desktop environment (DE) is better, Gnome or KDE. However, I noticed in that discussion often is ignored a third contestant: Xfce.

that positively takes one's breath away. One wants so hard to cry out in awe `no, don't contribute to that old and useless discussion about what desktop environment (DE). You are so right, Nong. It's all useless rubbish (UR). Don't do it! A programmer of your talents must not waste his substance on fruitless debates and persiflage. Go with the third way-support Xfce, support it as only someone with your breadth of talents knows how. Go for it (GFI) in support of Xfce!'
But why do I bother? Why do I waste my time in ideal chitchat about one of the world's greats? It's like expecting the distro to have support for winmodems. Pointless, pointless attempts to gild the lily (OS).
Rather than wasting any more of your precious time I'll leave you with one last quote from Nong p:

The most important thing, in my opinion is that "Common to all variants, we have changed the init system from the venerable sysvinit to upstart which is an event-driven init script system". This has many advantages. Faster boot and shutdown are two of them.

And now boot and shutdown is what I'll do.