Ubuntu 9.10: First Impressions

Ubuntu has redeemed itself with its latest version 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I took a look at Ubuntu 9.10 on October 1st and have been playing around with it for a few days. My first impression is that it is good stuff--seriously good stuff. From the new, updated installer to the faster boot times, I'm impressed. Way to go Ubuntu developers, you deserve applause for this one.

I didn't think that Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) was all that great. There weren't enough improvements over 8.10 to justify a whole new distribution or wasting a cute name on it.

Karmic Koala's installer is the best I've ever seen on any Linux distribution. It's fast, nice to look at and, most important of all, it's easy for people who might be new to Linux. Click through a few screens; enter your name, login name, password and computer name--and away you go toward having a new Ubuntu system. The more difficult part for most users will be the download, burning of the ISO image to a CD and changing their BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive.

Boot times are also much improved. This isn't necessarily limited to just Ubuntu as several Linux distribution developers have been working toward shortening your wait time in the boot department.

Once inside GNOME, you recognize all the familiar desktop items. Nothing new going on here although you might notice a few cosmetic changes with your startup screen and desktop background. I'd have to say though, that the improvements made are well worth the wait from older versions.

If you've been waiting to jump in to Ubuntu, Karmic Koala is the place to do it. And if you have an older versions, this is the one to upgrade to. Wait for the production-level release to come out later this month because right now the 9.10 distro is still in beta.

One word sums up this Karmic Koala Ubuntu incarnation: Super.

Have you tried Karmic Koala yet? Write back and tell me your first impressions.

Nice. Short and snappy. I can see that I need to buy this! (Hahaaa)

[jbennet]

Got to agree that the coming from 9.04, the installer and startup times were excellent, as was driver support.

However, a few niggles;

The power manager no longer tells me in hours and minutes how much battery i have.

They have butchered the GDM configuration screen. Its hard to change the login screen options now.

They have butchered the policykit aurthaurisations manager too. There is no button anymore to remember aurthaurisations, meaning i must enter my password every time i want to manually scale the CPU power on my laptop.

Also, im not a huge fan on the new theme. And empathy crashes CONSTANTLY.

But all in all i like it (mostly because it fixed 99% of the hardware bugs i had before)

jbennet: You should file bugs about the stuff you find annoying if you haven't already. Hopefully they'd be fixed by the time it's out.

[peter_budo]

Finally something positive Ken, I was seriously tired of most topics unix vs windows, best unix gadget etc.

Did they improved support of graphic cards? Are wireless cards easier recognised or installed?

[khess]

It's still beta so there are some bugs. One I found is that if you install it in a VM, don't use a SCSI disk, use IDE for the VM's hard disk choice. It crashes and hangs if you don't. So far, I've had no issues. I forgot to mention too that ext4 is default filesystem on 9.10.

[jbennet]

Are wireless cards easier recognised or installed

My realtek and Intel (3945 abg laptop chipset) worked out of the box

[joker40]

thanks for the information .. and i m waiting for full version to download

[jbennet]

Will be released sometime around the end of the month

[peter_budo]

My realtek and Intel (3945 abg laptop chipset) worked out of the box

Good to know that. I'm not gone mess up now my box as I'm looking for replacement soon, plus it would just get me another headache to get my currently open projects to different platform. However once new "baby" arrive it will be converted ;)

[tonyt3]

If you already have Ubuntu on your machine, you don't have to download the iso; you can simply click on " Upgrade " and go eat lunch. Everything on the desktop was still there on the reboot. very kool.
t

[Crash~Override]

Agreed! I started using linux couple months back and after trying and trying different linux distributions I can concur that ubuntu karmic release is truly one of the most good amazing linux release! I would give 9/10 on the Graphics, and ease of use to ubuntu when compared with other linux distributions.

However no a side note, I think ATI and ubuntu both need to work together to provide better graphics driver...cuz i i absolutely hate the graphics for ati radeon hd3650 on ubuntu...it lags when i play any video

[peter_budo]

Interesting, I have ATI 4650 and I do not see any issues with it. Did you had anything particular on mind Crash~Override?

[Crash~Override]

well i actually installed the graphics card driver again this time using envy... or something and it seems to be working better but still not as good as on windows....

like when i am watching a video and than i minimize and maximize some other window say firefox than there is a bit pause in the video...also when i minimize the video for like say 3-5 seconds and than maximize it, the video screen goes blank its really buggy for some unknown reason

[khakilang]

I was impress when i first install 8.10 early this year than to 9.04 and now 9.10. It just like a over year compare to 8.10 and the improvement is awesome.