Ubuntu 9.10: A Worthy (though not perfect) Upgrade

Right on schedule, Canonical has released yet another version of Ubuntu into the wild, version 9.10 “Karmic Koala”. Being the second version of Ubuntu released around the same time as a major Windows release, there is definitely a lot riding on it, yet this Koala is actually a wonderful little OS with just a few consistency issues.

First of all, Ubuntu 9.10 has quite a bit of new features and updates all over the place. The main focus this time around is known as the “ten second boot” and is intended to increase boot times all over the board. Does it actually boot in ten seconds? Not for me, but boot times are really hard to judge, and it’s virtually impossible to promise ten seconds for boot on every single system in existence. For me, it’s probably closer to 15-20 seconds.

Look and Feel
For quite some time, a new theme has been promised for the last several releases, though it has yet to materialise. Mark Shuttleworth has said several times that a new theme would be coming out, and the intent was to beat Apple at their own game, and that hasn’t happened yet either. That’s not to say that Ubuntu 9.10 doesn’t look good, it definitely does. It’s nowhere near the quality it could be though.

Speaking of themes, Ubuntu 9.10 did get a modified “Human” theme and even a new set of icons. It’s not the “new theme”, nor is it the best theme in any category, but it is at least something different to look at for now. By default, the new Ubuntu does come with some cool new wallpapers and GTK themes, most of which are better than the default. That’s definitely a nice touch.

New Boot Experience
Back on the subject of booting, the appearance of the boot process has been changed as well, now using something called “XSplash” rather than USplash of releases prior. It looks VERY nice as a matter of fact, but unfortunately it detracts from the boot process a little bit. On my system, a plain Ubuntu icon appears in the middle of the screen for a few seconds, followed by the (actual) boot screen later on. The transition from the first boot screen to the second looks nice, but is also strange and hard to get used to. Basically what’s happening is Usplash (the previous technology) loads up first and then Xsplash (the new boot screen) takes over after that. Essentially, you are seeing two different splash screens, which I think works against having a nice boot experience than actually helping it. Hopefully in version 10.04 they can choose one or the other.

To Empathy, or not to Empathy
Quite a bit of controversy has surrounded the decision to move from Pidgin to Empathy as the default instant messaging client. Personally, I think the choice to move to Empathy is a very dumb decision. (Hold on, hear me out first). It’s not that Pidgin is better than Empathy, or even the other way around, the fact is that Pidgin is a multi-platform program and Empathy isn’t. Moving from an application that’s available on Windows, Mac and Linux to something that is Linux-only doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Open source applications that are multi-platform should be preferred because it builds familiarity between all platforms. On my system, I have both Pidgin and Empathy installed, though that may just be because I started testing 9.10 very early on before the default was switched.

Storing Files in the Cloud
Ubuntu One, a tool that stores files online and syncs them between computers is included by default, and is a great idea. Let’s face it, you can’t trust hard drives anymore, (they are practically disposable) so it’s a great idea to store your files online just in case. A free membership with Ubuntu One (currently) gives you 2GB of storage. As far as I know it doesn’t work on other platforms though, so Dropbox is currently still the king.

Performance
In my experience, the new Ubuntu is just as fast as previous versions. I’ve had no trouble with crashing, slowdowns, or pretty much anything. It works great, it looks decent and boots faster. It may not reach the ten second boot goal (at least on my test system) nor win any awards on artistic design, but it works, and it works well. There are new features all over the place (such as a tweak that makes Nautilus not steal as much screen room as it used to) but the majority of the focus this time seems to revolve around the new boot experience as well as the “Software Center”, which will in time be the central location to install and remove programs. (It may even replace Synaptic some day).

Conclusion
Ubuntu 9.10 is a worthwhile upgrade to everyone using this distribution. As always, check your hardware with a Live CD first, though I’ve not had problems with compatibility at all. Everything works great for me. The new (temporary) Ubuntu theme may not win any awards, the boot experience is inconsistent, but the new features and included community themes are all fantastic. At the very least, it’s definitely a better value than Windows 7, and you won’t lose anything by upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04.

Screenshot (Click to Enlarge)

The Good

• Faster boot times
• More community themes
• Polish almost everywhere

The Bad

• Having two boot splash screens is confusing
• Ubuntu One cannot yet compare with Dropbox
• Removing Pidgin in favor of Empathy is just silly

Overall: 4/5 (Great!)