Ubuntu 9.04: Nothing Short of Amazing

Ubuntu 9.04 (codenamed the “Jaunty Jackalope”) was released this week after an extensive six months (or so) in development. It brings with it some of the most controversial features in the distribution’s history, and the development versions of Jaunty have been fairly well received by just about all the blogs I have read. Is Ubuntu 9.04 worth the download? The answer is clear: DEFINITELY.

This review has been fairly hard for me to write. I want to slowly build my readers up to the conclusion, but I just can’t hold it back: If you use Ubuntu, you NEED this version on your computer, sooner rather than later. I don’t care what you have to do to get it (though stay legal) get this ISO file downloaded by whatever means necessary and install it right now. That’s not to say that Ubuntu 9.04 is absolutely 100% perfect and free from flaws, but it is as free from flaws as I’ve ever seen it. Read on to find out why.

Disclaimer: When I wrote for other websites, I was forced to combine dertivates (in this case, Kubuntu for example) into one review. Since I’m blogging on my own site by my own rules, this is not the case anymore. This review is for Ubuntu 9.04 and Ubuntu 9.04 only. A Kubuntu review will follow this one in a week or so, because even though Kubuntu is built on the same platform, it is still a separate release and I’ll be treating it as such from now on. I like to judge each distribution on their own merits as much as possible.

Anyway, with that out of the way let’s get back to the point. Ubuntu 9.04 had (what seems to be) the easiest and most trouble free development phase I’ve ever seen. I started using it around Alpha 3 or so, and I haven’t had a single problem to speak of yet. This is a very high contrast to Ubuntu 8.10 (“Intrepid Ibex”), which had one of the worst development periods I’ve ever witnessed, and a bunch of things STILL didn’t work even after the final release came out. (Most gamepads were broken, for example). I reviewed Ubuntu 8.10 for a major website, and while I tried to be as fair as possible, I really didn’t care for that release at all. There were just way too many regressions.

That’s one of the reasons why Ubuntu 9.04 was such a shock to me. It was very easy to beta test, because it just didn’t give me any trouble. Some users had problems with data loss with the newly included EXT4 file system, however that was the only huge issue overall. (You can read more about the EXT4 data loss bug here and here). Personally, I’ve been running Ubuntu 9.04 on several of my machines with EXT4 on all of them, and I’ve not had a single problem at all. However, even though the patches were released by the Ubuntu kernel team to stabilize EXT4, you are still using it at your own risk. This is bleeding edge stuff, afterall. However, if you do decide to put it to use, you should notice a decent speed increase on your system. Results may vary, but I know that I will never go back to EXT3.

EXT4 was the first controversial inclusion in Jaunty, and the other was the new notification system. When it was announced, many people criticised it, saying that there were far more important things to focus on than notifications. I agree, actually. While the notifications are very nice and they do some really interesting things (such as the way Pidgin notifications pop up, you’d have to see them for yourself) there were probably more important issues to focus on. For what its worth though, I have grown to like the new notification system and you might too. An example of one of these notifications is below:

There have been some interesting improvements visually in Jaunty as well. While Ubuntu still sports the brown and orange human theme that has been used for at least a few years now, a completely redesigned login (GDM) theme is installed by default. To make matters even better, community themes are also included by default, and any one of them makes for a better theme than the default one. In Intrepid, there were also community themes, but they weren’t installed by default and you’d have to stumble upon them to find them. I criticised Ubuntu quite a bit for not including the extra themes by default, and I’m happy to see they listened. The community themes are beyond incredible. You can click on any of the pictures below for a larger view of some of the themes that are included:

Human (default theme)

Dust

Dust Sand

New Wave

So, what else is new in Ubuntu, you ask? Not much if you’re a home user, actually. The server version has support for trying out cloud computing, Kernel 2.6.28 and X.org server 1.6 are included, but that’s pretty much it. Sure, there are tons of “little things” improved all over the place, but new features aren’t necessarily the focus this time. Even though Canonical hasn’t came out and said it, the focus this time was speed and stability. This is by far the fastest and most stable version of Ubuntu I have ever used, bar none.

Such a wonderful release couldn’t have come at a better time. The next Ubuntu release, due in October, may not be out before Windows 7. (Though I highly doubt Microsoft will release their new OS this year anyway, but that’s another story altogether). The Ubuntu team have definitely put their best foot forward and brought us their most amazing release yet. If you haven’t ever tried Ubuntu, you should do that right now. If you’re using an older version of Ubuntu, you should upgrade right now.

Report Card

Installation: 5/5
The Ubuntu installer hasn’t changed much at all. In fact, the only difference I’ve noticed is the better looking location selection screen. This is not a bad thing, as the installer that Ubuntu uses gets the job done fast, without any unnecessary questions along the way. If it’s not broke, why fix it?

New Features: 2/5
Ubuntu 9.04 gets a new notification system, EXT4 support, and whatever features GNOME 2.26 brought to the table. (Which sadly, weren’t that many). That’s fine, considering that the focus was on speed and stability, which was necessary after the lackluster “Intrepid Ibex” that was released last year.

Look & Feel : 4/5
Ubuntu 9.04 would have lost a ton of points here after using the same theme again that has been used for the last few years. Fortunately, the community themes that are shipped by default are nothing short of amazing and make up for it.

Stability: 5/5
Although there were problems with data loss during the development phase, those problems were ironed out by the time the final release was published. In my tests, I found Ubuntu 9.04 to be rock solid.

Connectivity: 5/5
The one good thing about the previous release (Intrepid) was that it focused on connectivity. Those advancements inherited here, as I was able to connect each of my laptops to several different kinds of wireless routers with no problems whatsoever. In fact, on one of my laptops, the wireless card is detected immediately, when previously it took quite a bit of configuration. The wireless card in question is a very common Atheros card (even used in some netbooks), so that is going to be a blessing for many people.

Speed: 5/5
Ubuntu 9.04 is fast, and with the EXT4 filesystem, it’s even faster. This is the fastest Linux distribution I’ve ever used.

The Good:
Fast
Stable
Community Themes
New GDM Theme
New Notification System

The Bad:
Not as many new features
Same default theme as before

Overall: 4/5 Great!