Although I should have done this last month when it was released, I finally got around to downloading Ubuntu 9.04 to see what was new.
What I found that the most significant upgrades to the OS had almost nothing to do with the interface itself. From what I understand the Ubuntu team was going to revamp the UI in 9, but it couldn’t be completed in time so it’s slated for a later release. Instead what you get is the same interface you got in 8 (with some minor improvements), but the real power lies beneath the surface, so to speak.
What I mean by that is:
- Updated kernel
- GNOME 2.26
- Better multi-monitor support
- Faster startup time
In the UI realm, here’s what’s new:
What was most impressive to me initially was the Brasero optical disc application. This is, said honestly, a great app. Why so great? Because it has everything people use CDs and DVDs for, and to boot it’s ridiculously simply to use. So simple and intuitive in fact that it should be an OS X app. It’s that good.
Also, since I’m running this in a virtual session in VirtualBox, I can say that 9 works better virtually compared to 8. Installation was super-easy, so I can safely assume that as the native OS it would work great as well.
Ubuntu is getting better. It’s easy to see why it leads the charge as the Linux desktop OS. This isn’t to say other distros can’t do the job (because they certainly can), but the user-centric nature of Ubuntu is what makes it great. Version 9.04 continues with that modus operandi and that’s why Ubuntu users enjoy the OS so much.
I downed loaded Ubuntu 9.04 on my brother’s old win98 box. After playing with 9.04 I found out that it’s much more polished than 8.10. I was surprised to see how well it worked with a P3 and 384mb RAM box. Impressed with how everything worked right from the get go, I took the plunge and dumped my XP box and changed totally over to 9.04. I’m really glad I did. Yes there was some getting used too how things are done in Ubuntu but if you’re patience, common sense will get things back up and running in no time. The best thing is that I don’t have run a anti-virus and defrag programs anymore. That means more money for beer!
I guess my brother summed it up best, he said that “Ubangee” thing is damn good and the price is right!
Ok, I’ve been using Ubuntu since Hoary and Kubuntu since Breezy and all well in Ubuntuland, but my laptop has Intel Graphics and my desktop has an ATI Xpress200 integrated video card, and both have problems with the video drivers, so I had to go back to Intrepid… You know how many peple are having the same problem? Isn’t that a real “show-stopper” for Ubuntu? We had an Install-fest and had to tell the people with Intel and old Ati graphics who wanted to install the “latest and greatest” ubuntu on their machines that we didn’t recomend it because Jaunty would not support their video cards?… very shamefull indeed!
I downloaded both 9.04 ubuntu and kubuntu and created CD’s from them. I had an 8.04 ununtu setup before, and first I removed all my stuff to an external drive, then re-installed from scratch, in order to make use of the ext4 interface. Additionally, I wanted to put my home directory on its own partition. I installed Kubuntu first, and just could not get used to the interface. Konquerer, etc. just does not seem as friendly to me as the Gnome software. I attempted to install ubuntu with it, but the install was making a large number of partitions, rather than installing into the same one, so I just scrapped Kubuntu, and went with the Ubuntu 9.0 version. The boot time is nice, as others have said. The package is robust, although I prefer the mechanism which 8.04 had (in the upper right corner) for upgrade notifications. The 8.04 starburst just seems a nicer way of informing me that there is something to do.
I have 3 machines currently, a Dell 8200 running XP Home, a Dell Inspiron 530 running Vista Premium, and a Shuttle barebones kit which I built according to an online article, running Ubuntu (9.04 now). The Dell 8200 has expensive RAMBUS 800-40 memory, and I looked as to upgrading its memory. To add memory to that machine is about as expensive as buying an entire Optiplex 620 with the same memory configuration, because other memory is so much cheaper!
One suggestion I have for anyone looking to buy a computer is to look for the price of add-on peripherals for it BEFORE you buy, since sometimes the replacement part price will show that you probably should not buy the machine in the first place. This is my experience with the Dell 8200. When XP first came out, the 256K which I have was just fine, but after the first service pack, it did not work so well. I think my real problem was due to Norton stealing cycles. While I have Norton 360 on my Vista machine (and on two Dell Vista laptops in the family), I run Avast (free anti-virus) on my xp Home Dell 8200, and it does not seem to claim all the cpu cycles, which the Norton software had done.
Pick and choose, eventually we will get smarter, maybe.
2.2.26 or 2.6.2?