As I sit to write this I see that this review will be aimed at those of us who have had at least passing use of Linux Operating Systems and as such I will only going into the general usability and improvements that 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) offers over the 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).
History:
For a brief history of Canonicals' Ubuntu Operating system see my article `The Open Source history of a dream` or the Wikipedia article concerning Ubuntu
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) is the latest release from Canonical and the Ubuntu Foundation, and so far it looks to be worthy of its, frankly, rich heritage. It is at this point I should say that I have tested two of the three standard distro's (Desktop & Netbook remix) for this release and have decided to stick with the Desktop build. Another point I will note is that it is still remarkably similar to 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).
But apart from my own bemoaning for eye-candy there was only one true disappointment with this increment: Synaptic Package Manager. The Synaptic Package Manager is a remnant of a darker day (2004-05), when the internet cowboys still rustled from the then emerging blog farmers, OK my metaphor is wearing thin, but you get the idea. We need an easier, eyesight (and beginner) friendly method already, but it seems that they're only going to implement one at 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) in the form of the Ubuntu Software Centre (see below)
Final Verdict: Whilst not making it into the ranks of Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) it is a great Distro. It's improved speed and lowered demand on hardware is a major plus, especially on many net-books where resources are a precious commodity. I'd definitely recommend this to my friends and I definitely recommend it you!
History:
For a brief history of Canonicals' Ubuntu Operating system see my article `The Open Source history of a dream` or the Wikipedia article concerning Ubuntu
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) is the latest release from Canonical and the Ubuntu Foundation, and so far it looks to be worthy of its, frankly, rich heritage. It is at this point I should say that I have tested two of the three standard distro's (Desktop & Netbook remix) for this release and have decided to stick with the Desktop build. Another point I will note is that it is still remarkably similar to 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).
The Desktop was remarkably smoother compared to the previous LTS release 8.04 (Hardy Heron) with times from power-on to desktop being cut by nearly ten seconds on both machines I tested it on.
All Ubuntu Distros' now come standard with Firefox 3.XX, This was a major plus for migration - I was able to even do a network share of my Vista box's Firefox profile files and run them direct!
As usual the window management system was a delight to use, but still aimed at XP Audiences. Which for some is good, because this allows people with little or no experience with Linux to swap quite seamlessly into Ubuntu. But I wanted a little more... Dock-compiz-KDE kind of feel straight out of the box. I know I can just install KDE, Compiz and a good Dock, when I test an operating system I like to test it on the merits it has from scratch.
But apart from my own bemoaning for eye-candy there was only one true disappointment with this increment: Synaptic Package Manager. The Synaptic Package Manager is a remnant of a darker day (2004-05), when the internet cowboys still rustled from the then emerging blog farmers, OK my metaphor is wearing thin, but you get the idea. We need an easier, eyesight (and beginner) friendly method already, but it seems that they're only going to implement one at 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) in the form of the Ubuntu Software Centre (see below)
Final Verdict: Whilst not making it into the ranks of Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) it is a great Distro. It's improved speed and lowered demand on hardware is a major plus, especially on many net-books where resources are a precious commodity. I'd definitely recommend this to my friends and I definitely recommend it you!
