Ubuntu 9.10 first thoughts
Ubuntu 9.10 first thoughts
Nov 18
Oh my word… You’re going to shoot me… 8 days, how do I dare.
Well, I’ve been running Ubuntu for a while now, and I thought I’d review the newest version 9.10, Karmic Koala.
First of all, this version of Ubuntu should boot up faster, but on my PC, which runs the AMD64 version, it’s hard to notice any difference at all. Ofcourse I didn’t use a timer though to measure it.
One of the first things you’ll do when you just installed Ubuntu, is opening up your default browser, which is still Firefox, though updated to Firefox 3.5 (as I type this, it’s version 3.5.5). You don’t know how much of a hassle it was to get it on 9.04 running.
I had some slight problems though with my internet, as my connection percentage dropped, but it’s managable now, and I only have temporairly problems now taking about a minute maximum.
What you’re also likely to do is using your IM-client. In this new Ubuntu version, you’ll notice that Pidgin has been replaced by Empathy, something that doesn’t really bother me, as I usually left Pidgin for what it was and used Emesene, but I’ve tried Empathy, and it looks a lot neater than Pidgin because of it’s great skins you can easily install (well, not that easy, but it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes).
Also, if you try to install Emesene, you obviously notice that the package manager is replaced by the Ubuntu Softwarecentrum (don’t know the exact translation, sorry). Seems it’s modern, nowadays.
The software centrum looks “easier” and more basic than the previous one, but I’m starting to miss the previous one already. Not that this one is harder to work with, but it really feels too simple, and I miss those handy features that the previous packagemanager had, like selecting which programs to install. The previous manager would also say when other packages are getting installed, but this new softwarecenter doesn’t do this, it seems.
Also, this softwarecenter isn’t fitting in easily in the Ubuntu GUI if you customize it a bit. I run a very black skin, and well, the background of the softwarecenter is pale blue. Not really nice, but then again… nothing to be mad for.
Overall, I would say only one thing: bring back the previous packagemanager, as it was a lot easier to use for more people than this new one. It’s too basic, lacking a lot of features, where you have to dive into Synaptic, now.
Well, I’ll let you know more soon 
Kevin
