A few thoughts on Gutsy Gibbon

[thestevo]

For those of you who have considered trying the new Ubuntu release but haven't yet, I thought I would share some of my perceptions of it. Generally, I'm very impressed.

 

The nicest thing about it, and what impressed me the most: I didn't have to feel like a hacker to get it usable. I first started with Linux on Red Hat 8. Granted there are those out there that will smirk as the term 'noob' passes through their mind, but it is a ways back now. Given the fact that I wasn't even near high school at the time, it felt especially difficult to use. I still remember the problems that I faced with that distro and would like it no more now than I did then. The graphics were horrible, it was fairly slow, the programs were all very rudimentary and did not have cross platform apps like Firefox. I remember manually configuring samba, trying like hell to browse the Windows shares. Most of all, when you tried to install a program you would download it and come to find that it had a dependency you needed first. You download that, try to install it, find it has a dependency. This could go on four or five times. No longer. Open Add/Remove programs, find program, mark for installation, apply changes. That's it. When I popped it into my Inspiron 8200 it came up with two restricted drivers that were needed, the broadcom firmware and the modem. I told it to install those and it did so after hooking into ethernet for a little bit. The internet was up and working, I could see my Windows shares. I installed VLC with three clicks and a little typing. Wow! Everything else is just icing from my perspective. Possibly I seem a little lazy in the fact that I didn't want to set up anything, and that could be true. But, Linux is supposed to work on hardware, just about any hardware. Why should I have to mess with a terminal interface just to get a basic operating system. OS X on a Dell is special, Ubuntu is... well... not. But wait, it gets better.

 

Compiz fusion is the awakened giant personified. Yamamoto said that he feared he awakened the giant of the USA in WWII, and those who called Linux graphically unappealing awakened the giant of Compiz. It is amazing, and the default settings don't even begin to stretch its legs. You have three options: off, some, and 'that's nice'. But... with the addition of the Compiz configuration utility you can really show off what it will do. This coming from my first impressions of it running on a Radeon Mobility 9000 that won't do QE/CI. I have nicer nVidia cards I'll try it with later. However, I was significantly impressed on what it can do for those machines that won't play nice with Mac or Windows eye candy. Everybody likes a little eye candy, and I have a little more respect for the card that I once held in such high regard.

 

Fixes; things that should have been done a long time ago. Writing to NTFS. Its another little thing that has been possible for a while but not without a little research and time to make it happen. And the screen and graphic card configuration tool! Duh! For years they wrote a GUI without an easy way to even change the resolution! And the concept of dual screens, brilliant!

 

However, I do have some reservations mild as they may be. Compiz is great! But... why did the interface still feel unpolished to me? I don't know exactly what it is, but in some ways Windows 2000 feels a little more polished, although so much less powerful. The fonts that are used in some situations, the way menus look, buttons, file browser, and the way panels interact in GTK themed windows all seem to be remnants of the ugly duckling stage. I'm not saying it doesn't have potential or that it can't beat the other OS's in wow factor, but it feels rather like riding around in a Ferrari without any paint job. Its not the effects, but what it is affecting. And please organize the preference and administration menus. Why is window preferences in one menu and appearances utility in the other? I'm sure the must be a reason, but if people don't know instictively isn't their a better way to differentiate? And, wine as a part of the add and remove programs would be nice too.

 

I think that the next release could be scary. The pieces are finally assembling such that the picture is nearly complete. I do think that Microsoft has much to fear, on all fronts. Vista's launch flopped. XP's had cabs in NYC painted with green fields. Nobody lined up for Vista, nor do they now. It has no advantage for gaming, drivers are bad, user friendly is a foreign phrase, stability problems are rapant. Leopard and the Leopard Family pack are the top two sellers on Amazon. Under ten percent of the computer market share, relatively unhyped by the media, and it is still the top two positions. Interesting. And, if you haven't seen the statistics lately for how Apple laptops are selling you should. But linux is a different story. It has an advantage Apple never will, and vice versa. Linux will always be free and "supported", if you will, with most any hardware. OS X will be at the mercy of what we will be able to hack. Apple has a staff that is paid to develop the operating system as a whole from top to bottom, back to front, and left to right. It will have a whole package smooth feeling that Linux won't because I doubt Shuttleworth will branch the whole Linux project and develop a separate OS. It will always feel somewhat pieced together due to the fact that you always could use the other option for any component. Finally, wine is becoming very compatible with XP's APIs, which is good for Mac and Linux. Fusion and Parallels makes for perfect compatibility with XP. Fortunately, nobody cares about what new stuff Vista brought to the table. Most reviews I've seen haven't even shown significant improvements in DX10. This is the time for Microsoft to loose from both ends. Ubuntu will have the option to come preinstalled from giants like Dell and HP, and Apple won't. Apple will grow the most, but I think it will pull Ubuntu up in its wake. Switching OSes helps any cross platform app. Thankfully most of those run on linux too.

 

So, Gutsy. Great release. It could pull you away from XP. Especially with recent improvements in wine. You don't have to feel technologically outgoing to use it anymore. Almost like Sears lent its tagline and 7.10 is 'come see the softer side of linux.' Great now, even better soon!

 

Stevo

[Guest krutow]

Should add also that ATI's graphics can be hell to install.I was messin' with it for about 10hrs, just to get Ubuntu NOT to revoke to standard VESA drivers on reboot.The way Ubuntu saves changes on reboot/shutdown is weird.

[thestevo]

True, ATI's drivers are weird. Hopefully by the next release we will start to see the benefit of AMD's recent push toward more functional and open drivers. If nothing else the further development of 'bulletproof x' will aid in making sure that a GUI is always available in some form.