Last night I had the pleasure of popping in to the Ubuntu Jaunty release party in London. The venue, despite being quite large, was utterly packed with people associated with the Ubuntu community either by working on it in some way or just being users. It is amazing to think that this was only one of a hundred release parties taking place worldwide for this latest release of Ubuntu, which has a six monthly release schedule. The excitement is justified, the latest release of Ubuntu, version 9.04 (or to use its development name Jaunty) is faster, slicker and has more cutting edge features than its predecessor, Ubuntu 8.10. The project has lived up to its slogan of “Linux for human beings” by producing an operating system that is simple to run and just works (mostly ;)).
The speed increases are noticeable right from boot up. Some people talk of starting their computer and going off to make a cup of tea while it boots up. With this version of Ubuntu, you won't have time to make a cup of tea, you won't even have enough time to go and get a cold drink. Boot up times start from twenty-five seconds. The nice thing about Ubuntu is that it comes with a range of tools to enable you to make use of your computer straight away. OpenOffice 3 is included, a full office suite that will even open those annoying Microsoft Office 2007 files that your colleagues struggle with because your workplace standardised on some other version of MS Office. Ubuntu also includes a range of productivity, creativity, multimedia and accessibility programs as standard, with thousands more to chose from on the online repositories.
You don't need a Computer Science degree to use Ubuntu, or the latest, greatest most expensive machine money can buy. Logging into certain other operating systems often leads to a barrage of nagging from applications wanting to update themselves or get in you way by increasingly innovative and annoying means. Ubuntu is better behaved with centralised package management that makes getting and updating software as easy as selecting it from a list and clicking on a big green tick. When updates are needed it will politely inform you so you can apply them when you are ready. The distribution also works with an ever increasing number of machines and hardware items without the need for complicated configuration and poring over howtos. Peripherals like printers and mobile internet dongles often don't need any additional drivers to get them working, leaving you to get on with what you want to do with your time.
A notable addition to the line up of Ubuntu editions is the Netbook Remix image (UNR) which is designed for ultra-mobile PCs like the Asus EEE PC and the Acer Aspire One. This takes into territory formerly catered for by projects like Easy Peasy (although there is a possibility of an interesting new direction for Easy Peasy). There are still some issues with UNR on certain netbooks (further details at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks) but this is a very welcome addition as the netbook market has attracted a lot of people to Linux, despite the often rather poor distributions supplied with such products. My EEE PC became much more usable and useful the day I put Ubuntu on it. Hopefully more hardware vendors will be tempted to supply Ubuntu already installed on their computers to enable users to have a first class experience right from the word go. If your computer is getting on a bit, but still works perfectly well, you might want to take a look at the new Xubuntu release, a version of Ubuntu designed to be less demanding on hardware.
Ubuntu 9.04 is a delight to use as well, Cnet News declared that “Ubuntu 9.04 [is] as slick as Windows 7, Mac OS” (though from what I have seen of Windows 7 and the Mac I think Ubuntu is a much better experience) with an enhanced user experience and polished looks (check out the rather funky new theme “Dust”). Ubuntu's KDE based sibling Kubuntu has a new release which they sum up with the words “Speed, Beauty and Innovation” (I'll be having a look at Kubuntu in a future blog post).
Ubuntu is not just for the desktop, it also comes in a server edition, which now supports Eucalyptus, a project that enables you to “build your own cloud”, i.e. use some of the principles from cloud computing on your own servers. It enables you to host Amazon EC2 compatible virtual machines on your own hardware. This could be useful for a variety of reasons, for example it means that in the development cycle for new software you could host your own server images and then just copy them over to Amazon EC2 (or compatible service) when you are ready to go live. It also could reduce the difference between what it means to host a service internally or out in the cloud, potentially making life easier when a service becomes popular, or is possibly costing too much to host on an external cloud service. I'll also be having a look at this in more depth in a future blog post and once I've read the tutorial.
Ubuntu 9.04 is a continuation of the good work being carried out in the Ubuntu community and by its commercial backer Canonical. It faces competition in the form of Windows 7 and Mac OS, but it is ideally placed to do well against these alternatives. Firstly, it is free and cost effective, good features given the current world financial climate. Secondly, it benefits from the high expectations people have of it and the drive and ambition of the people behind it, this will continue to push the quality and usefulness of this operating system on, and is a sharp contrast to the competition; Windows 7, which will be deemed a success if it just manages to be less awful than its predecessor, and the Apple Mac OS, which is really a premium priced luxury product, and not a mass adoption candidate. Ubuntu is suitable for a wide range of people, uses and devices and deserves to go from strength to strength.
Re: The new Ubuntu 9.04 leaves no time for tea
Thanks for sharing this.