Ubuntu 9.10 +2 days

It's two days since I installed Karmic Koala Ubuntu 9.10.  Time for a progress report.

The OS is now looking lovelier than ever.  A quick trawl through the graphics options reveal even more flourishes, which work happily with the nVidia Quadro FX 1500M nestling in my M90.  Windows have an elastic effect when minimizing or maximizing, literally bouncing into shape.  Dragging a window around the workspace sees the bottom of the window belatedly following the top, snapping back into place when the window move is complete.

Apps-wise, I'm pretty much sorted.  The Ubuntu Software Centre ( as it is called in UK English ) is well-organised and pretty much foolproof.  Based off the dependency-aware apt-get, it'll go get whatever you need to make whatever app you're installing work first time.  True, you don't generally get installation problems on XP, but I have encountered the odd piece of software that needs a redistributable of some kind.  All dependencies are downloaded first here.

Rhythmbox deals nicely with my love of podcasts.  Instead of going through the iTunes store, you simply give it the XML feed URL of the 'cast you want to subscribe to.  It sorts out the rest from there.  Some may miss the convenience of the browsing function available in iTunes, but it's a non-issue for me.  I've never rated the iTunes podcast directory that highly myself, plus there are plenty of other sites out there that'll allow you to browse based on interest.

Transmission is the BitTorrent client that comes pre-installed with Ubuntu.  The mere fact that it's part of the default install speaks to Canonical's recognition of modern user activities.  Finger definitely on the pulse there. It's not as full-featured as Windows fave uTorrent.  If you're looking for graphs of who's providing which piece of which file, you're out of luck.  If you're simply after a quick download or two (million), Transmission is a good, functional client.

Video is being handled by the ever reliable VLC, as permissive on Linux as it is on any of the platforms it runs on.

I've had a quick look at Monodevelop, an IDE intended for developing .NET applications.  It looks good enough for what it is, but I'll probably still do all of my .NET dev inside a Windows environment.  Visual Studio may not be perfect, but I'm comfortable within it.

The one thing I haven't got quite sorted yet is DVD playback.  To be honest, it's something of a non-issue for me.  I have numerous devices capable of playing DVDs.  Pretty sure I could solve the problem if I put the time into it if I was so inclined, but for those who deem DVD playback a must - a little work will be required.  It won't work out of the box.

Another annoyance (although not Linux-related per se) is Zynga Poker on Facebook.  For some reason, some of the text won't display properly, making it difficult to pick specific sit 'n go games.  However, I think this is more of a Zynga issue than Linux issue.  I hope they sort it out.

Despite the couple of niggles, the overriding factor in all of this is how bloody fast it all is.  Switching between open applications is joyful, in stark contrast to XP, which acts like a man with a serious hangover trying to repaint the Sistine Chapel.  My machine is probably three years old at this point, and it runs beautifully.  First time in around 2.5 years I've been able to make such a claim.

The only thing I'm actually missing about Windows is the ease of installing Windows games. I've got an XBox 360.  I have a PS3.  I can live with that for now.  When the time comes (i.e. when Blizzard get around to releasing the bulk of their stuff) I'll get something worthy of doing the deed.  But if you want a computer just to be a computer, Ubuntu 9.10 is tops.

Karmic Koala Ubuntu

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) this morning.  No half measures.  No dual booting.  Following a backup of precious artefacts, its a complete install, usurping XP as the sole operating system on the Precision M90.  I considered Windows 7, but it's 180UKP for the upgrade I'm after.  If I'm going to spend that sort of money, I'd rather spend a bit more and get an entire new lappy. Windows 7 pre-installed, naturally.  Still, that's enough about Windows.  Let's talk Linux.

Installation went very smoothly.  A console boot screen allows you to set your language and keymap before you even make the fateful decision to install.  These options are provided again when you hit the graphical part of the install process, along with a nifty time-zone selector.  Once you've decided how much of your hard drive you'd like to devote to Ubuntu, the installation proceeds accordingly.  In my case, I gave the entire drive - but this machine used to dual-boot Linux and XP just fine.

The file copy process is the longest part of the install, with Ubuntu flashing OS features at you during the process.  It finished up in less than half an hour.  Very first impressions were ok, but not as flashy as I'd like.  However, Ubuntu tells me that I can get better graphical fidelity if I download a proprietary driver.  I'm ok with that, so a quick download, install and reboot later - we're back - and we're looking spanky.

I never installed Vista, so the jump from XP to Ubuntu was something of a giant leap.  The taskbar is very functional, even compared to XP.  The rest of the OS shimmers.  Browsing is a delight due to some beautiful anti-aliasing, which I would actually rate above Mac OS X.  Just as smooth but not as heavy.  Gentle gradients seem to constitute most of the GUI's look and feel.

I did have some initial problems with Wireless.  There was no indication that a card was present, and no auto-scanning for networks occurred.  I ended up having to manually enter the SSID, and even then I had to resort to setting all the IP4 settings manually.  No problem at all with a wired connection, which came in handy as I desperately Google'd for answers.

Another immediate proprietary install was Adobe Flash player, which happily launched a game of Zynga Poker within Firefox.  Sound worked out of the box, although it doesn't seem to get the same quality of sound out of my laptop speakers as XP managed.  Sounds fine when connected to speakers, tho'.  I had to download quite a few plugins to get all of my formats to play, but this took less than ten minutes to accomplish.  Rhythmbox, the pre-installed music player, doesn't look as good as iTunes, but then, if you're spending your life looking at iTunes, you probably need a new hobby anyway.

Overall though, I'm genuinely excited to be playing around with a new OS, even if it is one I've encountered before.  Despite the initial problems, everything is running lovely now.  Desktop Linux has definitely come a long way.