Ubuntu has become the De-facto Linux distro for new users. It is the
most used Linux distribution. It is estimated that it has
double the market share of its next competitor (Fedora). Ubuntu is known
for it's ease of use and canonical attempts to portray itself as a
visionary design oriented company.
Ubuntu 11.04 was the first release to ship with Unity. At the time it
was met with lukewarm reviews and hostile users. This release 11.04 has
given them approximately 6 months to address some of the issues raised and tweak the
interface. It is safe to say that if you didn't like Unity's debut release,
this release is not going to change your mind either.
The virginal desktop:
One of Ubuntu's flagship features is the
software-center. This is a neat
way to manage all your applications and it looks pretty. Compared to the
prior version of the USC, it is not a particularly revolutionary
iteration. The front page has received a major overhaul but the program
remains fundamentally similar. There is still no way to tile the list of applications,
despite it being a better approach. This is the typical half-assed way Ubuntu
does things.
The "for purchase" store has been expanded to include Linux magazines.
The selection of apps remains limited. There are a few indie games, a
small amount of borderline scammy utilities and that about it.
Unity
Ubuntu has now moved the unity launcher from being positioned near the
top left corner of the menu bar into being locked on the top part of the
dock, no doubt this is for the touch interface.
This is what you get when you click on the launch button:
Searching and launching apps is still a mess. You will notice that at
the bottom of the launcher there are small icons. Apparently these are
called "lenses", the idea is to filter your search input.
If i type in the letter 't', this is what appears on the home lense. It is a
list of everything that matches the search expression.
Selecting the next lense, which is the "application lense" the user can expand the
"filter results" tab and navigate through app categories that match his
search input (in my case "t"). As far as I'm concerned this should be the default
home lense.
The next to lense are similar concepts for music and documents.
The music lense, searches the amazon music store for you. Ubuntu keeps
75% of the proceeds, you buy through banshee. Previously banshee devs
had given 50% of their revenues to GNOME. canonical changed this
Selecting an album will open up Banshee (the media player) but it won't
direct you to the albums page.
Evolution has been replaced by Thunderbird and deja dup is now the
default backup solution. Both of these are great selections. I don't
know anyone who uses a dedicated mail reader anymore. I occasionally use
alpine for non-bin Usenet access though...
This is what the file-manager looks like. Like everything Ubuntu, this is
a retarded knock-off of Apple design. You will notice the padding
changes, they've done this with most apps. It looks a lot better.
The menu entries are now hidden until the mouse is hovered over the top bar. I
bet this has confused a lot of people, but once they figure it out
things are OK.
You would be forgiven for thinking that left-clicking on a dock entry
will minimize an app. It doesn't do this, instead it goes though some
expose' like mode. It's beyond infuriating. Why they chose to do this is
beyond me, it would have been a nice feature if it was in the context menu.
The only way to minimize an open application is to press the minimize button.
In an attempt to address the concern that Ubuntu has lost it's
customization, they have decided to put a shortcut to the settings app
in the dock. THIS IS THE PINNACLE OF INNOVATION.
There is still no way to move the dock, or change it in any way.
Selection the far right icon in the menu bar will allow you to configure
printers and displays. There is no way to screenshot this menu, I'm not
joking.
The libreoffice menu is still not integrated into the Ubuntu global bar.
Ubuntu has designed a new font that i like. It's the default terminal font as well
Summary
Everything else is like Ubuntu 11.04. My personal opinion is that this
is not a system to do serious business on. It is slow, cumbersome and
non-intuitive. However it would be fair to say that i am an 'advanced'
Linux user - the way i see software is very different than a lot of
people. I am not sure if Intermediate to beginner's will despise this
setup as much as i do.
I have tried to be impartial in this review but it is very difficult. I
will not recommend Ubuntu any longer, my distro to the "which Linux
question for desktops" is probably Mint.
Give it a try though, i may just be retarded.
Comments
It's exactly how i feel. The guy is unintentionally very funny.
The Installation CD is also a live CD.
I used a USB instead though...
Slow, user friendly .... NOT! An all round horrible version of ubuntu
I felt ubuntu started backtracking after 9.10 (No disrespect to Backtrack)