OMG Exclusive: Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Video Review

Introducing: The best Ubuntu yet?

Since its release a month ago I have been testing Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx, and I have been pleasantly surprised by the improvements in this version of my favorite distribution of Linux. It really is faster, better looking, and more feature-rich than ever. Not everything is perfect, though. In this video review I give my thoughts about the operating system, and how it compares to Windows.

I have to admit that I still dual-boot with Windows, primarily to play the games I love, but for most things use Ubuntu, and I hope this helps people understand why it is a viable desktop operating system for all but specific high-end applications (and games).

In the future I will be creating more reviews and comparisons, and some more tutorials designed to help ease the transition of new Ubuntu/Linux users and perhaps enabling them to get more out of their new operating system. I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know what you would like to see from me in the future!

What features do you like best in 10.04? What do you hope for in future releases?

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Midori 0.2.4: The good & the Bad

At some point, nearly unnoticed, Midori 0.2.4 slipped through to repositories everywhere. I know what you're thinking, "Who cares about a 6 week old partial release? Lucid Lynx comes out in less than two days!" Well, I think Midori ought to find a home on your new install.

Why? Well, quite honestly, not as a primary browser. I've been testing out Midori for the last couple of days, and I must say, I'm impressed with the speed. My primary browser is Chrome, which works great most of the time, but occasionally completely craps out on me and delays its rendering, so much so that I just have to close it at times, starting it over. Midori is pleasantly crash free, surprisingly, as I was honestly expecting much more issues.

Interface

The good

Its fully, completely, 100% GTK integrated. That means theme friendly, logo friendly; it just looks good on Ubuntu, and there's no getting around the fact that it feels really nice to have a browser working with my theme, instead of against it. The Bad

User-configurable options are, at this point in its development, few and unfriendly. While there is support for themes and user scripts, it sill just feels awkward (but, I'm not a huge power user of such things, just an average level user)

Browsing

The Good

The first reaction I had when browsing in Midori is "Holy Crap! This is fast!" Chrome is my primary browser, and yet I was totally blown away by how quickly this browser moved me from page to page. I was really pretty impressed. I did several side by side tests of Chrome, Firefox, and Midori on heavy resource pages (like our own OMG! or Gizmodo) and Midori consistently pulled even on rendering and giving me usable pages, and was actually faster in reloading a page that I've visited before. Add that to the fact that its actually more consistent in speed made me very happy, happy indeed.

The Bad

Midori a number of troubles with JavaScript pages. I tried typing this post in Midori, and it consistently would die on me, refusing to save, and it was nigh on impossible to upload images. While I don't know if this perfectly represents all users experience, it certainly bothered me.

Extras

Midori actually comes pre-rolled with a number of different extensions available. Unfortunately, I had less than pleasant experiences with them.

Mouse Gestures were keyed to the middle mouse button, which meant trying to push my scroll button down on my desktop, and was just impossible on my laptop. Add that to the fact that there was no trail, just invisible gesture-ness, in a very short window, just made things extra difficult. Would have been nice to be able to configure these a bit.

Colorful tabs brought a moment of excitement, till I realized it used only obnoxious colors, organized haphazardly, and would not let me choose colors (see screenshot). Also available were feed readers, form fillers, and, interestingly, an extension to edit the toolbar. Now I was able to trim things down a bit, but it annoyed me a bit to have to work so hard to figure out how.

While its neat to see these features become standard, implementation is a bit week.

Any of you early adopting folk, those who like it when things break and you have to work with limitations, install Midori right now, right in the Lucid Software Center. Its really a pretty fantastic little browser (emphasis on little, even with twice as many tabs this had a lower footprint than Chrome), but its just not quite there yet for the masses, which is totally, completely absolutely fine, because its just 0.2.4! This is a browser to watch out for, so keep your eyes and ears open.

Final Word

Here's a few things I'd like to see from Midori:

1. Ease of customization.

We've all seen how easy it is to add and remove elements to Firefox, so it'd be nice to see that show up here as well. I think drag and drop would really be a win here. And this goes more than just interface, I mean you've got have full, easy customization of Mouse Gestures and color tabs and any other little thing you throw in there.

2. Clearer documentation.

You're doing a lot of things right, Midori devs. But it was so stinking hard for me to find out about anything! Your FAQ page took me googling and a bunch of click-throughs to even get to, and it only has 5 actual questions! The rest of it is just headers with descriptions. A FAQ is for questions, a wiki or about page is where the rest of that stuff goes. I know that you're early on in things, but get on that documentation so that people don't just get frustrated and quit trying to find out how to do things!

3. Fix interface anomalies

This kind of goes in with customization, but there's some UI stuff that just doesn't add up in Midori. You can hide your menu bar, and bringing it back requires just a click on a little globe and clicking 'Menubar'. But the globe disappears, instead of letting me rehide it. When right clicking on links, the first (and most often clicked) is open link, not open in new tab or window. This = Pure confusion!

4. More releases!

I like this browser a lot, so don't quit developing it. I think there's a lot of things being done right, and there's already a ton of features that you need and are borderline just a given for a browser to have (tabs, private browsing, extension support) but there's a number of things still to go, so keep at it!

Have you given Midori a try? Tell us about it in the comments!

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Lernid Review, 1.0 Release Next Week

Lernid had its first proper demo earlier this evening with "mock" event "Ubuntu Example Week". The half-hour class really showed off Lernid in all it's currently glory and really opened up eyes to its potential. 10 minutes before the class started a notification bubble appeared reminding me. A really nice touch that will no-doubt ensure plenty of people get to event classes on time! Upon joining an event you're presented with a list of upcoming sessions, all of which are displayed in local time. Yep - local time, no more faffing around trying to fathom out what UTC is in EST, etc. All right there for you. Initially impressive! The first "wow" came as the session got underway with a presentation slide automatically appearing in Lernid. A fantastic inclusion that Jono himself was proud of, saying:

For the first time in any of our learning events, we can now display slides this makes sessions much more interactive and feel more real

Still Impressive It's somewhat odd at first watching an application "work" by itself; especially as websites auto-loaded and navigated inside Lernid, and the application tabs were auto-switched between on-call - all with you sat staring at! All websites "used" in a presentation are available to visit again the dropdown box in 'Browser' view. Again, a really useful touch. Lernid's Future Jono spent some time during the session talking about Lernid's future. He intends to fix a few more bugs a release version 1.0 this week! This version will contain all of the features presently available. Other intentions past that are to turn the IRC chatroom section into an IRC widget - as with the classroom pane and include a "presenter mode" whereby presenters can write up their session before hand and simply press a button to send each line as and when needed. Thirdly he wants to create a feature whereby questions asked in the IRC (via the QUESTION lines) are 'sucked out' and presented as a list, making it easier for the presenter to read and respond to.

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To-Do Applications Reviewed [Updated With Another App!]

To-Do applications may seem over-kill to some (“what’s wrong with pen and paper?”) but I, personally, find they really help my workflow.

Linux has a fair old selection of task applications, but are they any good?

Tasque

‘Tasque’ is a simple to-do application for the Gnome Desktop.”

There are no multiple windows to fill in or buttons and configurations to check off before adding something – just click, type, done.

Tasque has a Remember The Milk plug-in however it didn't work for me. It can interact with Evolution though, for most users, saving their tasks in a local file will likely suffice.

You can add tags to task item, such as work, family, personal, project and filter view these, and also multiple notes for a task – handy for expanding on actions already done or filling out more information on the to-do goal.

It also pops a tray icon into your panel for easy calling.

Stuff
Official site  / Install Tasque

Tasks

‘Tasks’ is one part of the forthcoming Pimlico suite and like most of the apps in this run-down focuses on speed and simplicity rather than superfluous features.

 

Adding a task is done by typing in the ‘new task…’ field and hitting enter/return.

You can add categories (read: tags) which can be filter viewed, as well as dates, priorities, notes and web addresses – all in the one window! This makes getting an overview of a project super-easy as it’s all right there in front of you.

Tasks doesn’t come with a tray icon so can be easy to lose on a desktop full of open windows.

Stuff

Official Site / Download

Glista

Glista takes the “all in one window” approach like ‘Tasks’ above. tasks are added by typing in the field present on the bottom and hitting return/clicking the ‘Add’ icon.

Notes can be summoned and edited by clicking on the “clipboard” icon. Next to that is the checkbox to mark as completed.

Glista also provides a tray icon for easy hiding/showing.

SVN version

The forthcoming release of Glista adds a new reminder feature and jigs the interface around slightly.

It also bags itself a much needed new icon!

Stuff

Official site / Install Glista / Glista SVN

Google Tasks

Perhaps the best known to-do application is Google Tasks. Most commonly used alongside GMail, where it lives, Google Tasks can be brought to your desktop very easily.

 

The interface is clean, crisp and simple. Controls sit at the bottom and tasks are added by clicking on a new line in the main window and typing.

You can create separate lists of, well, lists!

Advanced features let you choose a due date, add it to your Google Calendar and shuffle it to another ‘group’. You can also add notes.

Stuff

Official site

Install

You can create a Desktop webapp for Google tasks by creating a launcher with the following command:

• Google Chrome: google-chrome --app=http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig
• Chromium: chromium-browser --app=http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig
• Firefox: Install the Prism Addon, go to http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig and create a desktop shortcut that way.

Getting Things Gnome! (AKA GTG!)

 

First off it must be noted that GTG is much more than just a "to-do list" application. It's great for creating multi-step actions and sub-tasks.

One feature of GTG that is really nifty is the 'Remember The Milk' synchronization. RTM is an online to-do list for managing tasks, etc and is most like Google Tasks albeit RTM has a great API and there are lots of applications available supporting it (iPhone, Android, Widgets, etc)

Creating tasks in GTG! follows the same procedure as most of the others in this list - you type a title in the input field, click add then add more information in the "body". Sort of like more structured 'notes'.  It is only the title of the task that will appear in the application itself.

'Work View' shows a list of all task titles to be completed of the task is what is displayed in the main window, clicking on it shows the task in full, with plenty of room to add details and information, non-work view divides tasks up to their relevant parents.

There are plenty more options so it's worth playing about with if you're looking for something more structured than "just a list".

Stuff
Official site / Install GTG! / GTG! PPA

AWN Tasks

For utterly basic "to-do-ing" AWN users might want to add the AWN tasks applet - it's short and sweet, but does the job.  A similar Applet that uses RTM (see above) is also available for AWN.

Stuff
Wiki Page for Tasks Applet
Wiki Page for RTM AWN Applet

Sticky Notes Applet
Continuing the "basic" to-do apps is one you already have installed but might not have ever noticed - Sticky Notes Applet.



Sticky Notes is a GNOME Panel applet that displays your to-do's or notes in a user-definable colour "post-it" style window.

Right-click the tray icon to enter a new note or set preferences (such as font, size and background colour). You can directly edit the text on a note by clicking on it as well as the ability to 'lock' a note to protect accidental editing.

Annoyingly, and perhaps the biggest draw back to sticky notes for most people, the notes auto-hide when you focus (click) on the desktop or another application. You can "reveal" the notes again by punching the tray icon. Thankfully there is a workaround!

How To 'Stick' Sticky Notes Applet to the Desktop
You will need Compiz-settings installed for this for this. The tip comes from enli.co.cc.

1. Open Compiz and enable the 'Window Rules' plugin
2. In the settings for 'Window Rules' enter/add the following: -
3. For "Skip Taskbar", "Skip pager" and "Non minimizable Windows" add:  class=Stickynotes_applet

You will no longer be able to "hide" the notes by clicking on the applet icon, but they will minimize if you invoke "Show Desktop" or press CTRL+ALT+D.

Stuff

Official GNOME Page

Install
Sticky Notes can be added by right-clicking the panel > "Add To Panel...", Sticky notes applet.

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Pino Twitter Application Reviewed

Pino is a new-ish Twitter application for Linux with the moto of being "easy and simple" and "fast."

I couldn't get the ruddy thing to compile back when i reviewed 6 Linux Twitter applications, but having just gotten itself a PPA for super-easy installation in Ubuntu it's time to see what Pino is all about...

Pino Up Close

Options are on the brief side allowing you to enter an account, specify the update interval and toggle notifications on and off.

The status update box shows when you press the 'pencil' icon. Perhaps annoyingly to some it is only one character tall.

It also has a handy character countdown on the right hand side.

Only two viewing modes are currently available. These being your own timeline and 'mentions' @ you. Both of these modes do display a good amount of tweets - around 20 or so - but there is no option to get "more" and view further back.

Whilst there is a 'Reply' button on tweets, allowing for quick @'ing back, there is no retweet button. Annoying.

Also lacking is a search function or a viewable public time-line. I personally find public time-lines to be pretty irrelevant anyway so a better solution would be to display a list of trending topics - now that would be useful!

Pino does do somethings right in this release - namely the tray/application icon. It's a sleek monochrome Twitter 'T' !



Official Feature list
The full list of features Pino boasts, shamelessly copied-and-pasted from the official site - are as follows: -

• Timeline.
• Mentions.
• Custom interval for data updating.
• Creating new tweets and replying to users from your timeline.
• Hiding menu and panels.
• Tray icon.
• Showing retweets in timeline (author of tweet and who retweeted).
• Default Gnome notifications of new tweets.
• Keeping unread tweets until the main window is not focused.
• Deleting your own tweets. [In the version i tried, this wasn't there...]
  

Conclusion
I will round this review off with a very a 'but', because despite Pino being somewhat basic in terms of interactivity and immersing yourself in twitter but it does describe itself as simple so this isn't necessarily a negative.

It's a fair effort and it is only in beta - but it's dwarfed by equally-as-simple-to-use applications but with better feature sets.

Installing Pino
PPA time, kiddies. The Pino PPA doesn't contain anything but Pino so you don't need to freak out over any conflicting app updates.

sudo add-apt repository ppa:troorl/pino 

is all you need to whack into the terminal, followed by an update and then

sudo apt-get install pino

No truckloads of dependencies are required for Pino, so it'll be installed within seconds.

Official site @ http://pino-app.appspot.com/downloads

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Is The New gThumb A Potential F-Spot Killer?

gThumb is an image viewer and browser for the GNOME Desktop that allows users to manage, tag, sort, view and edit their photo collection from the one application. It can import photos directly from digital cameras and export them to web albums and more.

"Change My Dear, And Not A Moment Too Soon..."
In August this year, gThumb tour-de-force Paolo Bacchilega announced on the gThumb Mailing list that the application was to receive some due love and attention - i.e. a total code re-write from scratch.

The reasons behind this was to help make gThumb a more capable and extensible application, handle browsing tasks more efficiently and to take advantage of new libraries, such as clutter.

This post will give you a quick tour of gThumb 2.11.0.
The next version of gThumb - the 2.11.xx series - brings some exciting new features and user-interface improvements. (Including ditching those baked-in ugly icons!)

The first thing you'll probably notice when trying 2.11.0 is the speed. Now it may just be me, but it starts up incredibly fast - almost instantly! Of course, gThumb has always benefited from sharing its thumbnail database with nautilus so this obviously helps, too.

More than anything these updates help position gThumb as a real competitor to F-Spot.

The New gThumb Browser

The browsing-view mode has changed a little from the current release. The main “visible” changes being the toolbar which is now far more “file browsing” friendly, utilizing navigation buttons rather than relying using the tree-view to navigate back and forth.

For comparison, here is the current version: -


No More Catalogue? 
The “catalog” tool is still available in 2.11.0, but you may be forgven for thinking it wasn't due to its lack of its inclusion in the new toolbar.

Tree View
The tree view works as it does in the current version.

Irregularities
The pencil icon on the toolbar in browser mode lets you edit a files' metadata - adding comments, location, date and tags, etc. The 'cog' icon lets you rotate, resize or set the image as the desktop wallpaper.

This will inevitably confuse users because, as you will read below, the the same icons do different things in viewer mode...

The New gThumb Viewer

The gThumb viewer has received some attention, too. There are fewer buttons on the toolbar giving it a cleaner, less cluttered look.

Compare the new viewer, above, with the current/old one below: -

There are fewer main menu entries along the top in the new version, with file properties and editing tools as side-panes rather than simple menu items as previously.

Editing

The editing panel is toggled via the ‘pencil’ icon in the far right. As you can see from the picture above, it comes with most of the editing tools found in the current version – and includes the most popular editing options such as red-eye removal, rotation and auto-enhancement.

Each editing tool, when selected and if applicable, will either show the configuration options available in the same pane.

For example, in the screenshot below the crop tool selected. The cropping options appear in the same right-hand pane - no extra windows or pop-ups: -


Properties
The properties panel can also be toggled in a similar fashion to the editing pane; simply press the ‘cog’ icons to see the currently viewed photograph’s vital stats such as size, format, metadata, tags, etc.

Other Things To Note

No Export, Hable.
This development version doesn't support exporting to web-albums or photo services. This is likely only a temporary omission.

Play spot the pixel with you photos
The default "viewer mode" is set to view at "actual size" - an incredible oversight for a photo viewer. 8 mega-pixel holiday snaps at "actual size", anyone? You can change this in the preferences menu.

Install
Enough of the breezy stuff, you probably want to install this, right? Well first make sure you've read what it can and cannot do before rushing into installing it.

You'll need to install the following list of dependencies, adding git-core to the list if you don't already have it installed: -

sudo apt-get install git-core autoconf libgnome2-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgnomeui-dev libexiv2-dev libglade2-dev gnome-common libgphoto2-2-dev libgnomedesktop2.20-cil gnome-devel libunique-dev

Once that is done, we'll get the source using: - 


git clone git://git.gnome.org/gthumb 

navigate into the source folder using: - 

cd gthumb

Followed by: - 

git checkout -b ext origin/ext 

and then: -


./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr CFLAGS="-ggdb" 

(NB: I received errors regarding "missing" dependencies that were already installed using the above command. Using just  ./autogen.sh worked fine for me.) 

To install it, use: - 


make&& sudo make install

(or make && sudo checkinstall if that is your preference)

You can then launch gThumb 2.11.0 from the Graphics menu.

Thanks to  John Stowers

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Shotwell Image Manager 0.3.0 Reviewed

The official spiel describes Shotwell as an “open source photo organizer” for the GNOME desktop. It is, however, a little bit more than that. Not much, but a little.

Photo organization
Organization in Shotwell takes two forms: Photos that have EXIF data in them and as such are arranged by date taken – called “Events” in Shotwell, or just general photos arranged by magic name.

This approach is nothing new and in reality is almost too basic to fulfil the needs of anyone with an appreciable photo collection. If it supported tags or allowed you to manually add timestamps to photos missing them it’d be more useful.

Photos are automatically imported from Digital Camera’s under the GNOME desktop.



Viewing
In the main grid you can zoom in and out on photo thumbnails using the slider at the bottom. Each “Event” is assigned a cover image, though this can be manually set.

Clicking on a photo in this mode gives you some simple options: -

I like the inclusion of Mirror and having these options just a right click away in the thumbnail mode makes adjusting wrong-way photos a very quick process.

Editing
One of Shotwell’s main selling points is the simple – yet efficient – image editing tools.



These non-destructive editing tools include: -

• red eye reduction
• adjust exposure, saturation, tint, temperature and shadow
• cropping (with auto-format sizes)
• rotation
• one-click “auto-enhancement”

Cropping format sizes

Editing tool wise Shotwell is just about “okay”. The supplied tools are functional, do what they say and in all honesty are more than enough for Grandma to use.

I don’t like the “floating palate” way in which they are displayed – especially when there is a wide piece of chrome to the left in which they could easily sit in.

Here’s a comparison of two photos – one original and the other “auto-enhanced” using Shotwell’s one-click tool.

Other Features
Shotwell boats a slideshow feature that is no worse – or no better – than that of any other image viewer or organizer. You can specify time between transition or manually “next/previous” to zip though.

You can export photos specifying dimensions and compression quality.

Future Features
This release of Shotwell is a very early release and isn’t as feature-filled as future versions are intended to be. What’s to look forward to?

• Export to Facebook and Flickr
• Slideshow feature to support customisable music and transitions 

These sound like potentially distinguishing inclusions, though one would hope that other services than Facebook/Flickr could/would be included along the long. (Cough-picasa-web-cough)

The ‘personal’ slideshow is truly an awesome feature – I'm not aware of any existing photo manager that has this. Nice!

On a last note, prepare  to hear a lot about the company behind this, Yorba, in the coming months here on OMG! UBUNTU!... 

PPA
As usual i recommend adding a PPA if you intend to install with this. This is to ensure you get the latest version with the latest features.

https://launchpad.net/~yorba/+archive/ppa

Website
http://yorba.org/shotwell/

{thanks to webupd8 for letting me know about this app}

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Visual Tour n’ Tweak Guide To Ubuntu Karmic Netbook Remix

I previously covered Ubuntu Karmic desktop and Kubuntu Netbook Remix, but despite using Karmic NBR i haven’t really touched on it! Until now…

The majority of features in the Netbook Remix are the same as the desktop version. NBR is mostly about optimizing the user experience and specific tweaks to netbook specific hardware. That said, it does fail on a  number of fronts so I'll be popping in some tweaks and tips along the way.

Let’s begin with a quick over-view!

Installation

The install process takes the same shape as with the desktop version but the install screens are maximized and fit lovely on even 7” screens.

Installation itself is super quick on SSD’s. My install took less than 10 minutes.

The default screen

The new “launcher screen” packs in much more space than it’s predecessor.

You’ll notice a new sidebar on the left and the removal of the sidebar on the right. This is a genius of a change and really makes the whole netbook interface shine with usability.

Included Applications

Most of the applications available in the Desktop version are present in the NBR with the addition of Cheese Webcam Booth.

You get the full OpenOffice suite, Firefox 3.5, UbuntuOne, etc

I would have liked to have seen a few more “web” apps such as a Gmail shortcut or Prism app, Gwibber and the Anjai netbook  interface for Evolution. Still most of these can easily be added by the user.

Performance

I find Ubuntu NBR 9.10 performs marginally better than it’s predecessor. I' haven’t run any benchmarks to prove this so it’s netirely subjective – but in all honesty that’s what counts. An app may be refined and faster but it doesn’t feel any faster it’s almost irrelevant. I’m assuming KNBR has the new ‘netbook-launcher’ to thanks for this elegant usage ‘feel’.

So…

Okay, now onto my “issues”…

Firefox 3.5

One gripe i have with Firefox 3.5 in NBR is how badly it fits to small screens.

I only have a 7” EeePC so screen estate is a maaaaaajor issue for me. As such if i were to use Firefox I'd change it from it’s stock interface from this: -

To this: -

By installing ONE extension: Meerkat.

Much nicer.

Install Google Chrome to gain speed and space

I must confess that one of the first things i do on any fresh Ubuntu install is get myself Google Chrome. I adore this browser – and on a netbook it’s even more evident how awesome it is - Try opening Firefox and Chrome on a netbook processor and you’ll see what i mean.

Install Google Chrome

Installing Chrome also saves space when it comes to "creating web applications. It doesn’t require an extra package or plugin unlike Mozilla Prism.

Enable Compiz for a slick experience

Using the netbook remix instantly becomes more enjoyable if you enable “Normal” compiz effects via the Appearance menu.

In previous version of Netbook Remix compiz wouldn’t work alongside the netbook launcher, thankfully now it does. Hurrah! Enable them and minimize a window and see what i mean. “Slick” just about covers it.

Think alternatives

Get some space by uninstalling unneeded applications. I never use OpenOffice on my netbook, nor do i play the stock gnome-games. Am i going to be managing an entire folder of photos? No, so bye bye f-spot.

Think about alternatives – i do some simple word processing on my netbook so i install AbiWord (which can open Microsoft formats, too.)

I also purge evolution and create a GMail Chrome web app instead. Same for Google Docs and Facebook. These all run much nicer in toolbar free Chrome web-apps, too.

Customization

A few other tweaks i like to do: -

Change the clock

Change the panel background

From

To

Using the Smoke Panel Background

Change the fonts

The default fonts are set at size 12. This is HUGE looking on tiny screens. Change the size or the font or both!

Original on the left, change on the right.

Conclusion

Although there’s not an awful lot unique to netbook remix to touch on, it’s a superior experience over all to the 9.04 version. It also easily beats the rest of the Ubuntu-based netbook “distros” such as EeePeasy & Jolicloud by being easier to install, easier to use and ships with just about everything one needs. (Perhaps it ships with too much, but that’s moot.)

If i had to choose between Kubuntu NBR and Ubuntu NBR i would find a touch choice to be made.

Kubuntu, as i mentioned when reviewing it, provides quite possibly the best “web device” experience on a non-moblin device, sadly it has some real user-interface gripes – that start with the installer not fitting on to certain screens meanign you have to install using logical thinking and the tab key… It also doesn’t run anywhere nears as smoothly and the default set of applications borders on the laughable.

Ubuntu NBR on the other hand provides the best overall netbook experience from both an application point of view and a performance one, too.

It’s just a shame there isn’t a “midbuntu”; a version that combines both feature sets out of the box. Ahh, well here’s to Lucid Lynx Moblin Remix!

© omgubuntu.co.uk 2009. | Ubuntu News, Tips, Apps and more.

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A Guided Tour Of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

It's set to be the biggest and best release of Ubuntu so far and it impresses right from the get-go with an impressive installer, fast boot times, new artwork and a whole lot more.

Meet quite possibly the best operating system on the planet - Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala!

The default Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop

So what's new in Ubuntu 9.10? Let's take a quick visual over-view of what you'll find inside...

6 Step Installation
The install process has been refined for 9.10 and now requires less confused stares, less clicks and less time to get it installed and up and running.

Encryption
New options are also presented during install – such as creating an encrypted home partition.

File Transfer
The migration assistant – allowing you to transfer files from Windows or other operating system on your system – has been removed from the install process. An odd choice perhaps, but you can still access it from the main menu on the desktop.

New User Slideshow
During the installation of Ubuntu, your eye will be caught by a shiny new slideshow highlighting applications and features in Ubuntu.

One of the slides playing during an Karmic install

EX4, Grub2 and other “boring” bits
Karmic Koala sees Ubuntu move to the EXT4 file system as default.

This may not sound very interesting but Ext4 gibes you a performance – as well as security – boost. It'll even support that spare 1 Exbibyte drive you may have lying around...

Grub 2 is now used for your boot menu. This is a total rewrite of GRUB bringing with it better performance, features and even a auto-cleaner for dead entries.

Please note that existing systems will not be upgraded to GRUB 2 at this time as automatically reinstalling the boot loader is an inherently risky operation.

Other “boring” additions include:-

    * AppArmor for Firefox, guest sessions, libvirt virtual machines and Evince.
    * UpStart now manages the boot process ensuring an improved start-up time.

Artwork: New Bootscreen, Themes, Wallpapers and Icons & Heaps More

On your first boot up you will surely notice the new Ubuntu splash screen. A visually stunning success, it helps set the entire mood for the Koala.

XSplash; Your new boot screen

The login screen (GDM) has received an entire re-write and ties in with the theme of the splash screen: -

The Login Screen

Karmic comes with 19 of new photo wallpapers: -

 

New Wallpapers

As well as a bright new default one: -

The Human Theme has swapped it's colours from Orange to Brown: -

New icon set 'Humanity' becomes the default, replacing the somewhat stale Human Icon theme previously and adds very stylish notification area icons to the panel: -

User-Session-Applet
The "logout menu", as a lot of people seem to call it, gets some swish new icons for setting your IM status.

one of the new status icons; away

Shutdown Screen
Logging out shows you this gorgeous little screen, but be quick because shutting down now happens in the blink of an eye!

 

Software Centre Ubuntu

One of the biggest new features of 9.10, Software Centre is designed as your “one stop shop” for finding, installing and managing new applications. Choose a category, find an app, click install. Done!

In later releases the Software Store will become -the- literal one stop shop as it replaces Synaptic, Update Manager and allows developers to sell applications.

Empathy

Pidgin has been replaced as the default IM client by Gnome application 'Empathy'. Looks wise there isn't much different, but Empathy isn't quite as mature as Pidgin when it comes to themes, protocol support or other.

It does boast second-to-none integration with your Ubuntu desktop and can even support video & voice calls over MSN!

Empathy using an Adium Chat Style

Theme your chats using Adium chat skins, drag-to-arrange your contacts and even share your desktop with people using the newly integrated vino.

Geo-location support is also available for XMPP contacts.

Palimpsest Disk Utility

A little mentioned new feature in Karmic is the addition of the Gnome-Disk-Utility, also known as Palimpsest Disk Utility

Akin to Apple's Disk Utility it allows monitoring, management, creation, deletion, etc of your partitions/hardrives. If it detects an error with an installed HDD it will launch a pop up and let you know how to correct it.

UbuntuOne

How does 2GB of free cloud storage sound? It comes free with Ubuntu thanks to the installation of UbuntuOne – Canonicals' “Dropbox” competitor. Drop some files into your UbuntuOne folder, sync and then access them from any other computer - anywhere anytime!

You can pay $10/M for an increased amount of space (currently 50GB). It has a cute little icon, too!

Gnome 2.28.1

I hate reading reviews of Gnome releases because very little ever changes on the surface.

This is somewhat true of the latest Gnome version (bar the vastly improved Bluetooth module and the slightly controversial removal of icons on window buttons and certain menu's. You can re-enable them if you so wish, see my quick how-to here.)

Everything else you think/expect is still there. (Except Ekiga. Ubuntu removed that by default. Mwhaha.)

Fast start-ups & Faster shutdowns

You've heard the hype but see for yourself: Ubuntu starts up faster than ever on most systems. Shutting down takes even less time – typically just a second or two!

Network Manager

Network manager has undergone some major cosmetic surgery and now boast a cleaner and more usable interface.

Adding of new WIFI spots and security-key's has been greatly simplified, and you can even ad-hoc to your heart's content with this latest version!

Indicator Applet
Like ir or loathe it you'll be pleased to hear that the Indicator-Applet has gained some direction and now works with a greater range of applications in a much more straight forward way.

It currently supports Pidgin, Empathy, Gwibber, Evolution, Xmail, Kmail and Konversation.

Future plans will extend support from applications as diverse as Liferea, Claws Mail and Kmess to Kopete, Sylpheed and Yarsssr.

Easy Installation Of Fonts
It now takes just one click to install a font in Ubuntu.

Up until now it's been a bit more drawn out involving copying fonts to a user created directory and then manually rebuilding the font cache.

font information window with install button

Firefox 3.5.3

Karmic ships with Firefox 3.5.3 as the default browser.

Rhythmbox 12.5
Rhythmbox remains the default music management/player in Ubuntu - and rightly so! It's cleanly designed, lightweight (compared to the competition) and actually works with my iPod!

3 "main" new features over previous versions: -

• Cover Art Search now uses discogs.com and MusicBrainz – replacing Amazon, which stopped working.
• Clicking on the status icon summons Rhythmbox to the current workspace
• Updated Coherence UPnP plugin (Acts as a Mediaserver)
  

Why not install some cool extra plug-ins for it like desktop art, lastfm recommendations and an equalizer? See my post here.

Computer Janitor (AKA The Duster of Doom)
Computer Janitor has received a make over in time for Karmic, but still remains one of the most dangerous applications available to end users.

Computer Janitor will happily uninstall/obliterate/cheerfully declare war any manually installed application (those from .debs) seeing them as "unused" or un-needed.

See: "Computer Janitor too enthusiastic", "Computer Janitor is evil and must be stopped", "Yikes! Clean Up did too good a job! :("‎.

My tip is to edit this from your menu ASAP so you're not tempted to use it.

In the hands of the extra vigilant it's a great tool, but Ubuntu Tweak provides a far superior cleaner that doesn't trash your system.

Software Sources Changes
A great new user-friendly change in Karmic is the support for add-apt-ppa.

Not following?

It simply means you can add a PPA and no longer worry about fetching a key as this is done automatically.

• add-apt-repository ppa:

Or add a PPA to software sources using the new PPA "url's". Note that this method doesn't fetch the GPG Key, but you can use my script to solve that.

• ppa:/ppa

Just The Beginning

Of course this over-view is merely scratching the surface of all of the improvements, refinements and changes present in Ubuntu 9.10; a hell of a lot of work has gone on under the hood, too.

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