The recent release of Ubuntu’s new operation system, titled “Lucid Lynx” or more professionally titled Ubuntu 10.04, caused enough uproar and hype, that I just couldn’t ignore it any more. The important social features implemented in the operational system just made me curious enough to test the thing out and give it a test drive. I’ve been a Windows user most of my life and I most likely will remain one, since that’s the operational system I’ve grown myself accustomed to. I gave Linux a try a couple of years ago, but I didn’t really enjoy the transition, so when more and more people started talking that the newest versions of Ubuntu are user-friendly in terms of installation I said what the heck. It can’t possibly destroy my computer, right?
That’s why I decided to take on Ubuntu 10.04 like I was a complete amateur in the world of computing and didn’t have the slightest clue about the difference between Firefox and Chrome for instance. This kind of almost childish approach would me the most valid one. To compare my upcoming experience to something, I decided to use Windows 7′s installation process and adjustment, since I more or less have it memorized and know what the deal is. I placed a ground rule of no outside help from others that do use Linux, since that would diminish the OS’s initial credibility. You can install Windows 7 and OS X with just a few simple clicks so if Ubuntu’s developers want to play with the major leaguers then you should expect a few simple clicks here as well.
So what can I say about the installation process? I broke my first and only rule of no help with a two-hour conversation on Skype with someone who is an official Linux user. It’s not as bad as it seems. There was only an issue when choosing the partition on which Ubuntu would be installed. If you’d be installing it on a brand new computer, you wouldn’t have any issues. But if you already have existing partitions, then you’re screwed more or less, since the guidance that I got was one that there was no way you’d think that crap up by your self. It included making two partitions through a supposedly “advanced” installation wizard instead of the regular one but I won’t go into detail. That was the only unpleasant part of the installation and the part where the installation wizard declared that I live in Croatia. Oh, and perhaps this small thing where the installation process ejected my disk tray and greeted me with a DOS-like screen.
After finally exiting the installation wizard I was greeted with pretty much an identical screen that was featured in the Live CD part. Somehow I was urged to download an update patch for drivers. A 104KB large patch after almost a week after its release. I didn’t like that part to be honest. But let’s not nitpick and go on with the more amusing parts. There’s actually a software manager from the Internet and downloading it manually, I was pleased with such a feature. It works similarly like iTunes, there are categories of software and then you search your applications within the application instead of searching with Google. It’s an interesting take on software distribution and one that I’d like to see expanded later on in the future and featured on Microsoft’s and Apple’s operational systems. I mean, if Steam works for games and iTunes works for songs, then why not for overall software? It’s all about direct digital distribution, so I was glad to see such a feature.
Speaking of amusing features, I’ll talk more about the ones that were most hyped for this release. The integration of your IM accounts and other social accounts into the operational system itself, more accurately into the taskbar. No extra applications or anything, it’s all integrated into the OS. Well, that’s a lie. After you insert the main data that you are required applications like Empathy (IM) and Evolution (e-mail) open up. But you can post Tweets and Facebook statuses directly through the taskbar, which is kind of cool, but really primitive. The overall execution with hidden applications in the back and the applications themselves look really poor and kind of unpolished.
This goes for the overall look of the operational system itself. Whilst I was incredibly impressed by the depth of the customization you can do, ranging from custom colors, icons, taskbar customization and overall look of the interface, it still retains that typical open source feeling of unpolished designed. I do believe that with enough effort you can make the overall GUI look more than impressive, hell I’ve seen desktop screenshots that influenced me to customize out my old Windows XP, but the basic setup is simply odd-looking. You’ve got to remind yourself of the fact that these distributions are for free, thus lowering your overall expectation. But that shouldn’t really apply this time, since you have giants like Google that offer their services like Gmail and Picassa for free as well and hit the nail on the head when dealing with the overall look of the graphical interface. Open Office on the other hand looks completely atrocious and horrifying.
These are more or less my initial thoughts on Ubunu that I’ve experienced so far. On a personal note I don’t necessarily feel comfortable on it and the operational system is now in the same position as the overall capabilities of the iPad. If you’re more or less just a consumer of the Internet’s latest features, like social networking (E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Flick’r, Youtube), then you’re set with something like Ubuntu. It provides you with the basics. But anything more advanced and polished is out of it’s way. Of course there are applications that mimic certain other more official productive applications that can found in the Windows and Mac world. I’ll test Ubuntu out for another week or two and fully optimize it on my own, without any external help and then give my final verdict on how it compares to something from Apple or Microsoft.
Lastly, here’s some amusing trivia that I learned during this initial experience. There is no delete in the world of Linux, only kill and destroy. For instance, when I decided to close the Terminal (command prompt for you Windows fanboys out there) I was prompted with this message: “Closing the terminal will kill it.”. After reading that I was like, fuck yeah let’s kill it! The same positive emotion couldn’t be emoted when the warning message that the installation wizard would destroy an existing partition appeared. And when creating partitions the numbers “725″ mean a lot somehow. If you want to create a 30GB large drive, it has to be exactly 30725 MB in size. Finally, here’s an amusing video of me experiencing the advanced capabilities of Ubuntu’s desktop graphical interface. It’s not for the sea-sick, I warn ye!
