Conclusion
There is no question about it: 9.10 is an ambitious release for Ubuntu. There are more new features and changes to previous defaults than any other previous version. With the tight integration of Ubuntu One, Tomboy Notes, Evolution, and Empathy, along with the new theming elements, one can begin to see Ubuntu becoming its own animal and not just another slight variation of Linux with GNOME. I'll give Canonical a ten for design, but I have to give it a zero for execution. If 8.10 was a fail, 9.10 is an epic one.
Four days and several handfuls of my own hair later, my systems were finally running the greatest Ubuntu to ever hit the wires. Unfortunately, I'm referring to version 9.04, and it's the exact setup I began with. The importance of a smooth release cannot be understated. This holds true especially with Linux distributions. When it comes to free software, there is no monetary commitment. However, a commitment still exists. I spent four days preparing for, installing, and subsequently un-installing Karmic, then re-installing Jaunty. If I wasn't a tech reviewer, I would have spent my weekend installing an unusable OS, gone a full week without a working system, then spent the following weekend getting back to where I started. For the average person with a regular job, that is a significant time commitment, and a week without a PC is unacceptable.
Whenever a Linux distribution gains a large following and begins to see mainstream attention, it can no longer afford to have a marred product launch. Canonical, by launching a new version of Ubuntu every six months, has made the risk of a failed launch even more fatal. Most users who have a bad experience with 9.10 will most likely not try it again, even if many of the issues are eventually resolved. At this point, why not just wait for the next version to come out in six months? Therefore, individual versions typically do not get an opportunity to redeem themselves. Needless to say, this assumes that the average user will want to try again at all. This effect can be devastating to novice users or those with little or no Linux experience. And with an estimated market share of about 1%, that's basically everyone.
The previous October release of Ubuntu, version 8.10 “Intrepid Ibex” also had a problematic launch, plagued by poorer performance and more bugs than its predecessor, 8.04 “Hardy Heron.” The release directly after Intrepid, 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope,” had a flawless release and is still what I consider the best OS for my money. But 9.04 was met with minimal fanfare. Why? Much of momentum from 8.04 “Hardy Heron,” another successful launch, was lost because Intrepid was such a letdown.
Compounding the letdown was the uncharacteristic amount of confidence from Canonical. The release schedule for Karmic was incredibly ambitious. There was only one beta and only one release candidate, the former just one month out from the final, the latter only one week. Though this is not a departure from previous release schedules, consider the unprecedented amount of changes that were set to occur in 9.10 and you really have to question the reasons for such confidence. Canonical should have heeded the advice of the great Han Solo: “don't get cocky.”
The press also shares some of the blame for this. Much of the hype surrounding 9.10 was a recurrence of the too-early pro-Vista coverage that clearly jumped the gun. Betas and release candidates are not final products, and reviewing an OS in a virtual machine doesn't count. Don't we all know what happens when we ass-u-me?
The fact is that Linux has been around for well over a decade, and this is not the first time that mainstream adoption appeared to be a real possibility. Mandriva (then Mandrake), Red Hat, and SuSE all used to be available in a retail box at Best Buy in the late nineties. Mandriva has since plummeted in popularity and the other two never really made it out of the enterprise sector.
Another troubling trend with Ubuntu 9.10 is the move to Ubuntu-only apps and services. Ubuntu One is great; I honestly don't know how I got through life without a backup/sync service. But a Mac, Windows, or at least a general Linux client would make it a better option. Most people who use Ubuntu do not use it exclusively, making Ubuntu One a niche service. In my opinion, Empathy is another bad call. Though I do like the fact that it replaces two apps (Pidgin and Ekiga), people were happy with Pidgin. Empathy may be a better app, but this is a situation where “if isn't broke, don't fix it.” Pidgin did the job, it's available on all three major platforms, and people liked it. I'm not saying that Empathy isn't the way to go in the future, but I feel that it's a few releases premature. It's perfectly alright for distributions like Fedora and openSuSE to play fast and loose with new features--those distros aren't much more than testbeds for their retail counterparts (Red Hat and SuSE, respectively). Ubuntu, on the other hand, is trying to be the user-friendly desktop operating system for everyone from little Timmy to Grandma. Perhaps restraint when it comes to new features is more important than getting the latest technology included by default.
All of this negativity aside, this is a review of Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” and not all of Ubuntu. Tom's Hardware still recommends Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” as our free OS of choice, and you can still grab a copy here. Hopefully, Canonical can learn from its mistakes and make version 10.04 “Lucid Lynx” succeed in the areas that Karmic failed (namely, execution). It's a shame, because the material to make the greatest desktop Linux OS is here in Karmic. But the crippling bugs and poor launch mar the entire product. Interestingly, there are reports that the KDE variant of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, managed to avoid all of these pitfalls and became a hit in those circles. Better luck next time.
After reading all of your words from start to the end of the speed tests I sat back sipping my nice coffee I thought about your findings to draw my own conclusion based on your results. Our conclusions were united. Well done excellent test even better documentation and fantastic conclusion. I only hope that the people who designed Ubuntu 9.1 read your review and if they do in a positive light in so far as they can see the real world problems and fix them soon (ha ha) {wishful thinking} in release 9.11. Thank you for saving me hard work and time as I will hold my upgrade this time... Cheers for a job well done!!!!
I wanted a dev area, and thought I'd get a fresh of (K)Ubuntu, which I've used occasionally in the past (I think 7.10 was my last), so downloaded Kubuntu 9.10 x64, excited to see what had progressed.
Upon installing (after trying several isos/CDs), on every boot it freezes after 10 seconds, with visual artifacts, requiring a hard reboot. Downloaded vanilla Ubuntu, and it does the same, even after multiple re-installs and both ext3 and 4 filesystems. Few days searching for the answer, to no avail. Tried the same with 9.04, and the CD froze while installing, with similar artifacts. Then gave up.
I don't see how anyone could rely on these releases. If I didn't have a Windows install to boot to and Google for fixes, I wouldn't have anything. I'm willing to accept it could be a problem with my machine, but it's not exactly new and fancy (Q6600, nVidia7800GT), and it runs Windows and games fine.
I can't see how Ubuntu/Canonical conceives to market this to the layman computer user in the same vein as Windows/MacOS, when fairly experienced users can't even get it working.
All-in-all, very disappointed.
I simply adore Ubuntu. It's such a lovely operating system to use and it's free! I use Windows 7 every day and when I get a chance to use ubuntu it feels so free and different, I wonder why I use Windows.
I'm glad that I didn't read this article last month . . . thorough though it is
When I added a fresh install of Karma 9.10 x32 on my Linux box at the end of October (old Fujitsu/Intel P4, 1gb = not too dissimilar to your 32-bit Desktop Test System #1) it took first time and has worked perfectly since then
Same with NBR on my wife's EEE900 - found the Netgear wireless box straight away and, as remarked, much prettier interface . . . only the intermittent request from the Network Manager for the password for the default keyring annoys
I must have been very lucky with both of these distros working first time in light of Adam's tribulations
I have just spent 36 hours with a Vista Home reinstall from a recovery partition (502,252 files, 27gb (includes bloatware)) so the ½ hour (max.) that I spent on each Ubuntu install seems so much more worthwhile
As I typed this, I have performed my weekly install on the Ubuntu desktop and netbook ... done and dusted in 10 minutes !
This release seems to have been very hit and miss. I haven't updated any of my machines yet. This is due in part to flash problems I had when upgrading to 9.04. These were subsequently fixed but put me off immediately upgrading to 9.10.
A friend of mine upgraded his (perfectly good) 9.04 to 9.10. Sound stopped working so he decided upon a fresh install. Now GRUB2 doesn't recognise Windows 7. As he said himself, "you spend time raving about Ubuntu to anyone who will listen and then this happens".
Personally, I installed this on my mums notebook and it was a chore. I tried 9.10 first and it just kept hanging during the install. After trying numerous versions that wouldn't work, I found 8.04 did. Then curiosity got the better of me and I upgraded to 9.10 and it worked fine. Stupid. I'd tried ext3 and ext4 and every other install variation of each Ubuntu variation and none worked 'til this method.
And the Ubuntu Software Center is sloooooowwwww. I thought it was just my connection but apparently not. I WILL be avoiding this upgrade for the moment. All does not look well.
Well...
Use Ubuntu 9.10 at work and Kubuntu 8.04 at home... 9.10 is better with Gnome in my opinion although KDE4 is sort of working as well... I absolutely hate Empathy client and although I consider Pidgin still being worse than Kopete at least I can use it in a way that I am comfortable with. Evolution is probably the slowest email client I have ever seen... and even Thunderbird is faster and more "streamlined" than that. I hate the notification system - you cannot position it, you cannot close it, you cannot click it... useless and annoying. Ubuntu One - does not work well with proxies is slow and I cannot always log into it. Gave up few days after a release so perhaps I should try again... Eclipse from the repository is buggy (always was - but the 64bit rewrite is much less stable than 32bit PDT edition). Ubuntu Software Centre - useless... you can search for stuff using Synaptic... or just google it and "sudo aptitude install" - so, not really for me... The new login system is weird - have two screens and with every reboot - Ubuntu chooses the screen it will show the login window on... randomly! Had issues with X configuration on installation as well... (fresh install, typical Dell Precision 390 with Quadra gfx). Another issue (probably my fault as I am used to KDE) - network manager chooses auto ETH config over the one I have entered... Unfortunately I need both but cannot specify "preferred" network... Considering enterprise firewall and proxy on the dev box - editing the /etc/network/interfaces is not always the best solution for me... and I quickly gave up when I had to configure the proxy in 7 different places... System/network, 3 browsers, svn config, apt config, shell, etc... Finally... But that's definitely me... How on earth do I span the bloody taskbar across two screens? KDE does not have issues with it... Gnome - well... I am new to it... and didn't have time to google it yet...
Bottom line - using Ubuntu 9.10 at work for a week - it's OK. but I would not recommend it... Kubuntu 8.04LTS / Windows 7 at home - Am happy and not planning an upgrade anytime soon... Perhaps to another LTS or when they iron out the obvious issues with 9.10... To be honest... After I have installed Kubuntu 9.10 - I felt like I was using a mac... completely different experience and not a positive one! I completely agree with the author - a lot of new features... but most of them simply don't work or have been "forced to be fixed" - if something works - do not fix it!
Just my opinion on the above - over 6 PCs with 9.10 I have seen - 4 had no issues with the installation - that indicates 9.10 should still be in RC1 state...
I like the article though... pitty author did not include other platforms and 8.04 in the benchmarks.
After reading all of your words from start to the end of the speed tests I sat back sipping my nice coffee I thought about your findings to draw my own conclusion based on your results. Our conclusions were united. Well done excellent test even better documentation and fantastic conclusion. I only hope that the people who designed Ubuntu 9.1 read your review and if they do in a positive light in so far as they can see the real world problems and fix them soon (ha ha) {wishful thinking} in release 9.11. Thank you for saving me hard work and time as I will hold my upgrade this time... Cheers for a job well done!!!!
Dude, it's a date. Next one will be 10.04.
Hmmm... looks like my current mod might have to have 9.04 until we see what becomes of 10.04. Good review, very descriptive.
The problem with the app installer seems to be that the download stalls and does not recover. Time and time again I'm having to cancel the install and start it again to get it to start downloading again. Thankfully it starts from where it left off each time at least. This seriously needs fixing.
Other than that I'm finding 9.10 a joy to use. I've traditionally been a Mandriva user. They tend to release new versions around the same time and I always compare. This time I finally ditched Mandriva (they just stubbornly do not fix the same old issues that their users report e.g. with rpmdrake)
I tried 9.10 out for a while on a spare hard drive. Can't remember if it was x32 or x64. Must have been x32 since it installed and worked without a glitch. I must say I like the look of it and I liked the simplified approach to installing nvidia drivers. I also had those problems with the slow software centre. I much prefer add/remove. I do think that Ubuntu is definately getting there in terms of being usable to any average user. WiFi also worked out of the box. I'm currently using Fedora 12 as my main OS but I'd recommend Ubuntu 9.04 to any friend who want's to get a start in Linux because I think it's more suited for mainstream users. There's nothing with Ubuntu that would pry me away from Fedora (except perhaps Ubuntu one if I start using multiple machines).
Upgrading to 9.10 made my wireless and mobile network cards work out of the box, they didn't in 9.04, in fact, it was tedious. I didn't have the time, so the few bugs in 9.10 haven't yet bothered me since I can actually access the internet without a cable on Ubuntu for the first time in 3 years!
Oh yeah, and "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" is a really convinient phrase, but it's also a load of crap. There were better reasons that you mentioned as to why they shouldn't have changed the default IM client.
it was ok but not my cup of tea
Basically what you are seeing here is the debt that Ubuntu owes Debian. Jaunty was good because all the Debian Sid/testing development froze in late 2008 while they prepped Lenny. Since Ubuntu just copy the sid/testing repos they were forced to use slightly older versions of most software, which they had more time to debug.
Ubunbtu should not be a "cutting edge" distro a la Sidux or Arch. If they want to succeed they need to realise that their target user doesn't care what libc is installed or that the ati driver has kernal mode setting. They just need it to work.
While there have been a few small teething troubles, I can't say I've had the same problems at all. No serious problems with hardware, a 64-bit install that runs fine on all three machines I use, and in VMs, and on an 8-core Xeon server at work with an odd RAID setup.
The worst things? Some nasty high-pitched distortion on my audio when using 5.1 (which you couldn't select easily in Jaunty, so that's an improvement); but there's a workaround for it that gets it working just fine. And the change to "icons on menus" config mentioned in the review affects all GTK applications which can be a bit confusing until you flip it back. I configured it to use my ISPs local mirror of the repositories and haven't noticed any real slowness installing apps - I do tend to use Synaptic or apt-get though, I never really used Add/Remove Programs.
Did the reviewer memcheck all his systems? The only time I've had any trouble with basic stability of Ubuntu (and Windows) is when I've had faulty RAM.
Why does the release have to be every 6 months? What is wrong with a yearly release? - without stupid names.
I use ubuntu as my main OS, the removal of VMware support ws not good, but in general the system is good and works better than 9.04.
I have installed 9.10 inside my windows xp version and find it working fine. I do not have any problems with connecting to net or doing other work.
Ravi
I know this may not be the place, but is there any chance of you doing a guide on how to attach more then one graphics card to a Ubuntu system? It would be really handy as I have a 3 monitor setup on two cards and can never use the 3rd which Windows makes so easy.
Holy mother... ;-) Quite frankly, I'm not sure I can comprehend what went wrong in the reviewers attempts to install/use Ubuntu's latest&greatest... Currently running the standard 9.10 and the 'Studio' - flavour on a total of 5 systems: Turion 64 Laptop, C2D Laptop, an Athlon 64 (Clawhammer) Desktop, a dual-core Athlon 64 (7750) Desktop and finally the Netbook Remix on an EEEPC 1000. All 64 Bit except the Netbook obviously. Not a single glitch across all those systems. Flawless install, all HW recognized and no stability issues so far (generic as well as RT kernel)... True, some of the cosmetic elements (such as the notification pop-ups) could have been done better, and yes, downloads via the new Software Center are horrendously slow, but Synaptic is still there and works exactly the same way as it did before. Bottom line: responsiveness of the PC's is definitely improved compared to the previous releases I used (8.04 Studio and 9.04) and particularly 9.10 Studio is - at least on my systems - a lot more stable and Jack much less prone to drown in x-runs under heavy load... Just my 2 cents ;-)