Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala - A Guided Tour

[Marlin Guy]

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/10/ubuntu-910-review-karmic.html

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.

I just may take this this one for a serious spin.
I'm not a big fan if Linux, but these releases are getting more and more refined and polished.

A few highlights:


Disk Encryption During Installation
Assisted Migration of Files from Windows
Blazing Fast Startups and Shutdowns
Software Center for Easy Download and Installation of Applications

[Marlin Guy]

I did a quick installation on a spare disk this evening.
I did not see the drive encryption option, but it may be in an advanced menu that I simple blew by during setup.
Full install took about 17 minutes on a relatively old and slow machine.
I only played around with it for about an hour, but first impressions are, well, impressive!

I'll try to do more with it this week and get some screenshots up.

[Marlin Guy]

Spending a little more time in Ubuntu. I should be sleeping. ;)

MP3's required a quick and automated download of some decoders. After that, they played perfectly.
My DivX and XviD encoded videos played flawlessly with no additional downloads needed. Decoders were in the original installation package!

The bars across the top and bottom are called panels. New panels can be added or one can add items to the existing panels.
I've dropped a few icons on the top panel.
Also added Google Desktop and few gadgets.
So far, everything has been just as easy to install in Ubuntu as it is in Windows.

Plug in a USB drive and it's mounted and ready to go automatically in just a few seconds.

Screenshot attached. Note the CPU and RAM usage!

[Marlin Guy]

I decided that the OS was good enough to go ahead an install as a dual boot on my main system.
This way, I won't have to pop the cover and swap the drives when I want to run it.

I had about 140 GB of free space on one drive, so I used about 50 for the Linux install.
Installation went as easily as could be.
The graphical setup allowed me to choose and resize the NTFS partition to my liking, and then setup took care of the rest.
I was even given the option of importing documents and settings from my Windows installation into Ubuntu. I thought that was a really nice touch!

Tonight I played around with playing DVD's.
By default, Ubuntu wouldn't decrypt my DVD, but a quick search on Google and few quick commands took care of it easily enough.
I don't like typing commands for anything, but copying them from a web page and pasting them into the terminal window seemed painless.

Another neat feature was when I plug in my USB drive or insert a DVD, Ubuntu automatically creates a desktop icon for them. Pop them out and they are gone again.

One odd thing I've noticed is that when Ubuntu installs, it mutes the sound device by default.
Easy enough to fix, but interesting to see that the default is "mute".

I already have one teenager interested in trying out Ubuntu on his Dell XPS laptop.
He usually can't go much over six months without getting it loaded down with viruses and malware.
When I spoke with him, he said all he does is surf, download files, and watch porn.
I told him that I thought he'd be the perfect subject for a non-Windows OS. :lol:

[ncxcstud]

I decided that the OS was good enough to go ahead an install as a dual boot on my main system.
This way, I won't have to pop the cover and swap the drives when I want to run it.

I had about 140 GB of free space on one drive, so I used about 50 for the Linux install.
Installation went as easily as could be.
The graphical setup allowed me to choose and resize the NTFS partition to my liking, and then setup took care of the rest.
I was even given the option of importing documents and settings from my Windows installation into Ubuntu. I thought that was a really nice touch!

Tonight I played around with playing DVD's.
By default, Ubuntu wouldn't decrypt my DVD, but a quick search on Google and few quick commands took care of it easily enough.
I don't like typing commands for anything, but copying them from a web page and pasting them into the terminal window seemed painless.

Another neat feature was when I plug in my USB drive or insert a DVD, Ubuntu automatically creates a desktop icon for them. Pop them out and they are gone again.

One odd thing I've noticed is that when Ubuntu installs, it mutes the sound device by default.
Easy enough to fix, but interesting to see that the default is "mute".

I already have one teenager interested in trying out Ubuntu on his Dell XPS laptop.
He usually can't go much over six months without getting it loaded down with viruses and malware.
When I spoke with him, he said all he does is surf, download files, and watch porn.
I told him that I thought he'd be the perfect subject for a non-Windows OS. :lol:

at least he is honest ;)

BTW - you wouldn't happen to have a dual-monitor setup would you? On the Live-CD of Ubuntu, I couldn't get it to not mirror the desktops...but, that's probably because it was just the 'preview' of the OS...

[rudeney]

Has anyone tried running this virtualized yet? I have an older version of Ubuntu on VPC that works quite well (after jumping through dozens of hoops to get it working).

[Marlin Guy]

BTW - you wouldn't happen to have a dual-monitor setup would you? On the Live-CD of Ubuntu, I couldn't get it to not mirror the desktops...but, that's probably because it was just the 'preview' of the OS...

No, Just a single monitor on this one.
A quick search in Google indicates that the matter is addressable.