Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" Is Out

[Osiris]

Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" Is Out

For all you alternative OS folks out there, Ubuntu 9.10 is now out. Grab it if you want it, try it if you haven't. If you are unfamiliar with Ubuntu, I highly recommend you give our 30 days with Linux article a look.

Canonical announced today the upcoming release of Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition, the latest version of the popular Linux desktop distribution. Ubuntu 9.10 will be available for free download on Thursday 29 October. Ubuntu 9.10 brings changes small and large that all have a common purpose - to make Ubuntu the most user-friendly operating system available. Ubuntu 9.10 features a redesigned, faster boot and login experience, a revamped audio framework, and improved 3G broadband connectivity, all of which contribute to a first-class user experience.
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[iFargle]

Downloaded and installed on my MacBook. I must say.. I love the new theme. I had a little trouble getting the Broadcomm STA wireless drivers to work, but I eventually got it figured out.

 

[Peter.Cort]

I heard it runs a noticable amount faster than the previous version with the ext4

 

[KSoD]

I downloaded it to try it out. I will at least boot with the CD once. Not sure if i will go dual boot or not. Love my Win7....

 

[Jayce]

I downloaded it to try it out. I will at least boot with the CD once. Not sure if i will go dual boot or not. Love my Win7....

You can't go wrong with dual booting, my friend. There's no better OS. Only the best tool for the job. Why only have 1 tool in your toolbox??

About Karmic -

I will say I'm quite pleased with this release. I can tell EXT4 has a significant speed improvement. From the time I select the shut down button, I can count to about 3 and a half and bam - my system is off. Very snappy, very responsive. It's definitely a release that'll make slightly older machines breathe in more life.

At the moment I'm having a slight issue with /etc/fstab, though. I always add additional drives to /etc/fstab so I can auto-mount my backup drives to specific directories. I did some quick digging and it's something that was fine during beta and surfaced only after the final release. This is an issue I'm sure will be fixed promptly, but it's been out for less than 24 hours, so I'm staying patient.

Other than that Karmic has some nice new features and some definite speed improvements. The Software Center is definitely refined and a lot snappier to locate certain software. I'm not totally sold on empathy, Karmic's default IM client. I installed Pidgin pretty quickly as a replacement.

But overall, very solid. Like any new OS, this is the crunch time where issues arise and patches are made. If you're too anxious to wait, it's pretty robust to use now. If you're not so sure, give it a week or two.

 

[KSoD]

Yes i know Jayce. But i dont just have 1 tool in my toolbox. Just cause i only have Win7 installed doesnt make it my only tool.

I am still in the air. I cant decide if i want Ubuntu or to try and destroy my system with PCBSD again.

 

[Jayce]

Yes i know Jayce. But i dont just have 1 tool in my toolbox. Just cause i only have Win7 installed doesnt make it my only tool.

I am still in the air. I cant decide if i want Ubuntu or to try and destroy my system with PCBSD again.

I'd dual boot Ubuntu, and virtualize PCBSD. It's easier to recover from system disasters with virtualbox than it is an actual native operating system. Since it sounds like your system went boom once before with PCBSD, maybe that's the better option to take.

 

[oldskool]

I read a review yesterday that stated in it's current state, it can't support multiple drives. Other than that, the review was very good.

 

[Jayce]

I read a review yesterday that stated in it's current state, it can't support multiple drives. Other than that, the review was very good.

Yeah, it was a bug that came out of no where... because the beta was running fine, but the final release backfired with multiple drives in fstab.

It's weird because there are a ton of users out there who have no problems with multiple drives. Out of the couple hundred people in an IRC chat, only a handful (maybe 4?) confirmed they were having the same issues as me.

I found it to be very solid otherwise. Currently I'm back on 9.04... figured I'd wait another 2 weeks to try 9.10 again since running multiple drives is really important to me.

I'm already anxious to see what the next version of Ubuntu will bring, but that's mostly because the next release is an LTS release... woop!

 

[geforce8800]

the official Koala version is fully released now? coz i've been waiting for the official ones so maybe less bug i guess.