Ubuntu 10.04: A Final Look At What to Expect
The official stable release of Ubuntu 10.04 is only days away. That means we can finally list all of the new features to expect in the next longterm-support version of Ubuntu, without having the developers change them every other day. With that in mind, here’s a look at what to expect when you upgrade to Lucid Lynx on Thursday.
As a word of introduction, I’d like to observe that Ubuntu’s official release dates have always seemed a bit arbitrary to me. They’re set months in advance, and are adhered to regardless of the state of the code itself.
This is to say that although Thursday is the official big day, the date is significant only because we deem it significant. If you’re going to upgrade, you might as well do it today and beat the traffic, since not much will change between now and Thursday (and the damning X memory leak introduced last week has already been fixed. But that’s just my advice.
What’s New
Whether you upgrade today, Thursday or in July, here’s everything (or at least mostly everything–please feel free to politely point out the changes we’ve inevitably missed) new that you can expect on your desktop:
“Social desktop”
One of Ubuntu’s latest and greatest initiatives its endeavor to be “social from the start” by integrating blogging and social-networking clients into the default software stack, and centralizing access to email and instant messaging.
To this end, Ubuntu 10.04 ships with Gwibber and an indicator applet that helps keep track of all of your MyFace/Twitter/Email/etc. messages from one location. It looks like this (before you configure your accounts):
New installer slideshow
As we wrote last fall, a slideshow to accompany the Ubuntu Ubiquity installer was introduced with Karmic. But it’s been revamped, content-wise and aesthetically, for Lucid.
Gnome 2.30
Lucid sports Gnome 2.30, which could theoretically be the last member of the 2.x line to ship with Ubuntu. But only time will tell what the future holds for Gnome 3.0 and Gnome Shell, and whether they’ll be ready in time for Ubuntu 10.10.
I’d bet on not seeing them in Ubuntu next fall, because of all of the debate surrounding them (for a sampling, see this post), combined with the fact that Gnome 3 is not set to become stable till September. But I have been wrong before.
Google search
For reasons that remain inexplicable, Yahoo! was the default search engine in Firefox for much of Lucid’s development cycle. Fortunately, Canonical came to its senses recently and restored Google to that position.
I applaud this decision, since I’ve long been personally embittered by Yahoo!’s abuse of punctuation. More importantly, I’m pretty sure no one uses Yahoo! anymore, besides perhaps some Microsoft employees (plus all of the teenagers on Yahoo! Answers).
Changes to Gnome Games
Ubuntu 10.04 ships with many fewer Gnome games than its predecessors: only Solitaire, Mines, Mahjongg, Soduku and Quadrapassel (or, to use the less politically correct term, “Tetris”) are installed by default, along with a new game, gbrainy.
No more GIMP
To the dismay of many of us, GIMP has been removed from the default software stack. Unless you’re afraid of Mono, you can still use F-Spot for basic image editing, like cropping and redeye removal, but for serious work you’ll need to install GIMP from the repositories.
PiTiVi
The big reason for GIMP’s departure was the introduction of a video editor, PiTiVi, into the default software stack. PiTiVi won’t be of much use for your next feature film, or even a made-for-TV movie, but it is a relatively intuitive and effective editor for home videos and YouTube clips.
Window buttons moved
In a move that has by this point generated more controversy than it logically should have, Canonical–and Mark Shuttleworth in particular–decided to relocate the buttons for closing, minimizing and maximizing windows to the left of the titlebar, i.e.:
Fortunately, this is nothing that a quick modification in gconf won’t solve–although it might have been nicer if a less geeky way to change the button placement had been provided, such as an option in the Appearances utility.
Ubuntu One Music Store
Lucid marks Canonical’s entry into the music business, with a plugin in Rhythmbox (and other media players) enabling users to purchase software using their Ubuntu One accounts.
I haven’t had the time to play with this feature yet in detail, but I will say that I am not encouraged by the grammatical disaster in the fine text that greeted me when I first tried to access the feature in the live environment.
Firefox 3.6.3
Firefox 3.6.3, up from Firefox 3.5, ships with Ubuntu 10.04. Not a whole lot has changed, but you’ll notice that new tabs now open immediately next to the one from which they’re launched, rather than at the end of the lineup.
New theme
Last but certainly not least, Lucid introduces a brand new theme to Ubuntu, which has retired the storied earthtones of its past. In addition to the new color scheme, many icons have been updated, and the selection of wallpapers available in Appearances utility has been expanded (you can still, of course, set any image as wallpaper).
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You could always try Pinta if you don’t like F-Spot.
http://pinta-project.com
Actually 10.04 LTS comes with less wallpapers than 9.10.
10.04 LTS has sixteen wallpapers, 9.10 had nineteen. You’ll notice the selection is reduced even more when you realize six of them are flowers.
“although it might have been nicer if a less geeky way to change the button placement had been provided”
Changing your theme to _any_ other theme than Ambiance or Radiance will automatically put the buttons back on the right again. I’d say that’s a pretty easy and non-geeky way of doing it.
“As a word of introduction, I’d like to observe that Ubuntu’s official release dates have always seemed a bit arbitrary to me. They’re set months in advance, and are adhered to regardless of the state of the code itself.”
And this is, I think, the biggest problem with Ubuntu. The releases don’t occur when the software is done; they just occur on a schedule. Like Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory, the software *must* ship every 6 months, regardless of whether it’s ready for the user or not. No longer will I upgrade on release day. There are far too many bugs and regressions. :/
I think setting a sensible, predictable pace is very nice, and one of the strongest points in *buntu. Anyone looking for maximum stability should always wait a month after the official release of any distribution, and let all the initial fixes flow in before upgrading/installing.
[...] Ubuntu 10.04: A Final Look At What to Expect Last but certainly not least, Lucid introduces a brand new theme to Ubuntu, which has retired the storied earthtones of its past. In addition to the new color scheme, many icons have been updated, and the selection of wallpapers available in Appearances utility has been expanded (you can still, of course, set any image as wallpaper). [...]
Nice rundown of Lucid. I’m not sure that the Xorg memory leak fix has made its way to users’ machines. I still appear to be having trouble in my Intel video-running system.
Steven: glad you liked the list. The bug report says the fix was committed, but I’m not sure if it has been pushed out to users yet.
“Changing your theme to _any_ other theme than Ambiance or Radiance will automatically put the buttons back on the right again.”
I tried this with the RC in a virtual machine, but whatever Lucid theme I chose, the controls stayed on the left. Besides that I was also disappointed that the default Karmic theme is not even available as an option among the themes.
” If you’re going to upgrade, you might as well do it today and beat the traffic, since not much will change between now and Thursday.”
I would like to point out that we are working through some last minute release targeted bugs, which is why we’ve already respun images this week.
Lucid took some getting used to, but after a few days, I’m liking it. I’m very happy they gave back the ability to hover over the volume icon in the notification area to change the volume.
And yeah, most of us will probably install Gimp right away, but how many other tweaks do we make immediately after installing any version of Ubuntu?
The Lucid Xorg fix is definitely in – I checked today, and I have it.
I am not afraid of Mono. I don’t like it and there is a big difference. I do not like it because it has many licenses that are encumbered and you need a legal degree to understand them. Release it under one GPL license and take away the IP infringement threat and then I might use it. Until then it is a poison pill and I won’t use it.
That does not make me fear it. It makes me loathe it.
@ LinuxCanuck
I don’t mind using mono either. But I too don’t like it and really see no future in it as it will always be a step behind Microsoft. I don’t think Linux deserves that. To me Ubuntu is far superior to Microsoft Windows.
@Eli
I would install:
Shutter
Google Chrome browser
mkvtools
handbrake
youtube-dl
gimp (hardly use it though)
avidemux
k3b
devede
k9copy
pyroom (nice for writing with no distractions)
vlc
@Iain Cheyne
I’m not a fan of F-stop either.
Thanks for the Pinta tip.
anyone know about how to get Java up and working on 10.04. I’m not having much luck.
also, after having windows on my machine, alongside with the KOALA, and then upgrading to 10.04.. I can’t access my Microsoft Windows anymore without having to re-install. I know we all don’t WANT to use Microsoft Windows unless we have to, but that’s a bit extreme?
thanx in advance!
mark
From the Ubuntu Software Center, enter the following string “ubuntu rest”. This will provide access to Ubuntu Restricted Extras (mstt fonts, mp3, java, etc.). The install option will NOT be present if the multiverse option in Software Sources is unchecked, default for the 2010-04-22 release candidate.
I installed Lucid on my nieces Acer Aspire One netbook. It’s a bit slow. Certainly at the start up. On machines with limited hardware boot times don’t seem to be improving. Which is sad since the Acers default Linpus boots pretty fast.
My first impressions are that not much has changed. Everything just looked and felt a bit more polished. More solid. Even when the system showed some text at boot up and shutdown. It didn’t have the special flaky feel. The screen wasn’t messed up and the text didn’t disappear of the edge of the screen. It looked like it was just doing what it’s supposed to do.
I didn’t have much time to check out the applications. Teenagers are so impatient.