Since the launch of Desktop Linux Reviews, I’ve covered a number of different remastered versions of Ubuntu Linux. But I haven’t done a review of Ubuntu itself. I wanted to wait until there was a significant enough release as I’d done a review for ExtremeTech back when I was a full-time employee there.
I’m happy to note that Ubuntu Linux has hit version 9.10 and has some nifty new features that make it worth reviewing here.
Please note that for this review I used Release Candidate 1. I recommend waiting for the final release to come out before you download Ubuntu Linux and install it to your system or before you upgrade any existing Ubuntu Linux computers. The final release should be out soon.
What’s New In This Release
There’s some juicy stuff in this upgrade and here’s some of what you’ll find:
Gnome 2.28
Upstart (Faster Booting)
Empathy IM (Replaces Pidgin)
New Login Manager
Quickly (Easier Application Development)
Ubuntu One (Cloud Based Sharing & Storage)
Linux Kernel 2.6.31
Changes to Power Management
New Intel Video Driver Architecture
Ext4 File System Default
Grub 2 Default
That’s just a sample of the new features in this release. Be sure to check out the full list of new stuff.

Ubuntu 9.10's desktop is clean and clutter-free.





(31 votes, average: 4.10 out of 5)

Regarding the speed of Ubuntu servers, I recently found that an update was coming in at double digit speed. I opened Synaptic>Settings>Repositories, then opened download from>other>Select Best Server. It then tested all 200+ servers and gave me the fastest one, which I then selected. I just finished a Firefox update that came in at my max speed of 366 KB/s. You’re probably all aware of this, but sometimes a reminder useful. I’m still happily using 8.10 and will continue with it until they force my hand by discontinuing support in April. Some months back I did a search for ext4 and found that there were reports of problems with it. That may have been fixed by now. I have to look into it again. And thanks for the review!
Is Wine still supported?
Ubuntu Software Center is not slow at downloading, it’s just that the restricted extras are a somewhat big download, and the servers might be too crowded with people upgrading the system.
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[...] Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (Karmic Koala) – 31 votes [...]