I’ve been reviewing various Ubuntu derivatives and this week I thought it would be fun to take a look at the netbook version of Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Netbook Edition used to be called Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but Canonical changed the name once this distro became an official edition of Ubuntu.
What’s New In This Release
Much of the new stuff included in Ubuntu 10.04 is also included the Netbook Edition. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find:
GNOME 2.3
Gwibber Social Media Client
F-Spot replaces GIMP
Ubuntu One music store available in Rhythmbox
Ubuntu One now has bookmark sharing and contacts
Two new themes: Ambiance and Radiance
New wallpaper
Ubuntu Software Center 2.0
Linux Kernel 2.6.32
I’ll cover the interface of Ubuntu Netbook Edition in the Desktop section of the review.
Note that in this release you can switch from the netbook interface to a regular GNOME desktop interface. See the booting and login section for details and screenshots.
As I noted in a prior review, the removal of GIMP may rub some people the wrong way. Not to worry though, it’s still available in the Software Center if you really want it. But the GIMP might be overkill for use on a netbook anyway. I’m not sure how many people would actually want to use it on that kind of computer.
Use Gwibber to connect to social media networks.
Gwibber
The inclusion of the Gwibber social media client gets a big thumbs up from me. You can easily connect to Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StatusNet, FriendFeed, Qaiku, and Identi.ca from Gwibber. The only major service lacking in Gwibber is LinkedIn, which I hope to see added in an update at some point. LinkedIn is an important tool for many people, so it’s worth including in Gwibber.
It takes less than a minute to set up your Twitter and Facebook accounts in Gwibber. You can post updates, view the updates of others and generally stay in touch. Gwibber works as well in Ubuntu Netbook Edition as it does in the desktop version (although it behaves somewhat oddly, see the problems section for details). Once you get used to using it, you’ll wonder how you did without it for so long.
Use the administration tools to manage your netbook.
Ubuntu One
The Ubuntu One music store is bundled with Rhythmbox. But before you can use it, you’ll need to install the necessary MP3 plugins. Not to worry, just pull up Rhythmbox by clicking on the Sound applications menu. Once the application loads you’ll see the “Install MP3 Plugins” button. Click that and you’ll soon be ready to buy music from the Ubuntu One Music Store.
Prices in the store run about $.99 to $1.29 for individual songs. Albums seem to cost about $9.99 to $16.99. For the most part, the pricing seemed about the same as in Apple’s iTunes store. The Ubuntu One Music Store does not let users rate and review music though. Hopefully they’ll add that in a future version of the store since it adds a lot of value for customers.
On the next page I’ll cover the hardware requirements necessary to run this distro, and I’ll show you what the install process looks like.
(5 votes, average: 4.60 out of 5)
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I’ve been using this latest iteration of Ubuntu on my Aspire One for a few days and have to say that it is just so much better and faster than my tired old XP. It has me up and running on the internet within two minutes of pressing the power button. There are none of the unnecessary frills and bloat that I had with XP and I can concentrate on my work instead of staring out the window whilst waiting for the operating system to ‘think’ about my last request for resources!
Given that I have already run Peppermint OS One both live and installed, and that it has some of the components that can be used with “Cloud Computing”, plus it is fast, easy to modify, it seems to me that it has several of the same attributes that this system has, plus a few that it does not, and therefore, combined with the fact that I do not have a netbook system, I’ve reviewed other recent Ubuntu distributions, and I am resisting Jim’s urgent pleas to “distro hop”, I am going to pass on this one.
I have tried a few earlier versions of netbook editions in virtual machine instances, and it definitely sounds like this one has been improved over the first entries into this space, so it would appear that this niche is rapidly maturing, so that seems like a good thing. It would seem that this would be a decent choice for a system of moderate capability, and especially a netbook system, but I would also note that this is becoming a crowded distro segment, and while this may be one of the decent alternatives, it certainly is not the only one, so shoppers would do well to compare a few of them before deciding which one to choose. This one probably deserves to be on the short consideration list though.
It is unfortunate that you did not have a netbook to use for testing. There are some issues unique to netbooks that may not be revealed on a virtual machine. Some instances: some programs have minimal-height screens (particularly in some setup and options screens) that cannot be adjusted to fit the 600- pixel display height and cannot be raised above the top toolbar… this means the bottom of those screens is not available. Some netbooks have unique hardware issues (The acer fan control comes to mind) that are not addressed and are not obvious on other machines. Another issue is the vertical real estate demanded by the top toolbar.
I agree with wally. The Nautilus Preference dialog box does not fit in 600 pixel height of a netbook screen. There are quite a few programs whose dialog boxes don’t fit in the 600 pixel screen height. I believe this is quite an important issue and Ubuntu could probably look into this since this is supposed to be a very specific use OS.
Overall its a very good and innovative interface.
I came. I saw. meh.
@ tlmck:
And BTW, if you already have Ubuntu 10.04, you can save a lot of download time by simply adding this desktop from Synaptic. It is titled Ubuntu-netbook. There is also a Kubuntu variant in there called Kubuntu-netbook.
Another fairly new and interesting netbook distro is Jolicloud. It works great on my MSI netbook and everything worked from the minute it was installed. It has a similar interface as UNR but very pretty and the software installer is amazing. One button…bam! So simple…so easy…so fast. I urge anyone with a netbook to give it a try. You can even download the express version which will load it right into Windows so you can try it out without a full install. Similar to Wubi with Ubuntu. My favorite netbook distro so far.
I’ve been using Ubuntu Netbook Remix since 9.04 ( I think that was the first one ) and I really dislike the 10.04 version.
I will agree, they made some really nice improvements and the boot time is much faster, but for whatever reason they made the desktop environment really different than any other previous versions or the 10.04 desktop version.
It seems more geared towards Linux/Ubuntu newbies and I find it more difficult to do the things I use to do in it since it’s laid out differently. I just don’t understand why not focus on the version improvements being aimed at performance and not how awkward the layout can be made. Even in the desktop version they moved the minimize/close/expand window buttons to the left side, which regardless if Apple does it or not, previous versions of Ubuntu don’t accommodate this behavior so now it’s a new awkwardness. Then the drastic change in the Netbook Remix version….
To me it’d be like a car manufacturer suddenly switching the brake and gas pedals from the right foot to the left foot and reversing their order or moving the steering wheel to the opposite side of the vehicle for the sake of making it “new” or “different”. I guess to some that approach does somehow make sense.
Did you that its Gnome 2.30 and not 2.3? Gnome 2.3 is an old development released many many years ago.
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I have a Asus 1005HA and although I have been using the Windows 7 Starter that came with it. I thought I would duel boot Ubuntu Remix
10 and see how Linux has progressed for the netbook. I must say its the first distro that actually installed without a hitch! WiFi worked, Bluetooth worked. After using it for a while I must say it feels snappier then Windows 7 as far as browser response and opening and closing programs. The updates take a while, but that’s always been the case. I think it is definitely a good option for those that are happy with what you get.
I find it interesting that everywhere that I have read reviews about ubuntu 10.04 in the comments below there is usually at least half a dozen people complaining about it and using switch exit, minimize and maximize button change as there main argument. I adapted to it quite quickly. The problem is that it isn’t so easy if you are using windows and ubuntu. I didn’t realize that until I went back to school and was forced to login to windows to install a program to allow me to use the campuses wireless network.
I want to replace my PC with a netbook using Linux,hooking it up to an external monitor; I only do web research surfing and write documents so would netbook work? If so, what version of Linux is best? Thanks.