Ubuntu Linux Netbook Edition 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)
Sound and Multimedia
YouTube & Flash
You’ll need to install flash from the Software Center to properly view YouTube videos. Just do a search on “flash” and you’ll find the Adobe Flash plugin. While I am not a big fan of flash, it would be nice if it were installed by default.
Over time, it probably won’t matter as much as the Web moves past flash and onto other technologies. But, in the short term, it just makes it easier for users to have it installed by default.
Unlike the desktop version of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Netbook Edition does not include the Pitivi video editor in its bundled software. No worries though, you can find it in the Software Center easily enough.
You'll need to use the Software Center to install flash to play YouTube videos.
DVDs
You won’t be able to play DVDs unless you download the appropriate package from some other software repository. You won’t be able to find it in the Ubuntu Software Center. Canonical does not carry it for obvious legal reasons.
Problems & Headaches
One of the things I loved about Peppermint OS was its tight integration with services like Hulu. Web based applications were available in the Peppermint OS application menus and a Prism based window would launch to load up the application. This made for a nice blend of desktop applications and web-based applications.
Ubuntu Netbook Edition doesn’t do this directly. But you can, in a few cases, find web-based applications with Prism in the Ubuntu Software Center. Google Docs, for example, is available for install in the Software Center. Alas, Gmail wasn’t and neither was Hulu.
I’d really like to see Canonical integrate web applications into all of its iterations of Ubuntu the way that they have been in Peppermint OS. If that’s not possible then I’d at least like to see wider range of Prism-based web applications included in the Software Center, preferable in a way that would install a bunch of them with one click.
One other thing I noticed related to this distro is that the Ubuntu Netbook Edition page still calls it the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. This is potentially confusing to newbies. Somebody at Canonical might want to update that page soon.
Another odd thing was that when Gwibber is running, it floats the same way it does on the desktop version (rather than being blended into Ubuntu Netbook Edition the way that Firefox does when it is running). It’s not a bad thing, and it doesn’t affect how you use the application. But it does stand out from other applications and thus might seem a bit off to some people.
Keep your Ubuntu netbook up to date with Update Manager.
On the last page I’ll show you where to get help and I’ll share my final thoughts about this distro.
(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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