Brief Review of Ubuntu 9.04

Jaunty Jackalope is out! Here is a brief (i.e. neurotic and in list form) review of Ubuntu 9.04.

Remember that I’m comparing 9.04 with Linux Mint 5, which is compatible with Ubuntu 8.04. I’m only listing features that I deem important. Also realize that I’m writing this from the LiveCD; I have not actually installed the system. If you don’t like curse words, go away. I don’t want your kind here. I’m on coffee overdose, don’t mess with me. ;)

Upstream improvements from GNOME:
- Totem can download Subtitles for movies. That’s totally legal, right?
- PulseAudio probably still sucks (go back to OSS! It’s GPL again!). But now it has per-application volume control. That’s kinda cool in a “why would I use that?” way.
- Monitors/projectors are easier to set up, apparently.
- Yeah, that’s about it.

Ubuntu’s new features:
- includes OpenOffice 3.0. Thank GOD.
- includes Firefox 3.0, GIMP 2.6.6
- support for ext4 file system
- And again, that’s about it.

Some notes…

The Good:
- TONS faster. TONS. Props to everyone involved in making this possible.
- Really good themes included with the distro, my favorite being “Dust” (minus the poo-poo-brown selection color).
- Subpixel smoothing is default on my laptop! Hooray! No ugly font!
- Great-looking login screen.
- BEAUTIFUL notification system. When connecting to a wireless network or ejecting a USB, instead of an ugly text bubble, you see a sexy, semi-transparent notification which is on-par with OS X.
- Shutdown/Logout moved to upper-right. I’m not sure how much I like this move. What I do like is that upon clicking “Shut Down”, the machine will automatically power off after 60 seconds.

The Bad:
- Does not come with a graphical FTP client.
- The space on the laptop’s touchpad dedicated to scrolling (in Synaptics driver) is way too small. I literally have to smash my finger against the edge to scroll. Maybe my touchpad is too small?
- Scrolling on the Desktop switches workspaces. I believe this was also in Hardy Heron. I would rather not have that functionality.
- I thought that GIMP had fixed the “OMG THREE APP WINDOWS!” problem… or was that just wishful thinking?
- Firefox does not know the words “movie” or “Firefox”

The Ugly:
- The default Ubuntu theme. Including all TWO wallpapers included with the distribution. They were on track to matching Fedora’s art with Hardy Heron’s wallpaper, but NOOOO, they had to go for ugly. Can’t you get rid of the trivial games and put some decent artwork in the distro?
- Totem. Why THE FUCK are we still using that abomination?

Conclusion:
I was really excited for this release and was looking to replace Linux Mint 5 on my computer with the latest-greatest software, but Ubuntu failed to meet my expectations. There was nothing ground-breaking or mind-boggling about it. I like the snappiness that this edition brings, but the better speed and subtle interface improvements can wait until I try Linux Mint 7, which by its roadmap, looks like it’s going to be a great release. Though I’ll probably still stick to my LTS release if it doesn’t turn out to be all that great.