Ubuntu 11.10 Brings Unity Improvements, Revamped Software Centre

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
One of the most popular desktop Linux distributions, Ubuntu, received its second major update of the year last week, putting the latest version at 11.10. This marks the second release where the Canonical-developed Unity desktop environment is made default, but unlike the previous release, there is no pre-installed GNOME 2 "classic" environment here.

ubuntu_1110_software_centre_101711.jpg

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!
 

MacMan

Partition Master
Over all, I really like this latest version of Ubuntu. It's different, which makes it all the more intriguing. It's not perfect mind you, but then again I have yet to come across anyone OS that is.

I'm writing this post, of course, using this very version. I like the overall look and feel; it's snappy and certainly a great looking looking OS, but whether or not I would go as far to say that it's faster than Windows, or as pretty as OS X, that I'm not too sure?

I've yet to come across one distro of Linux that simply 'just works' as well as either Windows or OS X, but Ubuntu at least seems to be inching its way there.

I'll probably write about it tomorrow on my own little 'practice' blog, but in the meantime, I nonetheless find that I keep coming back to this version a lot more than I ever did with previous versions of Linux, including Ubuntu.

I suppose the fact that I keep coming back to use it is a sign that Ubuntu is on to something. Now, if only I were a Linux expert like Rob I might actually be prepared to use it as my main OS, but sadly, unlike Windows or OS X, I find that simply trying to get Flash or Google Earth to work properly is a lot more work sometimes than I care to get into.

Of course, to be honest, that might not be the OS's fault, but could always be simply because I'm either too lazy or just plain too damn stupid as well; I really just don't know?
 
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Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
MacMan said:
I like the overall look and feel; it's snappy and certainly a great looking looking OS, but whether or not I would go as far to say that it's faster than Windows, or as pretty as OS X, that I'm not too sure?

In basic operation I think it's faster than Windows in some cases, but the problem is that it tends to take a lot longer than it should to get a particular task done. Navigating those pop-up menus is just not fun for me. I want to set up loads of keyboard shortcuts and things like that... Ubuntu doesn't make it easy.

As for aesthetics, I'd say that Ubuntu is one of the ugliest distros out there, though I understand the reasons they go for earthy non-in-your-face tones. Looks are not everything, of course. Some people might like it... it's just grown old on me.

That said, there is a lot of good here also. The app store is nice, and the search features are top-rate. I still don't like the taskbar here at all, or the fact that it's near-impossible to configure, but it's suitable enough.

I do hope to see more impressive things fall into 12.04. Ubuntu used to impress me quite a bit, but this launch just fell a bit flat for me.

MacMan said:
I find that simply trying to get Flash or Google Earth to work properly is a lot more work sometimes than I care to get into.

Neither of those have been that big of a problem for me per se. For Flash you need to install the Restricted packages that is quite readily talked about, and for Google Earth, that'd just require a good graphics card to be installed. I have Google Earth on my Gentoo laptop with Intel GPU and it works fair enough (as far as an Intel GPU will allow it to, at least).
 

MacMan

Partition Master
I For Flash you need to install the Restricted packages that is quite readily talked about, and for Google Earth, that'd just require a good graphics card to be installed. I have Google Earth on my Gentoo laptop with Intel GPU and it works fair enough (as far as an Intel GPU will allow it to, at least).

Actually, the problem was that things kept crashing. I've got Flash working nicely, but I'm still having trouble installing Google Earth. It keeps saying that the i3 architecture is wrong! Of course, I run Ubuntu under Wubi, so htat might be a problem? I wonder if I can add another Linux distro besides the latest Ubuntu? I really miss both Gnome and KD!

PS: I've since got Google Earth to install and it's working nicely! Not sure what was wrong, but I"m quite happy with the latest Ubuntu so far. Long live Ubuntu!
 
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Glider

Coastermaker
I wonder if I can add another Linux distro besides the latest Ubuntu? I really miss both Gnome and KD!
You can... just install the other DE? Or has Canonical broken even support for the normal OSS things?

Anyway, not even thinking a second about trying it, as it'll probably be broken after 2 minutes
 

OriginalJoeCool

Tech Monkey
I installed Ubuntu 11.10 in Virtualbox and am pretty impressed. As always, the fonts are the best you'll find in any Linux distro. Install was simple. The software center is very convenient.

I noticed a few anomilies. For instance, sometimes the icons window controls don't light up when you hover over them. Not really important; it just bugs me.

Had to enable hardware virtualization in my router, but after that I was able to use 8 virtual CPUs.

For fun, I decided to setup lighttpd in the VM and forward port 80 in my router. Now that's cool!
 
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