KARMIC KOALA - THE BREAKTHROUGH RELEASE

Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala is the best, snappiest and slickest desktop Linux to date. It is easier to install, boots faster and steps up to the plate of automatically detecting and configuring hardware and peripherals. It is faster and more efficient in its use of resources, allowing you to have more and larger files and applications open at the same time without impacting performance, thus raising the bar significantly in terms of stability, flexibility and power. Pretty much everything just works and installation and configuration tasks can be accomplished simply and quickly for the most part using intuitive GUI tools.

INSTALLATION AND BOOT

The installer presents a cleaned up interface which requires the usual simple choices - language, keyboard layout (use F3 if your keyboard does not match your language preference) and timezone.
The partitioner has been given a face-lift and, as usual, offers automatic or manual partitioning options. In my case, it was necessary to delete two partitions to create free space on the drive alongside a previous OS install and an already existing swap partition. (The release notes point out that the latter needs to be larger than the size of your installed memory if suspend and hibernate are to work.) I created a primary root partition '/' formatted with the new ext4 filesystem and left the new GRUB 2 bootloader to install to the MBR. The installer asks for a user account and password. It also offers the chance to import settings from an already existing partition and the choice between booting to a login screen or logging in automatically. On first boot, GRUB had correctly detected and made available both installed OSs.

THE GOOD

From boot screen to a fully functional desktop with working wireless takes about 50 secs on this Core Duo laptop (1.83GHz, 2GB RAM). The default install is smooth and snappy with a clean and elegant design, as long as you are prepared to be charitable about the orange to chocolate brown tones.


Built-in wireless (Agere Systems) works out of the box. Network Manager simply connected to my wireless router on first boot and Firefox went directly on-line. The principal Fn + key combinations including fan, brightness, mute, suspend, (but not wireless on / off) work without requiring configuration. Printer installation presented a glitch as, for some reason, the CUPS printing server was not running by default and it was necessary to run
sudo service cups start
in a terminal and reboot. Following this, however, my HP PSC 1510 was automatically detected and configured for both printing and scanning. Graphics work smoothly out of the box. For my card (ATI X1400), direct rendering is provided by the bundled Radeon driver using AIGLX. No Xorg.conf file is present, another symptom of the enormous progress Ubuntu has made in the area of automatic configuration of devices and peripherals. Karmic Koala relegates the terminal and conf files a long way into the background, where they remain available for power-users and die-hards. Many of the menus and applets too have been redesigned with a tendency to prefer simplicity over providing multiple configuration options.

APPLICATIONS AND CODECS

The heavyweight applications are more sprightly than before - OpenOffice takes up to 5 seconds to open on a cold start, Firefox about 3 but both will open in a second or less if you have used them already in a session. Applications have been retouched or have had new features added: porn-mode, aka private browsing, stands out as a must-have feature in Firefox 3.5. The applications line-up includes the usual suspects: Gimp, Brasero, Evolution and Rhythmbox, with Pidgin replaced by Empathy. I am not sure why Transmission is included as the default Bittorrent client rather than the more fully featured Deluge. One of the areas where Ubuntu has made most progress is that of installing codecs, which is now as simple as checking the restricted extras package in Synaptic. This enables playback of flash, mp3 and other closed formats like Quick Time, so youTube, BBC and even Apple Trailers all work properly.


This is down to the new Gecko plug-in which replaces the old Mplayer plug-in. The only glitch I found was with some of the older BBC stuff: .ram files work in the standalone player but not embedded in Firefox. DVD playback needs to be enabled separately by copying and pasting the single command.
sudo aptitude install libdvdcss2
Install VLC from Synaptic to wrap up playback issues. Ubuntu no longer comes with a CD ripper by default but again it is easy to install Sound Juicer from Synaptic.

THE BAD

Although sound works across all applications, sound recording, on my built-in Intel HDA 82801G does not. While admittedly the card in question is a clapped-out mass market effort and partly broken under W*nd*ws too, this is still a serious bug, requiring the use of a USB card or similar for voice recording. Card reader and USB drives work out of the box as does my NOKIA 5800 Xpress Music via Bluetooth. Unfortunately, the known bug where copying large files to USB keys or drives results in excruciatingly slow transfer rates is still present, (8 mins 15 secs for a 1GB file transfer). This seems to be a Linux kernel issue.

THE UGLY

Over the last few releases, the Ubuntu browns have gone from milky coffee through various shades of mud all the way to dark chocolate, and some truly awful wallpapers (that scraggy chicken thing with the coloured streamers hanging out of it) have come and gone. Karmic Koala comes with a tasteful new set of icons and controls and with Compiz installed by default. The easy way to set up the 3D Desktop is by simply installing compiz-config-settings-manager from Synaptic and using it to configure effects and animations. The bundled version provides desktop cylinder and sphere as well as desktop cube options. Themes are available at Compiz Themes. Install Emerald from Synaptic and in CompizConfigSettingsManager -> Window Decoration, replace the default decorator command with
/usr/bin/emerald --replace
The brave can add the finishing touch by installing cairo-dock. Cairo is prettier and more versatile than Awn but it is definitely quirky. Instructions at Cairo-dock how-to.

THE VERDICT

Ubuntu has come a long way in a few years and pulls together diverse strands of rapid progress in the wider Linux ecosystem. This is a breakthrough release presenting a new optimised kernel, an improved filesystem, solid progress in hardware compatibility and a better user interface as well as improvements in codec and plug-in installation and performance. It is a major step forward in terms of ease of use, performance and versatility. Karmic Koala does the litle things right, like defaulting to a USB soundcard if one is plugged in. At the same time, Synaptic opens the doors to an unbelievably rich, virus-and-malware-free software ecosystem without the DRM and licensing shackles of its proprietary competitors.
Kudos on this milestone and thanks to Linux developers everywhere and in particular to the Ubuntu team.