12 Nov 2010

Are there 10 reasons to upgrade to 10.10?

Maybe that is too late now to write about this, but anyway...
What can happen at 10:10 on 10.10.10? Of course, it can only be a new release of Linux operation system Ubuntu, version 10.10.
I was happy owner of free CDs sent me by Canonical representative. These were CDs with Ubuntu and Kubuntu 10.04 LTS versions. After some investigations and thoughts, those two systems were installed on my laptop somewhere at the end of September.
And then 10.10.10 came along.


It took me few days to understand that new release was issued, so I was definitely not the first person who made this upgrade. But I did it! My 10.04 Ubuntus were upgraded to 10.10.
Anything good in these new versions? Maybe, but they are not visible from the first glance. The only thing which I noticed is performance. Of course, this is very subjective, but looks like 10.10 works faster on my laptop than it was for 10.04.
Unfortunately, there were some drawbacks. New version has some problems with language bar. Where I only had language indicator (Gbr - Rus) on the taskbar, I now have full toolbar with envelope and flag. I had to to some manipulations to activate those flags. 10.10 "out of the box" is not so good with language bar.
Other than that, everything works fine. I use it for about a month now, and have no major issues.

So, was it a wise step for me to upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10? I think yes. Because:

  1. Any upgrade means new experience. And new experience is never a bad thing.
  2. New version seems little bit faster.
  3. I found a way to see my keyboard sign as a flag, not as a text. Not much useful, but still pretty.


But, as I asked before... Are there 10 reasons to upgrade to 10.10? Probably not. Canonical itself says that most improvements in 10.10 compared to 10.04 are related to netbooks, cloud computing, photo applications and fonts. Are you netbook user? If you're working on 10.04 and happy with it, why worry? Just use whatever fits you better. Don't get into arms race!

If you want to get your own Ubuntu, but have problems with downloading or burning CD, "BUY LINUX CDs" page can help you! Both 10.04 and 10.10 versions are available!

Useful links:
http://itshaman.ru/articles/212/krasivaya-raskladka-klaviatury-v-ubuntu (in Russian: how to get keyboard layout indicator)
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download (download Ubuntu)
http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu (download Kubuntu)

4 comments:

  1. I've switched to Ubuntu 10.10 because of the new Ubuntu font family. I like it very much, it's pretty for my eyes!

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  2. "It took me few days to understand that new release was issued..."
    Look at Ubuntu 11.04 release schedule:
    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NattyReleaseSchedule
    This will prevent you from missing new version of Ubuntu for 5 months. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also noticed Ubuntu 10.10 was faster. Was pretty happy with it, but moving to 11.04.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Anonymous 1:
    I've only used 10.04 for few days before switching. I can't tell whether I am big fan of Ubuntu fonts or not. Nothing to compare with.

    @ Anonymous 2:
    Sure. But sometimes you get too busy with other stuff, just can't notice the important events.

    @ Anonymous 3:
    11.04 not released yet. Let's wait together :-)

    ReplyDelete