Ubuntu 11.04, a probably the world’s most popular version of desktop Linux, has a new version out today and is codenamed Natty Narwal.
I’m downloading/uploading the disk image (iso) of Natty via torrent — there are legal uses for BitTorrent — but I confess that the move of Ubuntu to include more and more proprietary software, its the greater hardware demands and changes to how it manages windows (in the next version) make me question if I’m going to continue with it.
But first today’s download and upgrade — I have more than one Ubuntu computer so it makes more sense to download a version to share than to upgrade each one from a remote server — and we shall see.
Thinking about installing it too but have been holding off for reasons mentioned above. Hoping you share your thoughts after a test run or two.
Scott – if you don’t like the new “Unity” user interface, you can still choose the older Gnome interface. I had to do that on my 7 year old Dell desktop (dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows XP) because Unity didn’t like the older video card in my computer.
Regarding the proprietary software issue on Ubuntu, in some ways it’s an advantage in how easy it is for the end-user to add the non-free software components to one’s computer.
For example, if you want to play “non-free” multimedia content on the internet or want to watch a legally-purchased DVD on your computer, the advice on the Fedora web is to not make those choices and one should choose open formats like Ogg and Theora:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia/DVD
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia/MP3
Using totally free formats may not be a realistic option in that so many folks in the media and in churches use formats like mp3, wmv, flash, etc.
If I’m putting sermon podcast audio on the church web site, it makes more sense to use mp3 audio that can used by Windows users, Mac OS users, and Ubuntu users (after installing the restricted extras package).
The mp3 format would allow about 99% of all computer users to listen to a sermon podcast. This isn’t true for the more “open” but less “universal” Ogg format.
I don’t have any problems with media format, and I support I could make Unity work –once I figure out how to retore Rhythmbox for Banshee in the sound menu. That’s because the Gnome project seems to be heading off a cliff with Gnome 3, and that just won’t do. And if Unity fails, I’ll try a lighter winders manager like OpenBox, though the community is smaller and the support thinner.