Ubuntu 9.10 'Karmic Koala' released, could decide your OS fate

It's October 2009 which means something very special for Linux fans: a 9.10 release of Ubuntu. Today we see the launch of "Karmic Koala" featuring a faster graphical boot sequence (no more scary text scrolls), a revamped audio framework that improves sound control across multiple applications, and a new Software Center that visually simplifies the Add/Remove Applications tool. These are just a few of the user-centric improvements meant to have a "transformative effect" on the OS experience and help bring "the world of open source closer to the user." It's available in desktop, server, and netbook editions now so get to it, before you know it you'll be updating to Lucid Lynx.

[kibbledbits Posted Oct 29th 2009 4:15PM]

Ubuntu is great, I really love it. It was smart of them to release this shortly after Windows 7, Microsoft's numbers will hurt because of this.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 29th 2009 7:26PM]

Canonical didn't coordinate this release with Win7. They do major releases of new versions the same times every year: the end of April, and the end of October.

I debated making this a snarky post, but nah, everybody starts somewhere, right?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 29th 2009 4:40PM]

Just a reminder that free is not always the best. Linux market share is still below 1%. Look at Snow Leopard. It is the best operating system on the planet, and I'm sure others would agree.

[Aaronage Posted Oct 29th 2009 4:58PM]

I don't :P

I use Ubuntu, Win 7 and OS X Snow, all fantastic operating systems. I find OS X too controlled though, the whole experience is locked down to how Apple wants you to work, frustrating :)

[lejupp Posted Jan 12th 2010 11:53AM]

Is this now a legal requirement in the US? Do you have to rave about any apple product before you are allowed to express some mild criticism?

[incognito Posted Oct 29th 2009 6:47PM]

I, for one, do not agree. Now iRun from here before more patient commentators crush you to the ground.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 29th 2009 5:04PM]

Installing a fresh copy of Kubuntu 9.10 when I get off work.

Honestly, I don't care if Linux has a 1% share of the market. I've enjoyed Linux since the first Slackware launch, and Ubuntu/Kubuntu's been the best desktop distro I've seen yet. I have preferred Linux to Windows for a very long time, and honestly... Macs, while impressive in their own right, are prohibitively expensive for me. I'll stick with an OS I'm familiar with, enjoy, and suits my purposes completely, thank-you very much.

Once upon a time, Linux was strictly an OS for someone who enjoyed tweaking and manipulating the OS at a very low-level. Fortunately, many distros now cater more to the people who either don't know how to, or (like myself) don't have the time to.

[Ioannis Posted Oct 29th 2009 5:08PM]

Loving Karmic Koala. Try 'Gnome Do' (not specific to Karmic, just loving it and I think it's a must have, surprised it's not installed by default)

http://do.davebsd.com/download.shtml

it's in the repos, so just do the following for a quick install.
sudo apt-get install gnome-do

[demon Posted Oct 29th 2009 5:48PM]

I've been running 9.10 on my recently-acquired HP Mini 311 for about a week and a half now. I'm personally quite happy with it. I'm sure that with the release of Windows 7, the Linux side won't be seeing immediate converts, but if you want to try Linux, or are already using it, this is an excellent release.

[trinh Posted Oct 29th 2009 7:51PM]

i want that picture or wallpaper

[ndrwme Posted Oct 29th 2009 8:11PM]

Woot been waiting all my life for this fateful day!

[mgrochowalski Posted Oct 29th 2009 10:58PM]

I did a dist-upgrade to the RC, and it failed. Something with kde oops and some other packages. It is the new version now, but I had to reinstall mySQL. It also freezes (X at least) after resuming from standby and gives me a message about the failure of the kernel sound driver after every boot. Using the Intel ICH9 chipset with integrated graphics and sound.
Although I was having problems with X locking up before I upgraded as well. Might have to do a clean install.

[keithwwalker Posted Oct 29th 2009 11:58PM]

ha ha all youse snow leopard and win7 suckas! Free OS, its almost better than free gov't cheese!
and guess what? Stewie loves it too
http://www.ubuntu.com/files/masthead/910/tour/ubuntu-910-music-videos.jpg

[CpEWahoo Posted Oct 30th 2009 1:39AM]

I love it so far! I got rid of XP and Jolicloud on my EEE PC 900A, and it runs so smoothly. I was having problems with Firefox on XP being incredibly slow and freezing up, but on Ubuntu, everything runs fine with no slowdowns. I'm VERY happy with it so far!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 30th 2009 5:02AM]

Just gave ubuntu a spin for the first time... the "install inside windows" option is freaking brilliant, no partitiions to set up, no fiddling around with the BIOS, just click the button and dual-boot gets set right up.

I like the package manager that installs programs, brilliant idea to have a universal automatic updater for all programs.

I didn't have any problems with codecs, just got to click "ok" on the dialog boxes whenever they bug you and it's sorted. My 1080p files play much better on there than they do with either WMP, VLC or KMP.

Deal-breaker was some of my hardware not being supported. There was a custom solution that involved compiling my own drivers using custom .conf files... couldn't get it to work properly even after following the complicated 12-step process.. then I gave up.

Sorry Linux, but if someone like me (who knows how to code) ends up staring blankly at lines of cryptic ~#sudo gnu conf .xorg~ gibberish then there's no way in hell mass-adoption is going to happen. Ubuntu does not make the command line unnecessary... when something goes wrong or doesn't work, all the fixes generally involve some incredibly complicated CLI hackery.

Command-line solution = fail, the terminology is arcane and obscure. I have no doubts that it's great if you've got a few hours to spare with your nose in a MAN file every day but I really can't be assed.

I'll keep the install on there for movie playback, it's the only thing I can get working on there with a noticeable superiority to windows. For everything else, it's back to vista. The development is coming along nicely though, at this point it's not really the operating system that needs work.. it's the hardware and software support to go with it that does.

[scape Posted Oct 30th 2009 9:36AM]

i'd like to see linux slamdunk cross-hardware compatibility; my cellphon, gps, media player all should see my laptop no problem, automatically on a 'linux' network, maybe call it 'linx'. that'd really set things straight i think

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 30th 2009 5:31PM]

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic is LOUSY compared to prior releases!
I've run Ubuntu for years and 9.10 Karmic is the worst release yet!
Firefox has serious issues rendering web pages. Missing features and GNOME has been having serious issues too.
I have had so many crashes with 9.10 Karmic Windows 7 is starting to look good!
I run Ubuntu 9.04 and Debian Testing (Squeeze) on separate partitions and they run fine.
BTW. I built my puter specifically to run Linux so I know my hardware is Linux compatible so it isn't a hardware issue.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 30th 2009 7:10PM]

Have been using it for the last 2 years - Great piece of OS, I d say.. Fantastic..

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 1st 2009 1:47AM]

I've used Ubuntu Linux for the past three versions. Microsoft will not see another dine out of me.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 8th 2009 9:16AM]

I'm working with 9.10 and it is a vast improvement over the previous release.

Personal favourites
Dragon Player which easily detects and offers to install missing video codecs.
Pulse Audio which allows for rich sound management.
Dolphin file manager combined with Gwenview for photo viewing.

However, ibus and or scim for foreign input languages is broken again and needs to be fixed.

[BigDogJunction Posted Nov 10th 2009 3:36AM]

Count me in as one of those that made the switch. I was a die-hard Windows user for years. I loved Windows 7. But, I grew tired of throwing down money constantly to upgrade. I did some reading on Ubuntu and finally took the plunge. Full install, with some add-ons I've thrown in there... 3.4 GB total disc space used.

I won't ever look back either. Runs like a dream.