Ubuntu Jaunty Review

I recently have been trying out the new ubuntu 9.04 beta. Normally, I have waited until the actual release to install the newest version of ubuntu, but in this case, I decided to go ahead and update early because I really wanted to try out the new notifications system and ext4 in Jaunty, and I had broken the networking in my current 8.10 install.

Install:

The install was easy enough.  The main difference that I noticed while installing the Ubuntu Jaunty was the change in the startup bar.  It has become a bit thinner and sleeker looking.

The install process is very much the same as it was in intrepid (see the screenshot tour of the install in part 2 of this review for more information).

New Desktop:

After the install, I rebooted the machine, and was quite pleased by the startup speed (they have made some definite improvements there).  Part of this could be due to my switch to the new ext4 filesystem (a custom option during the install, but not the default).  They have changed the login screen to a new, darker theme.  In my opinion, it looks much cleaner and nicer than previous versions.

Login Screen

After logging in, you are greated with a desktop very similar to previous version of ubuntu (the same theme, and colors), but with a different wallpaper.

Jaunty Desktop

Notifications:

The biggest change that I noticed on the desktop was the inclusion of a notifications system.  This is a replacement for tooltip popups when you connect and disconect from wireless, pidgin notifications, sound settings, and many other notifications.  This was one of the parts of the upgrade that I was looking forward to.  It makes the interface look a lot less cluttered, and much more consolidated.

Jaunty Notifications

I am running the 64 bit version of ubuntu, and the flash plugin installed with little fuss like it did in previous versions.  I also installed the nvidia proprietary driver for my video card and enabled compiz.  This gave me no trouble either, and sleep functioned flawlessly (Lenovo T61).

Computer Janitor:

On other new feature in Jaunty is the inclusion of a computer janitor software.  This provides a gui for the aptitude cleaning commands (clean, autoclean, autoremove), and is perfect if you are running low on disk space/want to clean up your machine, but do not want to fiddle with the command line.

Computer Janitor

Custom Tweaks:

All of my settings were retained because on my install of 8.10, I chose to put my home directory on a separate partition (I definitely recommend this). I installed all of the programs that I use, and got everything configured to my liking.

One other change that I made was to remove the bar at the top of the screen, and integrate everything in it to the bottom of the screen (it is easier just to show a picture of it then to try and describe it):

Ubuntu Interface Customization

Part 2 (continued)