Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala...scheduled release date is October 29, 2009)

Post date: Oct 14, 2009 11:14:38 PM

I've been a long time user of Ubuntu. I used to flit like a butterfly from one Linux operating system to another, never lasting more than two weeks with any one distribution before I wanted to try something else. On my own laptop, I spent countless hours tweaking, configuring, and generally just messing around with each distribution until I got bored and moved on. I learned a lot, but I wasn't very productive. Then....along came Ubuntu. A colleague of mine pointed me toward Ubuntu during the Warty Warthog days...(I love the cool code names)....Ubuntu 4.10. The naming scheme is actually quite easy to follow...the first number is the year and the second is the month....hence 4.10 was released in October of 2004. The newest version to come down the pipe is 9.10 (get it? October, 2009) codenamed Karmic Koala. Ubuntu releases like clockwork every six months. Each release features some new stuff and some improvements, but every 5th release is an LTS or a long-term support release. Extra care is taken at these junctures to insure stability and reliability so that IT folks can count on an LTS release to be supported for 3 years on the desktop and 5 years for servers. The regular releases are supported for 18 months. Unless you're a corporate environment or afraid of making many changes...the regular releases will be just fine for you....and you'll get all the cutting edge new features. Karmic Koala is no exception. Since the release of Jaunty Jackalope (9.04) in April, netbooks have taken the tech world by storm. Once a fun novelty item, netbooks are now making their way into schools and classrooms all over the world. Ubuntu takes the netbook experience to the next level with Ubuntu Netbook Remix, an interface specifically designed for the small screen of a netbook, UNR provides all the same functionality of a regular version, but in a manner that works best for the end user on a netbook. Let's look at some screenshots...click to see larger versions of the images.