Karmic seems to be a winner

[bigtomrodney]

I just finished installed Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" on my main PC. I have to say, I'm impressed with the results. Now I know Ubuntu isn't everyone's favourite distro but I'm finding with every release that it's just more and more polished.

There aren't any real big changes here other than aesthetics, but I just found the entire install was quick and painless. Bluetooth is working great now and even paired with my bluetooth headset, with Pulseaudio then automatically making it available for sound input and output. The included themes and wallpapers are great too and I'm glad they've included more than the typical 2-3 wallpapers.

I think the reason I've been so impressed is that my first instinct wasn't to start changing everything. If you're like me, a new distro means configuring everything the way you like it. For me the clean install was almost perfect. I only had to install the nVidia drivers, codecs and my old favourites Amarok and Ktorrent. The transition was so easy that I considered leaving the default torrent/music clients in place....I mean they got everything else right - why not try those too?!

I'll shut up now as there's enough chatter on the net about Karmic but I just had to share with you guys. Anyone thinking of making the move won't be disappointed.

[schwim]

I installed 9.04 a few weeks ago onto my main machine, then shortly upgraded to 9.10 since the later kernel supported my audio card, where the 9.04 kernel did not.

I started out far from being a fanboy of the distro, being somewhat disdainful of it's marketing savvy and one-size-fits-all mentality. In the end though, I'm impressed with the attention to detail. Just like any distro, it still has it's rough edges, but they're few and far between.

I'll be running it for a while. It will be the first time Ubuntu ever spent longer than a week on one of my machines, but I'm looking forward to it.

[bigtomrodney]

I started out far from being a fanboy of the distro, being somewhat disdainful of it's marketing savvy and one-size-fits-all mentality.

I felt the same when it first landed. I despised that it disabled root, despised sudo and at the time the done thing was include the entire software catalogue on multiple CDs or sometimes DVD (rare back then).

Since then I've really come to appreciate it for the hardware support and massive repos. I have to say too it helps to use such a popular distribution as help is never far away either

[daark.child]

Its a good stable release (and this is coming from someone who is not a fan of Ubuntu). 10.04 might be even more impressive because Debian Sid seems to be stabilising, so Ubuntu will have a good base to build from. I still don't like their implementation of sudo so I configured my installation to work like other distros.

[oz]

Hi, BigTom

I've tried different versions of Ubuntu many times but unfortunately have always found it to be rather disappointing. Your comments make me want to try it again, and if I have time this weekend I might do just that.

Thanks for the info!

[bigtomrodney]

Well oz, I won't try converting anyone but I can just say I've quite happy with it. Even the Software Centre is nice, something I thought I wouldn't approve of.

I ran out of things to configure, so I'm catching up with something I should have done years ago - passwordless ssh! Expect a thread containing me begging for handholding soon....

[darkrose0510]

Karmic currently holds the distinction of being the only distro/release I've ever got a kernel panic from (admittedly that was the release candidate, but still).

Other than that I'm pretty happy with it though.

[MC707]

I will have to disagree with the "painless" installation you are talking about. It took a hell of a lot of time to install, while I had to install it twice in my netbook because of a "kernel error" of some sort, just after a fresh install. I will have to disagree with the "no configuring" part, I had to install updates and programs, theme, codecs and many other annoyances. However, I will agree: after all this, the end result is spectacular. There are still some bugs though, but I hope they iron those soon enough.

[elija]

I have just installed and configured Karmic 64 bit with absolutely no problems thus far. Everything works including sound although I can't comment on wireless networking! It took a couple of hours including all updates, software (except games which I will install later) and configuration.

It has the least objectionable default Ubuntu theme out of the box thus far but it is still one of the first things I change. I quite like the software centre although I couldn't find Apache, MySql Server or PHP in there, that's what Synaptic is for though

On my quad core it boots to login in about 20 seconds and it feels really fast in use. Maybe 64 bit has arrived!

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure or derision; I present my Karmic desktop. Click for a bigger view

[bigtomrodney]

I see you picked the same theme as me elija! I quite like the New Wave theme. I think I got this before from gnome-look at one point, but it's just become my default theme with a nice blend of dark and light for the desktop.