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With Ubuntu 11.04 Canonical completely overhauled its Linux operating system, improving performance and adding the new Unity interface. Now, with Ubuntu 11.10 (codenamed Oneiric Ocelot), it’s refining the experience.
For the most part, Ubuntu 11.10 consists of a series of minor tweaks, designed to address the issues with 11.04. For starters, Ubuntu 11.04 had an odd selection of search menus. So, you could search for programs and files through the main Dash search menu, but there were also dedicated Documents and Applications search menus.
The new Dash is the only search menu in Ubuntu 11.10
With Ubuntu 11.10 everything has been simplified, and there’s now a single Dash. When you open this menu, you can select the corresponding icon to search everything, applications, documents or music individually. It makes a lot more sense this way.
New Lenses (the new name for Places), let you filter your search results by content. So, for music, you can select the genre and age, while for documents you can select the type, size and age. It’s a little tweak, but one that generally makes the OS that bit easier to use.
Lenses let you filter search results intelligently by type.
We were hoping that Canonical would update the Launcher dock, so that you can choose where to place it. Sadly, that isn’t the case and it’s resolutely stuck to the left-hand side of the screen. Quite why there’s no option to move it is beyond us, but it’s a touch annoying that this simple control doesn’t exist.
Windows management has been slightly tweaked, so that the controls (minimise, maximise, restore and close) are now hidden in the title bar when an application is maximised. They only appear when you hover your mouse over the title bar, along with the program’s menu. It keeps the UI looking cleaner and slicker, but offers no real advantages.
The new Software Centre is a bit friendlier to look at, but there’s still not much commercial software.
The Ubuntu Software Centre has long been a strength of the software, providing easy access to applications that download and install from the internet automatically. In Ubuntu 11.10 the Software Centre has had a big overhaul. Previous versions looked a little basic, but the new version is much more consumer friendly with a larger interface, more obvious categories and large icons. Content has also been improved, with a larger games section that contains new free games, as well as some classics, such as Beneath a Steel Sky. Paid-for content has been increased, but there’s still not much on offer with just a small selection of games and some Linux magazines available for download.
Ubuntu One was introduced a few versions of Ubuntu ago, and lets you synchronise chosen folders and files to the cloud. It’s neatly integrated into the Nautilus file browser, letting you synchronise a folder from the right-click context menu.
With the release of Ubuntu 11.10, Canonical has improved its offering. You now get 5GB of free online storage and a new Windows client means you can synchronise your Windows and Linux PCs together.
Multi-platform support sounds great, but the PC client isn’t as good as the Ubuntu version. From the PC there’s no right-click integration, so to synchronise a folder you need to use the Ubuntu One control panel. It’s also not particularly flexible. For starters, all folders that you want to synchronise have to be in the c:Users folder. This isn’t much use if, for example, you’re using an SSD to boot from and have your documents stored on a different drive. It’s a shame, as it potentially reduces the software’s use.
Ubuntu One now has a Windows client, but it’s not very flexible.
There’s still no Mac OS X support, either. If you’ve got files stored on a different hard disk or you want to use Windows, Mac and Linux, DropBox remains the best and most flexible choice.
Performance was one of the big improvements with Ubuntu 11.04, which we noticed with our benchmark tests. These showed that the OS had been radically improved, particularly in our multi-tasking test. This kind of performance increase can’t be expected every release, but we’re pleased to say that on our 3GHz quad-core Intel QX6850 PC, Ubuntu 11.10 was marginally faster.
Our benchmarks show that Ubuntu 11.10 is marginally faster than 11.04 on the same hardware. Scores are normalised to a Core i5-2500K PC running Windows 7.
Ubuntu 11.10 neatly updates some of the shortcomings of Ubuntu 11.04 and remains our favourite flavour of Linux. It’s an easy-to-use and fast operating system, but for the next version we’d like to see more flexibility in the Launcher’s placement and a better Ubuntu One client for Windows.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Price | £0 |
| Details | www.ubuntu.com |
| Rating | ***** |
