Ubuntu 9.10 - What's new with the Karmic Koala?

For those of you that have not been living underground for the last week, you will probably know that two major things happened in the Desktop PC market this month: Microsoft released their Windows 7 Operating system to much fanfare. After the many cheesy launch parties subsidied and Cola and Pizza consumed, the air seemed to stale over and little interest in Windows 7 seemed to happen after that. Certainly I don't know one of my Microsofty friends that's head-over-heels excited about '7 in the way that they wet their pants for XP, or even in anticipation for Vista, which flopped after people found out it was rubbish. A few days later, and to considerably less fanfare I may add, Canonical, the company responsible for the Ubuntu Linux Operating System released their latest version, 9.10, codenamed the Karmic Koala.

At ULNG HQ, we've taken some time to get to know this beast first before giving it the all clear, because we know that Koalas may look cute and cuddly, but if you've ever met one in the flesh you will know that they can also be quite feisty too. Are we noticing a pattern emerge here?

So, what is new in 9.10? Here's the list of major new additions to this release:

• Ubuntu One - The 'MobileMe' of the Ubuntu world. The basic version which gives you 2GB of storage is free, and it allows you to share your data over the net very easily indeed. Hats off for this addition.
• Upstart - Ubuntu has really been charging ahead with reducing the time your computer takes to start up, and it's working - every release generally sees a faster boot time since 8.04 was released. The latest in the improvement line is a new program called upstart which replaces the job that init did traditionally.
• Ubuntu Software Centre - This isn't a dramatic change (yet), as discussed previously on an article at ULNG, we announced Ubuntu were to phase out Add/Remove Software and Synaptic too. That hasn't completely taken place yet, but it has been streamlined. Add/Remove Software has gone and has been replaced with the new shiny Ubuntu Software Centre which is nice and simple to use, new users may like this addition.
• Empathy - Just when I was getting used to Pidgin, Ubuntu go and change it to a new Instant Messenger client called Empathy. I'm not 100% sure I like it yet, the program is a bit buggy and it feels a bit rough round the edges so I would have recommended that Ubuntu not have made this change until a later release was available, however, this doesn't stop you from re-installing Pidgin if you want. I think the main thing behind Empathy is that Ubuntu have worked from the start to have it well integrated into the GNOME desktop and the Ubuntu Notification Area, which is also new and shiny.

So, there you go, a whistle stop round-up of the new release of Ubuntu, the Karmic Koala. Comments? Log in and register with the ULNG and let us know what you think of it yourself!