Ubuntu 9.10: The Karmic Koala Benchmarked And Reviewed

[adamovera]

Is Ubuntu's latest release, the "Karmic Koala," any good, or just a bunch of hype? We've had a solid month to check it out and are ready to publish our review. We're even debuting our brand new cross-platform benchmark suite to compare 9.10 to 9.04.

Ubuntu 9.10: The Karmic Koala Benchmarked And Reviewed : Read more

 

[burnley14]

The new Upstart feature sounds terrific. Windows needs to take notes, I hate the awkward limbo of seeing your desktop but not being able to do anything.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

I was a bit surprised to read your slaughter of Ubuntu 9.10, because that does not reflect my experience with it. My first thoughts when reading this were related to the (possible lack of) integrity and technical skills of the author (sorry about that). Then I remembered that I experience a few minor issues when upgrading from 9.04 to 9.10 as well and that I read about people which were unhappy with it. However, none of these would IMHO deserve the label "epic fail".

Spending four days for installing 9.10 and reinstalling 9.04 seems like way more time than you should need. I upgraded my computers running Ubunutu in less than an hour. I have not tried a clean install but it would surprise me that this would be any harder. My parents have also been using Ubuntu for more than a year now without any complaints (this includes an upgrade to 9.10). Maybe I have been lucky?

I have been using Ubuntu at work and at home for the last 3-4 years and I am pretty happy with it. I am also happy with the fact that you (Tomshardware) have been writing about Linux a bit more frequently. Keep it up, but don't be so harsh

 

[jj463rd]

I tried it on one PC.Had constant problems with the Mouse not working,system locking up etc.I went back to installing rock solid older 8.04 LTS on it which worked without problems (except for the time consuming (about) 450 updates).

 

[rsmith13]

I also got the Kernel problem error messages after installing Xubuntu 9.10 on an AMD 64 system. They went away after doing an update. I now have Xubuntu 9.10 on 5 single and dual core AMD 64 systems. with no problems.

Do the update!

 

[cyberkuberiah]

hardware driver support from the hardware makers themselves is lacking , i installed ubuntu , could not connect to belkin wifi even after using the prop drivers , and then uninstalled it . patience over .

 

[haplo602]

nice article ... I mostly skimmed through it anyway can you include a windows 7/vista benchmark base for the same hardware ?

I know some of the test will be irrelevant (like the timed installation) but most should work.

 

[DGriffin]

I had 9.04 and upgraded to 9.10 with out any problems at all... I have a AMD 64 processor and had no problems with the 64bit vir... ..idk maybe I got lucky, but I sorta doubt it..

 

[MaxTesla]

The screensaver starts after 5 min so when you install Ubuntu the screen saver will start and the screen will go black you need to move your mouse too see the instalation again, this could of course be mistaken for a crash

 

[MaxTesla]

The screen saver starts after 5 min so when you install Ubuntu the screen saver will start and the screen will go black you need to move your mouse too see the installation again, this could of course be mistaken for a crash

 

[Guest]

I tried installing Ubuntu 9.10 via Wubi, immediately after rebooting from Windows and seeing the Ubuntu bootscreen it gave me a black screen, with my monitor reporting that there was no signal. Back to Windows I go, I suppose. :/

 

[techguy378]

Windows is the most advanced desktop OS ever created. Unless you have a really, really old computer that can't run anything past Windows 98 there is never a reason not to run Windows on a PC. Don't waste your time with this Linux crap. Free isn't always better.

 

[Guest]

Oh! Please!

All these installation crashes sound like memory failures. Did you run memtest before installing?

 

[ibnsina]

Simplicity + smooth Graphics UI = Great Linux

Great Linux + industry support (drivers+gaming) = Great Operating System

 

[Guest]

Techguy378- Depends what you want it for. I use both OSes extensively. I quite enjoy not having to run an antivirus on my Ubuntu machine for instance. The responsiveness of Ubuntu is much better on the same machine when compared to windows, It's just unfortunate that some hardware isn't fully supported. That situation has improved a lot over the last few years but it's still there- my laptop would run ubuntu but the ACPI code in the bios is buggy (this is a hardware issue NOT a software issue- Microsoft just hasn't implemented the layer correctly which, oddly, circumvented the issue. Lucky! That said, i'd like to question what a proper implementation is if the one done incorrectly is the one that works....)

I use Vista for my audio stuff, mainly because Fruityloops lags in Ubuntu. I also use Vista on my laptop for the ACPI issue, but I use ubuntu on my Desktop and server, because it's just less of a monster and requires less aftermarket tools to keep running. (Antivirus.)

 

[Guest]

I just spent the entire night trying to get Ubuntu 9.10 to get my USB devices to work in high speed mode. And I still haven't got it to work yet. Looks like there are a LOT of issues with Ubuntu. I only need to copy some stuff out of my ext4 partitions and using Ubuntu seems to be the wrong choice.

 

[rean24]

I had no problem with 9.10 .
Installed it through "Wubi" Not sure should i make the major change with a clean install.

But soo far I havnt had any complains , all the effects are working , oline , workwise its Top-Notch.

And Yes i am a Unbutu N00d..But Windows PRO...And if after a month of no problem will make the major change in OS.

Only Complain I had was with my Logitic wireless mouse , but a quick change to the Microsoft one solved it all...

 

[dimitrik]

Good review. The fact is that about half the reviews of 9.10 are either negative or neutral due to problems encountered. Compared to the near universal positive reception of 9.04 this does warrant the words Epic Fail, especially since it squanders much of the goodwill built up by the success of 9.04.

Based on all the reviews, I'm not even going to bother trying to run 9.10.
I will give Linux Mint 8 a try instead which is based on 9.10 but has been customized for even more user-friendly operation and stability.
The previous release Mint 7 was a nice improvement on 9.04 (which was great too) so I hope the Mint guys can pull the rabbit out of the hat again.

Either way, I'll dual boot the new OS with my old one before even thinking of making it my main desktop.

 

[tvel]

I had no problems installing my 9.10 64 bit and I was surprised to read all the trouble you had.
I'm using it for a month now with no problems at all.

 

[JimmiG]

Well, I've tried Ubuntu 9.04 previously, and it installed without a hitch on both my desktop and laptop systems.

9.10 however just gives me a black screen when trying to use the bootable CD on my laptop. On my desktop system it installs fine, but doesn't detect my wireless adapter. 9.04 detected it automatically.

I could probably fix both issues with patience, but it proves that Linux still isn't ready for desktop/laptop use, even though Linuxtremists have been claiming that for a decade.

 

[nevertell]

I've been using it since it went beta, and I haven't experienced any issues with the out-of-the box stuff. I do hate, the new media manager, I just want a tool to switch from alsa to PA when I want either gaming with wine or regular day-to-day use.

 

[pkellmey]

One of the worst releases at a horrible time for Linux. I couldn't get the video or network, which worked with prior releases, to work properly. After fooling around with it for a day or so, I went with Windows 7 on that PC. I have other PCs to try installing it on for another try, but the average Linux user would rather go with less hassle and go back to a prior version of Ubuntu or an OS that it works properly with out of the box. With how mature this release should be, there is no excuse especially if Ubuntu wants to keep a user base that is appearing interested in going back to Windows again. I agree with the writer completely. Epic fail.

 

[Guest]

I have 4 Karmic machines running at the moment, an Acer Aspire 150 9.04 to 9.10 upgrade (went smooth as silk and some of my UNR issues with 9.04 are now gone, don't want/need ext4 on that box, manually upgraded grub) a P4 3.2 HT "Shuttle box" running x86_64 with an ATI 2600HD fresh install, also went smooth, new grub and ext4 working fine, proprietary drivers have me running all the new effects and 2 virtual machines, one 64bit and one 32bit both on VirtualBox, again clean installs with no issues at all.

I think like any new OS or upgrade we face the issue of thousands of hardware combination's and the problems that come with them, one thing Linux will always offer is the ability to tweak that hardware with a new custom kernel, I wish I had that option with NT back in the day.

Microsoft has come a long way with hardware support but only through deals and driver approval processes which put very tight constraints on the developer to produce a working driver, Linux drivers are almost exclusively produced by the community (with obvious graphics driver exceptions.

Sorry you had such a terrible experience, but epic fail? I would have to disagree.

 

[sanctoon]

As a rule I always skip the *.10 release of Ubuntu, don't even read the reviews, this is the first one.
I'm glad I stayed on 9.04, BRING ON 10.04 LTS.

 

[Guest]

Hello,

Recently I upgraded my core I7 system and a AMD X2 machine from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 without any problem. It was just a matter of a few mouse clicks, I watched some TV while the machines were upgrading themselves. Further I have a netbook and an older Pentium system which serves as a Mythtv back-end, all running Linux only.
I switched completely to Linux two years ago and use no other OS. Last week I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on a PC for a friend, I think it took an hour or so whilst we drank some coffee.
So, as a happy Ubuntu user I did not understand any of the negativism of this review.