Raiden's Realm: Review: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Review: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala (Page 1 of 1)

Written by Adam McDougall
Posted on: Nov 16, 2009 at 01:38pm
Section: Reviews
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If you knew about me you would know that for a long long time I boycotted Ubuntu for various reasons that I will not go into. When a friend of mine seriously recommended the latest release called Karmic Koala 9.10 I must admit to be extremely reluctant to try it out. However I gave it a fair chance and was pleasantly surprised but what it offered. So I downloaded Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 9.10 64 Bit is the one that I chose to do because it was the flagship of the Ubuntu Series. I used Unetbootin to make a bootable Flash Stick ( Corsair 4GB Voyager for those who are curious ) and ran the LiveCD portion. Everything BASICALLY worked. What do you mean by basically? First off here are my specs of the machine that I used to test this latest version of Ubuntu.

HP Tx2 Touchsmart 1224ca Touchscreen Tablet Laptop

Processor AMD Turion™ X2 RM-74 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
• 2.20 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, Up to 3600 MT/s system bus running at AC/DC mode 35 watt
Standard memory 4096 MB
memory layout 4096 MB (2 x 2048 MB)
Memory type DDR2 System Memory
Maximum memory Max supported = 8192 MB
Internal drives
Internal hard disk drive 250 GB
Hard disk controller SATA Hard Disk Drive
Hard disk drive speed 5400 rpm
Optical drive type LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support

Those are the specs that are the most important.

The LiveCD gave me sound and other basic functions. However it did NOT give me Wireless Wifi or a Pepsi...oh wait....be right back. * goes and buys a 2 Liter of Pepsi* So if I wanted to use the net I had to find a LAN cable. Ah well.

Alrighty then.....lets get ready to install this baby.

I split my Hard Drive into two partitions and clicked the INSTALL icon.

Lets just say that appearances can be VERY deceiving.

The install went along great and I was looking at a completed install in about 20 minutes. As a rule of thumb the absolute FIRST thing that I always do after a fresh install is update to the latest updates available to me. I clicked on the Hardware Drivers tab and installed the Broadcom drivers that I needed and the ATI drivers and my modem drivers. I logged onto my Wifi and unplugged my cable and jammed it behind my router in case I needed it again.

Let the party begin.

After the new drivers were installed I went to bed. The next morning I wake up...do the usual and flap on my laptop eager to see what Ubuntu had to offer me. It booted up and silently went to the desktop....wait....SILENTLY????? I opened a music file to see much to my dismay that I had no sound. I tried everything that I could think of and even asked the help of my friends and nothing helped.

I was very annoyed to say the least. So I left Ubuntu for a couple days and let myself simmer. How could a Live environment work and a install not? I was very confused and annoyed. So I reformatted and tried again. Except this time for some odd reason I did NOT install my modem drivers and I did not realize that until a few days later.

You see I am a stickler for as close to 100% as I can get with my installs. I want EVERYTHING to work as it should regardless if I need the device or not.

SO I click on the hardware tab again and install the modem drivers. Rebooted. NO SOUND. See the pattern here? Go back and deactivate the modem drivers....I got sound. WOOHOO!!!! So I left the modem drivers alone....besides who these days uses a 56K modem anyways? * ducks vegetables being throw from country folk * OKAY I GET THE IDEA!!!!!!!

So the next thing on the list. Touchscreen does not work. Not that I really expected it to but it would have been insightful and nice of Ubuntu to put in BASIC drivers.....ah well. I found a way to get my N-trig Digitizer working by a friend that made a site for Touchsmart users like myself. If you need this site then you can just click below.

http://linuxfans.keryxproject.org/?page_id=66

Using this link I am able to draw stick figures like the pros. Mind you this method only gives me BASIC one touchpoint function. The N-Trig Digitizer is Multitouch....this will be fixed soon...I hope.

I also found out how to fix the Screen Rotation on my tablet so that when I flipped the screen around that screen would self rotate and adjust. Unfortunatly I do not have the link. Just search the Ubuntu Forums for that information.

Ubuntu 9.10 uses the GNOME interface and is very clean and simple. Reminds me a lot of the MAC interface.

Keep in mind that my desktop is a little altered. I put the Terminal, Evolution, and Update Manager Icons up there.

Lets get to what YOU get.

You get a basic install of the latest version of Openoffice Writer, Spreadsheet and Presentation. This is an excellent minimal install of Openoffice and is perfect for office work. As a matter of fact this review is being typed on Writer itself. Highly recommended. You also get Firefox 3.5 ( there are updates to this...GET THEM ) and a NEW feature called Ubuntu One.

What is Ubuntu One? Well it is a online storage program. You get a free 2GB to store whatever you see fit online. You want more though and you will have to pay for it. You can read more about Ubuntu One here: https://one.ubuntu.com/

Now there is a few things that I noticed are missing. Seeing that this is installed on a Laptop/Tablet what about the other devices that are builtin? Webcam? Get a program called CHEESE which reminds me a LOT of the program Photo Booth from MAC....sadly with out the awesome effects.

Picture of my ugly mug. Get the dartboards/photoshop ready. LOL!!!

Cheese is available from the Ubuntu Software Center.

On the note of Photoshop you also get a very excellent program called GIMP which is very simular to photoshop in many ways and about just as powerful. While it may not satisfy the photoshop gurus out there you simply cannot ignore that GIMP is FREE.

There are quite a few things that you get but I am going to end this part now. If you go into the Ubuntu Software Center you will find whatever you need for FREE.

Now for the things that you do NOT get.

For legal reasons there is no MP3, DVD Decoder, or things like that installed by default. The reason for this? Simply put the creators of Ubuntu just do not appreciate it when Police are kicking down the door for copyright violations. It just really ruins their day. However all is not lost. You can download these free of charge again from the Ubuntu Software Center. Just look for Ubuntu Restricted Extras and install it. Now go and watch Armageddon. Excellent Movie!!!!!! Or Lost In Space......your choice.

(Editor's note: Blame the RIAA and MPAA for this nonsense)

Now because this is on a laptop/Tablet I decided to do some tests.

First up....Battery Consumption.....6 cell battery

What I do is pop in a long DVD ( This time I did the Gospel Of John 3 hours long ) and played it.

Default Battery Power settings Linux: 2.5 hours. Not bad....but did it HAVE to die at the good part???
Default Battery Power settings Win7: 2 hours....and a very warm leg.

Linux Kernels have been known to save on power and this is no exception. Impressive indeed.

There have been problems reported with Hibernation as well. This has been confirmed with Ubuntu and some fixes have been released. I am happy to report that my Laptop is working well now with Hibernation...with a few exceptions. For example....I will close the lid on my laptop and when I open it I have a stuck screensaver that will not respond. The solution? Close the lid and wait ten seconds then open again. Fixed.

Another annoying thing is that the Keyring is annoying as heck at times. It will ask for your password at almost every turn. Want to go on your Wifi? Enter your keyring password. Want to check for updates? Password. Want to get a burger....no password. How surprising. Reminds me of that Windows “Feature” that was in Vista. Quite simular.

So in conclusion....would I be able to recommend Ubuntu to other users? Yes I would. It appears that they have built a good distro here. Okay sure there were problems at launch....that is to be expected and yes I will say that I think that they need to do more testing before releasing these distros at times but keep in mind that no release is ever perfect. There will be glitches and problems. You will have to either suck it up and wait for a fix or move to another distro of Linux or go to Windows. The choice is always yours and yours alone. You may have to do some research to get things working properly but remember that there are THOUSANDS of configurations out there and you simply cannot expect Ubuntu to cover them all. Be reasonable.

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