Ubuntu on the edge

October saw the release of Edgy Eft, the latest version of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. The previous version, Dapper Drake, was released in June and, unlike its predecessor, Edgy doesn’t have the ‘LTS’ (long-term support) label added to it.

The name was originally chosen partly because Edgy (also known as version 6.10) would include many cutting-edge features, and perhaps not provide the more solid base that Dapper offered. However, due to Dapper’s late release, Edgy hasn’t had quite the impact it could have.

Edgy includes many new features, but to the average user it looks more or less the same as Dapper. New artwork was planned for Edgy, but ultimately it remained almost the same, except for a brighter standard backdrop and some minor icon updates.

Of course there have, in reality, been a number of significant developments. The Gnome Desktop has been bumped from 2.14 to 2.16, bringing lots of usability enhancements, as well as much improved efficiency; the Desktop will run faster on equivalent hardware. KDE users receive a jump to KDE 3.5.5, which includes hundreds of bug fixes and minor improvements, and they also get hold of the much-improved 1.4 series of Amarok.

Firefox is now at version 2 – one of the most visible changes to people – and new features include inline spell checking, a new visual theme, anti-phishing detectors, session recovery after a crash, and the usual collection of bug fixes.

Open Office is at the latest 2.0.4 version, again bringing in lots of minor improvements over the older Dapper version. Edgy also includes F-spot (http://f-spot.org), as a new digital image management application, considered by many to be one of the best there is. Generally speaking, most of the applications have had updates, but little has changed that is fundamentally different.

Away from the Desktop there have been some more adventurous developments. The start-up procedure has changed dramatically, replacing the standard init that Linux distributions have always used with a new system called Upstart. This is developed by Ubuntu (primarily Scott James Remnant, an employee of Ubuntu’s parent company Canonical).

Whereas init follows a traditional linear scripting method for start-up, Upstart is events-based, which means tasks can be launched by other events occurring. For example, a file system check could be initiated once the system is notified about a new file system becoming available. The shutdown procedure has also changed, being replaced by what Ubuntu developers have called Teardown. This results in a much faster shutdown than with previous versions, usually taking a few seconds.

Various reports of upgrade and installation problems, together with few user-visible changes, have meant that this release of Ubuntu has had a cooler reception than previous ones. I would not recommend you try to upgrade a Dapper system with Edgy; do a fresh install instead. You can install more than one version of Ubuntu onto the same computer; the boot loader will automatically configure this for you.

Some people may simply prefer to stick to Dapper until the next release arrives in April 2007 (Feisty Fawn). This may be particularly true for Kubuntu users, as KDE 3.5.5 can be installed easily onto Dapper without any fuss. It’s always worth trying the Edgy Desktop CD though, as you can boot this without affecting anything on your hard drive, and if you want the most up-to-date Ubuntu Desktop, it’s the way to go.