Well, Ubuntu Karmic Koala alpha 6 has been released a couple of days ago! And here is my personal review about this next version of Ubuntu. Enjoy!
New theme!
In Ubuntu Karmic Koala, we can see all of the themes are changed and improved well. The theme is still “Human”, but its renewed and re-customized again by Ubuntu Design Team. I love the soft and brown theme 
Here is the screenshot:
New Icon!
Yes! The icon are also changed significantly, The new icon theme name is, Humanity! It is an very attractive icon theme pack with a lot of change with it. Here is the screenshot:
The screenshots above, from omgubuntu.co.uk, it seemed to be they combined the new human theme with the new icon theme “Humanity”. And the result is a blast! Seemed the Ubuntu Development Team have took some of Ubuntu Users idea/topaz brainstorm and implemented it into Karmic Koala.
Ubuntu Software Store
Yes, there’s a new software called Ubuntu Software Store, seemed Ubuntu Dev team already replaced the add/remove programs with Ubuntu Software Store. I like the GUI of Ubuntu Software Store, it is simpler and easier to use. Here is the screenshot:
New Bootscreen experience!
The next prediction for Ubuntu 9.10 beta bootscreen is an enhanced version of bootscreen that will bring a new experience for users who are using it!
By extension, other aspect of the user experience are covered in specifications linked to this one, namely:
- the splash screen shown during system boot
- the OS switcher, allowing the user to select another operating system to boot
- the fallback “splash”, that includes running file system checks or querying the user for a password to unlock a encrypted filesystem
- the “login experience”, that includes autologin, the gdm greeter, and also logout and session switching
These changes are also depending on the FastBoot effort lead by ScottJamesRemnant in the Foundation Team.
The concept pic(click to make it bigger):
Confusing Karmic Grub Loader
Yes, Karmic has a new and way more confusing boot loader called GRUB2.. I heard that GRUB2 will have more cooler graphic interface and also it does support a higher resolution monitor, but the fact, they are still using the same old text based loader. People right now are still get used to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst for GRUB, but right now there’s no such a thing as /boot/grub/menu.lst. Ubuntu dev team already implemented a new way to edit GRUB, it is now based on BASH Scripting. Screenshot:
You are NOT allowed to change the GRUB LOADER directly. And to change the GRUB menu source code you can access /etc/sbin/grub-mkconfig . You can’t freely change the files as you wanted to. But there’s a way to customize it, by simply chmod/change the permission of the files by typing sudo chmod 600 /boot/grub/grub.cfg .
The last and the best thing about Ubuntu 9.10 :
The last and the best new software that have been integrated with Ubuntu is Ubuntu ONE. Ubuntu ONE is a free online storage service provider that can synchronize files on the Ubuntu One server from the internet. Ubuntu One is quite familiar with dropbox.
Well.. I think that’s my current review about Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. It is not the end, since there will be more surprise on the final release .. Cheers!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Very nice and informative review. Thanks, I can’t wait to upgrade my jaunty
nice review . thanks
Excuse me? Karmic is no LTS release. 10.04 will be a LTS.
GRUB2 supports bigger resolutions and truecolor background images. If you modify the grub.cfg directly, your changes will be overridden when the grub-mkconfig script is called, e.g. during kernel update. Just use the customization scripts provided, /etc/default/grub and /etc/grub.d/*
What is that Graphical OS Selector in that concept pic and where did you get it? After GRUB(2) the OS is selected and splash screens have appeared, the system is booted, no use selecting the OS after that. Karmic has a second boot splash called xsplash, which is fired up after usplash and when xserver is ready. It gives the user something to look at while the rest of the system starts (no black or blank screen).
PS, you are calling Karmic Carmic a few times…
Ubuntu 9.10 is not LTS, version 10.04 will be.
Sorry, it must be slipped on my mind before.. I just made 10.04 announcement then directly made this post. Its a human error
@Tapsu
Thanks for the feedback. About the Graphical OS Selector, I got it from Launchpad. And I already fixed the typos. I will continue to update this post.
Thank you very much for that magnificent article
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