First Look at Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Beta [Screenshot Tour]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/2k12TDrb7UY/
The beta release of Karmic Koala, the next version of Ubuntu Linux, just arrived on the net. Wondering what's new inside the open-source operating system? We took a tour and brought back these screenshots.
Update: An earlier version of this post used screenshots from Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6, which, while feature-complete, did not include the artwork overhaul included in the 9.10 beta. We've re-toured Karmic Koala and replaced the screenshots, as well as added an item to note the changes. Apologies for any confusion—or disappointing design schemes.
In general, Ubuntu 9.10, or Karmic Koala, doesn't have a whole ton of new-new features over what we saw in 9.04. That's because a lot of the focus has been on more nuts-and-bolts areas, like boot-up management, application security, and other deep-down bits.
That said, there is some new stuff worth checking out. Click on the thumbnails below for a bigger picture and description of each feature. Want it all one one page? Here's the non-gallery version. Like what you see? Found something else new in Karmic Koala we didn't see? Tell us in the comments.
Faster, slicker boot-up
As previously noted, Ubuntu 9.10 uses GRUB 2 and its graphical boot loader if you're using more than one OS, boots faster than 9.04 (from casual observation), and doesn't give you an antsy feeling by splashing a lot of ke! rnel tal k on your screen during startup.
New looks
They hadn't shown up for any of the alpha releases, but new icons, themes, wallpapers, and controls are present in 9.10 beta. The art team has promised further refinements, as this was a rush release to meet deadline, but long-time Ubuntu users will be happy to see change, any change, in the looks of their Linux, and generally for the better.
Refined installation
Ubuntu's partition editor better explains what's happening when you're choosing a spot for it. The installation dialog offers smarter picks of auto-login, password protection, or even encrypted home folder protection. While actually copying the files, Ubuntu's installer shows a few of the OS' features—shades of the very familiar Windows XP installation.
New IM client
For whatever reason, both the default GNOME desktop and Ubuntu decided to switch from Pidgin to Empathy for a default instant messaging client. Unfortunate for those who got to know Pidgin so well, but Empathy seems like a pretty remarkable simulation of the look and layout, if without the many, many preferences and menu options.
Ubuntu Software Center
We asked for it, it was already in the works, and now it's here. The looks are a bit, well, My First Software Store, but it's definitely a more simple, streamlined installation tool than the Synaptic or "Add/Remove Software" tool. Each app gets a screenshot and text description, along with a link to its official web site. You can queue up multiple apps for installation, and choosing or adding new software sources still allows you to browse while the repositories are being refreshed.
Ubuntu One
We still think it looks like a less feature-rich Dropbox, but having it installed by default and integrated into the file system might make regular Ubuntu users a little more familiar and trusting of the 2 GB of free space given to every Ubuntu user.
Disk Utility
Now, this—this is neat. A full read-out on all the disks in your system, including USB and CD/DVD, with health and temperature gauges and simple tools to change partitions or format, if you so choose. You might still want to do the heavy lifting in the GParted app, but this is a good tool to have handy.
Disk display in Nautilus
Speaking of! drives, the way they're laid out in the file browser is a bit more convenient for those working with multiple partitions or a lot of drives. The size is listed first, then the section you're accessing. Small, but really helpful tweak.
This email-organizing service is openly pitching itself to those left out of the first round of Wave preview accounts, and not entirely without reason. It doesn't do half the things that Wave claims to do, but it does free your coworkers from having to read through freakishly long "RE: FWD: FWD:" letters just to understand what the original question or discussion was. Add CC:Betty to your cc: list on a topic you want to get started, and the webapp does the work of organizing each person's contributions, different attachment types, chronology, and who's been left out of the chain. Even if everybody doesn't bother to check in at the Betty page for the discussion, the person trying to make sense of it all will be glad they can do so. (
It is, of ! course, the software that powers Wikipedia, and might seem a bit dated in the light-speed-paced world of webapps. Still, MediaWiki's power lies in how easy it is for multiple people to make and commit changes to a document, link inside and out of other pages, create page structures and hierarchies on the fly, and work from pretty much any browser on Earth. Nobody needs to sign into any account unless mandated by the administrator, and everybody gets the information they need without having to fiddle any knobs. (
This meeting facilitator aims to eliminate the mess of emails and mass confusion over whether it was meeting room 130 at 2pm, or room 230 at 1pm. Create an account, plug in your coworkers' emails or SMS numbers, plug in a few times that work for you, and TimeBridge takes on the work of contacting them all and asking which of those times work, then presenting the results for your consideration. The webapp also reminds participants of the details by email or SMS, and a just-released iPhone app helps you keep things moving along with an agenda and details view. (
"Isn't that the thing that Google turned Usenet into?" Yes, but Groups lets a, um, group of like-minded folks hash out arguments, answer questions, and point to helpful resources without software or constraints. Users of a group can rate posts for helpfulness, search out answers across their own groups or other similar-themed topic! s, and g et their answers and responses delivered from an easily filtered email source. It's an oft-overlooked tool in an age of fancy-pants social tools, but it gets everyone hooked up and talking pretty quickly. (
It's easy to ask everyone's take on a piece of text, but much harder to actually incorporate their ideas, revisions, and word choices without spending twice as much time as on the original. TextFlow, a free Adobe Air app that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, takes in all the documents spawned from an original, analyzes the changes, and presents them to you to show what's different, accept what you want to change, and make it easy to see how far you've moved off the original draft. For a certain kind of work, it's a real time saver, and it makes it easy to respond when your collaborators ask why their masterful lead-in sentence didn't make the cut. (
Makers of "webinar" software are feverishly pitching the idea of at-your-desk conferences as a money-saving alternative to travel these days. DimDim, an open-source meeting platform, offers web users a truly money-saving experience, with up to 20 users able to view a presentation, three of them with microphone access, with no software installations required. It's a nice step up if you need something a little more professional than a social video chat room, and is surprisingly responsive on freehand drawing, text, audio, and even screencasting across a variety of connect! ion spee ds. (
How many 10-minute verbal explanations would have worked much better as a one-minute cocktail napkin sketch? Plenty of them, we'd suspect. For ideas and projects where drawing a line through your thoughts helps keep them together, MindMeister is a great helper. Not only does their web-based design tool allow for easy branching, notating, and organization, but if you just want to jam in a few ideas to be molded into shape later, it allows for email additions. You can, of course, share, publish, and collaborate on your mental diagrams, and doing so might just save you a really unnecessary phone call or stop-and-chat. (
File-sharing service 
Not that we aren't at least thinking of holding our Lifehacker chat and brainstorming sessions in Wave, but for the time being, Campfire does a remarkably good job of letting multiple people yak it out and learn from each other. It's searchable, it makes uploading files to everyone easy, it can be a walled garden or open to those you link in, and it sits nicely in a browser tab, changing its page title when new chats arrive. There's a fair number of third-party clients and input tools available for 37Signals' collaborative chat platform, but it works just fine as a quiet spot to talk. (
It's hard to jump in and describe the best features about Zoho's vast suite of online editing and group organization tools, because so much changes on a week-to-week basis. That said, if you find Google Docs to be impressive for a single user, but not a great back-and-forth facilitator, Zoho is where you should look next. It's able to handle both the lower-level tasks of group editing, document sharing, and other work, as well as the milestone tracking, group chat, invoice creation, and other tasks needed by teams that aren't sitting right next to each other. It's good stuff, and it's free. (
Posts
