A lot has changed with Linux since I have last visited Ubuntu. I had an old crufty version of Ubuntu 8.10 sitting on my hard drive that I hadn’t booted into in quite some time. Realizing that April was a release month for Ubuntu, I decided to go get the latest and greatest.
There was a time when the software that I used on Linux was very exclusive to Linux. It took a lot of hunting down of programs to find what the best ones were for what I was doing since the names were all unrecognizable. That no longer seems to be the case. Google Chrome, has an official Linux client that runs quite well. Bookmark syncing to your Google account provides an easy way to import your information. Dropbox has a Linux client that integrates in with the Nautilus file manager.
Rhythmbox integrates in with Last.fm, Magnatune, and the new music store Ubuntu One. Empathy integrates in with Facebook chat, Google Talk, AIM, IRC, and many others. Gwibber integrates in with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Digg, and others. All of these integrate in with Ubuntu’s new Indicator Applet.
The new theme is nice, and the nVidia drivers are stable as always. The new theme does away with the Brown, and moves to a darker theme which I prefer. Compiz is running “discretely” providing effects that enhance with user experience without overwhelming it. The gravy on the cake is the new Ubuntu Software Center which takes all of the “apt-cache, and apt-get” out of the equation. The interface is revamped from the old “Synaptic package manager” and provides some nice touches such as “Featured Applications”, category views, and a seamless search, select and install experience.
If you are doing Rails development on Windows, do yourself a favor and revisit this classic to see how much improvement there has been to the Ubuntu experience.
Zone of Mr. Frosti 