Ubuntu 8.04: Now With A Better Feature List
One issue that has been discussed a lot in the past few months is the need for better release notes or feature lists for distributions. With the recently released Hardy Heron (8.04), Ubuntu has taken a giant step in the right direction.
When you first go to Ubuntu.com, there is a large space dedicated to promoting Hardy Heron with three buttons to the right of it. Those buttons are “Download,” “Upgrade,” and “Find Out More.” None of this is really new, but what is behind the “Find Out More” link is.
After clicking “Find Out More” you are taken to this page. The page looks very professional and gives a nice description of some of the features of Ubuntu as well as screenshots. Additionally, to the right, is a navigation bar with links to more specifics about certain features. If you have not already seen this, you should really check it out. It looks great.
Although this is a huge step in the right direction, it could still be improved upon. My main, and really only, complaint has to do with the content. It has come a long way in becoming less technical, but it still largely focuses on the ordinary tasks that Ubuntu can do. This has to be a major part of the feature list, but more emphasis should be put on the cool or useful things that Ubuntu can do that other OSs cannot. One notable example of this is the lack on significant Compiz Fusion information. While there are some screenshots, Compiz Fusion is such a cool part of Linux that it should be heavily advertised.
Easy to understand features and advertising are very important towards promoting Linux and Ubuntu, so, although there is room for improvement, I am very happy to see Ubuntu taking a huge step towards creating a better feature list.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:49 am
what really annoys me about it is the nonsense flash changing photos animation, which is very very slow on my linux flash implementation (firefox 3pre)
April 26th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Maybe Compiz Fusion is left out because it really is not ready for prime time. It may be fine to make some You Tube videos and win over some youthful converts, but…
It adds instability to a system whose main selling point is stability. It increases the resources necessary to run the OS at the very same time that low resource necessities are being promoted.
Compiz Fusion is great if you do not depend on your computer. However, anyone who needs to use their box to get things done has already learned to leave that monstrosity disabled. Go peruse the support forums of most any distro and see the problems that Compiz causes–this is not the way to win converts that will stick with it…you may win a few kids who are only into the kewl factor, but you will turn off many many more and who knows how long before they try (what is otherwise a great distro/OS) again.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
max stirner Says: “annoys me about it is the nonsense flash”
It’s not flash it’s javascript. It’s still annoying, but I kinda like well written javascript.
Good distro though.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Depends on your hardware. Compiz is very stable and worthwhile on good Nvdia cards for instance. There may be some glitch occasionally because it’s always under development. But Compiz is a great way to get people’s attention because it’s very hard to break the Windows desktop inertia. I do think people should use Linux with or without Compiz though. Linux is about stability.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
john - As Lance said, Compiz Fusion is only unstable on some hardware. I am using some old integrated graphics and I never have any problem with Compiz. Not all the effects work, but that is a different issue. All the basic ones work perfectly for me.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 am
I’ve just installed Ubuntu Hardy on my Father-in-laws notebook as an alternative to Vista. he loves it and can’t belive that it’s so fast and free.