Ubuntu Kicks

I’ve been a linux user for quite a while now (since 1999, when I studied mechanical engineering in Bangalore), and have had Mandriva 2008.1 before trying Ubuntu 7.10. My computer is no stranger to Ubuntu, because I installed and configured Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on my laptop (Lenovo 3000 N 100) last year. Since then, I had heard of Compiz Fusion and Beryl and the rest of them, and had expected that some persistent problems (especially those related to screen resolution, browser speed and Wireless connections) would be fixed in later editions.

Before I arrived in the US, I decided to make my computer an All-XP machine, which worked well by freeing up NTFS filespace for me, since I didn’t carry an external hard drive when travelling. This meant that I had to uninstall Ubuntu, which I did (I still didn’t find it indispensable, or hadn’t made a full switch to Linux then). By mid 2006 I had found OpenOffice.org to be a pretty capable office suite, admittedly one of the key components of any modern operating system. The qualms I had with Ubuntu 6.06 was that it was not particularly geared for users of laptops. I found the same stumbling blocks which made other Linux distributions unusable, in Ubuntu 6.06. What I loved about Ubuntu was the simple user interface, the instant usability of things and the fact that certain very simple console commands mae software management very simple and hassle free.

Ubuntu was still not ready for the big league of operating systems even though it was more secure, stable when compared to Windows XP, had a great selection of free packages, etc. because of irritating glitches like screen resolution problems, problems detecting native hardware for wireless cards and web cams.

By the time I tried Mandriva in November last year, I was enthused about Linux again because of the rapid advances made in fixing some of these persistent problems. When I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 7.04 last week, I was pleasantly surprised to find a high quality interface with advanced desktop effects and support for much of my (now old) laptop’s hardware. What’s more, it ran pretty snappily, except for in situations where Firefox would freeze (a common problem with all Firefox 2.0.x and sometimes with Firefox 3 Betas) or when I had cranked up the effects to a level where my humble and technologically inferior Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics card couldn’t handle it. Admittedly, the widening performance gap between Intel-NVidia powered computers and Intel-Intel powered computers is significant, and Ubuntu, being geared to use these high end cards well, performed slowly when scaled up. Never would I say that it slowed down to a standstill – I’d say that running advanced effects made working slower than usual. When I turned the effects (Compiz Fusion) down, I noticed snappy performance. The great thing about Ubuntu is that the performance is very good even on older machines like my laptop.

Most software that came installed with Ubuntu were useful, there was not that much noticeable bloat in the distribution (as is often observed in Windows). I have the following qualms about my experiences so far:

1. Firefox is beginning to have major slowdowns and crashes. Firefox shows significant memory leaks in version 2.0.x, and I have had fairly unpleasant browsing experiences in Firefox 2 in Windows. The problem exists in Linux too. Sadly, the problem exists not only in Firefox, but also in Flock, which was my browser alternative to Firefox. Something should be done to reduce Firefox’s bloat, memory leak problems and address pressing issues of reducing speed. Firefox is the primary browser for Ubuntu Linux. It would be advantageous if there were options in the choice of browsers – not options based on the existing Mozilla engine, but a completely re-written browser, from scratch. The only way to make Firefox better is through solid competition.
2. Scrolling speeds and You Tube integration in Opera and Firefox. While Opera is atleast 90% as good as Firefox, it scores low on aspects of OS integration and Java integration. A most irritating problem with both browsers is the fact that they slow down significantly when scrolling and when rendering movies. Any fixes for these? Admittedly the rendering of movies in Firefox and Opera when running Windows is far better and the whole browsing experience far smoother.
3. The audio drivers for Intel 950 suck. They suck pretty badly, as a matter of fact. The trouble is that there are the ALSA, OSS and eSound sound drivers for linux, none of which work well – essentially an embarrassment of sound drivers. Can’t there be one concerted, unified effort for Ubuntu sound drivers, which could also be ported and used to other platforms?
4. The audio management tool which helps swap drivers does not recognize headphones or other plugged in speakers automatically. There is an external amplifier switch that needs to be turned on. No one in their right minds would listen to both onboard and external speakers at the same time, yet, this is what I find happening sometimes, when I forget to disable the external amplifier. Can we have a fix for this, please?
5. Compiz fusion has its issues – the advanced settings manager doesn’t open half the time, and when I finally did manage to get it open, it screwed up the settings and didn’t run some of the commands.
6. Doesn’t play MP3s by default. There is a workaround which most people use to good effect, though. The solution to this problem was easy – Ubuntu automatically recommended third party plugins that I could choose to install an the issue was fixed. However, since the sound quality is not as high as in Windows, the music experience in general was rather lower in quality.
7. The default movie player (Totem) should be scrapped in favour of VLC. Totem doesn’t do much with any kind of format you throw at it, and doesn’t use multiple channels of sound off the sound driver/system. There’s nothing in favour of Totem, really and while Rhythmbox manages to hold its own in cataloguing media files, I’d prefer VLC over both of these any day.

But for these shortcomings (or rather “annoyances”), Ubuntu was extremely stable, a joy to run, with a great interface and a good collection of open source software. I’d say 8.5 points on 10! Having used Vista on a friend’s computer and seen the myriad issues, I might stay away from Vista until Windows 7 releases – which, I speculate, may be able to hold a candle to Ubuntu. Then again, who knows how far Ubuntu will have gone by then!