Karmic Koala available now

[jwmorrice]

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/23/ubuntu_9point10_rc/
Karmic Koala RC drops into the wild
Small bugs, no biggie
By Austin Modine
Posted in Operating Systems, 23rd October 2009 17:38 GMT

Can't wait a week to get your hands on Karmic Koala? Canonical on Thursday issued the release candidate of its latest Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu 9.10.

Unlike earlier builds targeting hardened testers, the Ubuntu team want as many users as possible to try out the penultimate push of 9.10 before the general release set for Thursday, October 29.

"We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user," Ubuntu developer Steve Langasek wrote in a mailing list announcement (https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2009-October/000126.html). He added that there are a still small number of known bugs in the RC that will be fixed before final release, which are listed here (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910overview#Known issues).

Ubuntu 9.10 comes default with Ubuntu One (https://one.ubuntu.com/), an online storage and file-sharing service with a free-of-charge 2GB of storage that's upgradable to 50GB for $10 per month.

The new version also uses the new version 2.6.31 of the Linux Kernel, boasts faster boot times, and sports the Ext4 filesystem by default which supports larger volume sized and more subdirectories than Ext3. We took a closer look at Karmic Koala's new features and performance gains based on an earlier beta build earlier of this month. Check it out. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/ubuntu_karmic_koala_beta/)

Folks interested can download Ubuntu 9.10 release candidate images now from Ubuntu's website (http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/). ®

 

[WoodPeckr]

Thanks for the post

I'll wait for the final release.

Wonder how much quicker boot up will be with KK 9.10?
JJ 9.04 boots in < 1 minute.

Anyone using the new Ext4 filesystem?
I'm still using Ext3. Wanted to wait till Ext4 was debugged more.

 

[islandman4567]

I just downloaded 9.04 , I haven't even tried it yet.

now I don't know if should try out 9.04 first or just go straight to 9.10.

 

[WoodPeckr]

It's a toss up islandman4567.
9.04 won't take long to install unless it goes on an older PC.
On a newer PC it will take 10-15 minutes to install then ~20 minutes to update, then you're good to go.

Then when 9.10 is released the same should apply.

 

[jwmorrice]

Dual booting Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7 Pro

I'm dual booting Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7 on an AMD quadcore with 4 gigs of DDR3 ram. Both were clean installs. First and superficial impressions: I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in the former. I don't think it will give anyone a reason to become a new user.

Ubuntu boot up times seem for have slowed while W7 seems quicker than XP. However, I haven't taken out a watch to actually check that impression. Too lazy to do so. (That's some lazy, isn't it?)

For the first time ever, I was doing something with Ubuntu and got a message that there was some sort of instability in the kernel and would I allow a report to be sent in. Did so. And yes, I do realize that KK 9.10 isn't yet in its final release version. I haven't had any problems since then and Ubuntu seems to be doing its job but still....a little unnerving.

I suppose most of the Ubuntu improvements are under the hood. The wow factor certainly isn't there. With W7, it is. I just might be spending a little more time using Mr. Bill's pretty new product. However, W7 has its problems too. Using HMDI, it wouldn't use all the space on my 24" lcd at the recommended resolutions. I had to turn down the resolution ever so slightly to get it to fill the entire screen. W7 also wouldn't recognize my Vantec external enclosure for a Blu-ray drive for some minutes and then only after a number of tries. Perhaps a search for drivers was on? Anyway, my old XP Pro had done so immediately.

jwm

 

[WoodPeckr]

For the first time ever, I was doing something with Ubuntu and got a message that there was some sort of instability in the kernel and would I allow a report to be sent in. Did so. And yes, I do realize that KK 9.10 isn't yet in its final release version. I haven't had any problems since then and Ubuntu seems to be doing its job but still....a little unnerving.

That's pretty much SOP when trying a beta release. I used to get them when trying out some beta versions in the past. Ubuntu wants to know about any problem you may have, even a minor hiccup......no big whup...

I still get some of them messages once in awhile from Opera 10 even thought Opera 10 is out of beta. Opera 10 still has a couple bugs they need to resolve with Ubuntu 9.04.