Today is the day expected by many users of Ubuntu, as version 12.10 will be officially released (aka Quantal Quetzal), although I don't know why I get the impression that, unlike on other occasions, this release has not caused such a stir.
Along with all this, Mark Shuttleworth ha announced on his blog, that the next version of Ubuntu (the 13.04) will have as name Rare Ringtail, an animal that has not yet defined what it is exactly. This version will be focused directly on mobile devices, so it can now be seen more clearly where Canonical's strategy is heading.
What's new in Ubuntu 12.10
Web apps integration
Ubuntu 12.10 now includes an API in Unity that allows to integrate the websites with elements of the Ubuntu desktop such as access to the side launcher, to the system notifications, to the HUD or to the audio and messaging indicators, later we will show you examples of how you in your websites can achieve that integration with the desktop Unity. Here are some examples on Unity Web Appy 1.0.
Google Docs integration with HUD:
Dash with more features
Now from the Dash of Unity you can do operations like install and uninstall programs without opening the Software Center. You can view both local images and images on the Internet from services such as Facebook or Flickr, thanks to Unity Preview and Photo Lens included in this version, plus you can play and download music.
Viewing a Facebook photo from Dash
Unit Preview
Unity Preview allows to show more information from Unity lenses, activate with right click about what you want to expand, for example you can
- See a preview of a song or its discs, showing its cover and the possibility of playing its songs.
- You can also see a preview of the images and videos, both local and in the cloud, as well as with the applications installed or those suggested to install, of which you will see their icon, a screenshot (if you are connected to the Internet) and the description of the program.
Examples:
Preview of a game
Now in Unity Dash you will find new lenses, such as:
- PhotoLens: Allows you to search for our photographs both locally (which have been imported into Shotwell) or in the cloud (Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, etc).
- Gwibber lens: Also known as Social Lens, it allows access to our content from social networks, for example, Twitter Tweets, our contacts, Facebook messages, etc.
- Shopping Lenses: This Lens allows you to make purchases on the Internet from the Unity Dash, by showing suggestions at the end of searches. The exchange of information between the desktop and online searches are done through the secure https protocol.
More changes ...
- Unity 2D disappears, instead only Unity 3D will be used, but in PCs that Unity detects little graphic power, a special driver will be used for this purpose.
- The .iso image no longer fits on a CD, now it was decided to make space up to about 750 MB, so you should opt for the USB installation(I recommend using unetbootin) or by using a DVD. The cheapest and fastest is to install from a flash memory.
Application update
Ubuntu 12.10 updates the vast majority of the components on which it depends and its applications, among the most significant are: GNOME 3.6, except for some programs such as Nautilus which was kept in version 3.4, are also included Thunderbird and Firefox 16.0.1 as the default mail client and web browser, the 3.5.x kernel of the Linux kernel is now used, as well as Unity 6.8. The process of migration to Python 3.x of the applications installed by default.
Update us yes or no ..
Ubuntu releases versions with long-term support (LTS) every two years, which are the most stable versions, Ubuntu 12.10 starts a new cycle until the next LTS that will be released in April 2014, for this reason you must decide whether to continue with the stable Ubuntu 12.04 experience or migrate to 12.10 with all its new features but with little time for testing and bug fixing.
Personally in the previous LTS cycle I didn't have the best experience with 11.04 and 11.10 until 12.04 really polished a few things and the system was much more stable and faster. A wise decision is to give it at least a month before we update to this version to install a more polished system as its developers fix new bugs and these fixes arrive in our repositories.
in fact it has already been released 12.10
They have not yet mounted the Ubuntu one, but the Lubuntu one is: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/quantal/release/
Unity is becoming more and more beautiful. Now it makes me want to try it 🙂
Every time it seems heavier for netbook
See what happens when I finish updating
I installed gnome shell because unity consumes me 500 Mb more of ram memory and thanks to an entry in this blog I deactivate the scroll bars that it brings by default because they seem crappy to me and it is a pity that unity does not run as fast as gnome shell already that the two environments are beautiful and worthy of the best linux distro of all time
Thanks for the recommendation to wait at least a month 6 days ago almost a week I decided to use ubuntu for my school activities and Windows 7 for my school work (Visual C #) for the Data Structure subject, although I know that there is mono I am still not familiar with that software, that is why I will update after a month. I use Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome Shell
Try Zorin 5.2. It is not the latest version, but it is the best I have tried, with gnome 2.3, compiz pre installed and activated, light and very fast, fully configurable to personal taste, I do not plan to change to any other distro, because none of it equals and less exceeds.