Ubuntu Auto Upgrade

When I got up this morning the last thing I thought of doing was upgrading Linux on my laptop. After all upgrading Linux can be an all day affair. First you've got to download the .iso file, then burn a CD or 2, or 3. Then of course you'd better back everything up before you start. In fact some server distros don't even let you upgrade, but require a clean install each time. Then prepare for lot's of stuff not working, and to have to reapply all your preferences etc.

So when I popped open my laptop and was greeted with a little dialog that said "Ubuntu 11.0.4 is available, would you like to upgrade now?", I wasn't quite sure what to think. I made a full backup recently so I said sure, go for it. It promptly gave me a list of so may packages to be upgraded, so many new packages, and a few obsolete packages to remove. Among the obsolete packages was Open Office which has been replaced with Libre Office. Then it started downloading packages in the background. I could have kept using the computer while it did but I had other things to do. I checked back occasionally and it took about 45 minutes to download over my slow wireless connection.

I fully expected that once it was ready to install packages I'd have to logout so it would have exclusive control of the machine, the same way MacOS and Windows does for updates. But no, it just started doing it in the background, leaving my session active. When I checked back about a half hour later it said it was time to reboot. I did so and when it came up it seemed to sit at the splash screen for a long time. I immediately thought, ah hah it's broken. I'll have to hack in as single user and fix it, after all its Linux. But no the login soon came up and I was in.

In my mind this really raises the bar for desktop OSs. Do you think Microsoft or Apple could ever do this? The first problem for them is they're tied to the CD method because you have to buy new versions and that's the only way you can get them. Apple could use the Mac App Store to let you pay for the upgrade, and then do it this way, but I wouldn't hold my breath for that. So in this regard Ubuntu is far ahead of the big boys, and certainly the other Linux distros.

Unity Desktop

Just a few quick notes on this as there have been plenty of reviews. I had read the reviews and I assumed the first thing I would do is turn off unity and go back to the Gnome desktop. (In fact I would like to try Gnome3). When Unity first came up I said "oh cute it's a dock'. Actually the first thing to come to mind was not the MacOS dock but that of WindowMaker my favorite light weight Linux desktop environment. Of course WindowMaker and MacOS docks are both based on NextStep, so Steve Jobs must be really getting a kick out of Unity. The cool thing about the dock in WIndowMaker are all the little dock apps. These are little apps to show the CPU status, the weather, or display a clock or calendar. There have been attempts to create these for MacOS but they never caught on. I hope someone ports them to Unity.

The next tip-of-the-hat to Apple is the 'one menu bar to rule them all'. After it seemed Microsoft had won the battle of every window shall have it's own menu bar, it's nice to see someone coming around to Apple's way. Next you'll see one button mice for Unity. I like the unified menu bar, but I'm not sure about every app coming up in full screen. This is not a Netbook. I've got 1600 pixels here, I don't need every app taking up all that space, especially my browser since most websites are using a fixed width 960 width these days. I'd rater look at my desktop picture then all that white space in the browser window. Unity was developed for Netbooks where you need full screen. I'm not sure if forcing it on a larger screen laptop or desktop is really that smart.

And of course there is the issue of trying to make it easier to non-techies by making it harder to do things. To find my monitor resolution for the above paragraph, i had to use the search feature in the Applications app. I had to know it was called Monitors because it doesn't show on any menus. There is not even a preferences menu. If they persist in dumbing down Linux they will loose users to other distros, because let's face it Linux users aren't dumb and don't want a dumbed down system.

For now I'll probably stick with Unity as long as it doesn't get in my way. All I really need is a browser and a terminal and they work fine, So other than my few gripes above I'd have to say "Good job Conanical, Ubuntu 11.0.4 is a winner".