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Ok, so I said that I was going to give the latest Ubuntu a go and that I did a while ago. Coming from a MS Windows point of view, I've always been accustomed to the next version being a big "upgrade" on the previous version. (Ok, this is a very controversial view seeing that it's not always true.) But, what I mean is that there were always pretty big changes. When it comes to Ubuntu, 6 months doesn't give a huge amount of time to introduce changes. So, it's a double edged sword - on the one hand it's the latest and greatest, but on the other, it's kinda more of the same. But in all fairness, I think their release cycle strategy gives the best of both worlds - those that want the absolute latest can have it and those that don't want to be upgrading every 6 months can stick to the LTS (Long Term Support) version. So, Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx is the LTS version and therefore is quite an important milestone as Canonical will be supporting it for the next 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server. But, does it live up the the hype?

Firstly, I'll concerntrate on the changes between 9.10 and then later for those upgrading from the previous LTS.

Pressing the power button had me booting into Ubuntu on an "average" machine in a timed 16 seconds. (with the obligatory disclaimer, "actual results may vary.") So far so good, very impressive... Once booted, There's no longer an Orange/brown theme - it's now a purple kinda hue. Not my favourite as mentioned before, but not a big deal. Three clicks and it's gone.

At some point there had been rumors of Gnome 3 possibly being in 10.04. Not so - It's currently still using the Gnome 2.30 interface. In other words, it doesn't look massively different from before. It's just slightly more refined. There are two more themes introduced called Ambiance and Radiance. They're OK, but I normally end up setting my own anyway. Interestingly, the close/ minimise/ maximise buttons have moved to the left hand side of the title bar à la Mac style. If that doesn't suite you (and personally, I'm used to it on the right) it can be changed however.

One of the bigger changes in terms of applications/functions is the social networking side. The "Me Menu" integrates with Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and ICQ, and allows users to broadcast to services like Facebook and Twitter via the built-in Empathy chat client and Gwibber microblogging client. A one stop shop for all social accounts could come in handy for many users and it's probably a big plus. There are also a few changes to applications - some added and Gimp removed. Interesting...

On the technical side, there have been improvements to hardware support, kernel etc, but overall it's not a massive change from 9.10. But as mentioned before, this being an LTS version, canonical probably doesn't want to introduce massive changes as they'd have to support it for a while.

So... The million $$$ question is... is it worth changing to the new 10.04? About two month's after giving it a go on another machine, I still haven't swapped from 9.10 to 10.04 on my primary work machine as yet. I found one or two small problems with it and the additional social functionality wasn't quite enough to warrant an upgrade to the new version. That said however, if you're new to Ubuntu/ Linux, it's definitely a brilliant operating system.

I heard about the Cooliris plugin for Firefox browser which allows you to "fly" through either online or local photos in 3D. It's easiest said in a video, so check it out below.
 
On my first attemp to install it, it looked like it wasn't supported on Linux. After a little looking around, I realised that it was just the latest version which wasn't supported, which is what the Firefox "Add-ons" wizard finds. (Windows works via the normal plugin download/install method)

If you're running Linux (or Mac), use the following link to install the last supported version of the plugin for your OS:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/5579

It worked pretty well as an image viewer for my local images, except that I had to start my browser, click on the Cooliris button and then change to a full screen view - about 2 clicks more that I should have to. Ok... I know, I'm being a bit difficult here, but I was wondering if I could use this plugin without it being obvious that it's running in a browser.

So... The following "hack" should be possible on any platform which will turn your plugin into an impressive image viewer. Firstly create new Firefox profile for this plugin to use.

On Windows, create a shortcut to Firefox (or execute in command prompt) and add the -P switch. IE. Execute "~/firefox installation path/ firefox.exe -P"
On Linux, simply type "firefox -P" in a Terminal.

This will launch a profile selection dialogue box. Create a new profile and name it something E.g. "Cooliris". Launch Firefox with the new profile created. You'll see that none of your bookmarks, installed plugins etc. are listed and that's because it's as if it's a "fresh" install and totally separate from your default profile.

Using the Tools>>Add Ons wizard download and install the "Full Screen 3.4" plugin which will allow us to start up in full screen mode, without any tool bars or tabs showing. Once that is finished install the Cooliris plugin for your respective machine as described above. You should be able to click on the Icon to the right of the Google search bar to give it a go. Now, Set the "Full Screen 3.4" preferences to open full screen and hide tabs by clicking on Tools>>Add Ons, selecting, "Extensions" tab, "Full Screen 3.4" and then "Preferences". Click on the Cooliris button to launch it and set the URL to your homepage in Firefox preferences/properties.      

Now that we've created a new profile specifically for using Cooliris, now you have to create a shortcut to use that specific profile. 

In Linux, create a shortcut to execute "firefox -P Cooliris". (Cooliris being the name of your profile created.)
In windows, create a shortcut to "~/firefox installation path/ firefox.exe -P Cooliris".

Clicking on this link should directly open the plugin in full screen mode, while using your standard Firefox shortcut will work as normal. 

As a sidenote, unfortunately, there is no exit button, so you either have to press "F11" and then click on exit or "Alt+F4", but it's not really a big deal.
Note, it seems as though you can't run two different instances of Firefox at the same time with different profiles. That is, you'll have to close one and open the other view.

Well... It's almost here - Ubuntu 10.04 aka Lucid Lynx. Tomorrow is the final launch and at a quick glance, it seems that they've changed more than I thought they would. Firstly, there's no more brown theme... it's now purple by default... Hmmmmm... not a fan of purple but we'll see what the community says.

But, forget the theme - that can easily be changed. By far the most important things happen under the skin. There's some interesting new apps and background improvements such as faster boot times, which is already very impressive and improved support for video drivers. A very interesting development is the inclusion of an online music store which integrates with the free 2Gb Ubuntu One online storage which all Ubuntu users already have. Then there is the online social networking integration into the OS which sounds very interesting. E.g. Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and others via the new "MeMenu".

I haven't installed it as yet on a machine as yet, but can't wait to get hold of it and try it out. This is one of my biggest problems with Ubuntu - As soon as a new release comes out, I have to get it immediately! I'll report back sometime soon.

Found a very cool Windows 8 mock-up done in Flash called the "Copenhagen Concept". Hopefully MS can incorporate some of these ideas into the next Windows 8.

I was discussing, OK, maybe arguing, with my Windows/MS centric colleague the merits of Ubuntu v.s. Windows the other day. I know... it's an age old debate, but fun nonetheless. He made the statement that Windows is easy to use and that's what users want, they don't want to struggle with Linux. And I don't disagree with him, at least on the point that an OS must be easy to use, but where I don't, is that Ubuntu isn't user friendly. (I won't comment on other distros as they admittedly can be very difficult.) The one point that I will generally concede is that the standard look and feel of Windows beats Ubuntu hands down. OK, maybe this is an unfair comparison as Ubuntu is intended to run on a very wide spectrum of hardware and therefore they deliberately excluded the eye candy. But, it's relatively easy to transform Ubuntu to pretty much anything you want. Ubuntu is pretty easy to use, but because it looks different from Windows, this can lead to resistance to change.

This got me thinking a little... Well, what if the system looked and for the most part, functioned exactly the same as some given version of windows? This would negate the argument of which OS looked better as they would both be virtually exactly the same and to some degree which is "easier" to use. The look of the OS to some people is important. Admittedly, I do care that it looks "right" even though this isn't the only reason for my use of Ubuntu. Up to now, I'd been pretty much of the "Linux isn't Windows and therefore shouldn't look like it" opinion, but I started looking at how to transform my OS into a Windows clone, just to see how close I could get it. With a quick search, I found a set of scripts that made Ubuntu look virtually exactly the same. I even ran a "test" against some chosen subjects, showing them my new "Windows 7"... As they all know me as being a total Linux convert, they looked a little suspiciously at my screen and took a few moments to realise that it wasn't Windows 7. The give-away was generally the application names in the menu. But, nonetheless it was kinda hard to tell. Ok, I admit there are still differences that a user would have to get used to, but nothing rocket science.

So, if my Ubuntu looks virtually exactly the same as Windows 7, is Windows "easier" to use?

I'm finally beginning to describe myself as being OS agnostic. Some of my colleagues may scoff at that listening to the way I've gone on about Windows vs. Linux, but I really don't "hate" Windows or Microsoft. I've used their products for many years and admit that they have some without an equally good (or better) alternative. I just choose to use Ubuntu instead in most instances.

Ok, so now that that has been established, I believe that the world is going to be moving in the "OS agnostic" direction over the next few years. What I find it interesting is the need for companies to reposition themselves over the next few years in order to remain current. One of the "hallmarks" of the 70's computing era was that most computers were "dumb terminals"; all the processing happened server-side. And today, we are slowly moving back to that in certain instances. For many people, much of their computer-based work happens through the browser and they don't really need that many client-side applications. Even the office suite which has been the staple of most computer needs over the past two decades has started moving online. There are a number of options available including Feng Office, Google docs and even Microsoft is half way there with Office-live. With regards to Microsoft, They've got a distinct advantage in that they are so dominant in the "Office market" that all other "Office" applications have to pretty much conform to their standards or they wouldn't easily be even considered. And that includes me! I hate receiving an emailed document from someone (or sending one), only to find out that the formatting looks weird or has some compatibility issues. Therefore, I've ended up installing Microsoft Office on my Ubuntu. OK, I digress... For many people this is the killer, but as standards are being defined for most areas of I.T., including the open document standard and Office Open XML standard, it will matter less and less in terms of what you use to get the job done.

The adoption of cloud computing/ "Software as a Service"/web applications is going to reduce the importance of which OS you use over the next few years. So where is MS going? They're going to have to focus their attention on applications instead. I don't think that they can really avoid reduced importance in terms of OS choice if most apps are online. They're going to have to come up with some pretty inventive strategies in order to keep their users "locked" to Windows.