Jaunty Jackalone - Ubuntu 9.04 - Easy install - So easy.

So twice a year I get excited about the latest Ubuntu release and it’s that time of year again. For the past three release cycles I have treated the Release Candidate as “good to go”.

Every release of Ubuntu impresses me in one way or another, but 9.04 is for me a landmark. While the changes are subtle, this is by far the biggest leap in terms of polished and presentable.

Unlike Microsoft and Apple major releases, and this is going to mess with your brain, when a new version of Ubuntu comes out you don’t have to go and buy new hardware to keep up. Quite the opposite. The old machine in your cupboard is MORE likely to be useful again with a new version of the operating system. Wild.

8:10 in October didn’t pack a massive punch for me. Sure, it was easy to install, worked really well out of the box with little grief, but so did 8.04 in April 2008 so no big wow factor there.

What makes 9.04 so different is how it feels like it’s all grown up. Here are the highlights:

Smooth Fonts

Ubuntu has never looked so good. Font smoothing is a very subtle thing. You don’t really see it unless it’s great. That’s why a web page looks better on a Mac - but now Ubuntu is right up there.

Boot time

This is being bounced around alot - and it’s pretty darn brisk. To give an idea of performance, from grub (linux starting to come to life after the machine has found itself) to login for me is 11 seconds! That translates to about 25 or so seconds to go from power on to completely ready to work when auto-login is enabled. That’s so so fast.

Performance: EXT4 File system and video rendering

There is a feeling of overall briskness that comes with Jaunty. It’s just quick. It feels quick. Two major components of that are support for EXT4 file systems and better video rendering. I don’t have metrics, but this baby just feels BRISK.