Is Karmic Koala Ubuntu’s Vista?

By , Published November 5, 2009

To answer the title: no it’s not, but since the release of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala only one week ago the blog-o-sphere, forums and opinion-pieces on various sites have been ringing loud with hate, disappointment and even death-baited breath for this latest release.

Has Karmic really been that bad?
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Looking at reports on tech sites you’d think so: –

And on the UbuntuForums things look even bleaker with thread after thread running into page after page of people decrying Karmic: –

Of course, those for whom things have been less than pleasant will be far more vocal than those who have experienced very few, if any, issues.

The Issues
So what is all the fuss about? The main issues people seem to be having with Karmic are as follows: –

  • Graphics Issues – Mainly, it seems, with those using ATi Drivers
  • Flickering Screens
  • Dead displays
  • X not starting
  • Encryption not working
  • Upgrading from Jaunty causes issues/errors/fails

Many of these issues are likely hardware specific – Ubuntu has no control over 3rd party drivers other than trying to ensure they work fine and if they don’t tweak the system around them to make sure they do.

It is fair, however, to say that Karmic does come with a few more bugs than usual. This is part-and-parcel of the new technologies present in Karmic that are new and largely untested in a “mainstream” environment.

Karmic itself came with more than 40 known bugs. These include: –

  • No USB devices work on MSI Wind netbooks, plus flickering graphics
  • Hibernation unavailable with automatic partitioning
  • System won't boot with converted ext4 file system
  • X server crashes when using a Wacom tablet

If people are using a normal point release and not expecting bugs or regression in places then they should really stick to the LTS releases – that’s what they’re there for. You can’t use the latest applications and updates without expecting some bugs here and there.

It’s also pretty rush judgment to criticize a release one week after release for having bugs. Bugs have to be found before they can be fixed!

So Just How Many Users Are Having Issues?
In an oft-quoted poll on the UbuntuForums almost 35% of people have experienced serious problems when installing/upgrading to Karmic that they’ve yet to solve. 33% experienced issues that they were able to fix and 32% had a flawless time!

This poll is very evenly spread between flawless and grumblesville but 35% of people using Karmic who can’t fix their issues/broken systems is a shocking figure.

Or is it?

No different to Jaunty, better than Intrepid
In the same poll conducted back when Jaunty was released the percentage of people who had irreparable issues? Almost 33%.

The number of people who’s install was flawless? 30%.

Those in the middle? Nigh-on 37%.

If we go further back and look at Intrepid then by comparison Karmic looks like a stunning success!

  • Flawless: 21%
  • Some issues: 35%
  • Awful: 44%

So what can we conclude from all this?

Expectations = Fail
Ubuntu is, without a doubt, the biggest and most popular version of Linux around. It has a passionate, popular and vocal community.

To a lot of Ubuntu users each successive release of Ubuntu is supposed to be the latest, greatest and nicest to use. They expect new applications, new features and an even more stable environment. That just isn’t the reality of Ubuntu releases – this isn’t Windows where you get one big update every few years, these are incremental 6 month updates. They can’t bring revolution every time and that aggrieves a lot of casual users expectations and this disappointment ensues and tiny trivial issues get blown up into giant unsolvable glitches.

Karmic Koala was never proclaimed to be a revolution of a release, yet it was clear from the outset that a heap of new technologies was going into it. The math just wasn’t done by some.

Credit where credits due
With all of that said, Karmic Koala is a milestone in my eyes. It has been nothing but stable, easy to use and – perhaps most importantly – it is a joy to use it.

There has also been a considerable amount of positive coverage of Karmic Koala:-

5 Reasons why Ubuntu 9.10 is better than Windows 7 - ComputerWorld
Ubuntu 9.10 Testdrive – 8/10 – TheInquirer
Karmic Review 4/5 - DesktopLinuxReview

For those whom it hasn’t been as plain sailing just remember to report your bug, go to the UbuntuForums and get some help and don’t consider your issues irreparable out of frustration – these things happen!

Edit:
Before commenting please read the entire article so you don’t jump to conclusions or false assumptions about my position on this.


I am reporting on the dissatisfaction that is starting to become a loud chorus and attracting mainstream media attention. 
Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Now Available To Download
  2. Karmic Koala Beta Released Today (Now Live)
  3. Karmic Koala Alpha 5 Released
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  • Hatem

    Surprised to see this post. I haven’t experienced any problems at all.

    Then again, I have an nvidia card and did a fresh install (did not have a previous version of Ubuntu on this laptop), so maybe I’m one of the lucky ones.

  • Hatem

    Surprised to see this post. I haven’t experienced any problems at all.

    Then again, I have an nvidia card and did a fresh install (did not have a previous version of Ubuntu on this laptop), so maybe I’m one of the lucky ones.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I’m firmly in Kamp Koala believe me, but i needed to bring this up as the grumbles of unhappy users gets louder and louder.

      • Mohan

        I think it’s good you bring it up, nothing is perfect. As these kinds of stuff gets out the better Ubuntu becomes. I had bad good installs and bad installs in the past 4 years of Ubuntu usage and for me 9.10 was the best and 9.04 was pretty down there with being bad.

      • Mohan

        I think it’s good you bring it up, nothing is perfect. As these kinds of stuff gets out the better Ubuntu becomes. I had bad good installs and bad installs in the past 4 years of Ubuntu usage and for me 9.10 was the best and 9.04 was pretty down there with being bad.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I’m firmly in Kamp Koala believe me, but i needed to bring this up as the grumbles of unhappy users gets louder and louder.

  • cloudscream

    Oh man. The review of Linux-mag.com is written very poorly. Does Fedora, Mandrake, OpenSuse and other Linux distro support every driver out-of-the-box? Of course not. Then the author says that Ubuntu gives Linux a bad name because of that?
    I’m sensing that the author of that review was writing out of envy or he is just trolling.

  • cloudscream

    Oh man. The review of Linux-mag.com is written very poorly. Does Fedora, Mandrake, OpenSuse and other Linux distro support every driver out-of-the-box? Of course not. Then the author says that Ubuntu gives Linux a bad name because of that?
    I’m sensing that the author of that review was writing out of envy or he is just trolling.

  • Anonymous

    i haven’t experienced any problems as well (having an nvidia and on fresh install on alpha6 release)

    actually i have seen many improvements. mounting/unmounting drives works WAY better now, never getting an error any more like i was getting in EVERY release before karmic (started at 7.04)

    also everything work faster (boot time as well) even though i have more apps installed and the compiz profile i use is way more resource-needy

    Sound works perfectly as well, something that was half true on other releases

    Karmic is by far the best release ever in terms of speed and stability , or maybe i’m one of the lucky ones (as Hatem said )

  • Anonymous

    i haven’t experienced any problems as well (having an nvidia and on fresh install on alpha6 release)

    actually i have seen many improvements. mounting/unmounting drives works WAY better now, never getting an error any more like i was getting in EVERY release before karmic (started at 7.04)

    also everything work faster (boot time as well) even though i have more apps installed and the compiz profile i use is way more resource-needy

    Sound works perfectly as well, something that was half true on other releases

    Karmic is by far the best release ever in terms of speed and stability , or maybe i’m one of the lucky ones (as Hatem said )

  • Diego, from Brazil

    I installed Karmic on my work notebook (a Dell Latitude 630), my eeepC 1000H and my home’s desktop (P4 w/ ASUS mb) flawlessly. My only work were to configure my accounts (MSN, Twitter, etc) and desktop customizations. I dont understand the complain, this is trolling for me.

    Karmic it is certainly true choice and a great competitor to Win7 and even Mac OS.

    • zork

      Trolling? See, this is why I stopped caring about Linux. Too many rude, arrogant and fanatical Linux users. Try to get help with a problem, and all one gets is hostility.

      • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

        You stopped caring about Linux and still read this blog? mmmhhhh….

  • Diego, from Brazil

    I installed Karmic on my work notebook (a Dell Latitude 630), my eeepC 1000H and my home’s desktop (P4 w/ ASUS mb) flawlessly. My only work were to configure my accounts (MSN, Twitter, etc) and desktop customizations. I dont understand the complain, this is trolling for me.

    Karmic it is certainly true choice and a great competitor to Win7 and even Mac OS.

  • Yuri

    I haven’t had any problems, is perfect. I believe that the high percentage in the polls is a liar, because those that didn’t have any problem don’t search for solution, and less answers those polls.

    Koala Rules!

  • Yuri

    I haven’t had any problems, is perfect. I believe that the high percentage in the polls is a liar, because those that didn’t have any problem don’t search for solution, and less answers those polls.

    Koala Rules!

  • http://www.linuxmint.com/ Jimbo

    I’ll play devils advocate by saying OS X is the best polished OS out there. When snow leopard came out (which is not a radical rewrite like most OS X updates are) there was a bunch of problems people faced. My friend has sworn to switch to Win7 from OS X because of some of the bugs he faced.

    My point being, anyone who installs an OS on day one will face potential problems. This is not an Ubuntu issue, or even a Linux problem. This is just what happens. If Snow Leopard can be buggy then so can Ubuntu.

    Canonical make the issue seem worse than it is because they encourage people to upgrade every 6 months. Ultimately I think the 6 month upgrade cycle goes against the ‘Linux for human beings’ thing. It was OK in the beginning when Ubuntu needed a lot of turn around to innovate, but now it is a mature competitor to Window it needs to steady the ship. I think in the near future Canonical will make the LTS release the de facto release and hide the 6 month releases away from average downloaders, making them strictly for hardcore Linux geeks. I think they will probably do this for 12.04 once the GNOME 3.0 transition is over.

  • http://www.linuxmint.com/ Jimbo

    I’ll play devils advocate by saying OS X is the best polished OS out there. When snow leopard came out (which is not a radical rewrite like most OS X updates are) there was a bunch of problems people faced. My friend has sworn to switch to Win7 from OS X because of some of the bugs he faced.

    My point being, anyone who installs an OS on day one will face potential problems. This is not an Ubuntu issue, or even a Linux problem. This is just what happens. If Snow Leopard can be buggy then so can Ubuntu.

    Canonical make the issue seem worse than it is because they encourage people to upgrade every 6 months. Ultimately I think the 6 month upgrade cycle goes against the ‘Linux for human beings’ thing. It was OK in the beginning when Ubuntu needed a lot of turn around to innovate, but now it is a mature competitor to Window it needs to steady the ship. I think in the near future Canonical will make the LTS release the de facto release and hide the 6 month releases away from average downloaders, making them strictly for hardcore Linux geeks. I think they will probably do this for 12.04 once the GNOME 3.0 transition is over.

    • http://www.powermite.blogspot.com/ powermite

      You’ve got a good prediction/idea here…

    • Zac

      Maybe. One thing that will help in this is the Software Centre. I am hoping it will be easy to install upgrades to application/packages, and updates the drivers simply and reliably.

  • farrell

    Having installed the Koala on several different systems, the only bad thing I’ve come across are the reviews. Everything really worked like a charm, I can literally see improvements from any older Ubuntu release.

    Dammit, the Koala is far from being Vista!

  • farrell

    Having installed the Koala on several different systems, the only bad thing I’ve come across are the reviews. Everything really worked like a charm, I can literally see improvements from any older Ubuntu release.

    Dammit, the Koala is far from being Vista!

  • Harsh

    TBH karmic has done nothing but crash for me since alpha1 and it still does in the final release. Within a few minutes of booting, it just locksup.

    But i agree it depends on the hardware. I have it installed on my brothers computer and it works great, best version of Ubuntu yet!

    I have also tried Fedora 12 beta 1 and it also freezes in exactly the same way. Which leads to me to believe that most of Ubuntu’s bugs people are moaning about are upstream bugs and not Ubuntu specific. So people who say Ubuntu is making linux look bad are just talking utter BS!

  • Harsh

    TBH karmic has done nothing but crash for me since alpha1 and it still does in the final release. Within a few minutes of booting, it just locksup.

    But i agree it depends on the hardware. I have it installed on my brothers computer and it works great, best version of Ubuntu yet!

    I have also tried Fedora 12 beta 1 and it also freezes in exactly the same way. Which leads to me to believe that most of Ubuntu’s bugs people are moaning about are upstream bugs and not Ubuntu specific. So people who say Ubuntu is making linux look bad are just talking utter BS!

  • Rico

    I’m on the unlucky side. I have a Dell XPS M1710 and a Siemens-Fujitsu ST5112 TabletPC, they were working pretty well on Jaunty, but now I’ve got sound problems on the Dell, and gaphic card problems on the TabletPC.
    I think the main problems are not the new bugs, but the regressions, this is what can really piss a lot of people, to have a working computer turned into a toaster after an upgrade.
    Anyway I don’t think i’ll downgrade to Jaunty, as the only way to fix those things.. is to work with karmic, filling bugs, finding workarounds, etc and hoping that many of these issuses will be fixed in time for the next LTS.
    I always see non LTS releases more as development previews, so those glitches don’t really surprise me. And even with those problems.. i won’t switch to another distro, or OS.. i’m too comfy on ubuntu now (you now this when you try SUPER+SpaceBar watching the dock on OSX and thinking the system is broken)

  • Rico

    I’m on the unlucky side. I have a Dell XPS M1710 and a Siemens-Fujitsu ST5112 TabletPC, they were working pretty well on Jaunty, but now I’ve got sound problems on the Dell, and gaphic card problems on the TabletPC.
    I think the main problems are not the new bugs, but the regressions, this is what can really piss a lot of people, to have a working computer turned into a toaster after an upgrade.
    Anyway I don’t think i’ll downgrade to Jaunty, as the only way to fix those things.. is to work with karmic, filling bugs, finding workarounds, etc and hoping that many of these issuses will be fixed in time for the next LTS.
    I always see non LTS releases more as development previews, so those glitches don’t really surprise me. And even with those problems.. i won’t switch to another distro, or OS.. i’m too comfy on ubuntu now (you now this when you try SUPER+SpaceBar watching the dock on OSX and thinking the system is broken)

  • Carl

    wow, really? i have had more issues with any other version of Ubuntu than this one (which is right at none). there are hardware specifics i can’t expect to be perfect such as Macbook Pro keyboard lighting, no dual video card and headphone support. but really those things are so minimal i didn’t even look into them because the other areas of improvement are so great. actual working sound, decent synaptics, no driver issues and so on.

    its so much better than i am using it exclusively on my macbook pro now.

  • Carl

    wow, really? i have had more issues with any other version of Ubuntu than this one (which is right at none). there are hardware specifics i can’t expect to be perfect such as Macbook Pro keyboard lighting, no dual video card and headphone support. but really those things are so minimal i didn’t even look into them because the other areas of improvement are so great. actual working sound, decent synaptics, no driver issues and so on.

    its so much better than i am using it exclusively on my macbook pro now.

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    the problem is simply that every Ubuntu version takes about a month after mainstream to be fully usable (less bugs) PLUS in Karmic the system startup process completely changed GRUB, UPSTART, XSplash and this isn’t something small.but i think that Mark Shuttleworth expected this and tried to just do it to allow the developers to see the bugs and fix it for the long-term release which is more important, and lucky for us that Ubuntu will be reborn again with after 6 month, not like vista after Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    the problem is simply that every Ubuntu version takes about a month after mainstream to be fully usable (less bugs) PLUS in Karmic the system startup process completely changed GRUB, UPSTART, XSplash and this isn’t something small.but i think that Mark Shuttleworth expected this and tried to just do it to allow the developers to see the bugs and fix it for the long-term release which is more important, and lucky for us that Ubuntu will be reborn again with after 6 month, not like vista after Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars

  • http://twitter.com/nloudon1 Nathan Loudon

    I have only experienced minimal issues. The kind I usually get when installing the latest Ubuntu. It takes a little while to set up, but once it’s there it’s stable (which it is for me right now). I have seen these posts on every new version of Ubuntu, but somehow people get over it and it all works out eventually.

  • http://twitter.com/nloudon1 Nathan Loudon

    I have only experienced minimal issues. The kind I usually get when installing the latest Ubuntu. It takes a little while to set up, but once it’s there it’s stable (which it is for me right now). I have seen these posts on every new version of Ubuntu, but somehow people get over it and it all works out eventually.

  • Joko Kendheel

    karmic is the best ubuntu ever

  • Joko Kendheel

    karmic is the best ubuntu ever

    • Joko Gendeng

      I have network problem in karmic, but of course it didn’t stop me, after searching for fix, I finally enjoy ubuntu karmic.

    • Joko Gendeng

      I have network problem in karmic, but of course it didn’t stop me, after searching for fix, I finally enjoy ubuntu karmic.

  • Anonymous

    I had a problem upon a clean install with Karmic, and it’s kind of left its mark on me. The installer couldn’t see my hard drive, which meant re-installing Jaunty and getting the image for the alternative installer, which could see my hard drive.Other problems I’ve been having are with the keys for repositories – they never validate! I’ve added a few and they all fail, even default karmic ones that come with it don’t work! I’ve not been adding them manually, as it uses the new ppa:/application-name/ppa system.I’ve not any problems after that, though. I think this is the first time I’ve not had a single, even minor problem, with sound, so congrats with that!

    Edit: One thing to add – Empathy replacing Pidgin to me was the strangest decision ever! Calling it basic is an overstatement! You can’t send files on it (on the MSN network anyway, which is the only network that is used in the UK AFAIK), plus when you receive a new message on a new conversation, it doesn’t open a chat window! I could carry on with a list of things that it’s lacking, but I won’t bore you with my rant. :P

  • Anonymous

    I had a problem upon a clean install with Karmic, and it’s kind of left its mark on me. The installer couldn’t see my hard drive, which meant re-installing Jaunty and getting the image for the alternative installer, which could see my hard drive.Other problems I’ve been having are with the keys for repositories – they never validate! I’ve added a few and they all fail, even default karmic ones that come with it don’t work! I’ve not been adding them manually, as it uses the new ppa:/application-name/ppa system.I’ve not any problems after that, though. I think this is the first time I’ve not had a single, even minor problem, with sound, so congrats with that!

    Edit: One thing to add – Empathy replacing Pidgin to me was the strangest decision ever! Calling it basic is an overstatement! You can’t send files on it (on the MSN network anyway, which is the only network that is used in the UK AFAIK), plus when you receive a new message on a new conversation, it doesn’t open a chat window! I could carry on with a list of things that it’s lacking, but I won’t bore you with my rant. :P

  • http://olympicletting.com/ Andrew

    Fair and balanced. I do not have much experience of Ubuntu pre-Jaunty and even then only on a VM on my Mac and also as the settled OS on my Asus eee 900.

    The upgrade on the eee and VM worked like a dream.

    But any system where you so actively have to manage permissions so that you can copy and paste files around is never going to win Windows users over.

    It’s a decent, solid OS, perfect for my uses on the devices on which I choose to install it.

  • http://olympicletting.com/ Andrew

    Fair and balanced. I do not have much experience of Ubuntu pre-Jaunty and even then only on a VM on my Mac and also as the settled OS on my Asus eee 900.

    The upgrade on the eee and VM worked like a dream.

    But any system where you so actively have to manage permissions so that you can copy and paste files around is never going to win Windows users over.

    It’s a decent, solid OS, perfect for my uses on the devices on which I choose to install it.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve been using karmic since the beta series and I’m more than pleased with it. Hardware works perfect (lenovo sl-500 intel chipset & vga). I don’t use encryption anymore since it’s slow, so I cannot comment on it, but for the rest it works great. Some people think it’s ugly. I think it’s pretty, at least more than any Windows OS (and I’m a pragmatic person not biased at all against MS). As for hardware support people should not blame Ubuntu or Linux, but the manufacturers for not providing good drivers (binary and open source). In fact, everybody should be thankful to all the developers for providing hardware support many times without any manufacturers’ support. So, if you want your piece of hardware working with Linux, please complain to the manufacturers. It’s easy for them to assume someone will do the work for them and if it fails then blame goes to the developers. That’s not fair!

  • Anonymous

    I’ve been using karmic since the beta series and I’m more than pleased with it. Hardware works perfect (lenovo sl-500 intel chipset & vga). I don’t use encryption anymore since it’s slow, so I cannot comment on it, but for the rest it works great. Some people think it’s ugly. I think it’s pretty, at least more than any Windows OS (and I’m a pragmatic person not biased at all against MS). As for hardware support people should not blame Ubuntu or Linux, but the manufacturers for not providing good drivers (binary and open source). In fact, everybody should be thankful to all the developers for providing hardware support many times without any manufacturers’ support. So, if you want your piece of hardware working with Linux, please complain to the manufacturers. It’s easy for them to assume someone will do the work for them and if it fails then blame goes to the developers. That’s not fair!

  • rAX

    Thanks for bringing this up, Yesterday I got really upset about karmic, and I seriously needed someone to yell at, I even tried to get OpenSuse or Fedora as a replacement, but they didn’t have the newest versions released yet, my problems were:

    -DSL not working in NM.
    -Notify OSD is sometimes late, and its place is incorrect.
    -I still didn’t test ATI graphics yet, but that’s not a problem any more since jaunty.
    But on the other hand, I love the way you add ppa’s and keys, and all the great new stuff, so it’s not a complete Vista, I’m sure/hope they’ll get this fixed sooner.

  • rAX

    Thanks for bringing this up, Yesterday I got really upset about karmic, and I seriously needed someone to yell at, I even tried to get OpenSuse or Fedora as a replacement, but they didn’t have the newest versions released yet, my problems were:

    -DSL not working in NM.
    -Notify OSD is sometimes late, and its place is incorrect.
    -I still didn’t test ATI graphics yet, but that’s not a problem any more since jaunty.
    But on the other hand, I love the way you add ppa’s and keys, and all the great new stuff, so it’s not a complete Vista, I’m sure/hope they’ll get this fixed sooner.

  • http://www.photricity.com/ Josh Meyer

    I always do a fresh install every 6 months so I don’t have to deal with upgrade issues. When I tried booting the live cd on my desktop, the display wouldn’t work and said the frequency was out of range. I tried a bunch of things that didn’t work, but luckily I had a spare graphics card laying around.

    Other than that I’ve had no problems at all. Karmic is awesome!

  • http://www.photricity.com/ Josh Meyer

    I always do a fresh install every 6 months so I don’t have to deal with upgrade issues. When I tried booting the live cd on my desktop, the display wouldn’t work and said the frequency was out of range. I tried a bunch of things that didn’t work, but luckily I had a spare graphics card laying around.

    Other than that I’ve had no problems at all. Karmic is awesome!

  • Anonymous

    If a new release isn’t better than previous releases it’s a failure. Period.If hardware used to work with 9.04 it is completely unacceptable that it doesn’t work with 9.10. Period.Ubuntu lost a lot of karma points in my book with 9.10. It’s beginning to look like Ubuntu isn’t going to be *the* linux os for the masses that we hoped for.

    • Anonymous

      “It’s beginning to look like Ubuntu isn’t going to be *the* linux os for the masses that we hoped for.”
      That’s a pretty unsubstantiated opinion. For many people it’s a good step forward.

      • Anonymous

        And for an equal number of people 9.10 is a good step backwards. Unimpressive.Competition will (and should) kill them if they don’t get their act together.

        • http://thestrayworld.com/ Rewarp

          I agree. Things that work with the previous versions should continue working with the latest version.

          But seeing as this is not an LTS, but more of a stepping stone, perhaps the community can be more forgiving?

    • Anonymous

      “It’s beginning to look like Ubuntu isn’t going to be *the* linux os for the masses that we hoped for.”
      That’s a pretty unsubstantiated opinion. For many people it’s a good step forward.

  • Anonymous

    If a new release isn’t better than previous releases it’s a failure. Period.If hardware used to work with 9.04 it is completely unacceptable that it doesn’t work with 9.10. Period.Ubuntu lost a lot of karma points in my book with 9.10. It’s beginning to look like Ubuntu isn’t going to be *the* linux os for the masses that we hoped for.

  • http://www.moreau-island.com/blog mike moreau

    I upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10 through the update manager. I had to remove then reinstall Gloobus Preview in order to get it to work again, other than that it’s been perfect. Actually it’s a vast improvement. I have an Intel graphics chipset so graphics are better now.

  • http://www.moreau-island.com/blog mike moreau

    I upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10 through the update manager. I had to remove then reinstall Gloobus Preview in order to get it to work again, other than that it’s been perfect. Actually it’s a vast improvement. I have an Intel graphics chipset so graphics are better now.

  • Eric

    Installed as an upgrade on multiple systems with very different configurations, included a very old Nvidia card. No problems – smooth as silk. Better than the last upgrade that crushed the Nvidia drivers and forced a few hours of hunting to fix.

    I’m one happy Karmic user.

  • Eric

    Installed as an upgrade on multiple systems with very different configurations, included a very old Nvidia card. No problems – smooth as silk. Better than the last upgrade that crushed the Nvidia drivers and forced a few hours of hunting to fix.

    I’m one happy Karmic user.

  • Mohan

    I haven’t had any problems with it at all.

  • Mohan

    I haven’t had any problems with it at all.

  • Faz

    Are we expecting too much? Did anyone fork out $200 to get Karmic? Are we gonna wait 3 years to fork out another $200 to get a new improved version of Karmic? Please be reminded that when XP came out, it was Win2K was much more stable. When Vista came out, everyone wants to remain on Xp. When Windows7 came out, Vista still sucks but there are still driver issues. To solve this, we just need to change our hardware. The question is, how much do we really have to pay microsoft to get a top notch OS? How long did we wait? With Karmic, the worst case scenario is just 6 mths.

  • Faz

    Are we expecting too much? Did anyone fork out $200 to get Karmic? Are we gonna wait 3 years to fork out another $200 to get a new improved version of Karmic? Please be reminded that when XP came out, it was Win2K was much more stable. When Vista came out, everyone wants to remain on Xp. When Windows7 came out, Vista still sucks but there are still driver issues. To solve this, we just need to change our hardware. The question is, how much do we really have to pay microsoft to get a top notch OS? How long did we wait? With Karmic, the worst case scenario is just 6 mths.

  • LK

    I thought this was the best Ubuntu ever. I still think so.

  • LK

    I thought this was the best Ubuntu ever. I still think so.

  • http://www.olmec.co.nz/ Olmec Sinclair

    I too have had a flawless experience. I wonder, perhaps, as ubuntu slowly grows its userbase into the less technically competent population the users are more likely to see something as a critical bug than a glitch with a work around.

  • http://www.olmec.co.nz/ Olmec Sinclair

    I too have had a flawless experience. I wonder, perhaps, as ubuntu slowly grows its userbase into the less technically competent population the users are more likely to see something as a critical bug than a glitch with a work around.

  • Anonymous

    Tried both upgrade and fresh install on three computers with very different hardware setup (Intel, Nvidia and ATI boards) and it was perfect on every one of them. In my eyes, Karmic is the best release of Ubuntu ever.
    I only have one issue and that is that I can’t get sound to work in GFCEU or ZSNES (nintendo emulators). Dispite the rage inducing nature of that problem, I am extremely happy that I upgraded when I did. I was in the beta aswell, and Karmic really came a long way in the last month before release I would say.

    Anyway, stop hating. Karmic is awesome.

  • Anonymous

    Tried both upgrade and fresh install on three computers with very different hardware setup (Intel, Nvidia and ATI boards) and it was perfect on every one of them. In my eyes, Karmic is the best release of Ubuntu ever.
    I only have one issue and that is that I can’t get sound to work in GFCEU or ZSNES (nintendo emulators). Dispite the rage inducing nature of that problem, I am extremely happy that I upgraded when I did. I was in the beta aswell, and Karmic really came a long way in the last month before release I would say.

    Anyway, stop hating. Karmic is awesome.

    • Anonymous

      Do these apps use SDL? If so, then try installing libsdl1.2debian-alsa. It worked for me with tremulous.

    • Anonymous

      Do these apps use SDL? If so, then try installing libsdl1.2debian-alsa. It worked for me with tremulous.

    • Anonymous

      Penchano, have you tried launching ZSNES like this:

      zsnes -ad pulse

      That got me perfect sound, by playing ZSNES through Pulseaudio. If it works for you, you can modify your launcher to start that way.

  • Anonymous

    I think it’s problematic that almost all the articles you mention quote the poll from the Ubuntu forums, and take these figures to actually represent the proportion of Karmic users who’ve had problems.

    Take me, for example. I never had any problems installing Karmic. Why would I rush to the Ubuntu forums to reveal that I had absolutely no problems using Karmic? People don’t seem to be as eager to do that as they are when something goes wrong (naturally). I assume the same could be the case for all the others who have had no problems with Karmic.

  • Anonymous

    I think it’s problematic that almost all the articles you mention quote the poll from the Ubuntu forums, and take these figures to actually represent the proportion of Karmic users who’ve had problems.

    Take me, for example. I never had any problems installing Karmic. Why would I rush to the Ubuntu forums to reveal that I had absolutely no problems using Karmic? People don’t seem to be as eager to do that as they are when something goes wrong (naturally). I assume the same could be the case for all the others who have had no problems with Karmic.

  • osvaldo

    that poll is completely bias. Is like you want to know the number of people with cancer and you go and take a survey inside a cancer clinic!!!

  • osvaldo

    that poll is completely bias. Is like you want to know the number of people with cancer and you go and take a survey inside a cancer clinic!!!

    • Anonymous

      Yeah. They should start putting polls inside bug reports.

      “Are you having problems with this bug?”

      90% – Yes
      10% – No

      OMG! We NEED to fix this particular bug so bad, 90% of ALL UBUNTU users are experiencing it!! :D

    • Anonymous

      Yeah. They should start putting polls inside bug reports.

      “Are you having problems with this bug?”

      90% – Yes
      10% – No

      OMG! We NEED to fix this particular bug so bad, 90% of ALL UBUNTU users are experiencing it!! :D

  • david

    I’m not alone? Well my problems started right from the start. When I tried to make a fresh install it just shut down in the middle (or to the end of the installation. So I had to install a fresh Jaunty and upgrade from there. But vvery now and then it just halts and I have a Black screen of total doom. Silence. I very often get an uptime above 20 minutes and I’m writing this from my old Jaunty. So not a chance that I use the Koala.

    A minor issue is that my external HD must be replugged if I want to mount it after restart. But as I said, minor.

  • david

    I’m not alone? Well my problems started right from the start. When I tried to make a fresh install it just shut down in the middle (or to the end of the installation. So I had to install a fresh Jaunty and upgrade from there. But vvery now and then it just halts and I have a Black screen of total doom. Silence. I very often get an uptime above 20 minutes and I’m writing this from my old Jaunty. So not a chance that I use the Koala.

    A minor issue is that my external HD must be replugged if I want to mount it after restart. But as I said, minor.

  • osvaldo

    according to the readers of the blog “Ubuntu-life” (spanish) Karmic is the best Ubuntu ever (74 % of voters)

    http://ubuntulife.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/encuesta-%C2%BFes-ubuntu-9-10-el-mejor/

  • osvaldo

    according to the readers of the blog “Ubuntu-life” (spanish) Karmic is the best Ubuntu ever (74 % of voters)

    http://ubuntulife.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/encuesta-%C2%BFes-ubuntu-9-10-el-mejor/

  • Greg

    I respect your positions on Karmic, but I don’t think you realize how bad certain package decisions have made Ubuntu for 2/3rds of it’s user base (according to your %’s). I have been a die hard supporter of Ubuntu since Warty. After installing Karmic, I had to stop recommending Ubuntu to even my nerd friends.

    Examples of things that don’t work:
    1.Dimming the screen, hibernate, sleep. Granted sleep and hibernate have *Never* worked for Ubuntu… we all just laugh about it. Karmic added the bonus that a system whos panel goes dark now has to be rebooted. Auto screen dimming every 10 minutes even when on AC power?? Annoying!

    2. Can’t type on your laptop keyboard without clicking your touchpad accidentally 50 times a day. (Yes there is a Fix, No normal users can’t/Don’t use it. Every upgrade wipes out the fix in gnome session start up and I’m reminded every release how bad Ubuntu is in default.

    3. Pulse audio doesn’t work with SDL…Not only does it not work, but it fails in a horribly broken way. This means open source video games don’t work! They cause 100% CPU usage, sound failure, and crashes. This makes open source developers look bad when in fact Pulse Audio just isn’t ready for prime time. It’s “neat” that you can change volume per program… but I’d guess as many as 99% of users never do. The controls are impossibly hard to find, and something only really hard core users will take advantage of. So, why break sound for a feature that no one uses? Do this in a testing environment sure, but not in a production stable release. To be fair this problem existed before Karmic, the 100% CPU problem irked me for 6 months… it wasn’t until Karmic totally broke my sound before the forums lit up about the problem and I was able to fix it.

    4. Network sharing which was broke by Ibex I believe? Still doesn’t work in Karmic. I actually use FTP to get my files to windows machines because I’m sick and tired of fixing samba every time I upgrade Ubuntu.

    5. Remember “Ubuntu killed my laptop hard drive”?? Guess what? That hasn’t been fixed either! Not only does Karmic not fix the problem, it wipes out the patch that techie users have applied to prevent the excessive load cycles. So, you have to remember to reinstall the patch script after reinstall. This bug made all the headlines when it was first found, and then Slashdot forgot about it… It was never fixed, it’s just ignored.

    Bottom line, if you want to recommend Ubuntu to a friend, you have to make sure they don’t:

    1. Have a laptop (hibernate, screen dark, KILLING your hard drive)
    2. Have an ATI graphics card
    3. Have the desire to play open source video games that use SDL sound.

    Don’t even get me started about compiz. It looks neat, but it’s nagging bugs make it obvious that it’s not a polished window manager.

  • Greg

    I respect your positions on Karmic, but I don’t think you realize how bad certain package decisions have made Ubuntu for 2/3rds of it’s user base (according to your %’s). I have been a die hard supporter of Ubuntu since Warty. After installing Karmic, I had to stop recommending Ubuntu to even my nerd friends.

    Examples of things that don’t work:
    1.Dimming the screen, hibernate, sleep. Granted sleep and hibernate have *Never* worked for Ubuntu… we all just laugh about it. Karmic added the bonus that a system whos panel goes dark now has to be rebooted. Auto screen dimming every 10 minutes even when on AC power?? Annoying!

    2. Can’t type on your laptop keyboard without clicking your touchpad accidentally 50 times a day. (Yes there is a Fix, No normal users can’t/Don’t use it. Every upgrade wipes out the fix in gnome session start up and I’m reminded every release how bad Ubuntu is in default.

    3. Pulse audio doesn’t work with SDL…Not only does it not work, but it fails in a horribly broken way. This means open source video games don’t work! They cause 100% CPU usage, sound failure, and crashes. This makes open source developers look bad when in fact Pulse Audio just isn’t ready for prime time. It’s “neat” that you can change volume per program… but I’d guess as many as 99% of users never do. The controls are impossibly hard to find, and something only really hard core users will take advantage of. So, why break sound for a feature that no one uses? Do this in a testing environment sure, but not in a production stable release. To be fair this problem existed before Karmic, the 100% CPU problem irked me for 6 months… it wasn’t until Karmic totally broke my sound before the forums lit up about the problem and I was able to fix it.

    4. Network sharing which was broke by Ibex I believe? Still doesn’t work in Karmic. I actually use FTP to get my files to windows machines because I’m sick and tired of fixing samba every time I upgrade Ubuntu.

    5. Remember “Ubuntu killed my laptop hard drive”?? Guess what? That hasn’t been fixed either! Not only does Karmic not fix the problem, it wipes out the patch that techie users have applied to prevent the excessive load cycles. So, you have to remember to reinstall the patch script after reinstall. This bug made all the headlines when it was first found, and then Slashdot forgot about it… It was never fixed, it’s just ignored.

    Bottom line, if you want to recommend Ubuntu to a friend, you have to make sure they don’t:

    1. Have a laptop (hibernate, screen dark, KILLING your hard drive)
    2. Have an ATI graphics card
    3. Have the desire to play open source video games that use SDL sound.

    Don’t even get me started about compiz. It looks neat, but it’s nagging bugs make it obvious that it’s not a polished window manager.

    • montini

      it’s strange to read such things.
      1. I have a laptop, no issues (‘xept maybe fingerprint reader)
      2. at work, i have a desktop and an ATI – in some situations it works even better that nvidia (strange) – drivers are open source
      3. sorry don’t know what’s the SDL sound.

      NO issues with compiz there (not on laptop, nor desktop).

    • montini

      it’s strange to read such things.
      1. I have a laptop, no issues (‘xept maybe fingerprint reader)
      2. at work, i have a desktop and an ATI – in some situations it works even better that nvidia (strange) – drivers are open source
      3. sorry don’t know what’s the SDL sound.

      NO issues with compiz there (not on laptop, nor desktop).

  • http://www.kombostudio.nl Richard Venneman

    My upgrade wasn’t smooth with mouse problems, freezes and stuff..
    I did a clean install and it’s performing great now. I love Karmic!

  • Anonymous

    I had a laptop running the 9.10 RC and I upgraded to the full release the other night. Things are flawless on there (well, suspend works as well as suspend can…).

    There was a minute or two with out wireless, but that was fixed by running an update.

    I’ve been very pleased with Ubuntu.

  • Anonymous

    Ladran Sancho, señal que cabalgamos.
    I have karmic a month ago and I walk very well, better than jaunty, so if you really do not understand the complaints, including as have read, the complaints do not seem very real.

    • http://technotaku.com/ Anonymous

      I’m with you, it’s not that there’s more complaining about Karmic, it’s just that there’s more TALKING AT ALL about karmic than any other version before. I think it’s important and it’s a good sign.

    • http://technotaku.com/ Anonymous

      I’m with you, it’s not that there’s more complaining about Karmic, it’s just that there’s more TALKING AT ALL about karmic than any other version before. I think it’s important and it’s a good sign.

  • http://mesanna.com/ Mesanna

    I’m not sure how much faith I would have in the poll as a guide for successful installs. I visit the Ubuntu forums from time to time – but only when I have a problem. Many people only go there to troubleshoot problems, not just to hang out and chat. I didn’t have any problems at all with my installation, so therefore no need to visit the forums. I only found out about the poll from reading about it on the web on sites like your own. (BTW I like your site very much!)

  • http://mesanna.com/ Mesanna

    I’m not sure how much faith I would have in the poll as a guide for successful installs. I visit the Ubuntu forums from time to time – but only when I have a problem. Many people only go there to troubleshoot problems, not just to hang out and chat. I didn’t have any problems at all with my installation, so therefore no need to visit the forums. I only found out about the poll from reading about it on the web on sites like your own. (BTW I like your site very much!)

  • Anonymous

    I have been working in IT for over 10 years. The one thing that I have found to be true… “People always complain when things go wrong, and rarely praise when things go right”. This I believe is the case with all the above.

    From my own experience and from what I have read on the internet, Karmic Koala, has been a success. The horror stories are few and far between. All the polls are misleading, as from above, most of them will complain, few will praise.

    To get an accurate poll for each distribution upgrade, would require a simple addition a questionnaire. Canonical could easily add a questionnaire to each distribution upgrade, to ask people how their upgrade went.

    • mths

      ‘… and rarely praise when things go right.’ The internet is full of praise for ubuntu, blog after blog is filled love songs and how this could beat xp/vista/7 every release. Linux enthusiasts are many and – especially – loud on the internet!

      • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

        I used Fedora 5, 7 and 9 and then Ubuntu 9.04 and now 9.10. I can see that it is continuously getting better and better. Each release (no matter of Fedora or Ubuntu) has it’s (initial) flaws. I was also affected by the Intel problem (Graphic was slow) which works now fine on 9.10. On the other hand there are known issues which affect several mobile internet sticks – but there are already fix proposals for this in the kernel (which affects all distros).

        With both – Jaunty and Karmic I am quite satisfied. And although there are issues, I feel 1000 times better than on Windows! – I suffered sooo much and now suffer less although I have much more knowledge on Windows. So I understand the praise but it should not get like several Windows users who praise it and don’t know what exists there else around the corner.

      • Anonymous

        I would like to get the praise from all users, whether it’s good or bad. At present, I believe we are getting reports from the both extremes.

        As I said, a simple questionnaire, after each distribution upgrade and possibly after X days/months, would provide some great feedback for Canonical.

        It would provide a quick way for the masses to give their experiences and voice their opinions, as well as, a yard stick to compare against further upgrades.

  • Anonymous

    I have been working in IT for over 10 years. The one thing that I have found to be true… “People always complain when things go wrong, and rarely praise when things go right”. This I believe is the case with all the above.

    From my own experience and from what I have read on the internet, Karmic Koala, has been a success. The horror stories are few and far between. All the polls are misleading, as from above, most of them will complain, few will praise.

    To get an accurate poll for each distribution upgrade, would require a simple addition a questionnaire. Canonical could easily add a questionnaire to each distribution upgrade, to ask people how their upgrade went.

  • http://twitter.com/yuretsz yuretsz

    Koala do had some issues after installing. But in older distributions there was much more.
    It is definitely the best Linux distro ever.

  • http://twitter.com/yuretsz yuretsz

    Koala do had some issues after installing. But in older distributions there was much more.
    It is definitely the best Linux distro ever.

  • John47

    I was unfortunately one of the disappointed new Karmic users. I have an AMD chipset desktop PC and was happily using Jaunty amd64 and then did a fresh install (yes, I checked the md5sums of the download) of Karmic 64-bit and was greeted with kernel errors during the live session and no X during bootup. Eventually, I had to abandon the 64-bit and go with 32-bit Karmic, which seems to work fine. After using a 64-bit OS for 2 years, though, I notice a definite slowdown. I’m definitely disappointed that I cannot use the 64 bit version, but everything else works as it should on the 32 bit. Here’s hoping that the bugs are short-lived. Regardless, I have much more confidence in the community-centered bug squashing of Ubuntu than I do something like Windows or Mac OS X.

  • John47

    I was unfortunately one of the disappointed new Karmic users. I have an AMD chipset desktop PC and was happily using Jaunty amd64 and then did a fresh install (yes, I checked the md5sums of the download) of Karmic 64-bit and was greeted with kernel errors during the live session and no X during bootup. Eventually, I had to abandon the 64-bit and go with 32-bit Karmic, which seems to work fine. After using a 64-bit OS for 2 years, though, I notice a definite slowdown. I’m definitely disappointed that I cannot use the 64 bit version, but everything else works as it should on the 32 bit. Here’s hoping that the bugs are short-lived. Regardless, I have much more confidence in the community-centered bug squashing of Ubuntu than I do something like Windows or Mac OS X.

  • Karmic Koma

    I had it on two machines and nary a problem.

  • cloudscream

    Ubuntu is just a distro. It just ‘collects’ stuff from the open-source community. Bugs and bug fixes come from the developers of individual applications.

    And now the Intel graphics problem is now fixed. I remembered that in all the Ubuntu releases before Karmic, people with Intel chipsets hated Ubuntu. They were barking at the wrong tree, and did not even realize that it is not a distro-specific problem.

  • Anonymous

    I used the update manager to upgrade from Jaunty to Karmic. Till now the problems I had with sound in jaunty disappeared; the problems i had with suspend and hibernating are still here, but mind you, in my desktop suspend and hibernating also have the same problems in Vista and Widows 7.
    I may be lucky, but I bet my boots that happy users are not blogging to say my installation of Karmic worked.
    To me so far is the best release of Ubuntu.

  • Anonymous

    I used the update manager to upgrade from Jaunty to Karmic. Till now the problems I had with sound in jaunty disappeared; the problems i had with suspend and hibernating are still here, but mind you, in my desktop suspend and hibernating also have the same problems in Vista and Widows 7.
    I may be lucky, but I bet my boots that happy users are not blogging to say my installation of Karmic worked.
    To me so far is the best release of Ubuntu.

  • Anonymous

    Karmic has been great for me since alpha. This is the first version to provide perfect hardware support OOTB for my machine. I didn’t have to do ANYTHING after installing it. I also decided to jump back to KDE since I haven’t used it regularly since 3.5.9, and I found it to be usable on a daily basis. I have an ATI card and this is the first time I didn’t have to install development drivers (I no longer use the proprietary ones).

  • Anonymous

    Karmic has been great for me since alpha. This is the first version to provide perfect hardware support OOTB for my machine. I didn’t have to do ANYTHING after installing it. I also decided to jump back to KDE since I haven’t used it regularly since 3.5.9, and I found it to be usable on a daily basis. I have an ATI card and this is the first time I didn’t have to install development drivers (I no longer use the proprietary ones).

  • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

    I have noticed many telling that they don’t (or now didn’t) test Karmic betas and prefer waiting for a while (as they were used to with Windows – just wait after the first service pack). If all do this then the release will become the “real” beta.

    So people should test the beta and report bugs – then the release will be a quality work.

  • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

    I have noticed many telling that they don’t (or now didn’t) test Karmic betas and prefer waiting for a while (as they were used to with Windows – just wait after the first service pack). If all do this then the release will become the “real” beta.

    So people should test the beta and report bugs – then the release will be a quality work.

  • mths

    You’re comparing it to Jaunty and conclude it is no worse. But Jaunty had – among others – serious problems with (open) Intel drivers, a lot of people use these.

    Canonical has been doing great work, certainly more then any other distro has ever done in marketing success. In my opinion Ubuntu is getting a little bit too much credit last year or so (8.10 was ok I think, there was some trouble wit 8.04 as well – and that’s LTS!). They choose to be bleeding edge and on time.

    Besides that, bugs are too often en too easily blamed on some proprietary bully. The frustration is understandable, but there is little point in denying reality.

  • mths

    You’re comparing it to Jaunty and conclude it is no worse. But Jaunty had – among others – serious problems with (open) Intel drivers, a lot of people use these.

    Canonical has been doing great work, certainly more then any other distro has ever done in marketing success. In my opinion Ubuntu is getting a little bit too much credit last year or so (8.10 was ok I think, there was some trouble wit 8.04 as well – and that’s LTS!). They choose to be bleeding edge and on time.

    Besides that, bugs are too often en too easily blamed on some proprietary bully. The frustration is understandable, but there is little point in denying reality.

  • http://disqus.com/forums/omgubuntu/ubuntu_xsplash_animation_human_swarm/trackback/ Martini1179

    I’m thinking that such a high level of dissatisfaction with Karmic, at least in the Ubuntu Forums polls, is largely the result of a high number of frustrated, impatient new users who are exaggerating the problems they have and/or expecting perfection from a 0-day product. Back when I was a noob, I felt intimidated by Ubuntu and felt that, if anything were to go wrong, I would not be able to fix it. Hell, I ALMOST left Linux altogether when I have 4 or 5 major “bugs” that sapped all enjoyment from using Ubuntu. But after I learned the basic ins-and-outs, I was able to better put things in perspective and fixed/mitigated my problems.

    Personally, I’m still using Jaunty, but running Karmic through a VM and checking on its progress on a daily basis. I think it’s foolish to expect an OS to be bug-free upon launch, especially when it has a much smaller tester base than Windows or OS X.

    I’ll give it a month before I upgrade to Karmic.

    And d0od, what is it with you and your belief that people aren’t reading the entire articles? Was a disclaimer (for some odd reason, located at the bottom of the article) really necessary? I’ve personally had that accusation incorrectly made against me.

    Good article, though.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Sadly it was, i had to delete a few comments before i put the disclaimer up which were being a bit on the nasty side to me for “hating ubuntu”.

  • hewides

    There are two views I have: a personal and a general one.

    Personally I see that 9.10 has gotten some things for me better (Brasero now burns CD’ s, the feel and look of 9.10 is very fine), but I’ ve not tested all app’ s by now so I will see. My bugreport would be STOPMOTION and FSPOT (both crash after start, they did work well in 9.04). Hope this will be fixed soon.

    Generally I see Ubuntu as the leader in the Linux-World, I see people switching to Ubuntu every day. You cant compare it with MaxOSX, because Apple has a strong limited Hardware and a much lower userbase. I see the main problems in the hardware-sector, where still many big players (Samsung, Epson etc.) show little sign of support for the millions of Linux-Users out there. So it’ s not Ubuntu-specific, but I would recommend Ubuntu to go to a 12 month-upgrade instead of the 6-month-cycle.

    After all Ubuntu will steady grow and if we make pressure on the hardware-companys and have a little patience with all the occuring problems, all will get well. Linux rules, Ubuntu is King.

    • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

      The FSPOT works on my Karmic but I didn’t used it on Jaunty. Probably it has a problem dealing with the existing data?

      I am a Linux user at home since about 2006 and a about a month ago I switched to Ubuntu also on my Office work notebook – which was a little more a challenge because here is only one other Linux user, the rest is Windows and I have to insert myself somehow.

      Also some “features”/applications were missing (e.g. PDF-stationary using our office logos on all created PDF documents) but so far I could solve everything.

      On private side I do not support Windows any more so whoever wants my help: Get Linux/Ubuntu or don’t bother me again.

  • Anonymous

    I have been using Karmic since the official beta release, and i’ve had no problems at all! And like you say in your post, its allways the people who had the most problems who scream the loudest, while the people who had little to none problems remain fairly quiet :P

    • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

      Or they are praising Ubuntu in the public. ;-)

  • steve_

    This is where I have low expectations of the 6month releases, to me they should be buggy they are in my mind a build up to the next LTS. I like tweaking and tinkering with Ubuntu/linux, with my first install of 9.10 my nvidia drivers were totally flaked out. I had purge my nvidia drivers and reinstall them and that worked. I was getting a kernel error many others and myself filed bug reports and a week or so later it was patched. I think where the fail is, either it is not explained well enough if you want stable try the LTS, if you want new and unstable try the six month releases. The six month releases should probably be treated like Sid in Debian. I like the watching the community come together a find fixes for issues. Good article I enjoyed the stats and how they compared from release to release.

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    btw i like the image “The Frustrated Kwala”

  • Anonymous

    I’m very surprised with this post. I’ve been working on Koala since Beta version and didn’t have any troubles at all. The only thing annoying me was skype sound problems, but they are really easy to solve now.

    The distro is getting better. There is nothing I can say against 9.10.

  • Primordium

    This is the first time a post in your blog

    1st of all i have to tell you that im a daily reader and Im always interested in your articles… they are great, easy to read, and even more you do all the work for your followers, we (or I) don’t have much work doing the minor tweaks that you publish and I feel useful to install.

    2nd, is about this post …
    What I have to say, and i will try to be short …
    | 99% of this complains are from people that never tried to help ubuntu in anyway, via forums, bug submits or any other way available to do so.

    | As you covered this complains about the new release are not a surprise, in ubuntu history it was always like this, ppl create a great expectation and when release is out they don’t feel much of a change… this is not true, a lot of hard work is done in the background and in the front to, jockey is an great example.

    All said, the only thing left is enjoy a pure dedicated community and great OS the canonical provide us.

  • http://vapoureffect.blogspot.com/ .n-b.

    Nah. Vista was just a badly conceived project that was even executed poorly. Karmic, on the contrary, just seems like an early beta version. Where Jaunty was snappy, felt complete and seemed to ‘just work,’ Karmic’s given me a headache through every aspect of my user experience. As you pointed out, it was released with a slew of known bugs, and anecdotally, I’ve probably had to submit more bug reports with Karmic than I had to with Feisty through Jaunty combined.

    But I know about the strict release schedule, and I think probably that if it were left in the cooker a few weeks longer, it would have come out fine. And it probably will yet through updates in subsequent weeks. I’d rather think of it as our Windows Me — a kind of temporary, imperfect stepping stone to something better.

  • Richard

    Karmic is awesome for me, 3 perfect installs !!

  • http://twitter.com/flux_box LuigiMarco Simonetti

    I ‘m not so pessimist, also I do 3-4 perfect installs, without problems… I think that this release is fantastic!

  • Anonymous

    The only issues I seem to be having is that USB mass storage devices (flash drives, phones, CF cards, my iPod) aren’t being picked up when I plug them in. I have to reboot to get Ubuntu to recognise them. Also the system as a whole is slower than 9.04 (though not unacceptably so), though the boot time is faster. I’ll stick with it for now, but if it gets any worse I may find myself downgrading!

  • Anonymous

    The only issues I seem to be having is that USB mass storage devices (flash drives, phones, CF cards, my iPod) aren’t being picked up when I plug them in. I have to reboot to get Ubuntu to recognise them. Also the system as a whole is slower than 9.04 (though not unacceptably so), though the boot time is faster. I’ll stick with it for now, but if it gets any worse I may find myself downgrading!

    • Anonymous

      Same here my usb devices aren’t getting detected/mounted on ubuntu. They are detected on disk utility but give “No Media Detected” message! The devices work fine on other OS but not here -.- Could someone give a solution or work-around on this??

  • Anonymous

    It would be great to know how many people are really running which version of Ubuntu. Windows and OSX is easy to track, but with linux users downloading a distri once and then install it multiple times, there is no way of knowing how many installations are out there. That number could be compared to the number of users who report problems. People are always more likely to give feedback if stuff doesn’t work.

    Personally, I just installed 9.10 on my HP laptop (AMD and ATI Radeon) without any problems. So far it runs a lot smoother than the vista install it came with.

  • Mistuh_D

    For those who have had flawless installs, I’m happy for you. My experience has been mixed. On two upgrades, one went as smooth as glass, and the other was nothing short of a total disaster.

    Of the major complaints, I believe I’ve been lucky enough to experience them all: attempting to boot to the wrong kernel, sound card lost, video card (ATI/AMD) hooped, and the list goes on.

    On the problem machine, I switched to a fresh install, which I’ve now done 3 times. Certainly, the fresh install is better: I have sound, and as long as I don’t try to configure X for my video card or monitors, things boot up.

    Considering that the troublesome install has been on my primary home computer, this release has done a great deal to make me fall out of love with Ubuntu.

    2009 will definitely _not_ be the year that Linux on the Desktop made it to prime time.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/FOYKTA7JUFRW3B3RSZOIQUR6FY rich

    I started with Alpha 2 and by the time I made it to the RC everything was running perfectly so I was very surprised to hear about all the problems. For me the Alpha Cycle was less problematic than any of the previous releases (starting with 6.10 when I started doing Alpha’s). I am also running Karmic on 6 machines…all different hardware.rt

  • Bulat

    I’m pretty happy with Karmic.
    It even let’s me use my built-in Tablet out of the box.

    I’ve got some glitches (maybe a huge failure for somebody else):
    installing modem drivers cause sound system failure (I’ve just uninstalled them).
    Network manager still does not work properly with hidden wireless networks. More to that – I have static IP. (uninstalled network-manager, configured wireless network manually and it’s Ok).

    P.S. I prefer Hardy splashes, Human theme and wallpapers than the new ones. :)

  • http://www.powermite.blogspot.com/ powermite

    “Is Karmic Koala Ubuntu’s Vista?” No. “I haven’t had any problems with it at all.” Ditto.

  • Leandro

    An off-topic remark: The Intrepid pool was answered by 2052 people. The Karmic one has, already, been answered by 2913. Is Ubuntu growing 50% every six months?

    Ps. I don’t believe those pools are at all representative of the install/update experience. Our group have installed at least 8 karmic machines without problems and nobody voted.

  • quazi saad

    i installed ubuntu 9.10 with ati radeon x1950 pro video card. it ran flawlessly. same machine gave me trouble with windows 7 because of ati driver issues. but i solved it. i know its frustrating if the os does not work as it supposed to. but as the article stated very clearly pls give credit where credit is due. its FREE and A BLOODY GOOD OS. no i am not a blind linux supporter. i use linux, winxp, win 7 in 3 separate computer and i love them all with all their shortcomings. AMEN.

  • zark

    Linux is for those who like fixing and tweaking their computers, not for those who actually do some work on it, and not for those who have other ideas of “fun” than trying to fix their OS all day.

    Deceive people by telling them that Linux is “much better than Windows” and “will solve all the problems they had with WIndows”, and this is what you get. Frustration.

    DNS lookups are broken on Karmic, and take a very long time for many people. The bug report has existed for some months before Karmic’s release, yet no one at Canonical took it seriously. That attitude (and comments like, “it’s not ubuntu’s fault, it’s your router, get a new one”, or “it’s your ISP, get a new one”) is really off-putting.

    • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

      zark, can you give me the link of the DNS lookup bug please, thanks.
      Although I don’t face that bug I heard about similar problems which were caused by the apple protocol in a network without Macs – something like that but don’t remember well.

      I do not agree with you that Linux is only for those who like tweaking their computers. If you just want to email, browse and write some letters, you are well there right after install. Even for flash install there is not really tweaking necessary any more.

      And BTW: Even the beginner users on Windows do often start after a while to hang around on websites, download and install all kind of stuff. You probably have no idea what people put on their PC while passing by during browsing. And then when they completely wrecked their computer then they come and ask for help (first family members and friends and so on).

      Further I do not share your experience that developers don’t care. I lately asked a guy who was in the Windows 7 beta test program. I asked him who I can enter Microsoft test program and he said that it is difficult and you have to know the right people. On the other hand participating with kernel testing for Ubuntu happened “by accident” for me.

      So really everybody can contribute with bug reports but unfortunately many do just take everything they can get for free without neither a little bit of feedback.

  • http://twitter.com/TheSpecs Luke Dixon

    I love it, fast and awesome for me :)

  • Anonymous

    I’ve just done a fresh reinstall of Karmic and the only reason that that I went back to Jaunty was of a slight increase in boot time but that isn’t a worry for me in all honesty.

    What is a worry is that people new to Linux (especially the Ubuntu family) will perceive that it’s just as bad as Windows, so they won’t bother changing.

    You’re bound to get bugs, and things not working right on any operating system so for people to compare it to the unmitigated disaster that is Vista is totally unnecessary & unwarranted, minus the minor fixes that can be made at a software level.

    We; the people that use Ubuntu should rally round in times like these, we need to put on a united front and I’m not saying let’s not discuss the bugs as if they don’t exist but let’s discuss it without mud slinging.

    After all, a lot of extremely hard working people make Ubuntu what it is, and we need to strive to make it better.

    I’m sure that Ubuntu and Canonical don’t want people to think that Ubuntu isn’t worth relying on anymore, I love Ubuntu and everyday that I use it is amazing for me. Let’s make it amazing for others also.

  • http://borasky-research.net/2010/08/29/getting-started-with-the-social-media-analytics-research-toolkit/ znmeb

    Well, I’m not a regular Ubuntu user, so maybe I shouldn’t comment. But I’ve spent the past few months beta-testing openSUSE 11.2, and I’ve been running 11.2 RC2 in “production” mode since it was released. The feedback I’m seeing from early openSUSE 11.2 adopters like myself is *much* more positive than what I’ve been seeing in the “mainstream” press about Karmic Koala. And that’s a bad thing, I fear.When Linux Magazine posted their “Stop Making Linux Look Bad” article, I commented on it, in defense of Ubuntu. http://twitter.com/znmeb/statuses/5457688776Linux Magazine trashes Ubuntu – my response #linux #opensuse #ubuntu #fedora http://bit.ly/fEyp1Basically, I agree with you, but it seems to me there’s been a subtle shift in the Linux desktop marketplace. Ubuntu has made a lot of noise, but it seems to me that Novell has put a lot of effort into openSUSE and its infrastructure – the openSUSE Build Service and SUSE Studio. When I surf the Linux sites, I’m likely to see an ad for Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise.

    About a year and a half ago, I tried Fedora (10) and Ubuntu (8.04) before settling on openSUSE (11.0) as my desktop. The differences were minor, but in the end, I went with openSUSE because Fedora didn’t track my laptop’s VGA display adapter and Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) had the 2.6.24 kernel and I needed 2.6.25. In the year and a half since then, it seems to me that the openSUSE desktop experience has pulled ahead of Ubuntu and Fedora in some fairly significant ways.We’ll see in about 24 hours whether the “general Linux public” has a significantly better experience with openSUSE 11.2 than they have with Karmic Koala. I personally have too much “muscle memory” invested in openSUSE to even consider switching distros unless it totally collapses on me. Given that I’ve been on the bleeding edge since about Milestone 6, that’s pretty unlikely.In any event, I think it’s sad that the *Linux* community is trashing Karmic Koala.

  • Nate

    Totally agree. Stay positive!

  • Calvin

    1. Intel drivers = screwed.
    2. Bloated Ubuntu release = Karmic. Full of crap people don’t need. (e.g; Empathy’s daemons, Social Networks, MOAR BROWN THEMES, (though no Ekiga was good), Software Centre, etc.)

    • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

      I can’t agree.

      ad 1.) While I experienced a little slow graphic on Jaunty, on Karmic it’s noticable faster. I am also happy about the newer versions of MySQL and OpenOffice included which I was waiting for. Skype now also working without problems (I had to play around a little on Jaunty to get Skype working fluently).

      ad 2.) I can’t see much difference in “being bloated” when looking on the applications. I have far more applications installed as what comes by default – well I want to be productive with my computer…

      BTW: At the moment there is coming a bunch of updates – might solve some issues.

  • Zac

    I shall put in my two bobs worth in.

    Let me start by saying openSUSE 11.2 KDE liveCD failed on my generic 3yr old Dell desktop. Does this make openSUSE buggy and full of regressions? No, because I know that it works for a great many people.

    I had installed Ubuntu 6.10 soon after it came out without reading any reviews. I used it daily without no hassles at all, installing and trying different things. It resided on my PC for 20 months, and it was 100% stable and trouble free. It was the best OS I had ever used until then. However the reviews back then, and even now people mention it, that Ubuntu 6.10 was the buggiest ever and unstable. I am grateful that I didn’t take notice of any of those reviews because my experience was completely different and my foray into Linux would of been very different as Ubuntu 6.10 was one of the few main distros that worked on my PC back then.

    I learnt an important lesson. Be wary of reviews, it is their experience and in addition, some vocal people have another agenda to push, unfortunately maybe, but there are those people out there. So, be careful of what you read.

  • Guillermo MacBeath

    Well I installed 9.10 on my Frankenstein Satellite Laptop, it had become a pain using XP on it (doubt it could even run Vista or 7) with forced formating every 2 weeks. I’ve been running Karmic for a week flawlessly, I even managed to connect my Vista laptop with the 9.10 one, whereast it took me 2 hours to set a network which could work between XP and Vista, took me 10 minutes in 9.10, it was specially frustrating to prevent my XP from updating to SP3 where it is impossible to set a sharing network between ‘em. Been able to run such an eye candy OS with a mere 2.0Ghz Centrino with 512MB is awesome. Last ubuntu I used was 7.10 a few years ago, and the speed in wich ubuntu evolves, simply overshadows completely Microsoft, or any other major OS. Kudos to Canonical

  • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

    It has been about two weeks now since the release and the first wave of updates has passed. I had to do a firmware update to my mobile internet stick to fix some annoyances I had with the mobile internet connection.

    Now I am pretty happy – At the moment I have nothing to complain. Everything works reliable and I have my doubts that Microsoft would ever be able to deliver their first service pack within two weeks after release…

  • http://twitter.com/LycanWarrior LycanWarrior

    Well to be totally honest, I think some of the comment’s made are true. You get good and bad with any Ubuntu/Linux release, but they are improving all the time.

    Saying bad thing’s about Windows normally get’s ignored or shelved. Talking about Open Source is a different matter. Open Source need’s reviews like this one to allow all of us to look at what we think is wrong and work on getting it right. Canonical has so far done a great job in making Ubuntu known. The community is doing a great job of making Ubuntu improve. Without “Truthful” reviews though we will see no advances.

    I’m happy with Karmic it was the final coffin nail in my Windows system’s. A few initial “quirks” but all easily fixed (guess I’m lucky)

  • l2afa

    Well, When I upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 everything was going cool, but a week after that start having problems with my ALC1200, I can’t find my solution, then I choose to make a clean install, and I got a few days with it. Everything is going awesome, better than when I upgrade my system, ALC1200 still working, no bugs yet… And I recommend make a clean installation, always better.

    Ubuntu Karmic = Windows Vista?

    That is a really offense to me; I am not a Linux lover, but I use it; got Win 7 since 2 months ago, Ubuntu 9.10 and Sabayon 5. And always we are using Ubuntu, because faster, simple, nice, clean, internet works much better. The only thing I use in Windows is iTunes for my iPhone and that for the jailbrake… Even my daugther 2 years old know how to put games on Ubuntu…

  • Guest

    Well, 7inale is sold a second time to the User, as Vista was sold for years as a Beta, how about that?

    I think looking at all the new features Koala brings along, it is quite no surprise some Systems may have a problem or 2. For me, 9.10 is the best Ubuntu ever and is working here now for 3 weeks without any problems!

  • Anonymous

    I’ve installed it on 4 machines and it’s running great. One machine was a brand new Dell laptop, from which we wiped Windows7 after 5 minutes of flirtation with it.

    The other three were: some obscure Japanese laptop brand called Hassee with Intel graphics, a 10 year old Dell Inspiron 4000 with ATI graphics card that is supported for 2D graphics only and a custom built desktop with an nVidia graphics card.

    I’m stunned by how robustly these systems are preforming and their repsective users – parents, friends, colleagues – are contacting me far less often with questions than when they were running Windows. I’m considering taking it to my local school next.

  • Anonymous

    lorijt
    Hi all I wandered here via the blurb on Yahoo. I am a brand new Ubuntu user. I started with Karmic beta then did a fresh install of the final release. When I first installed the beta I went to the ubuntu forum to say how happy I was with it it just worked out of the box. The fresh install went on another machine the only problem I had was an older ATI vid card and ATI was no help. If I wasn’t using blender I probably wouldn’t have noticed because every thing looked great but blender wouldn’t run. Ineeded the #D accelerators for the card. I just replaced the card with the Invidea card from the other machine. Every thing works great. I am one happy Ubuntu user haven’t turned the XP on in a week or two now.

    You are right the Happy ones don’t vote. Where is a good one of those poles I’ll go add my 2 cents to it.

    Lori (one happy nubee)

  • http://GrowMap.com GrowMap

    The latest version does not work well – or possibly at all – with older monitors so if you are currently using an older monitor I do not recommend upgrading. I have issues with two different monitors – one works until you log-in and is then blank and the other apparently finally got recognized and the driver refused to allow an increased resolution.

    I plugged in three monitors until I found one that works – sort-of. The “correct” driver would not allow an increased resolution to anything reasonable. The second monitor went blank on this PC too (and stays blank after logging in even when returned to the original PC which has not been upgraded yet). No idea why.

    The blank monitor reset the driver and this monitor worked but the edges of the text were all missing. A new borrowed monitor reset it again and now the text is tiny but at least it is all there. Moral: only go to Koala if you have a late model monitor.

    Reading that Pidgin and GIMP are being removed is a major setback for me as I use them both daily. WHY would they want to remove these two major programs? What can we do about it? Can they still be manually installed (at great difficulty for even users like me who use PCs all day every day and have for decades) or are they going to be gone forever?

    Has Ubuntu ever considered doing LESS updates? Most of us USE PCs to accomplish tasks and would rather not deal with all these time-consuming challenges so often. Do we really need updates every six months? Couldn’t we make them annual or even once every couple of years and focus on stability and less bugs?

  • Hélder

    I tried it and it’s faster than Jaunty. But I had some issues with it:
    - Conky doesn’t load at startup (no mather how I put it in the startup applications);
    - I had to put my password everytime I wish to use CPU scale applet (boring) and two times when I wanted to change proxy definitions;
    - I had a flash plugin issue in firefox that I was unable to fix;
    So I’m back for jaunty, and I’m please with it. I really hope that Lucid will have all those issues fixed!

  • Anonymous

    First, I a fan of this blog but I strogly disagree with your view. You pose the question and dismiss it on less than full info.

    I answered the famous pll within 24 hours of fresh installing Karmic over Intrepid.I gave it a generally thumbs-up.
    But 2 weeks later I’ve completely revised my opinion to worst version I’ve used. You completely neglected to mention the huge number of people having connection issues after both Install & Upgrade. Broadcom which used to work in Intrepid, stopped working. Same for Huawei 3G modem which also worked flawlessly a year ago.
    So at a drop, thousands of people lost their ability to connect, the single most vital aspect of the OS. And…these problems were know prior to release, but the date was more important than the experience.
    More people found their laptop external display setup no longer working as previously (I had to run a script at every startup, startups which also are far more frequent than previously). Nautilus also has a serious bug (folders hanging after transferring large files into them) .

    That’s the Vista problem in a nutshell. Schedule over users.

  • Anonymous

    I loved Karmic the first time I set my eyes on it since it solved some hair pulling issues with previous Ubuntu which were being able to remove tap pad = double click and WiFi which always jumped on while I disabled that in my BIOS. I had one issue once when my screen was completely disabled but that was when I was trying an Alpha version so can’t blame anyone (although maybe Asus).

    Also I never do an update but do a simple clean install on another partition on my quad boot machine (2 Ubuntu, 2 very old Windoze). I learned that lesson two years ago while updating from Gutsy to Hardy ;-)

  • Martini1179

    Sorry to be posting a comment to such an old article, but I just upgraded my Jaunty install to Karmic and I’m having some problems.

    Basically, I’m getting Xid errors from the NVIDIA driver about every other day, and the system usually crashes after giving me a corrupted, garbled desktop. Jaunty was FLAWLESS, and the issues started immediately after upgrading.

    Does anyone know if EnvyNG is still being maintained? It doesn’t work in Karmic.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Which driver number are you trying to use? Why EnvyNG? Have you tried installing the driver from Nvidia’s site manually?

      • Martini1179

        Well I think the problem might be the NVIDIA driver itself, so I’m trying to go back to the version Jaunty had, which I believe was 180.44. I’d rather use Envy, since I read the Ubuntu support pages for manually installing a driver and learned that you’re going to have to mess with the process again after any updates to mesa or linux-image, and Envy apparently does some of that for you.

  • http://sites.google.com/site/geekreviewsarticles Joseph Schwenker

    Oh dear. Ubuntu 9.10 was a COMPLETE DISASTER for me. It was all pretty and wonderful, and I really liked it at first. It was like Windows Vista; beautiful until it crashes. And there I was, wondering why I wasn’t getting any sound in WINE. I soon find other applications that have sound problems too. I post it on Ubuntu Forums, and spend DAYS trying to solve my problems, and it turns out that PulseAudio is the criminal. Incompatibilities with so many things… of course, the volume applet only works with PulseAudio, so you’re kind of forced to use it. OpenArena (in 9.10′s repositories) has unlistenable audio. Not to mention all of the other applications… wow. I was forced to leave 9.10 for 9.04 after it just crashed. Files disappearing… it was as unstable as the Citadael’s core in Half-Life 2: Episode 1! 9.04, is, in my opinion, an LTS. It is fast, stable, and doesn’t rely on PulseAudio. I can say with much confidence that I will not be upgrading to 10.04 if Canonical decides to keep PulseAudio.

    • Martini1179

      Here here!

      Karmic is a turd dipped in diarrhea pudding.

      As a new-ish Ubuntu user, I started using Ubuntu in the last days of Intrepid, and then upgraded to Karmic with no problems. When I cautiously upgraded to Karmic six weeks after release (to give Canonical time to shake out all the bugs), I was sorely disappointed. Among the problems I’ve experienced:

      Proprietary NVIDIA driver crashes on a daily basis
      (and system stalls on resume from suspend when using default NVIDIA free driver),
      Video hue off by default (aka the Smurf Effect) on all non-Flash video,
      Periodic audio problems — audio becomes scratchy and static-y.

      What’s good about Karmic? Well, things seem to launch a bit faster, and the packages in the Upgrade Manager are sorted by their PPA.

      I’ve traded a stable, problem-free Jaunty install for THIS. If I had an external HD I’d have backed up my data, reinstalled Jaunty, downloaded/burned a Karmic disc and ceremoniously destroyed it.

    • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

      I had completely different experience. 9.10 in general solved a view issues I had with graphic and even with sound.

      One important thing: If you use Skype just upgrade to the newest Linux version and don’t allow Skype to manipulate your mixer levels (there is an appropriate option in the Skype settings).

      • http://sites.google.com/site/geekreviewsarticles Joseph Schwenker

        I guess that my experience was similar to yours, Martin, although my problems with audio were greatly amplified because I had to kill/uninstall PulseAudio many times so that WINE and games (OpenArena, Yo Frankie!, etc.) would work. Maybe if PulseAudio works as well as ALSA in 9.04, I will upgrade to 10.04. I really hope this is fixed.

  • Anonymous

    The fact that ONLY 1/3 had a successful event with Karmic is terrible. You seem to feel that throwing crap out the door to keep a sentimental schedule is just stupid. You make absolutely NO apology and you basically yell “shut up and sit down.” What purpose then is feedback. Do you just pick the feel good articles to respond?

    • http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/ Martin Wildam

      As far as I can summarize from my own experience yet already with different updates (not just my machine) and from all what I have read until now is:

      Even in relation to 9.04, in 9.10 there are important fixes (e.g. some problems with some Intel graphic cards) and expected application updates.

      However, there were some new problems introduced. While my sound experience was better in 9.10 out of the box (I had problems in 9.04 with Skype – that anyway were fixable), a lot of others had problems. I would not in general blame PulseAudio. I would rather think, that by the attempt to remove other sound stuff (that often caused conflicts – since I am on Linux – even Fedora – I always had troubles with sound to get them to work), the transition to PulseAudio was not an easy one and hence some bugs occurring.

      There also have been issues introduced in 9.10 with mobile internet sticks not working any more (I also was affected myself by this) – but most of these issues could be fixed by firmware updates and fixes in the Linux kernel (which BTW is not Ubuntu-specific and hence not necessarily related to their release schedules).

      In general regarding the release schedules, the hurry is not necessary because Canonical/Community can choose what to include/bring further for the next release. They could easily be in schedule by not changing too much.

      From history I would say Linux evolved that fast in the last years that – I guess – most were already waiting for a lot of new cool stuff and within 6 months there were huge changes. From current point of view as I have quite everything I need I would also have no problems if a new release would appear only once in a year.