Ubuntu 10.10: Get it while it's hot

Jack Wallen
Oct 11, 2010
Updated • Dec 2, 2012
Linux
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That's right ladies and gentlemen, Ubuntu 10.10 is officially out and officially hot. With plenty of features to make everything ooh and ahh as well as stability built upon the 10.04 release, which is one of the most stable, usable distributions to date.

But why should you download it now and install it? What does 10.10 offer that you need? Why not just stick with the perfectly find 10.04 and wait until the next major release? Let's take a look and find out.

First and foremost

You probably want a link. That's simple. Go to the Ubuntu Download page and begin the download of the live CD. Of course, if you want the KDE version of 10.1o, head over to the Kubuntu Download page. You can even get the XFCE spin of Ubuntu from the Xubuntu Download page. So no matter your flavor, you can get it. Once you have downloaded that ISO file you will want to burn it onto a cd. This is very simple in both Linux and Windows. Just make sure you burn this ISO as an IMAGE and NOT a data file. An ISO burned to a data file will not be installable.

After you burn your ISO you can put that into your CD drive, boot from it, and either just run it or install it.

Installation

There is very little to say about the installation as it has become so easy. You will notice something new to the 10.10 install routine. You can choose to automatically download updates during the installation. This will cause the installation to take significantly longer, but in the end you will wind up with an up to date system the second you log in.

What's new and improved

There are plenty of notable features for 10.10. One of the most notable is the ability to actually purchase commercial software from the Ubuntu Software Center. Although this feature is integrated and ready to go, you might not find any commercial software ready to purchased yet. But these titles will be coming. I predict that, at first, the software center will be populated by software titles similar to what you can buy for mobile devices. This will mean small games, social apps, and the like. This, of course, will be a nice feature and will give Ubuntu a much-needed head start when other OS start following suit. These small apps will probably have a price-point similar to that of the mobile apps.

Eventually, I would imaging, more business-oriented applications will start showing up as well. Also, you can probably expect various types of multi-media codecs to pop up as well. The Fluendo media playback codecs can already be purchased!

Of course you can expect tools like CrossOver Office and Cedega to appear. This will be a real boon for the companies that produce these titles. When new Linux users see Cedega and the ability to easily run Windows games, they will be quick to purchase.

Multitouch support

For those fortunate enough to have the hardware, Ubuntu 10.10 will have the ability to support multi-touch thanks to uTouch. Here is Mark Shuttleworth's blog on uTouch. As of the release, uTouch should work, out of the box, on Dell XT2, HP tx2 tablets and the Lenovo T410s laptop. Of course Canonical has released the full gesture stack to the open source community.

You decide

Download and install Ubuntu 10.10 and then report back here your impressions. If I were of the betting type, I would wager you will be impressed.

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Comments

  1. Lxman said on November 26, 2010 at 6:08 am
    Reply

    Oh! after getting tired of “blocks” from Microsoft, I decided to down load ‘free’ Linux. It lasted for a whole night to get it down loaded facing the repeated hindrance!

    Now I see above a lot of opinions, pros and cons, and am having read them confused and bewildered as to what to do next!

    I would be glad and grateful if any body could ‘guide’ me in “mastering” the “Linux operation”.

    Thanks!

    Lx*
    (kvlxman@yahoo.com)

  2. Sagnik Pal said on November 23, 2010 at 12:41 pm
    Reply

    how can i purchase ubuntu 10.10

  3. Stephen said on November 2, 2010 at 5:48 pm
    Reply

    I was able to get Ubuntu 10.10 installed very quickly. I went from a very slow Windows XP machine to something very fast. Took me about an hour. A lot of that was trial and figuring out Navigation

  4. Thomas said on November 2, 2010 at 1:57 pm
    Reply

    I have no idea what you are talking about. I downloaded 10.10 for the first time ever.

    Installed it on three computers in under thirty minutes. Computer 1, 2002 compaq; Computer 2, 2003 Dell; Computer 3, 2007 HP with a 1 gig video card and windows 7.

    After reading comments I installed it on a 1998 gateway laptop with 256 ram. Took 8 hours, but does work!

  5. Art Zasadny said on October 22, 2010 at 9:36 pm
    Reply

    I’ve been a confirmed Windows user for years, but I have tried various flavors of Linux before coming back to Windows. I installed Ubuntu 10.10 a week ago on 2 of my PC’s and I’m very impressed. One of these was a Win98 dual boot and it works just fine. Less than 10 minutes to do a clean install and then a few more minutes to download updates, then some apps. all of mu hardware works, connectivity to my Win2003 server works, printers connect and file sharing works. So far, I have not had a single problem with Ubuntu 10.10. Ubuntu runs much faster than Windows 7 on the same hardware and it looks just as good, without all of the $ to Microsoft.

  6. Womble said on October 13, 2010 at 3:58 am
    Reply

    Man I wish I’d have given you odds on that wager!

  7. Bob Smith said on October 12, 2010 at 9:52 am
    Reply

    Why Ubuntu Is a piece of Sh##,

    1) Doesn’t support older hardware so if you have XP than your screwed!
    a)have to have a driver
    b) if you don’t have a power mangament tool, ubuntu will not work! wthell?
    2) Autohibernate- you have shut it dowN! and THEN start it up AGAIN!
    a)or it could just freeze… still works the same b***hes!
    3) A bunch of apps just suck in general like kdenlive, which doesn’t work well it crashes…

    1. frodo said on November 11, 2010 at 3:00 am
      Reply

      sounds like some folks need to learn a little before jumping in. the real waste of time is reading how little joey trashed his system. where is your backup? you did image your drive first, right? some folks just never learn. ubuntu kicks butt and it will kick yours if you dont use common sense.

      1. Dave Parrish said on November 22, 2010 at 5:21 am
        Reply

        Stop squeaking frodo. “Did you do this…..did you do that…..have you checked this….have you checked that……what about …..how about….when did you…..how did you…..blabber….blabber….blabber.

        We’re so sick of hearing “Did-ya garbage” from little kids like you.

        This krap doesn’t work anymore. Get a clue. These guys have been using Ubuntu for years and probably have forgotten more than you ever knew. So shut up.

  8. Jim Carter said on October 12, 2010 at 2:14 am
    Reply

    After about 7 hours I have Ubuntu 10.10 installed on the same PC where 10.04 installed and ran like a dream. All of my applications are gone and I have no idea what I had chosen for the various functions I needed after sifting through dozens of apps on a trial and error basis.

    I wish at least one creator of an operating system would finally get over screensavers and power management. Absolutely two of the most irritating and useless features ever created. Every time I turned my back on Ubuntu the screen was locked.

    PCs DON’T USE ANY POWER. It’s 2011 folks. Your PC probably uses about 55 watts. GET OVER IT!

    1. Dawn said on December 18, 2010 at 2:05 am
      Reply

      There’s an option in the Ubuntu screensaver box to unlock the screen everytime it goes into screensaver. Just uncheck the second box in screensavers and then the screensaver will just come on. The second box says” Lock screen when screensaver is active”…keep it UNCHECKED.

  9. Roebie said on October 12, 2010 at 12:40 am
    Reply

    You speak of ‘plenty of features’ and name only two: the ability to actually purchase commercial software and multitouch. Where’s the ‘plenty’ in that. Hardly features to make me upgrade either.
    So give us more Jack…

  10. Jack said on October 11, 2010 at 10:28 pm
    Reply

    Same here – installing 10.04 took minutes. 10.10 had me on hours – and it was wasted time. They’ve changed the installation style, and I just couldn’t get it to work.

    Back to 10.04….

  11. Jim Carter said on October 11, 2010 at 8:44 pm
    Reply

    I had 10.04 installed along with Windows XP….followed the instructions for an upgrade (so I wouldn’t have to reinstall all those apps). The time invested was about 3 hours with downloads/config questions, etc. Total waste of time…..which I have precious little of. Completely trashed….Ubuntu unusable!

    1. Kent Markham said on November 22, 2010 at 2:29 am
      Reply

      I agree. I’ve been using ubuntu for years but not anymore. This was the biggest cluster-phuck yet.
      No sound. No wifi. Resrticted drivers are worthless. After getting sound to work it’s still cheese-weeney tinny worthless garbage. Any cell phone speaker can stomp Ubuntu. What a joke.

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