

Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Review - daoudc
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/ubuntu_13_04_review/

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account_taken
Just wondering how many people have actually installed Bing Desktop, Google
Desktop or any other desktop search on Windows. Why does Ubuntu think their
more discriminating user base need these SMART search features when the common
John and Jane shunned it?

It's all about privacy and companies trying to get you to buy more things are
the worst offenders of viruses and invasion of privacy on the web.

~~~
brudgers
I suspect Ubuntu's user base isn't more discriminating. Ubuntu targets people
who want to switch from Windows, and most of those people want to switch
because "it's free."

If Ubuntu's target market was more sophisticated they wouldn't be reviving the
old "sponsored computer" model of fifteen years ago.

~~~
obviouslygreen
That's what people say, and probably what Ubuntu says as well, but I'd wonder
if their actual user base is really composed of a significant percentage of
ex-Windows non-power-users.

I put Ubuntu on just about everything, so do several other devs I know, but we
don't use Unity, we have our own preferred environments... so while there is
that angle to Ubuntu, I'm not sure how well that actually represents the
reality of their installation base.

~~~
jlgreco
I agree, I think the claimed Ubuntu target audience / core base of users is a
complete fantasy. In reality the bulk of their users seem to be standard Linux
users who don't care a ton about the particulars of their distro so they just
pick the one perceived as the default choice because they don't have any
reason to put more thought into it (damn near everything is the same between
distros these days, the only big choice for most people is how often you want
releases, or if you want rolling releases). If the claimed sort of Ubuntu user
actually exists, they are rare enough that I have never encountered them.

~~~
brudgers
I think that the bulk of the people currently using Ubuntu are moderately
sophisticated technically.

However, I also believe that Canonical is pivoting Ubuntu toward non-technical
users because a) it differentiates Ubuntu; b) it offers room for growth; c)it
allows them to pursue more diverse revenue streams.

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jeremyjh
Well this review helped me determine there is really nothing worth an upgrade
to me. Some of the features sound great but are at least another release from
becoming really useful. All things being equal I prefer to be on the current
LTS release as that is all I'm going to run on my servers and its nice knowing
all the native libraries are the same version between my desktop and server.

~~~
Kurtz79
"Perhaps the best part of Unity in 13.04 is not new features, but the
noticeable speed improvement. Like GNOME Shell, Unity has taken its fair share
of (deserved) abuse for its high-end hardware requirements and sluggish
performance. You're still not going to make Unity scream on an old machine,
but provided you've got newer hardware, 13.04 is definitely snappier than its
predecessors."

Not even this ? If it's true, it would be worth upgrading just for a snappier
interface in my opinion.

~~~
jeremyjh
I guess I'd have to see it. Unity has never struck me as slow. I run it on a
pretty modern desktop; maybe in a laptop it would be more of a benefit.

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bgruber
half of this review is about photo-lens search and the online accounts
settings page, both of which existed in the previous release.

for what it's worth, my feelings about the photo lens are similar to the
reviewer's: it's a really cool idea that makes a lot of sense, and validates
the "web search" concept of the unity dash. unfortunately, in 12.10 at least
it has a number of issues. the biggest for me stems from the fact that when
you add an online account you get all of the services or none. in other words,
if you want the dash to search your facebook photos, empathy (the im client)
will do facebook chat. there's no way (that i've figured out) to have one on
without the other.

on the other hand, i'm not super-bothered by the amazon thing because i just
uninstalled unity-lens-shopping. would be nice for them to have some UI for
disabling individual lenses though.

~~~
takluyver
That concern is addressed in 13.04. Now you can separately enable or disable
applications' integration with an online account (e.g. disable facebook
integration for Empathy only).

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elteto
I feel the title is inaccurate and misleading. This is not a full review of
the new release, but rather of the search options of the dash and the music
player.

~~~
k-mcgrady
I agree. The actual title is: "Ubuntu 13.04: No privacy controls as promised,
but hey - photo search!" It doesn't seem like the website is even claiming it
to be a review of the OS.

~~~
daoudc
You're right, but I can't seem to change it now.

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themstheones
I realize a lot has changed so that it wouldn't be possible, but Ubuntu 13.04
would be a lot better for me if it was just Ubuntu 5.04 with the version
updates for all the packages. I guess that's kind of what Mint is going for.

~~~
pyre

      | I realize a lot has changed
    

There are a lot of non-UI changes that have happened since Ubuntu 5.04. E.g.
pulseaudio, evdev, etc.

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Spittie
I know it's not really a solution for the masses, but

    
    
      sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping
    

Should remove the results from Amazon, while keeping all the other online
lens.

~~~
Zigurd
You can also turn online search reults off in the privacy settings

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bobx11
Download the ubuntu server image instead, and after install just run `sudo
apt-get install gnome-shell gnome-terminal` to get a fast and clean desktop
experience.

