The experience has left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand I’m excited that Edgy continues the tradition of first-class releases of Ubuntu. On the other I’m disappointed that the release is so superficially pedestrian. Edgy looks and feels almost exactly the same as previous releases. It shouldn’t be this way.
Let’s remind ourselves what Mark Shuttleworth declared back in April this year when he announced Edgy:
Edgy is all about cutting edge, perhaps bleeding edge, brand new code and infrastructure. It will be the right time to bring in some seriously interesting but definitely edgy new technologies which lay the groundwork for the next wave of Ubuntu development.
This “only-for-the-brave” approach was seemingly confirmed by the fact that Dapper will remain the “official” distro for those who want to try Ubuntu.
So what’s new? Well, several components under the hood have changed. Perhaps most exciting is a replacement for the init procedure, which means Ubuntu boots much faster and is better able to handle modern hardware setups. There’s a new look and feel that polishes GNOME even more.
But mostly it’s newer versions of existing software packages. New GAIM, new GNOME, new Evolution… Although these bring some nice new features, I’ve got to say that my jaw dropped far less than I had anticipated.
I was disappointed to see there was no Network Manager, to handle wifi connections. Compiz/AIGLX don’t appear to be present, despite being mentioned in the release notes of Knot 2. I can’t find mention of any of these packages on the List Goals page or in the default packages on the CD-ROM. (Yes, the packages for this software exists, and you can install it yourself. But I expected everything to be seamlessly integrated, as is The Ubuntu Way.)
OK, so I played an alpha release created before the feature set was frozen. But it feels to me as if there will be little reason for anybody to upgrade to Edgy when it comes out, even if you like your software to be bleeding edge. That said, many hardcore Ubuntu fans will undoubtedly upgrade. Most probably already have.
There’s even a risk that Edgy could damage Ubuntu by fragmenting the community into Dapperites and Edgyites. New users will be told to use Dapper but, when they turn to the community for help, they’ll find lots of people using Edgy.
That would be a shame because, compared to other distros, the sheer size of the community gives one of the most compelling reasons to use Ubuntu.
