So the long awaited 13.04 release is now out after reviewers all over the Internet took to the per-release and largely agreed that while performance had vastly increased and many rough edges were smoothed out, many felt that the release was "boring" and that because the fell short of much of their release goals looked at it more as a minor upgrade with major under the hood performance changes.
This release, however fixes one of the biggest major complaints about Unity and Ubuntu as a whole: speed. Unity in the past was often derided because of its lack of speed and rightfully so. With Ubuntu making the move into mobile and embedded space using their "convergent desktop" plan, they had to make internal changes so that Unity could run efficiently even on less powerful devices. Some of these tweaks have made it to Unity 7.
Really, other than that and a few minor changes here and there, this release is more of a snoozer. The much of the real, tangible features that were promised in to land in 13.04 such as enhanced privacy settings and the hundred scopes project never made it. The later is something that I think is quite telling about Ubuntu as a project: the fact that enhanced privacy was not a priority. Every other major Linux desktop takes this issue very seriously, and Gnome (from which Ubuntu still builds much of the technology on top of) makes privacy a huge priority. Unity just side-stepped the entire issue in favor of sending your what type in the Dash to Amazon, Facebook, and their other partners, by default, with no way of controlling what lens or scope is triggered by default and whether it is networked.
Overall, I really feel that 13.04 is a release that probably would have been best skipped or perhaps delivered as a performance update: a 12.10.X release, if you will. In fact, this seems to be such a non-release that most of the Linux news sites and even the official Ubuntu website seem to be rather ho-hum about it. There really aren't very many notes on the release, just a focus on performance, the replacement of Gwibbler with "Friends", and some improvements with Nautilus that are upstream Gnome changes.
Unlike the newest Fedora or OpenSUSE, Ubuntu isn't really pushing the envelope here with this release. If you liked 12.10, you will like 13.04 -- if not then there is no reason to switch. Really, the biggest changes I feel that went down happened in the derivative distros and the fact that a Gnome flavor has been released as well. However, with Ubuntu switching to its own display server next year among other internal changes, the fate of these derivatives remains to be seen.
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On a more interesting note: many people including Nixie Pixel on Youtube have pointed out that when Ubuntu revamped their web site for the 13.04 cycle, the removed all mentions of the word "Linux" from their pages. With Ubuntu's focus being based around their own system, and with Canonical working with their own vision, could it be that the company no longer wishes to be seen as a "Linux" in the same vein as Fedora, OpenSUSE, or Debian?
I think that this is more than just a branding decision. It is a declaration of vision. They are working to make their system more of an "Android for the Desktop" type system with its own semi-walled garden approach. The technologies they are using to build the system up from are increasingly divergent from the rest of the Linux world (systemd vs upstart, wayland vs mir, etc) that Ubuntu is practically is a different OS than Debian or Red Hat and in very significant ways.
All of this comes on the heels of Shuttleworth declaring that Ubuntu is not and never was a community distribution as well. And with Shuttleworth taking such a active role directing Ubuntu, I honestly feel that he is leading it in the wrong direction by not working to ensure compatibility with the Free Desktop initiatives or adopting and building on existing technologies that are more widely supported. Instead, he is seeking to create his own little island in the Linux world at the detriment of users of other distros.
However, he apparently clearly feels that Ubuntu isn't Linux, at least Linux as most would have it.
This release, however fixes one of the biggest major complaints about Unity and Ubuntu as a whole: speed. Unity in the past was often derided because of its lack of speed and rightfully so. With Ubuntu making the move into mobile and embedded space using their "convergent desktop" plan, they had to make internal changes so that Unity could run efficiently even on less powerful devices. Some of these tweaks have made it to Unity 7.
Really, other than that and a few minor changes here and there, this release is more of a snoozer. The much of the real, tangible features that were promised in to land in 13.04 such as enhanced privacy settings and the hundred scopes project never made it. The later is something that I think is quite telling about Ubuntu as a project: the fact that enhanced privacy was not a priority. Every other major Linux desktop takes this issue very seriously, and Gnome (from which Ubuntu still builds much of the technology on top of) makes privacy a huge priority. Unity just side-stepped the entire issue in favor of sending your what type in the Dash to Amazon, Facebook, and their other partners, by default, with no way of controlling what lens or scope is triggered by default and whether it is networked.
Overall, I really feel that 13.04 is a release that probably would have been best skipped or perhaps delivered as a performance update: a 12.10.X release, if you will. In fact, this seems to be such a non-release that most of the Linux news sites and even the official Ubuntu website seem to be rather ho-hum about it. There really aren't very many notes on the release, just a focus on performance, the replacement of Gwibbler with "Friends", and some improvements with Nautilus that are upstream Gnome changes.
Unlike the newest Fedora or OpenSUSE, Ubuntu isn't really pushing the envelope here with this release. If you liked 12.10, you will like 13.04 -- if not then there is no reason to switch. Really, the biggest changes I feel that went down happened in the derivative distros and the fact that a Gnome flavor has been released as well. However, with Ubuntu switching to its own display server next year among other internal changes, the fate of these derivatives remains to be seen.
* * *
On a more interesting note: many people including Nixie Pixel on Youtube have pointed out that when Ubuntu revamped their web site for the 13.04 cycle, the removed all mentions of the word "Linux" from their pages. With Ubuntu's focus being based around their own system, and with Canonical working with their own vision, could it be that the company no longer wishes to be seen as a "Linux" in the same vein as Fedora, OpenSUSE, or Debian?
I think that this is more than just a branding decision. It is a declaration of vision. They are working to make their system more of an "Android for the Desktop" type system with its own semi-walled garden approach. The technologies they are using to build the system up from are increasingly divergent from the rest of the Linux world (systemd vs upstart, wayland vs mir, etc) that Ubuntu is practically is a different OS than Debian or Red Hat and in very significant ways.
All of this comes on the heels of Shuttleworth declaring that Ubuntu is not and never was a community distribution as well. And with Shuttleworth taking such a active role directing Ubuntu, I honestly feel that he is leading it in the wrong direction by not working to ensure compatibility with the Free Desktop initiatives or adopting and building on existing technologies that are more widely supported. Instead, he is seeking to create his own little island in the Linux world at the detriment of users of other distros.
However, he apparently clearly feels that Ubuntu isn't Linux, at least Linux as most would have it.