So, Ubuntu 14.04 is in the wild; but can we we Trust the Tahr?
It has been 2 years since Ubuntu's last LTS release and alot has changed ever since then. Ubuntu is trying to move into the mobile space, upstart has lost the init wars, Mir is going to be Ubuntu's display server in the future and Wayland is almost here (lets cross all our available fingers for that). There has also been alot of drama around the above mentioned features but what's happening in the Ubuntu desktop land? Lets look into Ubuntu 14.04 ......
Under the hood
Ubuntu 14.04 is rocking linux kernel 3.13.0-24 which includes many changes compared including inclusion of the Nvidia Optimus graphics card support out of the box. Almost all underlying software stacks (just to be on the same side) has been updated compared what shipped in Ubuntu 12.04, the last LTS. This potentially means much better support for latest hardwares and many other minor, but countless improvement to system. This might also be the last release with Ubuntu's own inti upstart, as it seems 14.10 is already booting with systemd.
Since Ubuntu 14.04 is an LTS, no potentially unstable packages, or bleeding edge packages, have been included with the release; this means overall Ubuntu 14.04 is standing on a rock solid GNU/Linux core. Unless someone is running restrictive hardwares like macbook pro, the hardware compatibility is expected to be good with all the included opensource drivers, as well as close source ones, which can be activated quite easily from the settings. Thus a 9/10, as I faced no particular hardware with this release and don't expect to.
Since Ubuntu 14.04 is an LTS, no potentially unstable packages, or bleeding edge packages, have been included with the release; this means overall Ubuntu 14.04 is standing on a rock solid GNU/Linux core. Unless someone is running restrictive hardwares like macbook pro, the hardware compatibility is expected to be good with all the included opensource drivers, as well as close source ones, which can be activated quite easily from the settings. Thus a 9/10, as I faced no particular hardware with this release and don't expect to.
Desktop
Now, over the updated Gnome 3.12, ubuntu 14.04 is still running the Unity 7, which we saw in 13.10, with some nice additional features. The general aesthetics of Unity has not changed ever since the ubuntu 12.04 released in 2012 but alot of many things have been polished and the overall stability has improved in Unity 7. It seems that one of the most appreciated feature of Unity 7, in 14.04, is the addition of the appmenu in the title and this has elated many whose multi tasking in large monitors are severely hindered when trying to access menus for a window in the opposite corner of the monitor; after repeating this over a few day, the experience can be frustrating. It was never an issue for me as I liked the appmenu being in the top, just a personal preference.
But is Unity deserving to be your desktop of choice? My experience thus has been frustrating on my Macbook pro. Before 14.04, I was using Elementary OS Luna as my daily driver and it was smooth, stable and faced no random errors or crashing applications. But with 14.04, my daily fight with Ubuntu has been quite soul crashing. Every time I log in, Unity crashes and it takes from 1-1.5 minutes for it recover and present me with a working desktop. Some of my regularly used applications like SPSS and pithos seems to randomly crash and burn (metaphorically). So unity can be a pain in the ass things can go awry without any notice. Now it is possible that the software issue are more correlated to the app developers not updating their app as frequently as needed, but the login issue is frustrating and I have tried to fox it, but to no avail.
So I give Unity 7 an 5/10; the goods are in its nice integrating features which makes usage comfortable but he drop is points is mainly due to its unstable behavior, which is unendingly frustrating.
But is Unity deserving to be your desktop of choice? My experience thus has been frustrating on my Macbook pro. Before 14.04, I was using Elementary OS Luna as my daily driver and it was smooth, stable and faced no random errors or crashing applications. But with 14.04, my daily fight with Ubuntu has been quite soul crashing. Every time I log in, Unity crashes and it takes from 1-1.5 minutes for it recover and present me with a working desktop. Some of my regularly used applications like SPSS and pithos seems to randomly crash and burn (metaphorically). So unity can be a pain in the ass things can go awry without any notice. Now it is possible that the software issue are more correlated to the app developers not updating their app as frequently as needed, but the login issue is frustrating and I have tried to fox it, but to no avail.
So I give Unity 7 an 5/10; the goods are in its nice integrating features which makes usage comfortable but he drop is points is mainly due to its unstable behavior, which is unendingly frustrating.
Overall Experience
From the process of preparing an USB image to the browsing internet in Firefox on your natively installed Ubuntu 14.04, it would take you approximately and hour to get everything up an running, which is quite fast compared to fast installing of windows, where you are on a scavenger hunt for driver, and on Mac OS X, which takes over two hour to install itself and be ready for operation, after setup. But the good impression is hampered significantly during logins, as users are often met with black screen as Ubuntu tries to fix all the errors to Unity get up and running. But after the initial hurdle is over, almost everything is quite congruent as the teams behind Ubuntu has made sure that the workflow is quiet fluent, although I often find it frustrating that the dash opens up to a search option rather than applications and the applications portion has the list of all apps hidden away; this can be very frustration, which is why I generally just search for the app rather than looking for the launcher icon. I would argue that design wise this is very counter intuitive for someone new to Unity and should have been dealt with, but then again, they do have bigger fishes to fry with the upcoming Unity 8.
So, due being a mostly positive experience, with some rough edges, I score the overall experience to be 6/10; its not that bad, but not as good as any I would like it to be!
Thus Ubuntu 14.04 scores 20/30; is it worth trusting the Tahr now? If you are running the likes of Ubuntu 12.04 or ElementaryOS Luna, I would argue that there is no reason to update to it unless you desire to be on the latest release. If stability is your focus, stay away for now!