About Lynx and the future of Ubuntu

This is a review of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS lucid lynx. I recently upgraded my laptop from 9.10 to 10.04 version and this blog details my experiences with it.

A long time linux user, I jumped at the opportunity to upgrade to 10.04 Lynx. The upgrade went well and the system rebooted. That was all that went well.

Each bootup operation takes ages now. Windows 7 is a clear winner for bootup time.

Also, I got an “error while mounting /proc/bus/usb” message and it required me to press S to continue booting up each time. Accepted it was a quick fix and editing /etc/fstab solved it, but do they expect everyone to go through this step after an upgrade?!

Third, I do not like the default "Ambiance" color scheme. Reviews say it is classy and elegant. I say nay nay. It is another one of those weird colors only Ubuntu can throw up on you. Dark, gloomy, and unattractive the “Lynx Violet” is akin to Window’s Blue SOD. However, the overall theme itself is very close to the Mac Aqua.

Fourth, what is happening with Mozilla Thunderbird 3??!! The cool ajax style search feature is gone and in its place is an antique search that opens a new tab and shows a crappy interface for messages with preview. Did they not learn anything from scrolling the mouse over bing.com search results? It looks like Mozilla released this upgrade to match the mayhem wrought out by Ubuntu 10.04 Lynx.

And, for Mac users (and even for infrequent Mac users like me) this version of Ubuntu will seem familiar. From the theme, to button styles, layout and more. Is it a copy??

I could go on and on.. but my point is that 10.04 Lynx is the worst upgrade decision I ever made. Hopefully it will not make me abandon Ubuntu altogether. Yes, the new gen of OS users like to have choices, fresh UI experiences, flexibility and customization options. But, if Linux had to copy from Windows and Mac every step of the way, it would definitely not appeal to this crowd. The future is not about open-source reverse engineering but rather for innovation and user-friendly visual interfaces.

p.s: Whose decision was that to put the window buttons on the left? Great move! Surprised?Yes, I think thats a bold UI move which must have taken a thrashing before it came to release. But I feel it saves time to perform those tasks once you get used to it and is a plus. Another plus is the social "Me Menu" on Lynx.