Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Daily-build Review: With latest apps and a better looking Unity

With every progressing release, Unity desktop is getting significantly better. In Natty and Oneiric, I actually hated Unity for it's inefficiency and decided to stick to Linux Mint and Sabayon for the time being. However, with Ubuntu Precise 2nd update (12.04.2), my opinion on Unity actually changed. Though still not customizable but efficiency has increased, apps stopped crashing in the background, annoying pop-ups are gone and Unity has now become far more responsive than where it was in the beginning. Also, after using Gnome 3 in Fedora and OpenSUSE, I now understand why Ubuntu stayed away from the default Gnome 3 DE and leaned towards Unity. Agree, the strip hogs a bit of space on the left hand side but you can actually make it thinner and hide while using applications.

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

My sole purpose of downloading the daily build of Ubuntu Raring Ringtail and using it for a week, was to assess what incremental changes to expect in Unity for the April release. I downloaded the 816 MB ISO from here and did an installation on my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM.


Ubuntu 13.04 has Linux kernel 3.8.0 and Gnome shell is 3.6. Like all Gnome 3.6 distros, Files 3.6.3 is the default file manager. Also, Ubuntu has done away with System information tab in System monitor and no longer you can see the Gnome shell version there.

Installation
Installation is pretty much the same as in Precise or Quantal - no changes or surprises there. While installation, I opted for downloading 3rd party proprietary softwares like Adobe flashplugin, multimedia codecs, etc. and installation took about 30 minutes of time.

Post installation almost daily there were some updates and I kept installing them till today (10th March).

Privacy - Most importantly
After the privacy fiasco with Ubuntu 12.10, in the 13.04 release, Ubuntu now gives a lengthy legal notice that user data are being collected by Canonical. 

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Anyway, I don't care much about that legal notice but what I care is that Ubuntu now has an option of not sharing your private content with Canonical. It is a great relief to Ubuntu users, no doubt!

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Further, the scopes, as promised in 13.04, are still not part of Unity dash. I guess, it will be good to get all contents from IMDB, Ebay, Amazon, etc. at a single location but these things may become a bit overwhelming to begin with and will take some time to get used to it. Users like me are quite comfortable in searching content on Google or Yahoo! in Firefox.

Unity - coming to age
Unity is almost similar in design (dash icon is a bit different and looks great) with Ubuntu Quantal. Desktop is very simplistic in design with the same wallpaper and I like the simplicity that Ubuntu offers. Though still Unity in 13.04 is still not customizable.

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Functionalities like web apps, photo lens, music lens, video lens, integration with Amazon, etc. continue as in Ubuntu Quantal. I added web apps for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to the dash. And from dash I could search my friends facebook posts, favorite music and videos!

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Unity is much more responsive than what I noted for Ubuntu 12.10 without compromising much of the functionalities. Unity is truly coming to age now and after working for a week, I could see it's intuitive appeal. Earlier, instead of searching through the menu, I used to have a docky and pin my favorite applications there. Now Unity strip has replaced the need for docky, at least for the moment.

However, still applications take a bit of time to open from the strip. Hopefully it will come down in future releases.

Applications
Applications are more or less the same with updated version of LibreOffice (4.0.0.0) and GIMP (I downloaded 2.8.2). Most of the commonly used applications are present in Ubuntu (as expected) and additional applications can be downloaded from Ubuntu Software Center. Default web browser is Firefox and chat client is empathy. Flashplugin and multimedia codecs were downloaded at the time of installation and I could see my favorite youtube channels or videos right after installation without requiring to download any additional app/codec.

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Integration with leading social networks is the same as in Quantal. It is quite helpful as once you input your facebook, twitter, google, flickr, etc. account details there, social networking applications like Gwibber, empathy, shotwell, etc. gets automatically configured.
 

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Performance
Ubuntu 13.04 (though in beta stage) showed a bit of higher RAM and CPU consumption to load desktop with task manager running, than Ubuntu Precise. But, it is lower than Ubuntu Quantal. Also, except for the slow response in opening applications from the strip, rest of the experience was pretty smooth. I didn't encounter any instability in my usage (except for hanging at times while using LibreOffice Calc). Pretty smooth experience for a beta distro, undoubtedly


 


 
Overall
I am quite happy with what I saw in Ubuntu Raring  Ringtail beta. Unity works pretty decent and doesn't hog much resources now. Resource usage is at par with any other KDE distro I h ave seen. Unity strip and dashboard have definite utilities and makes life a lot simpler than using Gnome 3 default desktop and menu.

I am sure by the time 13.04 is released, a few more incremental features (like scopes, etc.) will be added to it. As of now, it is honestly an improved version of Ubuntu 12.10 without any additional "Raring" features, except a lengthy legal notice and privacy option. I end with a note of expectation both in terms of performance and functionality from the Raring release. Hopefully, it is on track for the 25 April 2013www.devianart.com release.