Ubuntu 10.04 LTS: Lucid Lynx Benchmarked And Reviewed

Name: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS: Lucid Lynx Benchmarked And Reviewed
Author: Adam Overa

by Adam Overa May 26, 2010 at 1:00 AM

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is pinning its hopes of OEM acceptance on the Lucid Lynx. We've put the screws to this new Long Term Support (LTS) release, comparing it to Canonical's previous LTS release, 8.04 Hardy Heron, to look for progress.

It has been a little over two weeks since the final code for Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx hit the Internet. Last time, I had to wait a month before getting into 9.10, due to heinous errors, crippling bugs, and excruciatingly slow software repositories. Thankfully, none of this occurred with 10.04.

And it shouldn't. You see, Ubuntu 10.04 carries the LTS acronym, which stands for Long Term Support. Every six months, a new version of Ubuntu is released into the wild, but it's only once every two years that we get to see an LTS. The last LTS release was in April of 2008, when Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron made its debut. These releases are especially important because this can make or break Ubuntu for OEM sales. Hardware partners, who could potentially sell systems with the OS pre-installed, will be looking to the LTS release as a benchmark for both quality and stability. Developers, too, will be paying close attention. Creating compatible software for Ubuntu should be much easier, and more likely to happen on the longer release cycle.

This review is more personal for me because it was 8.04 that made me an Ubuntu convert and a full-time Linux user. Before that, I was only a visitor, tinkering with various RPM distributions like Mandriva and Red Hat. I used Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10 briefly, but I always came back to the familiarity of a KDE/RPM distro.

This all changed with the rock-solid release of Hardy Heron. So, with this in mind, I decided to take a look at how far Ubuntu has come since the last LTS release. Along with the standard review of Ubuntu 10.04, in requisite Tom's Hardware fashion, we've put the Lucid Lynx in a no holds barred cage match against the Hardy Heron. We'll determine whether the OS has become bloated over the past two years, or if performance has streamlined. Does Canonical have another 'Karmic Katastrophe' on its hands, or is Lucid Lynx a runaway hit? Read on to find out.

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Adam Overa @adamovera

Adam Overa is the Managing Editor of Tom's Hardware US. He oversees reviews, editorial operations, the lab, layout and translations.

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Top Comments

ksa-_-jed 7 years ago

beriguuMy Logitech Wireless Wave keyboard and mouse didn't work with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop x64 on VMWare Workstation 7.01. It works in the beginning with text screen, but once it goes to GUI screen keyboard function is lost. ;_;

Don't blame the OS blame Logitech because the don't support Linux with good drivers
12

Other Comments

Anonymous 7 years ago

My Logitech Wireless Wave keyboard and mouse didn't work with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop x64 on VMWare Workstation 7.01. It works in the beginning with text screen, but once it goes to GUI screen keyboard function is lost. ;_;
3
WheelsOfConfusion 7 years ago

There's lots of talk on the Phoronix forums about how Ubuntu + nVidia binaries don't play nicely, while some other distros don't have that problem. This was reflected in an Ubuntu vs. Arch bench-off: surprisingly, Arch only really thrashed Ubuntu in the games and everything else was about even. This might be behind those pitiful scores with the game benchmarks.
Compiz also has a measurable, negative effect on game benches with nVidia, but not so much with ATI hardware/drivers. I'm not surprised that turning off desktop effects changed the game so much.

What do you think is going on with 7zip, an ext4 issue?
0
jsowoc 7 years ago

With 10.10 planning btrfs and GnomeShell, it's a sure recepie for tragedy :-). Very nice article.
1
adamovera 7 years ago

@WheelsOfConfusion:
RE: desktop effects - I'll be adding an ATI card to the mix a little earlier than I had intended in order to look at the desktop effects issue. Stay tuned.
RE: Gaming FPS - The interesting thing is that the actual games didn't have that big of an impact from desktop effects. It was the unigine benchmarks that showed seriously significant drops in frame rates with them enabled.
RE: 7z - I suppose it could be EXT4, but I believe EXT4 is the reason for the speed gains in all other comp/decomp tests, as well as the copy time tests. Comprehensive filesystem and archiving benchmarks under the same release should tell us whether or not it's an EXT4 issue.
0
apoq 7 years ago

Why no benchmark against Windows. You yourself said Ubuntu should be aiming to convert Windows users more than Mac users (and I whole heartedly agree with you). I love Ubuntu and I use most of the time, but every time I boot into Windows (7) I am left with the feeling of a way snappier OS. I think this is where Ubuntu is really lacking.
9
killerclick 7 years ago

Linux still doesn't have the software I need so I can't use it. However I've noticed a sharp decrease in stupid problems in the past three years (prolly thanks to Ubuntu). Currently my favorite distro is Mint but I remain a Windows user mainly because of a lot of software I own and am proficient in.
As for the latest Ubuntu, why can't they have a bland business-like theme? Are the Phoenix Suns now paying them to use their colors?
0
Anonymous 7 years ago

For your Skype visibility issues, go to Skype settings and change theme to GTK+. Did the trick for me.
4
samspqr 7 years ago

looks nice, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions, like:
* will it play 1080p24 H.264 videos smoothly, with GPU acceleration?
* will it play vimeo/youtube high-res videos smoothly?
given how good you say it is on the other fronts, I'll give it a try and see for myself (I'm currently on 8.04, so convincing me to spend an afternoon updating my systems is no small feat)
2
zybch 7 years ago

So, will this year be another "Year of Linux on the Desktop" like its been claiming for the past decade year in year out? Or will it remain a niche OS which people needing to do actual work on 'real' programs can continue to dismiss out of hand?
-4
flightmare 7 years ago

You can set the minimize, close and maximize buttons to the right again in gconf-editor. Browse to apps/metacity/general and edit button_layout to your likings.
1
ksa-_-jed 7 years ago

beriguuMy Logitech Wireless Wave keyboard and mouse didn't work with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop x64 on VMWare Workstation 7.01. It works in the beginning with text screen, but once it goes to GUI screen keyboard function is lost. ;_;

Don't blame the OS blame Logitech because the don't support Linux with good drivers
12
Anonymous 7 years ago

Skype in Lucid Lynx, Gnome: options-> choose style: GTK +
2
haplo602 7 years ago

Adam, please have a look at Phoronix for their 10.04 tests. It seems there's some issue with X and the Nvidia drivers. Can you set up the same tests with an ATI card and compare Hardy and Lucid again ?
1
Regulas 7 years ago

apoqWhy no benchmark against Windows. You yourself said Ubuntu should be aiming to convert Windows users more than Mac users (and I whole heartedly agree with you). I love Ubuntu and I use most of the time, but every time I boot into Windows (7) I am left with the feeling of a way snappier OS. I think this is where Ubuntu is really lacking.

Really, just the opposite here, Win 7-64 Ubuntu 10.04-64 on same machine.
0
nforce4max 7 years ago

I am not much of a Linux user but Mint is nice and comes preloaded with the basics which is nice. My K6-2+ rig is just to slow though.
1
zoemayne 7 years ago

Thank you for this review
5
Anonymous 7 years ago

there is undoubtedly one thing in which ubuntu far ahead in cimparision with windows 7.
If my PC is turn on for few hours i download some files,surf on internet later on PC is unusable sooooooooooo damn slow no problems with ubuntu
After few months on windows i install/uninstall program system starts to compete with turtle in speed - boot slow, performance slow and of course i do maintainance - start up programs, services and still for me every half max one year reinstallation is a must.
Again no problems in this matter with ubuntu
Windows is just a big bin which takes everything and it doesnt matter how much RAM you have - takes it all
And i have quit high-end ring - 4 gb ram and core2duo@3,4
Windows for games and windows - only application - for daily use UBUNTU!
0
Stardude82 7 years ago

Ubuntu doesn't include out of the box the wireless driver for the Mini 10 because of open source purity/licensing reasons. You have to use a wrapper and load the windows drivers which some people think is pure evil. Conversely, why Broadcom doesn't just provide open source drivers is also stupid.

Windows 7 runs so well on the new Atom platform, I doubt Netbook remix will make much inroad. Both Canonical and Microsoft have released some slick pieces of software.
1
shubham1401 7 years ago

Next time, Pls have benchmarks against Windows
3
azhardware 7 years ago

beriguuMy Logitech Wireless Wave keyboard and mouse didn't work with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop x64 on VMWare Workstation 7.01. It works in the beginning with text screen, but once it goes to GUI screen keyboard function is lost. ;_;

I had the same problem with my Dinovo Edge and Mini. Check out http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1469533 for a fix.

Personally, I felt Lucid fell a little short again. Beriguu's issue with the keyboard is one thing. Another is my X-fi soundcard only playing out the left speaker, this seems to be a widespread issue. I know this is largly because creative won't release driver specs but it's just another reason why I can't run all my PCs on linux. I've got a great linux server running in the basement, dual boot on my main pc and vista on my home theater pc. I wish I could put linux on the last one though
And oh yeh, Bluray? Again, not really ubuntu's fault but I want my HD movies and until I can play them I won't be running linux for anything other than software development. Multimedia stuff will stay on windows
0