Ubuntu 10.04 LTS: Lucid Lynx Benchmarked And Reviewed

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. ;_;

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?

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

@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.

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.

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?

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

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)

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?

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.

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

Skype in Lucid Lynx, Gnome: options-> choose style: GTK +

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 ?

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.

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.

Thank you for this review

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!

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.

Next time, Pls have benchmarks against Windows

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

ksa-_-jedDon't blame the OS blame Logitech because the don't support Linux with good drivers

Humph. My Logitech keyboard/mouse work just fine with Ubuntu! I am using lower-end Logitech hardware, though, on my Ubuntu machine (mouse: V220; keyboard: deluxe 250). Maybe it's only the fancier, and thus more complex, products that have trouble. One of these days maybe I'll plug my MX Revolution and Wave into the Ubuntu machine and see what happens...
Please understand that I'm not bashing Ubuntu, either. I'm just saying they might not have specialized the OS built-in drivers enough for the more advanced hardware.

Nice to see a Linux review up here, but could you throw in some ATI graphics as well next time. Lots of people still have issues with ATI and Ubuntu (I myself am annoyed by th screening going black for a few seconds before whenever I play a video). I was wondering if ATI and Ubuntu finally starting playing nice with this release.

I downloaded and installed this recently, and being new to freshly installed Linux OSes (I use it at work), the first thing I did was try to fire up the software distribution center. I clicked to install some free game and it never installed. Now, when I try to open the software center, it just pops up and immediately disappears. Strike one. Next thing I do is try to combine a couple of my IM clients/facebook with the thing up in the corner, but the program does not obey the default font sizes and is almost impossible to read that small. I was hoping not to have to try and fix something with a fresh install but I guess I was wrong. Kind of offputting really.

I upgraded to 10.04 and it's fine. I did have an easier install than 9.10 so that was nice for sure. However, the stupid min, max, close on the left side was just a stupid move. Nothing like having my browser window open and scrolling up and down and then I want to close. oh wait, they wanted it to be like Mac now. Grrr. I changed with gconf, but it just doesn't make sense when Linux users and Windows users are all geared a certain way to change it. With the change to the purple and the moving of the min, max, & close, I just felt like it was pushing to be like OS X.

Like some of Adam's machines, my loading screen with the Ubuntu and the dots looks like crap.