A few things I like about Ubuntu 11.10

I have been using Ubuntu 11.10 for over a month, it seems like the popular thing right now is bashing Ubuntu because of Unity. Is Unity different? Yes. Does that make it bad? No. I have been an OS X user for years and see some similarity between it and Unity. Unity has made Ubuntu less like Windows and more like OS X yet keeping it unique. One of the reasons I do not have a problem with Unity might be my OS X background.

Feature improvments:
Dash Home. The Dash home icon on the launcher bar is in a better place. The search feature works well. (One of the things I love about OS X) Click the dash home and began typing, bang your application or file is found. (Need to be able to define words and do math to match OS X)

Update Status. With Ubuntu 11.04 I could never tell when I needed an update. 11.10 fixed this problem. Clicking on the gear in the upper right corner drops down a menu. One of the options is update status. If an update is needed a simple click opens the update manager.

Closing frozen applications. In the past frozen applications were hard for me to close. Now clicking on the x force closes them. (I have only had LibreOffice freeze up)

Appearance. This time I am using the background that changes throughout the day. Works well with no noticeable slowdowns. 

Overall I like Ubuntu. For anyone with decent hardware wanting to get started with Linux, Ubuntu is a good way to do that.


More reading:
Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/whats-new 
Ubuntu 11.10 Review : I take it back. Unity is cool.
 http://lunduke.com/?p=1985