Ubuntu 12.04 LTS review

Darien Graham-Smith May 16, 2012

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Six months have passed since the last release of Ubuntu, and that means it’s time for a new version – complete with a new smarty-pants zoological codename (the “Precise Pangolin” this time, better known as a scaly anteater).

This release is more significant than most. As the “LTS” indicates, this is a long-term support release, meaning it will receive updates and patches for a full five years, while more experimental releases continue to appear to a biannual timetable. The idea is to encourage businesses to install Ubuntu without fear that it will quickly become obsolete – indeed, this version ups the ante on that front, as previous LTS releases offered only three years of support on the desktop.

Predictably, therefore, the emphasis is on stability and consolidation, rather than trialling groundbreaking new features. The default installation is outwardly identical to the previous release, with the Unity Launcher sitting pretty down the left-hand side of the screen, and the familiar menu bar along the top. This is no bad thing: the native Ubuntu desktop is perhaps a little simplistic, but power users will have no problem replacing it with something else, and for casual use we find Unity’s Mac-alike styling accessible and attractive. Our only gripe is with the fiddly pop-up scroll bars, but you can get rid of these with the gsettings shell command.

There are a few worthwhile upgrades hidden away beneath the surface. Right-click on the Home icon, or on the “Dash” – the search icon at the top of the Launcher – and you’ll see that “Quicklists” – are now preconfigured, allowing you to jump directly to various folders or various types of search. The feature itself isn’t new, but setting it up in previous versions of Ubuntu meant delving into configuration files. To have it working out of the box makes the OS feel more mature and usable.

Another interesting new feature is the so-called “Head-Up Display” – a text field that appears at the top of the screen when you tap the Alt key. Start typing and you’ll see a list of menu items from the active application that match your text. You can navigate with the cursor keys, or click with the mouse to directly access the option you want. It’s a speedy and convenient alternative to hunting through menus, although it works only with programs that support the Unity menu system.

System applications have received a few tweaks too. The Dash gains a new “Lens” for searching videos, which can scan not only your PC but online video from sources including BBC iPlayer and YouTube. The Software Center application now offers personalised download recommendations, and lets you use PayPal to buy commercial software.

These refinements don’t greatly transform the Ubuntu experience from what it was in version 11.10, but they contribute to an overall sense of polish. The Windows-based graphical installer helps, too, providing a friendly and straightforward online setup process. There’s no need to mess around with ISOs and flash drives, and you get an up-front choice of desktop manager for those who don’t like the default Unity front-end.

The best bit is how snappy it all feels: we had lingering doubts about the responsiveness of the Dash and the Launcher in earlier implementations, but on modern hardware the ensemble now feels supremely slick. On older hardware and netbooks, Ubuntu’s comparatively modest memory requirements actually make it rather smoother than Windows. Factor in all the traditional benefits of Linux – including free licensing, strong security and excellent stability – and the overriding impression is of an operating system that’s ready for the big time.

And yet, and yet. We’ve said before that the fundamental problem with Ubuntu isn’t the operating system itself, but a lack of application support, and sadly there’s nothing here that changes that. To be sure, there’s a vibrant ecosystem of open source applications on offer – the latest LibreOffice is included, along with the Firefox browser and the Rhythmbox media player (returning after a brief absence in version 11.10). But as a mainstream proposition it remains inescapably hamstrung by the lack of official, native support for industry-standard applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. When it comes to creative pursuits such as video editing and music composition, the Linux platform as a whole is years behind the curve.

To its credit, Canonical isn’t complacent about the challenge. It’s already announced plans to expand the operating system onto smart TVs and mobile devices, creating a top-to-bottom platform similar to Microsoft’s vision for Windows 8. If the idea succeeds, it could spur application development and give Ubuntu a new lease of life.

That’s a few years away, though. For now, Ubuntu 12.04’s appeal remains limited. For businesses that have wavered over whether or not to deploy Ubuntu, long-term support may swing the deal, but in the main we anticipate that the Precise Pangolin will meet the same reception as its predecessors. That is to say, existing Ubuntu users will love it, and for them upgrading is a no-brainer. But for anyone with an established Windows or OS X workflow, switching still involves too many sacrifices.