Ubuntu 12.10 review

With Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, it’s Canonical’s aim to build on the last Long Term Support (LTS) version of the OS (Ubuntu 12.04) before it moves towards the next LTS version. That usually means focussing on a specific area and this time around, it’s cloud and web integration.

WEB APPS

Ubuntu 12.10’s goal is take the data and applications we access through a browser and integrate them into the OS, via Web Apps. So, rather than having to keep an eye on Gmail, for example, you can install a Web App and have new mail notifications appear in the Messaging menu in the same way as for new mail in the Thunderbird app.

Web Apps is designed to be simple to use: just visit a supported website and you get a pop-up asking if you want to install the application. There’s a decent range of websites supported including Gmail, Facebook and BBC News. Both the Firefox and Chromium browsers are supported, but we found the system to be a bit flaky in our tests.

Web Apps prompt you to install them, but it took a few goes before Firefox detected Gmail

We couldn’t get Chromium to pick up any Web Apps at first, as it needs the unity-chromium-extension to be installed from the Ubuntu Software Centre. Firefox comes bundled with the necessary add-ons, but it refused to work with Gmail until we’d refreshed the page a few times. Both browsers were fine after this initial hurdle picking up all Web Apps on other pages instantly.

Once they’re working, we’re not entirely sure how useful they are. Some Web Apps, such as the BBC News one, just add a shortcut with icon to the Dash; when you launch the Web App, you’re just taken to the website, which makes it little better than a bookmark.

With Gmail it’s a little different, as you can see your unread mail count in the Messaging Menu; however, this feature only works when you’ve got the web browser that you installed the app through open and on the Gmail site. When the browser is shut, you only get a link to Gmail, which opens the site in a browser when you click it.

It’s also a little flaky, as clicking a folder in the Gmail menu under the messaging menu removes it. For example, click Inbox and this option is removed and you can’t get it back until you restart your browser.

The Gmail Web App shows you an unread message count, but you have to have the corresponding web browser open for this to work

This reliance on a specific web browser can be a bit annoying, as it’s easy to break apps. For example, if you install the Gmail web app through Firefox, but make Chrome your default web browser, you immediately run into problems. Due to system-wide defaults, clicking the Gmail link in the Messaging Menu opens your default browser (Chrome), which doesn’t support Web Apps, so you still can’t view your mail status; instead, you have to manually open Firefox and go to Gmail. All-in-all, it’s a nice idea, but there needs to be better browser support before this feature is really useful.

INTEGRATED SEARCH

A more useful way, in our opinion, of bringing the online world into Ubuntu is via Online Accounts. These let you add your Facebook, Flickr, Google, Twitter and other accounts into the Dash, so that when you search, you’re also searching online.

Online accounts is a brilliant idea, as it lets you search your online and offline files together

It’s brilliant if you use something like Google Docs, as you can just open the Dash, start typing and have your online documents pop up. Clicking any search result opens in the relevant application, whether this is a local one or a web browser that jumps to the right page. It’s a brilliant feature and one that we’re pleased to see.

We like the way that you can also right-click any search result to pop-up a thumbnail view of the document or item. It can save you opening an entire application or visiting a website.

Thumbnail views of search results is a brilliant way to check that you’re about to open the correct file

BUY THINGS

Something that’s clearly not welcome is the integration of Amazon into the OS, with both a dedicated Web App that launches the site in your browser and search integration in the Dash.

Just as previous versions of Ubuntu let you find online video and music, Ubuntu 12.10 now also integrates search results from Amazon. So, start typing ‘driver’ to add Additional Drivers (now part of Software Sources) and you get the option to buy the film Drive on Blu-ray.

Amazon results are integrated into the Dash, but it’s a bit annoying how dominant they can be

At some points our Ubuntu Dash was completely full of unwanted Amazon results. For example, we were searching for ‘Synaptic’ to install the package manager, but rather than return results from the Ubuntu Software Centre, it returned a load of things to buy from Amazon. To our mind, the Ubuntu Dash should be there to search through your own data, not provided a hook into a huge commercial organisation.

Under System Settings, Privacy, it’s possible to disable online search results, so that they don’t appear in the Dash. However, this can cut out some of the useful ones. A better approach is to delete the offending Lens. The easiest way to do this is to install the Synaptic Package Manager and search for ‘unity-lens-shopping’ and remove the Package you find. This will kill all Amazon results, but leave everything else alone. You may need to log out and back in again to completely finish it off.

You can disable online search results, but we think you’re better off removing the shopping lens instead

UBUNTU ONE MAC

Ubuntu One, the cloud storage system now has a client for OS X, so you can share data across your Linux, Ubuntu and Windows computers. As with the other clients, the OS X version is a little restrictive, as you can only share folders that sit within your User folder and don’t have the same name as a folder that’s already backed up. This is the same as for the Linux version.

In terms of simplicity we prefer SugarSync, which lets you synchronise any folder, although it’s only available for Windows and Mac, and there’s currently no Linux version.

PERFORMANCE

We’re pleased to say that there’s very little difference in performance moving from Ubuntu 12.04 to Ubuntu 12.10. Running our benchmarks, which run ImageMagick for image editing, HandBrake for video encoding, and both of the previous tests combined with video playback for our multi-tasking tests, we saw very similar scores from both operating systems. All scores are compared to that of a Core i5-2500k, which scores 100 in each test. Our Ubuntu test system runs a Core i7-975 Extreme Edition processor with 4GB of RAM.

Performance remains steady between Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 12.10, which is always good to see

CONCLUSION

We quite like the way that Ubuntu’s going with its cloud and Web App integration, but there are a few things to iron out to make sure it all works properly. It’s disappointing that Amazon should take such pride of place in this free OS, and this should really be an optional install rather than forced upon people.

Ubuntu still remains an excellent operating system, but for us the stability of Ubuntu 12.04 is preferable to the new features on show here.