Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition

Do you know what operating system the phone or tablet of tomorrow will use? You may be tempted to say "Android," "BlackBerry," "iOS," or even "Windows" if you're feeling optimistic. But for the first time in ages, there's a reason to throw Linux into the mix as well. The Netbook Edition of the easiest-to-use and most popular distros, Canonical's Ubuntu 10.10 ("Maverick Meerkat"), is available for free and has received a top-to-bottom visual rethinking that primes it for use not just on small notebooks but also touch-screen devices of every stripe. It's still Linux, so it suffers from software compatibility issues that don't plague the Big Boys. But overall it's one of the friendliest, most intuitive, and powerful operating systems on the market, so don't be surprised if it integrates into your mobile-computing life in ways you never expected.

Differences Between Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook and Desktop Editions
The biggest mistake you can make with Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition is to directly equate it with the new Ubunti 10.10 Desktop Edition of the same distro. They may be based on the same core code and technologies, but there the similarities end. Unlike that version, this is not merely an obligatory upgrade, but a full-scale renovation that changes so much about the way the OS looks and behave, the two Editions hardly seem related at all.
At the heart of the Netbook Edition is a new interface called Unity that yanks the most popular OS functions from the traditional menus and places them, Windows 7 taskbar–style, in a launcher on the left side of the screen. In addition to reducing the need to searching menus for the most common apps and utilities, this achieves two major things: First, most netbooks have very narrow screens, so removing the top and bottom menu bars frees up valuable real estate on tiny displays. Second, the larger icons make those programs even easier to access netbook pointers or, particularly, touch screens.

If you haven't seen many touch-screen netbooks, you're not alone. They're pretty rare, and that's precisely the point Canonical is trying to make: If netbooks are to have a future, it will be inextricably intertwined with the evolution of the tablet, for which touch is a vital component of interaction. Whether that means we start seeing touch-screen netbooks or more robustly powerful tablets, it's almost a given that the two fields will somehow merge.

Playing in with this, Ubuntu 10.10 has full multitouch support; though you'll need hardware capable of recognizing four-finger touch or better to take advantage of all it can do. According to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, the goal is to have "touch-aware versions of all the major [Ubuntu] apps" ready for the release of Ubuntu 11.04 ("Natty Narwhal") in April. Regardless of what actually happens, Canonical is poised to make a serious entry into the space.

And serious is what it is, because Unity represents the best kind of revamp: one that extends, rather than curtails, the most important functionality. All you give up is a bit of control over your files. During testing, we were surprised to see that files we knew we placed on the desktop didn't appear in the big swath of purple at the center of our screen. We could find them by navigating with Ubuntu's file manager, but that takes some getting used to if you use the desktop for storage as much as we do. In fairness, but because this OS was designed for netbooks—where quick Web interaction trumps traditional file management—this isn't something that's likely to bother everyone.

Included Applications
The launcher is beautifully outfitted, as well, with an excellent choice of default icons: Firefox, Empathy IM, Evolution e-mail, the Rhythmbox music player, the Software Center, and so on. Of course you can add your own programs to it by firing them up, right-clicking on their icons, and then selecting "Keep in Launcher." Another nice inhabitant of the launcher is Workspaces, so you can set up "subdesktops" of programs without cluttering up your whole screen—just click the icon, then select any of four available workspaces to view just the programs you have running there. (MeeGo for Netbooks lets you create even more of these workspaces, but Ubuntu's implementation is still a good one.) Icons for Files & Folders, Applications, and the Trash are here as well, as they should be.

The downside of the Unity innovation is that, without the menus, the interaction changes with almost every program, and that might take some getting used to. Whereas the standard Applications menu groups programs by their type, in Netbook Edition the default is to show you icons for everything. You can, of course, choose to see just accessories or just games if you want, but the "links" for doing those are traditional text, not buttons, which spoils the cohesion of the design as a whole.

For Netbook Edition to completely succeed (especially as a touch-screen alternative), it needs to be absolutely consistent from start to finish. In Ubuntu 10.10, it's not quite there—but it's off to an amazing start. If Linux blew its one big chance at mainstream adoption by not having the user-friendliest interface imaginable just when the netbook craze hit a couple of years ago, Ubuntu Netbook Edition signals it's ready for a second chance. And as long as netbooks and tablets keep up their popularity, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see that happen.

In most other respects, Netbook Edition mirrors the other 10.10 changes that were also implemented in the Desktop Edition: a streamlined and more informative installation process; a primary system font based on the Ubuntu logo; clever capabilities that mesh tightly with the Ubuntu One cloud storage system, including clients for iPhones and Android devices, and Windows, which let you share your files and music on non-Linux operating systems; the change of the default image-management app from the much-derided F-Spot to Shotwell; and a more advanced Software Center that lets you find for-pay Linux software as well as download apps for free. (Interestingly, OpenOffice.org is the included office suite; its successor, LibreOffice, reportedly couldn't be integrated in time for the operating system's release.)

Should You Download Ubuntu Linux Netbook Edition 10.10?
Considering how much else Canonical was able to pack into 10.10, however, we can forgive them this. The company has devised a winning solution to the difficult problem keeping Linux relevant in the age of netbooks and tablets. The Unity interface is one of the smartest and most intuitive we've seen yet for these kinds of devices, and it could inspire users who never would have previously looked twice at a non-Windows OS. Netbook Edition has achieved that long-vaunted Linux goal of looking like something anyone can (and would want) to use in a way that even Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, despite its many improvements, couldn't.

If the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition gains the traction it's capable of, we wouldn't be at all surprised to hear people discuss "Ubuntu tablets" in the same appreciative tones they reserve for discussion of "Android tablets" or "iPads." It's still too early to say for sure if that will happen, but the potential is certainly there—and we wouldn't dare put the possibility past an OS nicknamed something as gutsy as "Maverick."