Canonical released the latest version of Ubuntu Linux this weekend, to much fanfare. But while Ubuntu 10.10 is the latest… not everyone is convinced it’s the greatest. Linux computer system builders System76 has decided it wont’t be offering netbooks with Ubuntu 10.10. Instead, the company’s Starling Netbook will continue to ship with Ubuntu 10.04.

The latest version of Ubuntu Netbook Edition features a new user interface called Unity. It’s designed to work well on computers with low resolution displays, such as the 1024 x 600 pixel screens that are typically found on netbooks. But in a note on the Ubuntu Forums, System76 president Carl Richell says the Unity interface is still too rough around the edges to offer to consumers.

He says it takes too long to launch applications, the user interface can be confusing, and searching for apps tends to bring up a list of unrelated apps.

So while other System76 computers may start shipping with Ubuntu 10.10, the company plans to continue offering Ubuntu 10.04 on the Starling Netbook at least until Ubuntu 11.04 is ready to go.

Have you tried out Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition and its new Unity interface? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.

via OMG Ubuntu

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22 replies on “System76 Linux netbooks to stick with Ubuntu 10.04 for now”

  1. Unity does not work for me. This 10.10 is shit go back to 10.04. I’m going to give Jolicloud a try, but I’m still waiting for Chromium, I’m so pumped for that!

  2. Not impressed! I now have to side scroll on the majority of websites, I’ve lost my date and weather forecast on top of the menus being slow and nonintuitive.

  3. Please go back to 9.04 style launcher and work on things like making the boot image work without modifying. You still have to modify the config file to get it to launch on my Mini9.(supposedly their reference computer) This new launcher is a waste of space and has no place on a netbook.

  4. I don’t understand. Ubuntu netbook 10.04 was superb. And now 10.10 with Unity. I believe Ubuntu is going too lose many netbook users. I have installed plasma-netbook

  5. Unity is terrible. i cant stand inconsistency in menus. Remember Microsoft Office custom Menu? F That. I cant stand menus that are constantly changing on me. I want icons to be in the same place every time without fail. It just makes it take longer to find and launch your app. It sucks

  6. 10.10 works on my Asus eeePC 701, but Unity is slow as molasses and I hate the interface. What was so wrong with 10.04’s interface? “Freeing up screenspace”?! Unity hogs the left side of your screen, and won’t relinquish it, even if your window is maximized.

  7. I have to concur with the naysayers here. I have been running all forms of Ubuntu (Alt,Desk,Srv,Netbook) for many years and was excited when I started installing 10.10 on my HP Mini 311. This netbook is faster than most with its DDR3 and Nvidia ION chipset so I thought Unity would rock. After the second installation attempt succeeded, I was greeted with a message indicating that Unity couldn’t start and so on. After enabling the non-free Nvidia driver Unity is now running, but it is running like a dog. I would compare this with someone trying to running the latest game available on 4 year old hardware. The graphical over lays just drag the interface down and make it frustrating. Even worse yet, alt+f2 run dialog combo appears to have been removed. Downloading something else to run on this netbook…

  8. Guess need to wipe the partition clean of 10.10 and re-install older version 9.04 or 10.04 from scratch. Ubuntu has now reached its zenith for reliable netbook usage at the 10.04 release.

  9. ah, mystery solved: Unity is predicated on 3D co-processor support! The devs felt that a test for that support would delay too long, so they just charge ahead assuming EVERYBODY has a 3D chip, and since a great many do not, that’s where it all comes apart.

    The inmates, it seems, are now running the asylum at Ubuntu too, which means it may be time to switch distros. Again. Any recommendations?

    1. I’m not a fan of “cloud computing”, so that would rule out Jolicloud for me, but EasyPeasy is catching my eye since it is very 10.04 similar!

      Sorry Unbuntu, but you lost a user/advocate – your rush to meet you cute Ubuntu version 10.10 roll-out on calendar date 10/10/10 gimmick has backfired horribly and driven older netbook users to the arms of other waiting distros.

      Tsk, tsk, tsk.

  10. my results are in too, and 2 out of 3 installs failed; the third now gives the uninformative message, “No required driver detected for Unity” and suggests I login with the Ubuntu Desktop.

  11. It is horrible!! It is NOT configured for 1024 x 600, as you now have to side scroll on Facebook, and when you hit “applications and Settings” even the Ubuntu icons can’t fit across the top. Really bad step backwards!

  12. The upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10 took over 1 hour to complete on my HP Mini 110 but seems to be working nicely, with all my data, Wi-Fi passwords, etc intact. The Unity UI takes a bit of getting used to. I would like the window that shows icons of the application groups (Web, Music, Photos & Videos, etc.) to appear on start-up. This might be achievable via a configuration setting but I’ve yet to locate one. In fact, even finding the System preferences took me a while.
    I’ll keep trying 10.10 out but I’ll also be giving Jolicloud 1.1 a try.

  13. 10.10 on my Lenovo S10 works very well. Boots quickly and seems quite snappy.

    1. surprising…most people havent been able to get 10.10 work on ubuntu….could you confirm this please?

      1. surprising…most people havent been able to get 10.10 work on s10-3….could you confirm this please?

  14. I’ve installed on three computers so far, with three different results. First off, the zareason.com Teo install was completely without incident, it is snappy, everything works and I fell in love with the new interface because, once you get into it (or more exactly, once you get OUT of your previous UNR mindset) it really does help the workflow. Mind you, I’ve only spent one working day and one play day on it, but I’m liking it.

    So much so I went ahead with the more dangerous installations, the first going into an old Dell Inspiron desktop that was tediously slow under Gnome; the 10.10 upgrade install chugged long without incident and ran the Gnome desktop well enough; somewhere I lost the sound after the login drum-beat, but I suspect that it is Pulse (I don’t like pulse and can’t see any reason why it is ‘better’ than Alsa, so I may just delete it again) Trouble started when I then installed Unity; the interface comes up beautifully, but a mouse over any icon causes the desktop to shutdown and restart; I’m investigating.

    In order to break the tie, I’ve just started the upgrade/install on an old Compaq that was previously running UNR, the install is progressing but … it … is … really … slow … on … 700Mhz machines, so I’ll have to get back to you on the success or fail of it.

  15. Not at all pleased with 10.10 netbook. I am having booting problems takes 60/75 seconds to boot, by tapping ENTER speeds it up slightly, but very sluggish.
    App loading slow…I find the new interface okay. I am sorry I ever upgraded.

  16. Can’t get Unity to come up. 10.10 is horribly broken and was not well tested before unloading for public consumption. Lot of support posts on the Ubuntu forums ask how to roll-back to 10.04 If you have 10.04, keep it !

    If you like to live dangerously, get it and cross your fingers it doesn’t hose your machine.

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