Fawndle the Feisty

Feisty is releasing tomorrow, and I and many others will be eagerly camped out on IRC, the forums, and Launchpad just itching to answer your questions, It's like open season for us.

If You haven't heard, living under a 3 ton stone, or a bear, or something Ubuntu 7.04, Codename Feisty Fawn Is going to be released tomorrow, and highlights a plethora of new software versions, and features. Many a blog has gone over the same old tired things coming in this new version, but I thought I would Highlight and explain some things that real normal user will experience, from a non technical standpoint (If I can even do that, I'm known for talking too technically!)

What you will notice first is how different the installation process is from a LiveCD, it may seem the same at first, and in fact have the same functionality, but in fact the Partitioner is way different, and is actually part of the installer now, which means it loads way faster, leaving you less time to configure, and more time letting it do it's own thing.

After installing ,and you boot your new Ubuntu Linux install, you will first notice how FAST the init (boot) processes are, On a medium-range computer it's been reported at taking under a minute, myself, it takes 30 seconds (with a ton of extra things starting, added by me.)

First thing you want to do? Surf the web? You have the brand new Firefox 2.0.0.3 with way less problems, far less memory leaking (better performance!), and an all around fancier interface, you'll be happy to check your favorite blogs, and check your mail all the time.

Then what... Watch some movies? Sure, with our new little front ends, if you don't have the right plugins to play something, it will tell you what to install, and even do it for you. How cool is that? For new users it's a common problem that they just cant find what they need to watch their anime, play their mp3s, and so on.

Oh but here's the REAL fun, you know all those fancy 3D effects you always saw on youtube videos, but never could have? Well now it's right at your fingertips, fire up Restricted-Manager and install the Proprietary drivers for your graphics card, then you can (most likely) easily flick on all of those effects from a simple interface called Desktop-Effects, It's easy, and you'll love it. Ubuntu comes with a light touch edition of compiz, where as you can do a lot more with the official releases of Beryl of compiz (soon to be merging anyway), you will find as a new user the few effects this provides are fun, and non obtrusive.

Many other notable things include:
-A new version of Gaim (Now Pidgin)
-A new version of the Gnome suite
-Open Office 2.2, even neater, and easier to use
-SODOKU (hehe)

That's about it for my quick once over of the new release, again I didn't get into the more technical aspects, but I did cover a good amount of what a new user will notice (compared to Edgy Eft and possibly Dapper Drake, depending on what they switch from).