Ubuntu 11.4 after one month use

Ubuntu 11.4 is now on all my netbooks, notebooks, and desktop computers except for one token Windows computer. 11.4 is a great replacement for Ubuntu 10.10 after you make two small adjustments.

I wrote about Ubuntu 10.10 in Ubuntu 10.10 after 6 months use. There were a few problems with earlier versions of Ubuntu that were fixed after a month or two of updates. Ubuntu 11.4 still had problems up to beta 2. The final release works on all my computers.

Some people are still having problems with Ubuntu 11.4 on computers using Nvidia chips. I do not have computers using Nvidia chips because Nvidia chips have a long history of causing problems.

One of the things you can easily do with windows is to move the menu bar to any side edge of the screen to fit the work you perform on the screen you use. Ubunto 10.4 and 10.10 had problems when I tried to use the menu bar on the right hand side of my short wide notebook screen. The menu bar works reliably on the right hand side of my Ubuntu 11.4 screen.

Ubuntu 11.4 reliability is discussed in Linux reliability as demonstrated by Ubuntu 11.4.

Many applications are more reliable. Only the Unity user interface creates less reliability and that is in comparison to the Gnome version 2 you use when you switch off Unity. All my computers use Ubuntu 11.4 with the Gnome No effects option.

The only other negative part of Ubuntu 11.4 is the difficult to use scroll bar you can fix by reading How to fix the scroll bars in Ubuntu 11.4 Gnome.

Ubuntu 11.4 has standard Firefox instead of a substitute and the current version instead of an old version. There is little else to change. Replacing Emphathy with Thunderbird would be an advantage for me. There are some minor default settings they could change. All other desirable changes are related to applications not created by Ubuntu.

A Linux equivalent to Winmerge would be a big help when comparing disks across computers. A Linux equivalent to DVDfab is missing. LibreOffice replaces OpenOffice in Ubuntu 11.4 but is not yet a complete replacement. Shotwell and a few other applications need major enhancements to be good replacements for the equivalents on Windows.

Slower than Windows

Ubuntu is slower than Windows when you change the display of a file list. I search for files in Windows using Windows Explorer. You can instantly change the display format and sequence in Windows Explorer. The Ubuntu equivalent repeats the whole search every time I change the display format. To make matters worse, Ubuntu forgets the format I use and I have to change the format for almost every search with the result that I have to perform every search twice. Ubuntu appears to be designed for use on a computer with very few files.

Ubuntu forgets the file list format visible columns setting and I have to change that setting for many file lists. Fortunately Ubuntu does not repeat the search for my most common column change. Again Ubuntu appears to be designed for use with very few files.

Conclusion

Overall, Ubuntu 11.4 is the best Ubuntu so far, outside of Unity and LibreOffice. Unity and LibreOffice are steps backwards until they catch up with the software they replace, perhaps in Ubuntu 12.4.