Karmic Koala

I've never had much luck installing Ubuntu's October releases; Ubuntu 9.10, the Karmic Koala is no exception.

Remember, what Canonical calls a regular release, other vendors would refer to as a testing/development release - preparations for the real deal - what in Debian is known as the Stable release, and what Canonical calls an LTS.

Before I go any further, I'll suggest a quick look at LaserJock's blog post about good/bad Ubuntu releases.

From the looks of things, the changes being introduced in Karmic Koala are going to translate into an improved operating system by the time next spring's LTS is released.

As I've said in a previous Ubuntu article, the progress from release to release is astounding.
I took Ubuntu as well as Kubuntu for a quick spin, and though I usually install the Ubuntu-Gnome desktop, Kubuntu's KDE environment is looking very sharp!

I couldn't get Kubuntu to work without some help from Gnome, (just not all that familiar with KDE's configuration options), luckily when you're running Ubuntu/Linux, if the default setup isn't cutting it you've got options.

My little ThinkPad is 'blessed' with an oldish ATI graphics card, so the newer FGLRX driver for ATI 3D graphics doesn't work and I'm stuck using the older Xorg-ATI driver.

The new features in Karmic Koala and the improvements to the desktop more than make up for the little bit of effort needed to figure out the changes. I'm thinkin' that the changes might seem a bit thorny to existing users, but will translate to an improved experience for newcomers.
My experience with Ubuntu has been that there are usually a couple of "default configuration" issues at release time, but those are generally ironed-out within days of the release date, and solutions to issues arising from unique hardware/software configurations can usually be found through the Ubuntu Forums within a week or two.

Once again, compliments to the Ubuntu-dev team, and all the community-contributors who help make Ubuntu the great operating system it is. - Nicely done.