I've been a fan of the Ubuntu Gnome distro for a while and was anxious to try the latest version 13.04. No surprises here with performance using just 200MB memory. Everything works well. They made a change to Nautilus File Manager, which looks more streamlined. I installed Thunar File Manager as an alternative. Theme used is Greybird from the Shimmer Project. Two new additions to my standard builds are the Epiphany web browser which is very clean looking and fast, and the Noise Music Player which has replaced Audacious. I installed Synaptic and the Gnome Fallback package to get me back the traditional Gnome Classic desktop. There are updated packages for LibreOffice and Gnome 3.8, and others. Also tried the Cinnamon desktop which is a very functional alternative to Gnome and Unity. Below is a link where to download Ubuntu Gnome 13.04 as previously listed, and a review. Enjoy.
You can get Ubuntu Gnome 13.04 here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/13.04/release/
Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" GNOME Review: Upgradable to GNOME 3.8 and performs reasonably well!
Ubuntu GNOME
(formerly Ubuntu GNOME Remix) is right now an official flavor of Ubuntu
and their first official release came with Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring
Ringtail". The unique USP about it is pure GNOME experience, devoid of
Unity. Given it is the first official release with vanilla GNOME desktop
and upgradable to GNOME 3.8, I was naturally inclined to try it out -
to see whether it is more efficient than GNOME with Unity or not. The release announcement states briefly about the enhancements:
"The Ubuntu GNOME team is proud to announce our first
release as an official Ubuntu derivative - Ubuntu GNOME 13.04. Ubuntu
GNOME aims to bring a mostly pure GNOME desktop experience to Ubuntu.
Keeping in coordination with the Ubuntu Desktop Team, we have decided to
stay with GNOME 3.6 for the 13.04 release. What's new? Firefox has
replaced GNOME Web (Epiphany) as the default browser; the Ubuntu
Software Center and Update Manager have replaced GNOME Software;
LibreOffice 4.0 is available by default instead of AbiWord and Gnumeric.
For those excited about the latest version of GNOME, we do maintain the
GNOME 3 PPA to catch an early look at GNOME 3.8."
I downloaded the 1 GB
32-bit ISO for testing. The system used for testing is Asus K54C laptop
with 2 GB RAM and 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor. I'll take you through my
experience while using it for last 5 days, as my main operating system.
By default, Ubuntu 13.04
Gnome comes with Gnome 3.6, kernel 3.8.0-19 and Files 3.6.3 is the
default file manager. Look-wise, it is plain vanilla GNOME - very
simplistic and with all the drawbacks of GNOME 3.6! I could not take
screenshots of start up screen but it reminded me of Lubuntu. I found
some cool looking wallpapers pre-installed in Ubuntu Gnome as well.
Installation
Installation is pure
Ubuntu and no complications therein. It took about 30 minutes of time
including download of updates and restricted multimedia codecs.
Applications
Ubuntu gnome comes with more or less similar applications, as in Ubuntu 13.04 with Unity.
- Office: LibreOffice 4.0.2.2 suite – Base, Calc, Writer, Impress, Draw, Document viewer, Dictionary
- Internet: Firefox 20, Empathy, Transmission, Evolution, Desktop sharing
- Graphics: Image viewer, Shotwell, simple scan
- Multimedia: Rhythmbox music player, Totem movie player 3.6.3, Brasero, Cheese, Sound recorder
- Accessories: Archive manager, calculator, gedit, terminal, screenshot
The applications work as
expected. Thankfully, there is no Web or Epiphany and it retains
Firefox. I never really liked Epiphany, honestly.
As multimedia codecs and
Adobe flashplugin are there in the distro, I could easily play Youtube
videos and watch movies in Gnome MPlayer. Rhythmbox also worked really
well without any issue.
Like Ubuntu 13.04 with Unity 7, the GNOME version too has social network integration, though they are not present in Kubuntu, Lubuntu or Xubuntu. Empathy and Shotwell (as well as documents in GNOME 3.8) are the primary apps which integrates with the social networks.
Repositories
Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME sources applications from Ubuntu Raring Ringtail repos and the GUI is the Ubuntu Software Center.
I installed a docky (which
didn't work) and a conky from the repositories. Conky worked well and
added glamour to the otherwise bland desktop.
Performance
I found Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME
to be really smooth to use and consumed reasonably lower RAM and CPU
than Ubuntu 13.04 with Unity 7. If I compare, Ubuntu GNOME with other
distros having GNOME 3, Ubuntu performs reasonably well. It is more efficient than Ubuntu 12.10 & 13.04 but marginally less efficient than Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS. All the metrics are based on 32-bit distros on the same laptop and under identical conditions.
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| Parameters |
Size of ISO |
Base |
Desktop |
Linux kernel |
CPU Usage |
RAM usage |
| Pure OS 6 |
717 MB |
Debian |
Gnome 3.4.2 |
3.5.0 |
1-5% |
165 MB |
| Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS |
693 MB |
Ubuntu |
Unity 5 with Gnome 3.4 |
3.5.0 |
1-10% |
230 MB |
| ROSA 2012 Fresh Gnome |
1.1 GB |
Mandriva |
Gnome 3.6.2 |
3.6.10 |
1-10% |
235 MB |
| LuninuX 12.10 |
1.5 GB |
Ubuntu |
Gnome 3.6 with Docky |
3.5.0 |
1-5% |
280 MB |
| Ubuntu 13.04 Gnome |
1 GB |
Ubuntu |
Gnome 3.6/ Gnome 3.8 |
3.8.0 |
1-10% |
280 MB |
| Zorin 6 Core |
1.4 GB |
Ubuntu |
Gnome 3.4.1 |
3.2.0 |
1-10% |
300 MB |
| Fedora 18 Gnome |
932 MB |
Fedora |
Gnome 3.6.2 |
3.6.10/3.7.2 |
1-10% |
310 MB |
| OpenSUSE 12.2 Gnome |
704 MB |
OpenSUSE |
Gnome 3.4.2 |
3.4.6 |
1-10% |
310 MB |
| Pinguy OS 12.04 |
1.8 GB |
Ubuntu |
Gnome 3.4.1 |
3.2.0 |
1-5% |
325 MB |
| Ubuntu 13.04 |
835 MB |
Ubuntu |
Unity 7 with Gnome 3.6 |
3.8.0 |
1-10% |
400 MB |
| Ubuntu 12.10 |
790 MB |
Ubuntu |
Unity 6 with Gnome 3.6 |
3.5.0-17 |
1-10% |
412 MB |
Upgrading to GNOME 3.8
For me the upgrading process was quite simple
Add the GNOME 3.8 ppa
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
And then do an upgrade
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
I tried adding the
gnome3-staging ppas and updates as well, but it rendered my system a bit
unstable and hence, I had to purge it. However, the Gnome 3.8 DE worked
fantastic on my laptop, effects are pretty smooth and subtle. Gnome 3.8
is definitely better than 3.6 though it is not as user friendly as a
Gnome 3 was, but still it is progress. Ironically, GNOME 3 is
progressing (or regressing?) with every release and coming closer to
Gnome 2 experience!
On reboot, it was GNOME
3.8 as the DE with Files 3.8.1 as the file manager. I'll jot down the
features than I saw in Gnome 3.8 shell for Ubuntu 13.04:
1. A new application launcher
Opening of applications is
now made easier in GNOME 3.8 with the introduction of "Frequent Apps".
While viewing the application overlay, there are two options at the
bottom - "Frequent" and "All". Frequent stored my most commonly used
applications and all had all the apps listed. I understand and agree
that the Frequent tab is highly functional, but I don't see any point in
degrading the "All" apps option. In Gnome 3.6, the applications would
be listed in clear categories at the right side of the window and that
is missing in 3.8. I found it quite handy, rather than scrolling through
the application list, if you are not sure of the name of the app.
2. Gnome Online Accounts
In addition to Ubuntu
online accounts, the settings manager has GNOME Online Accounts as well.
Functionality-wise, both offer almost the same thing, except OwnCloud.
GNOME 3.7 onwards provide integration to Owncloud services. It is a free
software, owned by Debarshi Ray, which allows users to host their own
cloud services on their own infrastructure. It allows access to files,
calendar and address book through a web GUI which can be accessed via
any browser. In essence, it is similar to Ubuntu One but with a free
software running on the server side. I didn't try out OwnCloud that
diligently this time, but plan to give it a shot pretty soon.
3. Improved Search Option
Search option in GNOME 3.8
is now much more improved with integration to contacts from social
networks, installed applications and local files. It is not as good as
Unity dash but pretty handy. Also, GNOME settings has a control option
to include/exclude items from search.
4. GNOME Documents
Documents is a new
addition to GNOME 3.8 and works well with Google docs. It is a handy
addition if you rely primarily on Google docs and store a lot of files
in Google drive.
5. Privacy options
GNOME 3.8 has a privacy
option similar to Unity and users can control their visibility and
whether to store or not the usage & history. Good to have definitely
from an user point of view.
6. Improved Notification control
Notifications in Ubuntu
GNOME appear even on the locked screen. I agree, having a good
notification system is good but at times these "improved " notifications
may really irritate you like hell, especially when the distro connects
automatically to social networks once you log in and you need a couple
of hours of undisturbed attention to complete a task in hand. GNOME 3.8
comes with a good control settings for the notifications to restore
sanity in times of need.
7. Right click on Desktop is back!
GNOME
3 is coming closer to the simply wonderful GNOME 2 experience with
every release! Now the right click is back and changing wallpaper is
just a click away!
Things missing in Gnome 3.8 for Ubuntu
Unfortunately there was no GNOME classic mode for me in Ubuntu 13.04. Has it been removed by the time I installed?
No Boxes, Clocks, Weather,
Bijiben, etc. - I was disappointed to be honest. I am going to test
Sabayon 13.04 GNOME next week and possibly try out these applications.
You can read about the top 10 features of Gnome 3.8 from OMGUbuntu.
Overall
Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME is very
good and among the best GNOME 3 operating systems I have used. It also
gives the user option to stay with the more stable (but less functional)
GNOME 3.6 or upgrade to GNOME 3.8. With or without GNOME 3.8, the OS is
very smooth to use and performs better than Ubuntu with Unity.
A definite recommendation
from my side for those who favor GNOME 3 over any other desktop and
recommendation is to upgrade to GNOME 3.8. Though it is incomplete in
Ubuntu 13.04, but still much better than the GNOME 3.6 provided by
default with Ubuntu.
You can download the 32 and 64 bit versions of Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME from here.
