Karmic Koala Installed

Well I had to download the ISO again and re-burn it to disc. But after doing this I was able to install Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 3 just fine. As it turned out I could not install from the Live CD while in the OS but I could from the boot option menu. Here is a screenshot of how I have separated partitions pre-install of Karmic Koala.


I did stay with the default filesystem ext4 for the root partition but opted for ext2 for the home partition. I chose the ext2 filesystem based on an article on the HowtoForge site that talks about accessing Linux files from Windows and gives three examples. The third example, The Ext2 Installable File System For Windows, allows read and write ability and is the one I am going to try out. More on that later.
At first try this version seems quite responsive. But like I stated before, I am quite disappointed they didn't put Firefox 3.5 in this release but opted for 3.0.11 instead. Perhaps this will change as the release gets closer production stages.

I did like the responsive boot and the log in dialog box has changed similar to that in Fedora 11. So far so good. I have no complaints yet other than Firefox. Running the newer kernel 2.6.31-4-generic and using GNOME 2.27.4 is rather smooth. I do believe the wireless implementation of the Atheros chipset has improved too. All I had to do for connectivity was input the WPA key and I was connected. And even without testing I can tell the Internet page views are faster without the long delays I had with 9.04. For all the Ubuntu fans this may very well be the best release yet and there is still about 3 months to go before the final release.