Booting Up Ubuntu 10.04

The CRN Test Center looked at the Alpha versions of Ubuntu 10.04 to a sense of what it might bring to the table. Ultimately, after a quick installation, it's easy to see one feature that will leap out is its speed.

Let's be clear: Ubuntu 10.04 is still in its Alpha stage. It's not recommended for production hardware, and there are still issues, including driver support, that remain to be worked out. In our case, the software couldn't install NVIDIA drivers.

This version of Ubuntu will deliver Gnome 2.0 code. The platform, after 10.04, will move up to the Gnome 3.0 environment.

There had been speculation Ubuntu would drop the open source photo editing and image software GIMP. But in the alpha versions of 10.04, it's still included.

After full installation of Alpha 2 (despite a lack of NVIDIA driver support), we decided to test Ubuntu 10.04 boot time. Developers have made the 10-second boot time a priority on the platform.

While not quite at the 10-second level, Ubuntu booted for us in 15.4 seconds. In the CRN Test Center lab, though, it did seem blazing fast. It should be noted that on subsequent boots we clocked it at 15.1 and 14.5 seconds.