Lucid Lynx two weeks after

While still in Beta, Lucid Lynx is humming along quite nicely two weeks after I installed it on my Acer laptop.  Sure, there are the little annoyances linked to using a Beta product from Ubuntu, for instance, the large daily updates of software and the occasional application crash.  For the most part, though, Lucid Lynx is quite usable and I'm growing to like it.

To be honest, I was prepared to dislike Ubuntu 10.04, as I've come to dread new releases.  The six-month cycle is a tad too aggressive, and each new version brings with it changes that somehow break the experience for me.  And really, Lucid Lynx is no exception: the decision to move the control icons from right to left is hasty and unwise, and the vaunted color scheme is simply meh.  But I've come to accept that these changes are minor and easily resolved with some personal customizations.

The other parts I thought I'd dislike didn't really bother me at all:

• Losing The GIMP wasn't the dealbreaker I thought it would be.  Sure, I still installed it afterwards, but then I really only use GIMP nowadays for cropping, resizing, and minor color adjustments, things I couid as easily do with F-Spot.
• The deal with Yahoo! doesn't really substantially change the experience with the browser.  You can still use Google for the search engine.  Just about the only major change is that the Yahoo! icon features more prominently in the search page if you opt for Yahoo! in the Firefox search toolbar.

Some pleasant surprises, too:

• Lynx boots up just as fast as before, but shutdown?  Really fast.  You can turn the machine off in under 5 seconds.
• Integration with Ubuntu One seems much tighter, so much so that I'll be using it regularly now.
• Some nice new apps and a more streamlined menu.

However, the jury's still out on the performance of Wine on this version.  Some games wouldn't run as smoothly as they did before.

All told, I'm looking forward to the final release.