14 DAY TRIAL // The development cycle for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) has been a very publicized one, and the Ubuntu community has a lot of expectations from the new operating system. It's even regarded as a possible Windows contender in some circles, but it's important for Canonical to define its adversary properly.
Not many people remember the launch of Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) and the message posted on the official website moments after the images were made available for download.
“Avoid the pain of Windows 8” was plastered all over the website, but it was too early for such a claim. It was a good system, there is no doubt about it, but the fact is that people moved on quickly to 13.04 and 13.10.
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) is already a very stable and powerful system. It performs better than previous releases from Canonical, and the company is still months away from the final version. Even so, it has to understand that its main focus mustn't be the Windows audience, but its own.
Previous Ubuntu versions were not bad, but both Ubuntu 13.04 and Ubuntu 13.10 have been accused of being boring. In the grand scheme of things, this is not bad. Things have been working well, and the systems have been stable (for the most part), but the new Ubuntu version must address this concern from the community. Above all else, Ubuntu 14.04 has to be exciting again.
Getting a message towards the Windows XP users, for which the support will end just a week before the release of Ubuntu 14.04, shouldn't be the prime concern for Canonical.
The Ubuntu developers have to reach out to their own community and make the operating system that everybody is asking for.
So far, the direction followed by Canonical has been a good one, and the 14.04 LTS release promises to be the best one in the company's history. If all goes well, in a few months’ time, everybody will make the jump to Trusty.