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The newest release of Ubuntu, dubbed Saucy Salamander, doesn't offer much in the way of new features - except for the introduction of Ubuntu Touch for mobile platforms.
So, if you're currently running Ubuntu 13.04, you should definitely upgrade to 13.10 in order to get the latest bug fixes, stability improvements and security patches. But if you're looking for a reason to switch from another operating system, 13.10 doesn't offer anything special. And we found that Ubuntu Touch isn't quite ready for prime time.
We loaded Ubuntu 13.10 on three computers: an old Acer laptop, with around 1GB of RAM and a 2.13-GHz Intel Celeron processor; a desktop with 5.6GB of RAM and an AMD Athlon II x2 processor running at 2.80 GHz; and another desktop computer with 3.9GB of RAM and an Intel Core i3-2120 processor running at 3.30 GHz. Saucy Salamander ran pretty slow on the Acer, but that's only to be expected.
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The good
With this release, Ubuntu backer Canonical continues its reliable-as-clockwork delivery of a new distribution every six months.
The vendor's predictable release schedule makes it a good long-term bet. In addition, Ubuntu's future development has a kind of guarantee, in the form of a $10 million Ubuntu Foundation that will continue Ubuntu development work even if something happens to Canonical.
For users of previous versions of Ubuntu, the upgrade process was simple and seamless via the built-in Upgrade Manager utility.
Although downloading and installing the new system, at around 900MB, can take some time, we were able to continue working while it loaded in the background.
We noticed a very slight improvement in performance after installation, upgrades to pre-installed software such as LibreOffice and Firefox, and a more comprehensive search functionality, but little else had changed.
We saw no driver issues on any of the machines we installed it on. Everything worked right away, including videos and wireless networking.
As with previous versions...