Tablet-friendly Ubuntu 'Trusty Tahr' 14.04 is here: Will it replace Windows XP?

Canonical has released the latest version of Ubuntu, 14.04 LTS and desktop and server installers are available on the Ubuntu website for download. The Long Term Support (LTS) release is supported and maintained by Canonical for five years and is also known as Trusty Tahr, as per Canonical’s naming scheme.   Not only will 14.04 be available for PCs and Servers, it will also form the basis of the first Ubuntu tablets, from Canonical’s OEM partners.   Thanks to the release coming a little over a week after the end-of-support for Windows XP, Canonical is billing this as a perfect replacement for the departing OS.  Jane Silber, CEO at Canonical said in a press statement, “It is a viable and affordable alternative for those organisations considering a switch from Microsoft, and specifically those replacing XP or Windows 7 as they come to the end of life.”   Canonical cited the examples of the government and educational institutions which use Ubuntu for their systems, counting the Uttar Pradesh government, University of Delhi, and the Government of India, among other names, to highlight the benefits of Ubuntu. “Ubuntu has offered us immense possibilities to perform tasks that were unimaginable before. The boundless freedom of Ubuntu has offered personalisation, repository building, and importantly, for seamless sharing, opened new opportunities for Kerala schools to emerge as IT enabled education centres. Ubuntu was the main instrument for us in enabling FOSS based applications to reach much wider groups including general public,” comments K Anvar Sadath, Member of the National Resource Group of RMSA ( Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan) by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India.   Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is optimised for desktops and laptops with multi-touch trackpads and touchscreens, as well as support for high pixel density (DPI) screens. This means users can make the most out of the newest hardware on the market. Tahr is a big step towards Canonical’s goals of getting Ubuntu ready for true convergence. The company says developer who are using the Ubuntu SDK to create apps will find that the apps automatically resize and adjust to make the best use of the space available while exposing the same core functionality.   At the core of the Ubuntu 14.04 experience is Unity 8, which according to the company, “showcases the convergence vision and demonstrates applications that work across all Ubuntu devices.” Ubuntu 14.04 LTS includes full-disk encryption, added AppArmor profiles and policy, as well as AppArmor improvements for interprocess communications between confined applications. Canonical says users should expect a slicker experience due to improvements to the Unity UI. Canonical’s official press release stressed as much as it could about the fact that the OS can be a Windows replacement. It talked about 14.04 packing in most of the tools required for business use including remote delivery of applications, compatibility with Windows file formats, browser-based cloud solutions and the Microsoft Office-compatible LibreOffice suite.   We have already got the right ISO needed (this being Ubuntu, it’s free to download) and will be putting Ubuntu 14.04 to the test to see if Trusty Tahr can be trusted with filling the XP void in businesses and homes.