With Ubuntu 11.04 just around the corner ( end of April ), I took a spin of the latest Beta 3 of 11.04 to check all what all the new features was all about. I must say I am quite impressed, then it came to me, I have been using Linux with Windows for aorund 3 years already, moving between those 2 systems. Yes there are somethings which Windows is still much better, but there are also some thing now Ubuntu is doing much better than Windows, here are some of the thing which Ubuntu does better.

Note: I am using Ubuntu 10.10 as a basis for this comparison, and not 11.04 with Unity as it is still in Beta, I might update this article next month once the full version is out.

1) Me-Menu - Integration with Social Networks

- Since it's introduction in Ubuntu 10.04 last year, the Me-Menu has been wonderful tool for those who are born during this internet age. It allows you to sync all your social media account and chat accounts right into your operating system. There are 2 types of accounts you can integrate into the Me-Menu, the broadcast account or the chat accounts. Broadcast accounts are like for your Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, so you can recieve notificaitons whenever someone post on your wall, direct message you or even comments on your status. The Chat accounts are for your stuff like Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, facebook chat, and other instant messenger accounts a like. What this means is whenever someone messages you on Facebook using the chat, or even if someone sends you a video call from MSN you will get it. So instead of having multiple websites open, or have multiple web open this integrates it all nicely.

2) Update of Softwares - Update everything at once

- The update manager in Ubuntu ( or any other Linux distribution ) checks for updates of every software installed on the PC when you hit check for updates. For Windows, whenever you check for updates it only checks for updates coming from Microsoft which is usually updates for Windows , Microsoft Office or maybe stuff like Visual Studio. You won't get updates for Firefox, Skype, Google Chrome, Dropbox, etc in Windows Update center. However in Linux, whenever you press check for updates, it checks for everything installed on your PC. You can ease your mind knowing all your software is updated to it's latest with the last security and features.

3) Seperation of Admin ( Root ) and normal user

- The reason Linux ( or even Mac ) is said to be more secure than Windows, is because how it handles the separation of power from both the normal user and also the root ( admin ) user. Until Windows XP, everyone use to run on Administrator, and this gives viruses a field day. Microsoft tried in Vista with their UAC thing but that also became more of an annoyance either making people always clicking 'accept" or disabling it entirely. Linux since day one has always taught about this issue, and therefore there is proper separation for both the admin and the regular user. Have you tried Windows 7 yet ? Microsoft makes even the person with Administrator level only a super user and cannot touch certain files in the PC. Meaning there is no clear difference separation between Administrator and normal users in windows.

4) Software Center - Ubuntu's very own App Store

- With all the praises Apple.Inc is getting for including an App Store in their operating system, many people forget that linux distributions such as Ubuntu already had App Stores long before. Granted that it is not as good as Apple's one yet... but it is getting there, I tested out the 10.10 version and also the 11.04 version, both showcased a ton of improvement, and it looks like this can be a rival to Apple's version some time in the coming months. Why I say this is better than windows, well it makes it easy to discover softwares for your PC, whether it is a casual game, or even some utilities to to tweak your computer, it is all available here.

5) Drivers - Much better than Windows ? You got to be kidding

- I said this before in the previous post, drivers in linux is coming less and less of a problem. I can plug in my Android phone and choose internet sharing it works instantly, my computer detects the phone and I am able to connect to the internet. On Windows however, it doesn't work, I need to go to HTC's website and download the driver before it can even work. At my office, my Xerox printer is able to connect to my Ubuntu perfectly, but in Windows i need to go online to download the driver. Same with my WiFi card too, need to go online to download the driver for Windows but works fine in Ubuntu. So point is in the driver department Ubuntu is improving a lot.

6) Compiz - Well eye candy sells well. Many may argue that Eye-candy is not important but it helps the typical user to get hooked into a system.

7) Gnome-Do - This basically is something like Mac's Spotlight, where it searches your entire system for the relavent stuff. If you type the word "internet" it will suggest to you web browsers like FireFox or Chromium, if you type the word "songs" it will suggest to you Banshee or even SongBird. It is an intelligent search feature which is fully customizable. I will write deeper into this another day.