Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron review
Okay, as i mentioned earlier, I installed the new version of Ubuntu Linux, named Hardy Heron. I have been using this on my main desktop for a while, now, so I thought I might give it a review.
Given one sentence to describe it, I would say: “Stay Away.”
Having used Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon for a long time, and having seen reviews and articles about various other versions, I have come to the conclusion that this is the worst Ubuntu version to come out. Basically, just looking at it, there is no visible difference, except a slightly different wallpaper. My first point of contention was the graphics. It was a PAIN to get my Nvidia graphics card installed, I had to manually download and install the driver. In addition, the Screens And Grahpics manager that I had gotten so fond of no longer exists. I have yet to find a GUI that lets you manage your graphics cards and monitors. There is one simple window in which you can change your screen resolution and refresh rate, but that is all. To change my graphics properties, I have to boot into Recovery Mode. However, Recovery mode has been improved. When booting into it, a blue screen comes up with three options: Boot into normal mode, repair graphics, and boot into command line. This is a big bonus, whenever I had to repair the graphics via Recovery Mode in Gutsy, it was a PAIN, with my limited UNIX knowledge. However, as I mentioned earlier, I got Windows and Hardy Heron running simultaneously. However, this might also be possible on Gutsy, I do not know. Also, I have had some compatibility issues. VMware got trashed, and FF3b5 crashes more often. Also, that is another bone of contention. They installed a beta version of a browser in a full public release of the OS. No offense to them, but that is a …dumb… idea.
Other than that, I have not had any major problems, at least that I can think of. If you are a normal home user, looking for a more stable OS than Windows, you would not have a problem. However, for the more hardcore users, I would suggest you stick to Gutsy 7.10
Here is a link to Ubuntu, if you are interested in it, and do not yet use it (if that is possible).
Weird, you had the complete opposite result to me. Gutsy Gibbon was unusable on my PC, so I stayed with Feisty until the release of Hardy. I installed the beta of Hardy and it worked flawlessly, and just upgraded it when the final version came out. I have yet to find a bug in it. (It even downloaded and installed my Nvidia driver perfectly). I don’t understand how this happens. I thought the hardware computability depended on the kernel. Why you and I go suck a different response to Gutsy/Hardy leaves me mystified. Oh, and I got sick of FF crashing and now use Seamonkey or Epiphany. They are faster and more stable.
Comment by Chilli Bob — May 8, 2008 @ 2:27 am
Let me correct that post.. It should have read “got such” not “go suck”. Similar but different.
Comment by Chilli Bob — May 8, 2008 @ 2:29 am
Yeah, that seems to happen a lot. According to what I have been reading on Ubuntuforums.org, different people have been having vastly different responses. I believe it is a result of different hardw
are, and programs installed beforehand. If you did a clean install you would most likely not have a problem, but it appears to have some issues when upgrading an existing version. Thanks for the input. That is useful to know.
Comment by jesusfreak107 — May 8, 2008 @ 11:44 am
hi there,
i v had gutsy 32 bits for a while now 3 months in dual boot, i liked it very much, being a windows user i had some tough times, but really, ubuntu rocks.
i wanted to make an upgrade from the cd, since i can’t wait 3 hours without my desktop, hihi, the cd doesn’t work well for the upgrade(hardy heron 64 bits) so i transferred all my files and just made a clean install, it’s really good, the FF3 work all most perfectly, but instead i had problems with connection.
the WIFI work great, but when i try my 3G usb modem that was working perfectly in gutsy, i made the sme config but it doesn’t work, i tried differents tricks, but nothing works, that the only black point in the hardy that i found yet, and im still trying to find something about this ;(
Comment by rachid — May 11, 2008 @ 4:52 pm
I do not know anything about 3G modems, but try searching the forums at ubuntuforums.org. Great place, nice people, really helpful and understanding.
Comment by jesusfreak107 — May 11, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
thx for the advice, that was my intention tough in the ubuntu forums a lot of people seems to have the same problem. have nice day
Comment by rachid — May 11, 2008 @ 11:19 pm
howdyyyyyyyy, i finally made it work, my 3g modem, now i m really blessed, hardy heron is really hard especially in modems,hihihi, but now i have all the time to inspect every aspect of the os especially the 64 bits version, that is the first time i try a 64 bit OS in my desktop machine, i did always have a 32 bit OS xp and gutsy, but since my PC is 64 bits ready i had plans to install wimpdoze xp 64 bit, but with the hardy heron coming, i told to my self why not trying the beast in 64 bit version, so this is it, and now i m really happy with it. so i can tell that you’re right when you say that’s the issues with hardy heron are all about hardware, sadly, cause ubuntu is a real good os, and if developpers especially business developpers make a little effort in porting or even developping quality softwares for it, he can really shake the micro world.
Comment by rachid — May 12, 2008 @ 5:24 am