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).

Hardy Heron, HERE I COME!!!!

I was very reluctant about upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and was running it in a VM, to test it. However, I then ran into this. Needless to say, once I read it, I immediately opened my Upgrade Manager, and told it to upgrade to Hardy. 21 minutes left. More to come, once I get it up and working. Meantime, here is a screenshot from the article above, to whet your appetite:

(credit: Lifehacker)

Here we go…

Okay, I am going to begin a learning experience, that will benefit both me, and you.   I am going to install  Ubuntu’s new version, 8.04 Hardy Heron, in a Virtual Machine.  I will write it as it happens, and we will see if it can live up to it’s amazing hype.

While you’re waiting, here is an interesting article about Hardy Heron, which I enjoyed, and learned a lot from.

Charlie.

I think I am going to name my “new” lappy “Charlie.” Charlie is the name of one our dogs. He showed up on our doorstep one day, skinny, and injured. I thought that fit well with the laptop. It showed up in the garage one day, it was old, and slow, and lacks a power cord. Oh, on that topic, I purchased a power cord for it, for about $30. it should arrive next Monday-Wednesday. Plus, a RAM slot in another, barely-working laptop that we have, was damaged, and the card would not stay in, so I put it in Charlie, since it was compatible. Also, Dad found a compatible 108.11 G 54Mbs PCI wireless card, and I will use that. I just hope the power cord finally gets here, and I don’t figure out that the laptop does not actually work.

Oh, and, next week is our last week of school! Yay!

Facebook IM: Review.

Facebook finally came out with it’s long-awaited IM service.  Within a few hours, I had held conversations with 3 friends, 2 of which I had never before had any sort of IM chat with, ever.  The entire application is in the form of a little bar at the bottom of the window.  it has a icon for your notifications, and an icon indicating how many people are currently online.  you click the icon, and it shows you who is online.  click the appropriate person, and a little windows pops up, allowing you to chat with them. This window is ebmedded in the page, and so if you navigate away from it, it closes.  However, it can pop-out, and become a seperate window, with a slightly easier interface.  The concept is ingenious, and the convience is incredible, but the interface is lousy.  I use Pidgin for Myspace IM and Gtalk, and I will add Facebook IM when it is available on Pidgin, but, until then, I will just have to suffer with the need to have a browser windows open, coupled with a lousy-looking and feeling interface, and no transfer capability whatsoever.

If you are not viewing the window, and someone says something, no alert comes up in any form.  That is really annoying, especially for me, as a multi-tasker.  I like to talk to people, and then go to another desktop on Linux, and do something else, while I am chatting with someone.  with every other IM program, my icon that represents that open window, on my snazzy dock, will bounce up and down, twirl, and a tinny spotlight appear under it (the equivalent of the application in the start bar flashing on Windows).  that does not happen, so I have to keep looking back at it to see if someone has said something.  Also, it is incredibly slow.  it takes a significant amount of time for a person’s message to show up on the other person’s screen, and therefore the conversation takes a lot longer, and I have a fast internet connection.  Also, it crashed while I was using it.  The application froze, a window came up, saying it could not connect to Facebook IM, and I could not load my facebook home page, back on my main Firefox window.  I could load other pages, however.  Eventually, it reconnected, and the first message, a paragraph long, displayed 3 times, the second message, a “yes” repeated twice, and the third message that I typed immediately before the fluke, appeared only once.  Also, I was typing, immediately after that, and my friend said something, so I erased what I was about to say, and was about to type something else, when I realized that Facebook had interjected a little smiley, without me doing anything, and sent it. ugh…

In conclusion, my analysis of this application, is that it is a wonderful concept, but could easily be a LOT better.  I give this 3 stars.

Enjoy… or not.

A few things to note.

The Weekly Funnies have been terminated due to lack of intrest.  All monthly articles have been neglected as of late.  I am fairly new to blogging, and I am not used to have to post regular articles, please bear with me.  I will try to post interesting stuff as it occurs, but for now, I cannot do the monthly articles, I think I tried to do too much, to soon.  I will try to ease into the life of a blogger, at a somewhat slower pace.  I have deleted the Pages “Family News” and “Prayer Requests”  Due to lack of intrest, relevance, and updating.  I have kept the Church Events page, and I am thinking about how to continue to post family-related posts.  I have added some items to my blogroll, including some Ubuntu rescouces.  As my sister has left, I will return to posting more regularly.

Wonderfull Newness! Oh, how wonderfull!

Spring Break is coming up, and, a while after that, Summer Break. Therefore, I have determined that NOW is the excellent time to make my blog what I always wanted: a REAL blog. up until a couple of months ago, this was a place where I would come on once or so a week, and post something funny, or useless. I got it up and running recently, but that is all I did. What I want this blog to become, is a blog that, in my future career of Technology, will serve me well. ESPECIALLY if I decide to go into Technology News, which I am leaning towards. So, I am going to turn this into a real blog, with YOUR help. I am going to incorporate regular events into this blog, as in a Weekly post on a particular topic, or a monthly, or bi-monthly, or bi-weekly, etc. But to do this, I need to know what you want to know about. To accomplish this, I have created a poll at the bottom of the page that will remain there for a month. Please vote on what you want to be added to the blog, and please, please, come back and see how it is progressing, and provide feedback on the new features. On the sidebar, you will find a link to the post that I want you to comment on, and provide feedback. Thank You very much!

~Trey Edwards~