The upgrade took place the evening Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 was released. The upgrade took a long time primarily as the result of a slow internet connection. Total download size came to 830Mb of packages. Majority of the installation occurred while I slept, stopping only to ask me about modified configuration files and completed pretty quickly after. Following a  reboot, I found in the tradition of Ubuntu upgrades all my settings had been remembered; such as what applications were open, tabs open in FireFox and desktop effects.

Below are my very first impressions from the hours immediately following the upgrade, symbols indicating what I didn’t like, was uncertain about and liked.
- much, much longer boot time
- weak stability, crashed twice in a matter of hours after upgrade.
- current graphics card insufficient for advanced desktop effects.
~ FireFox 3 beta – url bar bulky, some beloved extensions aren’t supported,
+ better management of system resources, CPU less busy.
+ power management when using battery seems better – need to do more testing.
+ normal desktop effects more stable.

A month later

After a few minor updates the system has stablised considerably and I haven’t experienced any further crashes akin to the first few immediately following upgrade. I’ve discovered some very useful browser extensions which have somewhat replaced ones not yet supported by FF3.

Discovered that there are difficulties getting sound to work everywhere; I must choose whether to use sound in a browser or everywhere else. This is an ongoing annoyance which is somewhat circumvented by using Miro to watch youtube videos and downloading pod and vodcasts instead of streaming from websites. While not dissimilar to how I’d usually deal with such media, the limitations have changed my behaviour somewhat. I’m also required to restart X when I have to watch or listen to something in my broswer in order to be able to have sound in VLC, Miro or Rhythmbox after. Need to seek assistance with getting the sound problems fixed. I suspect if I change my audio server settings I can recify this problem. PulseAudio installation and configuration may demand a separate blog post.

Overall I’d have to say I’m reasonably content with Hardy, some of the limitations I’m experiencing are a result of my mildly dated hardware and not the operating system. I’ve also discovered applications that are equivalent to those enjoyed by my fellow Windows and Mac user friends. Expect a joyous update when I solve the current audio frustrations.

Upgrade complete and system restarted to find that my settings were just about all intact, including transferring settings between a major application upgrade and the smaller subtleties such as remembering my Firefox session. Overall I have to say that from the onset I am very impressed. Tweaking for the next few days is to be expected to get everything just how I like it, but the new Ubuntu is quite able to used with little problem straight out of the box. Whether you’re upgrading from 7.04 or creating a fresh install using a CD, Ubuntu has never been easier or more accessible to those interested in wishing to use linux for everyday computing.

Here’s my list of interesting links of the week. Enjoy!

• for those wishing to know more about my new OS here’s a non-geek friendly review of Ubuntu’s new release, 7.10 aka ‘Gutsy Gibbon’ (I love the release names)
• B.Stevens has created a cheap and easy way of creating lightrings for photography. Article here and Flickr photoset here. The amateur photographer in me would love to try this out.
• after decades of searching it seems that Carmen Sandiego has been found
• a most interesting article of the Neurology of ‘Alice’(Warning: link is a PDF)
• Chris Gilmour, an Italian artist who creates lifesize everyday objects out of cardboard
• a push button house which unfolds from a shipping container in 90 seconds, the Illy Cafe
• clever and funny clip about how a Triumph is not actually made…

So like any logical person would, I went out to seek a solution. Turns out my operating system is outdated again, such as is the way with Open Source applications. I can solve my problem with Gaim and upgrade my operating system at the same time. I have a new project for this week

I’ve also been finding lots of interesting items in my RSS feeds of which I’ll publish in another post.

I still need to have an experiement with settings to work out what I want where and doing what. However I’m pretty impressed with it all so far though. The help provided was very much appreciated as though I’m becoming quite competent and comfortable with using Ubuntu, I am still slightly hesitant to do a major upgrade by myself.

Still a few things I need to fix to get things how I’d ideally like them. The problem with 915resolution is one I’d love dearly to solve, it’s a pain having to restart x after configuring it again after each boot. Maybe I can get clever and script it or something. Sound is a non-event in Xine and I can’t work out why. Also, this is the most novel and least troubling of my problems – I plug in headphones and the music comes through at full volume but rather than turning my speakers off, they go to half volume. It seems this has happened with a few machines. Sadly because it’s a notebook, it’s not as easy to solve as just turning off your speakers. Unless it’s something I can do in software.

My new Dell arrived safe and sound on Friday and is now running mostly happily with Ubuntu. Need to have a play and see if I can get wireless working happily at uni tomorrow. I’ve moved onto the next level of geek, I have a desktop pc and a notebook which runs linux entirely. Ielenia and Nostariel. Ielenia’s new home is coming soon…

Then I can start playing with installing Linux. It was suggested I do some research to find out if I can run 2 distros that share the home directory between them. Will have to research and see. The reason for 2 distros is that people have had the most success with getting everything to work using Ubuntu but I had a bad experience with it once and am doubtful to try it again – though I suspect I will. I’m also wanting to put Fedora on there because it’s great and I know how most things work there. Decisions decisions.