Mini Review: Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron”

I’m really enjoying using Ubuntu 8.04.  This is coming from somebody who has had Ubuntu installed for a while now, but continued to use Windows Vista due to issues with Ubuntu.  Now, I’m not going to write a post on why you should switch to Ubuntu because, honestly, I get sick of reading that stuff.  I have read all kinds of posts like that, and I always ended up going back to Windows.  I’m not even 100% sure I’m going to stick with Ubuntu this time either.  I just wanted to highlight some of the things that I like about Ubuntu 8.04.

For starters I like that they have included Firefox 3 beta.  I know that it isn’t considered stable yet, but it is much better than Firefox 2 in my opinion.  Of course, you’re going to have issues with plugins, but most of those issues you can fix.  Enough about Firefox 3… There’s plenty of info on that out there.

When I first upgraded to Hardy Heron this past week, I used it for a few minutes then booted back into Windows.  The reason was because I couldn’t stand the glitchy graphics that I’ve been having.  Plus, slow scrolling in Firefox has always been an issue with me and Ubuntu, and it still didn’t seem to be fixed.  My video card has been dead for a while, and until I get the time to send it in for an RMA, then I’m just going to have to use my integrated ATI x200.  I tried installing the driver provided by ATI.  That seemed not to work since I would type “fglrx” into a terminal and it would still say I was using Mesa for my video card.  However, after a couple of days of being back on Windows, I noticed some people talking on the Ubuntu forums about removing xgl to be able to install the ATI drivers.  Evidently, 8.04 doesn’t use xgl anymore, so I uninstalled xserver-xgl using Synaptic, then installed the ATI driver via Envyng, rebooted and hoped for a miracle.  Then to my surprise, it worked.  Now the real test.

I kept thinking, maybe installing the ATI driver will help with the scrolling in Firefox.  That thought quickly went out of my mind because I had always used the restricted driver in Gutsy, and it had never helped with anything.  However, when I started up Firefox, all of my scrolling problems were gone.  I was surprised.  That was one of the things that kept me from using Ubuntu.  I spend a lot of time on Firefox, so if it isn’t going to work right then I’d rather use Windows.  Now, I had to test out Compiz just to satisfy my curiosity.  Compiz hadn’t worked too well on Gutsy with my integrated graphics card, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to work.  Just like the surprise with Firefox, Compiz worked perfectly.  I am very surprised that Compiz works so well with my not so good integrated graphics card.  I now also have AWN reinstalled with all of the latest applets.  By the way, I really love the RTM applet.

There are a couple issues that I have with Ubuntu, but they are small in comparison to the issue I had with Firefox.  One is that I wish that there would be better optimization of the gnome panel when positioned vertically.  The windows list needs some work as it only shows the window icon and “..” so it is hard to tell which window is which.  Plus, if you have around 8 windows open with no grouping, then the panel will lock up.  I currently have AWN set to handle my windows, so this isn’t too big of a problem.  Also, I’d like to see AWN have an option to be vertical, but I’m sure that will come eventually.

Like I said, I’m not going to say that I’m sticking with Ubuntu, but it definitely looks like I’ll use it more than I did.  I just can’t wait till I get my video card repaired so I can have even more fun.  I’d definitely recommend giving Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” a try.