Well, Ubuntu 8.04 released and i had to give it a shot.
Following is my impressions of this latest release. This is not a review, just my experience.
I have an ugly habit of testing many linux distribution. Last two were SUSE 10.3 and Ubuntu 7.10.
I’m still in the quest to find an alternative desktop to Windows. Quest is still on.
For the past week or so im using Ubuntu 8.04 instead of my Vista on my work laptop.
This time i did not want to repartition the laptop with my Vista on it, so i used Wubi.
Wubi lets you run ubuntu as a loopback file on your existing ntfs drive. works great. a Wubi setup of ubuntu has slightly slower disk access (did not really feel it) and no support for hibernation (dont care – i never hibernate). Installation is quick and painless.
After installation i ended with a fully usable desktop yet unaccelerated as ubuntu by default uses the standard open source drivers. The hardware control panel showed that the nvidia-new driver is installed enabled yet “NOT IN USE” 
– how do you make use of it ? – its not said anywhere in the Gui nor in the help.
But with past experience with other ubuntu versions and SUSE versions, launched apt-get and installed the restricted drivers and now i was ready for compiz and some fun.
Why there is no clear instructions for those who are not ubuntu saavy on how to do this inside Ubuntu (please dont send people to the forums for this) beats me ?????????
Compiz Fusion is truly amazing compared to the Vista and OS X effects for the desktop – yet its buggy as hell. What kind of bugs ? here are some really annoying:
- pink shadows for windows – sometimes its white (which is ok) but random pink – known bug with nvidia 169 drivers.reverted to flatfile config and it was ok.
- some java apps cant stand compiz and windows come up without text (OpenProj) – got that fixed after wasting 30 minutes on google
- compiz can save its configuration either in gconf or a flatfile – it seems some plugins for compiz do not save their settings because they either expect a flatfile while ubuntu by default is configured ot use gconf.
- some apps like evolution – have artifacts – specially with the I beam cursor when typing text.
Compiz need lots of work. seriously
Continue to part 2 for more grunts and impressions
Very bad review. The title sais something the article does not sustain. Very shallow also.
The nvidia drivers are much easier to install than with windows. The nvidia windows drivers don’t come with windows and the download is not automatic. You have to go to nvidia.com and download the installer then install it or use the CD than came with the video card which is always oudated.
The same goes with wireless network drivers, they don’t come with windows either.
In ubuntu if you just click on the message you can install the drivers right away. There’s even a “install restricted drivers” option in the system menu.
Even my brother found it roght away and if you are updating from a previous verson it gets updated automagically.
Activating desktop effects is totally easier, it has been the same since 7.04, but you did not find it because you are used to KDE or something else.
Installing extra effects from the repositories (the cube, etc) is installing packages that don’t come by default in ubuntu, so it should not be part of a ubuntu review.
The java issues are java bugs not getting along well with the X server and window decorations.
By: ignorante on May 7, 2008
at 4:28 pm
Ignorante:
Please read my posts again. Dont bash – review the issues at hand and do try to keep your ubuntu zealot in you out of the quesiton.
You will see that i did get hte nvidia drivers installed and you dont need to go to nvidia.com to get them working – its part of the restricted drivers which are built in Ubuntu
Further more you will see that i did not have any problem activating the desktop effects – i did have bugs with compiz and i question compiz stableness.
The desktop cube and other effects are accessible via the Advanced desktop effects control panel which DOES allow you to enable those features. If those feature crush compiz – then compiz is not stable. If i get pink shadows – compiz is not stable.
If Java has issues with compiz then compiz is not a viable framework if applications that i commonly use cannot work – thus again compiz is an issue.
/talb
By: taltalon on May 8, 2008
at 4:32 pm
please re read my ubuntu parts, got some examples and i further detail my experiences
By: taltalon on May 8, 2008
at 10:08 pm
You could try Metacity (Gnome’s default window manager) Compositing feature to see if it’s a Compiz issue.
Also, not all the plugins that you find in the Advanced Desktop Effects Settings are stable plugins (only the plugins in the compiz-fusion-plugins-main are officialy stable), so if you want stability, don’t use them.
And if you had an Intel IGP, ATi card or another driver version, you wouldn’t get pink shadows.
By: ikkefc3 on May 11, 2008
at 6:36 pm
stupid article
Finally ubuntu can replace vista I’ve been using it for a WHILE and allways had to switch to vista to do some things FINALLY NOT anymore 8.04 is a superb experience it has some bugs but you can fix them quite easily (just google them)
once you mange to configure it correctly it works flawless definitely superior to VISTA – don’t know about OSX as i have PC
By: Peter on May 21, 2008
at 7:18 pm