I was indeed seduced with the option of having a brand new distro on my laptop; specially when the reviews suggested that it had improved support for laptops.

I had to manually install the whole damned thing because it would not upgrade from a CD. I decided to go ahead with a clean install and after several false starts, I ended up having a brand new shining version which has considerably improved over it’s predecessors. The whole problem was traced to VGA as the defualt screen resolution.

For once, Firefox has amazed with it’s inline grammatical check; I have yet to see something similar in Opera. I would, no doubt, install Opera once it becomes available for 7.10. For the time being, this is a acceptable trade off. Everything seems to be configured for the end user convenience. For example, I had to click on the mp3 file and it offered to download and install the codecs by itself. The screen brightness applet works and it automatically brings down the screen brightness once you disconnect it from the mains. WOW again.

The most amazing thing was the auto detection of my wireless card. It offered to download the firmware from the net and installed it on it’s own. WOW to that. Rhythmbox seems to work out of box with addition of songs a breeze. It has been toned up and made to resemble Amarok.

Sound works better on my lenovo than the previous installed version. However, this is strictly a subjective confirmation.

For most of the users, this is a no brainer in Windows world. However, for Linux, these are teething issues that have taken a long time to resolve. Most of the hardware manufacturers refuse to release drivers for Linux boxes which makes it extremely hard to “hack” the drivers and make the hardware work. This only results in suboptimal performance when Linux is not to be blamed. The best part is that all this is community participation and true democracy at work.

Open source software is the way to go. I have had issues with Gnome and have been using it quite reluctantly; till the time KDE comes out with it’s version 4.

There are several other enhancements like addition of lightening fast desktop search and improved support and installation for Firefox add ons. I was never a Firefox fan boy and specially it’s extensions (THE big plus factor in it’s widespread adoption by everyone). This would gladden FF nuts in the wild but to me this remains a useless add on.

The default installation comes with reasonable number of themes and preferences. However, there are definitive guides available to spruce up and spice your system.

I would recommend installation of the beta system; by and large the main glitches are resolved. It’s the continuous updates that would be available right upto it’s release and make it worthwhile. There’s always a problem of overloaded servers though on D day.

I would not recommend installation of Automatix. Earlier on, I was fond of the various programmes that could be downloaded; Gdebi installer has made life way too easier. Just download the required .deb files and it would download the necessary dependencies. Simple as that.

I remember the time when I had to manually search for rpm files for Mandrake (now Mandriva and sucks to the core) which made me switch over to Ubuntu (a .deb based distro). Over the past three years, the hardware support has improved considerably and perhaps barring Mac OS (in terms of spit and polish), Ubuntu comes a close second. Mac OS can be overbearing and needs incremental hardware to support itself. None of these hassles with ubuntu.

I really hope that the hardware manufacturers take up ubuntu’s cause and offer it as the original installed base system. It’s a myth that it is difficult to support. At best, it does need some degree of involvement with your system; Windows in my experience can be more frustrating to use.

Here’s too Gutsy Gibbon. Welcome to the new wave of user friendly computing.

Update:

Over the past few days, I have been on Gutsy and it’s been awesome. Everything works out of box; the printer configuration tool is a MAJOR improvement. Just plug in your damned printer and it works. As plain as that. Ubuntu has improved it’s hardware detecction majorly; after Suse, it remains the best in business. After Suse 9.2 I have not dared touch the rpm based distros; it was a PITA to search for the needed rpms.

No wonder, Ubuntu’s frontend to install programmes in Linux remains my favourite. Specially, the newer improved version “add/remove” programmes is kick ass.

I think that most of the major incremental updates are over and it’s a big launch of the next version on 18th October. The good folks at Ubuntu must be working feverishly to plan for a smooth launch. I commend their efforts to give us a better and a polished distro.

I strongly feel that with further launches of Ubuntu, desktop computing would truly become revolutionary in terms of user friendliness minus the hassles of using Windows version. The problems can still be used to a huge pool of stunted computer users who would rather stick on to proprietary software so that they can turn to their “neighbourhood vendor” to bail them out of blue screen of death. Or rather be seduced by high decibel campaign of “aero interface”. I am sure most of the “geeks” who swear by Aero would piss in their pants after experiencing compiz fusion.

I had faced an issue with vanishing borders on “desktop effects”. Turning off the effects has restored normalcy. I believe that it is an issue with the graphics cards that should be sorted out in the near future.

All in all, this is one polished distro with tonnes of incremental improvements. For those who get a hard on about desktop search might just breathe easier with the integrated search applet.

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Tags: Computing, GUI, laptop, Linux, Open Source, Opera, theme, Windows, Wireless