Ian Bennett.net What you need, when you need it

Crossposted from The Sonic Stadium:

One of the more welcome aspects of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is that the development team is committed to releasing new versions of the OS every six months. Thus, v8.04, nicknamed "Hardy Heron", is due for release on the 24th of this month.

Looking at the new features in this new version, one really caught my eye. Canonical's aim is clearly to get Ubuntu to the masses by making it as easy to install as possible. The LiveCD installer was already quick and (mostly) simple, significantly more so than Windows', but with new Windows app Wubi goes even further. With Wubi, a Windows user can install the whole distro on their Windows partition just like a normal Windows app, requiring no complicated partitioning and providing an almost fully-functional installation of Ubuntu that can be uninstalled like any other app.

The intention is clearly to get Windows users to "try it and love it" by providing them with an installation that they can use easily and that won't overly complicate their system.

After that little bombshell, the rest of the new stuff in Hardy seems almost boring. Some apps taken out or replaced; some added; the usual horde of updated software, and the streamlining of existing ones to work better in the system. There's the welcome (if not wholly necessary - *nix ports are closed by default) addition of a firewall app, and some nice improvements to security in low-level memory for extra protection against malware that targets Linux.

On the Kubuntu side, there are a few new things that have me a little excited. Kubuntu Hardy Heron will have two versions, one of which will use the recently released version of the KDE window manager, KDE4. The other will stick with KDE3. There's a new "bulletproof" display mode for the X server, which will default to a workable monitor configuration if the current config doesn't work; and for displays that do work, Compiz Fusion desktop effects are now installed by default, so you can spin your cube of workspaces and draw fire on the screen whenever you like...

Also for Kubuntu is a new option when installing - to encrypt your entire filesystem. I'm looking forward to using this particular feature on my laptop.

I must admit that most of my enthusiasm for Hardy is that I'm using it as an excuse to wipe my laptop and reinstall everything. ;p

I was quite disappointed with Gutsy, particularly on the GNOME front. For me at least, GNOME was noticeably slower, and some of the changes made rubbed me the wrong way, e.g. turning the Deskbar Applet from a bar into an icon with a popup. Those sort of things were what eventually made me install the kubuntu packages and switch to KDE.

I suppose, yeah, the changes aren't that big, but what can you really expect when most of the software is already updated automatically on a regular basis? I'm looking forward to trying out KDE4 anyway and seeing if it's stable enough to use on my desktop...

I had some partition troubles I wanted to sort out, so I decided to just reinstall everything. Plus my kubuntu-on-top-of-ubuntu setup wasn't quite what I wanted any more. So I tried out KDE4, and while it looks funky and has some really nice features - particularly the nice new "Start" menu - it was too sluggish on my ghetto PC, and it's like they've taken KDE's good habit of having config options where you expect them to be, and totally abandoned it. I couldn't do simple things without searching for minutes, so that was out.

Anyway, I put KDE3 back on and it's working quicker and more smoothly than my Gutsy setup was. Time will tell whether it rawks or not. One thing that was pretty cool, though, was that (apart from the restricted graphics card drivers, for obvious reasons) every single peripheral, including my printer and webcam, was installed automatically and worked out of the box. I had to install the printer and webcam drivers from source on Gutsy, and I was particularly impressed with the webcam, because I couldn't even get it working on Windows with the supplied driver disc ¬_¬ On Hardy, I plugged it in for the first time, the light came on and it "just worked". I like.

So, yeah, first impressions are that Hardy is a huge improvement over Gutsy, just not in obvious ways like having flashy graphics etc.

Stuck Hardy on your system already? Sticking with Gutsy/Feisty/whatever instead? Anything caught your eye? Happy to play the best card game ever in blissful ignorance? Or still wondering what all the fuss is about? Tell the world... or at least the few readers of this blog.