Ubuntu 8.04 is Well Worth the Look

Rob Williams

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Staff member
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From our front-page news:
The latest Ubuntu release came out just two weeks ago, but that's old news by now. I have never been much of an Ubuntu fan, and the fact is, I disliked it... a lot. I still stand by the fact that I believe the distro was severely over hyped with the earlier versions, but the latest launch, "Hardy Heron" changes my thoughts quite a bit.

New Ubuntu versions come out often, but this one is different. It offers "Long-Term Support", so you can install it and not have to worry about support fading before three-years pass. From my previous experience with Feisty Fawn, however, Hardy Heron is far more polished and is putting Linux on the right track to mass adoption.

Booting up on the notebook, everything worked, from the graphics to WiFi to audio to Bluetooth to web cam and beyond. I couldn't find anything that didn't work. And that was before the installation! So to say I'm impressed would be an understatement. I use Gentoo on the desktop and have zero interest of using Ubuntu there given I prefer how that distro works, but for the notebook, it's absolutely perfect. The less work you need to do in the initial setup process, the better.

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I am not a fan of GNOME, however, so I tested out both Ubuntu and Kubuntu, and ultimately stuck with the latter. It's hard to not notice the difference between the two, though. While hardware detection is the same, Kubuntu lacks the overall polish of Ubuntu, which is fine by me since I tend to configure things a lot anyway, but it's still too bad. There's not even a GRUB bootsplash like there is for Ubuntu, which is beyond strange given how simple it is to add.

But that aside, I'm pleased so far with Kubuntu and have no real complaints. It lacks certain things that I like, but that's because I'm so used to my current setup. Ubuntu is catered towards new users and veterans alike, so it's design can't be faulted too much (although there are a few things I do find strange, but I'll tackle that later). Overall though, this is the first time I've ever recommended Ubuntu, so I'm off to go pinch myself.

Source: Ubuntu
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
I tried installing 8.04 using WUBI and while it installed fine, it won't recognize the OS.
 

slugbug

Coastermaker
I installed it last week on my quad core rig. One minor problem I'm having with it is with my MX510 mouse scroll wheel not working in linux after switching my KVM switch to my Windows box and then back to linux. It works fine when I start up though. Any solution to this minor problem?
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I tried installing 8.04 using WUBI and while it installed fine, it won't recognize the OS.

I don't really understand what you are saying. It was installed, but won't recognize it? This happens when you try to run it, or it just won't work at all? I've never dealt with WUBI, but it sounds interesting. I am really, really unsure how it works without testing it out though, so I am not sure I can offer help here.

slugbug, I answered that in the other thread... though I'm still not positive what the "real" solution would be.
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
It installs a boot loader. If you choose KDE (kubuntu) in the boot loader and try to boot into it, it will say it wasn't found. Try to boot into windows after it fails at KDE and it'll say it wasn't found. Is that a bit clearer?
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
It can't boot into Windows either? You mean you have to rewrite the MBR each time you try to install it?

For some reason, I thought WUBI installed it inside of Windows, as in... it becomes an application. I guess I was wrong.

That is a weird issue though. Sounds like it's not setting up the appropriate partitions for some reason. But since this is not a normal way of installing the OS, I still have no idea what to recommend, since I'm sure the boot loader is handled differently.
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
It does install inside windows. It boots into windows if I leave it alone at boot but if I choose KDE it says it can't find it, if I then choose windows it says (unsurprisingly) that it can't find it but if I reboot the PC it'll boot into windows. Don't ask me why, I have no clue about Linux.
 

madstork91

The One, The Only...
...but the latest launch, "Hardy Heron" changes my thoughts quite a bit.

From my previous experience with Feisty Fawn, however, Hardy Heron is far more polished and is putting Linux on the right track to mass adoption.

You expect less from a stork?

Really though, I may have to check the build out.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Not sure about that Matt. I think creating a separate partition and doing things the usual way would be best. I think WUBI is an experiment at best, for now at least.
 
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