Nothing exciting – just a couple of notes on the Ubuntu upgrade experience from 7.10 to 8.04.
- Machine #1: LG Express Dual T1-72C1A laptop, Intel GMA950 graphics card
Pretty much a flawless upgrade
- Machine #2: Desktop cobbled together with all sorts of bits over the years; problem feature being ATI Radeon 9600XT graphics card
- Garbled screen on reboot; my own fault due to multiple, conflicting fglrx + compiz modules; went for a clean install
- Seems Ubuntu have packaged a working fglrx + compiz combo; X11 radeon used by default but gives you the option to switch to fglrx on first login; works fine with compiz (except for known GL flicker problem), even has TV-OUT!
- Compiz ccsm (advanced manager), emerald decorator and tray icon (fusion-icon) not installed by default
- System in general pretty snappy; Firefox 3 a revelation
I’m amazed at the improvement in Firefox 3. Slow page loading that I’d attributed to poor internet connections or bad graphics card configuration was, in fact, poor Firefox 2 rendering.
Downside: very few extensions compatible – seems odd, given that FF3 has been in beta quite a while. There are hacks to use your old ones, but I don’t recommend them. Good news: the extension that I can’t live without (del.icio.us) has an FF3 version here. The new mysocial24x7 works too.
