There are an awful lot of things I like about Ubuntu 8.01 “Hardy Heron”. Overall ease of use; a HUGE repository of easily installable softwares to complement the extensive and useful collection of software installed by default; general stability (almost NEVER need to reboot, for example); an impressive level of security right out of the box, as it were: all these things and more are Very Good Things.
Oh, and although it’s free, support in the various free forums is at least as good as my experience with Microsoft has been over the years–actually much better.
But. System/software updates. A Good Thing, overall. But.
This weird thing where–magically! (bad magic, but magic nonetheless)–things that are imprtant to me just stop working or start working badly immediately after system updates, or conversely begin working properly again w/o any reasonable excuse… this can drive me nutso.
Get screen resolution like I want it. System update. Screen goes to 600X400 or lower, and REFUSES (w/o a very big hammer) to go back to preferred resolution. *feh*
Sound working nicely; new speakers sound wonderful. System update. Sound barely squeaks along and WILL NOT use my preferred sound chipset. Nothing helps. System update. Sound now loverly again. System update. Crfappy sound. System update, system update, system update: sound now loverly again. Heck, more than that. Now have to turn darned near everything DOWN (with software controls) to listen at appropriate levels
Flash vids (YouTube et al) work fine in browser. System update. Flash no longer works. Redownload and install appropriate plugins. Everything hunky-dory. System update. Flash down in browsers. Lather, rinse, repeat. Do note: while all this is happening in browsers, standalone flash players continue to work fine. Finally, another system update and… flash works in browsers again. For now.
Crazy. Insane. Me, that is. Can’t. Stand. It.
But. All’s well. For now.
Still, even with these warts (and the “Update WINE and Encore no longer works worth a darn” issue), Ub untu’s been a Good Thing. Now, if I could just get Windows Home Server working under Ubuntu using VMWare Server… *heh*
Still, to be fair, Ubuntu does things, on balance, as well as Windows–better in some areas, less well in others. Frankly, my biggest gripes with this computer are hardware. No, the computer itself is fine–better than, in fact. It’s this formerly wonderful 10-year-old 19″ CRT. It’s dying, and it looks like I’ll have to replace it either with a smaller spare monitor–still CRT but only 17″–or break down and get an LCD screen.
*sigh*
LCDs just do NOT–still–have the clarity or flexibility of resolutions a CRT can offer. But. I can make one work, and on the plus side, I’d end up having room for more junk on my 3’X6′ desktop. Maybe even another monitor (I like dualie setups).
Still with the Ubuntu pet peeves (new update for WINE has solved some problems, just not all), but happy with it overall.
Not going to post on this, but as an off topic comment… (which I can get away with cos it’s my blog :-)), I fired up WinXPP in a VMWare Server session, yesterday, and downloaded, installed and gave Google Chrome a run.
Impressions? Not bad. Page rendering is almost as fast as Opera and just as good on the pages I visited. Tabs work fine. Bookmarking is weird. Only way is to drag links to a toolbar, and apparently when that fills up, CLICK on a lil folder icon to access overrun. Heck, can do that in Opera and still have bookmarks accessible in a more detailed and organized fashion, and have Opera’s Speed Dial (and set that up for many more than the default nine thumbnails–my default is 20 thumbnails).
Someone pointed out the super cool “Type a search term in the addressbar” feature. *yawn* Opera’s had that for quite some time–and super customization of the dedicated search box (and CLICKable searches) for several versions.
Still, Chrome has a clean, extremely simple interface that appeals to some and works just fine for most things.
But, dealbreakers for me: lack of customization and mouse gestures. I have grown accustomed to a HUGE degree of customization in Opera and built-in features (like mouse gestures) that other browsers require add-ons to accomplish–and Chrome doesn’t even seem to offer at all, at this time.
So, it fails on the customization and ease of use areas for me.
And then there are the already well-known security holes.
Nice browser and it has a place, just not in my regular use. Maybe when it gets beyond a beta phase and has some more mature features AND is more customizable, THEN I’d consider it for myself.
YMMV of course.
Still talking to myself here, I see. Doing it with Google Chrome in WinXPPX64 running in VMWare Server inside Ubuntu 8.04.
*yawn*
Boring myself now. Is that good?
(Setting myself up to look like a wacko, cos the following comment refers to misspelling my own name, and I just corrected that lil oopsie. *heh*)
Day-um. Looking at my previous comment on my own post (this makes 4 Who-hoo!), I see I can’t spell my own name.
Oh. Well.
Need coffee.
On a roll here. Another boring comment by me, myself and I. (There are more voices in my head, but they’re all screaming for a cuppa joe.)