[clug] Ubuntu 8.10 first impressions

[Andrew Janke]

Well, to "counter" another thread..

love it! :)

So many more things "just work". My dodgy shell script that I use to
"andrewify" a new install is getting smaller and smaller and is almost
nothing more than a single monster apt-get line.

Video that previously was a pain in the posterior to make work (ATI
thinkpad + Dual external monitors) now "just works" via xrandr or the
point and click thing. Previously I was resorting to Feisty ATI
drivers shoe-horned into Gutsy.

My USB DTV-B stick "just worked" in totem (once I installed the codecs
I was asked to). Optus USB "soap on a rope" modem just works via nice
pop up thing that appeared down the bottom of the screen. (to tell the
truth I almost fell of my chair when I saw it, i was watching the
syslog with interest to see if it would even detect it and was not
expecting much...).

Evince/nautilus is much nicer as are many other small improvements to
apps.  Yes, this isn't "Ubuntu" per se but in terms of out of box
experience it is nice.

The only bit of pain I did have was with the work machines with Dual
(Dual) 21" LCDs on dual 7800GT cards, the nvidia module/X seemed to
bork itself. After a quick dig and a bit of head scratching a removal
of all previous things:

   apt-get remove --purge linux-restricted-modules nvidia*

and a reinstall and reboot it again "just worked". It would seem that
a lot has changed here though as the xorg.conf is very
"strange/spartan" looking now. My T42 one for instance:

---

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"

	SubSection "Display"
		Modes "1400x1050"
		Virtual 2880 1200
	EndSubSection
EndSection

---

a <happy customer>