Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

I switched to linux sometime ago, opting for the popular Ubuntu OS, version 6.10 (the 6.10 indicates year and month of release, so it October 2006) They have had a couple of updates since then, as they have a 6 month release cycle, but opted to stay with 6.10 as it worked reasonably well with my laptop, just a couple of problems, mainly to do with proprietary firmware/drivers. But with the release of 7.10 - Gutsy Gubbon, and some fancy new visuals I decided to upgrade.

As I was still on 6.10 I couldn’t just upgrade to 7.10 using the updates manager, so I downloaded the live cd iso, burned this to disk and gave it a try. This is when the graphics failed me, for whatever reason the main desktop screen wouldn’t appear, and instead I was left with a black/blank screen, thinking this was due to my laptop being to old to run the newer os, I went back and tried to upgrade to 7.04, but for whatever reason this didn’t work. After searching round the net I found others having similar problems, and the one suggestion that worked for me, was running the install from the “Safe graphics mode” on the live cd, this worked fine and after about half an hour last night I was up and running in Ubuntu 7.10.

Overall, it’s simply been tidied up, some smarter graphics/visual effects, and an improved way to install non-free firmware (Nvidia drivers). The first major improvement I’ve noticed is when using my 320gb external hard drive, in the older version I had to mount the drive manually using the terminal command, now with 7.10 it’s automatically detected, not only that, but 7.10 also gives me access to my Windows XP partition without me having to go through some long winded convoluted setting up (may be exaggerating there).

So far, I’ve got to say it’s well worth the upgrade, it’s looks nice and shiny, and simply works, something that I’ve never been able to say about XP, which still gives me no end of headaches. I think this report by Rupert Goodwins on Zdnet is pretty damn good, and to quote the guy:

“So here's the funny thing. I've used Windows since 1.0. I've lived through the bad times of Windows/386 and ME, and the good times of NT 3.51 and 2K. I know XP if not backwards, then with a degree of familiarity that only middle-aged co-dependents can afford each other. Along the way, I've dallied with many other operating systems on many other platforms - but never with Unix and only lately with Linux.

Then how come I'm so much more at home with Ubuntu than Vista? It boils down to one abiding impression: Ubuntu goes out of its way to get out of your way, even if it doesn't succeed all the time. Vista goes out of its way to be Vista and enforce the Vista way. You must conform regardless of the implications”

I think that about sums up Linux perfectly, it simply works, making life as easy and simple as possible.