The Linux Extremist

3 out of 4 of my computers run Ubuntu Linux. Breezy was all right, Dapper was great; when Edgy was released, I wondered, “Could it get any better?”

The press on the latest release, Ubuntu “Edgy Eft” 6.10, suggested that it was going to contain a lot of new approaches to the operating system, a radical departure rather than maintaining continuity. This made me nervous; everything worked well in Dapper, sometimes, in the words of Edmund Burke, “When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.”

However, curiousity got the better of me. I first took the plunge using my old HP Compaq nx7000 laptop. Rather than do a clean install, I opted to do an upgrade. In order to do this, I went to Applications >> Accessories >> Terminal and typed -

gksu “update-manager -c”

This then made the upgrade available.

The upgrade process itself was fairly painless. After it completed, the laptop rebooted; the speed improvement in loading was noticeable. To my relief, none of my settings had been undone. With the latest version of Swiftfox as my browser and Edgy, this 4 year old laptop was running faster than ever. Fonts were also cleaner and easier on the eyes.

I tried this upgrade next on my Savrow Katana K-90. Again, the download and upgrade process was fairly painless; however, I had to re-install ndiswrapper in order for it to work with its wireless card. Apart from this, no other changes to settings were required. However, 3D acceleration using ATI’s proprietary fglrx driver was lost in the upgrade; I am waiting for an update to the driver or the OS in order to rectify this problem. This, however, is a minor inconvenience; otherwise, the PC functions as well as it has ever done and again, boots faster.

The most problematic upgrade was for my desktop computer, which I’ve nicknamed “Beige Lightning”. While there were no issues with drivers, Edgy has problems detecting a USB keyboard. With Dapper, detection was instantaneous. However with Edgy, I’ve had to wait at the login screen while the Function button on my Microsoft Internet Keyboard flashes; when it turns a steady green, then it’s ready, but sometimes that can take up to 5 minutes. I have tried various settings in the BIOS in order to fix this issue; none have been successful.

Overall, however, the upgrade has been about as problem-free as can be expected - in the case of the Savrow Katana and the desktop computer, there is a definite roughness around the edges; in the case of the HP Compaq nx7000, it’s been an enhancement. Life with Edgy is nearly as sweet as it was with Dapper; depending on the machine, it’s even sweeter.

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