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Ubuntu 8.10 Linux Upgrade: How is it?

Ubuntu 8.10 Linux Upgrade: How is it?

By: Daniel Chubb | November 4, 2008 | 13 Comments

You got to love open source software and not only because it’s free but also thanks to the advantages of being able to let the community modify the software for improvements that benefit all.

Ubuntu was first released on October 20, 2004 and just under a week ago (30 October 2008) we saw the release of Ubuntu 8.10. Did you upgrade to the latest version of Ubuntu Linux?

If you are a Ubuntu desktop fan then you will know that 8.10 is a worthwhile upgrade, it brings many small tweaks and has been streamlined. Some of the improvements in Ubuntu 8.10 are subtle and the updated packages are great, but how good is it really?

If you have upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 then share your comments on the latest release. How is it for you?

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  • http://www.ubuntu-news.net Christian Pfeiffer Jensen

    I haven’t tried it yet, but there’s a bunch of different opinions here:

    http://ubuntu-news.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5404

  • Gary

    The upgrade is indeed very subtle, and there is a relatively small number of new packages, but the upgrade definitely provides improved the usability. Suspend works much better now, my trackpad work better with it.

  • http://www.evejam.co.uk Dy

    I have upgraded and I am been impressed with the improvements. however Gnome seems to be a bit buggy at the moment, some of the icon near the clock take a long time to load up. Also ffmpeg doesn’t work the way it used to but I think that is down to mediubuntu, will need to investigate.

    Overall very happy.

  • Frank

    Works great on my desktop and my old Sony laptop with and old AMD Duron processor and 256K RAM. Better than 8.04.

    I had one problem though on my desktop. Firefox ran extremely slow. I had to reinstall the Flash (ver 10) plugin on Firefox, which solved the problem.

  • Shalva

    Lots of things working for me on my Sony Vaio that didn’t work in Hardy: wireless internets, function keys, hibernate/suspend… also some nice new features and overall feels faster.

  • jaime

    excellent work… keep moving in the right direction

    another good release… ahhh… if only every operating system released were better than it predecessor like ubuntu… ohhh… poor vista, even your creator is so disappointed.

  • http://webmojo.co.uk Steve Morris

    I use Ubuntu for web development and design, but had problems with Kompozer crashing out when I tried to edit a CSS file in 8.10, so until these bugs are fixed I have had to go back to 8.04

  • Chris

    I installed it from a cd instead of just upgrading. I love it even more-so than 8.04 and I didnt think this were possible. Everything is now point and click and no need for the CLI at all. I installed 8.10 on every one of my Linux desktops. Most of which before now had other various distros. Gnome is not buggy here but I dont have NVIDIA cards either. Stick with ATI or Intel video and you will be amazed just how good this is. 9 out of 10 a kickass product! It lost a point for keeping the same sound scheme as 8.04. It had a good one in the pre-betas but they took it out in favor of it and I am sick of hearing it.

  • Maurice Green

    I’ve used Ubuntu since 1004. My OS partition had been previously formatted to 5gb and the upgrade was a pain because the upgrade (said) it needed more space than this. I had to burn a disc and reinstall ‘Intrepid.’ Nvidia ‘non-free’ bits ‘n’ bobs downloaded and installed easily on prompting.
    The earlier ‘Hardy’ distribution had become a regular crasher so I’m pleased Intrepid’ seems more stable.
    I’ve not seriously looked back since abandoning Winders years ago. Ubuntu has so many very useful Debian features.
    I disagree with Chris about the command line interface. I used ffmpeg to make mpeg files, for a DVD, from home videos yesterday. Much faster than Avidemux. In fact my only criticism is that the GUI is becoming a bit bloated with all this Compiz Fusion stuff. I want a computer to be, like any other tool, simple and efficient. Another thing is that manufacturers often only provide Mac and Winders drivers for their printers (therefore avoid Lexmark!) etc.
    9/10

  • Maurice Green

    I’ve used Ubuntu since 2004. My OS partition had been previously formatted to 5gb and the upgrade was a pain because it (said) needed more space than this. I had to burn a disc and reinstall ‘Intrepid.’ Nvidia ‘non-free’ bits ‘n’ bobs downloaded and installed easily on prompting.
    The earlier ‘Hardy’ distribution had become a regular crasher so I’m pleased Intrepid’ seems more stable.
    I’ve not seriously looked back since abandoning Winders years ago. Ubuntu has so many very useful Debian features.
    I disagree with Chris about the command line interface. I used ffmpeg to make mpeg files, for a DVD, from home videos yesterday. Much faster than Avidemux. In fact my only criticism is that the GUI is becoming a bit bloated with all this Compiz Fusion stuff. I want a computer to be, like any other tool, simple and efficient. Another thing is that manufacturers often only provide Mac and Winders drivers for their printers (therefore avoid Lexmark!) etc.
    9/10

  • Manysounds

    Working great here at home on 4 of our computers, laptop and eeepc included. Since I only got interested in August I wasn’t in the incremental upgrade mindset and the new version actually does feel like a pretty big upgrade, even though I know it isn’t technically. I also love the dark them though I had to change the color of “windows/text” in appearances to make all of the default programs usable. Also a minor tweak on the EeePC but that is fixed with the current updates.

  • Saul

    I have tried the 7.04 and it had issues with my laptop mainly display and wireless. Now I tried 8.10 and its a miricle worker.

    Everything just worked. I have HP DV9540us and it all works.

    A few more releases and I will switch over from Vista. Mainy because of the learning curve that needs to be taken care of.

    Over all this release is very impressive and I am using this one to get to know Ubuntu more and I hope I can switch over soon. Windows just has too much issues of stability and the rest…

    Love Ubuntu 8.10

  • http://www.outlinestudio.co.nz Gabor

    Hi All,

    Ubuntu 8.10 is my third try in the past 4 – 5 years, on my quest for the perfect free OS, and I can say after the very easy install and configuration that I’m really happy now! I’ve first tried Ubuntu when it was around 6.4 and although it was impressive I had to go back to my 64bit Xp eventually, but now I think I’m a new born Ubuntu man :)

    Thanks heaps for all involved in this brilliant project. I can’t wait to see what the next few years will bring! It’s very exciting

    Thanks again

    Gabor