Soaring with the Heron
As anyone who follows Linux knows, Ubuntu released version 8.04, aka Hardy Heron, last week. Like everyone else I was eager to try it out. For previous upgrades, I went with clean installs. This time I decided to go with the in-place upgrade route. My machine would be the same Dell 531s system I’ve written about earlier. Since I last wrote about it, I added 2 Gb RAM for a system total of 2.5 Gb. My Ubuntu 7.10/Vista Home Basic dual boot system was working perfectly so it appears to be a good candidate.
There is an excellent tutorial here which is how I went about the upgrade. I was a bit concerned about my relatively slow home DSL connection which is only 512 kb up/down. I waited until Sunday morning on April 26th to begin, hoping the peak rush of downloading was past. Due to the download speed, the whole process took four hours but I was able to start it and leave it due to the amazing amount of automation.
Once the process was complete, I rebooted and my dual boot configuration was still intact. Everything worked without a hitch. The lone exception was the theme I had been using on Firefox 2.x wasn’t compatible with Firefox 3 so I ditched it.
Hardy doesn’t scream “Look at me! I’m a major upgrade”. I didn’t have to change the way I do anything. All that is immediately apparent is the interface is prettier, smoother and more refined. I was surprised at the very noticible speed increase and responsiveness. Later this week I hope to get into some of the new features included in this release. I will be loading 8.04 Server on some boxes for a home server and a web server.
Canonical is making huge strides with Ubuntu. Hardy Heron should soar like an eagle for them.
