How to improve Ubuntu

Hi fellas,

The utlimate goal of everything we do is getting better, even if we do not always realize this. But with software, it's fairly obvious. Today's article suggests a number of quick and simple improvements for Ubuntu, including small changes to the live CD and installation procedure, language setup, customization of the integrated mail/chat applet, GRUB menu wizard, desktop tour, and more. How to make good better.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-improve.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

Ubuntu 10.04 Is More Power Hungry Than Windows 7

not what I was hoping for....

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=14893

 

The power consumption issue is a bios dependent one, with my SONY and Toshiba laptops, they run far cooler and longer with Ubuntu or SUSE than with Win7, btw, check the other benchmarks of Win7 versus Ubuntu at Phoronix, Win7 got trounced soundly.

 

Actually, my cheapo Toshiba laptop runs a bit hotter with Ubuntu since 9.10. Nothing extreme but, since I always dock the sensor applet, I do notice it. In Ubuntu's (and other distros) defense, Vista basic ran like a dog on it, whereas linux flies.

 

That's not saying much. Vista runs like a dog on ANY computer....

 

I know, not exactly a huge selling point for Ubuntu.

 

Check it against bios temp, usually the lm-sensors and other linux applets are off on certain laptops and motherboards, the disk thrashing in Ubuntu compared to the OEM Win7 is way less and so is the CPU spikes, the Win7 comes loaded with AV etc which probably are the culprit here. Generally unlike desktops, for new laptops my advice is to use any distro with the latest kernel or a rolling release distro like sidux, arch or sid, reason being that newer kernels incorporate many acpi and other improvements that make new hardware run better.

 

How would I get the bios temp? I have had acpi problems with this bios with all distros, and have had to add some derivative of acpi_osi=linux to grub. And honestly linuxforall, I could be wrong about running hotter since I only kept Vista for a day just to have a comparison point. If it is running a bit hotter, it may just be age and/or dust.

 

Since I have few latops in dual boot, I can check both. Temperature is a big BIOS issue, I have seen BIOS updates solve this and other issues as well. On a brand new Toshiba i3 laptop, no variant of Linux could be installed till the company updates their BIOS.

 

That was my one mistake there was a bios update out when I bought my laptop, but I missed it. Now, since everything is running well, I am not going near the update.

 

Ha ha ha c'mon, one itsy bitsy bios update did no one any harm

 

Nope, not crossing that line in the sand.

 

Probably all oof you guys knew that but I just discovered this news:

2010-08-12: Ubuntu 10.04.1

Worth downloading and replacing 10.04? What do you say?

 

Too bad Windows 7 replaced it over a year ago... You should try it out, you might like it.

 

Canonical Begins Tracking Ubuntu Installations

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODQ5MA

 

Most likely a driver issue, remember that Windows gets more support from vendors than linux.

 

i have ubuntu 9.10. i downloaded 10 yesterday and my computer was terribly crawling and was not even able to do anything. Should i keep my current version or try it again.
AMD 1750
512 ram
80 g hdd
Any idea?

 

From my own experience, I would stick with 9.x or switch to Fedora 13. I had much better luck with the latter.

 

Try the alternate installer or try lighter Lubuntu as your RAM is quite low for latest Gnome or KDE Ubuntu.