Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex - Review & Tutorial

Hello all,

The official release is coming, October 30.

I have decided to test the beta and see what we can expert from the latest version of Ubuntu.

The surprises are pleasant. First of all, the live CD experience is phenomenal. Hardware detection is superb. Then, there's the same old, simple installation. After that, the new, dead-sexy Human theme, small visual improvements in GUI and usability, and more.

Come take a look:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-8-10-review.html

Comments are most welcome.

Mrk

 

Thanks Mrkvonic, I am praying with folded hands in hope that they add printer support for my Canon IP6210D.

 

Hi,
It does look like they worked hard on hardware support this version.
I do hope people get the desired support for their stuff.
Mrk

 

Yep, Ubuntu is probably the best out now... if it doesn't work in Ubuntu, it probably doesn't work anywhere else either... My Canon printer was fine in Ubuntu 8.04 thankfully....

 

As always, Fantastic review MrK. I'm going to have to purchase another printer. Mine is considered a deadweight in linux. It's a lexmark p4350 printer,scanner, and copier.

 

Been trying the recent beta out in virtualbox and its not performing too great, very slow even with guest additions installed. I'm not too sure if its an ubuntu issue or something to do with VB itself but hopefully the final release will work better.

 

Thanks mark looks good and great review.Is the wireless support better then 8.04 if you mentioned it I may have overlooked thanks

 

Hello,

I think they have really worked hard on the wireless in this release.
I'll have to continue testing throughput and such, but it does look better than 8.04.

As to VirtualBox, I tested this beta on 1.6.2, so I can't say how it would perform in regard to latest 2.0.2. I did not try to install the guess addons, though.

Mrk

 

How did it run on 1.6.2? On 2.0.2 the gui is very slow, rendering times are terrible. I might try it in vmware and see if have better luck.

 

Hello,
It ran reasonably well. I did not 'feel' any difference from 8.04 or 7.10.
Mrk

 

Hello,

Here's an update:

Following numerous requests, I have decided to majorly update the article.

The review has now been significantly expanded to include: testing of another laptop, including wireless, bluetooth and suspend; more in-depth testing of the new network manager; testing of support for virtual machines in VirtualBox and VMware Server; testing of popular software like MP3 playback support, Flash Player 10 in Firefox, Sun Java, Picasa, Google Earth, and Skype. You should like it. Come and take a second look.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-8-10-review.html

Mrk

P.S. the guest addons did not work for me in Intrepid, but vmware tools did ...

 

very good review mrk.waiting for the final.

 

Looking forward to Ibex, in Hardy the power management for laptop mode was rather screwed and required fiddling to get working, wonder if its actually been fixed ?

I had to follow this guide to get it working: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerManagement

Then the guest account will be useful as well.

 

Theres definitely an issue with this beta version and the current version of virtualbox. I can't get the gui to display properly, the guest additions install just fine but it doesn't solve the problem.
Ended up just installing it on my old laptop, everything worked great except the wireless. Luckily a simple system update solved the issue and it now runs with no problems that i can see. The one thing i find strange is after installation a system update requires downloading 300mb of updates. Hopefully they are included in the final release.

 

Hello,

Edit: change the article name, edited the link in the original post. This should point you now to the latest version, which includes all the added testing etc.

Cheers,
Mrk

 

My vista once again is no longer on its ubuntu 8.10 so far so good and wireless works ( Hurray)It will take take some time for me to get used to but mostly seems user friendly. Ah what a refreshing felling no layers of third party security.

 

Hey, hey,
Good to hear. Enjoy!
Mrk

 

Thanks mrk for all your help.

 

Can it be installed in a USB memory stick and booted from there?

Thanks

 

Hello,
Why not. It's doable. Check pendrivelinux for details ...
Mrk

 

btw one thing i dont like about 8.10 is the prompt for privileges take over the whole screen. it annoys me enough when uac in vista does that without debian and unbuntu doin that as well.
anyone know how to turn that off?

btw its not for every prompt so far only package manager prompt for rights took overr the screen still annoying.

i got more take over screen prompts when i tryed debian.

 

Neowin article

[this is the first time I noticed that NeoWIN is powered by RedHat, lol]

 

lol wonder what there review of fedora 10 will be like

 

Hardy works so well for me that there's hardly any need for me to upgrade but I probably will anyhow. Reports about Intrepid have been good so far. Looking forward to it.

 

Ubuntu 7.04 to 8.10 Benchmarks: Is Ubuntu Getting Slower?
Anyone notices this?