For 8.04 I did an update, and a few weeks later had a few issues so I decided to do a clean install (which am glad I did).
The install process was easy just like the previous versions, I was just using my full HD for this. The install was 15mins, and once it booted to the desktop I was ready to start getting the system back to the way I like. First came downloading the updates, there was 162 updates which took a total of 30mins to download and install. Now it was to get the Nvidia drivers, a mere 4mins and that was me back to using the Nvidia drivers for 3D FX and gaming.
Now it was time to install the software that I used, that wasnt included in the main install. This process again only took a total of 15mins and they were ready to use. I copied all my music and my files that I backed up before the format and after transfering over USB (30mins) that was me back to a fully working and setup the way I like it laptop.
At first glance you dont really see much difference in this version. which you want as you dont want a learning curve (like XP to Vista) to get in the way. Everything felt a lot more zippy, and looked cleaner.
The Bad –
1. As normal my webcam didn’t work out the box, but add a line to the repo’s and thats it working.
2. For some reason I had to find out how to enable my Nvidia drivers, normally an icon appears and I click “allow”. I had to enable the desktop effects for that to pop up, not a big issue but not the best way to approch this.
3. Alsa & Pulseaudio – Since Pulseaudio was enabled by default, when i was using skype and then tried to play secondlife there was no sound in Secondlife and if i ran SL first then opened Skype i had no sound in that. A quick sudo apt-get install esound fixed that, I feel that this should not have been added just yet…a waiting period where a good percentage of apps using Pulse as the main audio and then impliment this would have been better.
As you can see my bad points are very small and nothing major, so far I am very impressed with this release and look forward to features and versions to come.
