Ubuntu - Hardy Heron Approaching
As laid back, easy going and carefree that I am (most of the time, I’m realising more and more that I really like routine. I like looking forward to an event in the future when I know the exact day in which it will occur. Like Christmas, or a Birthday, I know exactly when it will occur, but I don’t always know what to expect at the date in which that event occurs. And much like getting socks when you were hoping for tickets to the Superbowl (err, no), the ritual release of Ubuntu can bring both joy and/or dissapointment.
But unlike a Birthday, Ubuntu’s release cycle is biannual, so it’s twice the fun, if of course that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat.
Wind back 6 months to my previous posts on the last release, Gutsy Gibbon, I can remember being especially excited about the new release due to the hype surrounding the major release at the time, and I was by no means dissapointed. It was incredibly nice to use a system in which everything just worked, no stuffing around with device drivers or compiling kernel hacks to get hardware working. It really impressed.
Hardy Heron should be no different, though admittedly I haven’t heard near as much hype about its release which is surprising seeing as it’s an LTS (Long Term Support) release, in which a major release (once every 18 months) has long term support from the developers, three years on the desktop and five for the server release. When Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) was released it included a lot of features which had been added, such as 3d/Compiz Desktop features, adding something significant to the user experience.
With the next release however (8.04), efforts have been made to make the system itself as solid as possible, obviously to make the job of supporting it easier over the next 3-5 years. There does seem to be some changes to look forward to however:
- A new theme (yes, Human is finally getting a face-lift)
- Better support for compiz desktop effects
- A complete redesign/refactor of the restricted drivers profile
- Far better support/integration for dual monitors
My excitement got the better of me though, and I jumped the gun and updated my installation to the pre-release beta, and I felt like I’d taken a full step back. About 1 or 2 years back, that is. Unfortunately my wireless card was unrecognised and I couldn’t even boot into GDM as my display settings (which worked only minutes before) didn’t work at all. It took the better part of an hour to get things back to normal, but oh well thats what I get for installing pre-release software. The new theme is far easier on the eye though, thank goodness.
Look out for this release!
