The flood of new user to Hardy Heron was truly impressive. As a Ubuntu forums junkie, I got a fair sample of the influx of new users, many of whom had been new users to 7.10 only months prior to the release of 8.04, and while they had finally ironed out most of the bugs and had their systems operating the way they wanted, they couldn’t wait to try the latest OS…that’s the linux spirit.
Unfortunately, the Hardy release included a new kernel to linux. I had been using Hardy since it’s alpha1 release. The alpha1 release still used the old 2.6.22-14 kernel…lucky me. Many of those doing clean installs of the new 2.6.24-16 kernel got a bit of a surprise. The new kernel has numerous bugs. Older, still very functional, hardware is not properly detected, leaving many user without sound, graphics, or internet access.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Ubuntu/Linux. Linux has the option of being a great hands-on-operating-system experience, as well as providing an elegant, simple, highly functional GUI.
For whatever reason, the developers opted to include some fundamental software most users will not appreciate.
FireFox3 beta: buggy, unattractive. It freezes often, causes system lockouts, and has been know to write huge a file into the users home directory in the file /.mozilla/firefox/whatever.default/urlclassifier3.sqlite
Pulseaudio: pulse what? I can’t hear a thing. Who uses pulse audio? Why? Alsa is finally becoming mainstream.
I can understand the desire to be prepared for software improvements in a new operating system, but I need pulseaudio like I need wings on my car.
So, I’m running Hardy on the 2.6.22-14 kernel. I’m happy for the most part. The new release has brought a flood of activity to the forums, but I find my self shaking my head wondering, why on Earth would so many people, so quickly, shuck off 7.10 to grab 8.04 without even testing 8.04 first? It sounds just like something I would do. I must be learning.
