Ubuntu Hardy Heron Beta

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Beta is out. I’ve installed it on my laptop, and I can definitely say this is the best Ubuntu yet. There are many changes I am very happy about. There are a few things that didn’t get changed which I am upset about. Best of all, none of the changes made anything worse. Typical awesome Ubuntu action.

The first thing I noticed is a subtle change to the menu when you boot from an Ubuntu CD. Before there used to be an option called “Start or Install Ubuntu”. Now there are two separate options “Try Ubuntu Without Changing Your Computer” and “Install Ubuntu”. That’s a very smart change that is going to make a big difference for new users. Also, they have supposedly made changes to how the Live CD works when you put it into a computer that has Windows presently booted. Handing out CDs is going to be a much more effective way of spreading the love.

Also, there were a bunch of features included in the Feisty Fawn, and also the Gutsy Gibbon, that weren’t 100% perfect. This includes some of the audio and graphics support. All those things have been polished a great deal. I think that is because Hardy is an LTS release. That’s actually a big deal because Dapper has reached the point where it is too old to be still useful. I’m actually thinking that I might use Hardy full on until the next LTS release. Though, I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold myself back from upgrading for so long. Maybe I can do it on my computer at work.

I don’t really have that much else to say other than that I tried the Xubuntu Hardy Heron to see what was up. I used Xfce way back in the day on Gentoo machines, and I was a fan. I really like the idea and style of Xfce, but since I switched to Ubuntu and Gnome, I can’t deal with Xfce. Basically, when I use Gnome, I only use a fraction of the features it offers. Most of the other stuff is cruft. Xfce is sort of like Gnome light, even though Xfce people will probably yell at you if you say that. I like that it has most of the Gnome features I want, and takes out pretty much all the ones I don’t want. The thing that keeps me away is that there are always a handful of things I really need that Xfce leaves out. It’s getting better, but I don’t see myself using it anytime soon.

Everyone, I mean everyone, with a PC, should at least try the Hardy Heron. Even if you’ve tried Linuxes or Ubuntus in the past, that doesn’t matter. Try this one. This is the real deal.