Looks like I was right to wait for karmic koala

Story: Ubuntu 9.10 Off To A Great Performance StartTotal Replies: 21
Author Content
herzeleid

May 15, 2009
6:27 PM EDT
It appears to be an encouraging turnaround for the performance woes of 9.04 -
tracyanne

May 15, 2009
7:12 PM EDT
There were a couple of odd glitches with 9.04 when I first upgraded to it, but there has been a kernel update and a bunch of other updates since then, and It all seems pretty stable to me, I've even managed to get Sound working properly, and Rosegarden and Tux Guitar work brilliantly, now. So I have no complaints. I've even set up the OO.o repository and have OO.o 3.1 running, haven't had a chance to really look at it though.

A couple of my customers with low end laptops experienced a bit of a problem with the automated background changing script I installed (eating up too much system resources), but giving them a static desktop fixed that. Compiz works well, and with the way I've set it up on my lappy really does aid my usability.

I certainly hope that 9.10 improves on that.

All in all I'm quite happy with the state of Linux in the Ubuntu incarnation.
gus3

May 15, 2009
8:48 PM EDT
I have Ubuntu Jaunty 64-bit installed as an alternate for some project development, but in all honesty I have to admit that every time I boot it, I fall in love with it a little more. Maybe I'm infatuated with the 18-second boot-to-DM time, maybe the incredibly slick default theming (eye candy is worth something), maybe the Synaptics package management... And when I shut it down, it's almost like saying good-bye to a sweetheart at the end of a date.

The only thing stopping me from installing it on my Eee PC 900 is a couple show-stopper hardware issues.
Steven_Rosenber

May 15, 2009
9:39 PM EDT
I'm contemplating a new Linux install, or just moving my files to my Ubuntu 8.04 laptop. But I'd like to try Debian with Xfce, so that's where I might go first.
herzeleid

May 16, 2009
1:04 AM EDT
It all depends on hardware - I have a test box - a dell gx270 with nvidia graphics - and 9.04 runs really well on it. But on my other test box - with intel 945 graphics - the video is noticeably sluggish.

A friend at work has it installed on an hp desktop and there are no accelarated drivers for his ATI video card, while another friend at work has it installed on a different model hp desktop, with a different model ATI card, and the Mesa 3D is surprisingly snappy, and even the desktop effects work.

I guess a lot of this will converge as ATI gains support for the current X server, and intel gets their video driver rework wrapped up.
caitlyn

May 17, 2009
2:18 PM EDT
You can wait for Karmic Koala but by that time the great improvements in Lopsided Lllama (or whatever they will call it) will be all the rage and will be touted based on the alpha code. Lopsided Llama releases, you realize that the reported bugs won't be all that bad on your system so you go ahead and decide to install, but... Wait! Maniacal Monkey will have all these cool impovements...
tracyanne

May 17, 2009
6:34 PM EDT
Well said caitlyn
hkwint

May 17, 2009
7:21 PM EDT
Quoting:and intel gets their video driver rework wrapped up.


As far as I understood, Intel is far ahead of both AMD and nVidia, but only for their newer chipsets of course. They (can) run DRI2. When trying Fedora11 yesterday, my 'hopelessly aged' nVidia 6600 blinks, turns the monitor on and off every time, and because it blinks I cannot even read an error message. One has to wonder how hard it can be for a factory backed distro like Fedora to provide a distro that just displays - well, uhm, anything? - maybe I should try Ubuntu after all. I'm rather fed up with Fedora 11 - I couldn't even make a working bootable USB-image from the CLI (my first attempt to make such a thing - with DSL - was a first time success!) Apart from that it was hard to find checksums. Oh no, I forgot, this thread was complaining about / praising Ubuntu.

Hmm, why are there only distro threads to complain about Ubuntu over here at LXer?
jdixon

May 17, 2009
8:05 PM EDT
> Hmm, why are there only distro threads to complain about Ubuntu over here at LXer?

Oh, I'm sure we could complain about pretty much any distro you want. :)
azerthoth

May 17, 2009
8:16 PM EDT
@caitlyn, as I said before I'm waiting patiently for 'Perverted Penguin', until then I'll stick with my source based distro's.
herzeleid

May 17, 2009
9:28 PM EDT
> Hmm, why are there only distro threads to complain about Ubuntu over here at LXer?

It's the old green eyed monster. Every distos fanbase complains that they should be getting the publicity, lamenting the fact that ubuntu is so popular,,,
montezuma

May 17, 2009
9:45 PM EDT
@azernoth, I think you should wait further for Simpering Shuttleworth (Ubuntu 13.10)
dinotrac

May 17, 2009
11:16 PM EDT
Hmmm. Maybe I should see if there's a package to put that Koala kernel on my Jaundiced Jellyfish mythbuntu box.

Made the mistake of upgrading from Impressive Impeller, and things slowed down a bit. Hulu is now nearly unwatchable whereas it was a pleasure before.

Let's see....synaptic ...

You guys feel free to go on without me. I think I can take it from here.
keithcu

May 18, 2009
1:18 AM EDT
Dinotrac, that reminds me of this comic:

http://xkcd.com/456/

dinotrac

May 18, 2009
7:43 AM EDT
Yes.

Sadly, multimedia can take you back into NewbieLand.
herzeleid

May 18, 2009
1:33 PM EDT
Quoting:Made the mistake of upgrading from Impressive Impeller, and things slowed down a bit. Hulu is now nearly unwatchable whereas it was a pleasure before.
Gotcha! But in all fairness, this would appear to be an xorg problem, not an ubuntu specific problem. The good news is that It should be sorted out nicely in time for kleptomanical kangaroo, but in retrospect, the best advice is, as always, don't mess with something that works.
dinotrac

May 18, 2009
1:48 PM EDT
An xorg problem, really? Any place I can go to get the 411 on that, and what I can do to fix it?
Steven_Rosenber

May 18, 2009
2:50 PM EDT
I hate the feeling that by following a six-month upgrade cycle, stuff's going to start breaking rather than get better.

If you've got something that's not working and finally gets "fixed," i.e. a wireless adapter, video card, and it's finally working, you want to hold on with both hands. You hate to trade some new touted feature of an upgrade only to lose the basic functionality that you need just to run the box.
herzeleid

May 18, 2009
3:10 PM EDT
> Any place I can go to get the 411 on that, and what I can do to fix it?

Depends - what video chipset are you running? The short story is that a lot of the drivers have not caught up to the version of X windows shipped in 9.04 - ATI and Intel video were particularly hard hit.
caitlyn

May 18, 2009
3:11 PM EDT
Actually the Ubuntu workaround for the Intel graphics issue, installing an older driver into the current X.org, works well. That's a lot more than I can say for Mandriva. Their solution, a new driver, fixes nothing. When used in combination with enabling UXA I get decent performance but it causes my system to lock up intermittently. Their only other suggestion is to disable 3D graphics acceleration entirely. That just won't do.

Ubuntu Jaunty is usable on my netbook. Mandriva 2009.1 Spring is not.

Let's also not forget that some distros don't automatically go to the latest X.org just because it's released. Vector Linux 6.0, which is only three months old, waited. The net result is that everything works for me in that distro. I do blame Ubuntu and Mandriva for being leading, or in this case bleeding edge when it causes so much breakage.

It isn't just Intel graphics that are problematic. Chipsets by ATI, SIS, and nVidia that worked with X.org 7.3 just don't work with 7.4. The distributors could have refused to deploy the new version and pushed back on both the X.org developers and the graphics manufacturers where proprietary drivers are involved. The also could have done what Vector Linux did with nVidia. They released with three different versions of the proprietary drivers and notes about which driver to use with which chipset.
herzeleid

May 18, 2009
5:19 PM EDT
@dino -

what caitlyn said...

--me, still happily and productively working with my 8.04 desktop at work...
dinotrac

May 18, 2009
6:38 PM EDT
Hmmm. I'm using nvidia blobs. Everything works -- and MythTV is fine (although it never used a high CPU percentage, so it's "fineness" may just be a matter of more room to play with) --

but that ##@! hulu....

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