Anyone Else Waiting on Hardy Heron?

[Bungo Pony]

I initially installed Ubuntu (Edgy) last March on my new PC. The sound didn't work after the install, but after a searching for a solution, I got it to work. Kinda. It didn't sound very good though. Feisty fixed that problem for me, and I began using Ubuntu a little more. However, Feisty seems to temporarily freeze for a few seconds every now and then.

However, I still find myself using Windows half of the time. My biggest problem is that I knew I'd be upgrading in another 6 months (now 1 1/2 months) and that there's a possibility that the upgrade won't go smoothly. I've refrained from exclusively using Ubuntu most of the time because It's likely I'll have to re-install my favorite software everything, get my backgrounds / themes back to normal, change back my Beryl / Compiz-Fusion settings, etc etc. I don't want to do this every six months. I just don't have the time.

I'd use Dapper, but I doubt it would run well on my PC (as Edgy didn't). When Hardy comes along, I will likely be sticking with it for those two years and making myself comfortable on it, moving further away from Windows. Doing an upgrade every six months just seems to be a pain in the butt.

Ubuntu seems to have come a long way, even since Edgy. Although I'm looking forward to the continuous progress, I'm not going to re-install my OS every six months because of it. I just don't have the time.

[Foxray]

You can always just upgrade from an old release of ubuntu to the latest version. Its not always a clean install but it does work. Just remember to backup some the directories and or settings you would like to keep. I suggest folders /etc and /home/<user>. Most if not all of the settings are kept in those directories. Some are hidden folders in your home folder. Once those are backed up you can upgrade.

I'm actually waiting for the next month's release of Gutsy Gibbon. Hardy Heron is quite a while away.

[popch]

I for one will not wait for HH.

I understand that you find updating or installing the OS twice yearly somewhat wasteful of time.

Back when I still was using Windows, I re-installed the OS twice a year even when there was no new version, just to get rid of applications I did not need anymore or which failed to install in the first place and to generally housekeep the bloody thing.

One re-install of Windows took me something like 12 hours until all applications I needed were in place again, after a fashion.

One re-install of Ubuntu takes me something like four hours, and that's inclusive of all backups, preliminary installations and application setups.

For me in my particular situation changing the ubuntu version often and early makes perfect sense.

[starcraft.man]

However, Feisty seems to temporarily freeze for a few seconds every now and then.

Never had this issue. Are you sure it's not simply your machine being underpowered and your putting too much load (i.e. rendering, other task) on it during these episodes?


My biggest problem is that I knew I'd be upgrading in another 6 months (now 1 1/2 months) and that there's a possibility that the upgrade won't go smoothly.
A good rule of thumb is if you absolutely don't want any bugs, wait two weeks post launch of the release. Most of the bugs it seems to me get worked out in that time period, unless a very serious one is found...



I've refrained from exclusively using Ubuntu most of the time because It's likely I'll have to re-install my favorite software everything, get my backgrounds / themes back to normal, change back my Beryl / Compiz-Fusion settings, etc etc. I don't want to do this every six months. I just don't have the time.
You don't have to upgrade every six months at all, that is for people who want the latest all the time. No one will force you, Feisty for instance is supported until October 2008. You can continue to use old versions until their support cycles end, then you must upgrade for updates and support. So I don't see the problem, it's about the same cycle as the regular time between OSX upgrades (10.5 being a bit longer).

The bottom line is no where does it say you have to upgrade on every new release, I've no idea where you got this notion. I also would like to add that for me reinstalling/configuring Ubuntu is much less work than when I reinstall/configure XP, I don't see it being more than 6 hours of your time twice a year... which is next to nothing IMO. If you can't spare that or less out a weekend twice a year, well I just don't know how you could be that busy... regular maintenance of a Windows PC is more than that monthly for a lot of people.

[mojoman]

I'd use Dapper, but I doubt it would run well on my PC (as Edgy didn't). When Hardy comes along, I will likely be sticking with it for those two years and making myself comfortable on it, moving further away from Windows. Doing an upgrade every six months just seems to be a pain in the butt.

Ubuntu seems to have come a long way, even since Edgy. Although I'm looking forward to the continuous progress, I'm not going to re-install my OS every six months because of it. I just don't have the time.

I've used Breezy, Dapper and now Feisty. I never used Edgy. Dapper was delayed and this only gave Edgy four months in the development (or about 2/3 of what a Ubuntu release usually have). A lot of people had serious problems with Edgy and I was fairly happy with Dapper so there wasn't really any point. Still, I upgraded to Feisty (after it been out for a month or so) to try it out and now I'm sticking with it. I'll probably skip Gutsy and go straight for Gutsy +1 (is it Hardy Heron it will be called?) as LTS is a heavy argument for me. What I mean is that you don't have to run the latest release.

[andrew.46]

Hi,

I am one of the Dapper Drake users who will welcome Hardy Heron with open arms in 2008. I have enjoyed the stability and support of Dapper and hope that Heron will be a similarly stable version.

Still a little upset that my own suggestion of 'Randy Rottweiler" did not get any consideration :-)

Andrew

Q: What do you do if a Rottweiler mounts your leg?
A: Fake an orgasm !

[nonewmsgs]

i thought it was going to be (w)horey heffer

[Malac]

My biggest problem is that I knew I'd be upgrading in another 6 months (now 1 1/2 months) and that there's a possibility that the upgrade won't go smoothly. I've refrained from exclusively using Ubuntu most of the time because It's likely I'll have to re-install my favorite software everything, get my backgrounds / themes back to normal, change back my Beryl / Compiz-Fusion settings, etc etc. I don't want to do this every six months. I just don't have the time.
Try using a separate /home partition and then do dist-upgrade every six months. The separate /home partition doesn't get touched during an upgrade and all your settings; like wallpaper, beryl settings and downloaded themes are left intact.
"Well behaved" programs like Firefox, Thunderbird and many more leave preferences files, e-mails and so on in the /home/username folder, so even if you have to do a full re-install your settings are there, so long as you tell the installer not to reformat the /home partition.

There is a guide here : http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome for relocating your /home onto a separate partition in case you did it as an "all-on-one" install to begin with. I can thoroughly recommend doing this.

Hope this helps.

[Bungo Pony]

Thanks for the replies everyone! As you can tell I'm still a bit of a n00b!

I will likely end up doing a completely fresh install when Hardy comes along. My current Ubuntu installation is a bit of a mess from playing with it (read: learning :) ). I have KDE installed as well, but I never use it (since it doesn't work very well for me). I also don't think my system is underpowered, as it's not very old. I rarely have lots of Windows open. It's just seems to be a random freezing thing, since I haven't noticed any particular pattern. Also, I still haven't got that darn Kernel upgrade to work for me yet (2.6.20-16). I still get the black screen of death when I try booting it. So I just edited it out of my menu.lst file and I'm still using 2.6.20-15.

It's just the irritating little things that are making me look forward to the stable release. I'll probably end up staying with it, unless something REALLY fantastic comes along in an Ubuntu release ;)


There is a guide here : http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome for relocating your /home onto a separate partition in case you did it as an "all-on-one" install to begin with. I can thoroughly recommend doing this.

I'm definately going to do this. I have lots of HD space to spare, so it's all good!

I've also noted the Windows re-install vs the Ubuntu 6 month upgrade. On my last machine, I only had to re-install Windows when my hd cacked. I know Windows isn't (normally) as bad as some people say it is, and my experience hasn't been horrible. I've been threatening to move to Linux for years, but It was WGA that finally pushed me to do it. I won't run any Windows version past Win2k. I'm hoping I'll eventually be completely moved over to Linux when the support for Win2k runs out (2010), but I'm not counting on anything. I still have a lot of Windows & DOS specific software that I use which will likely NEVER be developed on Linux (unless I learn to code it myself).

[happy-and-lost]

I'll be going HH as soon as the Alpha repos are up. I love the thrill of the break, Gutsy's just too stable :twisted:

[starcraft.man]

Thanks for the replies everyone! As you can tell I'm still a bit of a n00b!

I will likely end up doing a completely fresh install when Hardy comes along. My current Ubuntu installation is a bit of a mess from playing with it (read: learning :) ). I have KDE installed as well, but I never use it (since it doesn't work very well for me). I also don't think my system is underpowered, as it's not very old. I rarely have lots of Windows open. It's just seems to be a random freezing thing, since I haven't noticed any particular pattern. Also, I still haven't got that darn Kernel upgrade to work for me yet (2.6.20-16). I still get the black screen of death when I try booting it. So I just edited it out of my menu.lst file and I'm still using 2.6.20-15.

Hmmm, maybe when you were playing you touched a file you shouldn't have? It's not easy to diagnose without more info, maybe you should make a thread in the beginner section to get this fixed. Feisty certainly shouldn't randomly freeze, something must be wrong with the install.


I've also noted the Windows re-install vs the Ubuntu 6 month upgrade. On my last machine, I only had to re-install Windows when my hd cacked. I know Windows isn't (normally) as bad as some people say it is, and my experience hasn't been horrible. I've been threatening to move to Linux for years, but It was WGA that finally pushed me to do it. I won't run any Windows version past Win2k. I'm hoping I'll eventually be completely moved over to Linux when the support for Win2k runs out (2010), but I'm not counting on anything. I still have a lot of Windows & DOS specific software that I use which will likely NEVER be developed on Linux (unless I learn to code it myself).
LinuxAppFinder - WIndows Alternatives. (http://linuxappfinder.com/windows) Site indexes a list of common Windows programs and comparable Linux apps. If you want to browse by function look to the left side bar.

[Bungo Pony]

Site indexes a list of common Windows programs and comparable Linux apps. If you want to browse by function look to the left side bar.

Here's the two main pieces of software that will keep the Windows installation on my PC:

- Software to copy Commodore 64 floppies to the hard drive via the parallel port using a custom cable.
- Software that will upload basic programs to my TRS-80 PC-3 and Sharp PC-1261 computers using the interface that I built using a schematic taken from a German website.

These are DOS apps, and they don't work in DOSbox.

I cannot deny the fact that Windows and DOS are useful for their compatibility and wide use all over the world.

However, I haven't tried using VMware yet.

[starcraft.man]

Here's the two main pieces of software that will keep the Windows installation on my PC:

- Software to copy Commodore 64 floppies to the hard drive via the parallel port using a custom cable.
- Software that will upload basic programs to my TRS-80 PC-3 and Sharp PC-1261 computers using the interface that I built using a schematic taken from a German website.

These are DOS apps, and they don't work in DOSbox.

I cannot deny the fact that Windows and DOS are useful for their compatibility and wide use all over the world.

However, I haven't tried using VMware yet.

I am at a loss. Why are you still tied/using such old technology? Why for instance would you continue to use C64 floppies? Transfer the data/extract to another modern medium and be done with them no? I'm not trying to be dismissive of old tech, but that's just down right obsolete... least seems to me. Oh and did you try FreeDOS? It is supposed to be 100% compliant with the old DOS.

As for the virtualization solution look at VirtualBox. (http://www.virtualbox.org/) I think it's better or at worst (depending needs) mostly comparable to VMware without the cost for the good version. As for support with DOS it will likely be the same with both, mostly untested (neither company really expects DOS use...) and no additions (i.e. integration functionality) available. I'd wager DOS works pretty good.

[urukrama]

I'll probably wait. I'm still using solid-and-stable dapper, and so far have no reason to upgrade. If I really want later versions of apps in the repos I don't mind compiling them from source.


I also don't think my system is underpowered, as it's not very old. I rarely have lots of Windows open. It's just seems to be a random freezing thing, since I haven't noticed any particular pattern.

If you have old hardware, using Compiz and/or Beryl might not be the smartest thing, depending on your machine. :-) Also, you could use a lighter desktop environment (xfce), or a stand-alone windows manager, such as openbox, fluxbox, enlightenment or icewm. Your system will be a lot faster.

[Erik Trybom]

I think you should try Debian instead. Its release cycle is different than that of Ubuntu. The stable version is released when it's considered done, and not any earlier.

The downside is that it may take a couple of years before the next version comes, but from your first post I suspect you wouldn't mind this. The packages will of course become quite old during this time. The upside is that the stable version is, indeed, rock stable.

I recently switched to Debian, and I'm a bit surprised at how little the two distributions differ. Firefox is called Iceweasel, you use su instead of sudo, some of the artwork is changed and there are fewer updates - but other than that, it's more or less the same thing.

I'm not saying Ubuntu isn't a great distro, but some people have different preferences and you might be one of those people, just like I am. (I still hang out here though because of the great community.)

[Darkhack]

I'm using Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) because it was the first version to work completely on my hardware without any problems. Wireless, hibernation, and printing support all work. I've always had some issues in the past with Ubuntu or any older distribution for that matter and these three things were usually at the top of the list. I have no intention of upgrading to 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) because everything already works just fine for me and I have no reason to seek an upgrade. I will however upgrade to Hardy Heron once it is released since it is a Long Term Support (LTS) release. Whether or not I will wait the whole two years after Heron for the next LTS is still unknown. I used to really like to play with my computer and would break it almost every weekend on the latest and greatest stuff. I'm in college now though, and while I will still experiment from time to time (maybe create an experimental partition and keep a stable one to boot from as a backup), I really valuable stability when I have a report due the next morning.