Hardy!

After nearly a month of not having my computer (I was at my Dad’s house w/o good internet), I have been messing with my computer a lot. Mostly with Hardy, as I upgraded yesterday. My install went badly. It did great on installation, but would just go to a blank screen after that. It was a graphics problem. The whole laptop with ATI graphics thing is Linux hell. I finally found a page that helped m,e installed the restricted drivers sans GUI. It’s called The Unofficial ATI Linux Driver Wiki. I do want to get the open-source driver working though sometime. I’m getting a new desktop that can be my fancy graphics machine while this one has better battery life.

That fixed my graphics problem. Hardy is great! Specifically:

• The new version of Gnome is great, I like the clock applet.
• Firefox 3 is the default browser. It just worked. Flash was perfect, Media files play inside it. No comparison w/ Gutsy there.
• New versions of everything. I still have a few programs I build from scratch to get the latest SVN versions, but most of the programs are completely up-to-date now. That’s nice.
• The network manager seems much more stable now. No idea why.
• Liferea no longer freezes my computer.
• Bluetooth is way better. It works out of the box. Mates perfectly, explore devices, puts icons on the desktop. Perfect.
• Overall the entire system seems faster and more stable.

Bad stuff:

• Evolution is still way too integrated. I happen to prefer Claws Mail, but I can’t use a custom calendar in the clock applet. This a trivial change, so why isn’t it done?
• Still had graphics install problems.

I like it a lot though. I really can’t wait for Intrepid Ibex.

p.s. Sorry about the break in articles; reason is above. Somehow, however, my traffic like tripled in that time. I’ll be posting more soon.