Ubuntu 8.10

The other day I called on my friend X to pick up Gwilym. X had been downloading the new realease of Ubuntu, 8.10, Intrepid Ibex. We couldn't resist trying it on his desktop computer and on the new laptop he got from his firm.

On the laptop it seemed to work quite nicely. I don't know if the wifi worked, it often doesn't and you have to do some jiggery-poker to get it going.

However on the desktop he got a sign-in screen which didn't allow him to go further.

Aha ! In April I tried loading Ubuntu 8.04 on my desktop and I got that sign-in screen. The folks from Abul, the local OpenSource Association, suggested that it was due to an incompatibility with the display card and that I ought to try Kubuntu, which I did, and it worked fine.

Anyway X offered me a disk of Ubuntu 8.10, but I declined. Then when I got home I thought - oh, go on, so I downloaded it and tried it on my desktop.

It worked GREAT ! It even found, identified and installed a driver for my printer ! I was SO impressed that I have set it up now as a dual-boot with Windows.

And it is so elegant. It's a lovely release.

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