Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

Ubuntu 8.10, in keeping with the developer’s philosophy of utilizing Gnome, has the latest version as its GUI i.e. 2.24. The GUI interface has greatly matured; it offers some smart UI placement and for Windows users some familiar touches. The menu bars are translucent, the progress bars have a slick animation, tones and contrast for various facets of the desktop can be set individually, and as the desktop offers theme support, its customization is a non-issue.

The next step was to check hardware compatibility. Though this has not been an issue in Linux for ages, we decided to err on the side of caution and see if each piece of hardware had been picked up without any problem. As expected, all the drivers were installed properly with the sole exception of the Nvidia card, for which we followed the set of instructions as on Ubuntu to enable full 3D-acceleration and to install the latest Nvidia drivers.

Once enabled with 3D acceleration support, the OS really came into its own. Switching between windows, desktops, and various graphical effects, was fast, fluid, and a joy to work with. There was a marked increase in work speed, as we were able to switch between the various desktops with different windows and capture screenshots for the purposes of this review, without having to close everything down.

The network configuration test was a no-brainer. Our network supports DHCP, so getting online was a cinch. Ubuntu sports a very robust network manager, which we plan to test when we follow up this article with how well Ubuntu fares on a Netbook.

While the installation process was smooth, our next series test proved a little more challenging. We decided to check out support for 'out-of-the-box' applications and multimedia. But before that, let me briefly highlight the brand-new changes in version 8.10. This new upgrade introduces 3G modem support, guest sessions, and BBC content FOTA (free over the air).

While the other changes are quite incremental, guest session is an intriguing feature that allows you to create a new login for anyone who might want to use your PC. There's no need to create a separate account as the account login is done on the fly and provides a temporary work area. We wish Windows offered this handy option.

Ubuntu 8.10 does not come with OpenOffice 3.0 installed. Instead it has the older version (2.4.1). The installation worked flawlessly out of the box and presented no problems. We decided to upgrade the package to 3.0 – and that's where things began to get a little iffy.

We downloaded OpenOffice 3.0 and installed the new version following these instructions. While the installation went well, after a couple of hours of using it the OpenWord application started hanging randomly. We lost two copies of this article and were contemplating switching to Google docs, when it mysteriously stabilized.

We finally managed to squeeze a full workday out of the Office package without crashes, including use of the Presenter, Spreadsheet and Word equivalents. Keeping the crashes in mind, we recommend that you approach this upgrade cautiously and make proper backups... lest you suffer the same fate.