

Ubuntu 8.04 is out - mcxx
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.04/

======
ejs
Been running the beta for a month or so and have to say I have not had many
problems. For the most part everything has been enjoyable.

Running on a laptop with external monitor (as dual monitor). No major problems
with the graphics or wifi or anything else.

~~~
spydez
Do you disconnect/reconnect your laptop to the external monitor much? I.e.,
does it switch nicely between single and dual monitor use?

I looked into doing that for my Ubuntu 7.10 laptop, since I have an extra
monitor lying around, but it goes with me on trips so it must be able to do
single monitor mode too.

All I could find on the web, though, said such usage was flaky at best and
downright hard to setup (for 7.10).

I'd be interested to see if they improved that for 8.04

~~~
ejs
ya know i haven't much since running hardy. The last time I did I didnt have
any problems (i think i restarted gnome though)... The only problem I had was
that the panel I keep on the second monitor moved to being on top of the other
one... So I ended up with 2 panels, stacked, showing the same information.

Ill give it a try a few times tonight and let you know how things go

~~~
ejs
Well after playing with it restarting X seems to make it work fine but thats a
bit annoying when you just wanna yank the external and move around. Without
restarting X it just seems to think the monitor is still attached and things
are not visible.

I also had the same panel problem where they will move to the single monitor
but not move back when the other is reattached.

I hear the next version (intrepid ibex) will be focused on mobile computing so
maybe some of these issues will be addressed.

------
SwellJoe
It's worth noting that this is the first LTS release since 6.06, and thus the
first release of Ubuntu in a few years that is sane to run on servers. The LTS
server releases are supported for five years, as opposed to 18 months for non-
LTS releases. A five year support lifecycle is awesome (and means that LTS
Ubuntu releases are comparable to RHEL/CentOS and Debian for server usage).

~~~
cstejerean
I gave up on running LTS on my servers. After a while it becomes painful to
manage, especially if you need to install packages that require newer version
of core libraries. It depends on what you're building, but I'm perfectly fine
with upgrading my servers at least once a year.

~~~
SwellJoe
You're not running enough servers or enough services on those servers, if you
don't mind upgrading every year. Honestly, I prefer Debian with the volatile
repository to address that problem. I find CentOS pretty good, as well--
grabbing a Fedora SRPM or two and rebuilding is usually an easy way to get the
bleeding edge version of something without much pain.

~~~
cstejerean
You're right, I'm not running enough servers. But I plan to keep my strategy
as the number of servers goes up. I like having the same version of OS on the
server and on my desktop. I'm a big fan of having everything (configuration,
updates, deployment) automated so hopefully the amount of work I have to do
doesn't increase linearly (or worse) with the amount of servers I manage.

~~~
SwellJoe
I will humbly point out that my business (Virtualmin) is the automation of
systems management tasks, likewise for my hobby of the last 8+ years (Webmin).
And I still consider it an absolute deal-breaker when an OS has a lifecycle
less than three years (my usual upgrade cycle is usually 24-32 months...but I
like to have some wiggle room, so five years is even better).

So, you're right that there is value in replicating your infrastructure on
your home machine and your server, and there's definitely value in building in
replicate-ability from the beginning. Nonetheless, the end-of-life of your
server will catch you by surprise one day, and some security exploit will mean
you have to upgrade (at least some components) under duress. And there's
nothing more stressful than doing things under duress on a production server.
It'll take years off your life.

BTW-I run Fedora 7 on my desktop and Ubuntu 7.10 on my laptop, and deploy to
CentOS 4 and 5 on my servers, and the pain is minimal (then again, our product
technically gets deployed on all of those platforms, and many more, so that
cross-platform compatibility is part of what we're always testing and working
on--I suspect if platform-leveling weren't part of our value I'd be more
likely to standardize).

~~~
cstejerean
Thanks for the detailed response, I'll keep that in mind as the number of
servers I manage increases.

------
daleharvey
Ive been running the beta for a while, its been really nice, my compiz hasnt
worked until this release, and it also fixed my printer etc etc.

It also plays a preview of mp3s you mouseover in the filebrowser, not a big
feature, but I liked it

~~~
paulgb
> It also plays a preview of mp3s you mouseover in the filebrowser, not a big
> feature, but I liked it

Yikes, I could see that startling the heck out of me if I left my speakers on
full volume.

------
Prrometheus
I just finished getting all the drivers up and working on a 7.1 install. I'm
kind of scared of starting all over again with wifi, video, sound, etc. I like
7.1, don't know if the upgrade is worth it.

~~~
davidw
I've generally had very good upgrade experiences with Debian and Debian based
distributions.

------
AndyKelley
Sorry, I don't play pokemon

~~~
whacked_new
This is a joke? Can someone explain it and why is it so offensive?

~~~
kirubakaran
<http://xkcd.com/178/>

~~~
whacked_new
Haha, I am more intrigued at how that is something like a third degree
cultural reference, like (japanese-import-culture (usa-culture (pokemon (xkcd
linux)))

I guess the reversed/flipped sexpr works too.

------
azsromej
I've been running the beta for over a month now and look forward to the final
upgrade. I did had one issue with the -12 through -15 kernels which rendered
my Intel sound card unusable. A bulk update 2 weeks ago fixed that.

------
ijkl
Why does Ubuntu provide a server edition in addition to their desktop edition?
It would seem a natural fit to leave servers to Debian and focus their own
efforts on delivering the best desktop experience possible.

~~~
rcoder
I agree with this in theory, but there's one big advantage to running the same
distro on both workstation and server: versioning and compatibility issues at
deployment time more or less disappear.

I run Ubuntu on my development workstation, and deploy to Debian servers.
While the environments are _almost_ identical, I've wasted far too many hours
tracking down stupid bugs in shared libraries that only occur one one distro
or the other.

------
zkinion
I might finally make the switch and use it as a desktop. My main concern is
that wpa support still might suck for linux.

I'll wait a little bit until I hear more good reviews.

------
jamesbritt
I tried out the beta of Kubuntu; I found KDE 4 painful.

I may give Xbunutu a whirl, or see about swapping out KDE 4 for KDE
3.something.

~~~
jrsims
I love Xubuntu. Surprised there isn't more buzz about it.

~~~
petercooper
Seconded. Xfce provides the best of both worlds, although I tend to stick to
the normal one for most things. It's quicker and lighter than Gnome, while
being clean and simple, and doesn't look like an odd attempt at "Windows XP 2"
like KDE.

------
rms
I'm most looking forward to Pulse Audio, I end up doing a lot of switching of
sound cards that's really annoying with Alsa.

------
arthurk
Does anyone have a list of all the applications+versions included like which
X.org, Gnome, Kernel etc. are used?

~~~
krschultz
<http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu>

Looks like the kernel is 2.6.25. I'm going to upgrade one of my machines later
today and see how it goes. I'm more interested in the Kubuntu + KDE4.0 even if
it is unstable. Looks like the Ubuntu stuff is mainly tweaks except a few
changes in default programs (Brasero & Transmission by default) and Firefox
3.0 beta + newer Xorg

~~~
neilc
The kernel is actually 2.6.24.

------
Prrometheus
What new features are in this version?

------
Readmore
I'm running 7.10, what's the best way to upgrade without losing any info?

~~~
falsestprophet
>>do-release-upgrade

------
jdavid
it broke my nvidia drivers.

~~~
ijkl
I'm guessing you did a full-upgrade. Have you tried a fresh install from
scratch?

~~~
jdavid
not yet, just a linux newbie learning the ropes. i know with windows, upgrades
break everything too, so i am not pissed, i was just trying to see if linux
was better in that regard. and... i guess it is not.

i was also hoping to skip running through all of the customizations that i set
up again, but i guess that is the best way to learn linux. either that, or to
fix the install i have.

------
pkrumins
Did you already pre-order your free copy of Ubuntu 8.04?

<http://shipit.ubuntu.com>

