Ubuntu 12.04

[exploder]

I have been playing with Ubuntu 12.04 recently because I got a new HP laptop for Christmas and the ralink WiFi would not work in any current distributions. The WiFi works out of the box in 12.04 and can even see more available networks than Windows 7 does! The open source ATI drivers also work well and I get the default Unity desktop. Unity is not bad at all on a smaller screen and it does have more features now. All of my hardware worked out of the box! I did the wubi install in case things break, after all this is a development release.

I have no plans of changing my PCLinuxOS KDE install on my desktop, it works so darn good but I do not use the laptop very much and do not want to have to do much upgrading on it. I like the way the background changes on LightDM, it keeps things consistent and it is really handy. The freezing up I have had with prior releases seems to be taken care of. The software is very up to date and it's nice getting a look at new things.

I started out with a VirtualBox install but it was becoming too problematic and the problems are not showing up in the installed system. There are of course some bugs but all things considered, it works pretty decent on the laptop. There is a long way till the final release and anything can happen but so far it looks pretty good. Also, the way things are looking, this release will be good for Mint and the community.

[z06gal]

Good to know exploder. I hope the installation problems so many have had, including myself, with Oneiric [Mint 12] are resolved like the black screen on boot, etc. especially for those new to the distro or Linux. Thanks for the update

[exploder]

I just installed Cheese and much to my surprise the webcam works! Flash video plays excellent in the Firefox 11 beta also. The video does not hesitate when switching to full screen. I hope they continue on the path they are on with the LTS, this could really be nice on devices with smaller screens. I noticed too that the gui is getting more consistent and there is a certain convenience to using it on a laptop.

The laptop came with Windows 7 and I just don't care much for it. It is good to know that there is hope for Linux running on my laptop!

[kijin]

Showing the currently selected user's wallpaper in LightDM strikes me as a potential privacy breach. What if you have a racy wallpaper on a computer that you occasionally share with others? But perhaps encrypting your home directory will automatically disable this feature.

[exploder]

What interests me most right now is decent hardware compatibility and so far 12.04 seems good in this respect. My laptop has ATI graphics and a Ralink wifi, they both seem to work fine in 12.04 so far. My laptop has a 15.6" widescreen display and Unity seems pretty usable on it. My desktop has a 27" widescreen and KDE is great on it. I prefer my desktop, so I use it a lot more than the laptop and so I will not be on the laptop checking for updates as often. The LTS could be a good solution for my laptop if Ubuntu concentrates on fixing the bugs because I think they have done enough as far as new features in this release.

What has bothered me so much about past releases has been poor hardware support. I see very few complaints as far as hardware goes so far. I tried the Live CD on my main computer and even the open source NVidea drivers seemed to work well. My laptop has not frozen up and it has been running for several hours now with no lock ups. Maybe it is just good timing but I was shocked to see all of the laptops hardware working without issues, I was even able to turn off the annoying tapping feature on the touchpad easily.

I like the global menus in Firefox and Thunderbird because they save me screen real estate. The launcher is handy too because I put the stuff I use the most there and it beats going through the Windows 7 menu any day. The only thing I do not like about Unity is the tiny buttons on the toolbars but that is pretty minor. Keyboard navigation in Unity is pretty decent once you start to remember the keyboard combinations. I can hold the super key to get the list of keyboard commands and it is very useful.

Like I said, I hope Ubuntu concentrates on bug fixes and that updates are well tested when the final is released. There are bugs to fix right now but they are not near as serious as I have seen in the past. I prefer PCLinuxOS KDE on my desktop because I like the stable rolling release but the laptop may go a while between checking for updates and that is not a good idea. The length of support for the LTS would be a plus as far as my laptop is concerned too.

[bimsebasse]

Sounds great, really looking forward to Mint 13 based on a hopefully stable 12.04 LTS and with Cinnamon as the main desktop - I think it's gonna be a great return to form after Mint 12 which more and more looks like a "transition" release in retrospect (due to no fault of the Mint devs).

[exploder]

Here ks what my laptops desktop looks like right now.

[IMG=http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/7020/ubuntu1204.png][/IMG]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Pretty decent for a small screen.

[gn2]

I've been playing with Xubuntu 12.04 as a VM for the last few weeks, it looks like it will be a really good option for those of us wishing to avoid Gnome 3/Unity/Mate/Cinnamon/whatever comes along next.

[MALsPa]

What interests me most right now is decent hardware compatibility and so far 12.04 seems good in this respect.

Yeah, I think you've said in the past that you'd had no luck with Ubuntu on your hardware in the past. So this is good news for you, if you decide to use Ubuntu in the future (I can't see any reason why you wouldn't stick with PCLOS, though!), as well as for other people. Assuming that the final 12.04 also has good hardware compatibility. I've been very lucky with Ubuntu all along, so I don't anticipate any major problems with 12.04; but, I like to wait some weeks after a new LTS version is released to do an installation, so I'll be keeping 10.04 on my main computer, I guess (I do have 11.04 on my laptop, and it's working out fine, but I don't use the laptop much).

[exploder]

@ MALsPa

I am interested in the LTS for my new HP laptop. At the moment PCLinuxOS does not support my Ralink WiFi. PCLinuxOS is not going anywhere on my desktop PC.

[exploder]

I did an actual install on my laptop and still can't get over how well this worked with my hardware. The web cam was working during the installation process and the installer even offered to use the webcam to give me a custom avitor. I figure I can test the updates in my VirtualBox install on my main computer before I apply them to the laptop install and I can keep this install going.

I had no real interest in Unity until I saw how convieient it was on the smaller screen of my laptop. The 64 bit alpha set my laptop up really well and the battery life is better than it was with Windows 7. The worst thing about Windows 7 was trying to read the menu, the Unity launcher is so much more usable.

Is anyone else testing out 12.04? I would like to know what other peoples experiences are, especially with different hardware.

[MALsPa]

@ exploder -- does it give you a choice between logging into either a Unity or a GNOME Shell session?

[exploder]

MALsPa, no just Unity 3D and Unity 2D.

[bimsebasse]

I had no real interest in Unity until I saw how convieient it was on the smaller screen of my laptop.

Unity was designed for netbooks so that's little wonder, it was the interface of Ubuntu's Netbook Edition before it it was adopted into the main edition with 11.04.

[craig10x]

@ exploder -- does it give you a choice between logging into either a Unity or a GNOME Shell session?

gnome shell doesn't come on ubuntu by default session but can be added on easily through their software manager...once installed, the option is added to the log in screen...one can also add cairo dock using their software manager and that also then becomes an optional session on the log in screen...Cairo Dock can also be used within the unity session as well...And of course, Cinnamon session can be added also (by getting the ubuntu download from the Cinnamon web site of course)...

[MALsPa]

@ exploder -- does it give you a choice between logging into either a Unity or a GNOME Shell session?

gnome shell doesn't come on ubuntu by default session but can be added on easily through their software manager...once installed, the option is added to the log in screen...one can also add cairo dock using their software manager and that also then becomes an optional session on the log in screen...Cairo Dock can also be used within the unity session as well...And of course, Cinnamon session can be added also (by getting the ubuntu download from the Cinnamon web site of course)...

Thanks. I like using Unity as well as GNOME Shell. I mistakenly thought that both would be included in 12.04 by default; adding GNOME Shell is no big deal, though.

Cinnamon... it looks great, but for 12.04 I'll probably stick with Unity and GNOME Shell, and perhaps add Openbox. I'm just not feeling an attraction for Cinnamon at this time.

[craig10x]

you're welcome, Malspa
i had ubuntu 11.10 hard installed for awhile before switching to linux mint 12 and adding Cinnamon session shortly after it was released...
while using ubuntu 11.10 i became acquainted with the various options available...

Recently, i was playing with the live session of ubuntu 12.04 alpha 2...very nice
Might even consider hard installing it when it comes out...I like Cinnamon a lot but like you, i really don't mind using either gnome shell or unity as well...
though i think in my case, between those two, i kind of give the "edge" to the unity side...

It's a bit different then the old desktop environment but i find it pretty easy to work with actually....
Perhaps i adopted to it easier because after leaving windows...and before discovering linux, i had a brief stint with MAC...so i am use to global menus, top panels, and docks, and had no problem working with them at all...

What i realized is that although i prefer a bottom panel only...on ubuntu with unity and using global menu, the top panel isn't bad at all because thanks to the global menu, your web page gets "moved up" to where it would be if you had just a bottom panel...PLUS you gain the extra space on the bottom as well...

So, that is kind of neat i think....one thing i would love to see them add to unity, is being able to: move the unity dock down to the bottom AND also shrink it's width so it wouldn't run the full width of the bottom of the screen (more like Cairo Dock size and width would be nice)...with "auto hide" option" like it currently has, of course (wouldn't want to tie up that bottom area...lol)....

Otherwise, it's fine...of course more features would be nice (adding applets to panel, etc)...but not bad at all...

[SUPERFITTER]

I'm runnig Ubuntu 11.10 with Gnome, because I did not care for Unity on the left side with the large Icons. I'm using the Gnome classic mode, with the top and bottom panels. Can I install Cinnamon 1.2 on this configuration, with just a bottom panel to work with? Has anyone else used this configuration without problems?

[craig10x]

I'm runnig Ubuntu 11.10 with Gnome, because I did not care for Unity on the left side with the large Icons. I'm using the Gnome classic mode, with the top and bottom panels. Can I install Cinnamon 1.2 on this configuration, with just a bottom panel to work with? Has anyone else used this configuration without problems?

To answer the question: Can i install Cinnamon 1.2 on Ubuntu 11.10...answer: Most Definitely...
Hopefully others who use it on ubuntu will give their feedback as to their experience with it...

Instructions on how to install the ppa to get it are easy to follow and found on the Cinnamon website:
http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/
go to the downloads section and read the instructions for ubuntu 11.10...after install, log out and then log in to Cinnamon Session (from the little log-in "cog wheel"...lol)

[SUPERFITTER]

Thank you craig10x

This is what I was looking for, a single panel at the bottom of the desktop that is plain jane. Every thing is working great.