Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was released not too long ago and while I thought there were some good updates in there, I thought it was a bit of a lackluster update. Following some experimentation with Kubuntu and Kubuntu KDE4 Remix, I managed to trash some packages and was having little problems with it, so I decided to install Hardy from scratch (the previous installation was a dist-upgrade from Gutsy to Hardy).
Much to my surprise, after fiddling with the proprietary drivers app and enabling the ATI acccelerated graphics driver, I was able to successfully turn on Visual Effects (Normal and Extra) and they work like champs. In Feisty and Gutsy, I was never able to get the effects to work with my Mobile Radeon 7500 in my Thinkpad T42.
Those visual effects bring Ubuntu up to date with the 3D accelerated desktop in Vista and OS X, additionally, Adobe AIR appears to be taking advantage of that acceleration; I’m seeing transparency and fade-in/out effects with Twhirl on the Linux AIR alpha. It’s kind of sad when you think about it, but I think that this really gives my (almost 4 year-old) laptop some more legs. You wouldn’t think it would be a big deal, but being able to add that modern style of interface enhancements really adds something to the user experience.
I’ve seen similar sorts of issues with upgrading Ubuntu in the past, not entirely sure why it does that, which is a shame, given how well Ubuntu handles upgrades like that.
Comments 1
Do you use this as your OS? I’ve heard of this before, but I never knew what it was. I’m hooked on Mac OSX…still haven’t upgraded to Leopard though.
Posted 14 May 2008 at 1:03 pm ¶Post a Comment