My Predictions are in: How Ubuntu 8.10 stacks up
Many many months ago when I started blogging here, I came up with a list of three things -- 3G networking, monitor hot-swapping, and Eee PC support -- that I wanted to see added to Ubuntu by the time 8.10 shipped. Now that it's out the door, it's time to see how those wish list items have gone.
Wireless broadband is go!
I'm glad to say that my first wish list item, 3G networking, gets a very big tick. Recent versions of Ubuntu have used a tool called NetworkManager to handle networking on desktop systems, with a super-easy interface for configuring local wireless connections, and in 8.10, it supports 3G connections as well.
After installing 8.10 on my laptop I plugged in my USB 3G modem, and within seconds NetworkManager had detected it and began the setup wizard, which involved little more than selecting the right country and ISP from a built-in database. I could then connect just by clicking on the NetworkManager applet and selecting it from the drop-down list of configured connections.
This is exactly the kind of support I wanted to see, and it's going to make it that much easier for Linux road warriors to stay connected, especially on newer laptops with built-in 3G functionality.
The only problem I found was a lack of clear error reporting when something went wrong -- I stupidly chose the wrong ISP the first time I set my modem up, but instead of issuing an error when the connection failed, it simply died silently and automatically reconnected to my wifi network. I had to dig in to the system logs to discover the cause of the problem.
Multi-monitor fun
Linux has supported multi-monitor video cards for a very long time now, but it's always been a bit fiddly to set up, usually involving manually editing your "xorg.conf" file, restarting X, and crossing your fingers.
On a desktop, that's an annoyance, but on a laptop, it's a deal-breaker -- you never know when you might need to plug in an external monitor or hook up a projector, and having to shut down X and spend 15 minutes twiddling your config files, and having to do the same thing again when you unhook the external display, just doesn't fly.
The solution is version 1.2 of the "Rotate and Resize", or XRandR, X server extension, which adds full support for display hot-plug and hot-swap. This actually shipped in Ubuntu 8.04, but the only interface available to configure it was the "xrandr" command-line tool.
In Ubuntu 8.10, there's a new GUI configuration tool included as part of the GNOME 2.24 desktop. It works much like the monitor configuration dialogs on Windows -- it shows your displays and lets you set their resolutions and drag them around on screen to match their real-world orientation.
The maximum size of your desktop is still hard-coded in to the "xorg.conf" file for now, so the first time you hook up a monitor the tool will tweak that configuration and ask you to restart X, but after that, it's smooth sailing.
The only catch with XRandR 1.2 is that it requires driver support, and that support has so far only appeared in the bundled open-source video drivers. If you have a laptop with Intel video, you'll be fine. Most ATI, and some NVIDIA, hardware will be fine out-of-the-box, too -- the Radeon X1600 in my MacBook Pro certainly was -- but if you switch to the proprietary drivers for these chips, you'll lose XRandR 1.2 support.
ATI should have its drivers up to speed shortly, though, and while NVIDIA is dragging its heels, it'll hopefully have no choice but to add support once it becomes a more widely-used feature.
Eeeasy installation?
I was hoping to see Ubuntu add an Eee-friendly installer to the Ubuntu 8.10 release, and while it hasn't happened, there is a reason. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is skipping the users and going straight to the vendors, offering its Ubuntu "Netbook Remix" release to OEMs.
Netbook Remix is a highly customised Ubuntu system featuring a new easy-access UI that's designed along the same lines as ASUS's customised Xandros desktop on the Eee, and Canonical is hoping to have vendors shipping it on their netbooks by the end of the year.
If you already have a netbook, though, you don't have to wait -- you can get a netbook-friendly version of Ubuntu, complete with the Netbook Remix interface, from the Ubuntu Eee project. The current release is still based on Ubuntu 8.04, but an Intrepid version should follow very shortly. You can install Intrepid directly if you want, but it still requires some special care and manual tweaking to get all of the hardware working just right.
Overall, this latest Ubuntu release is looking really good. These new features are great, and they're just a few of the additions and improvements on offer. Head on over to the Ubuntu website to get the full details and download a copy.
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