My Lucid Experience
Filed under: Ubuntu
Lucid Lynx is scheduled to be released next month, but that didn’t stop me from upgrading (clean install). This is a nice opportunity for me to test it out, as well as contribute by reporting any bugs I might stumble upon.
The default theme is refreshingly minimalistic – my wife commented it’s very inviting. There’s also a noticeable performance improvement as compared to Karmic Koala (note: I’m using a netbook here!). Applications responds quicker and the system boots and shuts down faster. As a plus, all my hardware works flawlessly.
Fixed Karmic bugs on MSI Wind
All the headaches I’ve experienced on Karmic has also been fixed on Lucid. To name a few:
- The Live CD/USB runs on my netbook.
- Webcam also works.
- Ctrl+F6 to enable/disable webcam also works.
- USB Ports also works without sacrificing the webcam.
- GNOME Power Manager flickering issues has been fixed
- Hibernation, Standby, and Lock Screen also works.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!
And of course, there will always be features I don’t want.
- Minimize, Maximize, Close buttons position – what’s up with that?
- Two clicks to access Empathy, incoming chat messages, and even Transmission from the Indicator Applet. There’s an existing workaround though to place the icons on the Notification Area, but you wouldn’t have access to the volume control.
And then, there’s a few non-Ubuntu hiccups I’ve encountered
- Medibuntu’s ffmpeg nonfree libraries doesn’t work on Lucid – we have to manually copy the libraries until after they’ve updated the packages.
- SmartBro’s ZTE MF627 3G USB stick doesn’t work – it installs ok, but it just won’t connect.
I took my sweet time reviewing my list… and comparing to Karmic – I’m very much satisfied with the next release. Keep it up Ubuntu Devs, you deserve a pat on your back!
March 17th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Re: Two clicks to access Empathy, incoming chat messages, and even Transmission from the Indicator Applet
When working with menus, it is usually possible to select an item from the menu with a single (even though “longer”) click – press the mouse button on the menu, move to the desired menu item, and release the mouse button. AFAIK this works for the Indicator Applet, too.
March 17th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Hey what text editor is that?
March 17th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Hi there! Great post
I’m a little concerned about the buttons in your screen shot. I like my button order to be Minimize->Maximize->Close, just like you seem to have. But is that how it’s going have to look if you change lucid’s default of Maximize->Minimize->Close? If so, that’s horrible! I didn’t think those were the actual images of the buttons. Jesus!
Secondly, is there a difference between Medibuntu’s version of the ffmpeg libraries and the alternative package dependencies for ffmpeg that are in the ubuntu repositories? You know, like:
the libavcodec52 dependency for ffmpeg has an alternative, namely libavcodec-extra-52, etc.
You can install these and more get functionality out of ffmpeg, but does Medibuntu’s repo offer even more functionality? As a side note, I stopped compiling ffmpeg from source when I found the *-extra-* alternative dependencies.
RSVP, victor.zamanian@
March 18th, 2010 at 2:03 am
Add terrible MSI Wind camera performance on Ludic to that and you have the full list of pending bugs.
March 18th, 2010 at 7:41 am
@mhi: I’m a person of habit and I got comfortable with the way it previously worked. Although I agree that it’s faster when accessing the menu (on Transmission), I’m more on checking the status of my downloads and the status of my friends in Empathy.
@Vitaly Babiy: Geany
@Victor: I’ve already configured the buttons in the screenshot. As for the ffmpeg libraries, the ones from the repo lacks the nonfree libfaac. And until Rockbox gets ported to iPod Nano 3G (encrypted firmware…), I’m stuck with using proprietary formats.
@Anonymous: hmm, I haven’t noticed any performance issues on my webcam, but then again, I _very_ rarely use it.