I have Ubuntu 8.10 RC on a desktop virtual installation and the netbook version running on a SD card for my EeePC 901. I've got to say it's pretty cool.
The installation is quite simple, no complicated settings or choices and everything is explained quite well. For the VirtualBox installation, I did an upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10 RC. This is very simple, but it will take a very long time; it took my virtual installation at work nearly 6 hours to complete (however, I could continue to use Ubuntu while it was doing this).
- Press Alt + F2 on the desktop, this will open a Run Application box
- In the box, type update-manager -d and press the Run button
- Your update manager will open and populate with something like 900 updates,just click on Start and sit back and relax
On my home PC, I downloaded the full 8.10 package from Ubuntu.com and did a fresh installation. I did this because I didn't have lots of important data, songs, pictures, etc on the virtual hard drive, that would require a lot of wasted time backing up first. The full installation (8GB hdd, 512MB ram) took about 35 minutes, much faster than the 4 hours required for the upgrade.
I was reading a ZDNet article that equated the 8.10 package to a Windows service pack, and I would have to agree. It really just adds some extra functions to the current 8.04 installation and fixes some random bugs.
Here's what it looks like in the Virtual Box
The desktop version comes with Firefox 3.0.3 (the latest, most secure release), OpenOffice.org 2.4 and a preinstalled software to help you to create an USB startup disk (for emergencies). I have some problems with Canonical and Ubuntu; 1) their refusal to preload any proprietary software and 2) the OpenOffice software, version 3 is available and has been for long enough to incorporate it into this version of Ubuntu. Also, I don't want Ekiga Softphone preinstalled on my computer, that just means I have to uninstall it and install Skype, and I much prefer Thunderbird with the Lightning plug-in than Evolution for my email. They changed the power off menu. It used to have a box that opened after you clicked on the software power button and that box gave you options like Logout, Lock Screen, Switch User, Suspend, Hibernate, Restart, and Shut Down. Now, you click on the software power button and you get a drop down menu with no Suspend option.
I also installed the netbook version on a SD card which I'm using in my EeePC. This was quite simple to do. Just download the Mobile USB image version of Intrepid Ibex from the download page and then click on the link below that will take you to the USB installation instructions. The USB installation instructions will give you the option to download a program that will run the required script for you to copy the OS to the USB/SD card, however, I found that just using the script it gives you in option 2 is much easier (and requires root privileges).
I did this from my virtual installation at work, so it took about 15 to 20 minutes to copy all of this from the hard drive to the SD card, and it only takes up about 690MB on a 1GB SD card. Then, I popped it into the SD slot on my Eee and it booted right to it. There are some things you will have to mess with right off the bat. First, there is no wifi driver preinstalled for the EeePC in the RC version, however, this is supposed to be fixed by the final release. This is an easy fix if you can't wait 24 hours for Intrepid Ibex's final release. Connect your Eee to an Ethernet port, go to this link, download the driver from the very first post (writer is themono), and once it's finished, double click and run. This will download and install 3 packages in about 5 minutes, then you will have wireless. There is only one little problem with this fix, the next time you boot to the SD/USB installation, you'll have to make this fix again.
Another thing I did not like is the preinstalled browser called Web Browser or Midbrowser. It would be great for a touchscreen computer, but, since the Eee is not touchscreen, I dumped it for a standard FF3 browser. It comes preinstalled with Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org 2.4, and Ekiga. I've discussed all of these previously, so I won't go into it again.
On the up side, there seems to be much better support for the Intel Atom's Speedstep technology, the touchpad, and the 1024x600 native resolution of the 8.9 inch display.
I've dabbled in 4 Linux distros now, OpenSUSE, Mandriva, Fedora, and NimbleX (which will only run as a Live CD); and I'm still going to have to choose Ubuntu as my favorite.
Linux Distros (part 1)
Linux Distros (part 2)
Earlier posts about OpenSUSE
