I was able to replace som major parts of our home desktop. We used to have an AMD Duron 800mhz with “64kb L2 Cache” (overclocked to 1ghz), 8mb Nvidia tnt2 agp video card, 512 mb memory, 160gb HDD. I was able to get a new motherboard (intel chipset), processor (Intel Pentium III 800mhz) and a 256mb ATI Radeon 9600 agp video card.

I was able to reinstall Windows XP without any problems, downloaded drivers for the video card. Was up and running in 2 hours.

Well, I am a bit of a fan of Ubuntu. So I installed Ubuntu 8.04 on the system. Installation went smooth. But when it comes to video card configuration, it was a headache. When I enabled the restricted drivers (closed-source drivers for linux), my monior goes to sleep mode. Tried a few howtos, and failed. Reinstalled Ubuntu to get it clean. It took me almost 3 days (though I’m just working on that for at least 3 hours a day) before I decided to install the drivers that came from ati’s website. And alas, it’s working now.

I was able to configure compiz-fusion (eye-candy of Ubuntu). I haven’t yet checked the 3D rendering on the OS.

Here’s a sample of my desktop with the “cube” effect:

Well, have some things to work on still (TV-out both for XP and Ubuntu). And properly install my Canon Pixma IP1200 printer on Ubuntu (which I think will be impossible, but it’s still worth a try).

With the near end of Windows XP support, and my system not capable of running Vista, and me not having enough budget to buy a new system, I am planning to go to a switch to Ubuntu. Just have to configure the printer and also the desktop to look like XP so my wife could easily adapt to it.

This one is a headache. I tried installing Xubuntu 8.04, after rebooting, I got the Grub Error 18. Heck, my BIOS has no problem, been able to use 7.10 with no problem for months.

Someone suggested me to reformat my “whole” HDD. It’s a pain, but I’ll do that (need to back up GBs of data). But if this won’t fix the problem, have to look for other distro that won’t give me this headache, or I’m stuck with windows again..

Just for info, I was “turned down” by the linux community (chatroom and forums) for the second time now. First was my problem with shutdown, and now this.

I was planning to completely shift to Linux, but if I can’t boot it, how can I use it? I’m now having some second thoughts about it.

(I like Linux, that’s why I want it to be fixed. I just hate it when people says Linux is the “best” OS and then you can see a lot of UNSOLVED problems in the “community forum”.)

During the writing of my previous article, the Ubuntu website is not yet updated. Meaning it doesn’t have any info regarding the release of Hardy Heron (but rather the Release Candidate only). Now, the website is updated and information regarding Hardy Heron can be seen (click here).

I am currently downloading Xubuntu 8.04, Which is basically the same with Ubuntu, but only differs primarily with the Window Manager and some other softwares. It is lighter (in terms of graphics) than Ubuntu (which uses Gnome, Xubuntu uses Xfce).

Cheers…

Ubuntu, one of the popular Linux distribution (ubuntu.com), has just released its latest version “Hardy Heron” (8.04). Ubuntu is designed to be “free” (you can download for free or request for a CD with free shipping virtually to any country, which is good for those with slow or no internet connection). It is also pre-installed with softwares that is basically needed by a user (office productivity suite, photo editing, internet and mail, video and audio player. system management, networking tools, and more.). And other softwares are readily available from the Ubuntu Repository (can be installed with just a few clicks).

This release of Ubuntu has many improvements from the latest core products it has to how the OS and its software communicates to its users.. And best of all, it has “Long Term Support”, meaning updates and support is available up to April 2013 for server edition and April 2011 for desktop edition.

You can check for more information from their website and download it here (via download or free/paid shipping). BitTorrents are also available for hassle free downloading (click here).

Though we can start upgrading/installing now, I will wait up to one month before installation so the “final” bugs can be cleaned. And also, the servers are “very busy” right now.

Cheers….