I just upgraded my Ubuntu from 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) to 8.04 (Hardy Heron). Even though I've used Ubuntu versions 6.06, 7.04 and 7.10, I haven't actually upgraded an existing installation before. Previously, I would just boot a LiveCD and wipe my current install to install the new version. However, I figured that instead of going through the hassle of then re-installing all the programs I liked (and looking up some video codecs, etc.), this time I'd try an upgrade.

The process took a long time (5.5 hours) mainly because the download speeds were rather slow. I attribute this to the popularity of Ubuntu and lots of others downloading the latest version like I did on the first day it was released.

After the upgrade process finished, the computer restarted and I booted into the new version, which has a different boot logo than the previous ones (a small note). Since Gutsy worked well on my computer, I was wondering if Hardy would work equally well from the start, and so far, it seems to be satisfactory. All my previously installed codecs work, my background is the same, etc. Firefox 3 is also working well, although some of the fonts are different from what they were in FF2. My only complaint so far is that my internet browser hotkey no longer seems to work. I have 5 hotkeys on my notebook for e-mail, internet, wireless, touchpad, and the Asus power utility. The internet one is the one I use most, and I'm a little dissapointed that it's not working, considering that the ambient light sensor (another Asus hardware utility in my notebook) and the e-mail hotkey, as well as the Fn+ F* functions seem to work just fine. Undervolting is also going to be more difficult in Hardy simply because it uses a kernel newer than the latest precompiled module in Linux PHC, but I don't consider that a fault. I can still undervolt in the previous kernel version if needed, since the initial boot screen allows me to choose older or newer kernel versions. All in all, it seems like it works fine for me. I'll provide more insight as I go along.

I have actually been looking at their AD improvements in the server version, it has me very seriously considering changing my plan of ordering a Mini and putting OS X server on it, to Running either a KPC, or ordering a new case/motherboard barebone to repair my workstation and running that as a server.

The real catch, is how difficult it would be to maintain, and is something I am still looking into. IF, and it is a big IF, however Ubuntu server does a good job I will be looking to run that for my server instead of OS X. Would save me on hardware costs as well as software costs(OS X server aint cheap)

Seablade

I'm downloading hardy now - will be interesting to try, it took a while to even find a server which would work - so i suspect its still very popular.

will be interesting to see how it runs compared to festy

In my opinion, Gutsy was far superior to Feisty, and I'd expect Hardy will be that way also.

hmmm.. tried booting into my previous (Gutsy) kernel and the OS didn't like that at all.. said it couldn't detect my graphics card. So I guess Hardy doesn't get along well with older kernels. (the new one still works fine)

Time to try the new distro.

Depends on how they do the modules. The most common problem I see is overwriting the old modules for the new kernel, and thus you can't modprobe the modules into the older kernels in that case as there is a version mismatch.

Seablade

that would explain it. I've noticed a problem with Firefox 3 (beta 5) today- it seems to take excessively long to register some things. In my scrolling and typing on NBF today, it went unresponsive at least 3-4 times for around 5 seconds each time before accepting input again. My hard drive access notification light was on during all these times as well. I'm not sure what happened, but I hope it's not endemic.

I have noticed it happens primarily with certain javascripts, try installing noscript and see if that affects it on those pages.(Assuming you notice specific pages causing problems)

Seablade

Okay, I installed NoScript, and it still happens on NBF (I only allowed scripts from notebookforums.com)

Try disabling(Temporarily) the scripts on NBF and see if it improves.

Seablade

okay, I think the problem is fixed now. It seems that it didn't jhave anything to do with Firefox. Instead, it was my hard drive's fault. While the disk access cycle count problem documented earlier didn't seem to affect my computer while I was running Gutsy, it seems that it started to do so after installing Hardy, so those times where my hard drive access light would go on and Firefox would go unresponsive was due to incorrect and unnecessary load cycle management. I just applied the fix from Ubuntu Forums and it hasn't happened again so far, so I hope that means it's taken care of.

They didn't fix that problem in Hardy??

*shrug* I guess not. Some folks were speculating that it was happening in multiple OSes. Another guy confirmed that it didn't happen in Vista because the OS was constantly accessing the disk so it didn't have time to park

What exactly is the problem being discussed?

Seablade