New Linux User » karmic koala

Finally on Karmic Koala

Clair Ching — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:05:33 +0000

Due to hardware issues on my netbook I ended up using my old machine and I installed Ubuntu 9.10 aka Karmic Koala. My old machine is a Lenovo C3000 N100 so as you can see, it’s beginning to age. But no Karmic Koala didn’t give me headaches the way I had other issues in the past.

What’s the initial impression that I got from using Karmic Koala?

It’s shiny!
Seriously. I found the new GNOME quite shiny. It’s a whole lot more polished compared to the older GNOME releases. It really looks clean and whoever passed by my desk would comment at how clean and professional looking it is. Tsk, them of little faith~! But I also like the choices of desktop backgrounds that came with it because they looked great even with an extended monitor. The stretched versions look decent.
It’s pretty fast. In terms of boot-up time and going to a virtual terminal. It feels like it’s so instantaneous. Which is neat when I need the virtual terminal — this happens to me when my desktop hangs and I want to look for the processes that might be causing that.
Hardware support is much better. I used to have so many issues on this machine. It used to be that wifi and sound would always come up as issues. Well, bluetooth too. I’ve been using it again and everything seems to be better supported. The driver for the Broadcom wifi card to work had to be downloaded first but that was fine. That seems to be the only driver that I had to get somewhere else. Sound was working perfectly fine when I tried it. That for me is awesome as I cannot work without music.

Now I don’t regret installing Karmic Koala on this baby. It doesn’t feel so old using Karmic Koala. At the same time, I really think that the release good overall. Well, I still have time to evaluate it but it does leave a good first impression on me.

Post from: New Linux User

Everyone’s got Ubuntu Karmic

Clair Ching — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:28:29 +0000

It’s too late when I realized that I didn’t have my netbook’s charger and so I can’t really upgrade my netbook this weekend. It’s not good. Argh. And just when I had plenty of time to upgrade and fix something if ever something gets broken.

So yeah, everybody seems to have Ubuntu 9.10 or Karmic Koala already. Well, except for me. Tsk. Next time I will check my things before leaving a building, just to be sure this doesn’t happen again.

Back to business.

And everyone but me has Karmic Koala. By this time it’s more practical for me to start looking for the rest of the world’s blog entries and screenshots. The Debian Admin blog has a 37 screenshots. You get to see the different aspects of Karmic so this is a good set. It also gives you a better idea of how things work in Karmic now, at least have a general idea. Also there are chances that other loco’s have probably pushed through with their release parties for Karmic already. Yes, I am envious that almost everyone has the latest Ubuntu release.

Because of that forgotten charger everything else could gloat to me about not having Ubuntu Karmic yet. Thankfully not everyone in the community thinks that way so I don’t feel so bad.

Others have given tips on what should be done first to your machine after installing Karmic Koala. One of them is to select download mirrors and set them up for your future needs. After all, you never know when these things will be handy. There’s also setting up folder sharing. This is especially for those who rely on shared files within the office network. One more thing you should do: synchronize time with atomic clocks. Just so you won’t find yourself in a different timezone all of a sudden. Great right?

Enjoy Ubuntu Karmic Koala!

Post from: New Linux User

Ubuntu Karmic Koala on Netbooks; Gkrellm He

Clair Ching — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:46:54 +0000

Ubuntu Karmic Koala’s about to be released and I was wondering if I should upgrade or stick with Jaunty Jackalope. Phoronix released an article about Ubuntu 9.10 performance on netbooks. It looks like that there is a perceived improvement with the disk-intensive tasks because of the switch to the EXT4 filesystem. Those who are using SSDs on their netbooks might especially want to take advantage of that. For the upcoming release I am actually waiting for the Ubuntu 9.10 Moblin Remix. I am using the Ubuntu UMPC one right now but the Moblin user interface and boot-up times look impressive. As always, though, one of my main concerns is hooking it up to an external LCD or projector. I want to use the extended monitor rather than a clone of my virtual desktop.

Ubuntu Karmic Koala is scheduled to be released on the 29th this month. Just two days before Halloween! So don’t forget that ok? Everyone must be busy preparing for Halloween parties and other such events but before you do that, upgrade your computers first. ; )

Speaking of laptops and netbooks, we need to make sure that our laptops and netbooks are in good shape. After all, these are our tools to make our work easier. (Well, other stuff aside from work too! Like communicating on the go, etc.) If we don’t monitor our little babies we might find them having problems and conking out on us at the most inopportune moments. Gkrellm will save the day and your laptop for you. You will see a stack of information that gives you an idea of how your laptop is like. With Gkrellm you could see if your laptop is too hot and if you might actually have a very dusty laptop. You never know, right? Because all of those dust sometimes gets in and your laptop gets increasingly hot if you never bother to monitor the temperature. Thanks to Rob Reilly and his awesome article on Gkrellm. Now I know and it’s better now that I know about this. I’ve been travelling around with this netbook and goodness knows how much dust there is everywhere.

Post from: New Linux User