Introduction
After a problem with the Kubuntu update to KDE 4.2, the laptop reinstalled the desktop all together, I’m now running the first Jaunty Jackalope Beta. I like contributing back to the community, most of you already know this see my articles and previous work in here. Installing a beta version and using it on a production box does take some guts.
How Did It Go?
If you have ever installed a beta product of anything then you know that instability is almost a given. I started the installation of Jaunty on a clean HDD on Friday. Then decided to do the rest of my configuration over this past weekend. I take a little longer setting up my own boxes because I am precise about how stuff is installed.
I also choose for ext4 instead of the more standard ext3 just to be daring even more lol.
First impression
The new version of Kubuntu is faster just as promised. Jaunty cuts my startup time by I would say 25%. The Desktop look great. I am however still missing some stuff on Jaunty. Digikam to name one is still absent. The promised version 10 did not get included into Jaunty. This makes me sad because it’s such a great piece of software that really is missed by me. For those who do not know Digikam is photo management software. I take a lot of digital photo’s and I use Digikam on a daily basis.
The Nitty Gritty
Everything seems to be working okay. Even my wireless card (AR242X) is now recognized in Jaunty. The wireless network is seen and can be connected to using network manager out of the box, GREAT!! I did try to upgrade rather than do a clean install. However it did become apparent that a clean install was needed. I would consider this a tip for everyone having these strange problems of Kmail loosing accounts. These kind odd errors are the result of lingering OLD configuration files.
In the previous version of Kubuntu (8.10) I had the problem that after a suspend or hibernate my laptop would overheat because of the fact that the CPU fan wouldn’t switch on. Jaunty (9.04) also fixes this issue.
Plasma is even better with an actual usable system monitor. Although I find that some of the plasmoids are missing configuration options. The new LCD weather station is cool but unusable. The data sources used don’t have any US city’s so nice but I don’t want to know the weather in London.
That Was Short
Yes but you can see this as a first impression article. There will be more to follow as soon as I run into problems.
For more info about Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 read these articles I’ve written for Bright Hub: