Saturday, May 03, 2008

Linuxville's critic's corner

You all know the thrill of getting a shiny new car only to find a few flaws that spoil the allure. I wonder what was the rush to get Hardy Heron on my computer was all about. This is the latest Xubuntu 8.04 and it indeed was sweet for a while. Being a 64-bit kind of guy, I was braced for some trauma and I wasn't disappointed. But what troubles me is a deeper concern, I now can not download videos, the helper extensions won't install in Firefox. I even reinstalled an earlier Firefox to no avail. The combo of new Xubuntu and Firefox 3 beta 5 does not play well together. I also tried Mozilla Seamonkey browser and suffered the same fate. I also went throught a bought of browser crashes which seems to have subsided. I was having MS like flashbacks and wondering if my install CD's were corrupt. I did an original install instead of an upgrade, I still have Xubuntu 7.10 and it works just fine. There are a few other things that bother me about this 8.04. I don't have access to my whole hard drive. I can't even see my 7.04 installation. From within 7.04 I can see the 8.04 partitions just fine. Actually that's not too bad, just two items out of all the stuff I could complain about. I will see what other citizens are saying in the forums and perhaps return some sweetness to Xubuntu. I am wondering if the 32-bit crowd is hurting also. Anyway, it's back to the dealership and I'm glad I still have my old ride.

No comments: