A full Hardy Heron Review
The Good:
It's fast.
Hardy Heron is a fast, exceptionally stable operating system. It is a significant step up from Windows XP and better than Vista when it comes to efficiently using resources, and frankly, ease of use.
I've noticed that Hardy runs faster than its predecessor, 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon." Firefox 3, which is the default web browser, is a major improvement to the solid Firefox 2.
It's more stable.
There seems to be an improvement in the suspend-to-ram and suspend-to-disk (hibernate) functionality, however there are still bugs. This is an area Canonical, the developer behind Ubuntu, is well aware of and I'm hoping they'll get sorted out in the next few releases.
Accessing resources on my corporate network has been seamless in both Ubuntu and in Windows XP via VirtualBox. Hardy also found my home network quicker and connects to it faster than Gutsy.
It's easier to fix problems and change settings.
Recovering from changes made to the system seems to be easier and more robust in Hardy Heron. I changes some graphics cards settings and mangled my system up pretty bad. I was worried until I restarted the system in a safe mode and a dialog popped up asking me if I wanted to re-run the X-Window (which is the graphical system behind Gnome) set up again. Running the set up fixed all of my problems.
The Bad:
Suspend and Hibernate are still problematic.
Suspend and hibernate functionality is a basic requirement for mobile users and if Ubuntu is ever going to be a serious competitor for both home users and business, developers are going to have to make improvements to these areas a priority.
Clipboard functionality.
In Gnome, if you close an application, any text or other item you have "copied" but have yet to paste from it is lost. You can get around this by installing a clipboard utility, such as Glipper, but this should be basic GUI / OS function. The argument for the current set-up is that it avoids having bits of useless information clog the system after programs are closed. But the way Gnome handles copy and paste runs counter to both Windows and Mac OS X and is an annoyance for new users.
Suggested improvements:
- A bit more spit and polish when it comes to the Gnome graphical user interface is in order. Gnome 2.22 is a clean, easy to understand and reasonably good-looking piece of software, but it's not Mac OS X-like gorgeous.
- A well put-together and free PDF user guide. This guide doesn't have to be an exhaustive document, but it have basic chapters on installing, browsing the web, adding and removing software and networking
- Better copy and paste handling by Gnome.
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By the way, good review ;-)