From Feisty to Gutsy--and back again
This started as a reply to blainn's entry about his experience with Gutsy, but as I typed and typed and typed, I realized it would be better to make it an independent entry in my own blog. So hear it is, and if it seems to sounds a bit funny at times, remember it was originally going to be a reply elsewhere.
I'm glad to hear that things worked so well for you. My experience, however, was a bit different.
I did a backup of my important files (read: personal pictures, music files, email, etc), and did a clean install of Gutsy on a separate hard drive. First boot, very nice. Minor little things that were mostly eye candy, such as desktop effects, got my attention. Then, seeing what I've come to think of as standard Ubuntu apps being present, and newer/newest versions was quite nice, and as I began to install apps it was nice to see the same--even an updated version of GTK-Gnutella, which was updated by some Ubuntu folks.
Keep in mind that I have used Linux off and on, as an experimenting hobbyist and later as a part time desktop user for quite a while--since Slackware was at version 3.2 or so. This year, I traded in BeOS 5 which was getting quite long in the tooth and of course no longer supported since Be Inc. went tits up a few years back, for Ubuntu. So, while not a newbie in the Linux world, I'm far from an expert. I can make use of info from the net and other sources to work at the command line comfortably, but I'm not a guru.
Anyway, after using Gutsy for a couple of days, I decided to take a me break one afternoon and play some games. When I started OpenArena, there was a major graphics issue. Randomly, every second or two or three, a large black rectangle about 1/2 or 2/3 the size of the display would flash on screen for about 1/2 a second or so. OK, I think, maybe it's this version of OpenArena and Gutsy not getting along. Tried other FPS's, and all had similar problems. Of course, all of these, IIRC, were based on the Quake 3 engine, so it does make sense that they should all behave similarly.
At this point, I decide to check the video driver. First thing I noticed was that the driver in use was an experimental one, which concerned me. Since I wasn't sure which driver my Feisty install used, I rebooted into Feisty (gotta love multi-boots setups and GRUB) to check things out. Definitely a different driver. Back to Gutsy to see if that driver was available. It, or a very similar one was, so I jumped through some hoops, and finally got it to boot using that driver. More problems with it, now I began having problems in things like VLC, and even Firefox on occasion. At this point, I threw up my hands in frustration and wiped the hard drive with Gutsy installed, and installed Feisty and moved my files to it.
All is now well, and I have a clean install of Feisty with more space (the hard drive I'd just added to the system was considerably larger than the old one with Feisty on it), and all my favorite apps work well again. At some point when I have more time available, I'll investigate the issue and find a fix, but lately I've been short of time and can't be bothered too right now.
I don't mean this to reflect poorly on Gutsy or Ubuntu in general, it's just my personal experience, and most likely caused at least partly by my own inexperience. I still tell everyone I can about Ubuntu and give them discs and attempt to get them to try it out.
Hope this is helpful for someone out there.
I'm glad to hear that things worked so well for you. My experience, however, was a bit different.
I did a backup of my important files (read: personal pictures, music files, email, etc), and did a clean install of Gutsy on a separate hard drive. First boot, very nice. Minor little things that were mostly eye candy, such as desktop effects, got my attention. Then, seeing what I've come to think of as standard Ubuntu apps being present, and newer/newest versions was quite nice, and as I began to install apps it was nice to see the same--even an updated version of GTK-Gnutella, which was updated by some Ubuntu folks.
Keep in mind that I have used Linux off and on, as an experimenting hobbyist and later as a part time desktop user for quite a while--since Slackware was at version 3.2 or so. This year, I traded in BeOS 5 which was getting quite long in the tooth and of course no longer supported since Be Inc. went tits up a few years back, for Ubuntu. So, while not a newbie in the Linux world, I'm far from an expert. I can make use of info from the net and other sources to work at the command line comfortably, but I'm not a guru.
Anyway, after using Gutsy for a couple of days, I decided to take a me break one afternoon and play some games. When I started OpenArena, there was a major graphics issue. Randomly, every second or two or three, a large black rectangle about 1/2 or 2/3 the size of the display would flash on screen for about 1/2 a second or so. OK, I think, maybe it's this version of OpenArena and Gutsy not getting along. Tried other FPS's, and all had similar problems. Of course, all of these, IIRC, were based on the Quake 3 engine, so it does make sense that they should all behave similarly.
At this point, I decide to check the video driver. First thing I noticed was that the driver in use was an experimental one, which concerned me. Since I wasn't sure which driver my Feisty install used, I rebooted into Feisty (gotta love multi-boots setups and GRUB) to check things out. Definitely a different driver. Back to Gutsy to see if that driver was available. It, or a very similar one was, so I jumped through some hoops, and finally got it to boot using that driver. More problems with it, now I began having problems in things like VLC, and even Firefox on occasion. At this point, I threw up my hands in frustration and wiped the hard drive with Gutsy installed, and installed Feisty and moved my files to it.
All is now well, and I have a clean install of Feisty with more space (the hard drive I'd just added to the system was considerably larger than the old one with Feisty on it), and all my favorite apps work well again. At some point when I have more time available, I'll investigate the issue and find a fix, but lately I've been short of time and can't be bothered too right now.
I don't mean this to reflect poorly on Gutsy or Ubuntu in general, it's just my personal experience, and most likely caused at least partly by my own inexperience. I still tell everyone I can about Ubuntu and give them discs and attempt to get them to try it out.
Hope this is helpful for someone out there.