Installing Ubuntu 7.10

Today I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on two computers: my Dell Dimension 9200 and my friend’s Dell Inspiron 1520.

Dimension 9200

• The Nvidia driver in Ubuntu 7.04 was too old to support the video card. Ubuntu 7.10 was able to install the driver in the restricted manager.
• Compiz Fusion was enabled and works perfectly.

Inspiron 1520

• Previously, X.org did not work without installing a driver for the Intel 965 graphics. Ubuntu 7.10 starts with the Intel driver running.
• However, Compiz fails to start. It seems to complain that the card is blacklisted. I though that Intel graphics were great for Compiz.
• Wireless was working out of the box.
• Suspend and hibernate work out of the box.
• Audio did not work. Following the instructions here fixed it.

General

• I like the default Compiz settings. I also noticed that the edge snapping works more like Metacity now, which is nice.
• I like how easy it is to switch Compiz on and off in the Appearance Preferences tool.
• The new Clearlooks theme looks awesome.
• Ubuntu’s new printing configuration tool made it much easier for me to connect to my networked printer.
• Metacity now supports 2d workspace layouts like Compiz.

It looks like Ubuntu has taken a big step forward in hardware support. Installing Ubuntu, especially on recent hardware, has gotten much easier.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. If I come across anything else I will add to my list.

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