Ubuntu Hardy Heron is Unstable
I've been running Hardy now for quite a while, and I've come to the conclusion that it isn't stable. I will probably be downgrading to Gutsy very soon, however much I dislike the idea of doing so. To me, downgrading doesn't feel like I'm being part of the solution, but rather that I'm just bypassing the problem.
Here are the things I've been having problems with so far in Hardy. And, for the record, I've tried all of these things with compiz disabled as well, with no improvement:
1. On occasion (sometimes as frequently as once an hour), gnome-terminal will open with a blank (frozen, not invisible) window, there will be a grey bar where the menus should be, and I have to terminate the process. I've tried waiting it just stays there blank. Once this happens, nautilus, gedit, and even some of the file-related dialog boxes, and possibly the pop-down calendar from the gnome panel all crash in the same way, creating a blank box, and in the case of anything associated with the gnome panel, freezing the panel entirely. Restarting GDM doesn't help. I've tried everything. There seems to be nothing logged showing that there was any problem. Rebooting is the only solution.
2. Firefox 3. Not only is it annoying (due to AwesomeBar), but it feels less polished than Firefox 2.
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The long slide down...
Ever since Dapper 6.06.1, I feel stability has been on the slide. My ASUS laptop (old model, L3800C) running Dapper never ever crashes. Never. Not a single time. After Dapper, I installed all the new releases on a desktop system. Bog standard hardware, nothing fancy (even Breezy runs out-of-the-box on this system). We've reached Hardy and all I can say is that it hasn't been all forward. Don't get me wrong, user interface-wise things have definitely moved up the ladder, but, so it seems, at the cost of stability. Especially using Feisty, and now with Hardy again, I find myself Ctrl-Alt-F2-ing in order to issue a reboot command just a wee bit too often. For this desktop system, I've moved back to Dapper. But that's not a long-term solution.
Only recently, I bought an HP laptop (6710b) and installed Hardy. Again, bog standard hardware. GDM, Epiphany, Firefox, Rhythmbox, VLC (just to name but a few) all crash very regularly; sometimes they allow for a simple restart, sometimes not. I've tried reinstalling respective packages and also reinstalling the whole system, but it just doesn't seem to get any better. I've had to say goodbye to networkmanager because of unwillingness on its side. Replaced it with wicd and wireless network connections are stable now.
I don't know what it is, but I feel I'm on a long slide, slowly heading for the sandpit.
Hardy Heron works well for me
I have a five computer home network. Four Hardy Heron and one Debian Lenny. All five are rock solid. Initially I had issues with Hardy when I upgraded from Gutsy. So I bit the bullet and did clean installs, including config files (ie not saving /home but copying accross data from the old home). Since then I have had NO issues. The only thing I cannot get to work is my Linksys Wireless N pci card using madwifi - it works fine with a wireless G router, but collapses when interacting with an N router.
The issues talked about in this article are interesting, but you would have to suspect a dud memory stick before blaming Hardy. A clean install of Hardy would be a good test, including a new login to make it utterly clean. Reinstalling Gutsy won't prove anything. The move from Gutsy to Hardy was fraught due to the introduction of Pulse Audio and a different approach to Compiz, old config files just cause problems.
Lastly, Hardy Ubuntu Studio has worked wonders. My daughter's old Evolution MK-149 midi keyboard is back from the dead, attached to a SB Live and fully functional with Jack and Rosegarden, something Vista could not achieve (nor Gutsy for that matter).
Hardy Heron is not perfect and maybe getting too fat (I would love an Ubuntu that just installs Gnome and the basic sound and xorg and leaves the software selection to me, a nice two hundred meg disk image), but it is the best for now.
GregE
Melbourne, Australia
Hardy Heron has been a good bird for me...
So far I have had reasonably good luck with Hardy. I have an eMachines W3502 (2006 vintage) with an Intel 1-core Celeron 3.2 GHz, 2 GB of Kingston PC400 RAM, Radeon Xpress 200 integrated graphics (currently using a Radeon HD2400 Pro in the PCI express x16 hole), Seagate 500 GB sata-150 hd, Samsung 80 GB IDE hd, and a Lite-on 16x DVD/CD burner with SATA interface. This is a a quint-boot with XP SP3, Manderlinux 2008.1, PCLOS Gnome 2008, Ubuntu Hardy, and Ubuntu Studio Hardy. There is the occasional quirk (the YouTube soundcard freakage and the occasional Firefox freakout) but all in all, Ubuntu Hardy has been running happily along on the eMachines unit. Pulseaudio has its bugs, but the stock Realtec ALC-861 soundcard seems to like it better than the old ALSAconfig method (I can actually control the master volume now)
UbuntuStudio Hardy seems to have the audio issues resolved better on this box, and it essentially works "Out Of The Box". It uses a RT (Realtime) kernel, so encoding and streaming is smooooooth, but at the cost of latency in browsers and other desktop things... but the latency isn't so bad that it drives you batty. If your soundcard is acting all Redmond on you, I would recommend UbuntuStudio.
I have an HP zd6000 laptop with a 2 GHz Athlon and 2 GB pc333 RAM and 100 GB hd that dual-boots XP Pro SP3 and PCLOS Gnome. Hardy runs fine on it with the LiveCD, but I keep PCLOS Gnome on it because it works well on it (including wireless), and I don't want to wipe it from the hd (just a personal preference).
Then there is my old HP XT963 finicky-azz 2001 vintage Dinoputer-turned-Dinoserver thats stock with an intel 1.2 GHz CPU and 384 MHz of pc100 RAM. Most distros make the box cuss and get confused, including Ubuntu Hardy, but it likes some of the lightweight distros out there. In particular, it likes Zenwalk 5.2, PCFluxboxOS, and Xubuntu Hardy. Xubuntu, running the XFCE window manager, takes little juice to run well, and the Hardy version works every bit as good as Gutsy did on it, which was damn good.
Bottom line: I have had a reasonably good Hardy experience on all three machines, and tho the Dinounit doesn't like Gnome or KDE, the Skinny Heron named Xubuntu provides a great experience on old decrepit machines. The author would have been wise to try out the other Ubuntu flavors, or even Mint... or maybe just Good Old Debian. Tho Hardy has its bugs, they will be worked out in time (hopefully Bug #1 as well LMFAO). OK, off the Box of Soap...
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The more I find out about Micro$haft Winblows, the more I like Linux. Go Open-Source, and use the money you save on licensing to build a Linux machine for a needy family!