Taking Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) For a Spin
April 26th, 2008
Ubuntu released Hardy Heron a couple days ago and I’ve finally gotten around to trying it out. I should disclose that I spend the majority of my time in OS X so Ubuntu is more of a curiosity for me than a day to day OS. I attended the Web 2.0 Expo this year and heard Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, talk about their acquisition of VirtualBox. VirtualBox is a free virtualization application, similar to VMWare and Parallels, that lets users run other operating systems inside a host operating system. In the past I’ve run Ubuntu instances from Parallels but I’ve found Parallels to be unstable at times under Leopard so I decided to give VirtualBox a try.
After downloading VirtualBox, it was a snap to set up a new VM and then mount the Ubuntu ISO. The installation went without a hitch and I was up and running in no time. The only part of the installation that needed any manual configuration was getting Ubuntu to run at a resolution other than 800×600. Even after I installed the “Guest Additions” from VirtualBox (Devices > Install Guest Additions), I didn’t have any choices other than 640×480 or 800×600. After a quick Google search, I came across the solution of manually editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf (don’t worry, it’s not that scary). The only other thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how to get my mouse wheel to scroll. I’m assuming this is an issue with VirtualBox that will be updated once the developers have a chance to work with Hardy Heron a little more.
Overall, Ubuntu 8.04 is awesome. It’s pretty fast; I’m not sure if this is because I’m now running it under VirtualBox and not Parallels or if the developers made some major speed updates. It comes with Firefox 3 Beta 5 (the newest right now). I’m increasingly impressed how Ubuntu is really becoming an alternative to Windows that I almost feel comfortable recommending to friends and family who know almost nothing about computers.
It’s definitely worth checking out and playing with.
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