I finally installed Ubuntu’s latest version “Dapper” just before we went on holiday last week. I wiped the drive to get rid of any of the development software left over from my FFL days; no point wasting time upgrading that any more. It also meant loosing the Windows partition. This was no big loss, given that it had never been used since I created at Louise’s request. (I think if we do ever end up wanting to run Windows-based software again I’ll go down the virtualisation route with VMware or QEMU, or maybe try Wine.)
The installation was, as widely reported, a breeze (no pun intended). After booting from the CD, which took about 5 minutes, and answering half a dozen questions, the remainder of the installation was completed in just over 20 minutes. Bare in mind that this included most of the office “productivity” software and extras you’d have to install manually after a bare Windows installation. Very impressive; that’s at least twice as fast as the previous installation of Ubuntu I did from CD.
And then there’s the performance. They said it was faster and there weren’t lying. When I first upgraded to the previous version of Ubuntu my old 800MHz P3 box booted, logged in and started Firefox in 2 minutes 17 seconds. Yes, I really did measure it and keep a record; this is me, get over it. With my fresh Dapper install it does the same thing in 1 minute 35 seconds. Not bad! In fact, that’s the fastest it’s ever been under Linux. It’s worth noting that Windows XP managed the same thing in 38 seconds flat but that’s apples/oranges, at least to a certain extent.
Tags: technology