My First Experience with UNR (Ubuntu Netbook Remix)
As yesterday’s release of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, I thought I would gave Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 a try since I was going to reinstall Ubuntu on my netbook anyway. I downloaded UNR ISO image and created an USB installer through UNetBootIn. After I booted into the new Ubuntu live USB, I immediately clicked the installer to install onto the netbook. Surprisingly, the installer will minimize itself when installing after I entered required information. I found the windows selector at the top panel once I knew the installer is working. I clicked the installer icon to restore its window and found out that the interface is very compact compare to the desktop version of Ubuntu. The title bar for each window is near the windows selector.
After the installation was finished and rebooted, I first set up my GMail account through Evolution. The setup process was smooth without entering the details of IMAP gmail server. I then opened Firefox and installed Configuration Mania extension to change the way Firefox functions. The main reason I first installed this extension is because it helps me to configure the Firefox to select all when clicked on the address bar and to enable other useful features more easily. I noticed that Gwibber was not in the Favorite list. Because this app is one of the applications that I use most often, I added Gwibber into the Favorite easily from Internet list.
This is my first time use UNR. I usually had installed Ubuntu desktop edition onto my netbook. But because of this new version is the long term support release, I think that it’s more stable and more easier to use with the UNR LTS. In the end, I’ve already familiar with the UNR interface once I started to using it perhaps because I like its compact UI.
My Experience with upgrading from Ubuntu Karmic to Lucid
Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx was released today and I was very excited to try to upgrading from Karmic to Lucid through update-manager using the following command:
sudo update-manager -d
Fortunately, the download speed during the upgrading process was normal. The update-manager finished download the necessary files and start upgrading within 2 hours. However, the updates installation process is more time-consuming. I had to wait almost three hours in order to complete the upgrading process. After the upgrading was completed, I noticed that the Compiz Fusion effects were no longer working and my computer became slower than before the upgrade. I decided to download the ISO image and reinstalled Ubuntu Lucid.
I used this method to update my Ubuntu box before. I used on the netbook when it’s still in beta. The upgrade process was smooth. It took me almost as same time as this time. However, when I restarted the netbook, the boot process was broke possibly by upgrading to the latest version. This problem was solved also by downloading the beta version of Ubuntu Lucid at that time and reinstalled it onto the netbook.
Overall, you need to update Ubuntu by reinstalling rather than upgrading in order to have a clean OS. I used UNetBootIn which is available in the Karmic’s repository to create an USB installer disk to install Lucid rather than burn onto the CD. Through this way I installed the newest version of Ubuntu within half an hour compare to the 5-hour upgrade process. I recommend to reinstalling Ubuntu for each new release in order to enjoy the benefits of new features in each release. Just remember to backup your /home directory to an USB drive or external hard drive before the reinstallation.