As I’m sure plenty of you are aware, Ubuntu 9.04 is due to be released in little over a month’s time. Testing is in full swing (Alpha 6 at time of writing), and the beta should be coming in 2 or 3 weeks (that’s a guess on my part, please don’t hold me to it!). I figured it was about time to try and install it, partly because I’m interested to see how well it currently runs on my dual-head setup, partly because I need to write an article on installing it for Linux Identity

So – I popped in the Jaunty Live CD, got to the boot menu. All is going well so far, I expected it to not boot though due to my graphics card (Nvidia 9500GT) and a Dual-Screen setup….ok I’m on the desktop (that was quick!). My dual-screen setup was detected just fine (with both monitors at the correct resolution no less!) I was already impressed just from that. I had a play around, and it took me all of 5 minutes to decide that I wanted to give it a proper try out, and to backup my home and install it properly.

1 reboot later, past the (in my opinion) great new GDM theme and nice new splash screen, I’m logged in, installing my nvidia drivers (180.xx) as recommended by a little pop-up. After that install and reboot, I get compiz effects working great, as well as an extended desktop – awesome!

After a bit more playing, I have the dust theme installed (it’s come a long way since I last used it), as well as having emesene using the new notification system (which I have to say looks great!). I’m also running on an ext4 based system, and so far – all is well. Hopefully I’ll have more to say when the beta is released, but this is running on my main desktop, so it’s getting plenty of use

UPDATE:

I’ve got to say, after using jaunty some more this morning, one thing struck me…it’s REALLY quick. Boot is way faster than 8.10 and running general. Shutdown is quicker too