"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." (Robert A. Heinlein)

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Test Drive: Ubuntu-Gnome 13.10 “Saucy Salamander” (Beta 2) on the EEEPC


After testing the latest Ubuntu release I proceeded my test session with Ubuntu-gnome edition. Ubuntu-gnome is the distribution I have installed on the (actually) oldest computer I have, the EEEPC 900. Trying a distribution without installing becomes so the “go/no-go” condition for when the official upgrade will be released. Even if Linux distributions are generally benevolent with older hardware you'll never be sure if and how your system will work without testing.

First impressions

As usual, I prepared a bootable USB disk with the Ubuntu's tool and a booted my EEEPC from it.
Ubuntu-gnome is provided with Gnome-Shell 3.8. The interface is quite similar with the version shipped with previous Ubuntu release.

Some small differences there are in the application screen that opens with a “Frequent” page for frequently used applications.
Everything is, of course, at the beginning but it will fill with usage.
The applications screen has some icons collected in groups.
this gives some minimal hierarchy to the previously flat applications menu.

Personalization

I already said this, I don't like Gnome-shell in the plain format it comes. I so connected to Gnome extensions page and started installing extensions. After a while I got a desktop the way I like it.
While configuring the desktop wallpaper I noticed a little glitch: Gnome background settings seem not to work leaving the system with a solid color background in place of the selected one.
On the other side, the wallpaper I selected with the “set as desktop background” Firefox function has been displayed correctly.
I don't know yet if the problem affects only the EEEPC 900.

Conclusions

Ubuntu-Gnome 13.10 seems to work fine even on my old EEEPC. After this brief test session I can be quite positive about upgrading the EEEPC when the official release will be made available.

No comments :

Post a Comment