"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)

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Test Drive: Ubuntu-Gnome 15.04 (Beta 1) on the EEEPC 900

As my hardware is getting old I start living the usual “Upgrade season” with more anxiety than eagerness. The question “Will the computer still work with the new release” becomes every year more fundamental and eventually I enter in a sort of “No-news-good-news” spirit where shorter new features list are welcomed while every novelty is looked with suspicious.
So I downloaded the newly released Ubuntu-Gnome 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) in order to test it on my old netbook mostly to see if it would continue working properly after being upgraded.

The test

I booted the EEEPC from my USB disk and, after a quite short boot time, I've been taken to the usual “Install or Try it” welcome screen:
I selected “Try Ubuntu” and arrived to the “usual” feature-less Gnome Shell main screen.
I proceeded so with my tests: the system appear to be functional and usable but not so smooth and responsive. The same feeling I have when I'm using the current version, that brought my into testing alternative lightweight desktops like LXDE.

Not everything works …

Unfortunately, Ubuntu-Gnome 15.04, presented also some problem in refreshing graphics. The problem is particularly visible while rendering the activities and the application views.
Problems like this are not uncommon while testing a “Beta 1” release, April final release might not show this defect at all. Still it makes me to seriously think about abandoning, on the EEEPC, Gnome-Shell for a more lightweight desktop engine.

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