Notes on Ubuntu 8.04

I installed a fresh install of ubuntu 8.04. Sort of a jump for me since I was using 7.04. Should also note this ubuntu works on my intel 82830M card. Previous Ubuntu 7.04 had many xserver errors on it.

Installing a modem. Speedtouch 330. Easily done. Script on help.ubuntu.com just works. Adding pon speedtch to /etc/rc.local is better a solution than any of the boot scripts around.

Installing nvidia drivers was a little fiddly. I was about to download the packages from the repos but after messing around for 10 mins. Lots of unticking and ticking enable it downloaded them for me.


Once I had the nvidia drivers I could turn on the visual effects which are now in appearances.


Installing mp3 playback. This is one the biggest noobie questions around. The truth is it shouldn't be. What it comes down to is what player do you use?. See help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/MP3. I use exaile which is a gtk amarok like player. Its neat. It uses the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly package.
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
It then installs liba52-0.7.4 libdvdread3 libid3tag0 libmad0 libmpeg2-4 libsidplay1.

NTFS hard drives were loaded with out fuss. First distro I have ever used that has done this. In 7.04 I used a tool to mount but with 8.04 I just put my password in and its mounted.

Final thoughts then. While I have read many mediocre reviews about the lack of anything new in this long term support version of ubuntu. Its a well packaged Debian GNU/Linux based distribution thats clearly moving forward towards user friendliness while still offering flexibility for advanced users.