I haven't updated my blog in a while, it has simply been off my radar. With Ubuntu Lucid coming out in GA in a few days, I figured I would write about it.

I installed Lucid right after the first alpha came out. I was running 9.10, and wanted to see the new version - I don't mind living on the bleeding edge. I downloaded the alpha and wiped out my PC (After a complete backup) and re-partitioned making a dedicated \home partition which is one of those "one of these days I will" things. Well, this gave me the opportunity.

The install went smooth, and it fired up with no problems at all. I have not had ONE problem since. This is a solid release and as GA, I think it will be near perfect. One of the niggles that drives me insane however is that each time I run an update that includes the Kernel, I get a new grub entry, so now I have about 8 different Ubuntu entries on my grub. I'll clean that up later.

I have been a distro hopper forever, I like them all in some form or another, and I like to see what people are doing with the various distro's. This is the first time in YEARS that I have kept the same distro for any length of time. I may download the final GA version and do a clean install, I don't know.

It was fun doing my updates however, and then searching the system looking for changes and updates, and being in the middle of the 'buttons on the left' arguments. I have put my own backgrounds and colors in place. I also replaced the notification icons for Evolution with different ones because I felt there wasn't enough contrast as I like my panels near transparent.

That's the beauty of Linux, you can change anything.

As you can see, my 'new mail' icon is a nice green, and default black when there is no mail. I don't agree with the default icon, as it looks as thought the envelope is open which to me, means mail is here, that's why I changed it.

There was an issue for a long time with the battery monitor in that it would flicker and move around which bugged me. Thats gone now. You will also find the volume control is horizontal and no longer vertical. This is a big help to laptop users who have to use the track pad.

I tried installing the KDE 4.x desktop, but I found it too bulky and foreign. I just didn't feel like learning how to use it. This is the same with Docky, it's neat, but counter productive and redundant at least to me. I really wish Gnome had the fly out folder and file previews like KDE though, that's hot.

I run (3) desktops; The leftmost is my work desktop, middle is reserved for VM's, or anything temporary and the right is for Evolution, always-on. I'll use the panel switcher most often, but on occasion use clt-alt-left or right.

I have read that the volume control is red when there is an application trying to play music. Well, I'm on here, OMG Ubuntu and LinkedIn at the moment, none of them play music that I know of, yet it's still red. Maybe it's a bug.

All in all, I can say without reservation that this is the best Distro I've run yet, and I plan to keep it. If you haven't tried Lucid, give it a shot. I think you won't turn back.