[GRLUG] My review of Ubuntu 7.10: Gooey Gumdrop

[Michael Mol]

Well, after spending a day arguing with it and researching, I've
determined a couple things.

First, Compiz does *not* appear to be enabled by default on *upgraded*
systems.  In fact, I've noticed aggressive appears to be due to the
i810 X11 driver being upgraded.  Setting special effects to "normal"
(enabling Compiz)  instead of the upgrade-default of "none" improved
performance somewhat, mainly by not forcing re-draws of windows while
I was resizing them.

Setting special effects to "Extra" reveals some broken behavior,
though.  Most folks who use GUIs should be familiar with snap effects,
where a window will snuggle cozily against screen edges or other
surfaces.  With special effects set to "Extra", the snap range is way
too high; Windows within fifty pixels or so of the screen size snap to
an edge, and can't be pulled away.  Combined with the gooey gumdrop
appearance one gets when one drags the title bar around, one gets the
distinct feeling one's in a tug-of-war.

In addition, the upgraded i810 driver causes lag issues with
Stepmania, making the game absolutely unplayable on my system.  Which
royally sucks, because that's exactly what I'd intended to do all
weekend.  It's likely that the i810 driver has been optimized for
newer graphics chipsets, which means my best course of action would be
to upgrade my video card, which is unfortunate, as I don't have
anything better than a PCI slot. Plus, I can't spare $60 right now for
even a PCI video card.

Finally, there weren't any "wow" features or fixes for me in 7.10.  In
Edgy, they fixed some wireless weirdness that was giving me a hassle.
The biggest problem I had had with Ubuntu up to this point was a high
latency between volume-key presses and changes in system volume. (I
think it's starting an app to handle the key presses.)  So 7.10 is,
for me, an overall regression.

I hereby christen Ubuntu 7.10 as "Gooey Gumdrop", after the weird
special effects behavior, and give it a rating of two (out of five)
stars.

Mike
-- 
:wq