Hardy Heron

I last messed about with Linux distributions over five years ago in the days of Red Hat and SUSE, so I thought that it was about time that I had another go with the latest and most popular desktop version of Ubuntu 8 codenamed Hardy Heron. Ubuntu seems to be getting a lot of praise in the press and I wanted to find out what it was all about.

I was disappointed before with the hassle of installing the old versions and expected more of the same with this one. I just downloaded the desktop Ubuntu 8.04 LTS version from the website and burnt it onto one CD. Boy, was I surprised when it installed in about 25 minutes on an old eMachine system that I had lying around. Everything just worked first time from the box so to speak. Access to the network, sound, graphics all configured perfectly. The applications like Openoffice were installed and ready to go. It just worked. And you don't have to mess about with antivirus, firewalls, security suites, etc.

This will be perfect for recycling all those old PCs that I get without a legal version of Windows that can be reloaded onto them. Mostly I just get what spares I need from them, destroy the hard disk drives and take them to the municipal rubbish dump. Now I can find another use for them, especially for people and organisations who already have a broadband Ethernet router and just want an extra PC for the visitors, children, mother, brother, dog, etc.