Today, I'm going to give a mini review of Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn herd3. I know that its not really "reviewable", as this is only touted as "alpha", but I've been using it as my ONLY OS for about a week, and I think its safe to give my impressions (besides no one reads my blogs anyways).

So, first off, the install: I originally dove into ubuntu feisty herd 2. Herd 2 did not love my notebook (Dell XPS M1210, 1.83 GHZ core duo, 100 Gb HD, 1 GB ram). Gnome kept crashing, I couldn't connect to the internet, and I just had a bad experience. I then switched back to edgy, and things went pretty smooth; that is until I ran into the transparency bug (http://linuxfud.wordpress.com/2006/09/29/ubuntu-crashes-on-start-and-returns-to-the-login-screen/)
. This happened with both predictability and frequency, so I tried kubuntu. Very nice. Coming over from windows, KDE was very easy to use and quick. I liked it a lot, and even upgraded to the feisty version.

Over time however, I found KDE to be bloated with apps I didn't even know operate, let alone utilize. Additionally, I began to yearn for all of the new features suggested in the gnome version (namely the notebook support, and the automatic prompt for third party plugins and codecs). I decided to give feisty another try, this time herd 3.

What ever was breaking my box in herd 2, seemed to be fixed in herd 3 (now herd 4). Everything works (what I've tested anyways). Its rock solid, and I even have beryl running. Its fairly quick, and I now have no complaints. Even though I get the free "upgrade" to vista, I'm pretty sure that I've left windows for good. I don't have to worry about security any more (although if ubuntu ever does take off like we all hope, this might generate incentive for hackers to start focusing more on linux, but I doubt it). And what's spyware?

Bottom line: Feisty Rocks on the M1210!