4 days until Ubuntu's Hardy Heron takes off

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 20 April 2008 08:31

Opinion and Analysis

Hardy Heron, the latest version of Ubuntu, arguably the world’s most well known version of Linux, is set to be released in a mere four days. Keen as I am on – shock horror – Windows Vista, and less of a shock, Mac OS X, I await the release of Ubuntu’s newest bird with great anticipation.
When it comes to being an early adopter, I’m usually right up there at the front of the queue, or damn close to it.

After my father had the tremendous foresight to buy me an Exidy Sorcerer personal computer in early 1979, when I was but four years old, three years before the IBM came onto the market in 1981, I’ve taken to technology like the early bird who catches that worm.

The number of early PCs that still inhabit my childhood home, waiting for me to set up some kind of computer museum one day, would add up to quite a few, and amazingly enough, the last time I checked, they still worked.

God bless my mother, too - who supported Dad in his quest to give his children the best education he could, and who both supported and encouraged the use of technology, years before many other children received their first computers.

Of course this penchant for – and even love of – technology... has shaped my life, and has transformed me into the technology journalist and self-styled techno evangelist that I am today.

But one area that I’ve really not devoted much time to is the world of Linux, oddly enough. Now sure, I’ve tried it over the years. A range of different versions, too. But frankly, the experience has been vastly underwhelming every single time.

Despite all the horrors of different versions of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows, the fact is that it’s what most of the world still uses to this very day, and it’s the platform that I could do just about anything I wanted to on, certainly over the last 12-13 years.

Before Windows, it was a DOS world, and during the DOS era, my world was also filled with Apple ][s, Amigas, Microbees and Commodore 64s, amongst others.

Now Linux has been around since 1992, and while millions of people have loved Linux, I’ve been very happy in the world of Windows. Windows is still supremely compatible – even Vista has made enormous strides in matching the compatibility of Windows XP, although XP still remains THE most compatible version of Windows so far.

So, why am I so excited and hopeful for the Hardy Heron? Please read onto page 2.