We’ve done several upgrade installs of 8.10 so far, and for the most part it’s been smooth. There are a couple of issues we’ve come across so far after upgrades.

The first has to do with a constantly-blinking, and seriously-distracting, wifi light. Launchpad bug report is here:

Intrepid: WLAN LED blinks incessantly on iwl3945 | iwl4965 laptop
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/250211

UPDATE: You may have some luck with this fix (attempt at your own risk; results may vary…):

http://blog.drinsama.de/erich/en/linux/2008052101-iwlwifi-blinking.html

The next thing we just noticed over the last day or two, and that’s the apparently total loss of keyboard input inside a Windows XP VM via VirtualBox OSE. A couple of times, keyboard control eventually came back seemingly on its own after about twenty minutes.  Another time we were completely stuck for well over an hour and eventually gave up, killing VirtualBox. The keyboard isn’t totally dead; it’s just dead as far as the VM is concerned. You can still three-finger your way back into another shell and regain control of the machine. Mouse (and everything else) still works just fine in the VM, too; no other indications of any other problems. Seems like it might be related to the VBox Additions, but we’ve not yet looked into it very closely at all. We haven’t looked for any bug reports on this one yet.

And last but not least, if you run some sort of Active Directory-related setup, don’t have any local users, do channel bonding and maybe have a complicated RAID setup… you might want to consider not upgrading just yet, or at least bother browsing the release notes before you leap into upgrading. We read about this one; it didn’t happen to us!

You can download 8.10 here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Full release notes for 8.10 are here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810

All in all, 8.10 Intrepid Ibex seems to be a decent upgrade. It feels like mostly-minor tweaks and speed enhancements, and more driver support. Many included apps are updated. There is extensive use of the ‘>’ symbol in the menus, and that carat usage–in every orientation–carries over across much of the UI; almost annoyingly so in fact. NVIDIA drivers obsolete some older NVIDIA cards (like the GeForce4s), so you may need to go back to the open-source drivers and deal with being 2D-only for now. Check the release notes for most of the details.

System performance does seem noticeably better on all systems we’ve upgraded so far. WiFi signals where applicable seem stronger; all our setups are seeing more access points now than they did prior to the upgrade.

We have not yet done a squeaky-clean install of 8.10, nor have we tested a current LiveCD… but will soon.

Now if we could just get those blinking wifi lights to stop. b.. l.. i.. n.. k.. i.. n.. g.. .. .. .. .. It’s really, really distracting.

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This post is also a quickie test of the blogging client Drivel…which really isn’t impressing me so far. More about using it under Ubuntu here. It doesn’t support WordPress directly, and in virtually NO way does it even begin to compare to Windows Live Writer, which is arguably the current gold-standard of offsite blogging editors/clients.

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If you use Microsoft Update, you should see it your list if updates soon if you haven’t already.

You’ll also find links there for MS Visio 2007 Service Pack 1 and MS Project 2007 Service Pack 1, if you’ve not done those already.

Details on what SP1 addresses and fixes, and any other related issues, are here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936982

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It is free software, and there are several ways to get it. Ubuntu is also available in a variety of flavors, from the educational Edubuntu version, to the KDE-enabled Kubuntu version, to Xubuntu for those that like a sparser looking/feeling desktop interface, to their very popular Ubuntu Server Edition (which is really great for LAMP installs, among other things).

The normal image download of Ubuntu is also a LiveCD, which allows you to boot off of the CD and give Ubuntu a try, without worrying about damaging or altering your existing OS/setup. It does run a bit slower in this mode, since it’s not actually installed but instead running directly off the CD in RAM only, but it should otherwise be a working version of Ubuntu you can kick the tires on and try out before you commit to it. Pretty powerful stuff.

You can also download an “alternate desktop CD” version; it does not include the Live CD functionality, instead it uses a text-based installer, and is a slightly smaller download. I recommend you skip this version, unless you know you specifically need it.

Who should try Ubuntu? Well, the LiveCD will allow anyone to simply pop in a disc and try it out, so I think everyone should, at least once. You’ve got nothing to lose but a some time downloading and burning it to CD, and again, it’s totally free.

And yes, it’s probably a bit different from what you may be used to, but it’s really the same in most of the ways that matter to a typical PC user. Will Windows users love it? That depends on how stuck you are on the familiarity of Windows. Most of the things the average person does with Windows can be easily accomplished for free using a Linux distro like Ubuntu, which already includes–out of the ‘box’–Firefox, OpenOffice.org’s office suite, and tons of other useful “everyday” software most people want and need. We use it here, daily–both the Desktop and Server editions–and love it.

If you have questions or want to get even more into it, feel free to contact us to set up a demo, give a presentation, or arrange some training. Ubuntu offers both free and paid support and paid training as well.

Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” can be downloaded here, or from a large number of download mirror sites. Enjoy!

(Image from Ubuntu.com)

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Two weeks ago, we posted about an issue involving the calculation of numbers around 65,535 and 65,536. As of today, fixes for this issue in Excel 2007 and Excel Services 2007 are available for download from the following locations:

Excel 2007: link
64-bit Excel Services 2007: link
32-bit Excel Services 2007: link

KB Articles have been posted as well:

Excel 2007: link
Excel Services 2007: link

We are in the process of adding this fix to Microsoft Update so that it will get automatically pushed to users running Excel 2007 or Excel Services 2007. Additionally, the fix will also be contained in the first service pack of Office 2007 when it is released (the release date for SP1 of Office 2007 has not been finalized).

Thank you for your patience,

The Excel Team

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Sun Microsystems, shame on you! You guys know OpenOffice.org is already free, right?

Surely there’s a better way to get people into the OpenOffice fold than this kind of…cheap trickery?

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Microsoft has issued an updated Internet Explorer (IE) 7 release that no longer requires Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation in order to download. The company has refreshed versions of IE 7 for Windows XP Service Pack (SP)2, Windows 64 client/server, and Windows Server 2003 SP1/SP2. It also posted an update to IE 7 for Windows XP that resolves a phishing-filter problem with the browser.

(Snippet from ZDNet)

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It’s quite possible the Microsoft Update service has already pushed these updates out to you earlier this week. Otherwise, you’ll need to go through Office Update or hit the Microsoft website and grab the update directly yourself (as linked below). Regular Windows Update does not check for updates to Microsoft Office; we recommend you upgrade to the more advanced and inclusive (and still free) Microsoft Update service.

Customers that retain us for software updates and security audits should have received these updates already, automatically.

[...] The Microsoft Office division has just released Service Pack 3 for 2003, and it is available for download through Office Update or directly from Microsoft’s web site.

The update includes a number of hotfixes that were released post-SP2, as well as some new tweaks. New fixes in Excel include performance improvements for loading files over slow networks and updates to the error-reporting service. Word gets fixes for many formatting errors, as well as for the problem some users had copying and pasting text from web pages. Powerpoint gets attention for problems with the “Package for CD” feature. In addition to bug fixes, SP3 contains numerous security patches to close recently-discovered holes.

[...]

(Snippet from ArsTechnica. Image from Microsoft.)

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Windows Vista Performance Update:

• x86 Download
• x64 Download

Windows Vista Reliability Update:

• x86 Download
• x64 Download

Run, don’t walk. You need these, whether you realize it or not. They’ll show up in your Automatic Updates on Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of the month, when Microsoft regularly puts out any updates/patches/fixes), but there’s no need at all to wait.

We’d love to hear from you about your post-update experiences with these.

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