Ubuntu Linux Catch-All [10.04 "Lucid Lynx": Released!]

Downsides to Karmic Koala Kubuntu (did anyone just notice that makes a pretty poor acronym?):

I have no idea where it installs things, as far as the Kickoff menu goes. Things like Firefox will obviously go into "Internet", but for other programs (is it "System"? "Settings"?) I have to browse around through every menu option looking for it.

There's no Novice mode for the package manager. I don't really care whether or not something requires numerous other packages and dependencies. When I'm searching for VLC Media Player or Firefox, sifting through 80 entries trying to figure out which one is the main installer is irritating. It also has no ranking system, either similar to the one in Ubuntu that kind of rates which programs are most installed/downloaded, or to arrange the results by relevancy, like a web search.

Uninstalling a program is almost as complicated as installing one (again, no Novice mode in the package manager).

When the package manager is actively running/downloading, at least on the older Macbook, the entire system slows down to nearly unusable levels.

If you accidentally close out the Desktop plasmoid, it's gone. It doesn't get saved anywhere to be reactivated. You can make a new Folderview plasmoid, but it defaults to the Home folder. I struggled to get it to display the Desktop folder, even after I selected that option and hit Refresh (it kept displaying the contents of the Home folder). Finally managed to trick it by pointing it to another folder that had nothing in it, and then switching it over to Desktop.

I'll be damned if I can figure out how to change the font size of the clock/calendar on the taskbar. You can choose different fonts, but it only affects the clock, and makes it look out of place. By default the clock font is too large, and the AM/PM gets lost in the date information.

The screen brightness power settings don't affect the Macbook. You can manually adjust them once you install Pommed (with the keyboard shortcuts), but I can't figure out how to get the GUI for Pommed working. Still, the volume buttons, right-click, and brightness adjustments work after that, but not with the power manager.

This site would have saved me some trial and error if I had found it sooner: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBook

Firefox isn't installed by default. There's a Firefox installer, but I didn't realize that and tried to manually install Firefox, which had some odd results and required me to uninstall everything remotely Firefox and start over. I guess it has something to do with they couldn't fit everything onto a single disk, such as Firefox, but the first thing I tried to do was go web browsing, and almost every website told me to get a better browser (when using Konquerer). Plus, I wanted to use all my Xmarks settings.

Humorously enough, the systems log thing crashed when I opened it to see if anything had crashed.

Certain settings aren't activated by default, like having the repositories actually selected in the package manager. Or saving the wifi password and automatically logging in (I don't remember it ever asking me if that's what I wanted, either). Eventually I got curious and edited the connection's settings, but that seems like an unnecessary extra step.

Some of the widget names and functions aren't readily obvious or intuitive. I didn't realize the Desktop widget was actually just a Folderview widget that monitors the Desktop folder until I Googled it. Some of the others are like that, too.

Great things about it:

It looks fantastic. Really.

The plasmoids are like widgets, but better. And having your Desktop in a widget is actually a pretty great idea, as you can jam as little or as much as you like into it, and not affect your fancy wallpapers or other widgets, and you don't need any sort of "reveal widgets" system. I have the dictionary, the comics viewer, and the Desktop folder up at all times.

The Folderview widget is like the W7 Libraries on crack. It has elements of Libraries and the OS X equivalent (Spaces? I can't remember) and throws in other options such as Filters. And I don't know which came first, so saying it has elements of W7 and OS X isn't meant as an insult. You can customize it in a lot of weird ways, which can turn it into anything from a video folder to a program launchpad.

With a few notable exceptions, it's extremely quick, even on the older hardware, and even though there's plenty of eye candy.

I really like Dolphin and the Kickoff menu. But I'm used to Ubuntu/Gnome, so I guess I don't have the nostalgia/experience with how the system used to look/work.

Amarok, baby. It's been a long time.

The built-in power management has an excellent number of settings, and switches profiles depending on whether or not you're plugged in (except the brightness doesn't work on Macbooks. Maybe it'll show up in Lusty Lemming or Loquacious Limpkin).

Overall, I'm actually preferring it to Ubuntu/Gnome, but I wish it had some of the more user-friendly Ubuntu features like the program installer with its ratings.

This is kind of a plus and a minus, but damn near everything can be tweaked. Unfortunately, that means damn near everything requires a tweak or two to get up and running. So less "out of the box" friendly.

And that's my beginner's perspective on Kubuntu KDE 4.3. The novelty hasn't worn off yet, I'm using the old Macbook more than my shiny new unibody with W7 right now.

Edit: Other notes. 25-30 seconds bootup from on to usable desktop. For some reason the widgets seem to forget my configurations every boot and you have to click "Configure" each time, even if it's only to just click "OK" right after that.

Today is Karmic release day! Yay!

Time to update my boxes.

I realize it's probably because it's release day, but updating anything or installing any software packages you have to download stalls at 90-95%. If it was my first time using Ubuntu, I'd be very unimpressed/displeased, because you can't install any of the touted hundreds of free applications.

It occurred to me I could install the Software Center into Kubuntu in lieu of the default installer, and it worked like a charm. Except that I actually dislike the Software Center compared to the old Update Manager/Package Manager in Ubuntu/Gnome. The user ratings are completely gone, and not just in Kubuntu (which I discovered when I did a clean install of Ubuntu over it to give it a whirl). You can effectively only download or uninstall one program at a time, instead of queueing up several like you could before. If you're quick, it'll queue up a few programs, but the only way to install or uninstall a program is by clicking the download arrow and going into the description for each and every item, irritating if you actually know what you're downloading. Also, the software center has the same oddity as the Kubuntu package manager, in that none of the repositories are actually checked on by default. Giving you the option to add your own is nice, but if I'm a new user, don't make me figure out why there's no software available. In my eyes, the new Software Center has actually removed functionality compared to the old Add/Remove Programs to make way for some pretty icons. Still, it is pretty user friendly, so I find myself actually objecting to its simplicity at this point. There's just no pleasing me. How about a third option in between "idiot proof" and "hardcore"?

Everything else runs fantastic. Bootups were 30-35 seconds compared to Kubuntu's 25-30 seconds, not much of a difference, but still measurable. Ubuntu also detected my wireless settings automatically (WPA Personal), correctly detects my battery charge and amount of time left, allows me to easily turn Bluetooth off, and the arrangement of the menus under "System" makes a lot more sense than Kubuntu's "System" and "Settings", which either assigns programs arbitrarily to one of the two categories or repeats programs in both categories, and in the case of "Settings", includes the puzzling "System Settings" as the only default entry. Why can't that go under "System", exactly? All small items, but all features that were not working correctly by default in Kubuntu.

Other than that, I can't tell that there's much different. I feel like I'm taking a lot for granted, as I've never had this painless of an Ubuntu install before. Drivers are all working, except for the Macbook specific functions (only volume works, display brightness and touchpad functions such as two-finger scroll do not work, and neither does the right-click. In Kubuntu, all these work by default except for the brightness.)

Overall, I still like Kubuntu better, although since the daily build I downloaded previously, my wireless seems to be having even more troubles than before. I couldn't get onto my campus network at all (it requires WPA Enterprise/LEAP) with the release day version, and I was chugging along fine this morning with the daily build.

Anyone dressing up as a koala for Halloween?

It's funny - I've run Ubuntu since the first release (ol' Warty in 2004!) and I have never used anything except apt/aptitude and Synaptic to install packages on Ubuntu.

Never once used the AppCenter / Software Center.

Also note that changing the mirror you're connecting to can dramatically alter the speed of your connection/downloads. When setting up my HTPC last week, I was getting ~30kb/s on the main Ubuntu mirror. Switching to one closer to where I am upped that to ~500kb/s, which made the entire process a whole lot better.

So I executed what I consider a small error, but which ended up driving me crazy. To get around the WPA problems I've been having in Kubuntu, I installed Wicd. When Wicd didn't really solve anything, I uninstalled it... and realized I was f*cked. I noticed too late that installing Wicd actually uninstalled the default Kubuntu network manager, and I was left with no way to get online to download the appropriate packages.

After hopping on my other laptop hoping to just download the necessary packages, I realized that also downloading the necessary dependencies is an aggravating task unto itself. I attempted to use the Kubuntu install CD as a repository source, but even after adding it to the package manager as a source, and unchecking all the other options, the stupid thing refused to use the CD and instead returned an error because I have no internet connection.

Now, from past experience with Ubuntu, I should have realized it would uninstall the Kubuntu network manager. Still, there were no warnings, even when I went to remove Wicd. Something like, "Hey guy, you're about to bork your wireless connectivity" would have been nice. The Kubuntu network manager still appeared in the taskbar, just as "disabled", so I thought that maybe Wicd hadn't uninstalled it after all.

I didn't have a network cable handy, and dealing with all the dependencies was a nightmare, and the install CD wasn't functioning as a source, so I finally just reinstalled Kubuntu completely, just to get my network connectivity back. It seemed the easiest and fastest solution since I hadn't really created any settings or documents I wanted to save yet, but I can't feel like that being the simplest solution is kind of ridiculous. It wasn't THAT unforeseeable of a mistake.

unntrlaffinity wrote:

I attempted to use the Kubuntu install CD as a repository source, but even after adding it to the package manager as a source, and unchecking all the other options, the stupid thing refused to use the CD and instead returned an error because I have no internet connection.

You have to tell apt to refresh its package indexes to make it use the new repository sources.

In Synaptic, this is done with the Reload button.

From the command line, it's apt-get update (or aptitude update).

From those funky Ubuntu/Kubuntu-only software manager apps you use, I don't know.

I updated my main work-station at work from 9.04 to 9.10 today, and was semi-dissappointed. It has two dual port video cards running two screens on four monitors, runs a view VM's, and other random junk I need, and invariably a distro upgrade breaks something (usually either my X config, the VM's, or both), and I get to waste much of a day tinkering instead of doing the work I am supposed to be doing. Today the install went fairly quickly, and not only did everything work afterwards, everything felt like it was performing much better (I don't have any before and after numbers to prove it though).

*Legion* wrote:
unntrlaffinity wrote:

I attempted to use the Kubuntu install CD as a repository source, but even after adding it to the package manager as a source, and unchecking all the other options, the stupid thing refused to use the CD and instead returned an error because I have no internet connection.

You have to tell apt to refresh its package indexes to make it use the new repository sources.

In Synaptic, this is done with the Reload button.

From the command line, it's apt-get update (or aptitude update).

From those funky Ubuntu/Kubuntu-only software manager apps you use, I don't know. :)

Hey, give me some credit. I installed Synaptic previous to my faux pas, and I tried using that, and refreshing the index in all the ways I discovered on the Ubuntu forums, including the apt-get update thing. For some reason it just wouldn't work, and re-installing only takes 20 minutes, so rather than spend another hour scouring the boards I gave up. I'm not going to use the cliched "it's not ready for prime time", because I think it's a feature rich Linux release that's in most ways very easy to use, but sometimes, DAMN, it punishes you.

In this case, there are several things it could have done, like warn me I was about to uninstall such an important package, or Linux in general could make installing packages and their dependencies easier (it's completely dependent on your patience or having an internet connection), or just have refreshing the indexes in there by default (that was another 15 minutes of Googling), or just have it set up to go through the other sources when the primary internet one fails. Similar to how Windows will ask if you want to locate a driver manually when there's not internet connection.

I mean, I bothered to reinstall, so obviously I like it, but I'm not a complete idiot, and I have semi-regular difficulties (or rather, "learning experiences") with Linux and various aspects of releases like Kubuntu that aren't particularly intuitive.

Yeah, there are still times when you can really get bit in the butt, and it's usually when you're troubleshooting a problem. Linux is Unix, and Unix fundamentally gives you pretty much an infinite-sized shovel to dig holes with. "Wipe out every file on the drive? Sure!" Apple has done a much better job of hiding that from the end-user.

For later reference: if you had updated your packages, cached copies are stored by default in /var/cache/apt/archives. This early in a Ubuntu release cycle, there won't be too much in there, but in a few months, once they've done their usual thing of replace-every-package-in-the-OS-because-we-shipped-too-soon, there will be nearly a complete installation in there, including dependencies. You can do emergency installs from the command line with dpkg --install filename.deb -- it'll complain about what it needs, and then you can keep hitting up arrow and adding packages until it's happy.

The layout on the CD is pretty much insane. It's very hard to find packages you need. But they're all lumped into the same directory in /var/cache/apt/archives, so that can be a quick way to bandaid or, even better, to fall back to a prior package if an update hoses you.

Troubleshooting in Windows used to be at least this difficult, by the way. They've improved that a lot on the Microsoft side too.

I have a problem getting our computer running Ubuntu to dual-boot to Windows 7. GRUB was working fine when it had Windows XP as the secondary OS, but after wiping the Windows drive and installing Windows 7, GRUB just sits there with "Starting up..." and doesn't actually go on to booting.

I have a workaround, but since it involves taking off the case and unplugging the Ubuntu drive, I'm not really happy with it.

I've done some searching, but haven't unearthed anything useful. I'm also not the one in the house who administers the machine, but if I can point to a solution, it will get fixed faster. Thanks for any help.

So you had two separate drives, one with Ubuntu and the boot loader and one with Windows XP. You wiped Windows XP and installed Windows 7?

Since GRUB doesn't know about the new Windows installation, it probably still tries to chainload the old XP. (Another reason to always install Windows first and Linux last!)

I can only guess but this could be helpful. (Probably section "Indirect booting by chainloading")

Running update-grub2 might also help.

Where was this when I accidentally uninstalled my Wifi manager? I might actually give the next Kubuntu update a try now.

Has anyone tried the latest build of Lucid Lynx? It's actually pretty spiffy. This release seems to be focusing on papercuts/performance enhancements, but one new feature is the integration of social networking via Gwibber. You've got your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, IM, and all that right there in the control panel.

The new look is also appreciated, nothing against the tried and true Ubuntu brown of the past. The logos have have been reworked as well.

I still don't like how the Ubuntu Software Center doesn't let you sort by program ratings (what's the point of having them then?), and it generally runs dog slow compared to the simple Ubuntu software installer of the past. Queuing up items to either install or remove is an exercise in frustration as the interface lags way behind your frenzied clicking.

I installed Gnome DO and the Docky, which is a potent combination. Uncheck the expand option of the top panel/taskbar, delete the bottom taskbar, check the "Panel" and "3D Background" options in Docky, and you're left with a fascinating cross between the OS X and Windows 7 interfaces.

It'd be nice to have other email clients (like Thunderbird) integrated as closely with the OS as Evolution is, but I rarely use desktop mail anymore. The same goes for independent IM clients, as I generally just use Gmail for my chatting needs.

The boot times have been vastly improved. Depending on your setup you'll get 15 seconds easy. Other folks with SSDs can manage an average of 6-8 seconds.

I still heart Word 2007 over OpenOffice Writer any day of the week. Once you get used to the ribbon interface the old-style Word 95-97 menus just feel cluttered, and Writer still lags behind on other simple features like embedding fonts in the document or an accurate real-time word count that displays in the status bar. Fortunately, Wine handles Word 2007 perfectly for basic functions. There are a few caveats, but I never use the clipart or equation editing functions, so they mostly don't affect me. Installing it via Playonlinux is an extremely painless process. Unfortunately, Wine doesn't work with either of the Office service packs, which means you're left without the added functionality of PDF and ODT support.

I missed Amarok since I abandoned Linux after my last mishap on the Macbook. It's remarkable how solid it is compared to any other media application on the market, even if they never seem to be able to deliver that 3.0 they've been promising for 2-3 years now.

I don't have much to knock Lucid Lynx for. Ubuntu's default menus are still a damned mess. Programs are dumped haphazardly between System Tools, Accessories, Preferences, Administration, and the catch-all "Other", without much thought as to which items should actually be considered an accessory, a preference setting, a system tool, or an administrative option. I don't like having the Gwibber information panel locked in to the power button, because having them in the same panel results in my sometimes clicking on the IM client when I'm simply trying to shut the system down. The Ubuntu Software Center needs work. My complaints about the menus can be easily remedied, if you don't mind investing the time in dragging programs from old folder to the next and then going back and deleting them (whenever you drag a program to another folder, for some reason it just copies it, and then when you try and delete a shortcut, it copies it to the "Other" folder. Which means you can spend a lot of time flipping back and forth performing redundant tasks if you want it perfect.)

There's a lot of hullabaloo over the shift of the Maximize/Minimize/Close buttons from the top-right of the program window to the top-left, but honestly the biggest annoyance in practical, everyday use is that various programs force the buttons to be on one side or the other (like Google Chrome, which sticks them in their standard top-right location.) That makes it hard to adjust, so it's easy to move the pointer to the wrong spot no matter what program you're using. One of the Ubuntu designers posted a blog explaining the decision, and essentially they're moving them there now to make any future changes to the interface less abrupt. I prefer his suggestion of having the Maximize/Minimize buttons in the top-left, and the Close button on the top-right, so maybe they'll shift to that in the future.

Things that keep me from switching permanently:

I'm actually quite satisfied with Windows 7.

I really do adore Word 2007. OpenOffice Writer has come a long way and is extremely functional, but as a program I use every single day, I've become accustomed to Word 2007.

I'm also very attached to Windows Live Mesh/Sync to synchronize my desktop, my laptop, and my work computer.

I recently bought a Zune HD, which only functions with Windows and the Zune software.

I could be convinced to trade Live Sync in for Dropbox, and I'd use OpenOffice Writer if pressed (I've started saving all my documents in ODT formats by default anyway, but Writer doesn't embed fonts, which the librarian in me demands), and if the price drops I could probably be convinced to trade my Zune HD for the next generation of Samsung P3 devices, since the P3 supports Ogg Vorbis and that would fit in with my shift towards open formats. Hell, I'm even using Liberation fonts now.

Really, though, if Wine irons out the kinks with Office 2007 and supports the service packs in the future, I could be easily swayed to permanently switch to Ubuntu. It's that good now. Gnome DO is great for Quicksilver/Launchy-like functionality, and Docky is extremely easy to use, although I wish you could re-arrange the Docklettes without deleting them all and installing them in exact order (if you're obsessive like myself and want the trash bin always on the far right.)

Haven't tried out LL yet, but I currently dual boot with 9.10 and Win7 so I can get the best of both worlds My dev work in Ubuntu, and gaming, MS Office, and vpn to my company network from Win7.
Agreed, Gnome Do is great. I've been using Cairo-Dock and it is okay, but I might check out Docky. I also like Tilda for a drop down Terminal that I can toggle. Dropbox is awesome. It has worked flawlessly for me in Win7/ Ubuntu and on my MacbookPro.

When I had a functioning Zune, I ran the Zune software inside of a VirtualBox XP session. Took care of my Zune sync needs without taking me out of Linux, and without any worries about Wine compatibility.

Very much looking forward to Lucid.

Dropbox is holy. Windows has Live Sync, Ubuntu has Ubuntu One, but what's the point when Dropbox works so damn well and runs on all three major platforms? I haven't even bothered touching Ubuntu One.

(Same reason I use JungleDisk too. If I decide I want to go all Mac and work exclusively from my MacBook Pro for a while, I like my cloud data saying, "sure, meet you there!")

*Legion* wrote:

When I had a functioning Zune, I ran the Zune software inside of a VirtualBox XP session. Took care of my Zune sync needs without taking me out of Linux, and without any worries about Wine compatibility.

How's the performance with something like Office 2007? Like I said, Word 2007 is my baby. It's funny, I've run Ubuntu in Windows via Virtualbox, but it never occurred to me to try the inverse. Although that would be pretty roundabout if I had to launch Virtualbox every time I wanted to type up a document.

unntrlaffinity wrote:

How's the performance with something like Office 2007?

Performance is largely dependent on your system. If you've got enough RAM to commit to your VM when it's running, then it'll run pretty well. Having a multi-core CPU helps too, as the VM can go chew on the CPU cycles of one of those mostly-idle cores and not interfere too much with your normal environment.

Like I said, Word 2007 is my baby. It's funny, I've run Ubuntu in Windows via Virtualbox, but it never occurred to me to try the inverse. Although that would be pretty roundabout if I had to launch Virtualbox every time I wanted to type up a document.

Perhaps, but it's not so bad. There's some Windows-only tools we use at work, small stuff mostly, but it has me firing up the XP VMs every couple of workdays or so. It's pretty painless. I use Dropbox to pass files between my main systems and my VMs (I could use VBox's shared folders too, but I work across more than one machine, and the Dropbox way means the VMs on whatever machine I'm working on have access to the shared folder)

Man. I've just wasted I don't know how many hours trying to figure out how to preserve my exact settings, including programs, taskbars, preferences, and everything, from install to install of Ubuntu. I thought using tar on my home directory and etc directory would do the trick, but that doesn't seem to be working.

I used to wonder how people could stand the tedium of building model airplanes. After staring at a terminal for most of the evening, I'm thinking maybe we're not so different.

unntrlaffinity wrote:

Man. I've just wasted I don't know how many hours trying to figure out how to preserve my exact settings, including programs, taskbars, preferences, and everything, from install to install of Ubuntu. I thought using tar on my home directory and etc directory would do the trick, but that doesn't seem to be working.

I used to wonder how people could stand the tedium of building model airplanes. After staring at a terminal for most of the evening, I'm thinking maybe we're not so different.

Is there a reason why you're reinstalling?

/etc and your home directory (making sure you include all the hidden files and folders, ie: the ones that start with a ".") will cover your settings, but it won't handle your list of installed software. You can get a list of everything that's installed with the "dpkg -l" command, though, and I'm sure there's some clever way to take that list from one system and use it to install packages on a second system, probably using the --set-selections option to dpkg.

pneuman wrote:

Is there a reason why you're reinstalling?

/etc and your home directory (making sure you include all the hidden files and folders, ie: the ones that start with a ".") will cover your settings, but it won't handle your list of installed software. You can get a list of everything that's installed with the "dpkg -l" command, though, and I'm sure there's some clever way to take that list from one system and use it to install packages on a second system, probably using the --set-selections option to dpkg.

Well, there's no practical reason. I was just curious if it could be done.

I discovered through painful trial and error that wholesale extracting of the etc directory will screw up your fdisk and your partitions. Whoops. Currently I'm trying to figure out how to get dpkg --set-selections and --get-selections to work, but for some reason it doesn't seem to be downloading Docky, Gnome DO, or Google Chrome. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I was trying to run dselect without having it installed. I am a genius! That's the hard part with following Linux guides and walkthroughs. They each assume you know something that might not be obvious to a less advanced user, so you have to use multiple ones to really understand what's going on and to catch missing steps.

It worked though. No more moving around my folders and setting up my taskbars or even settings the zip code for the weather applet. Although the Google stuff needs to be installed separately, I guess because I didn't download them from a repository.

Silly question:

Is there a way to deploy Ubuntu Desktop without all of the extras (such as, Games, OpenOffice, Email/Chat clients, FireFox, etc...)?

Here's an article on building a basic Ubuntu install piecemeal. Basically, you grab the minimal CD, do a "server" install (which is just the base system), and then use apt to install all the desktop stuff you want.

I don't know about doing deployed installs though.

*Legion* wrote:

Here's an article on building a basic Ubuntu install piecemeal. Basically, you grab the minimal CD, do a "server" install (which is just the base system), and then use apt to install all the desktop stuff you want.

I don't know about doing deployed installs though.

This will be useful to me none the less. Thx!

Time to dust off this thread and update the title.

Lucid releases tomorrow!

I've already upgraded my desktop, work laptop, and UNR-running EeePC to 10.04.

Initial thoughts:

* I'm a big fan of the new Ambience theme. On the one hand, it's clearly taken some ideas from OS X, most notably the minimize/maximize/close buttons being on the left (and, thankfully, in the same order as on OSX, as it was not always this way during development). On the other hand, it realizes the "dark theme" goal that previous Ubuntu dark themes have failed to deliver. OSX and now Windows (thanks to Win7) are in the light colored, glassy, shiny sort of vein. This dark theme really establishes an identifiable "look" for Ubuntu that's divergent from those OSs. It's very nice.

* The GUI feels a good bit more responsive. Especially on the netbook.

* Boot time was a big deal with this iteration of Ubuntu, and they've made significant gains. Does it matter? On my desktop, maybe not so much. On my netbook? A whole lot, and it's extremely welcome. Though they're maybe a bit short of their "10 second boot" goal, as the linked test shows, hardware that booted Ubuntu 9.10 in over 50 seconds boots Ubuntu 10.04 in under 20.

They don't have a countdown on the site. I'm wondering what time the release will be available for download.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

The official release time is never set in stone. Sometimes it's early, sometimes it's later, sometimes it's the day after. But the daily build from today should be practically identical to whatever ends up being the official LTS release.

unntrlaffinity wrote:

But the daily build from today should be practically identical to whatever ends up being the official LTS release.

It's released, and there are exactly 0 changed packages from what I was running yesterday.

The update at the end of setup is a little slow, although I'm not sure if that's because it's launch day. Regardless I think it's a good idea to get an initial update done before booting the installed OS, and you have the option to skip it. It also started to download language packs (which turned out to be openoffice dictionaries/thesaurus and gnome user guide, that would have taken about 8:40) which has got me thinking are they trying to cram too much into a CD distribution that they need to download the rest to finish it.