Hardy Heron Update: An Alpha That Performs

I’m very impressed with the overall look, performance, and promise of Kubuntu 8.04 (alpha 3), the Hardy Heron. Specifically, it seems as if the new version has some memory management features built into its geeky guts that will especially delight users of older hardware (like me).

Now I don’t have a lab-type setting to test in — just an old Gateway PC that still manages to run XP (barely) and PCLOS (fairly capably). Now that I’ve added the Hardy Heron, I thought I’d run some standard processes and applications in both Hardy and PCLOS, and compare. The table below gives some of the results (the methodology is just me clicking or booting up with a stopwatch in my other hand). As you can see, the notable area where Hardy stands out for performance is in opening OpenOffice.org cold with the same 3-page document with graphics: Hardy does the job in half the time of PCLOS. In other respects, the two distros perform fairly equally; though again Hardy has the edge in opening Firefox (with identical home page tabs). The XP times are added both for amusement and to encourage you prisoners of Ballmer to make the move — note, for example, how you get to your OS a half minute faster in Linux than XP. And that’s only the beginning…boy, I could tell you some stories…

What needs to be added to this is one simple fact: Ubuntu/Canonical is a terrific company, and a very healthy one as well, with economic resources that no doubt dwarf what PCLOS has available. Particularly in light of that disparity, I think the accomplishment of the PCLOS development team in the product they delivered in 2007 is all the more remarkable; and I would repeat the same recommendation I made a month ago to anyone contemplating a move from Windows to Linux — get PCLOS 2007, and you’ll never look back.

Meanwhile, Hardy Heron is going to be a great distro, that much is already clear. But it’s still in alpha, and has a few bugs that I’ve already noticed (links in T-Bird fail to open in the browser, image files don’t open in GIMP from the Desktop). So for migrating Windows users who need to install and run Linux on existing hardware, I think PCLOS is still the better option over Ubuntu Gutsy (though if you’re buying a new machine, for example one of the Dell-buntu boxes or a pre-configured PC from a dealer like System76, Ubuntu’s your default, so go with it).

One thing is certain: 2008 will be a year of an embarrassment of riches for the Linux PC user, with wonderful options like PCLOS, Ubuntu, MEPIS 7, and Mint to choose from; and the gPC machines that Walmart can barely keep stocked will also remain in high demand. Another certainty is that the warm and fuzzy monopolistic era of Microsoft hegemony in the OS realm is coming to an end. And that is good, good news for all of us.