Monster Mash Version 2.0

In the original "Monster Mash" posting, I used my Acer 5610 to mix Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint 2.2 and then a pre-GA version of Ubuntu 7.04. It even mostly worked... other than VMware and Gnome.

I put the Acer back to just being Mint because I needed it for IT360 / Linuxworld next week. it is one of the servers. Kind of needs to be stable.

Then... evil struck. Must have been whurleys influence. That is my excuse, and I am sticking to it.

I was working on the re-write of the lab workbook over the weekend. On my MacBook Pro I had Neooffice 1.1 up with the workbook, Windows 2000 Server up with MS Exchange as a guest of Parallels, Knoppix 5.1.1 up as a CD ROM booted guest of Parallels, and was testing and re-writing and re-screen capping things. Many many things. This re-write has been harder than most anything since originally writing it. So much change, so little time! But, I digress....

I realized I wanted to be able to say in the text of the lab notebook that the Evolution we were using in the lab was not special in any way: that other versions on other releases have been tested.

Being able to say that is no problem. After over four years of doing this lab, I have tested quite a number of Evolution versions over time. Starting with Knoppix 3.2 through the current 5.1.1, with a side trip to PCLinuxOS for one of them. Each OS version had a different Evolution version contained within. I have also tested Fedora and OpenSUSE laptops from time to time at various releases.

There is also the simple fact that I live this. The lab grew out of *being* a Linux desktop user in an MS Windows world. 

I remembered from the first mash that Ubuntu 7.04 came with a new Evolution release: 2.10.1. I never tried it. Knoppix 5.1.1 comes with 2.8.1. I wanted to test 2.10.1. I like having the lab be as current as possible, within the margins of my sleeping schedule. I'd get so much more done if I didn't have to sleep...

My IBM X30 volunteered. I guess it was feeling neglected lately. It runs ... OK... RAN a pure Mint 2.2. I took a break from writing the lab to go into Mint's Update Manager and selected the proffered Ubuntu 7.04 upgrade. I set it down on the table and watched it repeat the previous mash, with a few differences:

1. The X30 only has Mint's default Gnome installed. No Kubuntu-ish things other than perhaps a few KDE applications.
2. Ubuntu is now GA, rather than Pre-GA when I last did this.

It churned and applied things for about two hours. The X30 is only 512 MB RAM and 1.2 Ghz processor (the previous mashes Acer being Core Duo 1.73 and 2Gb RAM), so I was expecting it to take longer than the far more powerful Acer, and it did. but not by as much as I would have thought. I was doing 3 or four things at once, so my measurement is utterly subjective, but seemed to take maybe 25% longer. I saw none of the reported in the trades Ubuntu server congestion either.

I took the newly mashed X30 for a test drive. MintWifi was still there and still working! Web browsers and OpenOffice and all the general things I use every day were fine, and felt like they had a new snap to them. It may be that old "I just washed the car and now it runs better" thing. But the X30 feels quicker now. I assume it to be the new kernel and the new Gnome working better than ever, till proven otherwise.

The original point of this was to test Evolution 2.10.1 in the lab, and it worked without any issues, and again, Evolution felt snappier than it had before.

This mash is staying put. When LinuxWorld is over, the Acer is coming back in to the shop for a tune-up-mash.