…And I have upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate x86 Final and Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala”.

Things I’d like to see/do more of:

• Keep my data separate from the operating system. I keep separate partitions for all my documents and files. On Ubuntu this is simply a matter of having a /home partition and using it as much as possible (always make sure to keep configuration files under ~/ when possible and binaries elsewhere).
  On Windows, this is a bit trickier. In order to move “Program Files”, “Users” and other directories from the main partition (C:\), you need to create special symbolic links to point to the new locations. This is done by using an often overlooked feature of the NTFS filesystem: junctions. I followed this handy guide to perform the procedure today, and it worked wonderfully. Having “C:\Program Files” as a junction will work flawlessly with most applications, but keep in mind that some Windows updates might refuse to install. This was never a big deal for me (it’s 2-3 updates at most), yet the benefit of having your files on a separate partition more than make up for it.
  Other than that, most of my personal and important documents are already on Dropbox. This is something I’d like to do more of: store all my files online and be able to get them back at any time and access them from anywhere. Alas, Dropbox is not quite there yet, but these services are cropping up all over the place, and I’m sure that seamless backup and restore from the cloud will be a common procedure in the future.
  Keeping this separation gives you the flexibility to perform fresh OS installations without having to worry about the placement or backing up your data. Doing a clean install today I had much less to think about because of this separation, which is why the installation went so smoothly.
• NAS for backup. Having my trusty NSLU2 as a media and file server is a very nice setup, but still awfully inconvenient because of Slug’s limitations (slow hardware and USB-attached storage). In the future, I’d like to explore more of this area and have a better dedicated NAS installation. I’d like to offload all my media serving and torrenting usage to a separate device (possibly a low-powered mini-ITX x86 machine) and use a device like this as network backup and file server exclusively.
  This will allow me to define a rigorous backup regime for all my systems and get to play with BackupPC or Bacula more often.
• Less reboots. After having gone through the base system installation and installing an antivirus and all updates in Windows 7, I had rebooted 6 times! This is simply inexcusable. Why do I need to restart the whole system just to update the graphic drivers? In stark contrast, when installing Ubuntu 9.10, I only had to reboot once to enter my fully usable system. I also performed a few updates and installed plenty of applications without the need to restart at all. In most major application updates (excepting a kernel update), such as X or graphic drivers a simple logout (restart X) is all that’s needed. Moreover, there’s even a project which aims to completely eliminate these mandatory reboots and allow system owners/administrators to schedule a proper time to reboot. This is of course mainly geared towards the Linux server userbase, but desktop users could benefit from this as well. It’d be nice to know how Microsoft manages system updates and restarts on their server OS’. Anyone have any experience with this? It’d really suck to see your website has had a 10-minute downtime because Windows Update decided to update soundcard drivers. :-/

All in all, it was a fairly smooth process. I went from Win7 RC -> Win7 Final and Ubuntu 9.04 -> Ubuntu 9.10, all on freshly formatted partitions. I like to do this from time to time to leave behind poorly configured apps, leftover libraries and clutter, and stay up to date with the newest software.

Impressions

Windows 7 Final is pretty much the same as the RC. I do expect to see fewer problems, such as screen flickering, hooking up a projector, Aero exiting, etc. From what I’ve seen today, it seems very solid. The Security Essentials package is also a nice touch. Kudos, Microsoft.

On the Ubuntu side, things are not as bright. I’m sad to say that the annoying and embarrassing Intel-Flash performance bug is back in Karmic. It’s as simple as setting a YouTube video (not even HD) in fullscreen mode to watch your modern dual-core processor jump to 80% usage and video playback stutter. What’s even worse than before, the fixmtrr.sh workaround I’ve been using in Jaunty, doesn’t appear to work in Karmic. Well that’s just fan-fuckin’-tastic. I will need to look around for a different fix and probably patch the kernel or something. So frustrating…

Additionally, there’s a bug I recently discovered in Jaunty that is also present in Karmic. If you use a secondary monitor hooked up to your laptop’s VGA out port as a primary display (having the laptop’s display turned off), and close and open the laptops lid, the display configuration will be reset to “Mirror display” and all the resolution and display placements you might have done will be screwed up, and you’ll have to do all the configuration again. This is extremely annoying for me as I still don’t have an external keyboard and have to use my laptop’s one for the time being, so I’m constantly opening and closing the laptop’s lid. In Jaunty I thought I had done the (manual, BTW—tsk, tsk…) X11 configuration wrong and decided to be patient until I upgraded to Karmic. Seeing this shit again in a brand-new install is really pissing me off…

There’s also an inexplicable issue with the sound card (or the sound daemon, whichever the hell Ubuntu’s using now) that for some reason sets the sound volume way too high and I have to use it at 20% so as to not blow my speakers and/or ears out. Another really annoying one is a mysterious “thump” sound that happens every dozen-or-so seconds when no sound is playing and I have my external speakers hooked up. If I’m not playing anything, now I need to mute the sound.

So yeah, while the general polish in Ubuntu has improved, there are still some major problems being dragged around. I believe all of this would be fixed on the desktop side of things if Linux would rehaul all the ancient and problematic system backends it’s currently using. I know it’s far from easy to replace X11 but Linux will never enjoy the same desktop market share as Windows and OS X as long as these things are not taken care of. And the fact that there’s a gazillion different distribution projects out there really worsens the situation, as everyone’s focus is different so major changes like these lose priority. I think two or three of the big players should join forces and work towards bringing up to date or replacing all currently problematic packages.

In the future

As optical media is on it’s way out and faster broadband access is becoming a reality in most countries, there’s no doubt in my mind that in the near future operating system installations will be performed over the Internet. You’ll buy an access card from Microsoft (or get one for free from Canonical) and simply set your computer to boot over the network with PXE or something similar and the entire installation will proceed over your broadband connection.

You can already do this with some small Linux distributions, but seeing it receive corporate backing from major operating system distributors will be a great move forward.

And that’s all I have to say about that.