Top 10 Features in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

Posted by Saad Hamid on April 15, 2008

The countdown for Ubuntu 8.04 finally begins today as now there are only 9 days to go for the official launch of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. But before Ubuntu lovers get their hands on Hardy, their biggest anticipation is about the new features and applications coming in Ubuntu 8.04.

Compiled below is a list of the top 10 new features to expect in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Some of these features have already been introduced in Hardy beta while some are still to be introduced in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron stable.

1. Boot change – In the early version of Ubuntu, in the boot menu screen we have only one option to chose if we want give it a try or install it. It was called "Start or install Ubuntu". Now when Live CD is booted automatically offers to chose your language, and you have two new options "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer" and Install Ubuntu.

2. Xorg 7.3 – The new Xorg 7.3 is coming with Hardy Heron. This ability brings a new Screen Resolution utility that allows users to dynamically configure the resolution, refresh rate, and rotation of a second monitor. This will be particularly handy for laptop users that connect to a projector or external monitor.

3. Kernel– Ubuntu 8.04 also brings a new kernel 2.6.24.3 which comes packed with the “Completely Fair Scheduler” for improved interactive performance and dynticks support for power saving on the both desktop and laptop computers, and new fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline kernel.

4. Gnome 2.22 - Hardy Heron brings you the latest and greatest Gnome 2.22 with lots of new features and improvements, such as a new Nautilus that uses GVFS as its backend. GVFS makes it possible to fix shortcomings of Nautilus such as the inability to restore files from trash, pause and undo file operations, and will make it possible to escalate user privileges for certain operations using PolicyKit for authentication. It also brings a significant performance boost to many operations.

5. PolicyKit - PolicyKit is now integrated in the administrative user interfaces. PolicyKit allows fine-grained control over user permissions and enhances usability and security, by allowing administrative applications to be run as a normal user and gaining extra privileges dynamically only for privileged operations instead of requiring the whole application to run as root.

6. New Applications

  • Seahorse – the new "sheriff in town", set to manage your encryption keys.
  • Transmission – the default BitTorrent client.
  • FireFox 3 Beta 5 – replaced FireFox 2 and it is now the default browser in Ubuntu 8.04.
  • Vinagre – a brand-new VNC client, which makes connecting to single or multiple machines easy.
  • Brasero – the new CD/DVD burnung tool in Ubuntu Hardly Heron.

7. World Clock Applet – this clock can display time and weather in mutliple locations.

8. Firewall - Ubuntu 8.04 includes UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall), a new host-based firewall application configurable from the command line which is designed to make administering a firewall easier for end users while not getting in the way of network administrators. You can simply start firewall with sudo ufw enable.

9. Memory Protection - Secure Memory Management, will help defend against rootkits and other malicious code.

10. Windows users – Wubi new installation tool for Windows users. This tool will help Windows users easy install Ubuntu and still have Windows installed. Also here is the old umenu tool.

Some will love it, some will hate it, but that is what the Ubuntu developers prepared for the second LTS (Long Term Support) release of their 100% FREE operating system, Ubuntu Linux.

Post by Alifaan from the Human Fly.

  • nice job on the list. Brasero is a good tool I got to try it a little bit on my last pc. I hadn't seen anything written about memory protection. I'm guessing this is something outside the kernel. We'll seehow. heron turns out from what I hear theres a couple bigger bugs they're trying to get fixed beforerelease.
  • aussiebear
    Are there any specific details as to how "Secure Memory Management" works? I'm curious to know about this.
  • Stumbled! Informative post about Ubuntu.
  • Cant wait to try it. The Wubi installation is useful
  • James II
    Some will love it, some will hate it


    What's that suppose to mean? Why would anyone hate it?

    I tried out the beta and I thought it was just super. Of course I ran it from the Live Cd so I didn't get to really run it through the wringer, but I sure liked what i saw.
  • Nate
    Hopefully the new kernel fixes all the power save problems from the past.
  • @James II, don't know, but have lot types of people in this world, so you think all will love it. It will be haters too, but lovers will be more then we can imagine.
  • Steve
    Screen resolution control, bring it on. The rest? Everything we've never wanted.
    What about hardware support? Wifi, anyone?
  • Jeff
    Two big hopes:

    1) Suspend-to-disk works as well as it does in XP on my notebooks;

    2) The ability to get wireless networking not to either a) reconnect to the last network it connected to, or b) allow blacklisting/greylisting named networks, to protect against WLANs that "just happen" to have similar names.

    I haven't figured out how to solve either with Gutsy - and I'm hardly a *nix noob.
  • Kim
    "Hardly Heron"? that's the most funny typo in months :D
  • Michael
    I cannot remember what the tool was called but when I was doing the beta testing there was an application like Google Desktop that allowed me to search my computer. I think that will be a cool tool.
  • Wow, this Ubuntu thingy is getting bigger from day to day. I hope they can execute things like PolicyKit in a good way.
  • Sayne
    I don't really agree with including Firefox 3 Beta. Although I have used it and found it fairly stable, it doesn't seem like something that should be included in an official release. However, most linux users would be comfortable using beta software and hopefully know what to do if they encounter a bug.
  • Brian D.
    I've moved over from XP to Ubuntu 8.04.
    When will Linux (Ubuntu)get rid of the archaic coding requirements (apt-get, dpkg -i, etc.)?? This hurdle is the *biggest* deterrent to Windows users who are aching for something just as easy, flexible and different to move to. I've been trying for more than a year now to get my colleagues & department to switch (>150 potential Ubuntu users)and this problem of having to execute code is the thing that stops 98% of them. Please! Someone think about the silent majority, and stop preaching to the converted - get rid of the need to code - anything.
  • Ryan
    @Brian D.
    First, using dpkg and apt-get are not "coding".
    Second, there are multiple GUI tools and frontends to dpkg and apt-get, making using terminal commands unnecessary.
  • kendon
    The boot options thing is actually not really an advantage. when I installed yesterday it said to myself "wanna install, hit install". after giving the installation everything it needed it started, and I got bored to death in about 2 seconds, because there was no browser, no IM no nothing to fool around with. luckily I was able to start a second xserver with a gnome session, so I didn't have to die of boredom ;)
    actually it saves you one click and a few seconds of booting time, I think the OEM install feature is a much greater effort!
  • @Brian D.: Most of these commands, especially what you mentioned (dpkg -i and apt-get) have graphical versions available by default in Ubuntu. It is simply easier to tell someone the command version. Example:

    GUI-
    1. Download this file: file.deb
    2. Open up a file manager and find where you downloaded the file to.
    3. Double click on the file
    4. Click to install the file
    5. Click OK when you are done.

    Command-
    wget http://myblog.be/file.deb
    dpkg -i file.deb

    While the GUI version is easier for some users, it is much quicker to write out and do the command version.
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