My take on Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 (K/X/Ubuntu)

[Jim March]

I'm running Intrepid right now on a Dell laptop with an Intel
965/X3100 graphics card, Intel HDA sound, Pentium dual core (basically
the "low end" dual processor) with 2gigs RAM.

This lappy was bought at Beast Buy on sale for $500 so it's hardly "high end".

There are two things Intrepid is giving me over Hardy:

1) Better dual-monitor support.  System>Preferences>ScreenResolution
is working *exactly* like it should, period, end of discussion right
there in the GUI without any funky xrandr command line BS.  I can plug
in an external monitor, detect it, adjust the resolutions of both and
the relative layout of an expanded desktop unless I choose mirror
mode.  It "just works".

2) I get Network Manager GUI controls for my Verizon cellular modem.
I use a KPC680 in my ExpressCard slot.  It too "just works".  I'm
experimenting with sharing it over Ethernet tonight with a friend's
rig and will report back.  Before it was a matter of wvdial scripts
and weird glitches associated with that.  Performance is great.  I did
have to do some tuning in /etc/ppp/options setting both
"lcp-echo-interval" and "lcp-echo-failure" to "0" to correct a
"disconnect after five minutes" problem.

Other than that detail, I'm not seeing any downsides with Intrepid.  I
understand there are new drivers in the works for both ATI and NVidia
for the new Xorg variant (which in turn is what's allowing killer
dual-monitor support).

If you don't need these features, there's little reason to switch.
The minor improvements include a "guest mode" that's pretty slick (log
in as you and then set it to "guest" and whoever you loan your rig to
can't get to your stuff) and an encrypted private subdir in your home
directory.  I always use whole-disk-encryption off the alternate
install CD anyways so that's a non-issue for me.

Note that my Alpha-to-beta install still had glitches once Intrepid
went gold, and it refused to update to the newest kernel version.  So
I had to do a clean install with the release edition...this is fairly
common (and very annoying) about alpha/beta-testing Ubuntu.  A
Hardy-to-Intrepid update now should be OK.

Hope this helps,

Jim