Following a conversation with Sun, I was tempted to replace my Dapper Drake with Feisty Fawn on my laptop. I was quite at ease with the features by now, and was kinda liking it. The features were good, but alas required quite some tweaking. With some fighting, I succeeded in getting Samba working and my Internet connection up via my Sagem F@st 800 modem. Still, it was quite a pain sometimes, like it wouldn't let me take ownership of my hard disk and my files. Like I said, it required quite some tweaking. But still, being a geek, I liked it! :D

Now, when installing Feisty Fawn (FF), I had to remove my Dapper. I thought I would not lose much except some packages and some updates, together with some programs. Nothing great. So I got the Feisty CD from a friend and installed it. Here are my first experiences:

The installation went smoothly, as it was with the Dapper install. After selecting my language settings, timezone and keyboard layouts, I was asked to configure my partitions. Nothing much to change since my Dapper was already installed. I just chose to format my Dapper root (/) partition and chose the same drive as Swap. I also had to create my user credentials. The only thing to be deplored is that the session was kinda lagging. Nothing grave considering it was running from Live CD. Or perhaps it's my slow laptop drive. Nevermind.

Mind you, Dapper to Feisty directly is not supported. You need to go from Dapper -> Edgy -> Feisty. Since I didn't have Edgy and had no great internet connection to download 700MB (on 512Kbps going 10KBps download speeds is no fun). I decided to format the current Dapper installaton and replace it with the Feisty. Anyways, a clean install is so much better. My current Partition configuration allowed me to safeguard my files and overwrite only the operating system. Even my fall-back position Windows XP was maintained. Cool!

My current config:
hda1 = WinXP
hda2 = Files
hda3 = /
hda4 = Swap

Note, hda 1-4 are partitions.

The installation was quite fast, and in less than 30 mins, I was inside my Kubuntu Feisty. I saw the first thing which will make me a happier geek: The new splash/login screen is really beautiful as compared to the Dapper! After login, I saw that the updated KDE was familiar but lots better. Three features that I really like: The new Quick Launch area, the Networks notification area icon and the upgraded Battery icon which gives more information. I also like the Dynamic adjustment of the processor to maximize battery! My laptop used to run for like 1hr. Now? 2h15! OMG!

The K-menu is similar to the Dapper. Basically the UI is the same but nicer to the eyes. The first thing I did was to go the System Settings and customize my new installation. The window is simpler. Some of the icons have been grouped. Eg. In Dapper, you had one icon for Mouse and one for Keyboard. Now you got one Keyboard and Mouse icon. This is good as there is less clutter. Note that Wine support is already present in the System Settings. When you access it, you are guided to install Wine if you don't already have it.

Now, some improvements that really pleased me is that compared to Dapper, Feisty is really simplified. One simple example. My Files partition was automatically given to me through ownership! This is nice! Even Samba was easier to work with. Not that the settings were different. I get the impression that it worked better! The programs usually the same, with more or less the same options and settings. Few applications were removed, others were added eg. the screen magnifier.

Till now, that's all I've seen. I think my Feisty experience will be a pleasant one! I even felt my laptop performance go up! Conclusion? My Dapper -> Feisty Fawn was nice! Go Feisty! You are great, take it from a long-time Windows user. Now, I simply love Linux and its ultra-customizability. That's a certain fact. :P

P.s. The KDE interface is so much better and so much more customizable than any Windows interface. That's one of the best things about Linux: Customizability.