Ubuntu 10.04 - presentation over substance, becoming all important.

So do the three operating systems Windows 7, Mac OS, and Ubuntu have any relation to our three main UK parties in terms of presentation, over substance? well I wouldn't like to say, but the order does give it away if you watched the Televised UK Leader Election debates.

With a General Election here in the UK next Thursday, as a population we do seem obsessed with presentation over substance, so how does this relate to Ubuntu 10.04?

Well, there are resolution/display issue problems with the new 'plymouth' splash screen and Nvidia's own/proprietary drivers (ones from their website or the ones offered up by the helpful Ubuntu 10.04).

For 10.04, it really is worth thinking twice about installing the Nvidia drivers over the open source/built in Nouveau video drivers. It is an important point- they will cause problems with Ubuntu 10.04, but the problems they create are cosmetic, and only relate to the start-up and shutdown.

The problem is, the opening splash screen does a lot to convince people and a partly shown misplaced opening graphic doesn't help convince you to giving over all your precious work to Ubuntu. Cosmetic issues mean when a problem occurs for a user, such as a paper jam- they will be quick to blame Ubuntu.

In a way it is a shame they have make it so easy to upgrade the drivers to the Nvidia proprietary drivers from the dock/taskbar, because they do throw a spanner in the works regarding the new 'plymouth' graphical splash screen. Ubuntu have also opened up a reliance on Nvidia hopefully developing a better driver to take advantage of these new features, which just might not turn up.

The idea behind 'plymouth' is to offer a seemless startup without flashes of text cursors, resolution changes, but while Nvidia own/ proprietary drivers don't support this, the display reverts back to basic 16 colour VGA support – its not a good look in 2010 as any politician will tell you. Its important to remember that this is only the splash screen on startup and shutdown, once you reach the log in – everything works fine graphically until you shutdown, when it reverts to plymouth again for the splash screen – and things look messy again.

There are a few workarounds but some effect suspend/standby mode, so its best to stick with the open source drivers and 2D graphics, until the Nvidia drivers catch up. If you happy with a slightly messed up startup/shutdown screen (and it doesn't show for long) – install the Nvidia driver, then you get the substance - 3D support within Ubuntu 10.04.

You can be the most charismatic politician in the world, but if you don't look the part, you'll have a job convincing people with the substance of your argument. Just not sure its best placed putting Ubuntu's opening presentation ability at the mercy of Nvidia.