Why Dell Should Upgrade Past Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
In the GtkRadioButton performance, Ubuntu 8.10 was many times faster than Ubuntu 8.04. Ubuntu 9.04 was roughly the same speed as Ubuntu 8.10.
Switching to the QGears2 test with the X Render back-end, Ubuntu 8.10 performed the best. Ubuntu 8.10 delivered nearly twice the number of frames per second as Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS, but there was a regression in Ubuntu 9.04. Jaunty Jackalope will still be faster than the Hardy Heron and a few more frames might come about once greedy migration heuristics are enabled. By Ubuntu 9.10 we anticipate Intel's graphics stack will be in good standing.
There was a moderate improvement with the text performance using the X Render backend in Ubuntu 8.10, but that regressed again with Ubuntu 9.04.