I have been using 1.8.1 & 1.8.2 without problem.
Today I booted off of DVD with 2.0~rc1.
First attempt:
got to the login screen,
got to the blue desktop.
No icons appeared.
After that I had to do cold reset of computer.
Second attempt (reboot from DVD):
got to the login screen,
got to the blue desktop.
No icons appeared.
My screen blinked, went to black and stayed there, but that might be due to me banging on a few keys, and possibly a reset key on the Dell keyboard.
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Here is Belarc list of my components. My graphics chip is ATI.