8 ms·

Switching to Ubuntu

94 points by reddotX 10y ago

anondon 10y ago
I was configuring a 15 inch Gazelle: i7 6700HQ + 32GB RAM + 250GB SSD comes to around $1300. Good value. Anyone have experience with System76 laptops recently? How is the build quality, battery life, service? There are not many reviews about the laptops.
- dudul 10y ago
  The latest Lemur is supposed to be really great. I have an old-gen (4 years old), and it still works pretty well.
- dsr_ 10y ago
  I've been buying them for work and family for about 10 years now. Build quality is good, battery life reasonable, service is very good. These aren't aluminum-bodied macbooks, they are along the lines of Dell or HP business machines.
- mcguire 10y ago
  I have a 4 year old Gazelle that I've been mostly satisfied with. It never did have much battery life, so that hasn't gotten better, but no major problems otherwise. It does use Nvidia graphics, for which driver support is crap. And unlike previous machines, the issues haven't disappeared with upgrades. A failure to resume is the most common bug. A special award goes to Chrome, which likes to use the acceleration and will leave the main Chrome window on top of the screen after the application is hidden. (Using a nonstandard manager such as Xmonad or ratpoison.)
haggy 10y ago
Good article on getting started. I think the initial switch is the most daunting part but once you do it, you won't look back. If you currently use a mac and work primarily in a *nix environment then making the switch from OSX -> Ubuntu should feel incredibly natural.
worldsayshi 10y ago
Having a work computer that had Ubuntu pre-loaded I must say that Ubuntu almost hits the mark on being a competitor in user friendliness. There are only a few things that I think needs improvement. For me it's configurability of the mouse (in particular cursor acceleration) and dual screen high-dpi support (which is partly on app developers). Most other things seems to be there when using a laptop with supported hardware. But supporting the hardware has been the main hurdle for a long time so having more alternatives that ships with it would probably solve that one.
- binaryanomaly 10y ago
  I agree that the out of the box mouse settings are too limited. But if it really bothers you there's still the option to find the right driver and dive into xorg.conf any time. I spent an hour or two to tweek my macbook touchpad but it was totally worth the effort.
  - worldsayshi 10y ago
    Yeah, I have that for getting two finger scroll and right click and disabling touch areas. But after the first time I tried to set it up I got a lot of weird behaviour after suspension and such. It took quite a bit of effort and the details were hard to understand. There are a lot of conflicting info in stack overflow threads and such. Like I found out after the first try that there are multiple configuration paths that are merged. Don't remember the details now. It was confusing anyhow.
- Shorel 10y ago
  > For me it's configurability of the mouse (in particular cursor acceleration) and dual screen high-dpi support (which is partly on app developers). Yes, disabling cursor acceleration requires some CLI fiddling and adding that to the autorun login scripts. Also rotating the screen is not automatic in tablet mode.
gotofritz 10y ago
Great, just what I was looking for. Let's see if I can finally rid myself of the Apple Co. for good! Although, no Google Drive... no Evernote...
- binaryanomaly 10y ago
  Try dropbox paper instead of evernote. Personally I find it awesome and migrated to it from evernote. One reason for it was the (since years) missing Linux client and the unusable web client.
  - gotofritz 10y ago
    Does it have the equivalent of the web clipper? I use Evernote mostly to save bookmarks
    - binaryanomaly 10y ago
      Not that I'd know. More a note taker here...
    - kejaed 10y ago
      Have you considered Pinboard? I got big into Evernote for a while but the poor app quality and losing a couple of notes' contents was enough for me just to move to KISS pinboard.
      - gotofritz 10y ago
        Does it actually let you save the page content, or is it just the bookmarks like del.ici.ous?
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
        kejaed 10y ago
        The site-provided bookmarklet will save the text you have highlighted on the page, and you can pay a little extra for the "Archiving" option that will wget the entire page for you to access forevermore.
norswap 10y ago
Has Unity stopped from being a slow and unresponsive mess? My last experience with Unity was that it just lagged lagged on a machine that could handle windows seven with no hiccups. Most people with whom I talked about this seemed to have had similar experiences. In truth I've never heard anyone defend Unity.
- jeanlucas 10y ago
  Wow? I use Ubuntu for years because I had the exactly opposite situation, it runs smooth on the Linux OS, but Windows would get weird lags and with time the startup time got longer than 3 minutes.
- k__ 10y ago
  I always was more of a xfce guy. So I used xubuntu most of the time, but I have the feeling it's performance isn't was it used to be:/
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- wodenokoto 10y ago
  Do you talk to people in real life about unity? I have never met a person who called unity slow and unresponsive, but I always read that complaint online. My dad uses it full time at home and consider it just as user friendly as the windows he uses at work. I used it on my laptop 7 years ago, and every other update had hardware compatibility quirks. But unless I used the XP that came with that laptop, Windows also didn't have full compatibility.
  - type0 10y ago
    > I have never met a person who called unity slow and unresponsive, but I always read that complaint online. Well everything is relative I guess. Compared to Windows Vista, Unity is rocket fast. On older machines MATE is much more responsive then Unity without suffering the tweak-ability issues of Lubuntu.
- roshansingh 10y ago
known 10y ago
Brilliant write up
botto 10y ago
Ubuntu ruined it when they included their advertising and marketing engine straight up in the unity interface. Debian is at least not trying to sell all your info.
- jeanlucas 10y ago
  I thought it was completely optional and you can turn it off if you scrub the settings for less than 1 minute.
  - nol13 10y ago
    Sounds like a Microsoft response, please stay away from my GNU/Linux thx. (but yes using Ubuntu MATE is a perfectly viable option)
    - pluma 10y ago
      Considering Windows 10's privacy scandal, the Microsoft response would rather have been "You can limit it by scrubbing the settings or disable it completely by buying the Enterprise version".
      - nol13 10y ago
        "You can limit it by scrubbing the settings, until the next update when we will accidentally enable it again, and also it was really never limited much anyway, or disable it completely by buying the Enterprise version. Also all of your outbound connection are monitored anyway by various parties too so the whole thing is more or less futile, here try this cloud." ftfy
    - type0 10y ago
      Linux Mint is good but definitely not great, it's biggest flaw that isn't true Ubuntu so you can't rely on base fixes that would work on all Ubuntu flavors. Ubuntu Mate is such an underrated distro, it's faster than GNOME2 base ever was, it's customizable, the only thing what's missing is more advanced menu. GNOME menu should never been included in the first place (too unstable). Wimpy and others on UM forums talked about finding new more modern menu for a long time, I hope we will see some progress there. Synapse launcher on Ubuntu MATE can be unstable sometimes, but at least there are so many alternatives.
binaryanomaly 10y ago
Too bad they don't have any good looking laptops. It could really be an alternative to apple.
- dudul 10y ago
  I wish they had a 13'' model. The Lemur is not bad, but still bigger and heavier than a MBP 13.
  - binaryanomaly 10y ago
    The Dell XPS 13 looks not too bad http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd The only Linux Laptop I know that could be sort of compared to a macbook pro. But still from my point of view not even close to the asethetics of a mbpro.
    - jpkeisala 10y ago
      I tried out in the shop XPS 13 and new MBP. Even though XPS is a really nice laptop MBP is nicer looking. I changed in 2006 from Windows to Mac but now I am really struggling to decide if I should go back to Windows with XPS or buy that overpriced MBP.
      - binaryanomaly 10y ago
        Make sure you try out Windows 10 for long enough before you really consider such a move. Imho macos is still way smoother... (I have a Mbpro and W10 Desktop and VM)
      - smoe 10y ago
        I switched to the XPS 13 in 2015 after ten years of Apple. In my opinion, the Macs look much much nicer overall. But after getting used to the super thin bezel on the xps 13 screen, sitting in front of an MB feels like working on an archaic machine to me.
    - Shorel 10y ago
zhte415 10y ago
If found myself turned off Ubuntu because of Unity, despite using Ubuntu itself since 2005. Odd orange and purple, new odd left menu, general sense Ubuntu was changing how I didn't want it to. Moved to Mint. Seemed to replicate Windows XP but by a pain. The upgrade path for Mint felt not dissimilar to jumping into the sea off a cliff 50 feet up with an incoming storm. I've done both. The sea took 15 minutes to swim 50 feet. Mint was worse. But then, out of chance installing on a laptop that wasn't sure it was UEFI or BIOS (yes, BIOS in UEFI mode), lacking much in terms of storage media, plus a weak internet connection, knew Ubuntu had a mini install, not server install, but mini install, but had never used before. Not so well linked to on the website but for benefit of all here's the link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD about 40MB. Fantastic. Complete Ubuntu ecosystem underpinned by Debian solidness. And straight-up GNOME environment (or GUI of choosing, or lack of, selectable on install). No cruft, but as full featured as any Ubuntu can be. And lets GNOME actually be enjoyed with customisation, but also allows the focus and productivity that GNOME esp. GNOME3 offer. The OP is about OSX to Mac. Completely support Ubuntu/GNOME. Absolutely suggest straight OSX > GNOME and it/general Ubuntu ecosystem. Avoids messing with Unity or any 'Ubuntu minus Unity' system reinvention, and lets one enjoy using a computer, not being frustrated by it.
- Kenji 10y ago
  Yes, Unity was a huge step down. The fact that it combines windows of the same binary into one icon drives me insane! Because that means I now need two clicks to navigate to those windows, costing me multiple seconds with every context switch. Someone asked a question on UX stackexchange on how to turn off this behaviour and the answer was along the lines of "it's impossible and you don't need that because you don't know what you want". Frustrating. EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. The fact that the little 'x' close button of maximized windows cannot be clicked if a smaller window is active and in the foreground. That drives me nuts.
  - johnchristopher 10y ago
    > EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. The fact that the little 'x' close button of maximized windows cannot be clicked if a smaller window is active and in the foreground. That drives me nuts. I don't understand: That's default GTK/win behaviour when the smaller window is part of the background window (like LO prompting for closing/saving/cancelling the document you are editing when you click the close button of LO). It's a pop up.
Annatar 10y ago
Why in the world would anyone switch from Apple to anything? You drop the cash, pick up the vertically integrated product, turn it on, and get done whatever you need to do without hardware or software getting in the way. Time saved: priceless.
- pritambaral 10y ago
  > without hardware or software getting in the way. I see you and I have had different experiences with Apple laptops.
  - globalgobble 10y ago
    You are doing it wrong.
pksadiq 10y ago
I would recommend Debian GNU/Linux over Ubuntu for the following reasons: * Stability: I consider Debian testing/unstable more stable than Ubuntu stable (Try updating an ubuntu with lots of package installed). * Privacy: Debian is more concerned about User's privacy then Ubuntu. If your iceweasel (now firefox) automatically connects to internet to load some data against your wish, you can consider this as a bug in Debian (and several other examples). * Community support: You get community support from both Ubuntu and Debian communities. * Truely free software 0: No non-free software by default. No binary blobs. But you may choose to have, if you wish to. * Truely free software 1: In Debian, if you solely install packages from 'main' repo, you can safely use it, even in commercial setup. But in ubuntu, there can be packages that may commercially have several restrictions (and those repos are enabled by default). Everything is from upstream: GNOME, wayland, flatpak ...
- tsaprailis 10y ago
  What's the switching to Debian learning curve like, regarding command line tools etc?
  - binaryanomaly 10y ago
    Imho the differences are rather subtle. Ubuntu comes more consumer ready and pre-configured whereas Debian is "raw" and needs more initial setup effort.
    - lmns 10y ago
      Well, depends. Debian has so called "tasks". If you install one of the desktop tasks (e.g. task-gnome-desktop), it's as complete as any other pre-configured distribution.
      - binaryanomaly 10y ago
        Still the Desktop task is imho by no means comparable to what you get when you install Ubuntu Desktop. Ubuntu is more "turn key" ready what some again would consider as bloated. It's a lot about personal preference...
bshimmin 10y ago
Ubuntu has several powerful image manipulation programs. Gimp, darktable, and Inkskape will do what Adobe products can. Plus, they are free, which is a huge bonus. Adobe products don’t currently run on Ubuntu but there are plenty of replacement software options. That's a pretty debatable paragraph, and one with which most serious Photoshop and Illustrator users would really struggle.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- pkd 10y ago
  Yeah, I love how sophisticated Gimp and Inkscape are for open source projects, but they don't even touch Adobe when it comes to the finesse and features, sadly. I keep Windows on dual boot just so that I can use Illustrator on the odd times that I need to.
__s 10y ago
I've bought twice from system76. Replaced Ubuntu with Arch on the first, & Windows on the 2nd (would've preferred Arch on the 2nd, but alas, I'm a Windows dev by shameful trade)
wineisfine 10y ago
Its also a good side by side graphic comparison of both OSes. With a bit of effort, Unity could look much better.
- mrweasel 10y ago
  It really could, and it really needs to. The default looks is a pretty sure way of ensuring that people who are browsing for an alternative to the Mac aren't going to pick Ubuntu. It's a matter of personal taste, but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen". Logically it shouldn't matter, the look has little influence on the functionality, but I really think the orange, black, and purple look has turned people away from, if not Linux, then certainly from Ubuntu.
  - pkd 10y ago
    I personally feel that 80% of the people complain about Unity because of the default color scheme. Switch it with some shade of nice blue and everybody likes it.
  - aplaice 10y ago
    > but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen". Data point of one, but yes, I have — I genuinely think that Unity (>=12.04) looks better than any of Windows 7, Windows XP, and KDE4 (all of which I had used extensively), MacOS and Gnome-3 (which I had used sporadically) and Windows 8 and 10, (which I've only seen but not used). IMO it's also at least as functional as any of the above. I particularly liked the fact that they "got" the fact that one can have limited vertical screen space and for example the menus of a maximized window merge with the top status bar. Tastes obviously differ widely.
  - Shorel 10y ago
    The only thing I would change (and in fact I have done it a couple of times) is make the top bar transparent to have a full background view when there are no windows. Yes, in fact that dull gray is the only ugly thing. The launcher bar on the left is very good looking by itself.
globalgobble 10y ago
I could get by using only Emacs + Browser but the Linux desktop experience suck so much that it's still impractical to make the switch. I do not want to update my system + pkgs too often. IT SUCKS. I do not need your 0.0000001% improvement. I want to update only when I really want it and I want to update only WHAT I want. I do not want to download XY MBs of dependencies. THAT SUCKS. I do not want to care about battery, UI sluggishness or your "kernel-glibc-latest-package" incompatibility nonsense. I do not care about your "free-open-source-whatever-god-you-believe-in". I also love unified feel of apps on my Mac. They work more or less the same. I also do not want to CONFIGURE anything. I want the "best" settings out of the box. My laptop is not my server and I am tired of configuring and tweaking. Make it work. Make it convenient to edit it in GUI. I do not want to use cli when I do not have to. And If I have to I want to edit files not use your "nih-syndrome-commands". I want to edit only a single file and make your app pick up the change so I do not have to care about "how" and in what order I have to restart it. Make the default gui+uikit beatiful, integrate with something like electron -> profit $$$
tjpnz 10y ago
I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu to anyone after the Unity debacle. The way that they insisted on ramming certain "design decisions" down people's throats demonstrated quite clearly that certain elements of the project decided that user feedback meant squat. I remember talking to someone involved with Unity and asking him why I couldn't move the launcher to the bottom of the screen. The answer I got was that it was a design decision that people would just have to accept. He followed up by saying I would get used to it - despite having already put up with it for 2+ years. Attitudes like this are why I and many others will never trust Ubuntu again.
- pkd 10y ago
  Unless you are using vertical monitors, it makes sense to preserve the more premium vertical screen space by not placing the launcher there. Anyway you can move it to the bottom now since 16.04. Ubuntu offers a lot of niceties, and the DE is definitely not a deal breaker since you can install GNOME/MATE/KDE with a couple of terminal commands anyway.
- owaislone 10y ago
  You can move it to bottom now BTW.
  - tjpnz 10y ago
    You absolutely can but for the longest time you couldn't - not at least in a way that wouldn't break between versions. The wider issue here though is the attitude. If someone from the Unity team had explained why it couldn't be done for a technical reason I think many people would understand that. But to be told it was by design and that I should learn to live with it is exactly the kind of arrogance we could all live without in the Linux/FOSS community.
rocky1138 10y ago
This is a really good document. I wish someone would do this for KDE Neon, which is Ubuntu LTS paired with nightly KDE (much better experience than Kubuntu).
IE6 10y ago
I think the article misses a big part of the experience of switching platforms that goes beyond what GUI applications are there by default.

94 points by reddotX 10y ago

I was configuring a 15 inch Gazelle: i7 6700HQ + 32GB RAM + 250GB SSD comes to around $1300. Good value. Anyone have experience with System76 laptops recently? How is the build quality, battery life, service? There are not many reviews about the laptops.

dudul 10y ago
The latest Lemur is supposed to be really great. I have an old-gen (4 years old), and it still works pretty well.
dsr_ 10y ago
I've been buying them for work and family for about 10 years now. Build quality is good, battery life reasonable, service is very good. These aren't aluminum-bodied macbooks, they are along the lines of Dell or HP business machines.
mcguire 10y ago
I have a 4 year old Gazelle that I've been mostly satisfied with. It never did have much battery life, so that hasn't gotten better, but no major problems otherwise. It does use Nvidia graphics, for which driver support is crap. And unlike previous machines, the issues haven't disappeared with upgrades. A failure to resume is the most common bug. A special award goes to Chrome, which likes to use the acceleration and will leave the main Chrome window on top of the screen after the application is hidden. (Using a nonstandard manager such as Xmonad or ratpoison.)

haggy 10y ago

Good article on getting started. I think the initial switch is the most daunting part but once you do it, you won't look back. If you currently use a mac and work primarily in a *nix environment then making the switch from OSX -> Ubuntu should feel incredibly natural.

worldsayshi 10y ago

Having a work computer that had Ubuntu pre-loaded I must say that Ubuntu almost hits the mark on being a competitor in user friendliness. There are only a few things that I think needs improvement. For me it's configurability of the mouse (in particular cursor acceleration) and dual screen high-dpi support (which is partly on app developers). Most other things seems to be there when using a laptop with supported hardware. But supporting the hardware has been the main hurdle for a long time so having more alternatives that ships with it would probably solve that one.

binaryanomaly 10y ago
I agree that the out of the box mouse settings are too limited. But if it really bothers you there's still the option to find the right driver and dive into xorg.conf any time. I spent an hour or two to tweek my macbook touchpad but it was totally worth the effort.
- worldsayshi 10y ago
  Yeah, I have that for getting two finger scroll and right click and disabling touch areas. But after the first time I tried to set it up I got a lot of weird behaviour after suspension and such. It took quite a bit of effort and the details were hard to understand. There are a lot of conflicting info in stack overflow threads and such. Like I found out after the first try that there are multiple configuration paths that are merged. Don't remember the details now. It was confusing anyhow.
Shorel 10y ago
> For me it's configurability of the mouse (in particular cursor acceleration) and dual screen high-dpi support (which is partly on app developers). Yes, disabling cursor acceleration requires some CLI fiddling and adding that to the autorun login scripts. Also rotating the screen is not automatic in tablet mode.

gotofritz 10y ago

Great, just what I was looking for. Let's see if I can finally rid myself of the Apple Co. for good! Although, no Google Drive... no Evernote...

binaryanomaly 10y ago
Try dropbox paper instead of evernote. Personally I find it awesome and migrated to it from evernote. One reason for it was the (since years) missing Linux client and the unusable web client.
- gotofritz 10y ago
  Does it have the equivalent of the web clipper? I use Evernote mostly to save bookmarks
  - binaryanomaly 10y ago
    Not that I'd know. More a note taker here...
  - kejaed 10y ago
    Have you considered Pinboard? I got big into Evernote for a while but the poor app quality and losing a couple of notes' contents was enough for me just to move to KISS pinboard.
    - gotofritz 10y ago
      Does it actually let you save the page content, or is it just the bookmarks like del.ici.ous?
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - kejaed 10y ago
        The site-provided bookmarklet will save the text you have highlighted on the page, and you can pay a little extra for the "Archiving" option that will wget the entire page for you to access forevermore.

norswap 10y ago

Has Unity stopped from being a slow and unresponsive mess? My last experience with Unity was that it just lagged lagged on a machine that could handle windows seven with no hiccups. Most people with whom I talked about this seemed to have had similar experiences. In truth I've never heard anyone defend Unity.

jeanlucas 10y ago
Wow? I use Ubuntu for years because I had the exactly opposite situation, it runs smooth on the Linux OS, but Windows would get weird lags and with time the startup time got longer than 3 minutes.
k__ 10y ago
I always was more of a xfce guy. So I used xubuntu most of the time, but I have the feeling it's performance isn't was it used to be:/
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
wodenokoto 10y ago
Do you talk to people in real life about unity? I have never met a person who called unity slow and unresponsive, but I always read that complaint online. My dad uses it full time at home and consider it just as user friendly as the windows he uses at work. I used it on my laptop 7 years ago, and every other update had hardware compatibility quirks. But unless I used the XP that came with that laptop, Windows also didn't have full compatibility.
- type0 10y ago
  > I have never met a person who called unity slow and unresponsive, but I always read that complaint online. Well everything is relative I guess. Compared to Windows Vista, Unity is rocket fast. On older machines MATE is much more responsive then Unity without suffering the tweak-ability issues of Lubuntu.
roshansingh 10y ago

known 10y ago

Brilliant write up

botto 10y ago

Ubuntu ruined it when they included their advertising and marketing engine straight up in the unity interface. Debian is at least not trying to sell all your info.

jeanlucas 10y ago
I thought it was completely optional and you can turn it off if you scrub the settings for less than 1 minute.
- nol13 10y ago
  Sounds like a Microsoft response, please stay away from my GNU/Linux thx. (but yes using Ubuntu MATE is a perfectly viable option)
  - pluma 10y ago
    Considering Windows 10's privacy scandal, the Microsoft response would rather have been "You can limit it by scrubbing the settings or disable it completely by buying the Enterprise version".
    - nol13 10y ago
      "You can limit it by scrubbing the settings, until the next update when we will accidentally enable it again, and also it was really never limited much anyway, or disable it completely by buying the Enterprise version. Also all of your outbound connection are monitored anyway by various parties too so the whole thing is more or less futile, here try this cloud." ftfy
  - type0 10y ago
    Linux Mint is good but definitely not great, it's biggest flaw that isn't true Ubuntu so you can't rely on base fixes that would work on all Ubuntu flavors. Ubuntu Mate is such an underrated distro, it's faster than GNOME2 base ever was, it's customizable, the only thing what's missing is more advanced menu. GNOME menu should never been included in the first place (too unstable). Wimpy and others on UM forums talked about finding new more modern menu for a long time, I hope we will see some progress there. Synapse launcher on Ubuntu MATE can be unstable sometimes, but at least there are so many alternatives.

binaryanomaly 10y ago

Too bad they don't have any good looking laptops. It could really be an alternative to apple.

dudul 10y ago
I wish they had a 13'' model. The Lemur is not bad, but still bigger and heavier than a MBP 13.
- binaryanomaly 10y ago
  The Dell XPS 13 looks not too bad http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd The only Linux Laptop I know that could be sort of compared to a macbook pro. But still from my point of view not even close to the asethetics of a mbpro.
  - jpkeisala 10y ago
    I tried out in the shop XPS 13 and new MBP. Even though XPS is a really nice laptop MBP is nicer looking. I changed in 2006 from Windows to Mac but now I am really struggling to decide if I should go back to Windows with XPS or buy that overpriced MBP.
    - binaryanomaly 10y ago
      Make sure you try out Windows 10 for long enough before you really consider such a move. Imho macos is still way smoother... (I have a Mbpro and W10 Desktop and VM)
    - smoe 10y ago
      I switched to the XPS 13 in 2015 after ten years of Apple. In my opinion, the Macs look much much nicer overall. But after getting used to the super thin bezel on the xps 13 screen, sitting in front of an MB feels like working on an archaic machine to me.
  - Shorel 10y ago

zhte415 10y ago

If found myself turned off Ubuntu because of Unity, despite using Ubuntu itself since 2005. Odd orange and purple, new odd left menu, general sense Ubuntu was changing how I didn't want it to. Moved to Mint. Seemed to replicate Windows XP but by a pain. The upgrade path for Mint felt not dissimilar to jumping into the sea off a cliff 50 feet up with an incoming storm. I've done both. The sea took 15 minutes to swim 50 feet. Mint was worse. But then, out of chance installing on a laptop that wasn't sure it was UEFI or BIOS (yes, BIOS in UEFI mode), lacking much in terms of storage media, plus a weak internet connection, knew Ubuntu had a mini install, not server install, but mini install, but had never used before. Not so well linked to on the website but for benefit of all here's the link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD about 40MB. Fantastic. Complete Ubuntu ecosystem underpinned by Debian solidness. And straight-up GNOME environment (or GUI of choosing, or lack of, selectable on install). No cruft, but as full featured as any Ubuntu can be. And lets GNOME actually be enjoyed with customisation, but also allows the focus and productivity that GNOME esp. GNOME3 offer. The OP is about OSX to Mac. Completely support Ubuntu/GNOME. Absolutely suggest straight OSX > GNOME and it/general Ubuntu ecosystem. Avoids messing with Unity or any 'Ubuntu minus Unity' system reinvention, and lets one enjoy using a computer, not being frustrated by it.

Kenji 10y ago
Yes, Unity was a huge step down. The fact that it combines windows of the same binary into one icon drives me insane! Because that means I now need two clicks to navigate to those windows, costing me multiple seconds with every context switch. Someone asked a question on UX stackexchange on how to turn off this behaviour and the answer was along the lines of "it's impossible and you don't need that because you don't know what you want". Frustrating. EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. The fact that the little 'x' close button of maximized windows cannot be clicked if a smaller window is active and in the foreground. That drives me nuts.
- johnchristopher 10y ago
  > EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. The fact that the little 'x' close button of maximized windows cannot be clicked if a smaller window is active and in the foreground. That drives me nuts. I don't understand: That's default GTK/win behaviour when the smaller window is part of the background window (like LO prompting for closing/saving/cancelling the document you are editing when you click the close button of LO). It's a pop up.

Annatar 10y ago

Why in the world would anyone switch from Apple to anything? You drop the cash, pick up the vertically integrated product, turn it on, and get done whatever you need to do without hardware or software getting in the way. Time saved: priceless.

pritambaral 10y ago
> without hardware or software getting in the way. I see you and I have had different experiences with Apple laptops.
- globalgobble 10y ago
  You are doing it wrong.

pksadiq 10y ago

I would recommend Debian GNU/Linux over Ubuntu for the following reasons: * Stability: I consider Debian testing/unstable more stable than Ubuntu stable (Try updating an ubuntu with lots of package installed). * Privacy: Debian is more concerned about User's privacy then Ubuntu. If your iceweasel (now firefox) automatically connects to internet to load some data against your wish, you can consider this as a bug in Debian (and several other examples). * Community support: You get community support from both Ubuntu and Debian communities. * Truely free software 0: No non-free software by default. No binary blobs. But you may choose to have, if you wish to. * Truely free software 1: In Debian, if you solely install packages from 'main' repo, you can safely use it, even in commercial setup. But in ubuntu, there can be packages that may commercially have several restrictions (and those repos are enabled by default). Everything is from upstream: GNOME, wayland, flatpak ...

tsaprailis 10y ago
What's the switching to Debian learning curve like, regarding command line tools etc?
- binaryanomaly 10y ago
  Imho the differences are rather subtle. Ubuntu comes more consumer ready and pre-configured whereas Debian is "raw" and needs more initial setup effort.
  - lmns 10y ago
    Well, depends. Debian has so called "tasks". If you install one of the desktop tasks (e.g. task-gnome-desktop), it's as complete as any other pre-configured distribution.
    - binaryanomaly 10y ago
      Still the Desktop task is imho by no means comparable to what you get when you install Ubuntu Desktop. Ubuntu is more "turn key" ready what some again would consider as bloated. It's a lot about personal preference...

bshimmin 10y ago

Ubuntu has several powerful image manipulation programs. Gimp, darktable, and Inkskape will do what Adobe products can. Plus, they are free, which is a huge bonus. Adobe products don’t currently run on Ubuntu but there are plenty of replacement software options. That's a pretty debatable paragraph, and one with which most serious Photoshop and Illustrator users would really struggle.

deleted 10y ago
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pkd 10y ago
Yeah, I love how sophisticated Gimp and Inkscape are for open source projects, but they don't even touch Adobe when it comes to the finesse and features, sadly. I keep Windows on dual boot just so that I can use Illustrator on the odd times that I need to.

__s 10y ago

I've bought twice from system76. Replaced Ubuntu with Arch on the first, & Windows on the 2nd (would've preferred Arch on the 2nd, but alas, I'm a Windows dev by shameful trade)

wineisfine 10y ago

Its also a good side by side graphic comparison of both OSes. With a bit of effort, Unity could look much better.

mrweasel 10y ago
It really could, and it really needs to. The default looks is a pretty sure way of ensuring that people who are browsing for an alternative to the Mac aren't going to pick Ubuntu. It's a matter of personal taste, but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen". Logically it shouldn't matter, the look has little influence on the functionality, but I really think the orange, black, and purple look has turned people away from, if not Linux, then certainly from Ubuntu.
- pkd 10y ago
  I personally feel that 80% of the people complain about Unity because of the default color scheme. Switch it with some shade of nice blue and everybody likes it.
- aplaice 10y ago
  > but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen". Data point of one, but yes, I have — I genuinely think that Unity (>=12.04) looks better than any of Windows 7, Windows XP, and KDE4 (all of which I had used extensively), MacOS and Gnome-3 (which I had used sporadically) and Windows 8 and 10, (which I've only seen but not used). IMO it's also at least as functional as any of the above. I particularly liked the fact that they "got" the fact that one can have limited vertical screen space and for example the menus of a maximized window merge with the top status bar. Tastes obviously differ widely.
- Shorel 10y ago
  The only thing I would change (and in fact I have done it a couple of times) is make the top bar transparent to have a full background view when there are no windows. Yes, in fact that dull gray is the only ugly thing. The launcher bar on the left is very good looking by itself.

globalgobble 10y ago

I could get by using only Emacs + Browser but the Linux desktop experience suck so much that it's still impractical to make the switch. I do not want to update my system + pkgs too often. IT SUCKS. I do not need your 0.0000001% improvement. I want to update only when I really want it and I want to update only WHAT I want. I do not want to download XY MBs of dependencies. THAT SUCKS. I do not want to care about battery, UI sluggishness or your "kernel-glibc-latest-package" incompatibility nonsense. I do not care about your "free-open-source-whatever-god-you-believe-in". I also love unified feel of apps on my Mac. They work more or less the same. I also do not want to CONFIGURE anything. I want the "best" settings out of the box. My laptop is not my server and I am tired of configuring and tweaking. Make it work. Make it convenient to edit it in GUI. I do not want to use cli when I do not have to. And If I have to I want to edit files not use your "nih-syndrome-commands". I want to edit only a single file and make your app pick up the change so I do not have to care about "how" and in what order I have to restart it. Make the default gui+uikit beatiful, integrate with something like electron -> profit $$$

tjpnz 10y ago

I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu to anyone after the Unity debacle. The way that they insisted on ramming certain "design decisions" down people's throats demonstrated quite clearly that certain elements of the project decided that user feedback meant squat. I remember talking to someone involved with Unity and asking him why I couldn't move the launcher to the bottom of the screen. The answer I got was that it was a design decision that people would just have to accept. He followed up by saying I would get used to it - despite having already put up with it for 2+ years. Attitudes like this are why I and many others will never trust Ubuntu again.

pkd 10y ago
Unless you are using vertical monitors, it makes sense to preserve the more premium vertical screen space by not placing the launcher there. Anyway you can move it to the bottom now since 16.04. Ubuntu offers a lot of niceties, and the DE is definitely not a deal breaker since you can install GNOME/MATE/KDE with a couple of terminal commands anyway.
owaislone 10y ago
You can move it to bottom now BTW.
- tjpnz 10y ago
  You absolutely can but for the longest time you couldn't - not at least in a way that wouldn't break between versions. The wider issue here though is the attitude. If someone from the Unity team had explained why it couldn't be done for a technical reason I think many people would understand that. But to be told it was by design and that I should learn to live with it is exactly the kind of arrogance we could all live without in the Linux/FOSS community.

rocky1138 10y ago

This is a really good document. I wish someone would do this for KDE Neon, which is Ubuntu LTS paired with nightly KDE (much better experience than Kubuntu).

IE6 10y ago

I think the article misses a big part of the experience of switching platforms that goes beyond what GUI applications are there by default.