7 ms·

The Many, the Humble, the Ubuntu Users

54 points by type0 10y ago

gravelc 10y ago
Have to agree with this; I recently went on a big distro downloading binge, as I was sure I was missing out on something that was more modern, shinier, and had sexy features I didn't know I needed 'till I tried them. I ended up deleting the lot. For me, Ubuntu just works, and has the features I like, is well supported, and has a strong community. I satisfied myself with a new theme and desktop background. Then again, I also drive a Camry :)
- noahadavis 10y ago
  I've been using KDE neon which actually works very well. The core of it is LTS Ubuntu (currently 16.04), but the Plasma DE gets updates pretty much every day and KDE apps get updated about once a week. Except for one time when my proprietary nvidia driver stopped working after a big update to the DE (now I use the nouveau driver), it has been pretty much flawless in terms of stability.
  - gcp 10y ago
    Hmm, looks interesting. I use KDE on Kubuntu 16.04, but have been annoyed by some memory leaks in Plasma that eventually cause Plasmashell to lock up at 100% CPU in the Qt GC system. I tried upgrading via the ppa backports but the updated Plasma broke a ton of things. Given that my demands on the DE are really minimal it made me consider switching off of KDE.
- s_kilk 10y ago
  Same, I downloaded practically every major distro over the last month as research for what to put on my new Thinkpad. Once the new machine arrived this week, I just stuck Ubuntu on it and deleted everything else.
lnanek2 10y ago
> Like Ubuntu, it just needs to do its job extremely well and with little fuss. Come on now, if it was a quiet open source project, I'd agree. But it's funded by a multi-millionaire and pours a lot of gas on the fire you wouldn't see otherwise. Ubuntu is self sustaining now from its corporate support contracts, but it got where it is in the typical startup fashion of burning investor money and shows up in news quite often for a Linux distro, not just doing a job without fuss.
- nickrivadeneira 10y ago
  I think the quote is suggesting that the OS provide little fuss, with no reference to fuss from the organization.
type0 10y ago
In some ways Ubuntu has kinda lost it's course with the whole Unity unification. Fedora 25 spins are now much nicer use if you don't mind upgrading every year and if you want LTS type of system Ubuntu still rocks, although I find it much less stable than it used to be.
- vetinari 10y ago
  I have to agree, Fedora 25 is very nice now. I also like, where they are going in long term - see Owen Taylor's "Reworking the desktop distribution" talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLPkMDf9LI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLPkMDf9LI
- distances 10y ago
  How well is KDE supported in Fedora?
- dade_ 10y ago
  I liked the Fedora Interface, but it lacks several packages that I use (Kodi comes to mind, but there were others) SE Linux is always reporting security issues and makes enabling any networking feature a royal pain. Worse, when something doesn't work there is a fraction of the support articles and posts on the Internet. They also changed the package manager from Yum, so a lot of new things to learn since I last used 17. At least they seem to have fixed the network management. Anyway, the recent upgrade to 25 killed my display adapter, and after spending way too much time trying to sort out and reinstalling, I switched back to Ubuntu for desktop. I still use Debian for servers/beaglebone. I also like having a common package manager and config files for both systems. YMMV....
  - groks 10y ago
    > it lacks several packages that I use (Kodi comes to mind $ dnf search kodi kodi.x86_64 : Media center ... > They also changed the package manager from Yum, so a lot of new things to learn since I last used 17 $ yum search kodi Redirecting to '/usr/bin/dnf search kodi' (see 'man yum2dnf') kodi.x86_64 : Media center ...
mkawia 10y ago
Long time ubuntu user here , I 'd change the wallpaper and install some basic software and that's it . I'd use and installation for ~2 years
Dowwie 10y ago
I came to complain about my experiences with Ubuntu's issue management process but realized that I ought not complain about something I get for free, is incredibly powerful, useful, and managed by an army of volunteers. So, I'm not complaining about it and am thankful for what I get, despite my struggles interacting with their change management policies.
- gcp 10y ago
  As you as complaints are balanced by positive feedback about what works, never feel bad to complain.
mangecoeur 10y ago
After years of mucking about with different distros, Ubuntu was the one that stuck. More than that, its the one I install for friends and family - helping people save money turning creaking winXP/Vista machines into sleek and simple Ubuntu ones - no muss, no fuss, a webbrowser and music player is all they really need - and it still works today as well as the day Ubuntu was installed.
- aphextron 10y ago
  Seconded. I have tried every distro under the sun and come back to Ubuntu as my daily driver on desktop and laptop. Nothing comes close in terms of package availability, ease of use, firmware, inter-op with non-free software, etc. Also I never understood the hate for Unity. It is the most responsive, performant, intuitive, and helpful GUI I have ever used on Linux.
  - mangecoeur 10y ago
    I'm also a big unity fan. I see some people grumble that it hasn't changed in a few releases, and you realise they just don't get the point - Unity has been polished to fix all those glitches that used to make linux desktop feel half baked. That means not overhauling the whole infrastructure every two years, but incrementally polishing each area in turn. That takes patience and long term management. The result is good looking and functional and most importantly acts to enable you to get things done that have nothing to do with the window manager.
  - maxxxxx 10y ago
    I don't get Unity at all. I use Ubuntu maybe once a month and every time I have trouble remembering how to use it. Is it really intuitive to you? I also have installed it on some machines for friends and family who are less computer literate. They understand Windows, OSX, iOS, Android and Gnome after a while but Unity is just hopeless.
    - PuffinBlue 10y ago
      I'm curious what you/they 'do' on the desktop? Maybe it's the dash thing? Maybe the lack of a list of things to scroll through to choose a program? I've always found unity pretty simple and easy. It seems to handle all graphical tasks fine and if I need a terminal I open a terminal.
agrw 10y ago
https://elementary.io/ https://elementary.io/ pay zero or donate if you want.
- holtalanm 10y ago
  I was going to mention Elementary OS, too. It is essentially Ubuntu, but with the Pantheon DE. Don't try running it (or Unity) inside a VM though, unless you like having input lag. The best DE i've found for a VM is either MATE or LXDE. XFCE isn't bad either.
indubitably 10y ago
"But despite the sneers, I kept hammering a theme in speech after speech and conversation after conversation that went sort of like this: “Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your girlfriend’s itch?" Jesus. I am not a screaming social justice warrior. But really, is this trope of women being computational idiots going to last forever? Why does the community put up with it? There are a MILLION other nouns that could fit into this sentence.
- justanotherbody 10y ago
  Full quote > “Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your girlfriend’s itch? How about your coworkers? And people who work at your favorite restaurant? And what about your doctor? Don’t you want him to spend his time doctoring, not worrying about apt get this and grep that?” I'm guessing the line was born from an attempt to share Linux with his SO.
  - RileyKyeden 10y ago
    I'm not sure about the person you replied to, but it's the presumption that the reader is a straight male implicit in that question that bugs me. Unless the author is known for his bi/lesbian audience...
    - WayneBro 10y ago
      The probability that the audience is male is greater than 85% in the tech industry though. If a bi/lesbian audience makes it OK then a high percentage male audience should make it OK too.
      - RileyKyeden 10y ago
        It's not that one thing or another makes it okay. There are more neutral ways to phrase it that don't needlessly exclude vast potential audiences. > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your partner’s itch? > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your lover’s itch? > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your sweetheart’s itch? > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your mate’s itch? Depending on who you ask, at least a plurality of men are at least a little bi, but a double whammy of homophobia and biphobia keeps them closeted. Why make them twitch a little when a small change in wording solves the problem? Being a good for-public writer is all about maximizing your potential audience without diluting the message. "Girlfriend" rather than any of a slew of more neutral terms needlessly dilutes the message. Personally, I would cut the question entirely since restricting the message to partnered people doesn't serve any purpose.
nonsince 10y ago
I love most of Ubuntu's tools, but I can't stand Unity. It's ugly, it's slow (compared to other Linux DEs, obviously, it's still Fast Enough for most people), and worst of all it shows all the graphic pornography I have in my pictures folder when my colleagues try to use Super-F to find things after being used to macOS. I prefer Elementary because it fixes #1 and #3, or Xubuntu because it fixes #1 a bit, plus #2 and #3 splendidly
- nickpeterson 10y ago
  What about the textual pornography, is that safe from unity?
  - nonsince 10y ago
    Doesn't show up on the preview, you should be safe
- PuffinBlue 10y ago
  To misuse Cunningham's Law: System Settings > Security & Privacy > Files & Applications Then choose what document types (if any) to show in dash search. That should solve #3 perfectly.
- thekevan 10y ago
  I can't stand Unity, I have been using Ubuntu since just about when Unity was introduced, but have always used Gnome Flashback on Ubuntu. It's the first thing I install after installing Ubuntu on a computer. http://tipsonubuntu.com/2016/10/16/install-classic-gnome-flashback-ubuntu-16-10/ http://tipsonubuntu.com/2016/10/16/install-classic-gnome-fla...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

54 points by type0 10y ago

Have to agree with this; I recently went on a big distro downloading binge, as I was sure I was missing out on something that was more modern, shinier, and had sexy features I didn't know I needed 'till I tried them. I ended up deleting the lot. For me, Ubuntu just works, and has the features I like, is well supported, and has a strong community. I satisfied myself with a new theme and desktop background. Then again, I also drive a Camry :)

noahadavis 10y ago
I've been using KDE neon which actually works very well. The core of it is LTS Ubuntu (currently 16.04), but the Plasma DE gets updates pretty much every day and KDE apps get updated about once a week. Except for one time when my proprietary nvidia driver stopped working after a big update to the DE (now I use the nouveau driver), it has been pretty much flawless in terms of stability.
- gcp 10y ago
  Hmm, looks interesting. I use KDE on Kubuntu 16.04, but have been annoyed by some memory leaks in Plasma that eventually cause Plasmashell to lock up at 100% CPU in the Qt GC system. I tried upgrading via the ppa backports but the updated Plasma broke a ton of things. Given that my demands on the DE are really minimal it made me consider switching off of KDE.
s_kilk 10y ago
Same, I downloaded practically every major distro over the last month as research for what to put on my new Thinkpad. Once the new machine arrived this week, I just stuck Ubuntu on it and deleted everything else.

lnanek2 10y ago

> Like Ubuntu, it just needs to do its job extremely well and with little fuss. Come on now, if it was a quiet open source project, I'd agree. But it's funded by a multi-millionaire and pours a lot of gas on the fire you wouldn't see otherwise. Ubuntu is self sustaining now from its corporate support contracts, but it got where it is in the typical startup fashion of burning investor money and shows up in news quite often for a Linux distro, not just doing a job without fuss.

nickrivadeneira 10y ago
I think the quote is suggesting that the OS provide little fuss, with no reference to fuss from the organization.

type0 10y ago

In some ways Ubuntu has kinda lost it's course with the whole Unity unification. Fedora 25 spins are now much nicer use if you don't mind upgrading every year and if you want LTS type of system Ubuntu still rocks, although I find it much less stable than it used to be.

vetinari 10y ago
I have to agree, Fedora 25 is very nice now. I also like, where they are going in long term - see Owen Taylor's "Reworking the desktop distribution" talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLPkMDf9LI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLPkMDf9LI
distances 10y ago
How well is KDE supported in Fedora?
dade_ 10y ago
I liked the Fedora Interface, but it lacks several packages that I use (Kodi comes to mind, but there were others) SE Linux is always reporting security issues and makes enabling any networking feature a royal pain. Worse, when something doesn't work there is a fraction of the support articles and posts on the Internet. They also changed the package manager from Yum, so a lot of new things to learn since I last used 17. At least they seem to have fixed the network management. Anyway, the recent upgrade to 25 killed my display adapter, and after spending way too much time trying to sort out and reinstalling, I switched back to Ubuntu for desktop. I still use Debian for servers/beaglebone. I also like having a common package manager and config files for both systems. YMMV....
- groks 10y ago
  > it lacks several packages that I use (Kodi comes to mind $ dnf search kodi kodi.x86_64 : Media center ... > They also changed the package manager from Yum, so a lot of new things to learn since I last used 17 $ yum search kodi Redirecting to '/usr/bin/dnf search kodi' (see 'man yum2dnf') kodi.x86_64 : Media center ...

mkawia 10y ago

Long time ubuntu user here , I 'd change the wallpaper and install some basic software and that's it . I'd use and installation for ~2 years

Dowwie 10y ago

I came to complain about my experiences with Ubuntu's issue management process but realized that I ought not complain about something I get for free, is incredibly powerful, useful, and managed by an army of volunteers. So, I'm not complaining about it and am thankful for what I get, despite my struggles interacting with their change management policies.

gcp 10y ago
As you as complaints are balanced by positive feedback about what works, never feel bad to complain.

mangecoeur 10y ago

After years of mucking about with different distros, Ubuntu was the one that stuck. More than that, its the one I install for friends and family - helping people save money turning creaking winXP/Vista machines into sleek and simple Ubuntu ones - no muss, no fuss, a webbrowser and music player is all they really need - and it still works today as well as the day Ubuntu was installed.

aphextron 10y ago
Seconded. I have tried every distro under the sun and come back to Ubuntu as my daily driver on desktop and laptop. Nothing comes close in terms of package availability, ease of use, firmware, inter-op with non-free software, etc. Also I never understood the hate for Unity. It is the most responsive, performant, intuitive, and helpful GUI I have ever used on Linux.
- mangecoeur 10y ago
  I'm also a big unity fan. I see some people grumble that it hasn't changed in a few releases, and you realise they just don't get the point - Unity has been polished to fix all those glitches that used to make linux desktop feel half baked. That means not overhauling the whole infrastructure every two years, but incrementally polishing each area in turn. That takes patience and long term management. The result is good looking and functional and most importantly acts to enable you to get things done that have nothing to do with the window manager.
- maxxxxx 10y ago
  I don't get Unity at all. I use Ubuntu maybe once a month and every time I have trouble remembering how to use it. Is it really intuitive to you? I also have installed it on some machines for friends and family who are less computer literate. They understand Windows, OSX, iOS, Android and Gnome after a while but Unity is just hopeless.
  - PuffinBlue 10y ago
    I'm curious what you/they 'do' on the desktop? Maybe it's the dash thing? Maybe the lack of a list of things to scroll through to choose a program? I've always found unity pretty simple and easy. It seems to handle all graphical tasks fine and if I need a terminal I open a terminal.

agrw 10y ago

https://elementary.io/ https://elementary.io/ pay zero or donate if you want.

holtalanm 10y ago
I was going to mention Elementary OS, too. It is essentially Ubuntu, but with the Pantheon DE. Don't try running it (or Unity) inside a VM though, unless you like having input lag. The best DE i've found for a VM is either MATE or LXDE. XFCE isn't bad either.

indubitably 10y ago

"But despite the sneers, I kept hammering a theme in speech after speech and conversation after conversation that went sort of like this: “Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your girlfriend’s itch?" Jesus. I am not a screaming social justice warrior. But really, is this trope of women being computational idiots going to last forever? Why does the community put up with it? There are a MILLION other nouns that could fit into this sentence.

justanotherbody 10y ago
Full quote > “Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your girlfriend’s itch? How about your coworkers? And people who work at your favorite restaurant? And what about your doctor? Don’t you want him to spend his time doctoring, not worrying about apt get this and grep that?” I'm guessing the line was born from an attempt to share Linux with his SO.
- RileyKyeden 10y ago
  I'm not sure about the person you replied to, but it's the presumption that the reader is a straight male implicit in that question that bugs me. Unless the author is known for his bi/lesbian audience...
  - WayneBro 10y ago
    The probability that the audience is male is greater than 85% in the tech industry though. If a bi/lesbian audience makes it OK then a high percentage male audience should make it OK too.
    - RileyKyeden 10y ago
      It's not that one thing or another makes it okay. There are more neutral ways to phrase it that don't needlessly exclude vast potential audiences. > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your partner’s itch? > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your lover’s itch? > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your sweetheart’s itch? > Instead of scratching only your own itches, why not scratch your mate’s itch? Depending on who you ask, at least a plurality of men are at least a little bi, but a double whammy of homophobia and biphobia keeps them closeted. Why make them twitch a little when a small change in wording solves the problem? Being a good for-public writer is all about maximizing your potential audience without diluting the message. "Girlfriend" rather than any of a slew of more neutral terms needlessly dilutes the message. Personally, I would cut the question entirely since restricting the message to partnered people doesn't serve any purpose.

nonsince 10y ago

I love most of Ubuntu's tools, but I can't stand Unity. It's ugly, it's slow (compared to other Linux DEs, obviously, it's still Fast Enough for most people), and worst of all it shows all the graphic pornography I have in my pictures folder when my colleagues try to use Super-F to find things after being used to macOS. I prefer Elementary because it fixes #1 and #3, or Xubuntu because it fixes #1 a bit, plus #2 and #3 splendidly

nickpeterson 10y ago
What about the textual pornography, is that safe from unity?
- nonsince 10y ago
  Doesn't show up on the preview, you should be safe
PuffinBlue 10y ago
To misuse Cunningham's Law: System Settings > Security & Privacy > Files & Applications Then choose what document types (if any) to show in dash search. That should solve #3 perfectly.
thekevan 10y ago
I can't stand Unity, I have been using Ubuntu since just about when Unity was introduced, but have always used Gnome Flashback on Ubuntu. It's the first thing I install after installing Ubuntu on a computer. http://tipsonubuntu.com/2016/10/16/install-classic-gnome-flashback-ubuntu-16-10/ http://tipsonubuntu.com/2016/10/16/install-classic-gnome-fla...

deleted 10y ago

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