5 ms·

If you want a no frills experience that just works, give Lubuntu a try. Of all the Linux distros I've used in my company, it's given us almost no headaches. The

by osrec 8y ago

If you want a no frills experience that just works, give Lubuntu a try. Of all the Linux distros I've used in my company, it's given us almost no headaches. The fonts are crisp, and icons look fine too. Adding monitors has also been painless. And even my least technical users are able to use it (but might need a bit of help now and again). For us, it has actually been a pleasure to use because of its speed. If you're prepared to give up whizzy animations etc, do try it when you have a bit of spare time.

mehrdadn 8y ago
> If you want a no frills experience that just works, give Lubuntu a try. I can't speak for the UI but Aptitude vomits broken dependencies every time you have to upgrade your distro. It made me absolutely despise package management (I'm a Windows guy) until I switched to Arch and realized a package manager that is a pleasure to work with is not an inherent oxymoron. Obviously UI is another story but at least this one works.
- kungtotte 8y ago
  You can go with Manjaro if you want a better experience with pre-configured desktop environments. There are official editions for XFCE, KDE, and Gnome and there's community editions for i3, openbox, LXQT, and so on. You still have access to the AUR and the official repos mirror the official Arch repos but lag behind by a week or two.
- iforgotpassword 8y ago
  It's hit and miss. At work I'm running a lubuntu install from 2012 that flawlessly upgraded up until now, sometimes skipping releases, sometimes not, switching desktop environment and window managers a few times along the way. Arch Linux on the other hand always has some minor breakage every now and then. Not with the package manager, but just something about the system being broken.
- billfruit 8y ago
  I do think windows update process is also seriously broken: no info given to users what is being changed, no indication given how long it will take, and often taking many hours to complete, all the while your computer remains unusable; I do not know why Microsoft is not being taken to task for such a shoddy experience.
  - MrTonyD 8y ago
    I'm an old timer. I remember when Microsoft would expire your license - for any of their applications - essentially at random. And they disabled reloads of the software and disabled reinstalls of the entire OS. Even after you paid them again, it was a major hassle - but Mocrosoft didn't care about customer complaints as long as the money was rolling in (Bill Gates at the time said that "I am a businessman" when he dismissed customer concerns.)It was the Federal Government which forced them to stop breaking systems, threatening to pass laws against their practices. That's also about the time that Microsoft hired ALL the major PR firms to change their image (and Bill suddenly appeared everywhere with his charity - which was only giving away a small portion of his wealth, since he hides most of it offshore and away from any accounting.)
    - meitme 8y ago
      10s of billions with plans for more is not small amounts even for Bill. Also he does not hide most of his wealth offshore. He got his wealth from stocks in Microsoft a publicly traded company and that is where most of his wealth is. Many rich people manipulate offshore accounts to hide money but that doesn't really make sense for Bill Gates. Please don't make up things.
      - MrTonyD 8y ago
        I've worked with executives who reported to Bill Gates, reported to Steve Jobs, and reported to Larry Ellison. Guess what? They all use the same set of accountants, and I've gotten descriptions of the way that they all hide money offshore. I've been in many meetings with Steve, and he even spoke of it internally, since it is all legal. At Oracle, our team reported to Larry and I helped reassign monies to offshore entities - and was assured that it was beyond question because "the Big 3 accounting firms are our customers, and we are their customers" and "they all make millions off us". Those monies were then funneled to groups of executives through those companies. So please don't lecture me about your opinions on these things where I have first hand knowledge. It seems like whenever I share something that I know on HN there are people who pop out to explain to me why I'm wrong. I guess I should be used to it - the more insightful the post, the more downvotes.

by osrec 8y ago

mehrdadn 8y ago

> If you want a no frills experience that just works, give Lubuntu a try. I can't speak for the UI but Aptitude vomits broken dependencies every time you have to upgrade your distro. It made me absolutely despise package management (I'm a Windows guy) until I switched to Arch and realized a package manager that is a pleasure to work with is not an inherent oxymoron. Obviously UI is another story but at least this one works.

kungtotte 8y ago
You can go with Manjaro if you want a better experience with pre-configured desktop environments. There are official editions for XFCE, KDE, and Gnome and there's community editions for i3, openbox, LXQT, and so on. You still have access to the AUR and the official repos mirror the official Arch repos but lag behind by a week or two.
iforgotpassword 8y ago
It's hit and miss. At work I'm running a lubuntu install from 2012 that flawlessly upgraded up until now, sometimes skipping releases, sometimes not, switching desktop environment and window managers a few times along the way. Arch Linux on the other hand always has some minor breakage every now and then. Not with the package manager, but just something about the system being broken.
billfruit 8y ago
I do think windows update process is also seriously broken: no info given to users what is being changed, no indication given how long it will take, and often taking many hours to complete, all the while your computer remains unusable; I do not know why Microsoft is not being taken to task for such a shoddy experience.
- MrTonyD 8y ago
  I'm an old timer. I remember when Microsoft would expire your license - for any of their applications - essentially at random. And they disabled reloads of the software and disabled reinstalls of the entire OS. Even after you paid them again, it was a major hassle - but Mocrosoft didn't care about customer complaints as long as the money was rolling in (Bill Gates at the time said that "I am a businessman" when he dismissed customer concerns.)It was the Federal Government which forced them to stop breaking systems, threatening to pass laws against their practices. That's also about the time that Microsoft hired ALL the major PR firms to change their image (and Bill suddenly appeared everywhere with his charity - which was only giving away a small portion of his wealth, since he hides most of it offshore and away from any accounting.)
  - meitme 8y ago
    10s of billions with plans for more is not small amounts even for Bill. Also he does not hide most of his wealth offshore. He got his wealth from stocks in Microsoft a publicly traded company and that is where most of his wealth is. Many rich people manipulate offshore accounts to hide money but that doesn't really make sense for Bill Gates. Please don't make up things.
    - MrTonyD 8y ago
      I've worked with executives who reported to Bill Gates, reported to Steve Jobs, and reported to Larry Ellison. Guess what? They all use the same set of accountants, and I've gotten descriptions of the way that they all hide money offshore. I've been in many meetings with Steve, and he even spoke of it internally, since it is all legal. At Oracle, our team reported to Larry and I helped reassign monies to offshore entities - and was assured that it was beyond question because "the Big 3 accounting firms are our customers, and we are their customers" and "they all make millions off us". Those monies were then funneled to groups of executives through those companies. So please don't lecture me about your opinions on these things where I have first hand knowledge. It seems like whenever I share something that I know on HN there are people who pop out to explain to me why I'm wrong. I guess I should be used to it - the more insightful the post, the more downvotes.