4 ms·

Moved to Linux Mint and away from Ubuntu, been pretty happy with Linux ever since.

by Johnyma22 14y ago

tribaal 14y ago
I'm sorry, how is this relevant to the subject at hand?
- PommeDeTerre 14y ago
  I suspect it's referring to how many former Ubuntu users were driven away by Ubuntu's past UI changes. The switch to Unity was particularly disruptive, and alienated many staunch Ubuntu users very rapidly, for example. What's being discussed here sounds very much like the same kind of disruptive change, with the likely outcome of alienating yet more users. Many of these users who have been forced out of the Ubuntu camp have moved to Linux Mint, because it tends to offer what were the benefits of Ubuntu, but without the painful points. The fact that they're better off now than if they had still been using Ubuntu shows that these types of changes aren't really helping the Ubuntu experience.
  - Shorel 14y ago
    I have installed Linux mint in this computer, in a Virtual Machine, and I never boot it, because it feels like when I used Mandrake a decade ago. It feels old. In contrast Unity looks even better than Windows7, and it runs faster. As far as I know, lots of new users got to use Linux precisely because of the switch to Unity. Also, another set of users got back to using Linux as the primary machine because of Unity, like me. So, some old guys leave Ubuntu, while another set of new users join Ubuntu. It is probable that the end result is a net gain, even with all the complaints. I would love to see real numbers (different to the old geezers complaints) to clarify this issue.
  - angryamoeba 14y ago
    I can't help but feel that those people were using Ubuntu expecting it to be something that it was never intended to be. To be surprised at evolutionary changes which shed the aesthetic of competing distributions and introduce simpler, more consumer-oriented user experiences is to fundamentally misunderstand what Ubuntu Desktop has always been aiming for - Ubuntu hasn't stopped delivering on promises in recent days, it's started delivering on them.
    - mich41 14y ago
      It always seemed obvious that Ubuntu's promise was aesthetics and simple consumer-oriented experience, but for some reason Canonical marketed it as "Linux for human beings" instead of "Linux for simple consumer beings". Some people fell victim to this and now they are running away.
  - LyndsySimon 14y ago
    While I've been a Linux user for several years on and off, I don't really keep up with the news and happenings in that world. From my perspective, the move to Unity made zero sense at the time. It was a clear case of NIH (Not Invented Here). "It works better on small screens" was translated in my head to "Netbooks are the future!" so I went out and bought an Asus eeePC. IT wasn't bad, but it got old after a while and I sold it. Fast forward 2.5 years, and we're seeing the convergence of mobile devices. I personally carry a 7" Samsung tablet as a phone. Others around me carry an iPad or iPad Mini in addition to an iPhone or Android device. Now "It works better on a small screen" translates to "We're building a single experience across phones, tablets, laptops and desktops." Apple has been trending that way for about a year with the introduction of the App Store for Mac, and Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon too with Metro and its touch-based UI features. Suddenly, the much-maligned move to Unity as a desktop shell makes Shuttleworth look like a freakin' genius, as Ubuntu sits here with a unified experience for both users and developers, while Microsoft tries to push its heavyweight OS onto tablets and Apple tries to close the gap between iOS and OSX. Add in that Ubuntu's primary development language seems to be Python, while your other options are Java (Android), Objective-C (iOS) or .NET (Win8)... I'm seriously considering dropping my side projects and going headlong into app development for Ubuntu Phone. It's a gamble, but if anyone can threaten the status quo right now, I think it's going to be Ubuntu.
    - takluyver 14y ago
      App development for Ubuntu touch is currently based on QML (Javascript & maybe C++). I'd love to see them properly support Python in the future, but I've no idea if they will. I agree with most of what you say. But it seems like there's still a big technical gulf between Ubuntu desktop (X based, with apps in Python+GTK) and Ubuntu touch (Surfaceflinger, apps in QML). I'm sure there's a plan to bring them closer together, but so far I don't know what that will be. EDIT: And just minutes after I post, at least part of the answer appears: they're making a new display server, Mir, for both desktop and touch devices.
      - LyndsySimon 14y ago
        My understanding is that QML describes the interface, but the actual application logic is written in something else. From Ubuntu's developer portal: > While Ubuntu and the applications that come with Ubuntu are written in many different languages, from C to Java to Haskell, when writing something new we recommend using Python. Many important parts of Ubuntu are already written directly in Python, and we work to make every important API and framework within Ubuntu available from Python. Python includes a rich standard library and a vast set of third party modules, so there are libraries available for just about everything you can think of. http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/programming-languages/python/ http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/programming-languages/... I've not gotten far into it though, and likely won't for a month or two. My experience lies almost completely on the web; I've never written a native mobile app or released desktop software.
HNLogInShit 14y ago
Yep. The defective Ubuntu UI made the whole thing pretty unusable.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
forgottenpaswrd 14y ago
good for you!

Moved to Linux Mint and away from Ubuntu, been pretty happy with Linux ever since.

tribaal 14y ago

I'm sorry, how is this relevant to the subject at hand?

PommeDeTerre 14y ago
I suspect it's referring to how many former Ubuntu users were driven away by Ubuntu's past UI changes. The switch to Unity was particularly disruptive, and alienated many staunch Ubuntu users very rapidly, for example. What's being discussed here sounds very much like the same kind of disruptive change, with the likely outcome of alienating yet more users. Many of these users who have been forced out of the Ubuntu camp have moved to Linux Mint, because it tends to offer what were the benefits of Ubuntu, but without the painful points. The fact that they're better off now than if they had still been using Ubuntu shows that these types of changes aren't really helping the Ubuntu experience.
- Shorel 14y ago
  I have installed Linux mint in this computer, in a Virtual Machine, and I never boot it, because it feels like when I used Mandrake a decade ago. It feels old. In contrast Unity looks even better than Windows7, and it runs faster. As far as I know, lots of new users got to use Linux precisely because of the switch to Unity. Also, another set of users got back to using Linux as the primary machine because of Unity, like me. So, some old guys leave Ubuntu, while another set of new users join Ubuntu. It is probable that the end result is a net gain, even with all the complaints. I would love to see real numbers (different to the old geezers complaints) to clarify this issue.
- angryamoeba 14y ago
  I can't help but feel that those people were using Ubuntu expecting it to be something that it was never intended to be. To be surprised at evolutionary changes which shed the aesthetic of competing distributions and introduce simpler, more consumer-oriented user experiences is to fundamentally misunderstand what Ubuntu Desktop has always been aiming for - Ubuntu hasn't stopped delivering on promises in recent days, it's started delivering on them.
  - mich41 14y ago
    It always seemed obvious that Ubuntu's promise was aesthetics and simple consumer-oriented experience, but for some reason Canonical marketed it as "Linux for human beings" instead of "Linux for simple consumer beings". Some people fell victim to this and now they are running away.
- LyndsySimon 14y ago
  While I've been a Linux user for several years on and off, I don't really keep up with the news and happenings in that world. From my perspective, the move to Unity made zero sense at the time. It was a clear case of NIH (Not Invented Here). "It works better on small screens" was translated in my head to "Netbooks are the future!" so I went out and bought an Asus eeePC. IT wasn't bad, but it got old after a while and I sold it. Fast forward 2.5 years, and we're seeing the convergence of mobile devices. I personally carry a 7" Samsung tablet as a phone. Others around me carry an iPad or iPad Mini in addition to an iPhone or Android device. Now "It works better on a small screen" translates to "We're building a single experience across phones, tablets, laptops and desktops." Apple has been trending that way for about a year with the introduction of the App Store for Mac, and Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon too with Metro and its touch-based UI features. Suddenly, the much-maligned move to Unity as a desktop shell makes Shuttleworth look like a freakin' genius, as Ubuntu sits here with a unified experience for both users and developers, while Microsoft tries to push its heavyweight OS onto tablets and Apple tries to close the gap between iOS and OSX. Add in that Ubuntu's primary development language seems to be Python, while your other options are Java (Android), Objective-C (iOS) or .NET (Win8)... I'm seriously considering dropping my side projects and going headlong into app development for Ubuntu Phone. It's a gamble, but if anyone can threaten the status quo right now, I think it's going to be Ubuntu.
  - takluyver 14y ago
    App development for Ubuntu touch is currently based on QML (Javascript & maybe C++). I'd love to see them properly support Python in the future, but I've no idea if they will. I agree with most of what you say. But it seems like there's still a big technical gulf between Ubuntu desktop (X based, with apps in Python+GTK) and Ubuntu touch (Surfaceflinger, apps in QML). I'm sure there's a plan to bring them closer together, but so far I don't know what that will be. EDIT: And just minutes after I post, at least part of the answer appears: they're making a new display server, Mir, for both desktop and touch devices.
    - LyndsySimon 14y ago
      My understanding is that QML describes the interface, but the actual application logic is written in something else. From Ubuntu's developer portal: > While Ubuntu and the applications that come with Ubuntu are written in many different languages, from C to Java to Haskell, when writing something new we recommend using Python. Many important parts of Ubuntu are already written directly in Python, and we work to make every important API and framework within Ubuntu available from Python. Python includes a rich standard library and a vast set of third party modules, so there are libraries available for just about everything you can think of. http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/programming-languages/python/ http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/programming-languages/... I've not gotten far into it though, and likely won't for a month or two. My experience lies almost completely on the web; I've never written a native mobile app or released desktop software.

HNLogInShit 14y ago

Yep. The defective Ubuntu UI made the whole thing pretty unusable.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

forgottenpaswrd 14y ago

good for you!