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A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

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Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#221

Post by Karunamon »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #187
Karunamon wrote: post #25

It seems like none of the dumb GNOME warts were plastered over. There's still the idiotic, screen-taking-over activities menu (because, yknow, it should take 3840x2160 pixels to show a fucking app launcher. Did nobody learn from Windows 8? The GNOME devs are officially more hard-headed than Microsoft - an achievement of some note) There's still the swipe-to-unlock desktop There's the default Apple scrolling behavior…

> There's still the idiotic, screen-taking-over activities menu (because, yknow, it should take 3840x2160 pixels to show a fucking app launcher. Did nobody learn from Windows 8? Launchpad on the Mac takes over the full screen too and I never hear anyone gripe about that.

Except Launchpad is entirely optional and not default for anything beyond being in the dock on new accounts.

GNOME, meanwhile, binds that thing to a top-left hot corner as well as the meta key, and it's the main way to search for stuff (meta key, start typing), and it's the only way to switch workspaces.

Of course, you can install a bunch of addons to work around some of this, but we're talking about sane defaults. GNOMEs are not.

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#222

Post by unethical_ban »

walshemj wrote: post #219
yoodenvranx wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes the window. FOR GODS SAKE WHY. I use this all the time when working with several monitors. Just press Alt, click somewhere onto a window, move this window to a different monitor, smash window to the top of the screen. Bam, instant monitor-switching of full-screen windows. (And yes, usually I use keyboard shortcuts for this but when the hand is already on the mous…

You mean it has the super annoying snap to window edge that windows 10 has

>You mean it has the super functional snap to window edge that windows 10 has

See how opinions work?

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#223

Post by yellowapple »

DCKing wrote: post #145

Man, the Linux crowd really sucks. Why am I even reading these comments? I'm of the opinion that the Linux desktop has never been better, and I really enjoy using modern Linux desktops a lot more than I used to. To all those developers that made it possible for us to use this stuff on our computers with no strings attached: thank you. Ubuntu 18.04 is a great collection of these achievements (like many other current L…

Usually when I'm critical of Linux (in a desktop context), it's because I see a lot of potential for Linux to be the absolute best desktop platform out there. It already blows away the competition on a lot of different metrics, but some parts of the overall user experience do sometimes feel clunky or buggy or otherwise non-optimal, and it'd be awesome for that to someday not be the case.

A desktop Linux distro could combine the user-friendliness of the Mac world with the power-user-friendliness of the (pre-8) Windows world and turn both up to eleven while bringing its own element of stability and dependability. It won't get there unless problems - even if they seem minor - are identified and resolved.

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#224

Post by collyw »

rootlocus wrote: post #75
panarky wrote: post #31

When the display goes to sleep due to lack of input or whatever, you have to drag upwards with your mouse to unlock the screen. Like some common dirty frickin' smart phone. Yes! Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes the window. FOR GODS SAKE WHY. Double yes!

> Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes the window. FOR GODS SAKE WHY. This also works in Xfce and I love it.

I never noticed until now. (After just posting a comment that I stuck with Xfce to avoid crap like that...)

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#225

Post by criddell »

Frondo wrote: post #38
willvarfar wrote: post #3

The technical audience who actually use Linux desktops want more customization not less, and the crowd that Ubuntu seems to be chasing doesn't seem to actually exist? Hmm this doesn't make me want to leave xubuntu any time soon, although I too have noticed the recent xfce issues mentioned in the article.

Nope, I want a thing that Just Works. These days I use Kubuntu, but literally the only configuration thing I change is the desktop wallpaper. Everything else works how I want it out of the box. I wouldn't even know how to diagnose shit anymore, and I grew up on Slackware. I had time to customize stuff when I was a kid, now it's time to work.

> I had time to customize stuff when I was a kid, now it's time to work.

That's me exactly. I used to love tweaking Enlightenment(?) into a Hollywood-worthy environment.

These days if I tweak something, it's probably to select a larger font because my eyesight isn't what it used to be.

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#226

Post by unethical_ban »

Karunamon wrote: post #25

It seems like none of the dumb GNOME warts were plastered over. There's still the idiotic, screen-taking-over activities menu (because, yknow, it should take 3840x2160 pixels to show a fucking app launcher. Did nobody learn from Windows 8? The GNOME devs are officially more hard-headed than Microsoft - an achievement of some note) There's still the swipe-to-unlock desktop There's the default Apple scrolling behavior…

>There's the default Apple scrolling behavior

Everyone has preferences, but the "apple" behavior makes so much sense. It's the first thing I change when I install a laptop OS.

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#227

Post by yellowapple »

billfruit wrote: post #19

Why doesn't Ubuntu (and many other distributions) change to a rolling release model. Having switched to Arch, though admittedly the installation process is much more elaborate than of Ubuntu, once you customise it to one's preference, it is much more convenient to keep upgrading individual packages as they are evolving.

I generally prefer LTS-style releases for machines that I'm setting up for other people who I don't expect to do their own maintenance. That way, I'm less nervous about setting up automatic updates (since an update is less likely to break things). I also generally prefer LTS-style releases for business/enterprise use, since the release schedule is more predictable.

For my own use (or for power users and other tech-savvy folks who I'm reasonably sure will be able to maintain their systems themselves), a rolling release is less worrying.

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#228

Post by yoodenvranx »

cabalamat wrote: post #197
yoodenvranx wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes the window. FOR GODS SAKE WHY. I use this all the time when working with several monitors. Just press Alt, click somewhere onto a window, move this window to a different monitor, smash window to the top of the screen. Bam, instant monitor-switching of full-screen windows. (And yes, usually I use keyboard shortcuts for this but when the hand is already on the mous…

> I use this all the time when working with several monitors. Just press Alt, click somewhere onto a window, move this window to a different monitor, smash window to the top of the screen. Bam, instant monitor-switching of full-screen windows. 1. What's wrong with the maximise button? It wasn't broken, it didn't need fixing. 2. What if you want the window at the top of the screen without being maximised?

> 1. What's wrong with the maximise button? It wasn't broken, it didn't need fixing

Using the maximise button takes more clicks and more aiming.

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#229

Post by tedge »

Ubuntu 18.04 is the first release to include my app, PikoPixel (pixel-art editor), in its repository (universe): https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/gnustep/pikopixel.app

I had to tweak PP's packaging to get it to appear in the Ubuntu Software app, so I can provide a bit of info about this part of the article:

My assumption for now is that the Ubuntu Software application only shows updates for packages that were installed through it. Further, the list of installed applications that it shows is very clearly a subset of those that are actually installed on the system. Color me befuddled.

The Ubuntu Software app (& similar software-center apps, such as GNOME Software, KDE Discover, etc.) only shows distro packages which have valid AppStream metadata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppStream

The AppStream metadata is generated automatically by running appstream-generator (https://github.com/ximion/appstream-generator ) on Ubuntu's repositories. However, on some packages the metadata can't be generated, due to an error - either the package has missing info, incorrect formatting, or possibly it's an issue with appstream-generator.

Here's a list of packages in the Ubuntu Bionic universe repo that have issues (packages with errors are unlikely to appear in Ubuntu Software): http://appstream.ubuntu.com/bionic/universe/issues/index.htm...

List of packages with successfully generated metadata in Ubuntu Bionic universe (should appear in Ubuntu Software): http://appstream.ubuntu.com/bionic/universe/metainfo/index.h... (Package names link to the generated metadata xml file).

Re: A Lengthy, Pedantic Review of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

#230

Post by walshemj »

unethical_ban wrote: post #222
walshemj wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean it has the super annoying snap to window edge that windows 10 has

>You mean it has the super functional snap to window edge that windows 10 has See how opinions work?

Well if and only have a laptop screen to work with trying to adjust windows and have it to do something stupid that hids other windows you want to see.
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