Live data from Hacker News

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

blog.bityard.net

331–340 of 391 posts

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

#331
post #160

Ubuntu lost me years back when they introduced Unity. The single biggest issue I had with it was the positioning of the dock and how there was no officially supported means of changing it. I didn't like it from a design perspective but far worse was my RSI which was particularly bad at the time, even subtle things like button placement would just set everything right off. I wasn't the only one who wanted the option t…

The linked article mentions that there are zero UI customization options. You can't even change the font or colors. They are certainly not listening to their users.

Switch to Kubuntu then, all the ease of Ubuntu with the customizability of Plasma/KDE

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

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curated stores are fine and can indeed improve quality, but it'll be a tremendously sad day when they'll be mandated by law. Adding a 30% tax and central control on all software just because we believe users can't be taught to not install random crap is a very bleak outlook indeed. Freedom is sometimes messy, but almost always worth it.

I do not support mandating those things by law. I am content with letting the Linux people do their thing while I do my thing. The only people I've only thought wanted to outlaw something are the most extreme Linux/GNU zealots who want to make it illegal for a company to lock down a computer even if it improves the user experience. It stands to reason that such zealots exist on the other side of the argument as well,…

"I am content with letting the Linux people do their thing while I do my thing."

The problem is that when it becomes too niche, it will be banned out of course. ("Do you have any idea what people can DO with those things??")

Remember, encryption was a munition and controlled accordingly. The need for secure banking is about the only reason we're allowed that. That, and the efforts of people who demand ownership over their machines (or at least something close to it)

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

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand why Ubuntu took a very nice desktop Linux distribution, and fucked it up with all these mobile and tablet centric UI absurdities.

It's the way of the world. Apple and Microsoft seem hell-bent on introducing "phone/tablet" type gestures into their desktop UIs also. It seems only natural that linux distros would follow. Lesson for the kids making these decisions: "new and/or different" != better

No, Unity came before Windows 8.

And with Windows 8 noone actually used Metro, the real desktop environment wasn't really touched so you always had a polished desktop-oriented UI one key stroke away. Not so with ubuntu that single-handedly obliterated the desktop Linux market dominance it had.

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

#334

What a good review, focusing on all the so-called little things, that are actually the big things, ie does it actually work smoothly. The same with laptop reviews which quite often just compare features and speeds, but not the feel, keyboard, trackpad, weight, noise and heat, port placement, carry-ability, one-hand-holdability, etc, etc.

Yes, one of the best Linux distro reviews I have read!

Actually gives a feel for how it would be using it rather than descriptions of cosmetics. Also it gives constructive and relevant criticism which can be of help for future development.

This is a common problem with reviews, rushed out to be first, but not sure what is the optimal time spent for reviewing the product. Also, many times I get a feeling people reviewing distros are not really qualified, as in contrast to this guy who seems to know both what is important and also have technical knowledge, when needed.

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

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand why Ubuntu took a very nice desktop Linux distribution, and fucked it up with all these mobile and tablet centric UI absurdities.

It's the way of the world. Apple and Microsoft seem hell-bent on introducing "phone/tablet" type gestures into their desktop UIs also. It seems only natural that linux distros would follow. Lesson for the kids making these decisions: "new and/or different" != better

On the other hand, browser mouse gestures were awesome for half a decade before smartphones were a thing.

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

#336
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the data you typed in the internal search Your problem is that you viewed it as an internal search, when it was designed and advertised as a global search. If you want to argue that the global search should have been an internal search, that's fine. If you imply that the search was an internal search, though, then that's misleading FUD.

Is there a way to restrict it to be only an internal search?

Yes. In the Privacy settings, there's an option to turn off the online search element (along with a bunch of other online features).

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

#337
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the data you typed in the internal search Your problem is that you viewed it as an internal search, when it was designed and advertised as a global search. If you want to argue that the global search should have been an internal search, that's fine. If you imply that the search was an internal search, though, then that's misleading FUD.

"it was designed and advertised as a global search" No it was not. There were Lenses that were advertised as non-local searches, yes, but the main Lens was (to my recollection) not one of them. What actually happened was that Canonical took the main search bar (which had traditionally been designed to search for local files and programs) and stuck Amazon search results in it. Then, when users (like myself) recommende…

> There were Lenses that were advertised as non-local searches, yes, but the main Lens was (to my recollection) not one of them.

The label got changed to "Search your computer and online sources". I believe this was after a few iterations. I don't remember the original text, but I think it's clear that there was no intention to mislead users.

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

#338
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XFCE is slowly dying, and I think the issues are a symptom of this. The file manager, for a very long time, had a reproducible issue (>20% of the time) where moving a file would cause a crash; based on the Ubuntu bug tracker, took an year and half to fix, and it was (appropriately) marked as critical. It's clearly lacks development resources (and I also personally question the development quality). I still use XUbunt…

The Gnome file manager (Nautilus) works just fine with the Xfce desktop as well. I use the Xubuntu desktop, but I use the Gnome apps instead of the Xfce apps.

It does, but it's a hack, as there are integration problems. Thunar is still tightly integrated with the desktop, so if one uses an alternative file manager, operation like copying from the desktop and pasting into the (alternative) file manager won't have any effect.

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

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The linked article mentions that there are zero UI customization options. You can't even change the font or colors. They are certainly not listening to their users.

Switch to Kubuntu then, all the ease of Ubuntu with the customizability of Plasma/KDE

I just came back to Win10. My past experiences with KDE have been less than optimal.

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

#340
post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got so much used to Unity. 17.04 felt more alien to me than when I first tried Win8 Metro. I'm getting old...

17.10 you mean? I haven't enjoyed that release at all, for me personally Ubuntu's Gnome 3 (could be everyone's Gnome 3 - I dunno) is just clunky and buggy compared to Unity. I'll upgrade to 18.04, but if it isn't an improvement over 17.10 in that regard, it'll be time for me to check out other desktops.

Yes, 17.10 was the latest one I tried.

I prefer using LTS releases myself, so it's probably time to test 18.04.

Post reply on HN