I would avoid Ubuntu. They take carry a LOT of patches that are not upstreamed (for whatever reason) and they have a long history of ignoring community trends and being extremely divisive for no good reason.
Have any recommendations?
Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
21–30 of 70 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#22I've been using 16.04 since release and loved it. It was my first Linux daily driver after dumping Windows due to dislike of the way MS has handled Windows 10. I just bought a new drive, so took the opportunity to install 18.04 to see how it goes. I'm using a Latitude E7450 with a 1920x1080 touchscreen. I'm not a developer, I'm primarily a network engineer, so I spent a lot of time in terminal windows configuring rou…
Btw, for the tab behaviour - just go to https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/ in your browser and click install. Gnome is configurable using the browser.
That's better, but I really got used to 16.04's method. It grouped the tasks, but a pause on the task group would open it and sub-subsequent alt-tabs would switch between windows inside the group.
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#23I've been using 16.04 since release and loved it. It was my first Linux daily driver after dumping Windows due to dislike of the way MS has handled Windows 10. I just bought a new drive, so took the opportunity to install 18.04 to see how it goes. I'm using a Latitude E7450 with a 1920x1080 touchscreen. I'm not a developer, I'm primarily a network engineer, so I spent a lot of time in terminal windows configuring rou…
> I can no longer alt-tab between open windows with one hand when you have multiple windows of the same program open. Selecting which window you want requires either using the mouse, or using the arrow keys(with right hand). Doesn't the combination Alt+` do what you intend to do? Alt+tab changes between different apps, and Alt+` changes between different windows of the same app.
possibly, I will try tomorrow when I'm on the laptop again.
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#24Personally I like to keep it simple, stupid and light which is xfce for me.
If I need a desktop, I always configure the system to use xfce which means 16.04 and 18.04's desktop GUI are the same.
It also means that the vm with GUI under Mac/Windows has the same GUI and also very light. I can configure 512M -2G RAM per VM and they works just fine.
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#25I would avoid Ubuntu. They take carry a LOT of patches that are not upstreamed (for whatever reason) and they have a long history of ignoring community trends and being extremely divisive for no good reason.
Have any recommendations?
Googler's workstations use Debian Testing (customized). It might be a good start.
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#26Would not recommend upgrading. I tried it out in a VM, and it's not that it's bad. It's just how solid 16.04 is. It's a joy to work in that environment, and if I'm going to upgrade my OS when things are so smooth, it better be to have a better experience.
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#27I managed to revive a 2010 Macbook Pro that had an issue with the logic-board/GPU. Ubuntu 18.04 works flawlessly on it. Although Gnome is a little heavy, so my i3 setup with some XFCE settings works very well.
I also have a 2010 MBP with a logic board problem. How did you manage to revive it?
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#28Wow. Some of the bug reports here sound pretty obvious. I wonder if your touch screen is the reason why so many issues are occuring... That or Wayland/Ubuntu isn't right at all.
Thomas Abril Consultant en Paris Sportifs https://bookmaker-foot.weebly.com/
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#29I've been using 16.04 since release and loved it. It was my first Linux daily driver after dumping Windows due to dislike of the way MS has handled Windows 10. I just bought a new drive, so took the opportunity to install 18.04 to see how it goes. I'm using a Latitude E7450 with a 1920x1080 touchscreen. I'm not a developer, I'm primarily a network engineer, so I spent a lot of time in terminal windows configuring rou…
Maybe you would enjoy i3 if you spend lot of time with terminal windows.
It’s a little scary at first, but 4 major key combos are all you need.
mod+enter: open terminal
mod+d: open launcher; the default is dmenu, but rofi is amazing.
mod+h: split horizontally when opening next window
mod+v: above but vertically
I personally have a setup with i3-gaps, rofi, and polybar: https://u.cubeupload.com/Bwbw223/170E026006774C45A65E.png
It’s a bit ugly stock, though...
Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?
#30I prefer Debian testing + KDE for desktop needs including gaming. Rolling distros are in general more up to date especially with Mesa and kernel updates. Unless you configure extra repositories, stable or LTS distros will fall behind a lot.