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Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

#31

Post by bittercynic »

srcmap wrote: post #24

Personally 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.

I'm in the same boat, and settled on LXDE after trying XFCE. Either one seems to work great even on cheap or old hardware, and there are way fewer surprises that more featureful desktop environments.

Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

#33

Post by magicalbeans »

bwbw223 wrote: post #29
sathackr wrote: post #11

I'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/Bwbw223/170E026006774C4…

50/50 splits don't work well in practice. Splits right in the middle of the eyes. And assumes all tiles have the same importance and deserve equal screen space. Whereas with large central monitor the positioning and split ratios are very important. 50/50 rarely works well. 60/40, 70/30, are more sensible

Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

#34

Post by rcdmd »

I wish I didn't. My experience was so bad I'm actually back on Windows for the first time since 12.04 and might stay here.

It was an X/driver issue and it took me a few hours to fix to just get X to load. Meanwhile, Windows worked fine as I furiously Googled the issue.

Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

#36

Post by androidgirl »

I would recommend it. I've used it at home for a bit, I only recently switched away from it on my workstation to Antergos.

I still feel that 16.04 was a bit more traditional, and I liked that a lot. If you're happy with 16.04, I'd reccomend sticking. I won't be upgrading my machine at work for a long while, which is still 16.04.

Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

#37

Post by rufugee »

rcdmd wrote: post #34

I wish I didn't. My experience was so bad I'm actually back on Windows for the first time since 12.04 and might stay here. It was an X/driver issue and it took me a few hours to fix to just get X to load. Meanwhile, Windows worked fine as I furiously Googled the issue.

Windows and Linux are not apples to apples. One you pay for and one you don't.

Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

#39

Post by torbjorn »

magicalbeans wrote: post #33
bwbw223 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/Bwbw223/170E026006774C4…

50/50 splits don't work well in practice. Splits right in the middle of the eyes. And assumes all tiles have the same importance and deserve equal screen space. Whereas with large central monitor the positioning and split ratios are very important. 50/50 rarely works well. 60/40, 70/30, are more sensible

In i3 it is very easy to adjust the split ratio. hit mod + r and you are in resize mode.

Re: Ask HN: Is it a good time to switch to Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?

#40

Post by throwaway8879 »

copperx wrote: post #27
throwaway8879 wrote: post #10

I 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?

I just installed Xubuntu on it. I suppose it uses the integrated GPU by default? As far as I can tell, it was the switching between GPUs that was causing the machine to crash on macOS. I recall having installed gfxCardStatus on it to stop the switching, but it wasn't super-reliable.

Anyway, it works pretty well now for some dev work and light browsing. Hope you manage to fix yours!

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