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Ubuntu in 2013

markshuttleworth.com

61–67 of 67 posts

Re: Ubuntu in 2013

#61
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works on your laptop, but not on my father's in law desktop, where it used to work. Ubuntu used to work on this machine and, somehow, after each upgrade it has become less stable. It freezes completely and there is no way to solve the problem. In fact, there are some bugs in Ubuntu's buck tracker that might be related, but they are marked as "won't fix". Anyway, today I'm transitioning my parents in law to Windows…

" Anyway, today I'm transitioning my parents in law to Windows 7. It will be a pain for me, but at least it will work for them. It won't freeze. " Glad you found something that works for you and your father in law. I'll just mention that CentOS 6.3 (and the other RHEL 6 clones, Scientific Linux and Springdale, formerly PUIAS) have a kernel and applications that are similar roughly to Ubuntu 10.04. Ubuntu 10.04 is sti…

Thanks for your tip. I was also thinking about trying Debian stable.

There is another option, which would be to change the video card of the computer.

But I don't have much time. This is my parents' in law computer not mine, and when I go to visit them with my wife, I don't want to stay the whole day in their office doing computer maintenance. So I decided to use W7, which was already installed in their computer.

Re: Ubuntu in 2013

#62
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just switch to Xubuntu. Xfce isn't changing any time soon. None of the "interface innovation" Unity is notorious for.

I'll switch to Xubuntu too because I need remote access. It's not just a matter of UX. Cloud service doesn't solve my problem. The future looks dark because applications won't be able to support Wyland and X11. There will be a fork and Ubuntu is betting on it with the goal to compete with Android and iOs. On this path, users like me are left as orphan. I've change OS before, I can do it again.

It's not just Ubuntu pushing Wayland, though. The Wayland project was started by a core X11 developer and seems to have the support of most X11 developers.

Re: Ubuntu in 2013

#63
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way to drag / drop arbitrary files onto the panel (ie, directories, executables, scripts, etc)? Setting up launchers and what not is so cumbersome.

I don't know about drag/drop, since I don't use that much, but it's easy to add panel applets for various things, including launching software and viewing directories. I usually just set up keyboard shortcuts for all my software using the Win key though. It's a lot faster than mousing over to the panel and clicking on an icon.

I just reinstalled it on my arch partition, they do now have that drag / drop to panel I mentioned, but it doesn't act like a dock still, so I had to put Cairo dock on. Going to toy with it some more tomorrow.

My use case is disjoint it seems. All I want is a pinnable launcher dock panel (preferrably with app integration, but that gets nutty), systemwide smart learning search with system key, a working system tray and clock, and decent multiheaded monitor support. None of the current Linux desktops really provide all those in tandem.

Re: Ubuntu in 2013

#64
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about drag/drop, since I don't use that much, but it's easy to add panel applets for various things, including launching software and viewing directories. I usually just set up keyboard shortcuts for all my software using the Win key though. It's a lot faster than mousing over to the panel and clicking on an icon.

I just reinstalled it on my arch partition, they do now have that drag / drop to panel I mentioned, but it doesn't act like a dock still, so I had to put Cairo dock on. Going to toy with it some more tomorrow. My use case is disjoint it seems. All I want is a pinnable launcher dock panel (preferrably with app integration, but that gets nutty), systemwide smart learning search with system key, a working system tray an…

If Cairo does what you want out of a dock, then just use it alongside a regular Xfce panel for the system tray/clock. You can set up whatever system search software you want with an Xfce shortcut (in the Xfce settings). What problems are you having with multimonitor? I use ARandR to configure my monitors - again, in the Xfce settings, just set it to run when you hit the Fn key combo for monitor settings.

Re: Ubuntu in 2013

#65
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Anyway, today I'm transitioning my parents in law to Windows 7. It will be a pain for me, but at least it will work for them. It won't freeze. " Glad you found something that works for you and your father in law. I'll just mention that CentOS 6.3 (and the other RHEL 6 clones, Scientific Linux and Springdale, formerly PUIAS) have a kernel and applications that are similar roughly to Ubuntu 10.04. Ubuntu 10.04 is sti…

Thanks for your tip. I was also thinking about trying Debian stable. There is another option, which would be to change the video card of the computer. But I don't have much time. This is my parents' in law computer not mine, and when I go to visit them with my wife, I don't want to stay the whole day in their office doing computer maintenance. So I decided to use W7, which was already installed in their computer.

Yes, video cards and hardware drivers generally is the difficult area.

I was posting my suggestion for others in the same boat. I detect a 'blind spot' sometimes in some replies to discussions like this about the fact that the operating system is GNU/Linux, and a distribution is just that, a convenient collection of packages and an update system/policy. If someone else finds (say) Ubuntu 10.04 works really well on their hardware, they are likely (but not certain) to find that CentOS 6 will do just as well.

I use a recycled Thinkpad with Intel graphics, so any major Linux distro is a half hour install, with most things working out of the box. Debian is strict about proprietary binary blobs, and so needs a wired connection to install and add the firmware appropriate to the wifi card. CentOS I recollect 'just worked'.

My reason for using CentOS on the laptop is that there is a definite update life published. Debian release their new version 'when it is ready' and the current stable then drops to old-stable with a year of updates. This approach admirable, but I find it easier to slap CentOS on and forget about it until the laptop dies! Sort of the XP of the Linux world.

Re: Ubuntu in 2013

#66
post #60
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how much did you contribute back in these 5 years ?

Cash, promotion, merchandise, landscape subscription, bug reports, forum help (I have over 3000 posts on Ubuntu forums), stackoverflow, testing to name a few...

And Mark with his millions out of pocket to invest in a company he believes in. If they were votes, he wins.

Do the capitalist thing and stop giving them money if you hate it ohsomuch.

Re: Ubuntu in 2013

#67
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash, promotion, merchandise, landscape subscription, bug reports, forum help (I have over 3000 posts on Ubuntu forums), stackoverflow, testing to name a few...

And Mark with his millions out of pocket to invest in a company he believes in. If they were votes, he wins. Do the capitalist thing and stop giving them money if you hate it ohsomuch.

I doubt it. Much as myself, I wouldn't invest without expecting a sensible return.

I did stop giving about 2 months ago and poured it all into debian.

Now I'm doing the capitalist thing of whinging about how my investment was misused.

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