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Ten years of Ubuntu

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51–60 of 174 posts

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#51

What I really loved in Ubuntu is that they were the first distribution that really considered itself an OS, not "a way to install Linux" and make choices about what it should include. All the other distributions started by asking whether you wanted KDE or Gnome, Abiword or OpenOffice, and ended up installing a bunch of software you may or may not want "just in case". Ubuntu made choices, if you didn't like it you cou…

It's strange. I have a hard time remembering why I liked Ubuntu right away. Maybe a blend of good enough looking, works out of the box mindset, which made a community grow rapidly and kicking a nice network effect where you would quickly find solution on their board/wikis. I was impressed later when they managed to bring new Window Management ideas without too much time or pain.

I seem to remember they put a lot of early effort into getting almost all laptop wifi interfaces working out of the box, which was a massive deal at the time.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#52
post #25

I tried to switch from Windows to Ubuntu multiple times but I go back to Windows each time. I have mainly 2 issues: - Upgrade to newer version always fails. I'm left with a broken OS at the end. - Although the UI has improved a lot since the early days of Ubuntu, I still don't like it. I know I can customize it but it always causes issues on some apps.

I've been upgrading my laptop through 6 releases (it's 3 years old), and never had a single failure.

Do you use the provided upgrade path? It's very surprising to me to hear that - we test upgrades pretty thoroughly.

Disclaimer: I work for Canonical.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#53
post #36
post #11

There's gotta be a lot of OSX users like me who'd switch in a heartbeat given better laptop options. I know they're getting better, but it still isn't that close.

I ditched Windows back in 2006 and it was a close run thing between Ubuntu and OSX, but I had just started a family and the combination of iPhoto and iMovie was a big draw to OSX. Also, again due to above said family, I didn't have the time to spend tinkering and configuring things. I needed something that worked right out of the box, and would keep working. That machine finally packed in a few months ago and time ma…

I remember 2009 ...

WARNING: Do not touch the repo until you've had more coffee ;)

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't entirely their fault. There are quite a few Macbook components that are closed source and don't even function correctly in Windows.

I think he means any laptop, period, not just Ubuntu running on a Macbook. Once you're used to having a POSIX OS that's pretty much perfectly integrated on a device with 16GB+, HiDPI display and extremely good touchpad, it's just hard to settle for Ubuntu on a Dell/HP/Lenovo IMO. So far i couldn't find anything that matches Retina display quality (including software support, which is just as important as the hardware…

I don't have a "Retina" laptop but I have a 4k monitor and GNOME3/Unity have really nice HiDPI support now. Anything else is going to be hit and miss. I pretty much only use ThinkPads and haven't had any issues, but there are some things you need to manually to get the most out of it (like installing ThinkFan and laptop_mode).

I think it's less to do with OS and more to do with laptop screens somewhat regressing over a period of 10 years until Apple come out with Retina. New laptops will come out with better screens, open source will be written and the experience will be competitive. I blame manufacturers way more than the Linux ecosystem for this.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#55
post #48
post #41

Ubuntu LTS is the only GNU/Linux distribution that keeps me on Linux on one of my laptops (an Asus netbook). All the other distributions fail short of 100% laptop support out of the box. As I am no longer on my 20's with lots of time to spare, either it works out of the box, or it doesn't. I don't care about starting weekend projects that become week long projects just to get something working. Or just trying out dis…

Also Asus netbook + Ubuntu I've found unity is a bit heavy for my poor little netbook, and have found xfce a bit better for performance. I use Linux mint (which is based on Ubuntu) for my main dev machine. The only limitation I've had with it is video- it can't handle the goPro stuff very well.

You might like Linux Lite for a netbook (based on 14.04 LTS):

https://www.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite.html

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#56
post #53
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ditched Windows back in 2006 and it was a close run thing between Ubuntu and OSX, but I had just started a family and the combination of iPhoto and iMovie was a big draw to OSX. Also, again due to above said family, I didn't have the time to spend tinkering and configuring things. I needed something that worked right out of the box, and would keep working. That machine finally packed in a few months ago and time ma…

I remember 2009 ... WARNING: Do not touch the repo until you've had more coffee ;)

Indeed. Please subtract one decade. I shall leave my error in place as a pennance.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#57
post #26
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubuntu is really user-friendly... until you are having any kind of non-trivial problem, which can happen to anyone if they are unlucky with their drivers, the sound doesn't work, etc.. Then you are relegated to copying command line gobbledygook from askubuntu into the terminal, being able to understand nothing about what it does. At least with those tedious "click on X, then on Y when that pops up"... you're able to…

That doesn't really sound like "enough".

What do you mean by enough?

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#58
post #48
post #41

Ubuntu LTS is the only GNU/Linux distribution that keeps me on Linux on one of my laptops (an Asus netbook). All the other distributions fail short of 100% laptop support out of the box. As I am no longer on my 20's with lots of time to spare, either it works out of the box, or it doesn't. I don't care about starting weekend projects that become week long projects just to get something working. Or just trying out dis…

Also Asus netbook + Ubuntu I've found unity is a bit heavy for my poor little netbook, and have found xfce a bit better for performance. I use Linux mint (which is based on Ubuntu) for my main dev machine. The only limitation I've had with it is video- it can't handle the goPro stuff very well.

Also ASUS netbook + Ubuntu LTS, flawless for years, to this day. Now it's mostly elementaryOS (also based off Ubuntu LTS) on every desktop/notebook, works just as well and it feels even lighter.

I've been using every LTS release since the first ever, and I can't praise it enough. Keep up the good work!

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#60
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Asus netbook + Ubuntu I've found unity is a bit heavy for my poor little netbook, and have found xfce a bit better for performance. I use Linux mint (which is based on Ubuntu) for my main dev machine. The only limitation I've had with it is video- it can't handle the goPro stuff very well.

You might like Linux Lite for a netbook (based on 14.04 LTS): https://www.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite.html

Looks good- thanks for that.
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