Ten years of Ubuntu • Hacker News Board

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#81

Post by portmanteaufu » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:19 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #45

So, before I knew what linux was (and was teased on various forums) I ordered some free CD's from Ubuntu. (I didn't have the internet at home). (eventually I got them; ubuntu 5.04 I think [Horny Hedgehog from memory]) When I received them I was pleased, everything worked.. well, not everything, but it sorta worked! I had a desktop environment and a command line and I felt a small sense of accomplishment because I'd n…

> [Horny Hedgehog from memory]

I started with the same release myself. It was called "Hoary Hedgehog"[1], but I like your version too.

[1] http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/hoary/

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#82

Post by stusmith1977 » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:20 PM UTC

eloisant wrote: post #37

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…

What was always worse was that the choices never came with any explanation. I remember a while back trying some flavour of Linux or other, and during installation it asked (paraphrased):

"Use Nautilus or Thunar?"

I imagine the story behind this is that half the Linux devs preferred the first, and half preferred the second, and so instead of the distribution having the balls to choose one, they forced they choice onto the user.

For the average user however, the choice read as:

"Open Mystery Box 'A', or Mystery Box 'B'? Warning: opening the wrong box will mean that many of the things you try to do simply won't work!"

Choice here is very bad: it makes the user feel powerless, yet simultaneously assigns blame to the user in the event that things go wrong.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#83

Post by NateDad » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:25 PM UTC

latch wrote: post #14

NateDad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of Canonicalers are getting the Dell XPS 15. It's practically a macbook clone. The main difference is the battery life - with the smaller battery it's like 3.5 hours, bigger battery is like 5 hours. But that's with a quad Core i7, and 16 GB of RAM. I'm super happy with mine. I think most of the difference in battery life is just software at this point... Apple definitely has some magic sauce in there.

I've heard good things about the XPS. I travel a lot though. I prefer 13" and last time I looked, I found very little that supported 16GB. Also, again, with the traveling, battery life is huge. This might also sound lame, but I also hate the badges. I saw that the XPS 15 only has the single intel badge. I'd rather have 0...it really grates me the wrong way (not just on laptops, WTF do I want "Samsung" printed in whit…

You know it's just a sticker, right? :) I always take all stickers off my laptops.

But, yes, I wish the XPS 13 had a 16GB option.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#84

Post by josteink » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:33 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #44

eloisant wrote: post #37

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.

It's strange. I have a hard time remembering why I liked Ubuntu right away. ... works out of the box mindset

Ubuntu was literally the first Linux distro I have ever used where everything on my PC worked out of the box.

Installing Windows (of that age, XP) on the same PC would result in spending a day or weekend hunting and installing drivers for obscure things here and there, but in Ubuntu everything just worked.

I had never seen anything like that before (on PCs at least), and that made a solid impression which still makes it my default, despite a interest and curiosity trying in other distros like Elementary or NixOS.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#85

Post by NateDad » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:34 PM UTC

adamors wrote: post #15

"Linux for human beings" sounds like an oxymoron to me, after 5+ years of tinkering with Linux on the desktop. After years of Ubuntu (and Arch, Debian, Mint etc.) I'm not ashamed to say I'm really happy on OS X. Less customisation and more time to focus on actual work/leisure.

I'm on Ubuntu, I haven't customized anything except the background color of the terminal :) And this from someone who was a developer on Windows for 14+ years.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#86

Post by josteink » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:35 PM UTC

JonnieCache wrote: post #51

agumonkey wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Heck, I still find that difficult if installing Debian on a laptop today. Ubuntu did so much things right, it's easy to forget all the pains it fixed.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#87

Post by Mikeb85 » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:37 PM UTC

peatmoss wrote: post #65

tormeh wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What we need is for Canonical to release their own laptops where they support the entire hardware+software combo. Canonical Nexus, please? Any other company with their own Linux distro and hardware would also work, I guess. I really like Unity, though.

The Nexus model chooses a manufacturer and then works with them to create the current year's creation. I'm not sure Canonical has enough resource or leverage to do that. That said, I'd love to see an Apple-esque model where I could point to 3 laptops each year and say "large, medium, and small" and know that they would work completely with zero fussing. Maybe Canonical could start down this road by refitting their de…

There is the Dell XPS 13 developer edition which comes from Dell with Ubuntu... ThinkPads work great with Ubuntu (at least the T, X, and W series), I've been using a T530 for a few years now and every single function key, the fingerprint reader, absolutely every feature it has works. And of course there are a few boutique manufacturers that ship Linux systems.

I'm sure other laptops work great with Ubuntu but these are the ones I'm familiar with...

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#88

Post by xtracto » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:52 PM UTC

eloisant wrote: post #37

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…

You may be forgetting the past of Linux distros. While Ubuntu's first version was 4.10, Distributions like Linux-Mandrake (released in July 1998) had a similar goal. They made their choices clear on what software to install and even added their own configuration applications.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#89

Post by xtracto » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:55 PM UTC

bubblemachine3k wrote: post #50

eloisant wrote: post #37

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…

Mandrake Linux would like a word with you.

Yeah, it is interesting reading these comments from young people. Maybe they first tried linux in the early 2000 and that's why they only remember Ubuntu.

Distributions like Linux-Mandrake, Corel Linux, Connectiva strived to make Linux a "user friendly" experience, well back before Ubuntu came to the light.

The reason why Ubuntu was a game changer was mainly because it was backed by Mark Shuttleworth, a millionary that was willing to pour a lot of money on his own Linux distribution.

Re: Ten years of Ubuntu

#90

Post by vezzy-fnord » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 2:56 PM UTC

Dewie wrote: post #24

adamors wrote: post #15

"Linux for human beings" sounds like an oxymoron to me, after 5+ years of tinkering with Linux on the desktop. After years of Ubuntu (and Arch, Debian, Mint etc.) I'm not ashamed to say I'm really happy on OS X. Less customisation and more time to focus on actual work/leisure.

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…

The trade-off is that usually you will always find a solution in the end. On the other hand, for a long time the standard advice for dealing with an opaque technical issue under Windows has been "reformat and reinstall".