Ubuntu Sufferers

[zuben el genub]

The year GNOMES, Ubuntu sufferers forked off to Mint Linux ? The Register

Ubuntu's Shuttleworth gets all sniffy with his Christmas message - I can prove that Unity is better on a slide rule | TechEye

I think I'm changing to Mint. I've been playing with Cinnamon. Whole lot more efficient and easier on the eyes.

 

[mikedt]

I'm using Mint with the MATE desktop.


"Queen of desktop Linux, Mark Shuttleworth gave out his Boxing Day message yesterday in which he sniffly dismissed those who think his Unity interface is the spawn of Satan."

Read more: Ubuntu's Shuttleworth gets all sniffy with his Christmas message - I can prove that Unity is better on a slide rule | TechEye

Agreed. I did try Unity, just couldn't get on with it at all.

 

[MoodyBlues]

As I've said in other threads, the whole Amazon thing can easily be shut off.

I'll be sticking with Kubuntu as my primary Linux distro, as the Amazon issue doesn't affect me--and if it did, I'd shut it off!

 

[9to5cynic]

I guess having the choice of a traditional desktop and the Unity (netbook remix ) desktop is nice, but I'll stick with traditional.

Actually, I'm playing around with openbox on my linux box (just got arch up and running).

 

[Davdi]

I too tried Unity, would be good with a touchscreen, not so good with Keyboard & mouse though. I'm currently using Enlightenment (E17), LXDE & XFCE on various desktops & laptops. of those LXDE is my current choice. It's very lightweight, tweakable and doesn't get in the way too much.

 

[saptech]

Right now I'm running Gnome 3 on Mageia 3 Beta 1. After using it for awhile, it's not too bad. I do have Openbox with Tint2 panel installed for those times I get tired of G3.

This current system I have did come with Ubuntu & Unity installed and I played around with it for a few weeks before switching to Mageia. Unity wasn't too bad either.

 

[argedion]

Still rockin on the Fedora with Gnome 3 and couldn't be happier. I do like E17 though as it is very pleasant.

 

[ninadchaudhari]

lol what i have done is , using ubuntu with Unity and also installed lxde on the side /// primary use unity but switch to LXDE sometimes ...
You can i guess install GNOME to ubuntu and switch Unity when u get bored of that i guess its possible with GNOME and UNITY ... not sure though

 

[Tablet Guru]

I too is using Unity and I am fan of it. Sweet and Simple interface, with the minimum load of the CPU..

 

[SUroot]

Yep. I love unity too. I just prefer it

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

I'm relatively new to Linux, been running Ubuntu (with Gnome I think) for a couple weeks next to windows on my laptop. Been thinking it's about time to scrap the whole Win7 partition and go full on Linux.

I don't store much of value on my laptop, but I hate setup time and I'm not really that good with linux. I may never be that good, I just don't have the time for learning like I used to

I don't mind the UI on my setup, but mint does look nice. My main concern is useability and reliability for me, the newb. I don't want to have to re-setup my prefs and the like because I find some basic part of a OS is broken, or too complicated to fix for me.

Can some of you with more experience, but not too big of a head give me some suggestions/advice on what version to go for? Should i stick with what I know? is Mint as functional?

BTW, what exactly is Gnome? Can you compare it to something in the Android world? is it the "Launcher"? If so, what are the most popular options out there, and are they able to run on any distro?

Sorry, I know it's a lot to ask, but I have been around this community longer than any other and therefore recognize some of you and trust many of the opinions here.

 

[palmtree5]

GNOME is one of the many desktop environments available and is an option as a UI for the OS
EDIT: tried to give this in a nutshell. For a further explanation, see this

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

So, like a "launcher" (Apex, Nova, GoLauncher, etc.)?

 

[MoodyBlues]

I'm relatively new to Linux, been running Ubuntu (with Gnome I think) for a couple weeks next to windows on my laptop. Been thinking it's about time to scrap the whole Win7 partition and go full on Linux.

Yay!

I don't mind the UI on my setup, but mint does look nice. My main concern is useability and reliability for me, the newb. I don't want to have to re-setup my prefs and the like because I find some basic part of a OS is broken, or too complicated to fix for me.

If you stick with a mainstream, tried and true Linux distro, you should never find yourself in such a situation. Unlike windows, it's ALMOST never necessary to reinstall the OS because something is just so broken it can't be fixed. Plus, if you stick with a mainstream distro, there will be plenty of help available if/when you need it.

Can some of you with more experience, but not too big of a head give me some suggestions/advice on what version to go for? Should i stick with what I know? is Mint as functional?

If you like Mint, there's no reason not to stick with it. However, I always encourage new Linux users to try several different distros just to see what's out there. You may find something you like better, or that works better on your particular hardware, or that's easier to configure, or...whatever. So download ISO files from a number of different distributions, burn them to CD/DVD, and use their 'live' method of booting up so you can try them out without affecting anything on your computer.

My personal, primary choice is Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with KDE as its desktop environment. I highly recommend Kubuntu for its ease of installation, use, and configuration even for the newest Linux user. I also like Bodhi which is great on older and/or less powerful computers.

BTW, what exactly is Gnome? Can you compare it to something in the Android world? is it the "Launcher"? If so, what are the most popular options out there, and are they able to run on any distro?

GNOME is a desktop environment. So is KDE. So is Unity. So is Enlightenment. And XFCE. And Fluxbox. And...a bunch of others. They're the TOTAL environment that you see and use when you boot up your Linux box.

KDE is my personal favorite, but every once in a while I'll start up with GNOME, or Unity, or IceWM, or some other choice just for the fun of it. And all of these are on Kubuntu boxes. You're not limited to one default desktop environment on Linux, regardless of which distro you're using. So even though I use Kubuntu, I also have all the other DEs available to me if I want them.

Even if you settle on one distro, like, say, Kubuntu!, you should still experiment with other DEs. There's so much eye candy out there now, why limit yourself to the default?

 

[Mayhem]

I still say Xubuntu's the way to go with lower-end hardware. I had tried Mint 12 and Ubuntu 12.10 on a cheap Foxconn desktop I got from Newegg. Neither were completely usable. I don't know what the difference is between Mint, Ubuntu and Xubuntu but apparently there's enough of one that it made Minecraft playable without crashing when my kids play.

 

[mikedt]

I still say Xubuntu's the way to go with lower-end hardware. I had tried Mint 12 and Ubuntu 12.10 on a cheap Foxconn desktop I got from Newegg. Neither were completely usable. I don't know what the difference is between Mint, Ubuntu and Xubuntu but apparently there's enough of one that it made Minecraft playable without crashing when my kids play.

Xubuntu by default uses a lightweight desktop environment called XFCE. It's actually intended to give good performance on cheaper or older low-end PCs. Linux Mint and Ubuntu by default use the heavyweight Gnome desktop environment, which requires more resources.

FYI...
http://www.xfce.org/

 

[nickdalzell]

There is also Puppy Linux and Macpup, for those used to windows. Got my grandmother on it via a desktop (Vista got a virus and wiped itself)

My preference is VectorLinux. I prefer the old CLI with X as an option, using Gnome on that, unfortunately it requires blasting the windows on my new laptop and I still got too much software that doesn't run on Linux that I prefer to keep on that computer, so Vector is on an old Dell D610

 

[Davdi]

Nick, If you have room on the laptop's HDD, you can install Linux to dual boot with windows. The linux installer will use GParted partition editor to shrink the Windows partition and use the space thus freed for Linux. If you're happy editing partitions, here's a suggested setup for dual booting (Based on an assumed 320Gb HDD)

200Gb for Windows
40Gb for Linux Root partition (/) Formatted EXT4. This is where Linux and installed Apps live.
Linux Swap - 2 x RAM if ram <= 1Gb, else same size as installed RAM
the rest as EXT4 for home (/home) where all your documents, photos, music etc. will live.

 

[nickdalzell]

I know I can do all of that except for two problems 1) Vector, my preferred distro, doesn't offer Gparted, only Fdisk, 2) I fear messing things up and rendering the entire system un bootable and I got tons of backup data and android APK files I cannot replace if anything goes wrong.

Vector sadly cannot install to an sd card or boot as a live cd I have tried. Also, only 60GB remains after subtracting all the backup files and data

 

[MoodyBlues]

I know I can do all of that except for two problems 1) Vector, my preferred distro, doesn't offer Gparted, only Fdisk,

Can't you install gParted on your own? It's been so long since I used fdisk...I barely remember it.

2) I fear messing things up and rendering the entire system un bootable and I got tons of backup data and android APK files I cannot replace if anything goes wrong.

Is there a reason you're not backing up these valuable files? You cannot trust that the hard drive they're on will never crash. I recently had a hard drive die and--for the first time in 30+ years of computing--I was unable to salvage ANYTHING off of it. When it died, I was like, oh, big deal, I'll pop it in a disk enclosure and pull files off... Nope. It was absolutely unusable. LUCKILY, the particular laptop it came from had nothing important on it that I hadn't backed up and/or couldn't live without. But if YOUR drive dies...different story. So why not back it up anyway, and then if you're inclined to attempt repartitioning it, you won't have to worry about losing anything if something goes awry.

Also, only 60GB remains after subtracting all the backup files and data

ONLY 60GB? I'm sorry, but my first installation of UNIX was on a 130 MEGABYTE hard drive. 60GB of free space is MORE than enough for a Linux install.

 

[nickdalzell]

Not enough for usable breathing room in Vector Linux due to personal preference.

Can't install Gparted without having installed Linux first, it isn't an option in the installer. See the issue with having all space devoted to Win7

I have a TON of data, uploading it to cloud storage would take days on my connection, plus see also the games with pay ware in them I cannot run in Linux. I need windows and cannot risk accidentally blowing it away, or the GRUB or LiLo boot loaders failing install and then making it impossible to boot the laptop up unless I reformat anyway

Lastly possible hardware issues. I can't get wifi to work on the Dell 610 without a dongle. Will it support a new computer? Why I prefer live CDs. That way I can find out what does and doesn't work. Using the live cd from another distro won't tell me anything about my preferred distro. VL 6.x is the type I like, most later distros default to X login and have pretty limited access to the CLI and some try too hard to protect the user from himself, and I want all control without having to hack the system.

The last hard drive I had fail was a Conner peripherals 130MB drive. Lets say it wasn't recent

 

[mikedt]

Not enough for usable breathing room in Vector Linux due to personal preference.

Can't install Gparted without having installed Linux first, it isn't an option in the installer. See the issue with having all space devoted to Win7

You can run Gparted from a live Linux USB stick or DVD.

I have a TON of data, uploading it to cloud storage would take days on my connection, plus see also the games with pay ware in them I cannot run in Linux. I need windows and cannot risk accidentally blowing it away, or the GRUB or LiLo boot loaders failing install and then making it impossible to boot the laptop up unless I reformat anyway


Lastly possible hardware issues. I can't get wifi to work on the Dell 610 without a dongle. Will it support a new computer?

You check before you buy the computer. Read forums and blogs. Take a live Linux USB stick to the store, try it out on their machines. That's what I've done.

Why I prefer live CDs. That way I can find out what does and doesn't work. Using the live cd from another distro won't tell me anything about my preferred distro. VL 6.x is the type I like, most later distros default to X login and have pretty limited access to the CLI and some try too hard to protect the user from himself, and I want all control without having to hack the system.

The last hard drive I had fail was a Conner peripherals 130MB drive. Lets say it wasn't recent

Nick, hard drives can fail at any time and sometimes without warning, e.g. clicking or overheating. I know I've had it happen more than once. No need to backup to the cloud, just get an external USB drive. Hell get two of the things!!, they're cheap enough now. If a drive is more than a couple of years old, there is a very much increased risk of failure as well. Google conducted a study of hard drive mortality, and they're the largest user of hard drives in the world.

You have a ton of valuable and probably irreplaceable data, get it backed up for god's sake!!

 

[mikedt]

ONLY 60GB? I'm sorry, but my first installation of UNIX was on a 130 MEGABYTE hard drive. 60GB of free space is MORE than enough for a Linux install.

My Linux partition is 40GB, plus 3GB for swap. The rest of the laptop's 350GB drive is three NTFS partitions, which is mostly movies, music, office documents, etc, and Windows. It's all backed-up onto an external USB HDD as well, just in case.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Not enough for usable breathing room in Vector Linux due to personal preference.

To each their own. After using *nix for not quite 30 years, it's hard for me to imagine 60 GIGABYTES of space being too small for usable breathing room. *shrug*

Can't install Gparted without having installed Linux first, it isn't an option in the installer. See the issue with having all space devoted to Win7

I have a TON of data, uploading it to cloud storage would take days on my connection, plus see also the games with pay ware in them I cannot run in Linux. I need windows and cannot risk accidentally blowing it away, or the GRUB or LiLo boot loaders failing install and then making it impossible to boot the laptop up unless I reformat anyway

Lastly possible hardware issues. I can't get wifi to work on the Dell 610 without a dongle. Will it support a new computer? Why I prefer live CDs. That way I can find out what does and doesn't work. Using the live cd from another distro won't tell me anything about my preferred distro. VL 6.x is the type I like, most later distros default to X login and have pretty limited access to the CLI and some try too hard to protect the user from himself, and I want all control without having to hack the system.

The last hard drive I had fail was a Conner peripherals 130MB drive. Lets say it wasn't recent

Thanks to mikedt's excellent reply, I don't need to type much! So I'll just touch on the last part.

My most recent hard drive failure was a 2 year old, 320GB Western Digital, that unceremoniously died with *NO* warning whatsoever. I have other Western Digital drives that are well over 10 years old and cranking along just fine. The moral of the story: ANY drive can die at any time--and when that happens with no warning, you're up shit creek if you haven't backed up your files.

 

[saptech]

I currently have an old HP AMD64 machine with a 20gb hard drive & 1.5gb memory. I have Mageia (Gnome2) and Salix OS (XFCE4) installed on it and a 1gb swap partition.

It runs smooth as silk as long as I don't have too many apps going.

As miket mention, I use a 500gb ext. hard drive for all my main data and backup.

Just a thought!