[Discussion/Opinion] Ubuntu 14.04 LTS To Stay On GTK/GNOME 3.8?

[Joseph Godino]

On Wed, 2013-10-02 at 14:20 -0400, Manuel Cuadra wrote:
> > In terms of a LTS release it would make sense to stick with GNOME 3.8. I
> > have been running Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 for about a week on my main
> > computer and I feel that this release has all the stability requirements
> > to be considered LTS. As for GNOME 3.10 couldn't it be backported to a
> > ppa so the adventurous could give it a try.
> >
> 
> I've been using Gnome 3.10 and it's not that much unstable, I can
> actually do my work with no problems, it's just the main programs that
> need some refinement.
> In the article, the main thing that worries them is that the latest
> GTK wants to get rid of the icons in menus and icons in buttons, so a
> lot of people report that as a bug and think that it's not a good
> change...
> 
> I do think like @Joe that this could be a PPA to upgrade the version
> of Gnome but I think also that Gnome itself is changing anyways and
> people that wants to stick with it should be more focused on making it
> better, not trying to stop its growth by freezing the version, they
> should debate this things on the official gnome project if they want
> the icons back to the buttons and menus.

REASONS to consider a LTS release.

1. The kernel is frozen. Therefore kernel updates shouldn't break API's
which would lead to the stability of the proprietary drives provided by
the Ubuntu software center. In other words, a kernel update won't break
a system and render it unusable until a driver patch becomes available.
I believe this is what happened with the release of the 3.10 kernel.

2. Lagging development can catch up. For example, I would like to work
with CUDA applications. Unfortunately, this requires the Nvidia CUDA
tookkit. At the present time Nvidia only provides support for Ubuntu
12.04 and 12.10. One on the problems I ran into when trying to install
the CUDA toolkit on a newer version of linux was that the installer
complained about the version of the gcc compiler. It detected a new
version and aborted the installation. In as LTS release the compiler
version is frozen.

3. Software in the software center is frozen, enabling users to get a
system up and running that they can rely on without it becoming
unstable. I think this is a requirement for business and/or university
students who may be working on a research project that would last longer
than a six month development cycle.

REASONS why I chose Ubuntu and specifically Ubuntu GNOME.

1. A great collection of software both free and non-free.

2. Excellent fonts - especially useful when spending a long time with
the computer.

3. All my other proprietary software, for example, Maple, Mathematica
and CrashPlan, run flawlessly.

4. Easy installation of software not included in the distribution via
ppa, e.g Oracle Java, GNOME 3.10.

5. I prefer GNOME over Unity especially GNOME classic session. I don't
use the newer GNOME interface because I am mainly running a workstation
and/or desktop. The newer interface may be better for mobile devices.

CONCLUSION

In no way should a LTS release affect the continued development of
software. It is just a reference point in which to continue building
However, it provides users with a branch in which to run in a production
environment.