One foot out the door!: I've grown to hate Linux Ubuntu

[James Freer]

>>  > I don't know why your complaining so much! Mr Shuttleworth's blog is
>>  > quite clear on the direction that he'd like Ubuntu to go in. I think
>>  > Ubuntu is the market leader... but there have been one or two problems
>>  > on the way.
>>  >
>>  > I like the minimalist distro and switched to Xubuntu before the
>>  > complaints about Unity started. I think you should be asking
>>  > yourself... if it's not to your taste why not look at something else
>>  > that might be. Plenty of folk like Unity. I like the minimalist setup
>>  > and i'll be staying with that - i also think the Xubuntu developers
>>  > are an excellent team and i have every confidence in the distro for
>>  > the future.
>>  >
>>  > james
>>
>> +1
>>
>> James, I' m totally agree with you.
>>
>> J3
>
> Another +1.  Though I'd say I lean more towards the Lubuntu light-weight
> desktop over the Xubuntu XFCE, having installed it onto both my laptops.
>  But both Lubuntu and Xubuntu are excellent less-is-more platforms for those
> of us that are not enamored (for whatever reason) with the march to Unity.
> --
> Cheers, SDM -- a 21st Century Schizoid Man

Thanks for your replies... but after reading them i don't think that
we're quite on the same thoughts.

Perhaps you have read this under subtitle 'Ubuntu on phones, tablets,
TV’s and smart screens everywhere'
>From http://www.markshuttleworth.com/
"By 14.04 LTS Ubuntu will power tablets, phones, TVs and smart screens
from the car to the office kitchen, and it will connect those devices
cleanly and seamlessly to the desktop, the server and the cloud.

Unity, the desktop interface in today’s Ubuntu 11.10, was designed
with this specific vision in mind. While the interface for each form
factor is shaped appropriately, Unity’s core elements are arranged in
exactly the way we need to create coherence across all of those
devices. This was the origin of the name Unity – a single core
interface framework, that scales across all screens, and supports all
toolkits."

My view is this - Mr Shuttleworth is the EXPERT and he's the founder
of the distro and it follows his direction. When one reads the article
the future is quite clear - i think Ubuntu is the leading distro and
others are just waiting to see what develops. The negative in my view
is that six month releases don't allow enough time for development.
I've always felt that each six month release is barely worth
installing for the few changes that take place, yet LTS of two years
is not frequent enough - an annual release i reckon is about right.
The six month release also requires much work which could be better
channelled into an annual release where the testing & bug fixing could
be halved. But they decided on that route and i accept it.

Where i felt i wanted a change was with the versions after 8.04; i
didn't like some of the newer apps being incorporated (bluetooth and
other  things i never use) and the screen config app was changed and
not put right for a couple of years. It was at this time after trying
PCLOS that i decided i'd be an xfce user. PCLOS introduced me to the
minimal approach; with ubuntu i'd take quite a few apps off and put
others on, it seemed a daft way of doing things - to me the crucial
thing about linux is 'WHAT'S UNDER THE BONNET'. rpm takes so long to
do updates that i'd much prefer to stay with the deb way [i thought
PCLOS was very well packaged particularly so considering it's a
one-man effort]. deb repos also offer considerably more apps than
other distros.

If i spoke to Mr Shuttleworth i'm sure he'd say that some things
haven't quite turned out as expected but none of us have his expertise
and foresight, and i'm sure he's right and we''ll see. Perhaps that's
two years away. I stay on this list to read the developments and
changes.

I did in fact switch to Xubuntu through choice before Unity came on
the scene (and before Lubuntu). I like it and it's just right for me;
in particular some apps i think are better e.g. Bulk rename is a
simple file renamer (useful for all those photos in my case) and a
more efficient app than Pyrename or Krename. The smaller less resource
hungary distro also appears to have in some cases efficient less
bloated apps. [As for Lubuntu i struggle with the even lower resource
requirement and less choice of apps.... future? but i'll try it after
Xmas when i've got more time].

So i'm an annual Xubuntu upgrader and unlikely to change for a while -
but keen on ubuntu developments and Canonical's future, and grateful
for the intro to Linux.

james