[ubuntu-za] Migrating to Linux

[Miles]

Hi Jan, you cant install 14.04 and then in synaptic or cli install 
mate-desktop and on booting you can choose the mate environment


On 03/05/2015 11:22, Adrianna Pińska wrote:
> On 3 May 2015 at 06:12, Jan Greeff <jan at verslank.net> wrote:
>> Many thanks Adrianna and William. I am almost sure he will go the LS route
>> like I'm doing.
>>
>> I was thinking of downloading the 14.04 Mate ISO but from what you say it
>> seems unnecessary as I have the normal 14.04 LTS, however, there seems to be
>> a few potential bugs if I install the Mate environment in the normal
>> version?
>> http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/08/install-mate-desktop-ubuntu-14-04-lts
>
> I don't know about bugs. Installation difficulties?  Maybe.  Bear in
> mind that these instructions are for installing from a PPA, which
> always indicates that what you're installing may be a little bit
> bleeding edge, and are nine months old.
>
> Here are some newer instructions for 14.04:
> http://itsfoss.com/install-mate-desktop-ubuntu-14-04/
>
> And here are general instructions for Ubuntu on the MATE desktop
> homepage (scroll down):
> http://wiki.mate-desktop.org/download
>
> As you can see, the packages have been added to the official
> repositories for 14.10 onwards, but you still need the PPA for 14.04.
> The main installation problem seems to be that installing MATE adds a
> couple of things that stick around until you explicitly remove them
> and that make Unity look weird if you go back to it. Which obviously
> is only a problem if you go back to Unity, not in MATE itself.
>
>> So looks like the safer way to go is to download and use the 14.04 LTS Mate
>> ISO?
>
> "Safer" in that you will not have to do anything at all to install
> MATE because it will already be installed.  But you won't get the
> Unity environment unless you install that. I have no idea which route
> is cleaner if you want the option of both.
>
> How invested are you in MATE specifically?  It's still a bit new; XFCE
> (Xubuntu) or LXDE (Lubuntu) have been around for much longer, so they
> should be a lot more stable.
>
> For example, I think the established desktop environments in the main
> repositories are more clever about playing nice with each other. E.g.
> if there are system apps that should only autostart for one
> environment and not others, they are set up that way -- something that
> doesn't seem to be the case yet for MATE, and will probably be fixed
> in the future.
>
>> Both his laptops can run 2 GB RAM, the one just needs an upgrade from 1 GB.
>> I have installed Ubuntu 14.04 in two laptops running on 2 GB RAM and they
>> both seem quite happy, so perhaps I should not worry about the Xubuntu or
>> Lubuntu options.
>
> I would still recommend one of the lighter environments over Unity for
> two reasons:
>
> 1) I think the model will be easier for a Windows user to adjust to:
> they're closer to the boring but reliable window model used by old
> GNOME, KDE, etc.. Unity goes off on a bit of an exciting tangent.  On
> the other hand, this may not be a problem for someone who is used to
> smartphone OSes, since it kind of resembles that. Also I admit that
> I'm somewhat biased.
>
> 2) Unity may be technically usable on the laptop but still slow enough
> to be annoying.  That can be a huge usability difference. The laptop
> I'm typing this on has 2G of RAM, I use Fluxbox (which is considerably
> lighter than any of the environments we're discussing) and I *just*
> manage to run Firefox at the same time as other things (to be fair
> this is mostly Firefox's fault).
>
> In summary: if I were you, taking all these factors into account, I'd
> probably try XFCE or LXDE -- either by installing packages on top of
> your vanilla Ubuntu install DVD or by getting the 14.04 version of
> Xubuntu or Lubuntu.
>
> You may find this article interesting (although it is also quite old):
> http://www.howtogeek.com/193129/how-to-install-and-use-another-desktop-environment-on-linux/
>
> Note that there's a difference between installing e.g. just the xfce
> package and the entire xubuntu environment (the xubuntu-desktop
> package) -- the latter is likely to override stuff like the login
> screen and some of the default applications.
>
> If you want a completely stress- and tweak-free experience, get the
> Xubuntu or Lubuntu install DVD -- but if you don't want to waste the
> bandwidth unnecessarily, try messing around with the packages first
> and see what happens. You can install and try as many environments as
> you want, and you can always do a clean install afterwards.
>
> Cheers,
>