Anyone Running Ubuntu?

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Originally Posted By: csandste
Have ditched my girlfriend's Lubuntu for Ubuntu Mate. Most of the speed with a lot more polish, and I think it might be my new favorite distro. Thinking seriously about switching my Linux Mint 17.3 for Ubuntu Mate 16.04.


If you're already using Mint, switching from their Cinnamon desktop to their MATE desktop should be trivial. You can easily install both and just use the one you want at boot-time. (You can select which desktop you want at the login screen when booting up.)

Since Mint is Ubuntu with some modifications, and since the Mint team puts a lot of effort into their MATE version, I would expect the Mint MATE distro to be at least as capable as Ubuntu MATE.
 
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: csandste
Have ditched my girlfriend's Lubuntu for Ubuntu Mate. Most of the speed with a lot more polish, and I think it might be my new favorite distro. Thinking seriously about switching my Linux Mint 17.3 for Ubuntu Mate 16.04.


If you're already using Mint, switching from their Cinnamon desktop to their MATE desktop should be trivial. You can easily install both and just use the one you want at boot-time. (You can select which desktop you want at the login screen when booting up.)

Since Mint is Ubuntu with some modifications, and since the Mint team puts a lot of effort into their MATE version, I would expect the Mint MATE distro to be at least as capable as Ubuntu MATE.


Would have probably put Mint Mate on her computer but 18.1 wasn't out yet, so I opted for Ubuntu Mate 16.04. Interesting that I notice Mint and Ubuntu camps sniping at each other about stability v. security. Hopefully the Mint break in of last winter/spring was a one time only incident. Think I'll keep my computer on Mint 17.3 Cinnamon for the foreseeable future. Clem recommends being conservative with upgrades if it ain't broke. I'm sure things would work faster with Mate, whether Mint or Ubuntu, but my computer was purchased with Mint 17.2 installed and still works well. This will allow me to keep up with both distros. Probably reassess when Ubuntu Mate 18.04 is released.
 
Originally Posted By: csandste
Interesting that I notice Mint and Ubuntu camps sniping at each other about stability v. security. Hopefully the Mint break in of last winter/spring was a one time only incident.


The contentiousness centres on Mint's policy of NOT updating the Linux kernel itself nearly as often as Canonical does for Ubuntu. The Canonical developers feel like that leaves Mint users vulnerable if there are kernel flaws being exploited out in the wild; the Mint developers feel (as I mostly do, too) that constant kernel updates are themselves a destabilizing force for a system.
 
Sort of...

For work I run win10 with Microsofts Bash on Ubuntu on windows. There is an option to get this going and allows me to do command line stuff easily. You run Linux software directly on windows....
 
Here is my Mac themed Xubuntu 16.10 desktop. Unix for the win.

'Macbuntu' I believe it's called, even got a fully functioning "SpotLight" search feature. Loving it so far.

 
FWIW decided to add Mate to my Mint 17.3 distro. Does seem to run a bit snappier than Cinnamon on my not too powerful computer. I've put about ten different distros and variations on seven different computers. Ditched Windows almost four years ago and never looked back. Love, love, love Linux in all it's permutations.
 
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Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Can I download Ubuntu Mint onto my existing Dell hard drive?
I'm not interested in running it from a separate hard drive.


Ubuntu and Mint are two separate - but very similar - OS's. Both can be put onto a USB stick and booted and run directly from the USB stick - no installation is necessary unless and until you need to have stuff persist from one boot to another (ie. having your browser remember passwords).

Ubuntu is by far the most widely-used desktop Linux OS; but its derivative - Mint - might be more familiar to someone coming from Windows. Both of these OS's - or "distros" - have very supportive online forums.

My suggestion is that you start with Ubuntu MATE - It uses a desktop (MATE) that, like Mint, will seem familiar to you as a Windows user and MATE will run on even modest hardware. Ubuntu's standard OS (using the "Unity" desktop interface instead of MATE) will require a more modern computer with powerful graphics.

https://ubuntu-mate.org/
https://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

If you choose to install any Linux distro, its installation can detect free space on your existing hard drive, apportion some of that space for its own use and allow you to "dual boot", where you will choose your OS each time you turn your computer on.
 
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Thanks for the more detailed description and suggestion of loading Mate instead.
I currently use my always-updated Windows 10 / Firefox 50 browser.


If your computer is currently running Win10 then you will easily be able to make use of Mint's primary desktop version, Cinnamon. I usually suggest MATE simply because, never knowing what kind of hardware people I have I tend to default to a known-good option. Cinnamon may offer a few more features and will look marginally prettier. If these things are not worth much to you, MATE may be your best choice.

Be aware that the applications and underlying technologies are the same from desktop to desktop for the most part. When talking about MATE, Cinnamon, Gnome, XFCE and Ubuntu's Unity it is really just a matter of the graphical "shell" that forms your desktop, menus, taskbars, etc. and determines to some extent how those applications look in terms of window borders, button and slider styles, etc.. You will still very likely be using the exact same web browser, music and video players, office suite, etc.

Although these are not all stock, here is what some of the major desktops look like:

Gnome (pretty stock, after the user has activated the "menu"): http://distrowatch.com/images/cgfjoewdlbc/debian.png
Gnome (with a few applications open): http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ubuntu-gnome-default-apps.jpg
MATE (Mint's style): https://www.linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/sarah/mate.png
MATE (Ubuntu MATE's style): http://distrowatch.com/images/cgfjoewdlbc/ubuntumate.png
Cinnamon (Mint's style): https://www.linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/sarah/cinnamon.png
Unity: http://distrowatch.com/images/cgfjoewdlbc/ubuntu.png
XFCE: (stock): http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gykIA7VMByM/VPR-gEe73JI/AAAAAAAAVpI/MBYFpX7joH0/s1600/xfce-412.png

The above use the same underlying technologies (based in lesser or greater ways on Gnome) and feature, usually, the same applications bundled as an OS. This next one uses a different set of these technologies and features alternate applications in many cases. The one after that is a lightweight alternative:

KDE: http://distrowatch.com/images/cgfjoewdlbc/arch.png
LXQt: http://lxqt.org/images/screenshots/ambiance.png
 
You can try the above desktops out as "live" USB sticks that do not touch your hard drive using Ubuntu or Mint versions of them. For example, there are Ubuntu versions for Unity (Ubuntu), Gnome (Ubuntu Gnome), KDE (Kubuntu), XFCE (Xubuntu), LXQt (Lubuntu), MATE (Ubuntu MATE) that can be downloaded and put on a USB stick. Mint has MATE, Cinnamon, KDE and XFCE versions.
 
I'm growing more fondly of Mint more and more. Cinnamon just seems to be my favorite.

Right now my top two favorites are XFCE and Cinnamon.

I used to only like the typical Ubuntu with Unity (around 12.04), but it has quickly gone stale and bland. Maybe it's just me but Ubuntu with Unity is about the ugliest desktop I have seen, JMO. Unity is more painful whith customization vs the other looks.

For something different I might use Arch Linux from now on. Pacman rules ;]
 
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