If found myself turned off Ubuntu because of Unity, despite using Ubuntu itself since 2005. Odd orange and purple, new odd left menu, general sense Ubuntu was changing how I didn't want it to. Moved to Mint. Seemed to replicate Windows XP but by a pain. The upgrade path for Mint felt not dissimilar to jumping into the sea off a cliff 50 feet up with an incoming storm. I've done both. The sea took 15 minutes to swim 50 feet. Mint was worse.
But then, out of chance installing on a laptop that wasn't sure it was UEFI or BIOS (yes, BIOS in UEFI mode), lacking much in terms of storage media, plus a weak internet connection, knew Ubuntu had a mini install, not server install, but mini install, but had never used before. Not so well linked to on the website but for benefit of all here's the link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD about 40MB.
Fantastic. Complete Ubuntu ecosystem underpinned by Debian solidness. And straight-up GNOME environment (or GUI of choosing, or lack of, selectable on install). No cruft, but as full featured as any Ubuntu can be. And lets GNOME actually be enjoyed with customisation, but also allows the focus and productivity that GNOME esp. GNOME3 offer.
The OP is about OSX to Mac. Completely support Ubuntu/GNOME. Absolutely suggest straight OSX > GNOME and it/general Ubuntu ecosystem. Avoids messing with Unity or any 'Ubuntu minus Unity' system reinvention, and lets one enjoy using a computer, not being frustrated by it.
I left Linux in the days of Mandrake (that was its name then) and KDE, because it was a bad copy of windows XP.
I saw the GUI of that era as something without character, only copying XP and later trying to copy OS X, but in an incomplete way, and mainly, without something that can be perceived as original.
In fact, the Ubuntu I saw before Unity was almost a carbon copy of OSX. Macbuntu 10.04 was a thing. And it was a thing because of the lack of identity the Linux DEs had before Unity.
I read about Ubuntu, and decided to try again, and this time I forced myself to learn the keyboard shortcuts. That's the main difference and what made me swear this is the DE for me.
The HUD is a game changer. The keyboard shortcuts to switch between virtual desktops, and to move windows between them are second nature now. The same to maximize or half-screen maximize them.
I went back to using Linux full time, because of Unity. I have changed some of the default keyboard shortcuts, and enabled virtual desktops but otherwise it is the vanilla experience.
It helps me work faster and better. And it really feels like its own thing. I know it is not Windows and I know it is not OS X. I understand you got used to the previous thing, but Unity is better for me and for many others.
I always miss the Unity keyboard shortcuts whenever I'm using any other DE, including when I use Windows.
I too have been put off by Unity when it appeared, and moved to Mac. It's sad that they lost so many people, they were on the path to become the leader OS, and not only among the Linux community. Did they even gain more of the target users (tablets) they hoped to reach with Unity?
But there's always one guy to say "Hey, I like Unity, plus you can always configure Gnome or get Kubuntu if you like" and the mere doubt of a debate dillutes the elephant in the room, which is that Unity wasn't capable of generating massive adoption, as opposed to most other DEs. Yep, some people liked Unity, but it's only some people, that's the problem.
Yes, Unity was a huge step down. The fact that it combines windows of the same binary into one icon drives me insane! Because that means I now need two clicks to navigate to those windows, costing me multiple seconds with every context switch. Someone asked a question on UX stackexchange on how to turn off this behaviour and the answer was along the lines of "it's impossible and you don't need that because you don't know what you want". Frustrating.
EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. The fact that the little 'x' close button of maximized windows cannot be clicked if a smaller window is active and in the foreground. That drives me nuts.
Congratulations, you discovered that Ubuntu is a Linux distribution and not a wallpaper of a color you do not prefer. People can also use the normal Ubuntu install media to install something other than Unity, and they can change the wallpaper to a color they like.
I would recommend Debian GNU/Linux over Ubuntu for the following reasons:
* Stability: I consider Debian testing/unstable more stable than Ubuntu stable (Try updating an ubuntu with lots of package installed).
* Privacy: Debian is more concerned about User's privacy then Ubuntu. If your iceweasel (now firefox) automatically connects to internet to load some data against your wish, you can consider this as a bug in Debian (and several other examples).
* Community support: You get community support from both Ubuntu and Debian communities.
* Truely free software 0: No non-free software by default. No binary blobs. But you may choose to have, if you wish to.
* Truely free software 1: In Debian, if you solely install packages from 'main' repo, you can safely use it, even in commercial setup. But in ubuntu, there can be packages that may commercially have several restrictions (and those repos are enabled by default).
Everything is from upstream: GNOME, wayland, flatpak ...
Thanks for this advice. I'm a bit of an ubuntu fanboi, but I've been getting a bit irritated by some of the stability issues and rough edges. I'll give Debian a try as soon as I have time.
I'm using mint in my notebook as the main SO just because it have NVIDIA suporte from the box. No neet to edit x11.org. Every time I open x11.org to edit, my life quaklity is decreased.
Ubuntu has several powerful image manipulation programs. Gimp, darktable, and Inkskape will do what Adobe products can. Plus, they are free, which is a huge bonus. Adobe products don’t currently run on Ubuntu but there are plenty of replacement software options.
That's a pretty debatable paragraph, and one with which most serious Photoshop and Illustrator users would really struggle.
Yeah, I love how sophisticated Gimp and Inkscape are for open source projects, but they don't even touch Adobe when it comes to the finesse and features, sadly. I keep Windows on dual boot just so that I can use Illustrator on the odd times that I need to.
I have a 4 year old Gazelle that I've been mostly satisfied with. It never did have much battery life, so that hasn't gotten better, but no major problems otherwise.
It does use Nvidia graphics, for which driver support is crap. And unlike previous machines, the issues haven't disappeared with upgrades. A failure to resume is the most common bug.
A special award goes to Chrome, which likes to use the acceleration and will leave the main Chrome window on top of the screen after the application is hidden. (Using a nonstandard manager such as Xmonad or ratpoison.)
I've been buying them for work and family for about 10 years now. Build quality is good, battery life reasonable, service is very good. These aren't aluminum-bodied macbooks, they are along the lines of Dell or HP business machines.
Having a work computer that had Ubuntu pre-loaded I must say that Ubuntu almost hits the mark on being a competitor in user friendliness. There are only a few things that I think needs improvement. For me it's configurability of the mouse (in particular cursor acceleration) and dual screen high-dpi support (which is partly on app developers). Most other things seems to be there when using a laptop with supported hardware. But supporting the hardware has been the main hurdle for a long time so having more alternatives that ships with it would probably solve that one.
I agree that the out of the box mouse settings are too limited. But if it really bothers you there's still the option to find the right driver and dive into xorg.conf any time. I spent an hour or two to tweek my macbook touchpad but it was totally worth the effort.
Ubuntu ruined it when they included their advertising and marketing engine straight up in the unity interface. Debian is at least not trying to sell all your info.
I have never met a person who called unity slow and unresponsive, but I always read that complaint online.
My dad uses it full time at home and consider it just as user friendly as the windows he uses at work.
I used it on my laptop 7 years ago, and every other update had hardware compatibility quirks. But unless I used the XP that came with that laptop, Windows also didn't have full compatibility.
Wow? I use Ubuntu for years because I had the exactly opposite situation, it runs smooth on the Linux OS, but Windows would get weird lags and with time the startup time got longer than 3 minutes.
One of the problems with 'The year of the Linux Desktop' is that last years' problems are still Googleable...and the year before lasts' and the year before that, etc.
Unity has been responsive for me on a variety of hardware over the past three years. I'd say anything with Intel Graphics or better would be fine. As a generic user experience I think it's better than Windows 7, worse than Windows 10 [for people who like Windows 10]. On Linux, I prefer Unity to Gnome and Xmonad to everything.
I have been an Ubuntu user for over 5 years and used unity. Now after a fresh install I tried gnome 3 and was blown away by the usability and looks. Also the application search does not hang like unity. I think gnome 3 deserves some more love.
Unity worked well for me on older machines (Thinkpad X220 is the only thing I use for everything), however, to get the 15+ hours of battery from it and a superior experience (for me), I use i3wm instead now.
I think it was significantly improved around 14.04 and remember a definite before vs after difference. Further tweaks in 16.04 but you would hardly notice anymore.
> Has Unity stopped from being a slow and unresponsive mess?
No. Still slow and unresponsive, more or less works responsively after reboot and if you kill the hud-service and disable some other stuff, but starts to get to barely working after a bit.
Lubuntu is the most responsive one from the Ubuntu family I think.
It used to be pretty bad indeed a few release ago. It's now very fast and smooth! You just need to learn and use a few shortcuts to make Unity very efficient.
Try dropbox paper instead of evernote. Personally I find it awesome and migrated to it from evernote. One reason for it was the (since years) missing Linux client and the unusable web client.
It really could, and it really needs to. The default looks is a pretty sure way of ensuring that people who are browsing for an alternative to the Mac aren't going to pick Ubuntu.
It's a matter of personal taste, but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen".
Logically it shouldn't matter, the look has little influence on the functionality, but I really think the orange, black, and purple look has turned people away from, if not Linux, then certainly from Ubuntu.
Good article on getting started. I think the initial switch is the most daunting part but once you do it, you won't look back. If you currently use a mac and work primarily in a *nix environment then making the switch from OSX -> Ubuntu should feel incredibly natural.
I've bought twice from system76. Replaced Ubuntu with Arch on the first, & Windows on the 2nd (would've preferred Arch on the 2nd, but alas, I'm a Windows dev by shameful trade)
This is a really good document. I wish someone would do this for KDE Neon, which is Ubuntu LTS paired with nightly KDE (much better experience than Kubuntu).
Why in the world would anyone switch from Apple to anything?
You drop the cash, pick up the vertically integrated product, turn it on, and get done whatever you need to do without hardware or software getting in the way.
I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu to anyone after the Unity debacle. The way that they insisted on ramming certain "design decisions" down people's throats demonstrated quite clearly that certain elements of the project decided that user feedback meant squat. I remember talking to someone involved with Unity and asking him why I couldn't move the launcher to the bottom of the screen. The answer I got was that it was a design decision that people would just have to accept. He followed up by saying I would get used to it - despite having already put up with it for 2+ years. Attitudes like this are why I and many others will never trust Ubuntu again.
[+] [-] zhte415|9 years ago|reply
But then, out of chance installing on a laptop that wasn't sure it was UEFI or BIOS (yes, BIOS in UEFI mode), lacking much in terms of storage media, plus a weak internet connection, knew Ubuntu had a mini install, not server install, but mini install, but had never used before. Not so well linked to on the website but for benefit of all here's the link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD about 40MB.
Fantastic. Complete Ubuntu ecosystem underpinned by Debian solidness. And straight-up GNOME environment (or GUI of choosing, or lack of, selectable on install). No cruft, but as full featured as any Ubuntu can be. And lets GNOME actually be enjoyed with customisation, but also allows the focus and productivity that GNOME esp. GNOME3 offer.
The OP is about OSX to Mac. Completely support Ubuntu/GNOME. Absolutely suggest straight OSX > GNOME and it/general Ubuntu ecosystem. Avoids messing with Unity or any 'Ubuntu minus Unity' system reinvention, and lets one enjoy using a computer, not being frustrated by it.
[+] [-] Shorel|9 years ago|reply
I saw the GUI of that era as something without character, only copying XP and later trying to copy OS X, but in an incomplete way, and mainly, without something that can be perceived as original.
In fact, the Ubuntu I saw before Unity was almost a carbon copy of OSX. Macbuntu 10.04 was a thing. And it was a thing because of the lack of identity the Linux DEs had before Unity.
I read about Ubuntu, and decided to try again, and this time I forced myself to learn the keyboard shortcuts. That's the main difference and what made me swear this is the DE for me.
The HUD is a game changer. The keyboard shortcuts to switch between virtual desktops, and to move windows between them are second nature now. The same to maximize or half-screen maximize them.
I went back to using Linux full time, because of Unity. I have changed some of the default keyboard shortcuts, and enabled virtual desktops but otherwise it is the vanilla experience.
It helps me work faster and better. And it really feels like its own thing. I know it is not Windows and I know it is not OS X. I understand you got used to the previous thing, but Unity is better for me and for many others.
I always miss the Unity keyboard shortcuts whenever I'm using any other DE, including when I use Windows.
[+] [-] tajen|9 years ago|reply
But there's always one guy to say "Hey, I like Unity, plus you can always configure Gnome or get Kubuntu if you like" and the mere doubt of a debate dillutes the elephant in the room, which is that Unity wasn't capable of generating massive adoption, as opposed to most other DEs. Yep, some people liked Unity, but it's only some people, that's the problem.
[+] [-] thejosh|9 years ago|reply
I love it, and wouldn't switch back. But everyone has their preference, I find this very usable and out of your way
[+] [-] Kenji|9 years ago|reply
EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. The fact that the little 'x' close button of maximized windows cannot be clicked if a smaller window is active and in the foreground. That drives me nuts.
[+] [-] dorfsmay|9 years ago|reply
https://ubuntugnome.org/
[+] [-] pekk|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pksadiq|9 years ago|reply
* Stability: I consider Debian testing/unstable more stable than Ubuntu stable (Try updating an ubuntu with lots of package installed).
* Privacy: Debian is more concerned about User's privacy then Ubuntu. If your iceweasel (now firefox) automatically connects to internet to load some data against your wish, you can consider this as a bug in Debian (and several other examples).
* Community support: You get community support from both Ubuntu and Debian communities.
* Truely free software 0: No non-free software by default. No binary blobs. But you may choose to have, if you wish to.
* Truely free software 1: In Debian, if you solely install packages from 'main' repo, you can safely use it, even in commercial setup. But in ubuntu, there can be packages that may commercially have several restrictions (and those repos are enabled by default).
Everything is from upstream: GNOME, wayland, flatpak ...
[+] [-] blfr|9 years ago|reply
Always do and don't remember any issues.
Mostly, Ubuntu is Debian with some niceties thrown in like AskUbuntu, Unity, PPAs, or a release schedule.
[+] [-] hashtagMERKY|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tsaprailis|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] major505|9 years ago|reply
And well mint works well enouth for my needs.
[+] [-] bshimmin|9 years ago|reply
That's a pretty debatable paragraph, and one with which most serious Photoshop and Illustrator users would really struggle.
[+] [-] pkd|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] anondon|9 years ago|reply
Anyone have experience with System76 laptops recently? How is the build quality, battery life, service? There are not many reviews about the laptops.
[+] [-] mcguire|9 years ago|reply
It does use Nvidia graphics, for which driver support is crap. And unlike previous machines, the issues haven't disappeared with upgrades. A failure to resume is the most common bug.
A special award goes to Chrome, which likes to use the acceleration and will leave the main Chrome window on top of the screen after the application is hidden. (Using a nonstandard manager such as Xmonad or ratpoison.)
[+] [-] dsr_|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dudul|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] worldsayshi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Shorel|9 years ago|reply
Yes, disabling cursor acceleration requires some CLI fiddling and adding that to the autorun login scripts.
Also rotating the screen is not automatic in tablet mode.
[+] [-] binaryanomaly|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] botto|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] norswap|9 years ago|reply
My last experience with Unity was that it just lagged lagged on a machine that could handle windows seven with no hiccups.
Most people with whom I talked about this seemed to have had similar experiences. In truth I've never heard anyone defend Unity.
[+] [-] wodenokoto|9 years ago|reply
I have never met a person who called unity slow and unresponsive, but I always read that complaint online.
My dad uses it full time at home and consider it just as user friendly as the windows he uses at work.
I used it on my laptop 7 years ago, and every other update had hardware compatibility quirks. But unless I used the XP that came with that laptop, Windows also didn't have full compatibility.
[+] [-] jeanlucas|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brudgers|9 years ago|reply
Unity has been responsive for me on a variety of hardware over the past three years. I'd say anything with Intel Graphics or better would be fine. As a generic user experience I think it's better than Windows 7, worse than Windows 10 [for people who like Windows 10]. On Linux, I prefer Unity to Gnome and Xmonad to everything.
[+] [-] k__|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roshansingh|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tluyben2|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmach|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zzzcpan|9 years ago|reply
No. Still slow and unresponsive, more or less works responsively after reboot and if you kill the hud-service and disable some other stuff, but starts to get to barely working after a bit.
Lubuntu is the most responsive one from the Ubuntu family I think.
[+] [-] plouc|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Shorel|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gotofritz|9 years ago|reply
Although, no Google Drive... no Evernote...
[+] [-] binaryanomaly|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] binaryanomaly|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wineisfine|9 years ago|reply
With a bit of effort, Unity could look much better.
[+] [-] mrweasel|9 years ago|reply
It's a matter of personal taste, but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen".
Logically it shouldn't matter, the look has little influence on the functionality, but I really think the orange, black, and purple look has turned people away from, if not Linux, then certainly from Ubuntu.
[+] [-] haggy|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] __s|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rocky1138|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IE6|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] known|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] globalgobble|9 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Annatar|9 years ago|reply
Time saved: priceless.
[+] [-] pritambaral|9 years ago|reply
I see you and I have had different experiences with Apple laptops.
[+] [-] tjpnz|9 years ago|reply