I had to tweak PP's packaging to get it to appear in the Ubuntu Software app, so I can provide a bit of info about this part of the article:
My assumption for now is that the Ubuntu Software application only shows updates for packages that were installed through it. Further, the list of installed applications that it shows is very clearly a subset of those that are actually installed on the system. Color me befuddled.
The Ubuntu Software app (& similar software-center apps, such as GNOME Software, KDE Discover, etc.) only shows distro packages which have valid AppStream metadata:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppStream
The AppStream metadata is generated automatically by running appstream-generator (https://github.com/ximion/appstream-generator ) on Ubuntu's repositories. However, on some packages the metadata can't be generated, due to an error - either the package has missing info, incorrect formatting, or possibly it's an issue with appstream-generator.
Hey, congrats! How'd you find the experience of writing a new app in GNUStep? I feel like in some better metaverse, the GNUStep project would have ridden Apple's rise in popularity to be a solid contender / alternative to the Apple ecosystem.
When I tried an early beta (of 10.04) I was unable to find the mosquitto client tools in the software store. Neither does it show up in either list you linked. I guess it was left out for other reasons.
At one point there was a setting in the software store to show all available packages. It has been removed.
At present I am only aware of command line tools for finding S/W that includes all available packages. (`snap` and `apt`) I guess Ubuntu are dumbing down Linux. They have succeeded. I think it's dumb.
When the display goes to sleep due to lack of input or whatever, you have to drag upwards with your mouse to unlock the screen. Like some common dirty frickin' smart phone.
Yes!
Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes the window. FOR GODS SAKE WHY.
> Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes the window. FOR GODS SAKE WHY.
I use this all the time when working with several monitors. Just press Alt, click somewhere onto a window, move this window to a different monitor, smash window to the top of the screen. Bam, instant monitor-switching of full-screen windows.
(And yes, usually I use keyboard shortcuts for this but when the hand is already on the mouse then this is the best way to do it)
I will never understand why Ubuntu took a very nice desktop Linux distribution, and fucked it up with all these mobile and tablet centric UI absurdities.
It seems like none of the dumb GNOME warts were plastered over.
There's still the idiotic, screen-taking-over activities menu (because, yknow, it should take 3840x2160 pixels to show a fucking app launcher. Did nobody learn from Windows 8? The GNOME devs are officially more hard-headed than Microsoft - an achievement of some note)
There's still the swipe-to-unlock desktop
There's the default Apple scrolling behavior
The author said it best:
I spend every day in a state of permanent quixotic hope that eventually humanity will comes to its senses and realize that computers and mobile devices are different kinds of technology with different purposes and different usage patterns.
Seriously, GNOME is a touch UI. The large buttons, the swipe mechanics, everything. Except nobody uses GNOME on the mobile devices it appears to be made for!
> There's still the idiotic, screen-taking-over activities menu (because, yknow, it should take 3840x2160 pixels to show a fucking app launcher. Did nobody learn from Windows 8?
Launchpad on the Mac takes over the full screen too and I never hear anyone gripe about that.
What a good review, focusing on all the so-called little things, that are actually the big things, ie does it actually work smoothly.
The same with laptop reviews which quite often just compare features and speeds, but not the feel, keyboard, trackpad, weight, noise and heat, port placement, carry-ability, one-hand-holdability, etc, etc.
Ubuntu lost me years back when they introduced Unity. The single biggest issue I had with it was the positioning of the dock and how there was no officially supported means of changing it. I didn't like it from a design perspective but far worse was my RSI which was particularly bad at the time, even subtle things like button placement would just set everything right off.
I wasn't the only one who wanted the option to customize this but such requests fell on deaf ears, I was told by one of the Unity devs that the dock placement was a "design decision" and that they had no intention of changing it. Until they did but that was many years later and long after I had moved on to Linux Mint and Cinnamon.
I think adopting Gnome is a positive step in the right direction for Ubuntu, it sounds like they may actually be listening to their users now.
Man, the Linux crowd really sucks. Why am I even reading these comments?
I'm of the opinion that the Linux desktop has never been better, and I really enjoy using modern Linux desktops a lot more than I used to. To all those developers that made it possible for us to use this stuff on our computers with no strings attached: thank you. Ubuntu 18.04 is a great collection of these achievements (like many other current Linux distros).
Reading these comments you'd miss that this review has a (mostly) positive conclusion and a recommendation for people to use it.
I tend to be pretty critical of Linux because I do genuinely believe there's a lot of stuff in Linux that's really bad.
Would I ever give it up and switch to Windows/Mac? No, never in a million years. Compared to modern Windows 10, Gnome's UX is masterful.
Linux has actually come pretty far - set up is still annoying, and some problems are still unnecessarily difficult to solve, but for the most part once you get everything up and running you have a system that just works, and that will keep on working without you having to do much.
I've used Linux for a long time, but it's only recently that I've felt confident enough that I've started seriously recommending it to non-technical people. I've got my Mom running Ubuntu as her main computer, and over the past year it cut down on my technical support by about 2/3rds of what I was doing before.
I think it's easy to take the good things for granted. Yeah, to a certain degree Linux is crap, but pretty much all software I or anyone else ever makes is going to be crap - that's the hard lesson you have to learn when you start developing software.
It's still hands-down the best OS out there if you just want a stable, usable computer that respects you, and I still feel really grateful for it every time I boot up my computer to get actual work done.
I owe my career in part to the fact that I just bit the bullet, dumped windows, and switched to Ubuntu as my main OS about 7 years ago. In the war on general purpose computing they're still fighting the good fight.
I've been using Ubuntu almost since it started, because it works and I sure as hell don't miss fiddling with X modelines or compiling my own kernel. I've stuck with the standard Ubuntu, but have tried all the flavors because I wish some degree of customization, and Gnome wishes less every time. Unfortunately they are not as polished.
Since Ubuntu is so great anyway, I try to convince myself that less customization means less wasted time.
I appreciate his no-bs approach to the review - he sticks to what matters to him, not all the new shiny bells and whistles.
That said, I would have loved some more input on audio management in the new Ubuntu. pulseaudio is giving me such a headache in 17.10 - random static noise, not remembering the right output or the volume, etc etc..
What i find annoying is that no Linux distro comes with sane settings by default, you always have to tweak it until it works properly. It took me a few months to get Xubuntu figured out(and few years to properly customize): it involved lots of google searching and that is most pleasant expirience of them all(other distros can't hold a candle to Ubuntu quality).
Its as if distro developers never used their own product(i suspect they run it through some VM on a Mac).
Here are major things I had to do:
1.Make /tmp load in ram via tmpfs (much faster)
2.Disable swap entirely, convert it to a file partition.(swap is slow ugly cludge that is useless with 8GB ram).
3.Disable hibernate and suspend. (i don't want it to write to SSD).
4.Remove several CPU hungry services that serve zero purpose such as tumbler, whoopsie,browsed,update-notifier.
5.Fix the window manager to disable several annoying quirks: such as entering zoom mode ocassionally.
The overall feeling is that Linux distros are packed with rarely used features turned on, and needed things requiring installing (like e.g. paprefs(pulseaudio)).
The difference between what i have now and default setup is growing more distant every day as i fix and customize more stuff. This also ensures I will stay on Ubuntu 16.04 for the foreseeable future as i don't want to repeat similar "customization/usability" work i've done on one machine again.
I've been a Linux user since the very beginning, and have settled on Ubuntu as my daily driver for .. now .. decades (or is it, I dunno, feels like it..) .. anyway, I am a systems-level developer, lots of experience, and I enjoy myself a well-put together system.
So, since I tend towards the multimedia experiences, I use the -Studio variant of Ubuntu, which is preconfigured and biased, default installations-wise, towards the cool music and video and creative tools, and so on. Its really a treat.
Anyway, I have a few systems. A DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, my studio, which handles multiple channels of audio on a regular basis, often 32 independent streaming inputs per REC session .. and a fair swath of plugins nobody has ever heard of before, which is often a positive...
On my personal laptop, I run the same thing. A GPD Pocket, with a small satchel of cables, and I can pretty much set up anywhere and review sessions.
Through all of this, I have updated my Ubuntu systems - but the only way I've been able to survive, personally, is to avoid Gnome Shell, and select FVWM or LWM at login.
That said, the only place Gnome Shell really feels nice .. is on the GPD Pocket. Does this say something about where things are at?
I tell you one thing: the GPD Pocket has replaced a Macbook Air ...
A bit off topic but curious: which pro audio interfaces have you had the best success with on Linux? Especially at 32 channels. I doubt I can ever break my Logic+Waves addiction but your report has me intrigued, might give Ubuntu Studio a shot for some experimental tracks. A GPD could be handy for live tracking MADI at shows if the CPU can handle it.
Why doesn't Ubuntu (and many other distributions) change to a rolling release model. Having switched to Arch, though admittedly the installation process is much more elaborate than of Ubuntu, once you customise it to one's preference, it is much more convenient to keep upgrading individual packages as they are evolving.
Last time I tried Arch (about a decade ago), I gave a command to update packages. In the update, my NVIDIA card was moved to be supported by "nvidia-legacy" rather than "nvidia"... Of course, I didn't have legacy drivers installed, so the driver failed pretty badly (it was assigned to NVIDIA in my xorg conf). X wouldn't load, and because several aspects of X changed in the update, I had to spend a few hours figuring out what when wrong.
The point of the above (possibly out of date) story is that when I say "update", I want a minimal chance that something serious changed. I don't mind fiddling around with Linux, but I want it to be on my terms (like a lazy Sunday). Giving the user a choice between "update" and "upgrade" allows me to specify when I want to apply major changes.
Because rolling releases give you a terrible choice between constant upgrades all the time (read: resource and network usage and reboots), and if you don't, a high likelihood of something breaking when you finally do that pacman -Syu.
There's nothing wrong with snapshot releases in a distro focused on usability and stability.
I generally prefer LTS-style releases for machines that I'm setting up for other people who I don't expect to do their own maintenance. That way, I'm less nervous about setting up automatic updates (since an update is less likely to break things). I also generally prefer LTS-style releases for business/enterprise use, since the release schedule is more predictable.
For my own use (or for power users and other tech-savvy folks who I'm reasonably sure will be able to maintain their systems themselves), a rolling release is less worrying.
When I used Arch some years ago, I regularly updated the system, but that meant things broke reguarly. Not updating regularly is not an option. Sure, there was always an easy fix, but that's not the experience most of us are after.
The bigger problem with the rolling release model was that package maintainers would leave packages sit for long periods of time, and then they'd write long, arrogant posts in the forum telling users that it's no big deal to compile your software. That can't happen with a regular release schedule.
For a while I used a distro called Chakra[0] that had a neat semi-rolling release model[1]. It seemed like a nice compromise. The system was stable, but end user apps were up to date.
This is how a review is done. Thorough and covers the details that matters for a distro review.
Although I could experience the advantages it's offering over 16.04, I tried it yesterday and it's incredibly slow. Like 5-seconds-to-activate-focus-on-any-window slow.
Has anyone had similar issue? The last time I experienced something laggy like this was with crappy hardware.
It doesn't happen on RHEL 7.5 (with GNOME Classic), Fedora (with GNOME), Ubuntu 16.04 (with Unity). I have a beefy computer (HP Z600, 2x Xeon, 48GB RAM ECC), so I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware issue. Windows 10 also runs fine.
Has anyone found a good solution for non-integer screen scaling? I use Ubuntu on all of my computers, but they have modern, hi-res screens, and the default scaling is too small. The only options are integer multiples (which is too big), or scaling the font size (which leaves window navigation, icons, etc too small).
One thing I discovered about the lock screen that's mentioned as a problem here is that you can just type your password and enter to login after a suspend and it will work.... No need to swipe or whatever.
The technical audience who actually use Linux desktops want more customization not less, and the crowd that Ubuntu seems to be chasing doesn't seem to actually exist?
Hmm this doesn't make me want to leave xubuntu any time soon, although I too have noticed the recent xfce issues mentioned in the article.
I find XFCE/Xubuntu to be better too. Unfortunately, that project does not release often and is having trouble keeping up with the new world. In particular, it's not very good at high dpi monitors, and getting it configured for that was such a problem that I ended up abandoning it.
I have a desktop. The first thing I test after installation of Ubuntu is the remote access using ssh, then the wakeonlan, then the remote access using vnc (already painful with 16.04), then the sharing of hard disk directories. Finally, I test the playback of BD and CD.
I do not need much customization: ensure that the alt key is not blocked and works fine with photoshop. On the desktop, I will probably only remove the dock on the left.
I think this setting should be flipped by default, so that workspaces affect all monitors, at least in the mode where the 2nd (3rd, etc.) monitor extends your main desktop.
In 2-screen presentation mode, it makes sense that the 2nd screen doesn't change when you change workspace, because you're presenting something there.
[+] [-] tedge|8 years ago|reply
I had to tweak PP's packaging to get it to appear in the Ubuntu Software app, so I can provide a bit of info about this part of the article:
My assumption for now is that the Ubuntu Software application only shows updates for packages that were installed through it. Further, the list of installed applications that it shows is very clearly a subset of those that are actually installed on the system. Color me befuddled.
The Ubuntu Software app (& similar software-center apps, such as GNOME Software, KDE Discover, etc.) only shows distro packages which have valid AppStream metadata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppStream
The AppStream metadata is generated automatically by running appstream-generator (https://github.com/ximion/appstream-generator ) on Ubuntu's repositories. However, on some packages the metadata can't be generated, due to an error - either the package has missing info, incorrect formatting, or possibly it's an issue with appstream-generator.
Here's a list of packages in the Ubuntu Bionic universe repo that have issues (packages with errors are unlikely to appear in Ubuntu Software): http://appstream.ubuntu.com/bionic/universe/issues/index.htm...
List of packages with successfully generated metadata in Ubuntu Bionic universe (should appear in Ubuntu Software): http://appstream.ubuntu.com/bionic/universe/metainfo/index.h... (Package names link to the generated metadata xml file).
[+] [-] peatmoss|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HankB99|8 years ago|reply
At one point there was a setting in the software store to show all available packages. It has been removed.
At present I am only aware of command line tools for finding S/W that includes all available packages. (`snap` and `apt`) I guess Ubuntu are dumbing down Linux. They have succeeded. I think it's dumb.
[+] [-] AnIdiotOnTheNet|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] panarky|8 years ago|reply
Yes!
Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes the window. FOR GODS SAKE WHY.
Double yes!
[+] [-] yoodenvranx|8 years ago|reply
I use this all the time when working with several monitors. Just press Alt, click somewhere onto a window, move this window to a different monitor, smash window to the top of the screen. Bam, instant monitor-switching of full-screen windows.
(And yes, usually I use keyboard shortcuts for this but when the hand is already on the mouse then this is the best way to do it)
[+] [-] solarkraft|8 years ago|reply
Because it's a handy gesture.
> you have to drag upwards with your mouse to unlock the screen. Like some common dirty frickin' smart phone.
Yeah, that's pretty stupid.
[+] [-] rootlocus|8 years ago|reply
This also works in Xfce and I love it.
[+] [-] sirfz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hansjorg|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasonkostempski|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] megaman22|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ASalazarMX|8 years ago|reply
It must be great for avoiding accidental unlocks, but I always feel a bit dirty swiping up the mouse to unlock.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Karunamon|8 years ago|reply
There's still the idiotic, screen-taking-over activities menu (because, yknow, it should take 3840x2160 pixels to show a fucking app launcher. Did nobody learn from Windows 8? The GNOME devs are officially more hard-headed than Microsoft - an achievement of some note)
There's still the swipe-to-unlock desktop
There's the default Apple scrolling behavior
The author said it best:
I spend every day in a state of permanent quixotic hope that eventually humanity will comes to its senses and realize that computers and mobile devices are different kinds of technology with different purposes and different usage patterns.
Seriously, GNOME is a touch UI. The large buttons, the swipe mechanics, everything. Except nobody uses GNOME on the mobile devices it appears to be made for!
[+] [-] yAnonymous|8 years ago|reply
To make it good you'd have to exchange the whole team first. It's LXDE for me from here on out.
[+] [-] unethical_ban|8 years ago|reply
Everyone has preferences, but the "apple" behavior makes so much sense. It's the first thing I change when I install a laptop OS.
[+] [-] ThrowawayR2|8 years ago|reply
Launchpad on the Mac takes over the full screen too and I never hear anyone gripe about that.
[+] [-] jacknews|8 years ago|reply
The same with laptop reviews which quite often just compare features and speeds, but not the feel, keyboard, trackpad, weight, noise and heat, port placement, carry-ability, one-hand-holdability, etc, etc.
[+] [-] sz4kerto|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tjpnz|8 years ago|reply
I wasn't the only one who wanted the option to customize this but such requests fell on deaf ears, I was told by one of the Unity devs that the dock placement was a "design decision" and that they had no intention of changing it. Until they did but that was many years later and long after I had moved on to Linux Mint and Cinnamon.
I think adopting Gnome is a positive step in the right direction for Ubuntu, it sounds like they may actually be listening to their users now.
[+] [-] DCKing|8 years ago|reply
I'm of the opinion that the Linux desktop has never been better, and I really enjoy using modern Linux desktops a lot more than I used to. To all those developers that made it possible for us to use this stuff on our computers with no strings attached: thank you. Ubuntu 18.04 is a great collection of these achievements (like many other current Linux distros).
Reading these comments you'd miss that this review has a (mostly) positive conclusion and a recommendation for people to use it.
[+] [-] danShumway|8 years ago|reply
Would I ever give it up and switch to Windows/Mac? No, never in a million years. Compared to modern Windows 10, Gnome's UX is masterful.
Linux has actually come pretty far - set up is still annoying, and some problems are still unnecessarily difficult to solve, but for the most part once you get everything up and running you have a system that just works, and that will keep on working without you having to do much.
I've used Linux for a long time, but it's only recently that I've felt confident enough that I've started seriously recommending it to non-technical people. I've got my Mom running Ubuntu as her main computer, and over the past year it cut down on my technical support by about 2/3rds of what I was doing before.
I think it's easy to take the good things for granted. Yeah, to a certain degree Linux is crap, but pretty much all software I or anyone else ever makes is going to be crap - that's the hard lesson you have to learn when you start developing software.
It's still hands-down the best OS out there if you just want a stable, usable computer that respects you, and I still feel really grateful for it every time I boot up my computer to get actual work done.
[+] [-] CalRobert|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ASalazarMX|8 years ago|reply
Since Ubuntu is so great anyway, I try to convince myself that less customization means less wasted time.
[+] [-] crypt1d|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FrozenVoid|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gpdpocketer|8 years ago|reply
So, since I tend towards the multimedia experiences, I use the -Studio variant of Ubuntu, which is preconfigured and biased, default installations-wise, towards the cool music and video and creative tools, and so on. Its really a treat.
Anyway, I have a few systems. A DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, my studio, which handles multiple channels of audio on a regular basis, often 32 independent streaming inputs per REC session .. and a fair swath of plugins nobody has ever heard of before, which is often a positive...
On my personal laptop, I run the same thing. A GPD Pocket, with a small satchel of cables, and I can pretty much set up anywhere and review sessions.
Through all of this, I have updated my Ubuntu systems - but the only way I've been able to survive, personally, is to avoid Gnome Shell, and select FVWM or LWM at login.
That said, the only place Gnome Shell really feels nice .. is on the GPD Pocket. Does this say something about where things are at?
I tell you one thing: the GPD Pocket has replaced a Macbook Air ...
[+] [-] buildbuildbuild|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] billfruit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scj|8 years ago|reply
The point of the above (possibly out of date) story is that when I say "update", I want a minimal chance that something serious changed. I don't mind fiddling around with Linux, but I want it to be on my terms (like a lazy Sunday). Giving the user a choice between "update" and "upgrade" allows me to specify when I want to apply major changes.
[+] [-] Karunamon|8 years ago|reply
There's nothing wrong with snapshot releases in a distro focused on usability and stability.
[+] [-] yellowapple|8 years ago|reply
For my own use (or for power users and other tech-savvy folks who I'm reasonably sure will be able to maintain their systems themselves), a rolling release is less worrying.
[+] [-] bachmeier|8 years ago|reply
The bigger problem with the rolling release model was that package maintainers would leave packages sit for long periods of time, and then they'd write long, arrogant posts in the forum telling users that it's no big deal to compile your software. That can't happen with a regular release schedule.
[+] [-] scbrg|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cuddlybacon|8 years ago|reply
[0] - https://www.chakralinux.org [1] - https://wiki.chakralinux.org/index.php?title=Half-Rolling_Re...
[+] [-] narimiran|8 years ago|reply
If you want easier-to-install-Arch and a bit more cautious/safer rolling release cycles, take a look at Manjaro.
[+] [-] slezyr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nookoking|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] yAnonymous|8 years ago|reply
The only thing that's more difficult about the Arch install is that you have to be able to follow written instructions...
[+] [-] tambre|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] enzolovesbacon|8 years ago|reply
Although I could experience the advantages it's offering over 16.04, I tried it yesterday and it's incredibly slow. Like 5-seconds-to-activate-focus-on-any-window slow.
Has anyone had similar issue? The last time I experienced something laggy like this was with crappy hardware.
It doesn't happen on RHEL 7.5 (with GNOME Classic), Fedora (with GNOME), Ubuntu 16.04 (with Unity). I have a beefy computer (HP Z600, 2x Xeon, 48GB RAM ECC), so I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware issue. Windows 10 also runs fine.
[+] [-] xur17|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sfifs|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] willvarfar|8 years ago|reply
Hmm this doesn't make me want to leave xubuntu any time soon, although I too have noticed the recent xfce issues mentioned in the article.
[+] [-] kyledrake|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reacweb|8 years ago|reply
I do not need much customization: ensure that the alt key is not blocked and works fine with photoshop. On the desktop, I will probably only remove the dock on the left.
[+] [-] petecooper|8 years ago|reply
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2018-April...
http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969
(No affiliation beyond being a user for about 4 years.)
[+] [-] rhinoceraptor|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gregknicholson|8 years ago|reply
In 2-screen presentation mode, it makes sense that the 2nd screen doesn't change when you change workspace, because you're presenting something there.