I have been not recommending Ubuntu to people because of obvious reasons (the Amazon search integration and snaps, mainly). The reason I am posting this is because someone I know mentioned that they are considering Ubuntu. They have a degree in cs and generally are competent with computers, but didn’t like mint when they tried it. I would like to know a few things, since I haven’t looked into Ubuntu in a while:

Has anything changed about snap? I know people didn’t like it at first, especially the proprietary server, but I don’t think they will care about that and I mainly just want to know if it will eat all their RAM or something.

Have they made any changes in their management that may make sure there won’t be another Amazon search thing?

Is it best to use the default desktop on Ubuntu? I would recommend Kubuntu to them, all else being equal, but don’t know if maybe the default one is better integrated.

Edit: The person will be 100’s of miles away so helping them with issues will be hard, and Ubuntu LTS should be stable. Plus, basically everything that “supports” linux but doesn’t really usually supports Ubuntu. I do really see where they’re coming from, but want to know if it has a major potential to backfire on them and if they might be better off with Fedora.

  • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
    404·
    5 months ago

    I think the bottom line is if they didn’t like Mint they’re not gonna like Ubuntu. Any criticism I can level at mint I can level even harder at Ubuntu. Before anyone can say anything for sure though it’d be important to know what they didn’t like about Mint and what it is that’s drawing them to Ubuntu.

    As far as would I recommend Ubuntu? Honestly, no. I don’t recommend it to anyone. Its not easier to use than Mint if you want an easy to use Linux distro. Its basically no better than Windows if you’re issue with Windows was philosophical. From a technical standpoint I find it to be about the worst distro there is.

    The list of distros I find myself recommending to people is as follows:

    • Mint (for noobs)
    • MX (for experienced users who don’t wanna Futz with stuff)
    • Antix (for constrained systems)
    • Arch (for experienced users who do wanna Futz with stuff)
    • Debian (for people who are on a futzing with stuff spectrum between MX and Arch, regardless of experience level)
    • Artix (for sickos who love the Futz, live for the futz, and found Arch to not be futzy enough)
    • 柊 つかさ@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 months ago

      As a “sicko” (lol) I must say I don’t really futz around much if at all anymore. There are some differences but all in all I don’t think the Artix experience is much different from the regular Arch one.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
        21·
        5 months ago

        Oh absolutely. I loved Artix when I was working with it. Helped me fall in love with doas and OpenRC. But also if you’ve got a computer you wanna get working, it gives you WAY too many choices to make. Its mainly for if you’re using something and you just have a frustrating from some tool or another because Artix seriously let’s you customize aspects of the OS that no other sane distro gives you access to. This has some consequences:

        1. Until you have a working system its very futzy
        2. Once you have a working system all other systems feel… Wrong. They didn’t make the right decisions. You know this because you dove deep into every conceivable make able decision and if they didn’t choose what you chose, then you already know it won’t be quite right for you.

        Basically… If you have to ask if Artix is right for you, that means it isn’t. I kinda only recommend Artix to people who have already customized the shit out of Arch or Debian and still have complaints. Its by far my favorite distro, and it simply isn’t one I’m running right now because Antix is fine enough for my needs and I don’t want to be without a laptop for an entire weekend while I get every single thing lines up.

        Again. This sounds like I hate Artix. I don’t. I fucking love it. Everyone who loves Linux should give it a try some time just to see how esoteric and weird a distro can get when they want to. It’s truly beautiful and pure.