Actually getting used to Ubuntu again

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Ockie

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So after a few years of sticking to Linux Mint, I decided to give Ubuntu a try again. (Lets face it, the Mint UI is getting pretty darn old and tired)

I am now rather enjoying Ubuntu and its rather different UI on my media server and laptop. It is fast and responsive and looks good.

One thing that I do have a problem with, though not limited to Ubuntu, is that the native driver for the Radeon graphics card does make text in the browser look crappy. The propriety one again on the other hand slows down the machine. Have any of you guys found the same with Linux and Radeon?

Anyway.....I am happy. Go Ubuntu.
 
Ockie said:
So after a few years of sticking to Linux Mint, I decided to give Ubuntu a try again. (Lets face it, the Mint UI is getting pretty darn old and tired)

I am now rather enjoying Ubuntu and its rather different UI on my media server and laptop. It is fast and responsive and looks good.

One thing that I do have a problem with, though not limited to Ubuntu, is that the native driver for the Radeon graphics card does make text in the browser look crappy. The propriety one again on the other hand slows down the machine. Have any of you guys found the same with Linux and Radeon?

Anyway.....I am happy. Go Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

Why do you reinstall a dif distro to get another gui ???? You are aware that fluxbox, enlightment, unity, xfce and all the other works on mint ......
 
Glad you are happy. I run Peppermint 5 as my netbook has very light specs.

Use the software that you enjoy using.
 
Im a big fan of Unity especially since they added right clicking viewing of open windows about 2 years ago. The whole emphasis of screen estate and the quick searching of what you looking for just makes me work faster.
 
Also moved away from Mint. The Cinnamon DE is elegant but it had too many small rough edges, especially when running multiple monitors. Unity works really well now and suits my keyboard based approach. This DE (with appropriate scaling) is also well suited to HTPC use. Another DE to try out is Gnome 3 - this has also become worthwhile.

As for the Radeon. Had one on a machine that was dual booting with Windows. The Linux driver issues could be fixed with a lot of work but the Windows issues could not be resolved at all. Ended up binning it for an Nvidia card which has been working on both OSs.
 
Ockie said:
One thing that I do have a problem with, though not limited to Ubuntu, is that the native driver for the Radeon graphics card does make text in the browser look crappy. The propriety one again on the other hand slows down the machine. Have any of you guys found the same with Linux and Radeon?
Click to expand...
Which version of Ubuntu?

Just to be clear, what you call the native driver is 'radeon' and the proprietary driver is 'fglrx'?
Did you get the proprietary driver from the Ubuntu archive or directly from AMD?
 
ginggs said:
Which version of Ubuntu?

Just to be clear, what you call the native driver is 'radeon' and the proprietary driver is 'fglrx'?
Did you get the proprietary driver from the Ubuntu archive or directly from AMD?
Click to expand...

It is the LTS one. Think 14.04? On my previous install of Linux Mint I had the fglrx driver that I donwloaded from AMD. It made the text while browsing the net nice and smooth, not "jagged" like with the native radeon driver, but it made the machine sluggish. With the native driver the machine is much quicker I would say but the text looks kinda crappy (but movies, even HD ones) looks fine.

Think I should give the AMD driver a try again? I just dont want to install it again and then the machine is sluggish again and then I have to do a reinstall again (I read that getting rid of a driver is a bit of a mission)
 
Ockie said:
Think I should give the AMD driver a try again? I just dont want to install it again and then the machine is sluggish again and then I have to do a reinstall again (I read that getting rid of a driver is a bit of a mission)
Click to expand...
I suggest you should try the fglrx (AMD/proprietary) driver again, but get it from the Ubuntu repository. It shouldn't be a problem to remove it again.

I have seen some systems horribly messed up after someone installed the driver from directly from Nvidia instead of from the Ubuntu repository. I think the same can happen wit the AMD drivers.
 
ginggs said:
I suggest you should try the fglrx (AMD/proprietary) driver again, but get it from the Ubuntu repository. It shouldn't be a problem to remove it again.

I have seen some systems horribly messed up after someone installed the driver from directly from Nvidia instead of from the Ubuntu repository. I think the same can happen wit the AMD drivers.
Click to expand...

OK. I will give it a go again tonight. Thank you meneer.
 
Hmmm... I moved to Linux Mint a few years ago because Unity was terrible. I know I could've used Kubuntu... but not a fan of KDE either. However, I've been keeping up on Unity and it looks pretty usable now. If I wasn't so sold on Mint, I could see myself using it day ro day.

I must say, I've been using Ubuntu touch a lot and it was made for touch displays. Works like a charm.
 
ginggs said:
I suggest you should try the fglrx (AMD/proprietary) driver again, but get it from the Ubuntu repository. It shouldn't be a problem to remove it again.

I have seen some systems horribly messed up after someone installed the driver from directly from Nvidia instead of from the Ubuntu repository. I think the same can happen wit the AMD drivers.
Click to expand...

kingrob said:
Ockie, also check that you have downloaded the Windows TTF fonts.
Click to expand...

Howdy. Have not done the font...but activated the driver for fgrlx in "additional drivers" and now it works very nicely. Text is nice and smooth :-)
 
henniedebeer said:
I must say, I've been using Ubuntu touch a lot and it was made for touch displays. Works like a charm.
Click to expand...

What device are you using Ubuntu Touch on? I'm using it on my Nexus 5 and it's not too bad. Only issues i've got are:

Push email. Not sure how to get it working.
No Whatsapp (The Telegram web app works but too many of my contacts/groups are on WhatsApp and are too stupid to move to Telegram)
How do you customise ringtones? The ringtones folder is read only and I can't find a way to change it.
 
vinodh said:
What device are you using Ubuntu Touch on? I'm using it on my Nexus 5 and it's not too bad. Only issues i've got are:

Push email. Not sure how to get it working.
No Whatsapp (The Telegram web app works but too many of my contacts/groups are on WhatsApp and are too stupid to move to Telegram)
How do you customise ringtones? The ringtones folder is read only and I can't find a way to change it.
Click to expand...

Whatsapp now has a web app (web.whatsapp.com) - currently only works in Chrome, but will soon support other browers.
 
Actually getting used to Ubuntu again
Click to expand...

Oh Linux. Here I had hope about true Ubuntu.

I dont know. Tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu and many other distros. It's just not there yet so windows it remains for now.
 
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