Just Officially Moved to Linux (Experiences)

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giggity

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I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I was put off by Windows 10. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a little disappointing, so I installed Ubuntu 15.04 x64 on my Lenovo T440 (i5 4300U @ 1.9GHz - turbo 2.9GHz, 8GB DDR3 RAM, Intel HD 4400 graphics, Samsung 840 Evo 120GB, 900p screen). The last version of Ubuntu I used was 12.04 back on my old PC, and it doesn't seem like much has changed other than the theme looking slightly different.

Using a laptop, I assumed that there would be a tonne of problems with driver compatibility due to brand-specific configurations, and there were a few problems... Both SolusOS and Elementary OS had some problems, but the experience I had with Ubuntu was actually smoother than Windows 10. I flashed a thumb drive with the installer, ran the live CD to see if it worked, and then installed once seeing that it was all good.

The OS is incredibly fast (I boot up in about 5 seconds as opposed to Windows 10's 16 seconds). Launching programs is a lot faster, too (especially GIMP, which used to take about a minute to launch).

Installing programs is easy with Ubuntu's Software Centre, however anything that isn't on there is quite a hassle to install. Being given a .tar.gz or a .zip isn't exactly noob-friendly, and wastes a lot of time having to find and update repos rather than being able to just get to it.

The Unity desktop environment is pretty good if you install Unity Tweak Tool and set up hot corners for multitasking and window arrangement. It reminds me very much of OSX, which is good. Thinking of changing to something else, though.

Touchpad support is limited as it doesn't have gesture control (or any synaptics drivers), and the webcam doesn't work at all... Which I guess is better for security :D?

I'm getting about 10 hours battery life browsing using Firefox (6-cell + 3-cell internal battery), which is better than Windows' 6.5 hours. This required installing TLP, as before it was about 6 hours.

I miss my Adobe apps and games (playonlinux usually doesn't work too well without hours of tweaking), and I was really disappointed to find that Google, the company that made Goobuntu, has no Google Drive support for Linux. So I'm going to start using copy.com or pay for dropbox.

I'd really like to hear your recommendations on how you have your distro set up. I'm finding it incredibly addictive being able to customise so much.

Thanks and have a good one :)
 
THanks for sharing - interesting to read the experiences from a new user.
 
Running Linux Mint Mate. Looks better in my opinion. I couldn't stand Unity. Under the hood they're the same.
 
giggity said:
Installing programs is easy with Ubuntu's Software Centre, however anything that isn't on there is quite a hassle to install. Being given a .tar.gz or a .zip isn't exactly noob-friendly, and wastes a lot of time having to find and update repos rather than being able to just get to it.
Click to expand...

Repos & PPAs can be a pain in the ass that's why Ilike Arch, if it's not in the repos you will find a few versions in AUR. Well pacman is also the best package manager ever & the distro is a rolling release. Arch however is targeted at a different crowd as you have to roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty initially.
 
Had Ubuntu installed as a VM and was completely putt off by Unity. It's basically Candy Crush Saga in an OS. Like staring at a miff potato. Clusterphobic and silly.

Installed Mint (cinnamon) and enjoying it much more. No driver issues at all and deving on non .NET stuff atm it actually feels better to work with than windows (I completely broke my windows and haven't bothered to get it installed again).

My biggest gripe are the media players (WMP actually worked well for me). Banshee and Clementine just isn't as good for me.

Other than that I keep my stuff standard. I almost installed Ubuntu Gnome but the big programs menu is stupid. If I had to change my window manager I might go Mate, but Cinnamon is actually pretty sweet.
 
Hamster said:
Had Ubuntu installed as a VM and was completely putt off by Unity. It's basically Candy Crush Saga in an OS. Like staring at a miff potato. Clusterphobic and silly.

My biggest gripe are the media players (WMP actually worked well for me). Banshee and Clementine just isn't as good for me.
Click to expand...

Can't stand unity. I'm a openbox/pekwm/xfce person. Like to keep it simple & the os out of my way. The power of shortcut keys & a proper menu is awesome.

VLC & SMPlayer for multimedia. SMPlayer has taken over from VLC for me.
 
ponder said:
Can't stand unity. I'm openbox/pekwm/xfce person. Like to keep it simple & the os out of my way.

VLC & SMPlayer for multimedia. SMPlayer has taken over from VLC for me.
Click to expand...
I'll give SMPlayer a go, VLC never helped me on windows
 
Welcome to the start of an interesting journey. Ubuntu is now mature to the point that I find it quicker and easier to install than Windows.

Installing programs is easy with Ubuntu's Software Centre, however anything that isn't on there is quite a hassle to install.
Click to expand...

A lot of the software that is not available via the Software Centre can be installed via a ppa. This is a good way to go since you get the updates as they are released.

The Unity desktop environment is pretty good if you install Unity Tweak Tool
Click to expand...

A lot of people around here like XFCE. It is not high on eye-candy, but works well and gets out of your way when you don't need it. Some of the others seem to like Gnome 3.

I'd really like to hear your recommendations on how you have your distro set up.
Click to expand...

What are the main things using the computer for? I have several setups for different types of usage.
 
Hamster said:
Had Ubuntu installed as a VM and was completely putt off by Unity. It's basically Candy Crush Saga in an OS. Like staring at a miff potato. Clusterphobic and silly.

Installed Mint (cinnamon) and enjoying it much more. No driver issues at all and deving on non .NET stuff atm it actually feels better to work with than windows (I completely broke my windows and haven't bothered to get it installed again).

My biggest gripe are the media players (WMP actually worked well for me). Banshee and Clementine just isn't as good for me.

Other than that I keep my stuff standard. I almost installed Ubuntu Gnome but the big programs menu is stupid. If I had to change my window manager I might go Mate, but Cinnamon is actually pretty sweet.
Click to expand...

I think you should let the crowd know how you broke your windows ;)
 
I notice a bit of Unity bashing in this thread. :p

In my opinion, Ubuntu is one of the best Linux distributions out there at the moment. If you don't like Unity, change it. It is very easy to install Gnome or just modify Unity. I have tried Mint back in the day, but prefer Ubuntu. The great thing about Linux is that you can choose a distro that suits you. I still want to try Arch, but haven't gotten around to doing so.
 
UBuntu is my current workhorse.

As for what there is to miss? Nothing. Running Steam on it... YES PEOPLE, Steam, and most of my games!
Version 14.x is light enough to run in a VM on a Pentium 4 atop of Windows XP, that should give you an indication of how free of bloat this OS is.

I have a thin client (Intel Atom based) which I installed KUbuntu on, because I lost my shyte when suddenly after a recent update the thing reports the copy of Windows is not genuine, despite having a license for the copy of Winblows that was installed. :mad:
 
I had a prob with Mint 15 and my touchscreen as well. :cry:
Mint did not load after I added Sabnzbd and Sickbeard to my startup so I had to ditch it.
 
realbigdreamer said:
I notice a bit of Unity bashing in this thread. :p

In my opinion, Ubuntu is one of the best Linux distributions out there at the moment. If you don't like Unity, change it. It is very easy to install Gnome or just modify Unity. I have tried Mint back in the day, but prefer Ubuntu. The great thing about Linux is that you can choose a distro that suits you. I still want to try Arch, but haven't gotten around to doing so.
Click to expand...

I saw pictures of an abortion once, Unity looked worse.
 
I dual booted my desktop for about two years before discarding the unused Windows partition in 2005. Been Linux only since then. I've tried Gnome, Unity, XFCE, LXDE, LXQt and settled on KDE. These days I'm a Debian/KDE guy.
 
I run various distros in VMs for work reasons, so not counting those. On physical hardware, I run Debian 8 on my desktop machine and use it for my general day to day stuff as well as to host my VMs and for some cuda related stuff. On my laptop I run Kali 2, mostly for work reasons. (It's not recommended to run Kali as your desktop OS, so don't follow my example lol)
 
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If you do not like the Unity interface, Xubuntu with the task bar moved to the bottom gives a very similar work flow as windows.
 
Been just over a week now.
  • I'm still using Unity since xubuntu, gnome, and kda all didn't install quite right and had a few problems... Plus, Unity is pretty nice with a flat theme.
  • Setting up an Apache2 localhost was a terrible experience. Having to change ownership of files is annoying. Decided to just use XAMPP.
  • Been having some problems with VLC and audio randomly muting and being unable to un-mute it.
  • Got my workflow up and running using gulp, and it's working like a champ!
  • Battery life started to be quite poor. Not getting what I was since I've been using more WiFi. Perhaps someone could help with this?
    When checking powertop usage, I noticed that my network interface wlan0 is using between 4 and 9 watts... Which is absolutely ridiculous. The device is an Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260.
    Modinfo shows that the iwlwifi firmware is iwlwifi-7260-12.ucode. Power_save is set to enable, and power_level is set to default.

    Any suggestions?
 
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