Found our old Dell Inspiron 1525 today and decided to see if it was still working OK. I remember the hard drive collapsed when my daughter was using it for homework, and having to scramble files off there with a live Ubuntu disc.

Anyway, for some odd reason the laptop is now booting to the OS just fine, but looking at the Gnome Disk tool it won't be long for the world. However, I installed Ubuntu MATE 15.10 to check out performance while it was still working. Very pleased to find a very quick OS and very attractive too, in spite of it only having a Celeron 540 and 1Gb RAM (and a failing HDD). My dad only has a knackered up old laptop at the moment so I'm going to try and get a cheap hard drive and a battery and let him have this Dell. Another success story for MATE it seems.

...and, of course, another good side effect is that you won't be getting any calls for help about virii, trojans, malware or cryptolocker.

Over a 1000 bugs have been fixed in the new 5.5
https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?bug...ormat=advanced
Kinda makes you think 5.4 was buggy, but don't think it is?

But all in a good because, 5.5 is looking good.
https://www.kde.org/announcements/pl...site_locale=en
Never been a fan of KDE, But lately its looking good.

But don't see me shifting from my Ubuntu Mate for a while.
Hmm but usually have a play with different stuff over xmas hols if there's crap on the TV

By coincidence, I was reading a few articles last night on this very subject such as this one here:

Canonical is letting the Ubuntu Software Center wither and die. Dead Ubuntu Software Center walking.

Like some seaside town that's seen better days, the Ubuntu Software Center does give the impression of neglect and decline but I think things go wider than that. I get the distinct impression that the Ubuntu desktop environment is getting less attention than is needed because of Canonical's concentration (fixation?) on Ubuntu Phone. While I wish them well in that venture, it should not come at the expense of the desktop environment.

As for alternatives, I quite like the way that the Lubuntu Software Center operates and I've also used Appgrid for general browsing of apps.

Completely agree. We've all been saying this but all the big tech companies aren't listening. And it's not just Canonical, but to me Microsoft too never seem to get it right. I recently had the misfortune of my very first experience of Windows 8.1 on a laptop. My god horrendous and well deserving of the backlash there. But on a tablet I imagine this would be great. Now cut forward to a recent play with a Windows 10 tablet in a high street store. Now, I may be a dumb user but WTF are Microsoft doing putting a desktop environment on this form factor? FFS get it right! One size does not fit all.

Oooh you can't mention those OSes on this thread But seriously i do get where you're coming from.

The problem with Conical not putting everything into the desktop, is the knock on effect to the many spin of OSes that use Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome and Ubuntu Mate.
They rely on Conical doing all the ground work for them, ok a lot of work still needs to be done by those other Oses. But without Conical it would be a hell of alot harder.

This is the downside of piggy backing of Ubuntu.

Must admit I'm falling out of love with Ubuntu (well Unity anyway), which is sad as it was my first experience with Linux back in 2007.
I just don't like the dash. I always want to be able to get to the installed apps quickly, and the Dash makes you jump through hoops.

I think Gnome does most things better nowadays, apart from the mess they've made of Extensions.

I think Gnome Tweak should be integrated into settings and that and the most used extensions should be there by default, ready to be enabled or disabled. And there should be a better way to install additional extensions than the current webpage.

On my current Gnome install (Antergos) I can only get the extensions page to work in Epiphany browser. It won't even work in Firefox anymore.

At least hopefully in this thread, we can criticize certain aspects of Linux OSs without being called boring or tedious?

I don't like to mention them here but I was just drawing a parallel. The whole convergence thing is insane, Linux or otherwise. You can't force one form factor on all devices. It's just bloody stupid innit? I do like Ubuntu's approach to be fair. Unity works well on the desktop generally and is a different beast on the phone. They share similarities but that's it. I'm not going to be frustrated using Ubuntu on any device.

However, as you rightly say, the mobile thing has taken over completely for Canonical and is taking resources from their desktop OS. The knock-on effect is going to be massive for spins, with only the ever-awesome Linux Mint seemingly preparing for a massive displacement should it happen. I can certainly see a future where there's no desktop Ubuntu at all, and hence no Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc. I don't think that is a too incredulous thing to imagine.

Yeah

http://news.softpedia.com/news/mozil...ampaign=buffer

Nice one Mozilla.

fast forward to about one hour 15min.
http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/9...ition-las-394/

For those not familiar with the show. Chris is a die hard Arch user, who has also over the last year been a die hard Gnome user.
Also in the past he hasn't praised Mint that much.

I've tried Mint in the past, but it just didn't play with my hardware, never did to the bottom of it.
But having recently bought a Nvidia card to use instead of my inbuilt graphics i am downloading Mint Cinnamon for a play with on one of my spare drives over my xmas hols see if its stable with new graphics card.

http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=204

Try the brand new latest Linux Mint 17.3 cinnamon or mate editions . I am sure that will improve most people's desktop experience. Each of the editions is supported until 2019.

Yes I've just watched this and have to say I'm quite surprised by him here. He has been very negative about Mint in the past. The problem sometimes with enthusiasts like Chris is that they will let the bigger picture escape them. Mint appeals because it is so easy going and well made. The no-fuss approach makes it an easy OS to recommend to anyone whatever your level. Newcomers and more relaxed Linux fans find it breezy to use, but there are still all the power tools there as well for geeks. And as he says they are now way better done in Mint/Cinnamon than anyone else in the desktop space.


I'm still waiting on the upgrade from 17.2. Really looking forward to it. This has been the longest I've ever spent with any OS, let alone Linux, and so far it hasn't let me down.

What gets me is that it could easily have been solved by Microsoft by having an initial set up option - Do you wish to operate in tablet and desktop mode? It's as if Balmer and co. got so carried away that they forgot the bigger picture and completely alienated business users with the 8/8.1 interface.


I hope that scenario never comes about but if it did then I could foresee Kubuntu continuing (supported by Blue Systems), Linux Mint surviving but I suspect many other Ubuntu-based distributions would go to the wall...which reminds me...

The other night, I was looking for some online entertainment so I thought I'd check out the latest Spatry review...only it turns out that he hasn't done any new videos since the spring. It appears that he might have been put off by a certain incident at the start of the year and I won't be using the distribution concerned:

Whilst Conical is the hot topic at the moment on this thread.
Just remembered this from a while back.
Can't remember if its been mentioned, apols if it has.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2015/10/k...end-of-kubuntu

MS chop and change lots arbitrarily and often the code is still there, or it didn't have to be removed did it?

I can't see why it so difficult to keep easy links in Settings or Control Panel for medium/advanced users instead of making people dig into the OS with hacks and workarounds that waste the time of millions around the world.

=-=-=-=

Linux Mint is very popular and very good, but I do have a soft spot for Ubuntu Desktop.
It's easy to recommend to first-timers. They can always change later when more comfortable.

I only suggest it as Live DVD/USB for emergency uses. I don't try to persuade users to dump Windows.

My Distro of choice for the future is
https://ubuntu-mate.org/
Mainly for the mate desktop, so if the worst ever happened re Ubuntu ive got choices ready to go, eg mate on debian
http://www.debian.org/
is easy to set up.

But just a quick look at
http://distrowatch.com/
Shows how many (sorry) 'smaller' distros need conical to do the ground work for them.

That's not good news because that means there's zero paid employees looking after Kubuntu now because Aurélien Gâteau left last year (it's perhaps one of those situations where stepping back a bit and compromising on both sides could have potentially solved the issue). I do hope that Blue Systems can appoint replacements in due course.


There are occasions where I've thought it appropriate to recommend Linux, for example, if someone has a low end machine and they're still using unsafe and unsupported XP or if someone is intending to do something potentially illegal like software piracy with shared product codes, etc. In the latter instance, one of the Linux Mint variants would make for a suitable, appropriate and entirely legal substitute.


...i.e. not to put too fine a point on it they would be well and truly stuffed!

Lol, I love this! Always makes me chuckle! You're a card, saint.

Updated to Mint 17.3 no problem at all. I think I've said this before but it's kind of like a service pack update on Windows when Mint updates, except it works! Nothing dramatically new to report, just general buffing here and there. I like the new thumbnail preview on the panel, I'm noticing little new effects here and there and the settings menu is getting refined all the time. Predictably, I love it.

I'v been using Mint Cinnamon 17.2 for some time and was pleased enough to put it on a neighbour's PC when she finally despaired of Vista. To my disappointment, on her machine Chrome (or Chromium) instantly crashed Cinnamon. I had to leave her with Firefox.

Yesterday I upgraded my own machine to 17.3 and suddenly, both Chromium and Firefox, which were previously well-behaved, cause instant crashes. My machine has a nVidia graphics card and this problem has been reported, but nobody seems to be very interested in getting to the bottom of it. I re-installed MInt using the MATE desktop: no problems: Chromium and Firefox both work fine and the machine seems noticeably quicker.

I like the look of Cinnamon, but would have to advise caution for users using laptops with nVidia or other discrete graphics cards. MATE seems more robust.

I actually prefer MATE to Cinnamon; it's lower on system resource use, it's certainly robust and it's very easy to get around and access programmes. It might lack the glitz of Cinnamon, but it just works. Once people try it, they seem to give it good reviews and understandably so.

Sorry to read that fenlander. Using both Chrome and Firefox equally here on mine with no issues at all.

I do like MATE too. I think I mentioned earlier I had previously installed it on an old Dell we had. Still, on my own desktop Cinnamon is pretty light on resources and never caused me any serious issues at all.

always happy to oblige and put a on peoples faces.

Strange that as since i installed a
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...2-vga-dvi-hdmi

recently on my desktop, instead of using the on board HD200 Mint has actually been running ok on my rig.
(Had nothing but problems only with Mint) with the onboard graphics.

Another big hands up for Mate
https://ubuntu-mate.org/
It doesn't have to look bland compared to Cinnamon.
With only a few clicks of the mouse it can look great.
You can use the Numix theme and others
https://www.maketecheasier.com/9-gre...-themes-linux/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeCC948tQ-U

My spear drive testing Ubuntu Mate 16.04 (1.12)
http://mate-desktop.com/blog/2015-11...1-12-released/
http://postimg.org/image/auxdlzv3z/

I just find it a perfect Desktop to very easily set up as i want, it's light and fast, you can easily add Compiz effects, you can bling it up or dumb it down, its great for new commers or advanced etc etc

Nothing against Mint, just not my thing, have loaded latest mint onto spare drive to see if i am missing anything, but don't think i am.