My Windows 8.1 Enterprise trial was rearmed and expired to death so I tried 14.04 LTS as a desktop OS again. I don't game much at home, the few things I do work OK under Linux, no brainer, right? Load up the Live CD, can't click things, change window focus, scroll.. All sorts of issues. Go to Google, find out my mouse (Saitek RAT 7) isn't well liked by Ubuntu, since 2010 at least. Needs some custom configs and button remapping. So how many Ubuntu releases have come out in that time? ~8? And they can't integrate the fix in yet? Oy. Load up the configs, everything works except back is middle click. Hrm. Dig up a tutorial, map out my buttons and customize the config.. Forward doesn't work. Ah well, hardly use it, whatever. Brand new open source nvidia drivers automatically installed - neat. Except the only game I want to play at home (KSP) crashes the machine when it launches. OK, fine - load the official NVidia drivers. Cool, cool... Hrm, can't use half the KSP editor shortcuts because Unity has them mapped to window controls. Argh, OK, I'll figure this out sometime. Wait, now my second monitor is blinking at me. Blinking, on and off... And now staying off. Yay. Google...Yeah, seems like it tends to happen with dual displays and nvidia. Few halfhearted suggestions, haven't done much there yet. Feeling defeated, as usual. I ran linux on the desktop waaay back, maybe around '05 or so.. Worked OK. Just switched when I got back into gaming some more. Everytime I've tried to return since then I've been plagued by bugs that just hurt usability too bad to stand. Don't get me wrong, it's my only choice for servers, but it seems like desktop use is getting more and more miserable. Or am I getting pickier? Dunno. Good news department - while I was fighting with this I found the bad stick of RAM in my media server, so hopefully the random lockups are done.
I remember I wanted to try Ubuntu out one day, and ended up having to use it until I got a different computer cause I accidentally put it on the whole harddrive and deleted Windows. I r smart.
Personally, I hate Ubuntu. If you want to try using linux without pulling your hair out, I would suggest either Fedora or Linux Mint. Both of those distributions have tons of support, and they aren't as "user friendly" as Ubuntu.
meh. Maybe for a desktop. I run ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long Term Service) as my server OS of choice, and haven't experienced any issues, support for most major software, nice package manager... But then, I run my servers headless. I don't install an x-server, I run everything through the commandline and SSH. That cuts out a lot of resource overhead as well as issues with things like video drivers.
Yeah, I'm not touching anything RPM based. And my impression of Mint doesn't separate it much from Ubuntu. Last time I tried Linux desktop I also had nvidia driver problems and Mint was running identical packages that were causing the problems. I'm not saying its insurmountable, just wondering if it's worth it. Thinking back, I was doing crazy stuff back then like running custom builds of Enlightenment and rolling my own kernel on Debian. I had the same problems, I'm sure. Just.. Had the time, patience and anal retentiveness to figure them out. Full time. Guess I want my desktop a little more ready to run these days. sent from the nexus
OK, last straw. Evidently things go all stupid with UEFI mode. I have no BIOS/EFI boot options access right now and evidently it's all sorts of convoluted getting back to it so I can reinstall something else. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2198757
wasn't as convoluted as I expected, still a pain. Evidently EFI hands all the control over to the OS. Had to configure a start up menu to get the BIOS option. And the power just blinked. Good thing for UPSes. sent from the nexus
I use Kde on ubuntu (not kubuntu) I prefer it for desktop. Ubuntu and unity is nice on a lappy. sent through the air using science
Still haven't worked with KDE in this decade. I'll build a VM after I get my stuff resettled a bit. sent from the nexus
Ionno, I've been using a Ubuntu fork called Elementary OS as the main on my laptop. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the functionality and design are both really, really good. Unlike every other distro I try to install, this one actually works. http://elementaryos.org/
Interesting. I'll add that to my to-do list for things to check out in a VM. And in the "that's typical" department -- Either a cable mysteriously failed for no apparent reason, or the DVI input on my 2nd monitor died when I was having all those problems with it over the weekend. It's never displayed a signal since it cut out in Ubuntu - BIOS, Windows setup, etc. The VGA input still works for my Ubuntu fileserver, but no DVI. Even swapped outputs on my card (but haven't swapped cables yet since my big screen needs the dual-link cable and I have no other spares).
Hah. We actually have a stash and never even use DVI, so I will. Didn't think of it today. I don't expect it'll help though. There wasn't any trauma or tension when it died, I'm more leaning towards general age - it was my first flat screen, about 7 years old. sent from the nexus
