Operating System

[jdart]

Xubuntu (http://xubuntu.org/) is the regular Ubuntu distro with Xfce instead of the default UI. Ubuntu in versions 11 and 12 decided to roll their own UI, called the Unity interface, which is truly horrible, and very unintuitive even if you have used previous Ubuntu versions. Xubuntu fixes that. Xfce is very nice and more or less resembles the pre-version 11 UI. I'm running version 12.04 on most of my machines, and it is stable, but I did have one box I couldn't get it to install on.

--Jon

[Don]

Xubuntu (http://xubuntu.org/) is the regular Ubuntu distro with Xfce instead of the default UI. Ubuntu in versions 11 and 12 decided to roll their own UI, called the Unity interface, which is truly horrible, and very unintuitive even if you have used previous Ubuntu versions. Xubuntu fixes that. Xfce is very nice and more or less resembles the pre-version 11 UI. I'm running version 12.04 on most of my machines, and it is stable, but I did have one box I couldn't get it to install on.

--Jon

I like gnome before the Unity stuff. I tried Xfce and it's much better than the Unity stuff. However I installed cinnamon which is almost identical to the old gnome stuff.

The real issue is that Unity is designed for tablets - they are trying to have their cake and eat it too with one size fits all. But a desktop is just not the same as a tablet and it doesn't make sense.

[michiguel]

Xubuntu (http://xubuntu.org/) is the regular Ubuntu distro with Xfce instead of the default UI. Ubuntu in versions 11 and 12 decided to roll their own UI, called the Unity interface, which is truly horrible, and very unintuitive even if you have used previous Ubuntu versions. Xubuntu fixes that. Xfce is very nice and more or less resembles the pre-version 11 UI. I'm running version 12.04 on most of my machines, and it is stable, but I did have one box I couldn't get it to install on.

--Jon

I like gnome before the Unity stuff. I tried Xfce and it's much better than the Unity stuff. However I installed cinnamon which is almost identical to the old gnome stuff.

The real issue is that Unity is designed for tablets - they are trying to have their cake and eat it too with one size fits all. But a desktop is just not the same as a tablet and it doesn't make sense.

It is trivial to stay with gnome in ubuntu.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-instal ... celot.html

Miguel

[lucasart]

Xubuntu (http://xubuntu.org/) is the regular Ubuntu distro with Xfce instead of the default UI. Ubuntu in versions 11 and 12 decided to roll their own UI, called the Unity interface, which is truly horrible, and very unintuitive even if you have used previous Ubuntu versions. Xubuntu fixes that. Xfce is very nice and more or less resembles the pre-version 11 UI. I'm running version 12.04 on most of my machines, and it is stable, but I did have one box I couldn't get it to install on.

--Jon

I second that! Unity is horrible. There is no word to describe how much I hate it, and how much I hate the fact that they forced it on the user, (no more GNOME flavored *buntu?). I hate it both from a usability point of view, and because of the horrible design choices that the programmers made behind the hood too.

Fortunately there are other distros, and my favorite desktop environments are now: LXDE for lightweight, and GNOME Shell for fully fledged beautiful desktop. XFCE is nice too, but it's not lightweight contrary to popular belief: it's actually heavier (in RAM perhaps not CPU if you have no 3D acceleration) than the fully fledged GNOME Shell.

Now I'm really pissed off with Ubuntu, for forcing this Unity crap, and leaving no other choice than KDE and XFCE. Even GNOME Shell under Ubuntu is not clean: you have to install it separately, and you cannot remove any of the Unity crap, otherwise the package manager will remove all the system... I also hate all the crap that they add supposedly to enhance the noob experience of linux. Why would I constantly be silently running a ubuntuonesyncdaemon program consuming 20 MB of RAM ? If I really wanted to slow down my computer with malware and bloat, I would be using Windows, not Linux!

So I now prefer Fedora 17: I has a beatiful GNOME Shell and is the most up to date distro, generally one step ahead of Ubuntu in terms of versions (eg. Linux 3.4 GTK 3.4 when Ubuntu is on 3.2). The only problem with it is SE Linux: I've disabled by flushing a few packages. The last problem I have with it, is that the access time to the mirrors is quite slow (software install and update takes longer than Ubuntu). Again I'm sure that's fixable by modifying my mirror list.

But I guess if you're a real Linux guru, the best distro is undoubtedly ARCH Linux. Installing and configuring it is not for the feint hearted however!

[kbhearn]

I have stayed with gnome in ubuntu, but with each ubuntu release, it's behaving worse and worse. Just haven't worked up the energy to either

a) figure out how to reconfigure it manually (the sound control icon for instance has mysteriously gone missing with the latest update, i can't right click and add items to panel anymore for some bizarre reason, the panel won't autohide while viewing something fullscreen anymore, etc) or

b) go looking for a new distro to be happy with.

[Don]

I have stayed with gnome in ubuntu, but with each ubuntu release, it's behaving worse and worse. Just haven't worked up the energy to either

a) figure out how to reconfigure it manually (the sound control icon for instance has mysteriously gone missing with the latest update, i can't right click and add items to panel anymore for some bizarre reason, the panel won't autohide while viewing something fullscreen anymore, etc) or

b) go looking for a new distro to be happy with.

Some of the ubuntu users have moved over to Mint which has a saner desktop. In fact Mint is now the number 1 system - probably due to Unity.

There are many distributions and desktops for Linux so at least there are always alternatives - unlike that other OS.

[michiguel]

I have stayed with gnome in ubuntu, but with each ubuntu release, it's behaving worse and worse. Just haven't worked up the energy to either

a) figure out how to reconfigure it manually (the sound control icon for instance has mysteriously gone missing with the latest update, i can't right click and add items to panel anymore for some bizarre reason, the panel won't autohide while viewing something fullscreen anymore, etc) or

b) go looking for a new distro to be happy with.

I agree with that. There are several "minor" things that are really annoying. I fixed them one by one (the trash bin was gone), but If I have to install a new distro I will think twice.

Miguel

[Don]

I have stayed with gnome in ubuntu, but with each ubuntu release, it's behaving worse and worse. Just haven't worked up the energy to either

a) figure out how to reconfigure it manually (the sound control icon for instance has mysteriously gone missing with the latest update, i can't right click and add items to panel anymore for some bizarre reason, the panel won't autohide while viewing something fullscreen anymore, etc) or

b) go looking for a new distro to be happy with.

I agree with that. There are several "minor" things that are really annoying. I fixed them one by one (the trash bin was gone), but If I have to install a new distro I will think twice.

Miguel

What is annoying is that you have to relearn everything - I'm way too busy to relearn a new Desktop every 6 months and constantly figure out how to get something the way I want it - when it goes away on the next release. Even so, I took the time to learn Unity, or at least the basics and it never stopped being awkward.

[stevenaaus]

I recently moved to KDE 4.5.2 (64 bit Fed 14) and am getting used to it. Powerful enough, with GL compositing and not too many bugs. Windows 7 seems to have some nice features too - but also motza of the usual microsoft crap.

Too many annoying bugs in os/x meanwhile all sorts of software soon doesn't work as every few months there is a 'new version' and their development tools only work always for the 'latest' version of os/x. Very mean way of doing business.

Laugh. I hear you Their upgrade cycle is the worse, and now their new macbooks are no longer upgradeable hardware-wise.

But I've learnt how to use OSX (almost) properly, and have really come to appreciate some of it's "different" features. I think stability varies alot with major and minor OSX releases. 10.7 (current) is probably a little undercooked, and they're moving to 10.8 very shortly.

OS/x is too amateuristic. You know select 2 items, click right mouse button to copy it. OOPS it unselected it already, won't work!
...
os/x doesn't get through any ergonomic guide line. it should be fined if you ask me for that reason.

Although it does things differently, and takes time to learn, amateur is the wrong word. Apple's Objective C framework and XCode is a premier development suite, and makes for very attractive, integrated and consistent interfaces.

[lucasart]

I know there is a selection biais in asking this question here, but just wondering what fellow chess programmers use

I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the result of this poll. There are a lot more Linux users, than people generally imagine. Of course the popouation in this forum is mostly power users, and in a noob forum the result would be much more skewed towards Windows, but still, I didn't think Linux adoption would be that high, even here.