Let's talk Linux

Debian has always been solid and well tested and great for headless stuff. But what is getting me excited here is the desktop features and experience are getting to be really solid too.

 

Even though Red Hat 6.0 was my introduction to Linux, I never had much luck with it. Tried several versions and derivatives over a few years, but something always prevented me from using it. Eventually I found Knoppix 3.1. Booted it up and everything just worked. Decided to try installing Debian which is what Knoppix was based on. Setup was easy and again everything just worked. I've been using Debian ever since.

I think the only real headache I've had in the last 15+ years was due to the propriety ATI drivers (fglrx). Every time I updated those drivers, I had to rewrite my Xorg.conf. Switched to Nvidia GPUs and it was a much better experience.

 

So I spent hours figuring this out, not really sure how I fixed it LOL . . . many of the date and time extensions recommended in posts or articles are no longer supported. What I figured out is that nearly any of the GUI or command line options to set time to 12h instead of 24h are definitely applying to gsettings, they're just not getting to the the the actual GUI, not even in switching themes around. After a while of clicking, drooling, and reboots the time format automatically updated.

When you asked for a CD or cassette player for Christmas and your mom bought you an 8 track, you went ahead and used it because you love your mom but you still had this unsatisfied feeling in your gut. That's how I feel about Gnome. I hate to say it but I may have to install Unity and hope I don't kill my system again. :-\

 

Aaaaand done. Took about 40 minutes to an hour while I did honey-do's.

I really don't understand the Unity hate, I've read all the reasons but don't get it.. It may be more resource hungry but I have it LOL . . . comments below are all at default except moving the dock to the bottom.

- Unity install went well.

Code:

sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop
sudo apt install unity-tweak-tool
reboot

The Unity Tweak Tool differs from the Tweak Tool, both are available.

- Super bonus: in Gnome you don't get a shell selection when you log in to the GUI. with Unity, you can still select the various shells, Gnome, Wayland, etc. just like the old days . . . I hate that this was removed.
- Window close/minimize/maximize are on the top left by default where I've been trained to find them.
- App windows remember their position. In Gnome apparently it's a super PITA to get apps to do this, the explanation is the app is supposed to remember where it was. Maybe this is the case but Gnome just doesn't respect it. For example I have specific apps I like loaded and maximized on the right monitor. Gnome always launched them on the left. In Unity they stay where you put them.
- "Activities" window is on bottom left (or top left on vertical dock) by default, you don't have to jump through hoops to get it to move there.
- I played with at least 15 themes yesterday in Gnome. All of them had these weird spacing and padding issues, the worst of which is when you set the dock to the bottom, it doesn't actually go to the bottom, it wastes almost 1/4" of real estate UNDER the dock. There's ways to tweak this but you shouldn't have to spend hours finding out why. Out of the box Unity is just fine, so far I've just moved the dock to the bottom.
- THE $%^*#$# CLOCK SETTINGS WORK though I may have done that fiddling in Gnome

In case I missed something I did a search again, it seems most of the beefs are down to user preference. Seems to be fine and what I need.

Soooo . . . I guess I have to get back to doing actual work now. :-\

Edit: add, the scroll bars in Ubuntu have always been a little weird, too narrow and weird behavior. In Gnome FF was nearly unusable, wound up using the arrow keys. They are still weird in Unity, but a little better. I recall doing a tweak to change their width but it was a long time ago and am done with this thing for now.

 

I was never a fan of Gnome, but use several GTK based programs. They don't always play well outside of Gnome. Some have their own CSD (the title bar and Close/Max/Min buttons for each window), so I have to disable them on some programs to avoid having double CSDs.

Some of the programs don't display well with a 4k monitor either. Some elements in programs need to be scaled using GDK_DPI_SCALE and GDK_SCALE to look decent. It's hit or miss depending on the program.

 

So who's tried 24.04, and your experiences?

Since December 2023 I've had nightmares with 22.04, the worst of which is it would not keep apps on the second monitor after screen lock. You know, main apps in front of you, secondary apps on right monitor, when it went into screen lock the apps (any app) would disappear into "no man's land" but still be on the launcher. I'd have to quit them from there and restart them. I struggled along with my fate.

Yesterday I went from 22.04->23,10->24.04, and in spite of the claims it wasn't ready, I finally have a working OS again without problems like I did in 20.04. My problems might have stemmed from running Unity Desktop but that updated to 7.7 as well. I may never upgrade again, it was nuts. :-D

 

I never liked using Ubuntu. It's supposed to be a "user-friendly" Debian, but it's the other way around in my experience.

You might try Linux Mint. It's based off of Ubuntu, and seems to be a smoother experience from what I've read.

 

Yeah it's has it's moments for sure. Some can be very challenging.

However, for whatever reason I have stuck with Ubuntu through thick and thin as a daily driver despite trying out different flavors though the years. My only real issue with 20.04 LTS has been an ongoing flaky software connection with my printer. Other than that, just some smaller annoyances.

At some point I'm thinking of moving to 24.04 LTS. Just need some time to prepare. My very 1st SSD that runs Ubuntu OS is getting long in the tooth.80% worn. Looking to upgrade the aging SSD for larger capacity and a fresh new install of Ubuntu 24.04.

 

I use Linux Mint Cinnamon. It's like a streamlined Ubuntu

Howdy Les, eh. Lol! Hope all is well with you, my northern neighbor

 

I recommend this, Les:



Plenty fast & at a reasonable price &/or Samsung. Try Mint, you might like it.

 

Hey my American cousin! All good! Keep on Rockin! we have similar tastes in software and music from what you post. Hope you are doing well too.

 

Excellent, I will be considering this if my MB supports this.

 

I have two of these. Just be aware they come out of the box with emulated 512 sectors instead of native 4K.

https://www.bjonnh.net/article/20210721_nvme4k/

 

You have to change the boot from MBR to GPT. Easy to do. Good catch

 

I haven't used MBR in a long time.

 

I still have it on my old Gigabyte motherboard with Windows XP, lol. Still works, but very outdated.

 

I still have an old K6-III+. Has Windows XP and Debian, but I don't have an AT or ps/2 keyboard to change the boot option, so I'm stuck with XP for now lol

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Suprised they still have that port on modern MB's.

 

All I got...