Linux Distros, User Evaluations

[woodsmoke]

The "latest and greatest" Kubu is still my work machine, I've retired the Trusty hard drive, but plug it in and update it regularly.

The only REAL problem with the Trusty drive was that, totally out of CONVENIENCE, I now want to use a bluetooth Jam Speaker for the work machine, due to space limitations, and Bluetooth on Trusty just won't hook up to it.

The only REAL problem with NEON is STARTTLS in kmail, not being an option, which is supposedly going to be quickly fixed.

The only "obvious" "problem" with Neon is that the central search bar for FF is non functional, one has to use the upper right search bar.

Almost ALL of the "music players for Neon are bing upgraded and Dragon Player is getting fast and furious upgrades to the back end.

Also the "plasma media center" (not Kmplayer) is becoming much more stable.

The only real downside to it - for a desktop computer - is that media is either "listed" vertically or as an "image" mashup, but since the real intent for it is to be on a tablet it is designed for swiping. The screen for "artists" presents the pictures and the songs for the particular artist, so it is a "paradigm" thing as opposed to mousing through a file structure.

woodjustsomethoughtsaboutneonsmoke

[oshunluvr]

I have been using LTS for my server and only upgraded from 12.04 to 14.04 to gain some btrfs improvements that weren't available if I stayed with 12.04. Now I have backported the Xenial kernel and hardware stack onto my server so I have no plans to upgrade it again anytime soon. It runs on newer hardware than my desktop does though, so I may buy myself a laptop and retire this old machine, and install a desktop on the server. If that happens, I will move to 16.04 (neon or maui).

I've been considering a move away from Canonical but now that it seems they're playing nicer so maybe I won't have to.

[MoonRise]

This is exactly why Neon fits the bill for me! It aligns perfectly with my thoughts on how a distro should be. I don't need a 'rolling' base for any reason that I can think of. Security updates are just fine, thank you! However, I do like my KDE nice and fresh.

Same for Maui (NetRunner). They are now based on NEON with some of their own "polishes".

[dequire]

...it makes me wonder if a rolling distro might be a better "LTS" distro. Something to think about over the next three years.

This is exactly why Neon fits the bill for me! It aligns perfectly with my thoughts on how a distro should be. I don't need a 'rolling' base for any reason that I can think of. Security updates are just fine, thank you! However, I do like my KDE nice and fresh. Also, I do run the latest stable kernel (for now) as my AMD R7 series GPU needs the latest and greatest open source drivers, since AMDGPU has not landed yet with support for these few-year old cards.

[GreyGeek]

My first Kubuntu install was the 09.04 alpha in January of 09. My next was the 12.04 LTS alpha. "Great", I thought, "I won't have to be reinstalling every two years". But, my third was the 14.04LTSalpha, two years later. . Then Plasma 5 came along and I couldn't pass that by, so I installed the 16.04 LTS, twice! Now, because it is a 3 year LTS (and may have been all along but I wasn't aware of it), it makes me wonder if a rolling distro might be a better "LTS" distro. Something to think about over the next three years.

[claydoh]

yes, the same decisions happened for 14.04, and 12.04 (where we did go with 5 years). KDE and now Plasma 4 change too much to support for a super long time, even if it is only security fixes on the desktop side

[acheron]

So then, as I read it, the 5 years support applies specifically to Ubuntu, and that "All other flavours" means all of Ubuntu's 'official' variants: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu and such. Is that correct?

Yes, except for Kylin, as it says.

There was a request on the mailing lists in April I think for each flavour to decide on it's LTS status and support length.

i.e choose what to do for Xenial, such as

- Not LTS (9 months) or
- Short LTS (3 years) or
- Normal LTS (5 years)

I only saw kubuntu's response, but I guess the other flavours also opted for the middle ground.

[claydoh]

Each desktop flavour gets to choose between 3 and 5 year LTS lifespans, and it seems most if not all other than the Unity have gone with 3 years the past few LTS cycles.

[Snowhog]

So then, as I read it, the 5 years support applies specifically to Ubuntu, and that "All other flavours" means all of Ubuntu's 'official' variants: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu and such. Is that correct?

[acheron]

The longer EOL; April 2021; is for server installations; desktop installations get the shorter EOL, IIRC.

ubuntu desktop (AKA unity etc) is 5 years.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes

Support lifespan

Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS will be supported for 5 years for Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Core, and Ubuntu Kylin.

All other flavours will be supported for 3 years.

[Snowhog]

From your link:




From https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases


Is Kubuntu's EOL different from Ubuntu/Canonical's?

The longer EOL; April 2021; is for server installations; desktop installations get the shorter EOL, IIRC.

[acheron]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/...eNotes/Kubuntu

Kubuntu 16.04 LTS will be supported for 3 years.

Obviously packages that are updates as part of the ubuntu 5 year LTS will continue to come though via the archives.

[GreyGeek]

Results of survey (kubuntu portion) for support of 32bit isos

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ku...ly/010524.html

From your link:

April 2019 (16.04 LTS support ends here for Kubuntu - 3 year LTS)

From https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus Rel: April 21, 2016 EOL:April 2021

Is Kubuntu's EOL different from Ubuntu/Canonical's?

[TWPonKubuntu]

acheron,

Looking at the survey, I'd have to agree that within a decade the significance of 32 bit will decline, as will the physical lifetimes of many 32 bit hardware. Planned obsolescence is real and part of the business plan.

Than being said, the present situation is forcing may 32 bit systems to be abandoned, not because they have died, but because the software no longer supports them. That is bad for me and bad for my clients, many of whom still have those older systems and cannot / will not pay for new hardware.

I'm not advocating a return to the days of DOS or Windoze, but right now, we're being squeezed out by software, not hardware.

[oldgeek]

I have been running Mint 18 and Peppermint 7 on my 32-bit netbook with 2 mb ram and an atom processor, and both seem fine. Peppermint is a little faster, but is more bare-bones than Mint since it doesn't include things an office application out of the box. It's easy to download any program you'll need, however. Peppermint also has some spectacular photos for the desktop background. Both are recommended for newer converts to Linux and both quite simple to learn. I've had no crashes on either one, but then again I don't use my netbook much. I don't know how long 32-bit machines will be supported by these distros, but both are LTS editions, so you should be able to get at least a few more years out of them.