PCWorld Forums: Ubuntu Shows Distrowatch Decline As Mint Soars - PCWorld Forums

Post your comments for Ubuntu Shows DistroWatch Decline as Mint Soars here

Distrowatch doesn't seem to report versions. The performance hit on older PCs and netbooks from version 11.x is sending a lot of users back to version 10.x. I suspect Ubuntu is going through a "Vista" phase like MS's, having built a larger, more intrusive and demanding OS, and will spend some years making it work. I'm testing Mint 10.10 on USB - apart from a clean and familiar interface, one thing I like is Mint's choices of preinstalled packages and choice not to preinstall a lot of games and bumpf I uninstall before putting what I want on the system. The "set up" time for a good Mint installation in that way is much less than for any other distro I've tried.

Haven't noticed a performance hit with 11, but then I use Lubuntu with Kubuntu repos added on for more challenging setups because I can't stand Unity and I don't like Gnome. Mint is pretty nice too, but only if you go with lxde. All of the debians are pretty fragile, but quick to reinstall when apt/synaptic goes wild. Slackware still rules stability, unbreakability, and performance, but takes too long to set up.

I believe it's "Natty Narwhal" and not "Nutty Narwhal"... unless you were trying to be funny.

I'll speak only for myself then. I had been using Ubuntu on two of my PCs including one I installed at work. (I'm currently on my Win7 box however.) For five years, I was happy with Ubuntu and have often recommended it to people adventurous enough to try something different and free. But the Unity interface became an issue for me. It was not so much the overall layout of the GUI that riled me. Though, I did have some issues with it. It was mainly moving the window buttons to the left and the much hated (by me) global menu bar. I discovered on the Internet a way to move the buttons back to the right using gconf-editor. However, they only remained on the right as long as I did not "maximize" the window. I put "maximize" in quotes because, in fact, there is no maximize -- only minimize, normalize, and full-screen. When in full-screen, the buttons have to move back to the left due to the positioning of the global menu bar -- the final straw that made me switch. It was either that, or performing heavy surgery. But, if I did that, I would have to do it every time I upgraded. Too much work.

The best example of why the global menu bar is a bad idea is with Pidgin. Like most people, I keep the buddies list in a narrow window over on the right side of the screen. By the way I organize the buddy list, I in fact kept that window in a smaller box on the lower-right of the screen. In order to access the menu for Pidgin, I first had to put it in focus, then move the mouse all the way to the top left of the screen to access menu functions. (I have only single monitor setups, I don't even want to know how this affects a multi-monitor setup. Is it possible that if Pidgin was in the lower right of monitor four, you had to move all the way to the top of monitor one to access the menu!? I don't care. The simpler solution for me was to dump Ubuntu. I first tried Kubuntu. It was beautiful, but buggy. Firefox would crash the system and boot me back to the log in screen -- every time! And, *only* after logging in. If I locked the screen or never logged out, Firefox would not boot me back to the log in screen -- ever. Then there was that Nepomuk thing that always failed. But, disabling it did not solve the Firefox problem. That's when I read about Linux Mint. I loaded version 11 and I have been happy with it -- so far. I understand they have some disagreements with Gnome's development as well. Let's see how they choose to resolve those issues in 12. Hopefully, it won't be the same potentially fatal changes that Ubuntu made.

It appears to me that Canonical did want to focus on the tablet space. It's the only thing that can explain the philosophy behind Unity. But, for a desktop, Unity totally bites.

Unity is a big turn off for me. I have Ubuntu on 5 computers in my house and I am not upgrading to Nutty until it properly supports Gnome interface. I have been using Ubuntu since ver 6.04.

Unity is a big turn off for me. I have Ubuntu on 5 computers in my house and I am not upgrading to Nutty until it properly supports Gnome interface. I have been using Ubuntu since ver 6.04.

We have Ubuntu 11.10 on a Dell Duo tablet and a desktop with HD monitor.

On the tablet, Ubuntu runs rings around Windows 7 in usability - Unity is well-suited to that environment, though still not as clean as iOS 5 or Android ICS.

On the desktop, I'm finally learning my way around, but I doubt I'll become as productive as I was under Gnome 2.

My vote is still up for grabs. I like the concept of a universal interface on all of my devices, but Unity needs more work to equal its competitors on the desktop.

I can tell you why I'm switching, Unity.

Ubuntu is steering itself towards touch screens but fortunately there are many derivatives like Mint and Kubuntu to keep desk top users happy and not make the dreaded return to Windows.

I was really into Ubuntu for awhile but recently had a setback with it that has yet to be resolved. The magic of Linux based OS's is the great control one has over programs and most of their behavior, good and bad. However my recent reinstall of the Ubuntu Natty Narwhal resulted in it having an immediate problem with either the resolution of my monitor or the video card. It's a shame that upon install and reboot this distro had that problem. The solution does require a lot of fiddling with command line controls for which I don't have the patience for just yet. A shame really as I prefer open source OS's now and programs over closed source such as Windoze and Big Mac.

Now that Fedora 16 has Gnome3 as the intended default DE, lots of experienced people are looking for an alternative. I know I am. In a few months, lets see where Fedora's numbers are.
I suspect what we are seeing with Ubuntu is what we will be seeing with Fedora. I believe people are abandoning these distros because many of them see the interface, can't stand it, and go elsewhere. Its the DE they object to, but the distro gets blamed.

I think what's important to remember here is that Mint IS Ubuntu. It's just using a different DE than Unity. As for OpenSUSE and Fedora, their numbers are probably on the increase because people who are looking for a different DE experience are trying something for Ubuntu for the first time. If you count all of the derivatives of Ubuntu out there in use (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Mythbuntu, Mint, Pinguy OS, Peppermint OS, etc), you will find that Ubuntu (the underlying OS... not the DE) is still King.

If Mint Linux can keep up the nice user interface,they will win over both Fedora and UBUNTU. My feeling though is that the reaction to UBUNTU is causing Mint popularity, and if Unity gets some new features and some user friendliness, UBUNTU will be back in the limelight. By the way, I do have Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint and more installed on two systems.

mobistry, on 26 November 2011 - 12:22 PM, said:

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal still supports Gnome 2.32. Just choose Gnome classic at logon. IMO this distro is the best of the newest because we can still use classic gnome. Deviantart provides a link to mediafire where you can download Macbuntu; if your into that kind of thing.

Speaking only for myself, I really love Ubuntu. I even like Unity! Lately though, I've been eyeing Mint pretty hard, and I think Lisa could be the release that tears me away from Ubuntu and puts me solidly in the Mint camp. I love the functionality of Ubuntu, but Mint has that too. I like Unity, but Mint's interface is prettier. Ubuntu is a great distro. So is Mint.

Like others, my only real problem with Ubuntu is the Unity interface. I stopped at 11.04 with unity disabled, as there's no way I know of to use the classic interface in 11.10
Unless 12.04 sees the return to the classic environment, I will be searching for a new OS

I used Fedora 16 for a short while and I liked it found Gnome3 functional but less so than Gnome2.I had to install almost everything and several of my favorite programs were not offered but unlike reports I installed Flash 11 and used it in Fedora and it is better than Flash 10; what could be worse?I left because of too many drivers and codecs not being available. It has some sweet aspects but I do many things with my machines and need function and can't always be searching for what is missing. I love Ubuntu 10:10 11:04 with Gnome2 is alright Unity is a straightjacket. The keyboard shortcuts are the long way home and 11:10 is DOA. That leaves Kubuntu,Xubuntu and Lubuntu with nice DEs but lots of bugs. Mint has always been nice but there are reports of bugs in Lisa just like in the "Simpsons". There are many good choices and we are not forced into anything just because it is offered I think Mint will get it right but some Fedora offshots sure look good.Fedora with some codecs and more options might be the best Gnome 3 could be better and might be ib a yearthough I thought Gnome 2 was about perfect and yes LXDE is real nice nothing wrong with KDE and there is a reason XFCE is this year's darling. Whatever happens with Ubuntu is all About Shuttleworth not you or me.I might use future versions or not there are too many good choices to mess with a bad 11:10 which I looked so forward to until I tried it.Magaia 2 sounds promising as does Kororaa 16 and the new PC BSD and Free BSD are due soon. I'm excited!

"Without fuller verification, it is hard to draw firm conclusions..."

That's a joke, right? Nothing was wrong with Ubuntu until Unity came along. Unity is frustrating, non-intuitive, and divergent from every pre-existing paradigm.

I happily used Ubuntu, recommending it to all my customers and friends until they abandoned the traditional menu structure for the pile of poo that is named Unity.

I've been with Ubuntu since 'Dapper Drake', but like many other people I switched to Mint as a result of the Unity interface - but not so much because of the interface itself (which is easily changed) but because of Canonical's 'you'll take it and damn well like it' approach to their users. In how Mint is going about preparing for Gnome 3 they show themselves to have a genuine interest in their users.

CannibalCat, on 26 November 2011 - 09:32 PM, said:

Me too :/ Unity sucks, and i'm already on Mint now.