But on the current Elementary version everything is outdated and the fact that the 14.04 based version is still not out doesn't fill me with confidence :/
Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs
- Thread starter Flying_Phoenix
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But on the current Elementary version everything is outdated and the fact that the 14.04 based version is still not out doesn't fill me with confidence :/
Treechopper
Member
Havent they basically been releasing them once a year? The Freya beta is out now so that would keep them on track. Ive been using Luna on my desktop and while it doesnt feel complete, it is rock solid and beautiful. The 3.15 kernel will be an incredibly welcome improvement though.
Yes, but the releases are always based on old (sometimes ancient) Ubuntu versions:
- October 2012 - Jupiter (Ubuntu 10.10 based)
- August 2013 - Luna (Ubuntu 12.04 based)
- late 2014/early 2015 - Freya (Ubuntu 14.04 based)
Never used a Mac. Wouldn't Ubuntu still be the best option? I did some googling and it should run very smooth with an AMD 5150, 4GB RAM and an SSD.
I would also recommend Ubuntu. But you should try the different flavors (Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome) via Live CD/USB drive before deciding.
I think you could run pretty much any distro on your hardware. If you want to stick with Ubuntu but go a bit more lightweight, try Lubuntu or Xubuntu. They are still Ubuntu, just with Lxde and Xfce respectively. But you get all the normal updates same as default Unity Ubuntu. You could also try Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu and also a bit lighter (I think, never tried it myself).
I'm getting really confused now. Which one would be most suited for someone who's used to Windows and knows nothing about Linux? Any good comparisons between Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Kubuntu for dummies? The differences are hard to discern for someone with no knowledge of Linux.
Under the hood it's all the same, the only thing that is different is the user interface aka the WM(window manager)
Again if you want the easiest transition from Windows, use Cinnamon or MATE...you might want to look at Mint as opposed to Ubuntu as well, they are pretty much the same thing, just seems MINT is a bit more noob friendly IMHO
Thanks, I'll try out Mint with Cinnamon. Looks really good, makes me wonder why I've never considered Linux before.
Treechopper
Member
Well, they are a small team so it's kind of hard to have a stable base and release in a quick fashion. I think it's perfectly fine to base the release on the LTS's though (Jupiter is an obvious exception). I'm bummed that 12.04 is under the hood now, but once I can get 14.04 then that's enough for me knowing I'll have the latest patches and a stable set of software to come back to. It's nice to have some software sanity after using Arch all the time
Sorry for the confusion! We all agree that you should get Ubuntu. What we're discussing is the flavor of Ubuntu you should get. As people have mentioned, for someone that is new this basically just means they have user interface differences. However, those user interfaces can be more resource intensive than others or they can be more confusing or distracting than others.
Some popular flavors of Ubuntu are Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Gnome Ubuntu, Mint (which has its own flavors in the Cinnamon and MATE variants), and Elementary OS. If this is overwhelming, then just go with Ubuntu. However, know that there are different flavors out there if you like it...but maybe don't quite like it.
It can be daunting esp for those that aren't terribly computer savvy...it's really not all that hard though, not like it used to be, holy mother of Linus....the early days were hard lol.
Mint is rock solid and cinnamon/MATE are similar again it's down to personal preference, I am running MATE right now...I was runnin cinnamon for a while but then I swapped over
Just installed it, took about an hour to get everything set up and I love it! I'm very impressed with everything it has to offer.
If I want to switch to MATE, can I easily do that or do I have to re-install Mint?
edit: checking out Unity screenshots now, looks far more appealing to me, so I'm gonna give that a try as well.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
There is a native Linux client. Why use wine?
That's only for Debian it seems? I don't even know what Debian is... Either way when I type in the command on the Spotify website, I get "No command deb found".
Debian is another distro, Ubuntu is based on Debian (and Mint is based on Ubuntu).
Try these instructions here. Seems to work under Ubuntu, though I don't have a spotify account, so I can only test up until starting the app.
Yep, of course it's fine to base on LTS. But it's a big shame that it will be outdated on release.Well, they are a small team so it's kind of hard to have a stable base and release in a quick fashion. I think it's perfectly fine to base the release on the LTS's though (Jupiter is an obvious exception). I'm bummed that 12.04 is under the hood now, but once I can get 14.04 then that's enough for me knowing I'll have the latest patches and a stable set of software to come back to. It's nice to have some software sanity after using Arch all the time
I am probably going to give it a try anyway...
Treechopper
Member
The sign of a true Linux user. If they get Calendar to sync with Google Calendar then all their work is worth it for me.
Wish Geary was ready too 
What did you do before this? Was there a software update? Were you changing certain files? A detailed retracing of your steps can help us help you.
In addition to what Treechopper said, since you mention users & groups, did you change your groups? when typing 'groups' in a terminal, does it list 'sudo'? (Unless you already added your username using visudo, in which case the group doesn't matter anymore).
Treechopper
Member
Yeah, I've said it here before, but I deleted my window manager on accident once and one of the members here was able to help me recover everything without reinstalling.
Prez, when you start getting the hang of things then I'll start pushing you toward Arch
I'm also a fan of Windows Phone 8.1, just so you know
All I do is browse and listen to music, so it looks like Unity or Xubuntu's simplicity fit me best.
Aarglefarg
Member
You could install a dock application (there are a few in the software centre to try from) to get a launcher like that at the bottom of the screen. MATE or XFCE (Xubuntu has XFCE by default) could work well with a dock at the bottom.
Tried Gnome Shell?
Aarglefarg
Member
I bought a macbook air the other day to put linux on it, and it's been interesting times. It's working now but there are some wifi problems. Wifi can have trouble connecting until I turn the wifi on and off a few times, and it slows down dramatically at other times. A minute ago it was at 0.76 Mbps, while other devices on the same wifi network were fine. Then after restarting it was 2.xx Mbps. It's back to about 13 Mbps, which is what the os x partition showed (which I checked in case it was a hardware issue, now that it's back to 13 Mbps on linux I don't know if it is).
It's been dramatic times, getting this working.
Also, I called Apple's support with setting up partitions (I overcomplicated things in my mind after just not seeing the Partitions tab on the upper level of Disk Utility and was panicking and regretting my purchase!). They asked what it was for and I said linux (thinking uh oh they will refuse to support me even though I was framing it as disk partitioning within OS X). But they helped me and later in the assistance they asked if I wanted to dual boot or just have linux. So 10/10 to Apple's support.
Though I'm not sure how to have linux only on a macbook air as the instructions online involve going back into os x after installing linux on another partition in order to install rEFIt.
It's been dramatic times, getting this working.
Also, I called Apple's support with setting up partitions (I overcomplicated things in my mind after just not seeing the Partitions tab on the upper level of Disk Utility and was panicking and regretting my purchase!). They asked what it was for and I said linux (thinking uh oh they will refuse to support me even though I was framing it as disk partitioning within OS X). But they helped me and later in the assistance they asked if I wanted to dual boot or just have linux. So 10/10 to Apple's support.
Though I'm not sure how to have linux only on a macbook air as the instructions online involve going back into os x after installing linux on another partition in order to install rEFIt.
Treechopper
Member
You could install a dock application (there are a few in the software centre to try from) to get a launcher like that at the bottom of the screen. MATE or XFCE (Xubuntu has XFCE by default) could work well with a dock at the bottom.
Tried Gnome Shell?
Is Gnome Shell kind of like a theme you can download in the software manager in Ubuntu? Trying to figure out what it is, I feel a bit dumb trying to understand the descriptions.
Treechopper
Member
Gnome shell is a window manager like Unity or MATE. It's responsible for displaying any form of a GUI.
Aarglefarg
Member
Gnome Shell is a different interface, like how Unity and Cinnamon are different interfaces. It can, like many others, be installed through Ubuntu Software Centre (and then selected to be active by clicking on the little icon when signing in next). It can also be installed with it all set up if instead of putting (eg) Ubuntu on your computer, you put (eg) Ubuntu Gnome on it. Ubuntu Gnome is like Xubuntu, except it comes with Gnome Shell.
This is an old video of a much earlier version of Gnome Shell but it's the best video I found that shows the general idea of what it does. http://youtu.be/SSGfS6K7pI0
Looks good, is it more or less CPU intensive than Unity though?
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Did I mention I got bored and updated to the 14.10 beta? Still running Xubuntu as my setup.
They fucking changed the highlight color to fucking pinkish purple to stick with the unicorn theme better. Shit is fucking hillarious! LoL
They fucking changed the highlight color to fucking pinkish purple to stick with the unicorn theme better. Shit is fucking hillarious! LoL
I was about to upgrade but then it wants o remove all desktops that aren't Unity, lol
Anyway to exclude those?
Edit: upon closer inspection, it's going to re-install or update some of that stuff not remove it, lol
Aarglefarg
Member
It's around the same. Gnome Shell is a bit lighter than Unity but still far higher than MATE or XFCE.
https://flexion.org/posts/2014-03-memory-consumption-of-linux-desktop-environments.html
That's only memory consumption though. Doesn't really matter with 4GB RAM (not for what I'm doing at least).
Aarglefarg
Member
Oh, right, sorry. The hardware side of things isn't my strong suit.
I wasn't able to find a CPU comparison and so someone else would be more help. Though I installed Unity to compare on my "Intel® Core i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50GHz × 4" computer if this helps. Both versions are what you can have with Ubuntu 14.04.
Gnome Shell 3.10
Unity 7.2.2
Treechopper
Member
I run Gnome Shell (on top of Arch, not Ubuntu) with a mobile i3 processor and Intel's integrated graphics chip. It's smooth as butter, even when I'm connected to my 1920 x 1200 monitor. Your 5150 will run it just fine.
The difference looks pretty negligible. Thanks.
Doesn't your mobile i3 run at a much higher clockspeed? 5150 is only 1.6Ghz.
Treechopper
Member
It's dual core vs. your quad core. It's needs the higher clock.
That reminds me, does Firefox finally make use of multiple cores now? As long as it only uses a single core I imagine performance to be worse on the 5150.
Treechopper
Member
Firefox runs on multiple cores. It's comparable to Chromium/Chrome for me on both Arch and Elementary.
EDIT: I may have lied. Several sites seem to suggest Servo is already out, but nobody seems to be reporting on its inclusion yet.
EDIT: I may have lied. Several sites seem to suggest Servo is already out, but nobody seems to be reporting on its inclusion yet.
Ubuntu 14.10 got everything back to normal except VLC, which is kinda important.
I can't find any discussion anywhere, help is appreciated.
Code:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
vlc : Depends: libgles1-mesa (>= 7.8.1) but it is not going to be installed or
libgles1
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.I can't find any discussion anywhere, help is appreciated.
Have you tried using aptitude instead of apt-get? It gives up less easily when trying to resolve issues such as these.
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