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Quorten Blog 1

First blog for all Quorten's blog-like writings

Is Ubuntu still relevant?

2020-11-03

Categories: unix  
Tags: unix  

So, recently I’ve upgraded from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and my first impression? I didn’t really like what I saw. I mean, to be honest, I’ll say overall it felt like two steps forward, two steps backward. Ubuntu still works for my limited use case of a very simple desktop with a restricted range of installed software, but I feel it has fallen far from being the best “desktop” distro.

And that’s right, they’re not. They’re primarily focused on software developers targeting powerful, high-end computer hardware. Accessibility, heck that’s a far cry from their current mission statement, but they’ve thought to include it in a bullet point. No longer is Ubuntu primarily a billionare’s humanitarian effort, it is now Canonical’s means to make billions of dollars. Cloud, server, IoT development. That’s what they’re targeting, and it will be their mission on an IPO.

So, yes, derivatives like PopOS and Linux Mint, they’re definitely preferential choices for a GNU/Linux desktop distro. Actually, I’d vouch that Raspberry Pi OS would be the best desktop experience if you want it to be user-friendly. Well, it can be made to be so.

Now, here’s an interesting predicament that came about on the question of dropping 32-bit support. Gamers and Ubuntu Studio communities, they objected heavily to the idea when raised at a later date. But speaking with the “developer” channel and Valve Steam, the no concerns were raised at all in the conversations. They just didn’t really care or see it as an issue. Of course not, you know what kinds of developers those are?

Noteworthy is that they mention LXD/LXC and snaps as a container solution rather than Docker.

20201103/DuckDuckGo who uses ubuntu in 2020
20201103/https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/c2d9r4/whats_the_point_of_ubuntu_in_2020/
20201103/https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/intel-32bit-packages-on-ubuntu-from-19-10-onwards/11263
20201103/https://ubuntu.com/blog/statement-on-32-bit-i386-packages-for-ubuntu-19-10-and-20-04-lts
20201103/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXC

This is interesting, well not really. There were a ton of bugs in the GNOME 3 shell that had to get fixed for Ubuntu to be more responsive on the desktop.

20201103/https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2020/05/19/heres-why-ubuntu-linux-2004-feels-insanely-fast-and-responsive/?sh=b99cf136142c