New Laptop: The adventure begins

[jaimeaux]

Okay Ladies and Gents, here we are. I'm currently deployed to Afghanistan for the next year of my life. One day, whilst working in our server room (because that's where all the REAL Marines are.... ) I was shutting down the servers from a power outage; when all the sudden, I knocked my laptop off of the desk. Not cool, right?

After mitigating the power outage and server downtime and undoing all the chaos, I put my computer together to find it wouldn't receive power. I let my computer run on battery, said goodbye, and got ready for life-anew.

That's where we are now. I just (as of last night) bought a laptop from System76... the Lemur Ultra (Lemu3), and I'm waiting for it to arrive. What should I expect?

Questions:

Do they support the GNOME-3 interface, or do I have to stick with Unity?

How durable are they (obviously, this one is important. Marines are not nice to laptops.)?

Would it be lame if I bought the Ubuntu laptop cover for it? Is that too much?


If it's still interesting, the life and times of my forward deployed laptop will continue to be posted on here. We'll see how the linux-world reacts to it.

[cbennett926]

Hey,

I don't work for S76 but I can answer a few of your questions!

The durabilty of the laptops is very good!

Sadly, or is it?, Unity is the default and primary support of Ubuntu and will be from thence on, but you can boot into Ubuntu Classic and it has Gnome-3. Since Ubuntu is supported though and what it comes with Linux Mint could be installed and that is all Gnome-3.

Oh almost forgot-
Semper Fi and thank you for our freedom good sir!

[jaimeaux]

Sadly, or is it?, Unity is the default and primary support of Ubuntu and will be from thence on, but you can boot into Ubuntu Classic and it has Gnome-3. Since Ubuntu is supported though and what it comes with Linux Mint could be installed and that is all Gnome-3.

CBennett,

Thanks for the quick response!

It's not that it's a "Sadly" type of thing, it's just that I rather like gnome 3, and I'm not too big a fan of Unity. With that said, I'm definitely going to give it a chance, but I don't know if I'll stick with it, and I always like to know what my options are.

Thanks!

[cbennett926]

Not a problem! Glad I could help! If you are avid about Gnome-3 I definitely recommend Linux Mint because it is a break-off of Ubuntu and the most noticeable thing about it is they went with G3 instead of Unity.

[jaimeaux]

Alright, Thanks!

Do you know if System76 Supports Mint? Or do you need to keep your base install of Ubuntu for their support?

[riseringseeker]

Alright, Thanks!

Do you know if System76 Supports Mint? Or do you need to keep your base install of Ubuntu for their support?

I was just perusing the forums looking for this answer. No, System76 drivers do not work under Mint without some hacking. There is a thread on the System76 forum telling you how to easily hack Mint so it will though. I'm assuming this is what you want to know.

Running Mint on my older S76 laptop and newer Desktop with a live USB/DVD everything that I use works just fine, specialty drivers not required. There may be some things that don't work as they would under Ubuntu, but if so, they are not things I use anyway. (e.g. turning the wireless on/off via the superkey/Fn) I can also use the aforementioned hack to make the drivers work anyway should I run into something I need to get working.

I don't know, but I seriously doubt they will deny coverage on the hardware because you choose to run Mint. If it does void hardware support/coverage, I hope Carl will weigh in. I would not however expect help from System76 under Mint to get something out of whack (software-wise) working again though.

I will be switching to a Mint12 installation quite soon, maybe even later today as I can't stand Unity. Overall I think Unity a disaster. I have run it on a live USB long enough and often enough to know it is not something I ever want to use on a daily basis. I suppose if you just turned on your computer, read e-mail then turned it back off again it would be OK. This is not how I use a computer.

I know when I was last in the System76 offices, during Tom's last week or two, Tom, Carl and Ian all told me once I got used to it, I would love it. None of them could tell me what there was to love (I asked!), just that I would love it. I feel I gave it a good try, and hate it.

Obviously I am not the only one as Mint has now surpassed Ubuntu as the most popular download. The first distribution to displace Ubuntu from the top spot since it took it years ago. I doubt these are all new Linux users, but would bet most are escapees from Unity.

Just as Vista was the best thing to ever happen for Mac and Linux, I think Unity (and the somewhat broken gnome3 shell of Ubuntu) is the best thing the Mint developers could possibly have hoped for.

I would guess, if the trend continues this way, Carl may very well start supporting Mint as well as, or instead of Ubuntu, but am not counting on it.

[trinux_bc]

I'm thinking about getting a Lemur so I look forward to your experiences. If you're looking for positives about Unity I'd say the keyboard shortcuts are great, using Unity with a mouse can be tedious, once I learned the keyboard shortcuts it became just as easy as Gnome 2, YMMV. Unity also maximizes screen space, which I find beneficial on widescreen laptops in particular. Lots of other little things as well, but of course you may prefer another DE, but I'd recommend giving Unity a few days, that's how long it took for me to figure out how to best use it for my work flow.

And no, Mint has not over taken Ubuntu in downloads. It has taken the top spot on Distrowatch which measures hits to the distro pages on Distrowatch. That has nothing to do with downloads or the install base. Mint is a great distro that can stand on its own merit, spreading falsehoods is not a good way to support it or any open source project.

trinux_bc

[riseringseeker]

I'm thinking about getting a Lemur so I look forward to your experiences. If you're looking for positives about Unity I'd say the keyboard shortcuts are great, using Unity with a mouse can be tedious, once I learned the keyboard shortcuts it became just as easy as Gnome 2, YMMV. Unity also maximizes screen space, which I find beneficial on widescreen laptops in particular. Lots of other little things as well, but of course you may prefer another DE, but I'd recommend giving Unity a few days, that's how long it took for me to figure out how to best use it for my work flow.

I am very glad it works for you. I am not a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, and after using it several days (and more than once in the last 6 months) on both a USB stick, and as a virtual OS, I didn't find anything appealing about it in the least with the possible exception (as you mentioned) about real estate space. I really wanted to like it. I have been using it for years, and not real eager to learn other version, however close it may be to what I am/was used to, but in the end, it's simply not for me.

Obviously Ubuntu built Unity with someone like you in mind, I however was not the targeted type user. Everyone is different, that's what great about Linux (and one of it's shortcomings IMHO), it is nearly infinitely configurable to exactly what you want with at least most distributions.

And no, Mint has not over taken Ubuntu in downloads. It has taken the top spot on Distrowatch which measures hits to the distro pages on Distrowatch. That has nothing to do with downloads or the install base. Mint is a great distro that can stand on its own merit, spreading falsehoods is not a good way to support it or any open source project.

trinux_bc

Forgive me, am not geeky enough to have gone to various sites and confirmed what I had read both here and in various other forums. I have never looked to see what is the latest and greatest. I don't think I have ever been on distrowatch, and was just passing on what I had heard elsewhere. I was not intentionally "spreading falsehoods" and resent the implication.

[cbennett926]

I'm thinking about getting a Lemur so I look forward to your experiences. If you're looking for positives about Unity I'd say the keyboard shortcuts are great, using Unity with a mouse can be tedious, once I learned the keyboard shortcuts it became just as easy as Gnome 2, YMMV. Unity also maximizes screen space, which I find beneficial on widescreen laptops in particular. Lots of other little things as well, but of course you may prefer another DE, but I'd recommend giving Unity a few days, that's how long it took for me to figure out how to best use it for my work flow.

And no, Mint has not over taken Ubuntu in downloads. It has taken the top spot on Distrowatch which measures hits to the distro pages on Distrowatch. That has nothing to do with downloads or the install base. Mint is a great distro that can stand on its own merit, spreading falsehoods is not a good way to support it or any open source project.

trinux_bc

+1

Comparing Vista to Unity is like comparing a Ford Pento to a Honda Civic, the latter isn't as luxurious as a Porsche but is miles better.

[jaimeaux]

Cbennett,

+1....thousand. That was amazing. You just made my day. You get gold star!