Why does nothing work

[TwistedName]

Ubuntu used to be my favorite OS, since number 8 or 9 ive used it. And ever since the unity mess was added its going way down hill!! does anyone agree. Im now on the latest version and have less features than i did when on version 9 for instance. Just recently ive come to find the music player does not work. Just crashes when trying to play a song. I get a box popping up telling me there has been a system error when i first boot up.

Please ubuntu, fix your OS. stop with this idea that unity is the way to go. its slow, clunky and un-necessary, plus it takes up too much screen, with the apple bar on the left and that other apple like bar running along the top of the screen . Gnome-Do kicks it ass. its simple and does all unity can do. Do just looks better. And stop breaking things man. How can you go to something that was nice and working well. To the bug ridden mess heap you have out now.

What other OS's do people recommend? Im looking for something without pannels or dock bars plastered all over the place. And something which will work well with compiz

[Y^2om&#7sgP]

I still run Xubuntu on my desktop (13.10) and it seems to do pretty much all I need.

However, I'm trialling Manjaro on my laptop, based on Arch so is completely rolling-release.

If I can get Samba working as easily as I do on Buntu, it may become my distro of choice.

Nothing against Buntu, it's served me really well for the past several years, but I think rolling is the way I'd rather go.

[Linuxisfast]

Have you used Ubuntu 12.04LTS, its the most stable distro around with long term support. Everything works on it because it uses packages that are thoroughly tested.

[TwistedName]

yeah i have tried 12.04LTS and was using it for a while. It did do something that kept annoying me though. i cant remember. Im done with Ubuntu. Just looking in to other things i can try. May try this PearOS. A friend said it was ok. Ive never heard of it though

[sudodus]

If you want a simple and clean desktop, use the window manager Openbox without any panels. Just right-click on the grey background and start a terminal emulator and start your applications from there. If you want panels with smaller foot-print, try Xubuntu as suggested by hattpa or Lubuntu with even smaller foot-print.

In Lubuntu you can select a plain Openbox session at the log in screen. The standard Lubuntu session uses the desktop environment LXDE which is turn uses Openbox plus a panel at the bottom of the screen (similar to Windows Classic).

[TwistedName]

What works well with compiz? Also, is there any way to get older versions of ubuntu working again, like so they update. As if i install say 9 Now, il just get errors that it cant reach the repos all the time. If i could get that all up and running again id be happy.

[sudodus]

I think you should try some completely different distros for some weeks. You will find that some things are better than Ubuntu, and some are worse. There is no perfect distro, but I hope you can find one that suits you well.

Knoppix is a distro that works well with old hardware and is using compiz.

No you cannot walk backwards along the time-line. After the end of life, there is no more support of that old Ubuntu version.

[whitesmith]

If you install 9 or any other EOL version, you won't be able to get updates. I use 12.04 LTS modified with my desktop of choice. I think that's your optimum solution.

[oldos2er]

Not a support request; moved to Ubuntu, Linux, and OS Chat.

[TwistedName]

suppose i could put 12.04 on for the mean time till i find something worth using. Just means il have to go through the head ache of unity again. Ive tried a wide variety of OS's over the time. always kept coming back to ubuntu as it worked well. till it started coming with useless unity. Meh well thanks for replying. il post if i ever find something.

Oh as for using older versions. i was mainly asking if i can use them with all the updates that were out at the time of that version. i dont mind about getting all latest things, just a useable older version would be nice.