tsunamikitsune
April 17th, 2013, 05:20 PM
I've been an Ubuntu user off and on since 6.06 and have always had great experiences. Generally, the reason I uninstall is because I run across something I can't do without Windows. Recently, however, I've been using my laptop more often (with Windows 8...which is not particularly fun without a touch screen) and I realize that I'd probably enjoy running Linux on it since I would still have my desktop to fall back on if I need Windows.
Oh, and the fact that Steam is finally on Linux is pretty encouraging, too. I could play Faster Than Light forever.
I decided to go for it and install 12.04. I think the last version I used was 10.04, so the jump to Unity was a bit jarring. I installed Gnome for some familiarity, but the hurdle I just couldn't get over was the generally poor performance of the OS. Menus would sometimes pause before opening, windows would stop responding...it was a very unsettling experience to encounter these kinds of issues I'm used to only seeing in Windows. Ubuntu has typically been perfect for me in nearly every respect (the program compatibility being the only downfall), no matter what kind of hardware I install it on. I put 10.04 or something earlier on my friend's 5-10 year old laptop a few months back after her Windows XP install started crashing sporadically and it ran like new. Why is it my less than 2 year old laptop (upgraded with 8GB RAM and SSD) is having issues running 12.04?
I also managed to render the system mostly unusable twice now. The first time, the resolution settings got messed up and it could only display in 640x480. I reinstalled. Now, after a fairly manageable first boot, I find that subsequent boots bring me directly to the terminal and I can't start the graphical interface.
Ugh.
I'm sure those two failures have a lot to do with trying to install drivers with my video card setup (I've got that stupid Nvidia Optimus thing), but I HAVE successfully run Ubuntu 10.04 on this machine (pre-hardware upgrades) with zero hiccups (I couldn't make use of the Optimus feature, but it ran smoothly on just the one video card), so I don't really understand why the UI would be sluggish in 12.04, especially when I'm using Gnome over Unity.
So, my question is: How are others faring with 12.04? Is it as touchy as I think it is? Or am I overreacting? I feel like I've always had wonderful experiences with Ubuntu, but this is souring so far. Would it be wise to use 10.04 instead?
Oh, and the fact that Steam is finally on Linux is pretty encouraging, too. I could play Faster Than Light forever.
I decided to go for it and install 12.04. I think the last version I used was 10.04, so the jump to Unity was a bit jarring. I installed Gnome for some familiarity, but the hurdle I just couldn't get over was the generally poor performance of the OS. Menus would sometimes pause before opening, windows would stop responding...it was a very unsettling experience to encounter these kinds of issues I'm used to only seeing in Windows. Ubuntu has typically been perfect for me in nearly every respect (the program compatibility being the only downfall), no matter what kind of hardware I install it on. I put 10.04 or something earlier on my friend's 5-10 year old laptop a few months back after her Windows XP install started crashing sporadically and it ran like new. Why is it my less than 2 year old laptop (upgraded with 8GB RAM and SSD) is having issues running 12.04?
I also managed to render the system mostly unusable twice now. The first time, the resolution settings got messed up and it could only display in 640x480. I reinstalled. Now, after a fairly manageable first boot, I find that subsequent boots bring me directly to the terminal and I can't start the graphical interface.
Ugh.
I'm sure those two failures have a lot to do with trying to install drivers with my video card setup (I've got that stupid Nvidia Optimus thing), but I HAVE successfully run Ubuntu 10.04 on this machine (pre-hardware upgrades) with zero hiccups (I couldn't make use of the Optimus feature, but it ran smoothly on just the one video card), so I don't really understand why the UI would be sluggish in 12.04, especially when I'm using Gnome over Unity.
So, my question is: How are others faring with 12.04? Is it as touchy as I think it is? Or am I overreacting? I feel like I've always had wonderful experiences with Ubuntu, but this is souring so far. Would it be wise to use 10.04 instead?