Re: transition from Ubuntu -> Debian to avoid Unity Desktop?
You need to simply try it out.
I don't think Debian will choose Unity instead of Gnome... (I'm
personally very positive of this... but that is only my serious belief)
anyway, I need to consider carefully abandoning Ubuntu. I'm sure they
will keep supporting Gnome.
Nevertheless, I stared a long time ago with RedHat7 (2 years), then
Mandrake, then Fedora, then Mandrake again (3 years), then Ubuntu (2
months) and, for the last 4 years, Debian. And I must say Debian really
rules. But Ubuntu is also very good.
I'dd suggest you try out Debian for some weeks.
On Mon, 2011-01-17 at 12:09 -0600, Paul Johnson wrote:
> Greetings.
>
> On several laptops and desktops, I made the transition from Fedora ->
> Ubuntu about 3 years ago. I did that mainly because Fedora updates
> kept "breaking" the Nvidia proprietary video drivers and the
> developers openly said that they didn't really care whether or not
> their distribution had drivers that could work with the hardware.
> Ubuntu developers at least recognized the problem and have a
> repository for commercial/addon drivers and they try to make sure the
> OS doesn't break the video drivers.
>
> Anyway, I just learned that in the next Ubuntu, they are adopting the
> "Unity Desktop". I did some checking on that and I totally hate it. I
> hate Mac GUI and am disgusted that the free/open movement pushes to
> imitate it. If I liked the look/feel of it, then I might be willing
> to put up with the pains of transition in the next Ubuntu, but, well,
> I don't. They say they will have other desktop options, but, in my
> experience, it will be tough to avoid the packaging and configuration
> changes that they enforce on everybody in order to make Unity work
> (maybe I'm too skeptical).
>
> Can I escape Ubuntu to Debian?
>
> 1. Is Debian defaulting to the Unity Desktop too? (please say no)
>
> 2. How can I make a transition to Debian from Ubuntu? So I need to
> change my apt repositories and then do what else? If glibc or the
> kernel headers are new, I'll have to recompile everything I've built,
> but that's OK.
>
> 3. If I make this change Ubuntu -> Debian, will I end up back in
> "Nvidia Hell" where the OS updates frequently break the
> commercial/proprietary video drivers? I understand that nouveau is
> providing reasonable 2D for Nvidia cards, but my job requires the 3D
> support that seems available only from the commercial driver.
>
> I'm not trolling, not trying for a flame war here. If you like Unity,
> more power to you. If you like Ubuntu, OK, it has been good for me
> too.
>
> PJ
>
>
>
> --
> Paul E. Johnson
> Professor, Political Science
> 1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
> University of Kansas
>
>
Reply to: