Leaving Ubuntu - Update

25 Jul 2014 | ~4 minute read

Back in March 2013, I decided to leave Ubuntu Linux. Since leaving Ubuntu I’ve jumped around between distro’s, but kept my trusty Chromebook by my side. So what have I been running for the last year? Let’s take a look…

Leaving Ubuntu

In my previous post, I stressed that I wanted to leave Ubuntu for a number a reasons. But the primary one was that it just didn’t work for me any more. There are parts of Unity that I really like, and it looks great. But the majority of Unity’s make up, I either don’t like, or simply don’t use. So why waste the space on my drive?

After leaving Ubuntu, I had the Chromebook (which I still have, and use to this day), as well as my main PC that I moved over to Elementary OS Luna. It’s a great OS, looks good, and is a no bull shit, no bells and whistles kind of distro. However, it still has the eye candy – which I like (after all, I use my machine a lot, so it has to look good).

I then left Luna and started using Ubuntu Gnome. This is another great distro that works well. Out of the box Gnome 3 is shit, quite frankly. But with some jiggery pokery, you can turn it into a pretty awesome GUI. Once I’d found my bearings, I settled on Ubuntu Gnome for quite some time. Until…

What I’m using now

As I’ve mentioned above, I’m still using my Chromebook, and it’s great! We have it floating around the house, and if we need a laptop, it’s always there, ready to go. The battery lasts hours, it’s fast, boots in seconds, and doesn’t slow down.

However, when it comes to development work, the Chromebook really starts to struggle. So over time, the Chromebook has morphed into a secondary device that we just use for surfing the web, checking email, and doing some of the basics online. The Chromebook is actually my girlfriend’s main machine, as she’s not a power user and uses Google Drive – so she can do everything she needs just fine. However, if I need to do anything more demanding – like coding, graphic design, or video editing; then I always go to my PC -which now runs Windows 7!

Don’t judge me

Yes, I’m now running Windows 7 – and I have been for the last few months. The main reason for this, was video editing – there simply aren’t any good video editing tools for Linux, not ones up to the standard of applications like Premier Pro at least.

I have to be honest, I’m really not missing Linux – and I honestly thought I would! My roots in IT are as a Windows Sys Admin, so I know the OS inside out. With some regular maintenance (which I’ve now scripted), Windows 7 runs just fine, and I have no problems at all.

Now some of you may argue the common points, like virus’s, performance issue, proprietary software lock-in etc etc. Yes, I get all that, but I’m still happy to use Windows over Linux (besides, virus’s are over rated. With a little bit of common sense, and a good AV program, you won’t get infected), because I don’t have to waste hours trying to work things out when they inevitably don’t work in Linux.

This kind of becomes second nature when you use Linux regularly. You hit road blocks, you work out how to fix them, and you move on. With Windows, this isn’t the case – I can just get on with what I need to do – you can with Linux as well, so long as you don’t change too much too often (which power users do, a lot). Plus there are a lot more options open to me in terms of software – never a bad thing.

Conclusion

So it turns out that leaving Ubuntu really wasn’t a bad thing. But Ubuntu isn’t a bad OS – as I said before, it just isn’t for me. For millions of people, Ubuntu works great, and for a long time it did for me as well. But not any more, I’m now on Windows and I’m happy (that’s something I never thought I’d say). I’ve got my Chromebook for when I want to get online quickly, and my PC for the heavy lifting.

Just don’t get me started on Windows 8! Actually, it’s not that bad either…

What about you Linuxers out there? Would you ever consider leaving Ubuntu/Linux for pastures new? You know where to leave you thoughts.

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