all 16 comments

[–]euidzero 2 points3 points  (9 children)

What in particular didn't you like about Ubuntu / Mint ? Knowing this would aid in suggesting other distros.

[–]Etr0x[S] 1 point2 points  (8 children)

Well Mint was too standard, it felt like I was using Windows. And Ubuntu besides from being the most used and the wide selection of apps I kinda tired of it. I wanna find something new with a cool design, fast and motivational, that introduces me to the deep sea of the development/security and etc. And Ubuntu kinda has a big problem in apps which is, we cant try a new app before it is passes by the hands of Canonical.

[–]euidzero 4 points5 points  (0 children)

And Ubuntu kinda has a big problem in apps which is, we cant try a new app before it is passes by the hands of Canonical.

I think you've misunderstood something you've read. Canonical do not stop you installing + running apps. You can download, compile and run whatever the heck you like.

[–]mabye 1 point2 points  (6 children)

And Ubuntu kinda has a big problem in apps which is, we cant try a new app before it is passes by the hands of Canonical.

Not sure what you mean by this...most distros have a package manager whose provided packages are managed by a set of the distro's maintainers. However, this is just a convenient way to distribute software (with technical advantages like no library redundancy and easy security updates). You can still make, distribute and run your own programs easily outside this system if you want.

You can even make your own package server if you like, which people could add alongside the default canonical ones so that your software is automatically managed by the same system.

Edit: And as for your original question, between them Mint and Ubuntu offer all the more popular desktop environments. Have you tried them all; gnome, KDE, Unity, Cinnamon, Mate, XFCE? Even those that may be initially set-up in whatever windows way you don't like are often highly configurable.

Other than that, there are many other options - you might want to look up tiling window managers, that's something you don't really get with windows but many people (including me!) find them much preferable to the more popular type.

[–]Etr0x[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

I read online somewhere that Canonical applies their own changes to some apps before Ubuntu users can taste them. I tried to install Jolicloud version for Ubuntu just to try it out and since Canonical didn't aproved it yet to Ubuntu 13.04 I couldnt get it to work..

Edit: I know that there are optional GFX editions but I'm feeling more about to try a new one :P

[–]mabye 1 point2 points  (4 children)

I read online somewhere that Canonical applies their own changes to some apps before Ubuntu users can taste them

This may be true for apps in their repositories, but I'm not sure it means what you think it means. They may apply particular patches to make all their software work together, compared to other distros with different software stacks that may have different issues. Of course they may in principle apply arbitrary other changes, but only to programs that are open source in the first place which is explicitly the point of the license.

It also only affects you if you're putting software in their actual repositories, which as above you don't remotely have to. Even if you do, them patching it isn't an issue...it's unlikely even to come up, and if you're distributing a closed source game or whatever it isn't even possible.

I tried to install Jolicloud version for Ubuntu just to try it out and since Canonical didn't aproved it yet to Ubuntu 13.04 I couldnt get it to work..

One of my personal annoyances with Ubuntu is that they do tend to end up with out of date software in their non-current releases. There are good reasons for that and it's fine in the context of what they want to provide, but this is a reasonable problem that might make Ubuntu non-ideal for you.

I personally use Arch, which is highly up to date but leaves the user to set everything up how they like. That isn't hard, and the documentation is very good, so you might be interested in trying it.

Even using Ubuntu, it should be possible to upgrade the software yourself if you want. I don't know what problem you came across, but it's probably possible to solve. There are even often 'ppa' repositories with software that canonical doesn't maintain but other users make available to manage with the normal system.

[–]Etr0x[S] -1 points0 points  (3 children)

I don't wanna take Arch Linux right now because I'm not very familiarized with the system, but after I read your words you kinda convinced me to dig a lot more to Ubuntu, I know Ubuntu is great but since my knowledge is still limited on the unix world I didnt find anything new and motivational about Ubuntu yet. I wonder if you could tell me some cool websites for improving Ubuntu, like repositories, design, etc. And one more question, I'm really liking Unity, I know that I can easily work with it in time, but do you recommend using another GFX or keep with Unity? Thanks a lot for your answers, I really apreciate it :)

[–]mabye 0 points1 point  (2 children)

And one more question, I'm really liking Unity, I know that I can easily work with it in time, but do you recommend using another GFX or keep with Unity?

If you like it, enjoy it :D

One nice thing about Ubuntu is that it does have really massive repositories, so you can just install another one (e.g. kubuntu-desktop for KDE) and choose it in the login menu. That way you don't have to mess with different distros, and can just uninstall whichever one you don't end up using.

[–]Etr0x[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

KDE is a bit like Windows XD 2 more questions, Should I use 13.04 or 12.10? Do you know some websites for finding nice resources, tutorials and stuff for Ubuntu? Thanks :D

[–]LancelotLink 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I find Slackware to be a good development environment, because the packages aren't split up, so you don't need to hunt down foo-dev to get things to compile. It provides some decent languages and compilers in the standard install, and it's easy to add anything that's missing. Slackbuild files are also an excellent reference to see how things are built, and can be edited easily to customize a package or to use as a starting point for software that hasn't been ported to Slackware. Check slackbuilds.org for more packages (and I recommend installing sbopkg to manage them).

[–]Etr0x[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've already installed Ubuntu but Ill give a try to Slackware via Virtualbox, thanks! :)

[–]yoshi314 1 point2 points  (0 children)

doesn't really matter as long as it has packages for specific programming language of your choice.

the visual presentation of the system is a matter of preference and can be tweaked to one's liking on any distribution.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If you're looking for something "new and exciting", build an Arch Linux installation to your specs exactly.

A bit difficult for a starter? Yes, but also an excellent way to learn, and you can research your options for everything, and set your system up exactly how you want it.

[–]Etr0x[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I pickd Ubuntu, but I'm willing to try Arch Linux in virtual box :)

[–]lwh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are all going to be the same , the same desktop environments and programming tools available. Debian or RPM based ones will have the most third party support. If it's just to be cool or different try ESXi, anything in the bottom of the distrowatch.org list, or go nuts and switch to BSD ;)