A good Linux alternative to Ubuntu for a working environment

Im running a decent laptop with 3GB ram and 2GHz Core Duo. I use it mainly for working which requires several SSH and SFTP connections to servers and running a VM most of the time. Nothing much more intensive than that.

I like using Ubuntu 9.10 however I have the issue of Nautilus and the top/bottom menus freezing up on me constantly - dare I say it, alot more problems than when I was using Windows Vista.

Im just looking for recommendations of other operating systems which would be suitable for the task.

Thanks

Roozak

Posted 2010-03-25T21:07:37.413

Reputation: 43

Answers

If the GUI is the only problem, but you like the system itself, then install Kubuntu. It's basically Ubuntu with a different user interface, including Dolphin instead of Nautilus.

marcusw

Posted 2010-03-25T21:07:37.413

Reputation: 1 678

2Actually there's no need to make a totally new install just to switch to KDE. Just install (as root) the kubuntu-desktop package via e.g. synaptics (or with aptitude on the command line: aptitude install kubuntu-desktop). Then select KDE as session when logging in. And of course, this can be uninstalled easily, too. – Benjamin Bannier – 2010-03-25T21:57:36.320

Bear in mind when doing this that you will still have all your gnome utilities installed, and many of these will have kde duplicates. – marcusw – 2010-03-25T22:09:06.793

Thank you, I shall try the quicker way honk mentioned first then a clean install of Kubuntu if needed. Hopefully Dolphin wont have the same problems. – Roozak – 2010-03-25T22:41:12.643

Just thinking though, if I was going by a fresh install, would it be better to install Kubuntu 9.04 (not 9.10) for reasons Cry Havok mentioned? – Roozak – 2010-03-25T22:43:32.560

@Roozak: You can uninstall gnome if you want. I think it is in gnome-desktop-environment, but am not sure. – Benjamin Bannier – 2010-03-25T23:02:49.533

See http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purekde and http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purexfce .

– Yktula – 2010-04-18T00:16:22.280

@Yktula: if one would need this I would file a bug in launchpad: the packages listed there should in principle all be pulled in/removed as dependencies of the *-desktop virtual packages.

Btw, nice Ubuntu-forum style hint, sudo bli bla without any explanation. – Benjamin Bannier – 2010-04-18T01:56:40.373

Personally I would go with Fedora or RedHat instead of Ubuntu.

They're all free. If you try one and don't like it, switch to another.

I'm very big Apple user though, TextMate sunk it's hooks in deep.

Josh K

Posted 2010-03-25T21:07:37.413

Reputation: 11 754

Ubuntu 9.10 has a large number of problems compared to 9.04 - take a look at the Ubuntu forums and lists. If you're happy with Ubuntu you may benefit from using 9.04 instead (assuming you've already applied all available updates) until 10.4 is released (which should happen in about a month).

I've been running 10.04 since Alpha 3 on my netbook and it's been just fine, no lockups or other problems. I'd be very confident that 10.04 will be much more reliable than 9.10.

Cry Havok

Posted 2010-03-25T21:07:37.413

Reputation: 3 486

Thanks for the pointer. A colleague actually mentioned similar to what you said. I shall resort to 9.04 if KDE gives me problems. – Roozak – 2010-03-25T22:40:01.383

OpenSUSE is awesome, stable, and has a great KDE integration. I will never go back to Ubuntu after trying OpenSUSE, now running on all of my computers (including at work), and my girlfriend's.

Jacob R

Posted 2010-03-25T21:07:37.413

Reputation: 202

My advice is to try Mandriva or maybe Linux Mint (derivated from ubuntu). Mandriva has an excellent hardware recognition. Mint has also a great graphics!

user34532

Posted 2010-03-25T21:07:37.413

Reputation: