Why do you use Linux? And why did you choose Ubuntu MATE?

Linux et al is a thing I use for fun; It helps me I exercise my brain a bit, and for my effort I get the system I want.

Being a user since 2009 on Canonical Ubuntu, I’ve done a lot of things and I’ve seen it change in a variety of ways which made it difficult to recommend for mission-critical use or my friends and family.

Worse yet my mother doesn’t feel like learning it, and the only way she was goaded into open-source software was through Google’s Android. She occasionally thinks it’s a Windows phone and I have to keep telling her it’s A Linux. My friends I associate with are also avid gamers so it’s hard to tell them Give Ubuntu MATE a try when half of their existence revolves around Microsoft’s DirectX or Adobe’s AIR.

But I still persist because I can just boot into it if my hard disk dies. And I keep holding it over their head because I know if they don’t back their stuff up, they’ll be left in the cold with their phones.

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Very nice write up @ping-wu. Thank you for sharing that with us, and for using your abilities to enrich the lives of others. :slight_smile:

I am with you brother. I’ve been using Ubuntu since 10.04 and I love it. Then Unity. I adapted to it but I wondered why? I became impatient with Ubuntu.
When I saw an interview with Martin I changed to Ubuntu-Mate and at first I had trouble tweaking probably because I am using 4K TV and 2160p made the print too tiny . Patience and working with it got me the best OS that I have used to date. Learning Linux is fun again. I am so happy to have the weather on the desktop again!

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I knew Linux from 2000, i had the mandrake distro sharing the hard drive with windows 98 or millenium.

The problem when you have a Linux distro sharing with Windows is at the beginning it’s fun but after few weeks you get back to windows, and i should say that it was a bit unstable, so after few month i have removed Mandrake and get back to full Windows with its continuous problem of formating the HD almost every years if not more often.
In 2011 my big laptop crash after 4 years on XP then vista without a problem (though i formated after 1 year, but never got a problem later)
I got really upset and bought an iMac (with OS X 10.6 snow leopard on it) to do a complet switch, as i was fedup with windows.

it took a while to re-learn an operating system, but after few month on Mac, i decided to ban Windows and all derivative Microsoft from my house (my wife have an old mac book pro she bought in 2010 and still doing good job on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion).

So at home we became “Mac”, but i was always from 2000 listening the open source (photography and office’ s software like GIMP, OOo etc) .

So when at my work (8 months ago) we open a new department with 3 new computers, there were noway to buy Apple (too expensive for our need) i decided to install Linux on the new PCs after knowing they came from quite far to a better ergonomic.

i tried few main distros (debian, open suze, ubuntu, etc…) in a matter of a day i was quite happy with Ubuntu but
and it’s the but which made me search for something debian/Ubuntu alike with a better sauce, so i discovered the Ubuntu flavors pages and i tried Lubuntu, Xubuntu, etc…
Deep in me i knew i was near the “Perfect OS” to understand fast and easy to configure with different users.

Then i tried Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 LTS and … The Welcome screen appear, clear like crystal water, not overwhelming by useless info, straight forward in the explanation and the direct button to configure different things!
… and put Cupertino desktop (don’t forget i am 6 years on Mac) which in my opinion is even more beautiful than the Mac

I didn’t uncheck the box (don’t show at start) of the welcome screen for at least one month to be sure i will have all my shortcut and explanation i needed when it comes to the OS.

few month ago i bought a PC for my kids (no fancy things they are young), when at the shop they ask me to put windows (and pay for it) i proudly said quite loud in the shop : Windows is forbidden in my house, I’ll install Linux Ubuntu-MATE myself!

then 1 month ago my iMac do not want to start any more, it lights up start loading and freeze.
S i bought the same PCs than my kids (a cheap one) and Ubuntu-MATE is on it too,
then now my wife want Ubuntu-MATE on her laptop…

Overall i just felt in love with this distribution and it’s HUGE abilities to personalize the desktop and the look and feel, superb stability, never crash until now!

One more things i don’t miss any Mac softwares as Ubuntu has it all and even more, my kids enjoy Gcompris, childplay and so on

I am against wine or any VMware to make a Windows or a Mac software working, as we do not need it at all (use a search engine for what you want with the word “Ubuntu” or “Linux” in the keywords and you will find what you need).
I don’t miss my Mac (maybe the hot corner) and Microsoft Windows is banned for life in my house.

And all came from the MATE Welcome screen :wink:
Hope i was not too long
Have a nice day

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When I still had OS X on our MacBook, I actually had more open source software installed than Mac. So the switch to Linux was quite easy, and I agree Ubuntu Mate beats OS X hands down. Nice write up @Patrice. Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

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A post was split to a new topic: Pourquoi utiliser Linux ? Et Pourquoi Ubuntu MATE?

Try telling them that when their education requires Windows because of Windows-only software which won’t run well in Wine. I’ve tried; The last community college I was at is in bed with Microsoft because they wouldn’t even touch OpenOffice.org with a barge pole.

Patrice, you have an interesting outlook on freedom. I’m happy to respect your opinion. However, I’d still love for you to listen to Ikey Doherty’s thoughts on a choice that you have clearly made. It’s quite relevant.

I’m very glad we do have the choice, and I’m also glad people like Ikey are voicing this opinion too. :slight_smile:

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New != Better, regarding a bit about the podcast.

Also, while I don’t entirely agree with the idea that Linux should augment the computing experience, wanting my parents to use a Linux system and all because they’re already using that for their cellphones so what’s the difference I also don’t try to shove it down people’s throats like I use to. Instead of accepting that Windows will have complete dominance, I am one to advocate for developers to code so their software works on Linux.

A huge part of the problem is that these established brands, Apple and Microsoft have limited means of installing software, whereas a company looking to deal in Linux needs to either write a universal shell script, using a probably-universal packaging solution or packaging per-system, which becomes a major pain in the ass.

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Been using Linux Since I got a hand-me-down Cyrix 6x86, 256 megs ram, and a hand-me-down copy of Red Hat 4.0 (Colgate), May 1999 was when I first installed Linux: that distro on that system.

Was tired of renting my OS from a slave master who demanded I get a newer PC at their whim and fancy. I recall getting very irritated at a Staples store, I went to get a copy of Win 3.11 because I only had a 386DX, and the store had 3 versions of Windows: 3.11, 95, and 98, and they all cost within $8 of one another, each one mandating escalating minimum hardware.

Went to Slackware, then went through many other distros. Predominantly, I return to Debian derived distros, but some recent installs leave me hanging on a system that has had MANY successful (and mostly functional) installations. Modern distros are starting to lose skills on my hardware, and that just might be a good thing, all in all.

I have minimal requirements for a desktop PC: I could care less about almost ALL media, especially Flash based stuff, because Flash hasn’t shown much love towards anything but Windows. I tend to purchase music online, and play it off line, so I store my music archives external to the PC. Updating my resume, reading email, applying for work, and maybe I’ll be able to get my VHS home movie collection digitized.

I have chosen Mate, primarily, and feel that Ubuntu is probably a good backer for this desktop environment. I used to like and use Kubuntu, but when Plasma 5 wrecked all the KDE graphics into widely spaced monochromic … (be nice) … I just couldn’t stand the pain. Mate hass pretty much what I need, though I do miss Dolphin and its KIO slaves.

Moving forward, on my 2nd day with it, I need to make some adjustments somewhere in Ubuntu Mate 16.04.3 for AMD64.

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You can use Dolphin inside of MATE, if you wish to also install the KDE backend files for it but last I tried the terminal kept spitting out errors about pixmaps.

Since your requirements are quite minimal, from the look of things if you wanted something “Better-looking” than Caja you can use Nemo just fine with Marco.

Welcome to the forum @mmmmna.

I have been on Windows from the old days of 3.11 right up to Windows 7. I have suffered through all the inestabilities, crashes, blue death screen, etc. etc. I think their best version was 3.11 where you really had control of your computer. After that, it all went to hell :smile: Windows 7 was the best (Windows OS) after 3.11 but 8 and now 10 are a disaster, you lose your privacy, Windows does what it likes with your (YOUR!) computer and the places you visit, etc. etc. etc.!. So a year ago a friend introduced me to Linux Mint… oh la la, lovely. You don’t have to download software, most packages come with the OS, you can start working, watching movies, etc. right away. And then you only need to upgrade your system and all your software gets updated! I am very happy with Linux Mint.

Then two months ago I bought the Raspberry PI 3 and downloaded Ubuntu-MATE. Fell in love the very first day and I will never never go back to Windows. For a short spell I had Wine (trying to hold on to some software) but after the hacks on Windows, I got rid of that. I have all the software I need with Ubuntu and Linux. Long live Linux and Ubuntu, and many thanks to the community that helps so much for us learning, keep up the good work (and I subscribed on a monthly basis donation because you guys so deserve the help we can give). Thanks, from a very very happy Linux user.

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Welcome to the forum @Consu and thank you for contributing :slight_smile:

Thanks tiox, I appreciate the tip!

I started using linux because I was tired of wasting time to keep the pc efficient, antivirus, defragmentation, scandisk, BSOD … with linux the time I step in front of the pc is to do what i want, sometimes even maintenance, but usually after I broke something.

I’m trying ubuntu-mate because, unity is discontinued, gnome-shell needs a little too much resources for my old pc, and mate reminds me of the good gnome2 with which I started.

Initially I did not want to use mate, because:

  • I do not love forks
  • I’m not afraid to change
  • as a classic option there was already xfce
    But now mate is a solid and active project, and how old gnome2 offers some more functionality than xfce (for how I use the pc)

Personal opinion, a strong point but at the same time weak point of gnu/linux is its fragmentation … it would be nice that when the mate project was born, its developers would have agreed with the xfce team to give place a d.e. classic and complete with the strengths of both.

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I chose Linux because Microsoft were making Windows too expensive to own legitimately; and rebuilds would take all day. Never a fan of corporations (company ethos, rather than products) I came over to Linux full time, about a decade or so, ago. I could get a distro on, patched and apps installed in less than two hours; and partitioning the /home directory meant not needing to shift data off the system to do it, either.

I was a fan of Ubuntu until Netbook Remix became Unity. I didn’t like it. Having said that, I did try; I even have the now defunct Ubuntu Phone. Given previous failed efforts at a unified interface/system that spanned desktop and mobile, I wasn’t surprised when Unity was ceased. It’s a tough nut that is difficult to crack.

For some while I was using Mint and settled there, but packages and drivers are a bit behind, and eventually I had to shift back to the Ubuntu fold, particularly for Steam gaming; but Gnome 3 isn’t to my taste. Hence I’m now hoping that Mate will be my new forever distro. Finding it a little hard going as I chose 17.10 rather than LTS, so I’m having a few issues. (for some reason, on 17.04 I went to Firefox, show all downloads, open containing folder, and then Firefox would hang, so I tried 17.10)

So for me, Mate is a nice interface, with a reasonable balance of good looks against performance, and is reasonably up to date.

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I use Linux because it does what I want - how I want it to be done.

I began using it 16 years ago. My job abandoned Windows and Mac 9 years ago.

I got a copy of PC Format UK that had a copy of Linspire on it and my Windows 98 went belly up for like the 5th time that year. I placed the Linspire disc in and the live went up and I just became really curious. Windows 98 took hours to install with no live! I followed a guide online to get UT99 up and running and have not had Windows on any of my machines since.

My kids soon followed. My wife was like the last holdout but oddly enough her job had Fedora machines here and there. Her XP and Vista (laptop) machine went belly up and so she tried Fedora and Linux Mint at the time. Now she is dedicated distro hopper. Currently on Solus on her gaming desktop and Linux Mint on her work laptop.

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I came to Ubuntu to no longer depend on Microsoft and its profit policy. I tested FreeBSD first but it was too complex for me. Then I chose Ubuntu because Dell installs it on some PC.
After trying the different desktops of Ubuntu, I chose MATE because it is closest to Windows 7 and I was able to start working instinctively. The other destops fit better with a transition from Apple or Unix.
In addition MATE is the only environment that allowed me to install a local server Apache / PHP / MySQL without too much difficulty.

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Oh oh! Solus on gaming desktop! I’m just about to try that! I will stick to UM on my laptop, but wanted to check out Solus somewhere for some time now…
Does she use it with budgie? How is the whole thing working if I may ask?