The customer is an adult with no so much love with computers and don’t understand about computing. She has a very small business and needs to send emails to customers above all and manage lots of photographies to show the clients. Sometimes make use of printing, pdf reading (I would install okular) and maybe writing (a least exporting) some text processing and eventually calc.
Also she’ll be using for home stuff like youtube, web searching and music listening.
Her notebook is “new” but actually it has technology like about 4 or 5YO, needing something with low resources consumption. It has Ubuntu 14.04 and it is really slow.
So I was thinking on Lubuntu but, as XFCE, looks a little ugly. So I was wondering in installing UM which looks great but how about the future of it? If I have to install another dist because of the “dead” of UM she will blame me and then I’ll have to install another dist for free.
UM is my daily distro now and my knowledge on linux is on Ubuntu and Ubuntu’s flavours; so if she needs support I’m unsure if I can support her on another dist not based on Ubuntu.
If I install her UM 16.04 there will be no problem in updating or upgrading to 16.10? What will be the changes?
The Mate desktop is here for the long term as is UM. so, even if your customer were to ever change distros, she would still always be able to find one with the Mate desktop installed on it. So, my adivce is to install UM.
In my opinion Ubuntu MATE will be the future distro king (if it’s not already). If the pc has at least 4GB RAM then Ubuntu MATE will be fine. Also better choose the x64 download, because the customer may want to install google chrome, or viber or something else that has only 64 bit support nowadays. I would choose lubuntu or xubuntu 32bit only if the pc has 2GB RAM or less.
Probably it’s better not to upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 16.10 as it will have only 9 month support and you will need to upgrade again to 17.04, 17.10 and 18.04 (apart from the extra work you will need to do for the upgrades, the new versions of ubuntu might introduce some new problems). Ubuntu MATE 16.04 has support until April 2019 so leave it with the default option to upgrade only when the next LTS is released, that would be in 2 years Ubuntu MATE 18.04 (automatically upgrade will be offered only after 18.04.1 is released).
Yes, I know. I just tried to say XFCE because of Xubuntu.
I don't remember the specs right now but I guess it was AMD dual core, 4 RAM, and HDD.
People, she had Ubuntu 13.x awfully installed from the market that sold it plus it couldn't be upgraded. Then I installed 14.04 but Firefox was extremely slow. I had to install Chrome there and it did magic. But the overall system is slow (everything 64 bits).
I know that Lubuntu would be okey in that system but she'll have something ugly and I prefer that people surrounding her not telling her "That's Linux? It's ugly!" Then she blaming and complaining for another system like Windows 7 and it ends up beeing something negative to me because they will say "this guy installed that crap, let's choose another guy instead".
And from 16.04 to 18.04 you think there can be any problem? Because I want that system stable. She has thousands of files of her work (which obligate me to use another distro not using this version of Caja for backups and moving her files). I guess she won't be moving a hundred of files at a time but she'll probably be doing it with picture files from cam and phone. She call me two days ago telling me she has a virus on her computer and the same on her android phone. I really doubt it.
I'm convinced of UM but I want to be convinced that it is ok for customers too!
Well, usually there are no problems when you upgrade an LTS Ubuntu version to the next LTS (that’s why the upgrade is offered after the first point release, so that most problems have been fixed until that time). But even if some problem occur, it will be just 1 upgrade in 2.5 years so you will be able to spend 1 or 2 days to find some simple workarounds or fixes. And, after all, askubuntu.com, google and Ubuntu MATE community will always be here, so maybe the customer will be able to fix simple things with some search (make sure you tell to create accounts so that she can ask questions whenever she wants).
You might even want to consider installing it with a separate /home partition, so that the personal files can be kept even if a clean install is needed (I never use separate partitions but many people recommend it).
Okey thank you Mr Apostolou (are you Greek right?). I was just doubtful because UM s relatively new. If this will have support I can feel relaxed.
Unfortunately, she can't have an account because she doesn't speak English and the Spanish forum I think is not that big. Yet, she wouldn't know what to ask on anything relating to computing.
I always make at least 4 partitions: /boot, /root, /swap and /home. Sometimes /var and or /var/log and /tmp.
My system has all those distributed across different storage devices but you can't apply that to a laptop.
I'm not sure if thoughts forum should have a Solution/Solved what should I do?
Just throwing my hat in here; Ubuntu MATE will be a stable, rock-solid desktop experience even between updates. But I do not know where you get the idea that XFCE is ugly; I find Xubuntu to just work as well as Ubuntu MATE, being a good balance between advanced functionality, aesthetics and simplicity, using a similar, albeit dated legacy desktop.
The only advantages with Ubuntu MATE I see presently is the lack of out-of-the-box issues, helpful distro-specific programs and information this community provides above the noise of the hugbox. I’ve had sound issues with Xubuntu previously that Ubuntu never had, but I managed to fix those before, and I do not believe those same issues exist in Xubuntu today.
So really, either option is nice and provides a good, firm foundation that will never change, but Ubuntu MATE provides more familiarity and customization to the end-user.