Hi, future new user of Linux here. Am about to switch from Windows to Linux and one of the distros I am considering is UM. Little bit of context, I have an old Lenovo laptop (~ 10 yo) with the following specs:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz 2.40GHz
RAM: 8GB
Disk space: 500GB
The machine is currently being used primarily for lightweight ML tasks using R (RStudio IDE) and Python (Spyder IDE) and in the near future I am willing to install PostgreSQL (and pgadmin). Also, I am using GIS software for geographical analysis (called QGIS). No heavy tasks though, I am using the laptop for testing algorithms, workflows etc before I implement any change I need to my daily used machine (not the one I want to install Linux).
I did a little bit of research, and it seems that Ubuntu has the largest community, which is a big plus and the documentation is solid. All in all, I'm looking for a distro that is stable (i.e., no crushes), is "good" for my needs (i.e., doesn't require a lot tuning from my behalf to install R, Python, drivers etc) and is "appropriate" for my laptop (i.e., will run smoothly and won't occupy a ton of space).
I found this post online, which is relatively recent, so I want to ask again about the relevance of the post today, and if you think UM is "good" for my needs.
I am a happy user of UM. Have been using it for 10+ years. I do not use the applications that you mention, but I see that Spyder and QGIS are available using synaptec.
If you can afford it, I think that the way to be sure about which distribution to use is to install a "new" SSD in your Lenovo machine (save the existing disk) and install and test the distribution that you are curious about. I use this approach to be sure that I know how everything works together.
Good luck to you. I hope that you will communicate your decision here. (The community is very helpful.)
Hi, thank you for the response. That's a good idea to install the OS into an external drive and test if I like it, or maybe instead of spending money on that I could use a VM?
Also, synaptic as a package manager seems to have only positive comments, from what I read online.
Yes, a VM is another good option. BTW, I had been thinking of removing the existing drive and replacing it with another for the test. I think that you would like the performance better than using an external drive.
Maybe installing a Live distro on a USB stick would be a good alternative to buying a new internal SSD for the trial. That way, you could set up a directory on your existing internal disk for any extras that you might want to install/test before committing to a complete swap-out.
Once you've decided, I recommend a "clean" Linux distro install on a new internal SSD (the old disk must be on its last legs, or close), and avoid the hassles of dual boot for MSWin and Linux. Problems always seem to creep in because of MSWin at some point.
Then if you really want to keep an MSWin available as fallback, you could install that on an external USB drive (stick drive?) and access on the files which would be resident on the Linux partitions, which is where they would need to be for your backups to another external drive.
Surely, you can try Ubuntu Mate virtual machine. Besides that, you can download live DVD ISO image of installer, burn DVD or create bootable flash drive. Boot your PC from the installer and select option to try Ubuntu Mate without installation.
I am also a happy Linux user and let me tell you - when you install Linux and wipe Windows off your computer you will have a feeling like you've bought a new machine - that is how much better and optimized the OS is especially Ubuntu MATE.
In this community you will find most if not all solutions that will help you get around the new system because it is gonna be like a re-birth of your system with whole new life and new information so have patience and let the new knowledge seep in slowly, don't rush things and take it easy because learning new OS is a challenge but it is also rewarding
And as for the specs - I have an 8 year old laptop I-5 intel as well, 8GB ram and 256GB storage and I have no problems running Ubuntu MATE, system boots in under 30 seconds and everything is snappy so don't worry 8GB RAM is more than enough for this OS - also, you don't have to but some of us prefer to have separate /home and /root partitions - you can see more about pros here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/142695/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-having-a-separate-home-partition - you have plenty of space on the disk so you can set it up as you like system takes less than 20GB space with full install (you can also choose minimal, but I wouldn't advise you to do so if you want full out-of-the-box set and forget experience)
Thanks for all the good advices. So far I'm still in the "reading stuff" process for any potential downsides with the software I want to use but it seems there is none.
As for the root and home partitions, that's something I haven't done before and I'll definitely have a look in case it offers benefits.
The thing to keep in mind is that if you have a database (you mentioned using R, PostgreSQL, GIS ; large, blobs, transactional performance) and a library of documents (small, variable-size), you might want to consider assigning a dedicated partition (or depending on I/O intensity, a separate disk) to each of those, separate from your OS/root partition.
/homecould stay on the root partition, if you keep task-specific data (DB, GIS, documentation) on each their own partition instead of being sub-directories of your home.
And then again, you could have the /home directory on its own partition, or you could consider something like what I have, which is "generic" stuff stays in the ${HOME} location on the root disk (to ensure primary home is always accessible if root partition is accessible), but I have all the other stuff on a secondary partition, where it may be co-resident with other stuff or dedicated to its intended task focus:
I've been using similar software for quite some time, except for GIS software. So R, Python, and small ML workflows. By that I mean anything from 'traditional' random forest algorithms, multiple imputation for missing data, through to transfer learning for modern-ish neural network algorithms (e.g. using Keras/TensorFlow).
My laptop is much newer and somewhat higher-spec, so the comparison I can provide is limited in that regard.
Ubuntu MATE absolutely crushes Windows 11, except for some tasks in R. I have a feeling that this can be mitigated by building R from source with some compiler flag alterations - I never cared enough to bother with this. In some cases, R is faster on Linux. It's going to be trial-and-error.
One downside of Linux (generally, not just Ubuntu) is the occasional middle finger you'll get from DRM, Microsoft, and/or other software publishers. Weird examples include, say, a game like Destiny 2, where you literally get banned if the server identifies your operating system as Linux. Another weird example; Microsoft took over the NBA's streaming and dropped support for Linux there, too, because of their DRM system.
I kept a Windows partition so that if I ever did encounter a road-block like this, at least I had that partition to boot into ... I haven't used it in the last 5 years.
Thank you for the message. As I said, the laptop I want to install UM is not my primary one. The primary one has Windows installed so I can have the "benefits" of both worlds. But it's good to know some of the disadvantages of Linux, even if those doesn't include productivity tasks.
Thank you for the response. I found it very useful when some one is giving real-world examples of a concept (in this case the partition of the root and home) as I can more easily understand the pros and cons (at least it's helpful to me). Anyway, it is something that I am strongly consider to do.
Hi. Not sure if this was already mentioned. If multiple UI is important to you, then with UM, I have about 9; maybe with Cairo Dock and Latte dock you could have tons of desktop looks.
Also, the UM OS has the Software Boutique where only the most popular apps are included.
The Welcome screen provides a button to install codec, so you can watch DVD's and other things.
Steam lets me play Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 and Osiris: New Dawn, another Windows game. These Windows games run flawlessly and for them to work on Linux just had to click on Properties of the games in Steam, select Proton--simple, a couple of clicks.
Viruses are another reason for choosing Linux--so many eyeballs pass over code that I feel secure, among other reasons like: since Linux is a small share of market compared to Windows, virus programmers are going to go for them; daily updates are another reason security is increased. The OS requires the Administrator password before allowing changes to OS, so that's another huge help.
For all these reasons I think UM is the best OS I have ever found. I gave the OS some money about three times--been using it since 2014, though. Coffee mugs bought, too.
