this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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Ubuntu's popularity often makes it the default choice for new Linux users. But there are tons of other Linux operating systems that deserve your attention. As such, I've highlighted some Ubuntu alternatives so you can choose based on your needs and requirements—because conformity is boring.

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[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 2 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Ubuntu is not even good in my opinion. At least not as a normie Distro.

Yes they have lots of docs online but "it is good because people think it is good" is not a good argument.

If you dont like GNOME I guess you will have a harder life anyways, as Distros with KDE are just a really hard task. Like anything stable is not a good idea, I at least reported 30 bugs that will never get backported fixes.

The fact that appimages are broken on Ubuntu is like the only thing that I completely understand and dont care about. Appimages needs to get their stuff together.

I hope many projects will convert from Appimage to Flatpak

https://github.com/trytomakeyouprivate/Appimage-To-Flatpak

[–] survivalmachine@beehaw.org 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I hope many projects will convert from Appimage to Flatpak

They seem like different projects with different goals. Appimages are portable executables.

Flatpak, to me, is something you install on a system and run with a flatpak runtime that is installed on your PC. I think its a fantastic way to sandbox programs with differing dependencies, but you still install programs and run them on your PC.

Appimage, on the other hand, is a wholly-contained executable. It is less efficient than flatpak in every way if you are installing apps on a system, but it is more portable. I can throw a handful of appimages on a USB stick and carry them from machine to machine (or mount an ISO in the case of VMs). I can plug in my "troubleshooting and development" stick to an otherwise barebones server at my datacenter, fix an issue with a comfortable set of useful apps, then unplug and leave the machine untouched.

Appimage is not a replacement for flatpak, but it has its own purpose. Snap is more similar to flatpak, but inferior in every single way. If we must get rid of one, can we phase that one out?

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 1 points 9 months ago

I mean, in theory you could also put flatpaks onto a usb stick and symlink the directories. But nobody really does that.

But really, I think this could be a cool GTK app.

You would copy selected apps to the stick and include a program, maybe even with a GUI, that can then symlink those apps to the system you are currently using.

[–] Montagge@kbin.earth 4 points 9 months ago

Weird as my AppImages work fine on Ubuntu 22.04LTS

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

why are distros with KDE a really hard task? users who want customizations will have a horrible time with gnome

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That are two unrelated or even contradictory scentences.

Gnome is waaay more reduced, so it has less bugs. It will work way better on stable Distros.

Also because of some things (KDE 4.0?) GNOME became the default Desktop, and Distros orient at its release cycles.

KDE has so many bugs and fixes that I think calling 5.27 "stable" is misleading.

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

KDE is default on some distros and is supported directly as a variant on most major distros so I wouldn't say GNOME is the default.

But my point is that at least some of the appeal of desktop linux is customization, and GNOME will be a disappointment for the users looking for that.

Otherwise I agree vanilla GNOME is rock solid and great for new users!

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I meant "shipping a KDE Distro is a hard task", that should be more clear. For sure, KDE forever. GNOME is either CLI-only (even for basic settings) or install tons of apps that only do one thing (ThE UnIx pHiLoSoPhY) or dont change anything.