Using Ubuntu may give off hipster vibes to the average PC user, but within the Linux community its has the opposite effect.

Sunny' 🌻@slrpnk.net to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 604 points –

hot take?

Edit: got nothing against Ubuntu, it's Linux after all and that's what matters 🌻 Edit2: people took this very seriously for being a shower thought..

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Anyone using Ubuntu is one person less using windows. I call that a win. Everyone has to start somewhere!

Ubuntu was my training wheels 15 years ago

i still use it, from all these years.

thinking of hopping soon tho

Windows is so dominant in the market that not using it is still named after them.

I started on Debian potato and used pretty much every distribution at sone point, often three at a time. I've used Ubuntu for the last five years because it's easy, stable and upto date. I know people get very minmax about their choice of os and I love that but yeah we need to remember when we say it's 'fine' or 'good enough' that yeah it's not race tuned or weaponised or whatever special builds people are making but ita still much much better than windows.

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Fuckin love ubuntu despite knowing it's a cold take. How about that dogshit?

Im of the opinion that the distro is far less important than the Desktop Environment. Ubuntu only really "feels like Ubuntu" because of GNOME.

Most of what differentiates a distro from another is one of:

  • package manager
  • default packages/configurations (including the desktop environment)
  • init system

The rest well… it’s Linux.

I’d argue it’s just the first two. Systemd gets a lot of hate but many don’t notice the difference between distros with or without it

Definitely, I don't really like Ubuntu that much even though it's my go-to. What I like is Xfce. Whether I get it via xubuntu or something else I don't really care.

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Ha same here. I'd try something else but I really just cba to start again on my server and desktop.

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Arch Linux user here to say... Ubuntu's fine, man. Love all the derivatives that can take advantage of the core Ubuntu system (e.g., Mint, which I've installed for family members).

I love Arch. I use it all the time. I will not inflict it on any family members.

And for those of us that love Arch but don't have time for it, EndeavourOS.

Don't have the socks for it*

Eh, I'm at the stage where I'm done with windows and have no desire for osx, but I also don't have an entire evening or weekend to be locked into my computer like I used to. At a certain point, I need my computer to just work most of the time so I can finish my actual work and then spend time with my family.

Arch users are like the car guys who spend all day tuning the engine and adjust the seats on namometer scale. I myself drive an ancient volvo that looks like shit but works great no matter the abuse I put it through. And I use LMDS for the same reason - it does what I need it to do, with no need for manually adjusting compression ratios.

I had a much better experience with Manjaro over EndeavourOS because it supported more of my hardware, but to be fair I'm using an Asus gaming laptop. When I build my next desktop, I'm gonna try a straight Arch install.

the problem with ubuntu is canonical, it's a shame it's got the reputation as "the third OS" when it's basically the only distro that's trying to replicate the walled gardens of microsoft and apple.

It's one rich dudes toy is how I see it. It's a good distro but once I tried to uninstall some things and it wouldn't let me and so that was the end of it for me at home. I use the server version at work for one machine.

I wouldn't describe Microsoft as a walled garden (and Canonical even less). But maybe that term comes with degrees, and different perspectives of what's tolerable.

Windows is less of a "walled garden", and more like a shared garden where the other gardener is really inconsiderate and will mess up your part of the garden whenever it doesn't align with their vision.

Jesus Christ this thread is full of people who don't realize they're the judging hipster in the post.

Ubuntu isn't the entry level distro that you move on from once you've gotten your feet wet, and your not very subtle pats on your own backs for using something different aren't earned.

Does it do everything the user needs from it? If so, don't tell them that they need to "graduate" to a "better" flavor.

For real I started on Ubuntu and nearly a decade later I still would be on Ubuntu if it wasn't for their migration to snaps with the proprietary back end.

for real. my uncle has been programmer his whole life and he was always the most linux guy I've known. I have never seen him use any other os. and yet he uses ubuntu. his own words are thar he doesn't care about all the bells and whistles that come trough distros like arch or gentoo. ubuntu works well enough for him and it's what he is used to, so he uses that.

using ubuntu defiently does not mean you're a noob or non-techy linux user. personally I wouldn't touch it again but the linux culture about arch being superior and others being for noobs is ridiculous

This 1000%. Since basically High School I've been on Ubuntu for the machines I need to work, because at the end of the day it usually does. Some of the people I meet see that I use a Chromebook with the containers enabled and have similar reactions. "How can you use that it's not even real Linux?", as if it isn't literally a Linux kernel. The Steam Deck is popular because you don't need to know Linux to use it, and Ubuntu is popular because you don't need to know a lot of Linux to use it.

Ironically I've tried installing Ubuntu a couple of times in the past, but for whatever reason it didn't work. I'm currently using Debian instead just because the install worked. No idea why, maybe my laptop is just weird.

I used Arch for years because I wanted to learn more about how linux works and it was a good way to push myself. I think it worked because I am better at problem solving now - I even read the error messages lol

All the linux makes me say "do what now?"

I just want to change the settings on my fan. It's been roughly 2 years.

I ran Gentoo for about 3 years (and will likely return soon) and I reckon there are plenty of really advanced Ubuntu users who know more about how my system works than I do.

Any mainstream general purpose distro can do mostly anything and can be used by power users. Some should ONLY be used by power users, but that doesn't make them inherently better than a distro that both a newbie and a power user can understand and use.

You know why I use Gentoo? Literally the bragging rights. I doubt I'm optimizing things THAT much with my fancy compiler flags.

this is so true. just because one can use more advanced systems doesn't mean he's smarter than all the more "basic" system users. especially in the linux world.

all of the distros can pretty much do the same thing, some distros are just more focused on the ease of use.

I still prefer nerdy hipster elitists gatekeepers from greedy corps after all is said and done. The first is unfortunate flaw of human character, the second is a calculated machine. If this is the price to pay then so be it. Individuality often isn’t as nice on the surface as the common but the common often has hidden sinister motives under the comfy, smoothened out rug of user friendliness.

Lonely nerds don’t have PR and marketing teams but also won’t stab you in the back for profit. Sometimes they can be huge assholes though.

The neck beards that judge someone's distro choice without knowing their use cases don't represent the Linux community. Just use the best tool for the job

I'm not convinced Ubuntu is a good tool for many jobs.

To be fair, most tools are pretty bad at all other jobs besides the one it was made for. Same goes for an OS. If Ubuntu is made to off ramp people more comfortable with Windows, then that's just a fine purpose for aln OS.

It certainly doesn't help new users. At least not compared to Linux Mint and others.

I use Ubuntu on most of my servers and dual boot my gaming rig with Ubuntu Desktop mainly to host LLMs. I've been a Linux user for 25 years, I remember playing around with Red Hat pre 2000. Right now though, I want a solid distro that supports lots of hardware (my network consists of x86, ARM, Oracle Cloud, SBCs, etc), has a large community for support, and isn't likely to get abandoned. Ubuntu solves that

Only linux newbies and weirdos hate on Ubuntu. It's a good all around operating system. Not the best choice and Canonical fails a lot but it's still a net good.

Absolutely loving the replies to this.

This is how the extended Linux community wins for me.

Sure we talk shit for fun. The Arch BTW stuff, the Gentoo shade and Slackware side-eye. But its all in jest, ultimately.

Well done.

I have used Ubuntu for years. I'm not a noob by any means, and would consider myself more advanced than most users. I used to love tinkering, but once I had a set of scripts built that set everything up just the way I like it on a new install, the need to tinker faded.

I have recently switched to Debian due to bloat and snaps, but I won't ever judge an Ubuntu user.

I use Ubuntu on my servers because it just... Works, out of the box I can run my scripts and have no issues 100% of the time. On desktops I used to use SolusOS for gaming as that was the only Linux OS at the time I could comfortably game on without many hiccups.

Do you judge me? I use Windows 7.

If the machine still worked, I'd be using Windows XP.

Correct me if I'm wrong,
but I have been disliking Ubuntu because they use:

  • Proprietary pieces in their code
  • Telemetry (spyware)
  • Snap packages by default

And thats fine. You are entitled to your opinion, and your opinion is based on actual things.

As long as you don't denigrate and insult others for using it, or try to pretend you're the superior linux hackerman for not using it, You're all good.

Ubuntu is great. It works.

It also runs like a snail

Hard disagree. I dual boot both Windows 11 and Ubuntu on my main laptop and Ubuntu is usually way faster feeling, except sometimes on shutdown due to some snap or cups bug. Almost everything opens in a second or less, and I get better battery life on Ubuntu as well. My bigger problem is that it struggles with WiFi under crowded conditions.

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I'm rly happy when ppl switch to a GNU/Linux OS, tho I would never recommend Ubuntu to anyone (anymore), since Linux Mint has a much saner no bs team that is not fucked over by a corporate

Or just plain Debian, which is wonderful as well

Use whatever works for you. Don't take selection advice from people that make their operating system of choice a crusade and identity.

Ubuntu is great, until you find a better distribution

Once I learned about Linux Mint, I saw no reason to ever use Ubuntu. It has pretty much all the Ubuntu benefits, without canonical controversy, in an even more “just give me a fully featured desktop OS” package.

And like others have posted, I’m not shitting on Ubuntu or its use. If you like it, no need to mess with what works. It’s still Linux. It’s all good. I just never was a user of it, so I jumped straight to Mint for my last install.

No, Apple gives off hipster vibes to the average PC user. Apple products are basically jewelry, you choose Apple products largely to be seen with them, so that when you slide that phone out of your pocket there's that Apple logo on it. So that your bubble is blue in iMessage. That's hipster shit.

The average PC user has never seen Linux running on a PC and doesn't understand what a "distro" is at all. Ubuntu and its default Gnome DE isn't as easily mistaken for Windows as KDE or Cinnamon is, so this one might spark the conversation a little faster, and "average" Windows users tend to compare Linux users of all stripes to vegans.

WIthin the Linux community, Until maybe 5 years ago Ubuntu had the "beginner OS" stank to it. "Start here until you're ready to edit xorg.conf like a real man." Canonical has been shifting away from "Linux for the masses" and more toward "Leveraging synergies" to the point that I straight-up recommend against Ubuntu for daily use as their Snap ecosystem has a lot of disadvantages for desktop users especially gamers. To me, Ubuntu is a radial arm saw, the wonder do-all death trap grampa won't shut up about that no one makes anymore. In the modern day, best practice is to forget they exist.

How is macOS hipster? Apple products are so damn popular.

Apple's core ethos is "be hip and trendy." They make electronics to be seen with, style before substance. That's 200% hipster shit.

Hmm idk man, anything that has ads playing everywhere 24/7 is not hipster, hipster is unknown, but stylish etc. Hipster is more trendsetter and macOS is not a trendsetter, it’s just a trend at this point. Anything pop by definition is not hipster.

To give a pithy example: macOS is to tech hipsters what hot topic is to goth hipsters

You're giving hipsters way more credit for originality than they have earned.

I didn’t invent the term lol, that’s how it’s been used since whenever

What is the best distro for gaming on Linux?

I can't argue with @Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 's answer of "SteamOS running on the Steam Deck. Beyond that, on normal x86 gaming PC hardware? There isn't a meaningful answer. I have perfectly good luck gaming on Linux Mint. Others prefer Arch or its forks, some prefer Nobara which is on the Fedora family tree.

What's the best distro for gaming on Linux? The one that you keep installed.

Technically, steamOS because it's designed to play games and it's what the steam deck uses. That probably won't have many other non-gaming features though, and I've personally never used it. In my experience, you can get most games without a hyper-aggressive anti cheat working on any Linux distro with varying degrees of effort, just a matter of having all the needed libraries installed! The more popular distros like Ubuntu, popOS, Fedora, even Arch (btw) should have a lot of helpful information out there on how to get Lutris or Steam set up.

Personally, I've been gaming on Arch with minimal issues for 2 years. Mostly stick to steam games for the low effort required though.

I'm a big PC guy, love building my own computers every few years. But, I use MacBooks for when I'm out of the house/traveling. Because windows laptops suck and MacBooks are just good.

My daily driver used to be a MacBook Air running Linux. Apple hardware is amazing, I don't give a shit about the logo on my laptop. I only switched to MacOS for a daily driver when I started working for a company that gave me a MacBook pro so I sold my Air which was just gathering dust.

Apple products are basically jewelry, you choose Apple products largely to be seen with them

that's usually the take of someone who has never actually used them. I'm far from an Apple fanboy - I actually use all OS because I understood a while ago that each has its strengths.

my main machine is a Mac and the reason for that is that it is very reliable. I feel like I can count on it to take somewhere and have it just work and not get stuck in a boot loop, or locked out in the login screen (things I faced with linux distros) or stuck in a surprise update screen with Windows.

of course it's a locked down system with little flexibility and could be expensive, but it pays off in reliability imo. when I want to do some more tricky shenanigans I have a machine with linux, and windows is for... well it's only really worth to play games with for me hehe

tldr I wish all jewellery was that useful

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Ubuntu was my first Linux desktop distro and I’ve been using it for 4ish years. I really liked it but I no longer feel like I can trust canonical after the whole ‘secretly install Firefox snap when installed with apt cli’ thing. It wouldn’t have even been a big deal if they just said it was only available as a snap but the execution pissed me off to the point of switching

Show Ubuntu some love. Ubuntu is the entry distro of many us. But you move on once you grow up a little.

Why would Ubuntu give off hipster vibes? It's literally the default standard for Linux.

Ubuntu is a gateway drug. Its lickable Fisher-Price interface is easy to use for basic tasks like web browsing, email and so on, and the always present sidebar provides reassurance. Once users start chafing against the limitations, they can move to forks like Xubuntu, or all the way to Debian itself, or if they really want to get their hands dirty, Arch.

Or Ubuntu could perform every task they need it to and never switch to anything else.

Exactly.

Ubuntu is wide spread, well documented, and was the recommended distro for a lot of things (like steam) for a long time.

I used Ubuntu for a long time, I didnt grow up and move on or any hipster shit like that.. I simply moved to Nobara because it offered a better out of the box experience for me, a gamer, due entirely to all the gaming related stuff being installed as default, at start.

This weird need to feel superior to others over distro choice is weird, and kinda pathetic. Its just stupid and pathetic to be insulting and denigrating others over their distro choice.. And says a lot more about the pathetic nature of the person saying it, then anything they could type.

and yes, I said pathetic 3 times, because thats just how pathetic it is to be like that.

m8 linux is not for the sort of person who gets panicked about options in the first place, there's an alarming disconnect in this trend towards pretending it's just linux's reputation for complexity that puts people off. There are people in this very thread who don't even recognize that apple is fascist hipster bullshit and almost noone who understands why. What's more, I once heard a grown woman argue she shouldn't have a different opinion than her parents because if it was good enough for them it should be good enough for her. People are fucking monkeys, mate. If linux ever hits 10% market share I'll be amazed. Hell, 5 is a stretch...

As Canonical has been doing nothing but worsening the user experience in Ubuntu for end user desktop use I see "performing every task they need it to" as decreasingly likely.

I use Ubuntu for all my home lab servers unless there's a specific requirement for something else.

I never install the desktop version except when experimenting, and in those cases, I'd be just as happy using any other distro, since those use cases are fairly limited both in scope and duration.

Ubuntu is just the os I put on virtual servers.

Judge me if you want. I really could not possibly care less. I also use Windows on my daily driver desktop.

I'm considering going canonical MAAS for a new deployment of open stack servers which will be replacing my current hypervisors (which are VMware), pushing Ubuntu and OpenStack onto systems for use and probably also using MAAS to roll out future virtual machines in OpenStack.

I like the canonical Kool aid.

Were you able to run headless without installing snapd? I tried and tried, but there was some shared library dependency that always led to me having snapd installed, and after fighting with it repeatedly I found it easier to switch to Debian.

It's really disappointing that snapd has even infected headless installs. I loved Ubuntu on headless, and I still use it as a docker base image.

I honestly don't pay that much attention to what packages are installed. As long as system loads are acceptable when nothing is running, leaving sufficient resources for whatever needs doing.

I don't either, but then I saw snapd mount points showing up. 🙄

I haven't noticed anything yet, but I don't spend too much time looking at mount points.

I use Ubuntu because I have just 2 brain cell

I use Ubuntu because if we want any chance of proper mainstream usability of Linux, this distro is the best bet. And to help my family with it, I need it ready myself.

I use mint because I only have one. It's simple and does everything I want. I don't need complicated linux, I need a web browser and a NAS VLC terminal.

I too listen to the Linux after dark podcast

I was going to post this exact comment because I, too listen to the Linux After Dark podcast.

Everyone that I know that uses linux is using Ubuntu. I'm the wierdo using Debian

You're also the weirdo using singular verbs with a plural noun. An unusual choice for sure.

Edit: wow, thanks for the downvotes. I thought we had moved away from the childish knee-jerk reactions that reddit was famous for.

You can do that in some languages, even in english, just replace "all people" with "everyone". From the usage of "all people" I'm assuming @Siegfried@lemmy.world is a native speaker of a romance/latin language.

Yes, and I always screw up with these kinds of sentences.

So.. you're saying that if we change the word to one that works, then the sentence is okay.

not even a hot take. the only people who seem to hate ubuntu are the hardcore linux nerds who like custom building kernels and shit- which, honestly, more power to them, but i have the big dumb and want click button make work.

Admittedly I don't really like how they're handling packages these days, it's a bit messy with the whole snap vs flatpak vs apt thing, but whatever.

I currently run ubuntu alongside my windows install just because I needed linux to experiment with AI models, and the only AMD drivers that work for ROCm support are Ubuntu only (packages are permanently dependency-broken on other distros).

You could use Linux Mint and there wouldn't be any snaps plus the system will run better

Funny description came up about Linux this weekend from my father in law. He kept referring to Linux as an "aftermarket OS". First time I've heard it out like that, didn't bother responding tbh lol.

It kinda makes sense, most consumer PCs come with either windows or macOS.

It got a lot of press when it first showed up and it was a strong default suggestion for new users for well over a decade.

I used it for several years and I initially jumped ship to Xubuntu, so it was clearly good enough for me to want to use something similar at first. The distro-specific changes (snaps, etc.) are more likely to alienate experienced users, whereas new users are less likely to object to things like snaps.

I don't use anything Ubuntu-based these days, but it has everything to do with my specific needs/preferences. Nothing directly to do with the decisions that get bad press among long-term users.

Imagine thinking people view you as a hipster for using Linux.

A friend of mine has been looking to upgrade his gaming rig since its pretty old and low budget. Still even has Windows 7!

The build he's looking at has Ubuntu. I'm excited to welcome him into the Linux community.

It’s Debian based so gets a pass, so long as it’s headless.

What's wrong with Debian?

absolutely nothing, it's my preferred distro (and I have the grey beard to match). what I mean is that despite not using Ubuntu (or honestly even liking it that much), I give it a pass since it's the offspring of my preffered flavor.

Nothing, it's just a touch harder to use? I mean I use it on a old netbook and it works just fine. Did a net install and then loaded LightDM + MATE... Oh ... Yeah, there ya go, not quite as easy as Ubuntu. Still amazing for servers.

bingo, I enjoy the stabilty and simplicity for my servers but I wouldn't run vanilla debian for a desktop. ironically I tend to use Linux Mint for desktop which I guess is a grandchild then, since it's based on Ubuntu :). oops, I use LMDE, not Mint.. forgot that I switched a while back since it's directly debian based.

How do you like it? I wish they had a MATE version 😢

does the job I suppose. I don’t use desktop enough to have any useful thoughts about it. I like that it’s a decent gui over what I’m used to.

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I used to use Ubuntu up to 12.04. By the time the support ended, the new versions had the Unity desktop, I didn't like it, so for a while I switched to Crunchbang (may it rest in peace), and now I'm using Mint Cinnamon. Some of my developers are using Ubuntu with Unity. Everyone is free to pick what suits them; I'm not one to judge them.

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You pick your OS based on vibes?

Some people develop OS based on vibes. Looking at you Hannah Montana OS

Thank you! I can finally fill the void that vibeless OSes have left in my soul.

All joking aside, it does raise a good point.

There are many things that can be objectively analyzed and it might not be a good idea to choose them based off of vibes. When you're designing those things it's still a good idea to take vibes into account because people will ignore all that and put googly eyes on their 3-D printer.

it's Linux after all and that's what matters

I agree it's a good OS to use, and it is Linux, but there are layers and layers of what's good for the user and the community.

I think there will always be layers of "this could be done better," and "that's in someone's selfish interest rather than for the best of the users and community. Or at least layers of being better for some people and worse for others. Ubuntu has some of those layers - though I'm always grateful for the good they've done the community - and other distros surely have some too.

My first Distro was OpenSuse. idk. even why anymore, but maybe already because of KDE. I just never got warm with Gnome and to me KDE feels easier to get a grasp off, when coming from windows.

I have a lot of love for OpenSuse. Back in my teenage years, I used it and Ubuntu a lot. zypper is the best package manager, and YaST made configuration easier since I didn't know config files yet.

Please clarify if you would. What is a "hipster vibe"?

Generally today a hipster is someone who jumps onto social trends they don't know anything about because they are different from the norm. Often the idea is that they don't care about the thing itself, but rather just being perceived as different. But I'm a long time linux user, and in my head if a hipster is going to try linux it's way more nuanced, like real hipsters (and real linux users). You'll have the dude who tries ubuntu just so he can say "i use linux" to his friends with Macs. You'll have the dude who asks his bandmate who's been using linux for a long time, so he tries Debian, but then gets frustrated and stops, because the "cool factor" isn't enough. And then you'll have the hipster who goes like all in on NixOS or something and makes it their entire identity for awhile. I use arch btw

I hadn't thought about hipsters in like, 15 years or something. But I like the idea of thinking of Ubuntu users as Jazz connoisseurs.

This isn't "jAzZ", it's post punk new wave deep house acid fusion. You've probably never heard of it.

Non-Linux users: "Ubuntu looks so hard to use!"

Beginner Linux users: "Ubuntu is the best desktop distro."

Linux Hobbyists: "Ubuntu sucks, I use Arch BTW."

Linux Professionals: "Ubuntu is the best desktop distro."

I was a CentOS-man for a number of years. But Linux is for servers and hobby projects in this house. MacOS is my primary driver. Still mad at IBM / Red Hat.

I went to kick the tires on RockyLinux, but then realized I don't have any projects in mind and asked myself why bother. It'll be my first choice when the time is right again.

since when is ubuntu hipster 😂😂

Since the offer for a free personal subscription to Ubuntu Pro when doing apt update. That's the terminal equivalent of going to a microbrewery and seeing they only sell $8 IPAs.