Comment by lwhi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lwhi | Hacker News Reader

I was considering going the other way - but after reading this, maybe I'll stick where I am.

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One thing that does seem a bit odd:

>"I'm a long time Ubuntu user, but this time I decided to go with Debian. Why? Mostly because our servers are Debian and because latest updates of Ubuntu have mostly focused on breaking the desktop environment."

vs.

> "Do I miss something? Sure. Even though Linux in modern times mostly works out of the box, there's still slight issues with external displays, for example I can't set the 30" Dell monitor at work to be the only display without doing some xrand magic. I guess that's really the only thing I'm missing from OS X, a sane and automatic way of handling external displays."

I'm a bit sick of hearing this meme perpetuated. Give Unity a chance ... in fact, the author's main gripe about Debian is resolved in a really fluid way by Ubuntu + Unity. I think Unity's multi-monitor support is one reason why it's worth sticking with.

What's so special about Unity's multi-monitor support? I didn't realize there was such a thing. As far as I can tell, Unity sits well above the layer that causes most multi-display issues.

Once you've got multiple displays, Unity/Compiz can do stuff to make working with them nicer; e.g. switch windows from one to the other and various other stuff. But if one of the connected displays flat out does not work or displays the wrong resolution, rotation, or whatever, Unity/Compiz usually are not to blame and can't really do anything to help you.

> I'm a bit sick of hearing this meme perpetuated. Give Unity a chance ... in fact, the author's main gripe about Debian is resolved in a really fluid way by Ubuntu + Unity. I think Unity's multi-monitor support is one reason why it's worth sticking with.

I've used Unity on my desktop for a six months or so, but I just wasn't compatible with it.

The display issue is more of an issue of drivers or something similiar: The issue I'm having with my DP-connected 30" Dell is that I can't make it being sole display without first disabling laptop's internal screen with xrandr. If I keep my laptop display on, the screen works as a mirror or secondary screen just fine.

Now this might work in Unity, but unfortunately I've got no way of testing it.

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