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Comment by facorreia | Hacker News Reader

I fixed it by switching to Mint. I'm liking it so far.

Is there a fixmint.com? Apparently one is needed: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2013-...

I've been running Mint for over a year now and I'm pretty sure that xorg, kernel and firefox have had updates in that time.

On my current Linux Mint install (which is less than a year old and not heavily customized), my /etc/apt/sources.list.d has the following line:

    deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security main restricted universe multiverse

I'm not sure about the bootloader, but I'm pretty sure I've gotten kernel, X and Firefox updates between major releases.

I'm going to say this person's working with outdated or incorrect information, and/or security.ubuntu.com somehow got removed from his local installation.

I don't understand what's the complaint here. I'm not familiar with Mint, but if Mint is using upstream versions of Linux kernel, Firefox and Xorg, I can see that only as a good thing, since I have more trust in upstream core developers of these packages then in Ubuntu or any other distributions "hardening". Just remember the Debian OpenSSH security fiasco where Debian "fixed" the security flaw in upstream OpenSSH and made all its users vulnerable.

My interpretation of that thread (I don't know any more than what is written there) is that Mint turns off security updates for those packages. There's no mention of them using another source for updates. AIUI, there are no updates.

It's so depressing that I need to keep on devoting mental energy to Linux environments. When I use Windows or OSX I don't have to keep on guessing on what-the-what is going on.

Then I go back to Linux for something and everything I used to know is now completely useless.

I'm pretty openly not a Linux desktop user, but come on: if Windows hasn't rearranged core functionality in the XP to Vista/7 transition, and again in the 7 to 8 transition, and again (less so, but noticeably) in the 8 to 8.1 transition, then I don't know what your standard is. (Apple's been better about it following the initial iOS-esque feature landings, but that, too, was disruptive.) Conversely, Ubuntu's operated roughly the same way since Unity initially landed, and if anything, has become more coherent. I can't speak to other distros, but I doubt it's been a radically different story there.

I really haven't noticed a big difference between XP to 7. The control panel things moved around a bit, but the settings were all still in the Control Panel (and you could get the classic view back easily), and I had to figure out how to right-click on things "run as Admin". My son just hopped from XP to 7 and he's been having zero issues.

I admit I haven't gone to Windows 8. I owe myself a new laptop and I just have this feeling of dread about that.

As someone who recently had little choice but to start using 7, I can say that the differences between XP and 7 are vast, many, and annoying. Some can be fixed with Classic Shell, some by a few choice changes to settings and appearance, but some are just features that were removed.

As I get more experience in 7, I am finding it more painful. It might be one particular implementation where any attempt to bring up network settings resulted in nothing happening, not even an error message.

Also, clicking on the "volume" icon should not bring up a spinning blue circle, not even for a millisecond.

I just might get chased into a MacBook or whatever they are called these days. And I don't like Apple very much right now so that's something.

XP->7 was probably way easier than doing it with Vista as an intermediate!

I actually used Vista on one machine for years. I never saw the usability problems that UAC caused, but I appreciated the security aspect of it so I didn't mind being bugged when trying to change my IP.

Have you considered giving FreeBSD a try? I do most of my work (development) on Windows, but the times when I did use Linux, I felt much the same way you do. Then, last summer, I decided to give FreeBSD a try; I loaded it up into a VirtualBox on one of my Windows machines and was amazed at how simple and clean it felt compared to Linux, and I've found the FreeBSD community (the forums, mailing lists, etc.) to be extremely helpful while learning my way around.

Surely this comment must be satire...

Is it much mental energy to take a couple of minutes to just pick one?

I had to expend a lot more mental energy last time I tried to use modern Windows, and has OS X got a maximise button yet?

--edit-- I'm not trying to say "My OS is better than your OS" because we all know where that leads. I just don't think anything is perfect and it likely comes down to what you're used to.

And then I find out that all the old ways I had of managing the box are out-of-date. /etc/ files give way to gnome-config-* gadgets, and don't even get me started about sound.

Yeah, sound on Linux can still be an absolute arse, which is surprising to still have to say in 2013. I have no idea how to make my system detect headphone insertion and switch output without a bunch of manual steps. That said I've had problems trying to get windows doing 5.1 sound over HDMI too.

Gnome configs are only an issue if you still use gnome :)

In general things are moving to a more "it's all done for you" way of doing things, with less reliance on config files and unix file permissions and more dbus, service-oriented stuff. Personally I'm not a fan of because when things go wrong they go wrong in very, very opaque ways (try using the 'slim' display manager on Ubuntu 12.04 if you want an example).

At some point someone will probably come up with "CurmudgUX" for people like me that think the new levels of system-component integration will only lead to future pain, avoiding systemd, dbus et al. Guess we'll see.

> Gnome configs are only an issue if you still use gnome :)

See, that's the problem. The old system is abandoned and I have to decide "is it worth learning the brand new system?" Keep in mind this brand new system will not be used in 5 years, either.

I also don't sit around watching the forum discussions so when someone says "oh you need to uninstall gnome and install farknootz" I just say huh.

Gnome isn't abandoned, but it took a controversial UI direction, much like Win 8.

On Linux at least we have choice.

ahem Windows 8 ahem

well, but it's free!

I fixed it by switching to Xubuntu - very happy with the desktop. From my PoV it's the best of Ubuntu but without the gimmicks.

Lubuntu is pretty good too.

Check out Mint XFCE; in my case it was the most suitable distro/flavor. Simply because of the lowest number of additional overrides and configuration I had to do to make it comfortable for use.

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