Just done exactly the same with openSUSE
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Ridcully Jan 20, 2012 11:06 PM EDT |
I remain convinced (as George Gershwin would say) that some forms of progress "ain't necessarily so !" Recently, I decided to move from openSUSE 11.3 to version 11.4........it worked sorta.....but proved more sluggish, temperamental and certainly did lag in starting up......so after making sure that all the latest and best was installed, I returned to version 11.3 and here I shall stay for quite some time. Sure, it is no longer supported by openSUSE (that happened today), but it all works and works extremely well. I seem to have hit independently on precisely the same aspect of the author of this article. I am becoming convinced more and more that software development does not necessarily produce simplicity, speed, stability and pleasant operation by the user. |
| helios Jan 21, 2012 10:19 AM EDT |
We still have HeliOS kids out there still using Mint 8. While no longer supported, it works perfectly for them and they are happy with it. It does what they want it to do, so why upgrade for the sake of upgrade? Heck, I still have a box around the shop still running Ubuntu 9.04 without a bit of problems. |
| Khamul Jan 21, 2012 3:02 PM EDT |
It depends on what you're doing. I like to keep up with the latest versions of applications (LibreOffice, Chromium, etc.), plus KDE keeps getting better and better with bugfixes and features added back. I don't want to be stuck in the past for no good reason. Kernel hardware support keeps getting better and better too. I had to get a USB-to-headphone adapter recently for my wife's laptop as the entire audio system has gone out on it (as well as the USB ports; they keep going up and down), and the adapter I managed to find at Fry's works just fine on it because her Kubuntu distro is new enough. But my laptop has a Mint distro based on a slightly older Kubuntu distro, and it couldn't recognize it. Consumer hardware changes fast. (Aside: this laptop of hers is about ready for the junk heap, but we weren't quite ready to go to the time and trouble to select a new one as she needed it for an audio application ASAP. What do people suggest for economical Linux-friendly laptops? Mine is a Thinkpad T510, but it was issued to me by my employer and I'm not prepared to spend that much for hers. Are the cheaper Lenovos still the best thing?) To get new features and versions, you have to keep up with the latest distros. Or, just to keep up with the latest bug fixes, you have to keep up with the latest distros; this is something FOSS is pretty bad about (but proprietary is even worse): bugfixes and new features go into the same codebase, instead of also applying bugfixes to stable releases and keeping unstable branches for new features, and only releasing the new branches when they're fully tested out and as bug-free as the old ones. However, if you have a single-purpose PC dedicated to a specific task, then yes, there's little reason to update it other for than security patches. I have an Ubuntu (9.04 I think) PC used for running EMC2 from linuxcnc.org, and all it's used for is controlling my CNC machine. I really don't care about it having the latest applications, and it runs Gnome2, which I don't care much for (why does middle-click not vertically maximize a window like in KDE?), but for just running EMC2/Axis on an occasional basis, it's good enough. The only applications I ever use there are EMC2, gnome-terminal, vi, and rsync. |
| JaseP Jan 22, 2012 10:28 PM EDT |
My wife "broke" my installation of Ubuntu 10.04 on my one multimedia HTPC (yeah, I know,... If I had hardened it, it wouldn't have happened, but her title in the house is "The Breaker of Things"). I "upgraded" to Ubuntu 11.10 (Ugh),... Hardly an upgrade,... and I gave Unity a shot, I really did!!! Not an upgrade,... Not in the least!!! I'm making 11.10 into an XBMC installation,... If I can... But, I certainly switched the UI,... Very shortly, after seeing the debacle that was Unity. |
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