Thinkpads Forum

Normally, I would just roll with Ubuntu but since they raped the GUI I can't do it.

So recommend me a debian compatible distro.

Oh, I dis-like LinuxMint also. There's just too many variants and I don't really understand the whole Cinnamon/Kate thing.

I'd prefer a something as close to Gnome 2.x as possible. Gnome 2.x was [censored] near perfect. Why they ever changed it, I won't know.

ArchLinux might work, but is it .deb compatible? They use pacman if I understand this correctly.

Oh more ranting: KDE4. Why you so ugly?

Why do people have to mess up GUI's? Gnome 2.x and KDE 3.x were perfect.

Hold on my music stopped. I have to flip the cassette to side B so it can play again.

Get off my lawn!

As much as I have reservations about where Ubuntu seems to be heading to, I still think it's one of the best Debian-based distro because of the support you may find for having a relatively large userbase, among other things.

Can you still snap GNOME 2.x on the latest version...? Or one of the LTS version has it as default...?

Cheers.

For good looking, but NOT normal GUI's take a look at
Macbuntu
http://sourceforge.net/projects/macbuntu/
Or
Zorin
http://zorin-os.com/

Uunderboi, my son has an X30 running Macbuntu, and uses it several times a week, he loves it.

I made up my mind that I was not going past XP Winbloze's and am currently using Zorin on a Z60t, it flies.

YMMV
Ron

I am going to contradict myself here.

I downloaded and setup Linux Mint 14 KDE in a VM.

I really like it. I also like that it is based on Ubuntu and should be compatible with a lot of software written for *buntu based distros. Heck I was able to import my bash shell profile from my old laptop with no issues. Now to get conky working.

I did not like KDE 4 at first when it came out, mainly because I did not fully understand how Plasma works. But I get it now, and I like it.

So it looks like I'll be a Mint Man for a while.

Thanks all to those who responded.

Temetka wrote:Normally, I would just roll with Ubuntu but since they raped the GUI I can't do it.

They didn't rape the GUI, they just modified it heavily and made it their own. Ubuntu is my distro of choice. If you want to have an enjoyable linux installation that using using the bloated unity setup then just install ubuntu server 12.04. Install the packages and configure your own gui yourself.

I setup desktops with ubuntu server 12.04 and LXDE. Its a nice lightweight interface that looks clean and runs smoothly.

Trent,

You are right. I could've done that, and I did consider it. But really my whole view towards Ubunutu lately has been, meh. I don'tlike them, but I don't dis-like them either.

If I had the time to dink around and put together a nice linux box instead of just slap a distro in and go, I would have chosen ArchLinux.

I dunno man, maybe I am just getting burned out on the whole IT thing altogether. I don't want to fix servers. I want to run a team of people who fix the servers. From a sandwich shop, at 11am on Tuesday. Then go the the gym and call it a day by 2 maybe 3 if I am feeling extra frisky.

I am really enjoying KDE 4.6 though. Very snazzy.

So as pretty as KDE is, I just couldn't roll with it. I miss my Gnome 2.x.

So I did the next best thing. I installed LinuxMint 15 Cinnamon. Awesomesauce.

XFCE is quite close to Gnome2 so you can use that instead...

Or MATE...which is basically a continuation of the Gnome2 project.

Mate looks interesting.

Time to create another VM.

Thanks for the Mate info, mate!

Loving it.

I also discovered that Linux Mint 15 support HTML5 login windows. Some of them are animated. I know it's just a gimick and no one stares at the login window for hours on end, but I do think it's really cool to have an animated login window.

You should give Arch a try. Back in 2008 and 2009 I was a Ubuntu user, but I got so fed up with it, that I went back to Windows 7.

Year later, I installed Arch linux and never looked back. And I do mean 'never'. The customisation I made back in 2010 are still here with me in 2013, and I never have to worry about losing it during system update (which was a plague in Ubuntu), cause Arch is a rolling release.

If you are somewhat weary of building an Arch installation from the ground up in text mode, you can always go for BridgeLinux which is Arch with all the usual stuff already in.

And in my opinion, apt-get does not come close to pacman/yaourt. Almost every linux program ever written is available to you with just a short install command. No manual compilation, no manual file copying throughout / tree, and no mess of left-behind files once you don't need a program anymore.