Ubuntu is one of the top most used Linux distributions on the desktop and Canonical, the company behind it, has a new blog post up giving some thoughts on the future of Ubuntu Desktop.
In the post Oliver Smith, the Product Manager, goes over various details about the current status. Like how Ubuntu on the desktop has 6 million monthly active users, it's the most popular Linux distro for developers (Stack Overflow) and the most popular for gaming. The gaming side perhaps is a little debatable, as they're guesstimating based on what's inside the "Other" category on the Steam Survey. If Valve showed all versions of Ubuntu, I would imagine it easily is the biggest.
With the changing landscape Smith mentions how the Ubuntu Desktop team continues to "grow rapidly", which is a good sign for the future of it of course as clearly they're investing a lot of resources into it right now.
One thing pointed out is the new installer, which is the same one that Ubuntu Server uses. They say it could enable things like having a laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed with the ability to easily "apply customisations on first boot to create a personalised or enterprise specific installation through device enrollment".
They're also teasing something related to hardware. Noting that there's devices from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Raspberry Pi, other Arm devices and cloud devices but with Ubuntu 23.10 they're "keeping quiet" about…something. So a potential new hardware deal is to be announced at some point.
Other things coming for Ubuntu 23.10 include a modern and performant app store, the ability to customize Ubuntu desktop images, quarter-screen tiling, their partnership with Intel on hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding in the Chromium snap is now making its way to stable, investigations into providing a mechanism for users to manage additional permissions requested by apps, experiments into hardware-backed full disk encryption as an option in the Ubuntu installer, they're bringing Netplan to Ubuntu Desktop to "deliver a more unified experience for those managing Ubuntu across both server and desktop" and continued work on Ubuntu Core Desktop (an immutable version of Ubuntu - think like SteamOS and Fedora Silverblue).
It's nice to see Canonical talking up Ubuntu Desktop more!
See the full blog post for more.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
slaapliedje Aug 26, 2023
They switched to Unity during the initial Gnome-Shell release (can't say as I blame them, Debian and Ubuntu both should have hung out for at least a year on Gnome 2 before 3 became more usable. Though I suppose realistically we should blame that on the Gnome project. KDE had the same issue of course with their large version bump being not great, and the distributions of course want to have the latest 'stable' release at the time.)
I gave it another try once they gave up on Unity to use standard Gnome... except it wasn't standard, they add a bunch of their own extensions to it to make it more like Unity. This means I can either install Ubuntu, go through and disable snap, rip out all the extensions to give me stock Gnome, add in the few extensions I like to have, and then use it... with the distinct possibility that some update will add snaps back in.
Or I could just use Debian. I'll let you figure out what I chose :)
Fester_Mudd Aug 26, 2023
Quoting: EikeQuoting: dziadulewiczBut if you don't like Canonical's choices (which obviously serve their model) why are you keeping with it then? That makes no sense.
Quoting: dziadulewiczMany proclaim "they have left Ubuntu" for something else but keep on talking ill about it
So, to sum it up, if you don't like Ubuntu, you should better use something else (sounds reasonable to me), and when you're using something else, you shouldn't talk bad about Ubuntu (why's that?!?)? How comfortable, so in the end, nobody is talking bad about Ubuntu, no matter what they do!
i think youre purposefully understanding him/her wrong
for me and millions of others Ubuntu is good as is and no OS is perfect
Quoting: Fester_MuddI dunno. That may or may not be what that person meant, but it sure as hell seems to be what they said.Quoting: EikeQuoting: dziadulewiczBut if you don't like Canonical's choices (which obviously serve their model) why are you keeping with it then? That makes no sense.
Quoting: dziadulewiczMany proclaim "they have left Ubuntu" for something else but keep on talking ill about it
So, to sum it up, if you don't like Ubuntu, you should better use something else (sounds reasonable to me), and when you're using something else, you shouldn't talk bad about Ubuntu (why's that?!?)? How comfortable, so in the end, nobody is talking bad about Ubuntu, no matter what they do!
i think youre purposefully understanding him/her wrong
Quoting: CatKillerwell there ya go.Quoting: sprocketb) Push for an immutable operating system, something many of their competitors are doing. I'm not sure if this can be done with snaps (i legit don't know).https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/canonical-planning-an-immutable-desktop-version-of-ubuntu/
Now they just need to make snaps less annoying overall.
Quoting: KimyrielleThe only problem for me is that I went through a lot of distros already, so at this point I am not even sure what to replace Ubuntu with.I'm quite confident we can talk it out. :)
What have you tried recently? What wasn't satisfying?
He invented Linux Desktop and then blew it off.
Quoting: Fester_MuddQuoting: EikeQuoting: dziadulewiczBut if you don't like Canonical's choices (which obviously serve their model) why are you keeping with it then? That makes no sense.
Quoting: dziadulewiczMany proclaim "they have left Ubuntu" for something else but keep on talking ill about it
So, to sum it up, if you don't like Ubuntu, you should better use something else (sounds reasonable to me), and when you're using something else, you shouldn't talk bad about Ubuntu (why's that?!?)? How comfortable, so in the end, nobody is talking bad about Ubuntu, no matter what they do!
i think youre purposefully understanding him/her wrong
I didn't say (and didn't want to imply) anything at all about the quality of Ubuntu. I was solely talking about the right to criticize stuff.
slaapliedje Aug 27, 2023
Quoting: MiZoGMark Shuttleworth giveth and Mark Shuttleworth taketh awayHa, Mark Shuttleworth didn't invent the Linux Desktop. That'd be all of the hard working developers working on things like Gnome and KDE and the earlier ones like Enlightenment, Wmaker, etc.
He invented Linux Desktop and then blew it off.
CyborgZeta Aug 27, 2023
And in case someone asks, "Who still uses a printer?", well I often need to print shipping labels for myself; and sometimes a document along with it.
Quoting: CyborgZetaAnd in case someone asks, "Who still uses a printer?", well I often need to print shipping labels for myself; and sometimes a document along with it.Ha. I do. Not everything can be digitally signed yet. Have to print, sign, then scan. Insurance cards don't get sent in the mail anymore, but they have to be in the car. Gotta print. Have kids? Yeah, you're gonna need a printer. The list goes on.
Now, ask me if I print anything at work anymore. No, no I don't.
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