Why I don't recommend Ubuntu anymore

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00:00 Intro
00:29 Sponsor: Get maximum MS Office compatibility with OnlyOffice
01:24 The Golden Age of Ubuntu
03:02 Abandoning the Desktop
04:38 The Desktop Problem
06:45 The Apps Problem
09:27 Ease of Use
10:50 Ubuntu is still good
11:56 Sponsor: Get your Linux laptop or desktop!
12:28 Support the channel

Ubuntu was glorious, back then. It single-handedly turned the Linux desktop from something that was only usable by really knowledgeable people, into something that was really accessible to the masses, even then.

Then in short succession, they dropped Unity, version 7 for the desktop, and version 8 which was meant to be the successor, that brought convergence between device type, they dropped Mir, their display server that was meant to replace X.org and be an alternative to Wayland, and they basically settled for GNOME 3.

Ubuntu has a desktop problem. Since it basically abandoned the leadership of the desktop to the community, it also doesn't seem to anticipate things very much. Which means that the extensions they apply to GNOME pull them backwards.

Waiting 6 months to get what everyone else has sucks, and you get a Frankenbuntu mishmash of versions of apps and libraries, that can't really be as stable as having the whole lot on the same version number.

Ubuntu also has fixed repo versions for apps, desktop environments, and libraries. Only security fixes come through, apart from a few apps, like web browsers. This means that this frankenbuntu is locked in place. If you use 22.04 LTS, you're never getting the full GNOME 42 in your repos.

Ubuntu also has an apps problem. Ubuntu pushes Snaps, their own containerized solution.

On the desktop, Snaps have issues. These issues were shared in the past by other similar formats, like Flatpak, or Appimages. But nowadays, it's really, really late to the party. It doesn't support dark mode integration. It doesn't integrate with themes. it doesn't offer a way to solve these issues, contrary to Flatpak and the Flatseal app for example.

Because it uses fixed repos, without feature updates, it needs a way to bring application updates to the desktop, and this way, is supposedly Snaps. The issue is, the snap store doesn't seem to have as many desktop apps as Flathub has, and snap as a solution is getting increasingly outdated, slow to launch, and less well integrated than Flatpak. It's also being aggressively pushed to Ubuntu users, and this impacts downstream distros, for example, Canonical decided to only ship Chromium as a Snap, which meant that other distros, like Linux Mint, had to take on the burden of packaging and maintaining it themselves if they didn't want to adopt the snap version.

Ubuntu is still very easy to use. But its crown in terms of "the easiest distro for beginners" is long gone. Nowadays, plenty of options are better than Ubuntu for complete Linux beginners.

Linux Mint has a relentless drive to keep working on what made Ubuntu great in the first place: everything must have a GUI to configure it. Zorin OS does as well, **even though its GNOME implementation is also a frankenbuntu, or frankenzorin or whatever.**

These 2 options alone are, in my opinion, much better for beginners than Ubuntu. They have more quality of life features, like built in accent colors, more configuration tools, and they support more software, plus all the software made for Ubuntu.

[TheLinuxEXP]

Turns out I missed that Ubuntu 22.04 will actually use GNOME 42. Doesn't really defeat my point, as it hasn't been current for a while now, and it still doesn't have updates to most of its apps, but mistakes need to be addressed :)

[undercoverduck]

I remember installing Ubuntu (one or two versions before the introduction of Unity) on an old computer as a kid (11 or 12 yo). I was so proud of myself, because it was quite some work & lots of learning. But still, just goes to show how user-friendly it all was. The first pre-teen accessible Linux distro.

[jimbroen]

From my perspective the idea that Ubuntu chooses a version of Gnome and locks in for an extended time is an advantage. Fewer changes translate into fewer problems.

[ContemplativeCat]

This video wasn't just a good critique of the current state of Ubuntu, it made me think about and appreciate just how much influence Ubuntu has had over the years and how much it has changed the desktop Linux space for the better. So, even if it's no longer the king, it has changed things for the better and now that change is a permanent part of the culture in the Linux world, and that is a success story in itself.

[pixelpusher]

Glad you posted the video. I’m still a noob running LTS 20.04 and I love it. I had a 2011 iMac with SSD and 32 G ram that was unfortunately no longer supported with Mac OS 😩 so I installed Ubuntu and it was a JOY 🤩like getting a new computer.

[WolfRites]

Aw man, I still really, really miss Unity. Ubuntu really haven't felt the same since they dropped Unity. Like their entire focus shifted to IoT/Server, and user experience/desktop is more an afterthought these days.

[Jacksaur_]

Kubuntu seems to avoid most of the Ubuntu drama for me, but the slow encroachment of Snaps (replacing Firefox by default is scummy!) is certainly worrying.

[Jacob]

I started off with Linux Mint 7... Wow that feels like an eternity ago. I haven't used Ubuntu on a desktop since 10.04 but still run an install as my main container server. Server edition is dependable enough.

[ea.charles]

I'm using Zorin OS as my daily driver, which is based on Ubuntu. Got introduced to Ubuntu back in 2007 in my first year "Intro to C Programming" course. This is a balanced review without question, but too many people in the Linux community are inflicted with fanboyism and elitist superiority complexes. Basically, just use whatever you are most productive on and don't feel like you have to explain. All the other stuff is just inconsequential side-issues.

[saurav]

As someone who uses Ubuntu 20.04 as daily driver... I really feel most of these issues apply to a lot of people who don't have to work with a lot of other students or engineers. If you're in a relatively green dev team, we need compatibility and machines to be as similar a possible to debug issues... Specially in pandemic times when we can't go over and see into other persons workstation. We still use ubuntu 20.04... honestly i wouldn't even bother using bleeding edge versions... Some of our workstations still use 18.04 cause of stability and support.
And i don't see myself using Arch or Manjaro simply because of lack of support and troubleshooting. Ubuntu still wins for me just because of the community size and support.

[victorynwokejiobi]

In my opinion I would say "no distro is the best" each come with their own flaws, and uniqueness as well. Besides, the distro you choose to install on your computer should depend on the task you intend to carry out with it. If any distro don't fit into the task you need it for, you can take it off and instal something else to fit your needs. I think I prefer that mindset rather than throwing shades at different Linux distros.

[HansJLarsen]

Comment to the sponsor: Onlyoffice is fine if you work and speak one of the major languages. However, it falls significantly behind libraoffice when it comes to minor languages. Menus are not translated, date and time can not be set to my local settings, currency can not be set correctly. In addition, I now lost two important spreadsheets within the 10 minutes I tested the program just because they were on a webDAV server. The program looks great, Libraoffice is just more mature.

[Destide]

Remember my first uni project as a sound designer was to design a full replacement for Windows system sounds. I used Ubuntu as an inspiration. I had to use Windows back for udk and max but Ubuntu really caught my imagination and I always went back to it when I didn't need those tools.

[shotophop]

I started with Linux Mint some weeks ago and I already feel very comfortable with it. It is like using windows in a cleaner, more customizable way with the option to get into the terminal-knowledge any time (etc.!). Everything is nicely explained or windows-like and also can be very nice to look at if you customize it, which is also important for me. I find every programm I use on a daily base. I also installed windows in dual boot, (which didnt work out at first, but then, after Mint updated, it just worked for some reason - it kinda fixed itself) but never used windows yet for now, which speaks for itself... I tried Ubuntu with gnome desktop, but I didnt really like it and it also didnt feel as customizable to me. I would recommend Mint (y)

[arvetemecha]

Just my opinion: on my workstation I tend to choose some kind of compromise between install a LTS rather than a rolling release, and choose a "light" desktop like xfce or lxde (or whatever suits your preferences). I've been using GNU/Linux distributions of all kinds since 1996. At that time I discovered Slackware (the whole distrib took a few 3.5" floppies), no desktop (unable to run Xfree86 on my old AMD K6 for a while), plain old terminal, and a bit later RedHat 4 (the one that came with the book, a boot floppy and a CD, "simple" text/ncurses installer which could detect quite well my SoundBlaster audio device and guess the X11 server configuration). We used to spend days/weeks to learn how to build a usable kernel, just configuring a point-to-point connection to my first internet provider was a challenge using a serial 28KBauds modem. First browser: text mode lynx and then NCSA Mosaic. Loading the simplest HTML web pages could take almost a minute. But I was so fed up by the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" of MS Windows when I had to learn to code in C/C++ that I never wanted to reinstall MS Win95 and successors on my PCs. I spent my fair share of nights and days trying out any distributions (Debian, RH, Mandrake, Gentoo, Suse...) and was more attracted to tweaking and fiddling with them than being productive. Now I just need something reliable, no need to support some fancy hardware but rather working out of the box on a 4 year old mid-range PC. And XUbuntu 20.04 simply does the job (as many others would do), even if it's far from perfect, it can run my rather bloated "corporate" IDE, a bunch of text/graphic/audio applications, scanner/printer, allow me to connect easily to lots of electronic devices/microcontrollers (Arduino, BluePills, RP2040, ESP32, etc.) and have fun with lots of home automation projects.

[BrianTafoya]

I am a long time Linux user (Since Slackware was on diskettes!) and have shifted around desktop distros. I am quite happy with Kubuntu at the moment, being it contains the goodness of Ubuntu without snap and the KDE Plasma desktop is quite powerful.

[ushabuntu]

I tried other distros, but Ubuntu LTS versions are always leading in my book. Also, now with Flatpak, all I do is install everything as flatpak and enjoy the stable updates and everything just works.

[PKM]

Linux pros keep dissing Ubuntu but even when I switched to pop os I had some problems, a lot less than on other distributions like Mint, but still. I haven't had any major ones on Ubuntu and the stuff pros talk about is not something that has an impact on my usage of the system. I'll keep using it and recommending it to other noobs.

[RAZR_Channel]

I have 0-Zero problem with them looking to make money on this… but the use of force into an inferior/start up type elements such as snaps… Is no different than forced Windows updates. In my control panel I can see them pushing a premium whatever… And snaps updates are looking pretty forceful while at the same time taking away functionaliy that was previously there…

[mjp]

Ubuntu's delayed release of things like the latest Gnome is on the other hand an advantage as it allows them to iron out problems.