What brought you over to ubuntu budgie and linux in general?

I’m curious about what brought any of you to this distribution. I started to use linux because of windows 11 but am still keeping a dualboot in case i need anything that requires windows. My old laptop with 2gb of ram is running fine with linux. My reason for converting my old laptop is that windows straight up refused to detect drivers for that particular device. What brought you over?

Simplicity, and no hidden & complicated menus.
Elegance comes second.
And it is faster than Windows !!
: D

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I’ve been using Linux since the 1990’s. Back then I just liked alternate operating systems. I also had a computer running OS2. Every time I see a Windows computer I get very frustrated. I hate the Windows desktop, and I don’t trust it with viruses.

I’ve run most desktop environments. When I bought my System76 computer, it came with Ubuntu installed, which I liked because it interfaced well with my ultra-wide monitor and Ubuntu was the only distro that has the System76 drivers. However, I’ve not been known to be an Ubuntu fan in the past, and preferred to run Arch, Gentoo and a million others. To get Gnome the way I like I usually have to install a bunch of Gnome shell extensions.

I noticed that when I ran Ubuntu-Budgie inside Boxes it seemed to run well, and I see there’s been a lot of improvements and refinements of Budgie since the days I ran Solus. So recently I backed up the whole hard drive onto a terrabyte flash drive and installed Ubuntu Budgie for real.

Now it’s my daily driver.

I like it. There is one feature I wish I could get it to do, which is when you get to the last virtual desktop, you should be able to cycle back to the first. It annoys me that I have to go backwards to get to the first desktop rather than just go right after the last one to skip to the first.

Whenever something annoys me with a distro or DE, eventually I switch to something else, which is a hassle. I hope someone fixes this issue.

I’ve been using Linux on and off for over 20 years, there have been times in the past that I was just running Linux, but then I ended up going back to have either just Windows or most of the time, I would have a dual boot with both Windows and Linux. The distribution that I have used the most for Linux is Ubuntu, because of the community support that exists for it. I like the Ubuntu Budgie flavor because of the layout and the way that it is much lighter and also has the rolling updates that I also like Manjaro having. I’m getting ready to actually have Ubuntu Budgie as my main operating system and then I will be turning my Windows drive into a virtual machine since there is now very little that I need Windows for still.

I wanted to make the switch from Windows to Linux for a long time. Microsoft’s vision of windows did not really appeal to me. Eventually a friend of mine convinced me to make the switch to Linux. I wanted something that was stable and had a big user base, so if I got stuck on something. I would be able to look it up and find an answer.

When I installed Ubuntu I didn’t like the user interface. I tried installing a few different desktop environments and settled on budgie because I liked the way it looked. however I had some really bad graphical issues on Ubuntu even without budgie. I saw that budgie had its own Ubuntu flavor and wanted to try if that would fix my issues. And it did. I’ve been using Ubuntu budgie ever since.

Sincerely, I still don’t understand why Linux being safer, faster, free and aesthetic, there are still millions of people clinging to windows. It is also exciting, one discovers original applications and operating systems. By the way, for those looking for a super cheap and efficient computer, the best is Raspberry Pi 4b with Ubuntu Budgie Pi. Incredible. Obviously it is not for video editing or professional image manipulation. But for everyday life I’m talking about an excellent computer for less than $80. Bonne chance. Au revoir.

I came to Linux (via Unix) somewhat by accident after I retired in 2006. A friend’s son set him up with a home-built Ubuntu build after my friend retired, and he was quickly in over his head because the university where he taught used tightly controlled Windows. I had a spare computer at that point, figured that Linux couldn’t be too much different than Unix, and set it up with Ubuntu so that I could learn enough about Ubuntu to help him out.

Over the course of a few years, I got interested in Linux more generally and began to use it in parallel with Windows. After a decade with Ubuntu, I looked for a disto I wanted to use for myself, and settled on Solus Budgie in 2017. I used Solus Budgie until a few weeks ago. I started testing Ubuntu Budgie when it was in Beta because I was tired of self-maintaining a private Solus eopkg for the Edge browser, and moved to Ubuntu Budgie 22.04 LTS when it was released. Ubuntu Budgie is rock-solid and well maintained. I will almost certainly stick with 22.04 LTS for the next several years.

I use Ubuntu Budgie in parallel with Windows 11 (Dell Optiplex Micros sitting side-by-side), switching back and forth from one to the other during the course of the day, perhaps using one for Steam and the other for e-mail, browsing and word processing. I don’t do anything demanding with either. Both are vanilla builds by design, with minor tinkering to get them to “look and feel” similarly. Because I have both set up more-or-less identically and use the same core apps on each, I can move from one to the other without disruption, and which computer I’m using for which purpose on this day or that is more-or-less random.

I have a Dell Latitude 7390 laptop, currently running Windows 11. I spent two weeks evaluating Ubuntu Budgie for use on the laptop, which is used as a remote laptop at a railroad museum where I spend two days a week, and for travel. Linux battery life continues to be 70-75% of Windows 11 battery life and the laptop runs hotter, despite improvements in the kernel. In my case, battery life and heat are a deal-breaker. I have no plans evaluate again unless there is a dramatic change in Linux battery efficiency.

At this point, I am coming to what I think will be the next fork in the road. I am 75 and decided that I am not going to try to maintain Windows and Linux running in parallel indefinitely, as I have been doing for years. Within a year or two, I am going to slim down to one Optiplex and one Latitude (or maybe just one Latitude), and, when I do, make a choice between Windows and Linux going forward.

So which? I’m not sure yet, but probably Windows, to be truthful.

I realize that I am not a typical Linux user because I use Windows in parallel with Linux. I have no antagonism toward Windows, and none toward Linux. Both work well, in my opinion. I have used roughly 15 operating systems over the last 50 years, so I am somewhat OS-agnostic. I’ve tried to use each on its own terms, for its intended purpose. I simply want an OS that is reliable, well supported and needs as little tinkering as possible, and that has become more and more important to me as I age.

Was already a member of the Ubuntu community and the Unity desktop experiment was was ending and I began using the Budgie DE when it was added to the repository along side of Gnome. When official flavor status was achieved U-Budgie became my OS of choice. I also support the Solus OS project and have high hopes for the Buddies of Budgie project.

The majority of people are not tech-savvy. People have never used anything other than windows or macos and although linux distros are getting friendlier to non-tech savvy folks (Thanks to distros like fedora and pop os) people don’t like the hassle of installing linux, even though it is really easy.

Another thing that needs to be addressed is the community. Man we are toxic! If we aren’t noob friendly, they will go back to proprietary systems, which is not ideal.

And we need to bust many of those myths that linux is a hacking os. I’ve tried many linux distros as a new user last year and i was blown by how user-friendly linux distros were.

What brought me here is my son, he uses a chromebook for school and i figured that a ui that was similar in appearance would be best sense he struggled with pop os version of gnome. As for me i dabbled with linux about 12 years ago with an old emachines and linux mint cinnamon. I was still using windows when i setup ubuntu 18.04 on another system for video editing (kdenlive and gimp for my small youtube channel). Once my son broke his windows install because he clicked on the shiny things the transition began. He hasnt broke things yet though he tries. Game hangs on start so he presses the power button on his tower and the like. Course being 15 and thinks he knows all doesnt help matters. I know at some point he will bork his system we all have done it, which at that point i will post if all the noob friendly aspects of ubuntu really work. Teenager vs ubuntu budgie, the ultimate showdown lol

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Rather than repeat myself, here’s a comment I left elsewhere:

… I’ve been running Ubuntu Budgie 20.04 and I gotta say, I’ve never run a Linux system that I felt I was more productive using. I develop software, I dabble in video production now and then, I do graphical design, I write… For me, workflow is everything and it helps a great deal when, for example, drag/drop functionality is well supported in a desktop environment. Such wasn’t always the case and not too long ago in a distro far, far away it seemed as though Linux devs were stripping out functionality that they themselves didn’t feel was particularly useful. The Ubuntu Budgie and Budgie desktop devs apparently never subscribed to this way of thinking and as such, Ubuntu Budgie is a truly great distro – especially for those who want to use their system to do more than just act like an over-glorified boom box. Ubuntu Budgie has everything I’ve ever wanted in a distro. It’s stable, it’s seamlessly constructed, it’s attractively designed, it’s configurable, it has great theming, it has a wealth of available software apps, it includes great app defaults (which the devs aren’t prone to replace at the drop of a hat)… In short, it does everything I’d expect a modern Linux distro to do.

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In 2016, my 2011 iMac was already long in the tooth. With the encouragement of a coworker in IT (and some spare parts destined for the recycling bin at work), I built my very own PC in hopes of Hackintoshing it - oof! I quickly found out I was in over my head. Ubuntu and Ubuntu Budgie to the rescue. Ubuntu Budgie is very user friendly. I am pleased to read that the Budgie environment is moving forward - yay!

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my old machine was win7, and then had some problem with it.
so i dug out my old amd phenom dual core and started trying linux.
first i found out how to install mint in it, which took some playing around.
and then i found budgie 18. lts, and tried it.

installed perfect on that old thing, with no having to figure how to insert “no apic” into boot for a noob, like i had to with mint.
got tired of a dial-up emulation so i finally got a better used comp and installed 20.04, and been with it since.

i know nothing about command line or programming.
windows point/click type, but i do have the smarts to know where and how with coaching.
i’ve had my few glitches and answers for them here.
this place and OS is great
once i got used to my pinned chrome disappearing and why, i’ve had no problems since.
just re-pin it when it goes.

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Uufff… memory.

It’s somehow windows XP that brought me to Linux. Around 2006~2008 I think, when Vista was still called Longhorn. Not because I was unhappy with XP but because I was « customizing » it a lot for a couple of years already. Patched uxtheme.dll anyone ? For achieving that customization, I used to browse crystalxp⋅net forums, used to install bricopack, rocketdock, rainlendar, KkMenu, and the likes.

And there were many penguins in their icons :smile: actually most of the ressources came from the linux world and were created using free software - in those times I was a heavy user of photoshop and quarkxpress, part of my daily job.

So « customization » habits were the first step that lead me to try Ubuntu, I think it was Hardy Heron.

Meanwhile Linux took a bigger part in my work ( cinema exhibition ) so it became a necessity for me to better understand the « root » :upside_down_face: of the system.

Now is 2022, at home I have zero microsoft system, and at work it’s a mixed world.

Regarding Budgie specifically, the sad end of Unity pushed me to look elsewhere. I was very happy with Unity, which I ran until its official end of life. I did not follow the ESM route though. Budgie - in 2017 - looked to me as the best compromise between ease of use, aesthetic and enough customization without overwhelming options. It also became my choice of trust at work. But I still miss Unity - locally integrated menu, recent files, places and app’s at one click reach in the dash, easy on multi-screen…

Those 3 features exist nowhere else.

Now the future of UBudgie worries me a lot ( gtk4 postponing ) and I must admit the regular official Ubuntu 22.04 became finally enjoyable ( to my weird tastes and after many hours of tweaking… )
The five years ( versus three ) of support are a big deal in my context.

But here is my next homework : installing UBudgie 22.04, beside my actual UB20.04 and U22.04.
My first attempts at trying UBudgie 22.04 are a bit disappointing for the moment ( still the same problems with languages and keyboard mapping when installing… those problems do not occur in regular version. For years. ) BUT it was before the official release AND I couldn’t spend much time on it.

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Ubuntu Budgie is just a really really clean desktop with a lot of flexibility for customization. The look and feel to me is a cleaner and easier to navigate alternative to Mac OS. I have been using linux and windows since the 90’s and just never really could get myself to like Mac.

Over the years, windows has only gotten worse, and linux just kept getting better. I just really did not like the direction Gnome and KDE went. So I started goofing around with Budgie and Mate on ubuntu as well as a couple of others like Elementary OS and another that is not coming to me right now.

In the end I decided to sit down and do the work to make ubuntu Budgie 20.04 LTS what I wanted. I have been very happy. In fact, so happy I have been putting off upgrading to the next LTS. I haven’t done the homework yet to see what all will be involved in setting up the next upgrade to be pretty much the same as what I have. One day…