Abstract

• Ubuntu’s interface is completely different from Home windows in quite a few methods, comparable to arranging apps alongside the left facet of the display screen and the absence of a Begin Menu.
• Ubuntu can also be backed by a personal firm, so you are still topic to desktop adjustments pushed by market elements.
• There’s minor telemetry in Ubuntu, although it is nothing in comparison with Home windows in scope or presentation.

Switching to Linux? Many will say to check out Ubuntu. Factor is, when you’re after a Linux distribution just like the Home windows desktop you already know, Ubuntu won’t be the one you need.

1

Ubuntu Has an Unfamiliar Interface

Home windows has modified through the years, however there are specific issues about it that individuals anticipate to be true. There’s a taskbar on the backside that shows your open apps and perhaps a couple of of your pinned favorites. The Begin Menu sits to the left of these icons. The system tray and clock are within the bottom-right.

This interface is so ubiquitous that Chromebooks operate the very same method, as does the Samsung DeX interface that comes with many Samsung telephones and tablets.

Ubuntu does not. Ubuntu apps are organized alongside the left facet of the display screen as an alternative of the underside. There isn’t any Begin Menu. The app launcher seems extra like a pill’s than that of a Home windows PC. The clock is within the top-center. Standing icons seem within the top-right, and do not name that space a system tray. In truth, you will want to put in an extension to make it operate like one.

For many people, these adjustments are trivial. For individuals who just like the muscle reminiscence that they’ve constructed up with Home windows, these adjustments will make Ubuntu really feel like an uncomfortable place to land.

2

Your Destiny Is Nonetheless In Company Fingers

If you wish to go away Home windows since you are uninterested in being beholden to a company, Ubuntu will not precisely set you free. Ubuntu is a corporate-backed mission. Whereas it’s constructed overwhelmingly utilizing free and open supply software program that the broader group gives, the particulars concerning the Ubuntu distribution are decided by Canonical, a personal firm primarily based within the UK.

Because of this as an Ubuntu consumer, you’ll nonetheless see your desktop change in methods you won’t like for causes which might be primarily market-driven. Previously, the Ubuntu desktop used to ship with Amazon integration enabled by default. There was even a preinstalled shortcut to Amazon in your dock.

Canonical spent years growing its Unity desktop interface with business ambitions in thoughts, then scrapped it when neither different companies nor different supply communities confirmed a lot curiosity. Now Ubuntu makes use of the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment as an alternative.

3

There’s Nonetheless Some Minor Telemetry

In case you are leaving Home windows since you are fed up with Microsoft’s monitoring, you’ll completely have a extra non-public expertise utilizing Ubuntu as an alternative. There is no comparability, actually. But Ubuntu will nonetheless request some details about your system.

It is comprehensible, actually. Canonical desires to get an thought what sort of {hardware} persons are putting in Ubuntu onto, in order that they know what to develop for.

You possibly can select to not ship this data whereas putting in Ubuntu, and you may disable it later in System Settings. Not like Microsoft, there’s nothing sneaky or shady about it. But in comparison with different Linux distros, even this quantity of telemetry was sufficient to fire up controversy. On Linux, it’s normal to not collect any knowledge about you in any respect.

4

Apps Come In A number of Totally different Codecs

There are a lot of alternative ways to put in software program on Microsoft Home windows, however for probably the most half, there’s one package deal format that’s actually dominant: EXE information.

On Ubuntu, the story is just a little bit extra complicated. When you search for software program, there are three codecs you’ll be able to anticipate to come across. Snap packages are the default choice that Canonical is pushing most closely. Earlier than snaps, Ubuntu used DEB packages, and a few apps will nonetheless are available that format, particularly when you set up them by means of the terminal utilizing the Superior Bundle Device (APT).

The more and more dominant format throughout Linux extra broadly is Flatpak, which is the default on the Steam Deck and on distros like Fedora Silverblue, which I personally prefer over Ubuntu. You possibly can install Flatpak apps on Ubuntu as properly.

A brand new Home windows consumer could encounter quirks and suppose an app is busted when the issue is definitely because of the format as an alternative. For instance, the file picker within the Flatpak model of an app could not have entry to your entire system as a result of its tighter safety settings, whereas the DEB model works as anticipated. What newcomer would suppose the issue lies in how they put in the app?

5

There Are Ubuntu-Particular Bugs

There are some points you might encounter on Ubuntu that you do not encounter on different Linux desktops. It’s because Ubuntu typically makes adjustments to the software program that the broader group develops, and points can come up from these adjustments.

For instance, Ubuntu has points with contact screens on two-in-one laptops. You would possibly encounter these quirks and suppose that Linux is not prepared. The truth is that different distros, like Fedora, supplied a wonderfully easy expertise virtually a decade in the past. Ubuntu introduces bugs due to the extensions it has added to make its desktop look the way in which it does.

As a long-time Linux consumer, it is comparatively simple for me to grasp and seek out the reason for these points. I would not anticipate first-time Linux customers to stroll away from the expertise with any understanding deeper than the concept Linux simply is not prepared. Ubuntu could also be dominant, however that does not imply it gives probably the most steady and bug-free expertise.

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If Ubuntu is not the perfect distro for Home windows customers, what’s? When I first switched from Windows to Linux a few years in the past, I explicitly wished one thing new, however I heard it stated then, and I nonetheless hear now, that Linux Mint remains the best Windows replacement.