What's the Point of Ubuntu in 2020?
*I want to preface this by saying that this isn't meant to be an anti-Ubuntu or Canonical-bashing rant session. I'm not 100% what this IS supposed to be, frankly. But nevertheless, I want to share my thoughts on Ubuntu in a kind of "open letter" format and maybe we can build a discussion from there. And, I know, it's a wall of text.*
Like many others, Ubuntu was my stepping stone into the world of Linux ~15 years ago; introduced to me as a mere tool for extracting files from a broken Windows install, I came away impressed by the polish, power, and ease-of-use of this strange little beast called "Ubuntu Linux". For me, Ubuntu not only opened the door to the world of Linux, but it also proved the concept that Linux was accessible--not only to programmers, but to everybody and anybody with a passion for computers and an appreciation for community. As a user and fan of Linux today, I'll always be grateful for Ubuntu for providing that great first experience and I'm very happy to give them credit for everything that they do well. I want to see them succeed, because they are no small part of our ecosystem and community.
But over the last few months I couldn't help but wonder, "what exactly is the *point* of Ubuntu today?". More specifically, what do Canonical and the Ubuntu insiders see as the *role of their distribution now and in the future*? It almost goes without saying that no project or distro has to fully justify its existence and the leaders and maintainers of that project have every right to act as they see fit. But in the larger context of an ecosystem where Ubuntu is no longer objectively the easiest, prettiest, or most well-rounded user experience, it seems to be an existential question. And, [in light of today's somewhat bizarre news](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/i386-architecture-will-be-dropped-starting-with-eoan-ubuntu-19-10/11263), I think the question is only more pertinent. Heading into 2020, what is Ubuntu's role, what are their goals, and how exactly are they working towards those goals?
To put things back into perspective, Ubuntu was, for quite a long time, the de facto distribution to recommend to new users. Why not? It was free, open source, easy to install, easy to use, well supported and often discussed. It fell into a sweet spot of stability and modernness that I think appealed to many desktop users at the time who mainly just wanted things to work but didn't want to sacrifice or impede their ability to run recent versions of their favorite software. Again, it was accessible and easy, and required much less technical skill or in-depth knowledge to use than some other distributions--the idea, or so it seemed, was to allow normal people to jump in freely do what they want with their computer without jumping over hurdles or through hoops. It didn't always work that way, of course, but over a decade as an on-and-off Ubuntu user, that felt like something that we were building towards, closing in more and more each year.
But today, I find myself wondering again if Ubuntu is veering off course, if they have new ambitions, or if they have simply forgotten to apply a healthy dose of self-reflection by asking the key question, "what are we trying to do and how are we trying to do it?"
At any rate, Ubuntu seems to be losing its niche within the Linux desktop. For stability, there is Debian. Fedora seems to be where new ideas are explored. Arch is for the endless tweakers and customization geeks. And, even when you look at Ubuntu's old stomping ground, accessibility and ease-of-use, Ubuntu seems to be losing mindshare to things like PopOS (despite being its 'parent' distribution). I'm sure that if you look at the numbers (i.e.: page visits, downloads, community members, etc.) alone, you might decide that this interpretation is slightly (or completely) off-base, but numbers without context can be (and often are) misleading. The bigger picture is that, for a variety of reasons, Ubuntu is becoming harder and harder to recommend and advocate for, and to ignore that broade
*I want to preface this by saying that this isn't meant to be an anti-Ubuntu or Canonical-bashing rant session. I'm not 100% what this IS supposed to be, frankly. But nevertheless, I want to share my thoughts on Ubuntu in a kind of "open letter" format and maybe we can build a discussion from there. And, I know, it's a wall of text.*
Like many others, Ubuntu was my stepping stone into the world of Linux ~15 years ago; introduced to me as a mere tool for extracting files from a broken Windows install, I came away impressed by the polish, power, and ease-of-use of this strange little beast called "Ubuntu Linux". For me, Ubuntu not only opened the door to the world of Linux, but it also proved the concept that Linux was accessible--not only to programmers, but to everybody and anybody with a passion for computers and an appreciation for community. As a user and fan of Linux today, I'll always be grateful for Ubuntu for providing that great first experience and I'm very happy to give them credit for everything that they do well. I want to see them succeed, because they are no small part of our ecosystem and community.
But over the last few months I couldn't help but wonder, "what exactly is the *point* of Ubuntu today?". More specifically, what do Canonical and the Ubuntu insiders see as the *role of their distribution now and in the future*? It almost goes without saying that no project or distro has to fully justify its existence and the leaders and maintainers of that project have every right to act as they see fit. But in the larger context of an ecosystem where Ubuntu is no longer objectively the easiest, prettiest, or most well-rounded user experience, it seems to be an existential question. And, [in light of today's somewhat bizarre news](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/i386-architecture-will-be-dropped-starting-with-eoan-ubuntu-19-10/11263), I think the question is only more pertinent. Heading into 2020, what is Ubuntu's role, what are their goals, and how exactly are they working towards those goals?
To put things back into perspective, Ubuntu was, for quite a long time, the de facto distribution to recommend to new users. Why not? It was free, open source, easy to install, easy to use, well supported and often discussed. It fell into a sweet spot of stability and modernness that I think appealed to many desktop users at the time who mainly just wanted things to work but didn't want to sacrifice or impede their ability to run recent versions of their favorite software. Again, it was accessible and easy, and required much less technical skill or in-depth knowledge to use than some other distributions--the idea, or so it seemed, was to allow normal people to jump in freely do what they want with their computer without jumping over hurdles or through hoops. It didn't always work that way, of course, but over a decade as an on-and-off Ubuntu user, that felt like something that we were building towards, closing in more and more each year.
But today, I find myself wondering again if Ubuntu is veering off course, if they have new ambitions, or if they have simply forgotten to apply a healthy dose of self-reflection by asking the key question, "what are we trying to do and how are we trying to do it?"
At any rate, Ubuntu seems to be losing its niche within the Linux desktop. For stability, there is Debian. Fedora seems to be where new ideas are explored. Arch is for the endless tweakers and customization geeks. And, even when you look at Ubuntu's old stomping ground, accessibility and ease-of-use, Ubuntu seems to be losing mindshare to things like PopOS (despite being its 'parent' distribution). I'm sure that if you look at the numbers (i.e.: page visits, downloads, community members, etc.) alone, you might decide that this interpretation is slightly (or completely) off-base, but numbers without context can be (and often are) misleading. The bigger picture is that, for a variety of reasons, Ubuntu is becoming harder and harder to recommend and advocate for, and to ignore that broade
Ubuntu Community Hub
Intel 32bit packages on Ubuntu from 19.10 onwards
Edit: The notice regarding dropping of 32 bit support has been superseded by this public statement: https://ubuntu.com/blog/statement-on-32-bit-i386-packages-for-ubuntu-19-10-and-20-04-lts Previous post (what follows is no longer accurate): Cross posted…
r context would be a major pitfall that has ramifications that span far beyond your mailing list or company trademarks.
**So again I have to ask, "what's the point of Ubuntu?" If the goals are accessibility, easy-of-use, stability, and being the gateway into the world of Linux for professionals, artists, gamers, business owners and everyday people, then I think that remains a worthy and admirable ideal.** If that's the goal, then *doing things to make your lives easier while making the lives of developers and users harder is so clearly not in the project's best interest*. *Breaking compatibility and asking developers (bad) or users (worse) to fix it for themselves does not align with a goal of accessibility*. Similarly, *telling people to use an older version (in a container or otherwise) to mitigate problems that you're planning on creating is at best unacceptable and at worst blasé*. On the other hand, if the project's ambitions have changed to something else, then I think that this community, *your community*, are owed a more public conversation, as well as more time to adjust.
At any rate, whatever the goals of the Ubuntu project, I hope that you never stop asking yourselves crucial questions about *who you are*, *what you're trying to achieve*, and *how you're trying to achieve it* before making major decisions that could impact not only your place in the community, but the health of the community as a whole.
As I said at the outset, I like Ubuntu and I value the role it has played in the short history of Linux. **I want nothing more than for it to thrive and succeed along with the ecosystem as a whole. But for that to continue to happen relies on the project's ability to stay focused on a singular goal, doing only the things that serve that purpose, unfettered by self-inflicted or avoidable complications.**
*That's what I think, at least, what do you all think? What should Ubuntu be and is it on the right path? If anybody who works on Ubuntu happens to read this I hope you can take these criticisms in stride and I'd love to know your thoughts too, either here or elsewhere.*
https://redd.it/c2d9r4
@r_linux
**So again I have to ask, "what's the point of Ubuntu?" If the goals are accessibility, easy-of-use, stability, and being the gateway into the world of Linux for professionals, artists, gamers, business owners and everyday people, then I think that remains a worthy and admirable ideal.** If that's the goal, then *doing things to make your lives easier while making the lives of developers and users harder is so clearly not in the project's best interest*. *Breaking compatibility and asking developers (bad) or users (worse) to fix it for themselves does not align with a goal of accessibility*. Similarly, *telling people to use an older version (in a container or otherwise) to mitigate problems that you're planning on creating is at best unacceptable and at worst blasé*. On the other hand, if the project's ambitions have changed to something else, then I think that this community, *your community*, are owed a more public conversation, as well as more time to adjust.
At any rate, whatever the goals of the Ubuntu project, I hope that you never stop asking yourselves crucial questions about *who you are*, *what you're trying to achieve*, and *how you're trying to achieve it* before making major decisions that could impact not only your place in the community, but the health of the community as a whole.
As I said at the outset, I like Ubuntu and I value the role it has played in the short history of Linux. **I want nothing more than for it to thrive and succeed along with the ecosystem as a whole. But for that to continue to happen relies on the project's ability to stay focused on a singular goal, doing only the things that serve that purpose, unfettered by self-inflicted or avoidable complications.**
*That's what I think, at least, what do you all think? What should Ubuntu be and is it on the right path? If anybody who works on Ubuntu happens to read this I hope you can take these criticisms in stride and I'd love to know your thoughts too, either here or elsewhere.*
https://redd.it/c2d9r4
@r_linux
reddit
r/linux - What's the Point of Ubuntu in 2020?
0 votes and 1 comment so far on Reddit
FOSS phone to pc file sender
Do you guy know any FOSS tool to send any file easily and fastly from my Android phone to my Linux PC?
https://redd.it/c2drne
@r_linux
Do you guy know any FOSS tool to send any file easily and fastly from my Android phone to my Linux PC?
https://redd.it/c2drne
@r_linux
reddit
r/linux - FOSS phone to pc file sender
0 votes and 2 comments so far on Reddit
I want to pay respect to antergos
I really liked the distro and i was devastated to read post that they discontinued support; on my birthday!
I want to make kind of my distro. Can anyone show me some guidelines to make my wish come true?
https://redd.it/c2euqi
@r_linux
I really liked the distro and i was devastated to read post that they discontinued support; on my birthday!
I want to make kind of my distro. Can anyone show me some guidelines to make my wish come true?
https://redd.it/c2euqi
@r_linux
reddit
r/linux - I want to pay respect to antergos
0 votes and 1 comment so far on Reddit
Way to rescan all usb ports through terminal
Is there a way to rescan all usb ports by software, I have a connected device that gets disconnected for some reason (although physically still connected) that I can see in dmesg. I've found some noscripts and programs like usbreset.c but I need to specify the port and since it gets disconnected it dosen't show in lsusb so i can't target that port directly...
https://redd.it/c2f860
@r_linux
Is there a way to rescan all usb ports by software, I have a connected device that gets disconnected for some reason (although physically still connected) that I can see in dmesg. I've found some noscripts and programs like usbreset.c but I need to specify the port and since it gets disconnected it dosen't show in lsusb so i can't target that port directly...
https://redd.it/c2f860
@r_linux
reddit
r/linux - Way to rescan all usb ports through terminal
0 votes and 0 comments so far on Reddit
macOS-Simple-KVM: A new way to create macOS VMs in Linux
https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM
https://redd.it/c2fmef
@r_linux
https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM
https://redd.it/c2fmef
@r_linux
GitHub
GitHub - foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM: Tools to set up a quick macOS VM in QEMU, accelerated by KVM.
Tools to set up a quick macOS VM in QEMU, accelerated by KVM. - foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM
ulauncher-mpd - a ulauncher extensions that controls mpd and displays album arts
Hello! I've been using Linux for half a year now, and as I haven't found a ulauncher extension that lets me control mpd I've written myself one:
[https://github.com/codyfish/ulauncher-mpd](https://github.com/codyfish/ulauncher-mpd)
​
ulauncher-mpd enables you to control music playback and add or insert albums, interprets, songs, folders and playlists to your queue while using albums arts as icons for the different actions.
Currently, actions and default album arts do still have a stock icon from ulauncher, but that will hopefully change soon (I suck at making icons) (What is a good place to find open source icons?)
​
Note that this is my first program with a real use so the code might be messy. I would also be happy if someone could tell me if I've done licensing etc correctly :D
​
The extension is currently only available for ulauncher 4 (thus not API level 2) and is therefore only python2. You need to install a few dependencies manually using pip2: mutagen, python-mpd2 and enum
​
If there are any issues or I have done something completely wrong (e.g concerning LICENSE), feel free to tell me :D
https://redd.it/c2gmdb
@r_linux
Hello! I've been using Linux for half a year now, and as I haven't found a ulauncher extension that lets me control mpd I've written myself one:
[https://github.com/codyfish/ulauncher-mpd](https://github.com/codyfish/ulauncher-mpd)
​
ulauncher-mpd enables you to control music playback and add or insert albums, interprets, songs, folders and playlists to your queue while using albums arts as icons for the different actions.
Currently, actions and default album arts do still have a stock icon from ulauncher, but that will hopefully change soon (I suck at making icons) (What is a good place to find open source icons?)
​
Note that this is my first program with a real use so the code might be messy. I would also be happy if someone could tell me if I've done licensing etc correctly :D
​
The extension is currently only available for ulauncher 4 (thus not API level 2) and is therefore only python2. You need to install a few dependencies manually using pip2: mutagen, python-mpd2 and enum
​
If there are any issues or I have done something completely wrong (e.g concerning LICENSE), feel free to tell me :D
https://redd.it/c2gmdb
@r_linux
GitHub
codyfish/ulauncher-mpd
Contribute to codyfish/ulauncher-mpd development by creating an account on GitHub.
Linux Powers All Of The World’s Top 500 Supercomputers
https://fossbytes.com/worlds-top-500-supercomputers-are-linux-based/
https://redd.it/c2k0go
@r_linux
https://fossbytes.com/worlds-top-500-supercomputers-are-linux-based/
https://redd.it/c2k0go
@r_linux
Fossbytes
Linux Powers All Of The World’s Top 500 Supercomputers
TOP500’s 53rd edition has been released and this time what lies common in all the top 500 supercomputers is Linux.The supercomputers in the list are all capable of delivering a petaflop performance and even more.
This sub can be really toxic and unhelpful. Often responses are incredibly belittling and people get downvoted just for asking a question.
I realize this is not a support forum, but questions are not prohibited or discouraged.
Case in point:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/c2721s
He asked a simple question. He wasn't asking for support or help. Wtf is wrong with you guys?
Also the thread spiraled into elitism and anti-Ubuntu very quickly.
This is common across the posts in this sub.
I'd like to see that change.
https://redd.it/c2h0d5
@r_linux
I realize this is not a support forum, but questions are not prohibited or discouraged.
Case in point:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/c2721s
He asked a simple question. He wasn't asking for support or help. Wtf is wrong with you guys?
Also the thread spiraled into elitism and anti-Ubuntu very quickly.
This is common across the posts in this sub.
I'd like to see that change.
https://redd.it/c2h0d5
@r_linux
reddit
r/linux - What is the difference between systemd and init/initd?
0 votes and 25 comments so far on Reddit
Rofi open file from history in Zathura
​
#!/bin/sh
options='-columns 6 -width 100 -lines 15 -bw 2 -yoffset -2 -location 1'
selected=$(\\
cat \~/.local/share/zathura/history | grep -Po '\\\[\\K\[\^\\\]\]\*' \\
| rofi -dmenu -i -markup-rows \\
${options}
)
\# exit if nothing is selected
\[\[ -z $selected \]\] && exit
zathura "$selected"
exit 0
https://redd.it/c2miqh
@r_linux
​
#!/bin/sh
options='-columns 6 -width 100 -lines 15 -bw 2 -yoffset -2 -location 1'
selected=$(\\
cat \~/.local/share/zathura/history | grep -Po '\\\[\\K\[\^\\\]\]\*' \\
| rofi -dmenu -i -markup-rows \\
${options}
)
\# exit if nothing is selected
\[\[ -z $selected \]\] && exit
zathura "$selected"
exit 0
https://redd.it/c2miqh
@r_linux
reddit
r/linux - Rofi open file from history in Zathura
0 votes and 0 comments so far on Reddit
VCV Rack 1.0 (Free and Open Source Modular Synthesizer)
http://cdm.link/2019/06/vcv-rack-free-modular-now-1-0/
https://redd.it/c2nktt
@r_linux
http://cdm.link/2019/06/vcv-rack-free-modular-now-1-0/
https://redd.it/c2nktt
@r_linux
CDM Create Digital Music
VCV Rack hits 1.0; why you need this free modular now - CDM Create Digital Music
Software modular VCV Rack just hit a major milestone - it's now officially version 1.0, with polyphony, full MIDI, module browsing, multi-core support, and more. And since it's a free and open platform, you don't want to sleep on this.
Why would anyone use a keyboard driven desktop environment, if the applications running inside it still have to be controlled with a pointing device?
https://redd.it/c2reng
@r_linux
https://redd.it/c2reng
@r_linux
reddit
r/linux - Why would anyone use a keyboard driven desktop environment, if the applications running inside it still have to be controlled…
0 votes and 0 comments so far on Reddit