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Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' BETA Ubuntu-based Operating System Now Available For Download (betanews.com)
BrianFagioli shares his story on Beta News: Feeling fatigued by Windows 10 and its constant updates and privacy concerns? Can't afford one of those beautiful new MacBook Pro laptops? Don't forget, Linux-based desktop operating systems are just a free download away, folks!
If you do decide to jump on the open source bandwagon, a good place to start is Linux Mint. Both the Mate and Cinnamon desktop environments should prove familiar to Windows converts, and since it is based on Ubuntu, there is a ton of compatible packages. Today, the first beta of Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' becomes available for download.
Here's the release notes for both Cinammon and MATE.
If you do decide to jump on the open source bandwagon, a good place to start is Linux Mint. Both the Mate and Cinnamon desktop environments should prove familiar to Windows converts, and since it is based on Ubuntu, there is a ton of compatible packages. Today, the first beta of Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' becomes available for download.
Here's the release notes for both Cinammon and MATE.
If you are on Slashdot and haven't switched to Linux by now, then it seems extremely unlikely that you ever will.
I hope you all enjoy whatever OS you happen to be using today.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
After many years of Ubuntu use as primary desktop, the thing that drove me away was ending the support for the closed source AMD video drivers.
What does this have to do with Ubuntu? AMD ended their support.
Someone decided that the open source drivers were 'good enough'. Well, they are not, at least for what i was doing.
Yep, that "someone" was AMD. They apparently decided to focus more on a new Linux driver project, as noted in the posts from AMD folks quoted in the above link. Ubuntu isn't able to offer "support" for a closed-source driver that apparently breaks with the newer versions of Xorg. (I'd note that AMD had months to prepare before the new version of Ubuntu upgraded to the newer version of Xorg, and it's been a year or more and AMD hasn't updated their driver.)
And the choice to use the drivers as released by AMD was removed
Because it might break your system.
Imho, Ubuntu, and all derivatives like Mint, suddenly alienate half their user base with that decision.
How was it Ubuntu's fault (let alone Mint's, who didn't do anything here) that AMD stopped updating their drivers for Linux? Ubuntu and its derivatives aren't the only distros that this created problems with -- anyone who is using a version of Xorg released in the past year will have the same problem. And since Xorg is standard across most Linux distros, this truly has nothing to do with Ubuntu (or Mint) per se.
So, i'm back to windows 10 which serves my need
Yep -- AMD decided to update their drivers for the latest Windows version. Ubuntu can't do so, because they don't have the source code.
Why are you angry at Ubuntu when the people who stopped the support are AMD?
I don't mean to sound insulting, but you do understand what the implications of "closed-source driver" are, right? Ubuntu would likely be happy to provide support and updates if they had the source code... but they don't, and AMD won't release it.
And why, as end-user, do i care this? I need something that works. A newer version of xorg was apparently more important to drivers compatibility for the package maintainers. For me as user it was the other way around. And it is not trivially possible with Ubuntu to use an older version of xorg.
To elaborate on that: somewhere along the road the xorg developers decided to break something. How hard is it to design something and keep it (forward) compatible? Apparently for xorg very hard. I totally am ready to believe they had their reasons to do so, but you simply cannot expect all other involved developers to run behind them, within months, if they make make a change breaking stuff, totally ignoring the significant amount of testing the AMD developers would have to do. And surely the AMD developers still get the blame simply because they are 'closed source'.
From an idealistic stance of view, you are totally right. In an ideal world those drivers would be open source. From a practical stance of view, developers all over the world, both open and closed source, are hands tied down on license or agreements. And users just want something that works, not necessarily the latest greatest shiniest.
In case of Ubuntu 16.04 the AMD user is left in the cold, no matter who to blame. And this is why people who say 'Linux will never be ready for the desktop' are proven right. I did, and do, use and love Linux but in all fairness it has been a constant struggle, swimming upstream, because design decisions like those are not made from a user stance of view, and because i do not want to dedicate my life to the OS running on my computer. I just want to use my computer.
A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.
And the solution was to wait on 14.04 until the new driver become available from AMD, being closed source it is up to them to do it...
cough, ohh wait, what's this?
http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Radeon-GPU-PRO-Linux-Beta-Driver%E2%80%93Release-Notes.aspx
Also fully supported in 16.10
and if you pry your head out of Bill Gate's ass the world smells much better. Back to your games, windblows boy
Every other day, there seems to be a new "operating system" released, always in "beta" (and never leaving that stage)... but it's just a Linux distribution! It's just a bunch of standard junkware slapped together! I don't understand this obsession with making new Linux distros when there already are a billion of them.
If you want to sound crotchety and whiny, that's up to you. But you are completely wrong here, since Mint has been around for about ten years and is an excellent operating system with a great team and professional lead developer, not "junkware slapped together." I don't agree with one of the bigoted political stances Mint head Clem has taken in the past but I've been running it for 9 years and fully understand why it is one of the most popular and respected distros (and he's kept quiet about his hate for Israel in recent years). You can be lazy and let MS run your computer and data if you like, but that doesn't mean there aren't 10-20 really good Linux distros out there completely ready for prime time, beta or otherwise.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Can I play ALL my games, perfectly and without issues, at the same or better framerate?
Nope, and I can't play most of my games on Windows at all, since half of them are only released for dedicated consoles, you silly person!
I've certainly loved some PC-only games over the years, but at this point in my life, spending $2000 every 2-3 years so I can play a handful of worthwhile PC-only games seems like a mistake. When I can buy a $300 console that plays way more good games, and quite a few that have no Windows versions, I can't justify being into PC gaming anymore. I used to be a PC game snob too, but I think I'm done with shelling out the dough for 120 FPS and using a keyboard for games.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.