Where to go to those who decided to leave with Ubuntu Unity



    Canonical recently announced the cessation of work on Unity and Mir. Nevertheless, it’s not worth panic, not everything is lost here. Of course, it’s a pity that the mobile version of the project will not be developed, but all other branches are clearly not going to “dry out”. During the work on Canonical, Unity had a lot of loyal fans who will continue to develop on their own.

    The community is currently forming a sustainable center, which will be involved in the development of Unity. In any case, fixing bugs and patch vulnerabilities will continue. But still, uncertainty remains with regard to the entire project, and there is no reason to expect Ubuntu Unity to actively develop. What should you choose if you decide to change Unity to something else?

    Ubuntu mate




    This is one of the best options that actively grows, regularly receives updates and has a familiar interface. The only thing is to keep in mind that HiDPI-enabled displays here leave much to be desired. No, that's okay, but Unity or GNOME has better support.

    MATE has a familiar Ubuntu user interface. All applications and regular commands work here. Plus, MATE on computers is faster than GNOME.

    This project grew out of Linux Mint. In principle, Ubuntu MATE is suitable for beginners as well, there should be no problems with it. Now the conversation is not about getting to know Linux, but for beginners it is really good.

    Fedora GNOME




    As for GNOME, it’s worth a try here from Fedora. Here everything works out of the box, as is customary to say, so there should be no problems. This is also a good option for both beginners and experienced users.

    Of course, the difference between Ubuntu and Fedora is, in particular, in their package managers. If you are familiar with CentOS, you can assume that you have gained basic experience for working with Fedora. Ubuntu uses Apt, which is very convenient, and Fedora uses DNF, which is also good. Everything has been worked out to the smallest detail here. For example, if you enter a command in Fedora for which a package is not installed, the system will offer to install everything yourself, and not just say “command not found”.

    It will be comfortable here for everyone who is used to the graphical interface.

    Debian xfce




    Debian is the great-grandfather of a huge number of distributions and a source of resources for Ubuntu itself. It should be borne in mind that .deb files are not supported by Debian as much as Ubuntu does. They can be installed without any problems, in most cases, but such files can cause Debian to crash.

    You can use Gnome on Debian, but there is another option, Xfce. It is slightly lighter than Gnome, and in spirit it is closer to the distribution itself.

    By the way, it is recommended to install the xfce-extras package, which contains a large number of functions that are not in the main database.

    Some things are not here, for example, secure-boot is not supported. This feature has been removed even from Debian 9, which has not yet been released. At the same time, a new version of the distribution should be released soon, so that Debian will fully meet the needs of users. It is better, of course, to use a stable branch.

    Linux Mint Cinnamon




    Many Linux fans love this distribution, but many are not very positive about it. Nevertheless, this is a good option, which allows you to always keep the software and the system itself up to date.

    Cinnamon, theoretically, is available for use in other distributions, but it is in Mint that it works almost perfectly. Everything shines and sparkles here, even more than in MATE (this is also a Mint project).

    For those planning to quit Ununtu, this is a good option. Updates and installers work differently on these systems, but it won't take a lot of time to retrain.

    Arch Linux with any graphical environment




    There is a lot of talk on the web that this distribution is quite complicated to install and prepare for work. But it is not so. True, here you need experience with the command line. And everything that the user does with this system is basically “tailored” to the command line.

    By the way, if you want to test it in a virtual machine, there may be problems. Such a distribution does not behave perfectly in Virtualbox. In addition, it is worth keeping your system up to date.

    In general, also a good option.

    And, of course, it's worth reading about who and how is going to develop the forks of Ubuntu Unity and how, maybe there is no point in switching to something else?

    Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.

    What would you choose?

    • 12.9% Ubuntu MATE 98
    • 17.3% Fedora GNOME 131
    • 10.4% Debian Xfce 79
    • 21.2% Linux Mint Cinnamon 161
    • 14.5% Arch Linux with any graphical shell 110
    • 12.9% I stay on Ubuntu Unity 98
    • 10.4% I recommend something in the comments 79

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