Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
In 2008, I was still using a 20 year old DOS computer (!) - when it became obvious I couldn’t go on without connecting to the web. I bought one of the very first netbooks because it was funny and cheap. Linux was one of the reasons for the low price, and I knew nothing about this strange thing. But I discovered that it was possible to buy a computer without paying what I call the “Microsoft tax”, so to speak. I added an external CD/DVD rewriter.
The original distro was Xandros… not a very good one in fact. The possibilities were very limited, and I rapidly looked for something else. The problem was to find a distro working out-of-the box on an EeePC, and it was not easy in those days. I started with ubuntu-eee (an Ubuntu 8.04 fork which became easypeasy). The main problem was the kernel: ubuntu-eee was using a specific kernel and it was not possible to easily upgrade it when a new Ubuntu version was available. I tried livesessions of eeedora, eeedebian, and Linux Mint, and I finally switched to Ubuntu 8.10 on my netbook - and on my new desktop computer too (I bought a “naked” Nyos 50 not to pay the “tax”).
In the meantime, I was gradually discovering Linux - thanks to forums, magazines, and on-line-documentation. Everything was not yet working out-of-the box : e.g. the WiFi LED or the volume control on the netbook, but I succeeded in fixing those little problems. Within a year and a half, I definitely dropped out everything that was coming from Microsoft, and my configuration was OK regarding what I wanted to do with it.
Then, Unity arrived! I’ll just say two things about that. To me, Unity is a real nightmare. It is also a solution for which there was no problem. So, I switched to Xubuntu. It is very simple, very intuitive, faster, and very easy to configure. Since it uses gtk libraries, gnome applications are welcome. Xubuntu is now the only distro I use.
Oh, by the way, what do I use? Very simple but powerful things: Firefox and Thunderbird, Abiword, and Gnumeric. On a second level, eog as an image-viewer, epdf as a pdf-viewer, Xsane as a scanner, GIMP, MPlayer, devede, brasero (if you want to know more about these programs, please refer to the ubuntu-on-line-documentation). I also use products such as gparted, baobab, mousepad, gnome-disk-utility, hardinfo, ntp, wipe, clonezilla…
And now, what is important to me? First of all, I do not have to adapt myself to the distro. The distro must be able to adapt to me. I must be able to control precisely what I need, and to remove all that is not necessary to me. That is why I don’t use Ubuntu Software Center, which is just a pleasant catalogue to look at. It’s not precise enough. It does not allow me to completely remove unused packages, that is to say to also remove configuration files. I added deborphan in synaptic, which allows me to remove orphan packages. I also removed about forty or fifty non-useful things. For example, dummy packages or things like splx - since my printer is not a Samsung printer. This is important because my netbook has only a 4GB SSD.
I must be able to completely personalise the desktop so that everything is located where it has to be, and behaves the way I want. Fortunately, Linux allows any user to modify little things in configuration files. For example, I changed the 3600 seconds random sleep time to 10 seconds in /etc/cron.daily/apt. Otherwise, when I start my computer, it may take more than half an hour before I am told about available updates.
Upgrading to new versions is a real problem which bothers me.
First, upgrading should be as simple as updating. And it’s not. During the very long upgrading process, I generally am asked to choose either the new version of an unknown configuration file or to keep the old one. I don’t know everything about Ubuntu, so I know nothing about the consequences of the choice and I don’t know what to do. I generally choose at random. After the process, I discover applications have been added. For example, I chose mousepad and eog. Why install leafpad, pidgin (which I don’t use) and ristretto, that I had previously removed ?
Second, all that was working before should work after. And all my personal choices in the different preferences and configuration files should stay unchanged. After upgrading, things have disappeared, such as certain icons. Other things simply don’t work any more. For example, ADSL connection, from Jaunty to Karmic. I had to add sun-java-plugin after upgrading to Lucid because icedtea-plugin was unable to display websites which it did before.
Third, depending on how I do it, I don’t exactly get the same thing. I use a single ext4 partition, and no swap, and I have tried four different ways to switch to a new version.
1 - I use the very long upgrading process. It generally takes at least four hours time to upgrade, fix what no more works and remove the unusefull things which have been added. There is also another problem in this process. Some new features are not available. For example, I had to manually switch from grub-legacy to grub-pc in karmic.
2 - I make a fresh install, which is the best way to get the real new version. But I have to re-personalise everything. And it takes a very very long time.
3 - I make a fresh install WITHOUT formatting the old ext4 partition, which keeps my /home directory. But the result is not exactly the same as the one I get with the previous possibility. Pieces of the old version are not completely removed.
4 - I use two partitions : / and a separate /home partition and I then make a complete fresh install which keeps my home directory. But I have to remove what is not necessary to me. That’s what I’ll do with Xubuntu 12.04 LTS.
So, the ideal upgrading process doesn’t exist. Anyway, the good new is that facing problems is an opportunity to learn something and to grow up. And of course, I go on with Xubuntu, the best distro for me.