A Blast from the Past: Rediscovering Ubuntu 23.10
As a digital nomad, I always carry my trusty business laptop with me, even on vacation. With sensitive information stored on it, including login credentials for remote servers and email accounts, I take extra precautions to ensure my device remains secure. One of my strategies is to wipe the operating system clean and install a temporary one for the duration of my trip. Once I arrive at my destination, I reinstall my usual OS, download the necessary files, and I’m back in business.
Last year, I grabbed Ubuntu 23.10 and installed it the night before leaving for Europe. To my surprise, Ubuntu exceeded my expectations in every way. The operating system handled everything I threw at it with ease, and I was impressed by its snappy performance. As fate would have it, my laptop wasn’t checked during the border crossing, so I skipped reinstalling and continued using Ubuntu 23.10 for a few days. It wasn’t until I returned home that I realized just how well it had performed.
Just the other day, Fedora started misbehaving, refusing to wake up from sleep. I remembered the excellent experience I had with Ubuntu 23.10 and decided to give the latest version, 24.04 LTS, a try. Unfortunately, I was greeted with error messages and a system that didn’t behave as expected. I thought maybe the daily build ISO of 24.10 would fare better, but alas, the experience was similar. Disappointed, I reverted back to my usual Linux distribution.
The Verdict: Ubuntu 23.10 Still Delivers
However, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that Ubuntu 23.10 was something special. As the founder of lintime.org, a website dedicated to testing and finding the perfect Linux distribution, I decided to give Ubuntu 23.10 another try. I’m thrilled to report that the user experience was just as exceptional as I remembered it. Despite being an unsupported version, Ubuntu 23.10 still delivers a seamless and efficient experience.
Over the next few days, I’ll be putting Ubuntu 23.10 through its paces, testing its limits and documenting my findings. If the online community reports positive experiences with the upcoming 24.04.1 maintenance release, I might consider upgrading. For now, I’m happy to stick with the tried-and-true Ubuntu 23.10.
What I Love About Ubuntu 23.10
One of the standout features of Ubuntu 23.10 is its ability to stay awake, much like the city that never sleeps – New York. The keyboard and mouse lights remain on, which might not be ideal, but it’s a small price to pay for a system that can wake up from sleep without issues. Even with the latest BIOS updates, my Dell Inspirion 5680 has been finicky with newer Linux distributions, but Ubuntu 23.10 has proven to be a reliable partner.
Final Thoughts
I’m delighted to report that using Ubuntu 23.10, despite its unsupported status, has been a joy. The NVIDIA driver setup is solid, making it easy to run demanding applications like Blender and LMStudio without much configuration. As a WordPress site developer, LMStudio is an essential tool for me, and Ubuntu 23.10 has proven to be a capable companion. While I have other computers with more powerful graphics cards for AI-image generation and rendering, I’m excited to see how Ubuntu 23.10 will perform over the next few days and maybe even weeks.
Stay tuned for updates as I continue to document my journey with Ubuntu. If you have specific questions or would like to share your own experiences with Ubuntu, please leave a comment below.
