As of 2021, Ubuntu is the best Linux distribution for me. For the past two years, I’ve used mostly Arch-based Linux distributions. The reason for doing so were two-fold. Firstly, I felt that many YouTube reviewers as well as forum posters compared Ubuntu to Microsoft and generally had mostly critical things to say. Secondly, installing Manjaro on a new Dell Inspiron was an amazing experience.
Because of those two factors, I experimented mostly with Manjaro, ArcoLinux and a few others. My main reason for switching were always based on network configuration issues or other little things like my MSI laptop which had a backlit keyboard which was cumbersome to set up.
Eventually, I discovered OpenSUSE and was impressed about the ease of use. Indeed, for my MSI laptop, OpenSUSE was the perfect fit. Manjaro could never shut the laptop down and there were wake-up issues with XFCE and so on. OpenSUSE did away with many annoying issues. Still, as good as that German distribution was, it did not impress when it came to graphics design. Blender, for example, would not be able to see my 8-Gig NVIDIA GFX card and worst of all, there was little to no help on the forums.
Because of that, I kept looking. One day, I watched a YouTube Python programing tutorial and saw that the instructor used Ubuntu. Just to try it out, I’ve downloaded the 20.10 ISO and live-booted Ubuntu to give it a spin. What were all of those “reviewers” talking about? Ubuntu run amazingly well and then some.
All I knew about Gnome was that it consumes the most memory (compared to KDE and XFCE) but no one mentioned the advantages. For example, configuring my WACOM Pro tablet to use only one monitor was a breeze. Configuring the network took a few seconds. Only ArcoLinux comes close to configuring SAMBA but that distribution no longer runs on my Laptop because of the built-in K2000 GFX chip (optimus).
Ubuntu at last
For my work, I need:
- Codium
For writing HTML5, CSS, PHP, JavaScript and Python - Blender 3D
For 3D modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering - FreeCAD
For industrial modeling and prototyping - CURA
For preparing files so that they can be 3D printed - GIMP
For 2D graphics design - Reaper
For audio recording and editing - LibreOffice
For desktop publishing and e-book authoring - Firefox
For WordPress administration and DOM inspection - ThunderBird
For all of my email needs
Besides the above, there is the powerful Linux terminal which is essential to everything I do.
Example: I need a few secure passwords. After typing this command into the terminal:
pwgen -sync 60 10
I get 10 passwords, each 60 characters long like this one:
0x&XQw^SAx!$m{>[O+jgWjWw{Y0U\1'!>Vuhl/xs?t*PRLqnkI.k\1u8S)
If I encrypt a file, I delete the original (unencrypted) file by typing:
shred filename.extension and press enter. Done!
I could write a big book of powerful Linux commands which I use countless times a day. It’s not just the terminal. Linux has tons of little “helper” apps which encrypt, manipulate files and even let me connect to the cloud right from within the file browser.
Back to Ubuntu
After using Ubuntu for a few days, I was so impressed that I installed the latest release 20.10 on all of my computers. Even the laptop which is picky and runs best on OpenSUSE was able to install Ubuntu without any issues. And best of all, unlike with other Linux distributions that I have tried, the external 4K monitor which is connected via DP (Display Port) cable instantly worked. There was nothing to do. It just worked. How cool is that?
Conclusion
:)I recommend that you don’t waste time with those Linux distro reviewers who install anything on a virtual machine and go trough the menu and complain about the lack of wallpapers and so on. Btw, if any of those reviewers reads this, please don’t feel offended. I am not singling anyone out. My advise is to not waste time with reviews. Most of them don’t go into network setup or audio interface configuration and as I already mentioned, are time wasted which is better spent experimenting yourself.
Ubuntu recognizes all of my audio interfaces, Wacom tablets, keyboards and mice. Everything just works. There are no drivers to install and if there are, then someone has a Debian package for it. One of the biggest advantages of running Ubuntu is that there is an endless supply of forum posts and websites that cover every and anything that you would want to read up on. If reading is not your thing then YouTube is just as good.
I regret to have listened to reviewers who put Ubuntu down especially since the opposite is true. Yes, I love the speed of Arch-based Linux distributions but in all honesty, Ubuntu is just as fast.
Now that I have finally found my daily driver, I can focus on writing Python scripts and rendering out 30 second animations in less than an hour. Ubuntu runs all of my software which I listed above perfectly well. The software store gives me the choice of running the latest or more stable versions and Gnome is impressive.
Thank you for reading! As always, comment/ask if you need more information.
