Ubuntu 16.04 LTS installed

[zimena]

So, I have a working dual-boot system now, with macOS and Ubuntu 16.04.

This time, installing Ubuntu was significantly more challenging than when I did it last time around... or rather, installing was okay enough, but once I booted into Ubuntu for the first time, it would simply take over the whole boot process. So, no rEFInd, no macOS, just Ubuntu - directly, and without any sort of boot manager in sight.

Okay, I fixed that via Recovery mode, where I could set my usual disk as the start-up disk. That worked fine, so I could just reinstall rEFInd (again, yes!) and now there is a proper boot manager which lets me pick which OS I prefer to boot into at startup.

...and that was only what happened before I had set up anything.

I have had Ubuntu up and running for a couple of hours now, so let's see what I've noticed so far:

Installing things is not just about picking what you want from the Software Center. Half of the time you need to add repositories and download your apps via the command line instead. I quite like doing things via the command line... if I understand what I'm doing and which parts of a command does what. Here, though? I've already had a few instances of having to copy commands from the net, because they're long and I can't fully decipher what they do.

In a similar vein to the above - Opera web browser actually claims to have an installer that should work with the Ubuntu software center. You download the installer, open it, it opens the software center with an install button, but once you click on that one, nothing much happens. It seems to attempt to start installing, but it just aborts after a second. I am typing this from Opera, though... because I installed it problem-free via the command line, heh.

I have also installed Gimp. Learning to use that has been on my list of things to do since forever, but whenever I've looked at it in the past, it has always done my head in. I suppose part of the problem is that I know how to do what I'm trying to do in Photoshop, and when things don't work the same way in Gimp, I get frustrated and return to the more familiar environment. Let's give it another chance, hm?

There's a slight difference between the macOS keyboard layout and the more Windows-like one that Ubuntu seems to use. Even if I selected the Mac keyboard option, some things are just not where I would expect. Especially the apostrophe (') sign had simply disappeared from Ubuntu's understanding of a Norwegian Mac keyboard layout, so for now I'm using the standard layout instead.

Generally speaking, I'm liking the colours and menus I'm seeing around me here. The menu font also seems to be beautiful and nicely readable. I believe it's called Ubuntu as well, and I had that font package installed even in macOS for a long time, because I quite like it. I don't like the default font in things like gedit, though - or in this online text area, for that matter. I can't quite point my finger at what's wrong with it, though, because it's definitely easily readable.

More impressions later. These are just the first thoughts.

Comments

[catness]

Yay, congrats with getting it running! Great work!

LOL, GIMP is considered to be a poor-man Photoshop... I seriously doubt that you'd find it better than the real thing. But of course, trying it out doesn't hurt.

Frankly, I gave up on Opera a long time ago. It's just easier to use Firefox and enjoy all the sites being displayed properly and more-or-less quickly. (Chrome is even better, but I can't stand horizontal tabs, and it has no properly integrated vertical tabs extensions.) The only unique feature of Opera is the embedded VPN, but I already have a proper one.

Ugh, Linux fonts... usually it's endless suffering. However, my favourite editor, Sublime Text, features a beautiful font out-of-the-box, plus a lovely dark background and slick user-friendly interface. Technically, it's not free, but the only difference is the nag screen. Since you're playing with new toys anyway, I highly recommend to have a look.

[zimena]

Thank you.

I admit, though... I can't really stay in there and get a lot of things done, because I have everything in macOS, and I don't really intend to switch. So, I'm guessing that just getting it to work gave me a sort of satisfaction... and I don't know how much time I'll be spending actually using it. At least it's there, though.... and I can test some cool window managers and desktop environments if I want to :)

As for the GIMP vs Photoshop thing... Unless I learn to grow a potted money plant, I can't imagine ever having a legal copy of PS for myself - it's expensive, and this monthly payment system is worse than anything! Plus, I'm just "playing" around with graphics-making anyway, making some icons and such - I can't do anything professional or "important". So, sometimes I think that I should learn to work with free software instead... then I try, and within 5 minutes I'm like "$#/K WHERE IS WHAT?" :P

Sublime Text? I remember this one - it's what the Windows-users on the translation team used when we had to work with very long text files. I had a quick look at it when I got your comment, and indeed, it looks very stylish. Will definitely check it out some more when I'm in "testing stuff"-mood again ;)