On Friday, November 27, 2015 at 8:59:54 AM UTC, Tim W wrote:

I also am testing linux for about the 10th time and I think I am going
to stick with it this time and finally rid myself of Windows. Ubuntu has
got a lot better with each release, while windows is slightly worse.

When I read up about Ubuntu on the various websites and forums,
the biggest gripe I hear is about the use of Unity as a desktop. I
like it though! I have a friend who chooses Mint Linux because he
wants his desktop to look like Win 2000. Each to their own. I can't
help but think that the lack of a consistent desktop has managed
to put many people off Linux in the past. Majority of people won't
care, I'd bet, but those that do can modify their own to their
heart's content.

There are a few silly things in Ubuntu that I found not
idiosyncratic but down-right annoying: the main one being that
clicking an application's button on the vertical sidebar didn't
minimise the open application. I sorted the fix out and on the way
found out that that was apparently a deliberate choice made by
some honcho in one of the companies. Silliness.

I am still trying to sort out the scuppering of the WiFi when the
laptop comes out of hibernation or suspend or whatever it's
called, but it's not so important at the moment.

I also copied a load of fonts over from the Windows computer
which helps with many little display quirks, one for instance, the
display of text on TNP's Gridwatch website. It now displays
perfectly in FireFox on Ubuntu using the Windows-pilfered fonts. It
doesn't display correctly on FF under Win 8.1 using the same
fonts, by the way!

The most important thing I did to make the desktop more
comfortable was to change the desktop background to my favourite
picture of the night sky! ha, simple things, eh?


I am using an acer chromebook off ebay with chrome os replaced by a full
install of Ubuntu.

Was that a difficult thing to do? Did you have to fettle any of
the innards - I have some vague notion that newer computers have
a special BIOS that can really bugger up swapping OSes.


An excellent slim, light, portable notebook for a very low price thanks
to a bit of diy.

What is the screen like? There was a Chromebook which was renowned
for it's high quality screen.

Cheers!