Mint, Ubuntu, and Desktop Environments
Today in Linux news, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols said that rolling release distributions are "gaining on" traditional releases and Christine Hall welcomes the "new breed of Linux users." Reviews of KaOS and Linux Mint stood-out in the newsfeeds as did Jun Auza's comparison of Mint to Ubuntu. Michael Larabel switched to back to Fedora and Robert Pogson is horrified at systemd creator's future plans.
Jun Auza compared Mint 17.1 to Ubuntu 14.10 over the weekend and concluded that Mint is superior on several fronts. In fact, Mint seemed to beat out Ubuntu on all fronts at www.junauza.com. As far as features Auza said, "The most powerful feature of Mint is that it allows its users to customize their desktops in whichever way they want. Customization features are missing in 14.10 and it makes the user accept and use the desktop as-is." Winner: Linux Mint so said Auza. In other areas such as goodies, performance, and looks Mint 17.1 was the clear winner. Auza concluded, "While Canonical is focusing on convergence, the Mint desktop is growing to a point where it doesn’t look like an Ubuntu-based distribution anymore." Don't take just Auza's word for it, Everyday Linux User Gary Newell said, "Linux Mint 17.1 Is As Good As It Gets."
The news doesn't get much better for Ubuntu in Michael Larabel's Sunday post. In it Larabel said he recently switched back to Fedora after six years with Ubuntu. He said, "Fedora these days seems to be back on a solid footing for end-users with a bright future ahead. Meanwhile, Ubuntu has been less appealing to me" because of its concentration on the mobile space. Larabel promised to update readers of Fedora's long-term performance over the coming months but has nothing but compliments for it now. At least Dell execs still like Ubuntu.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols today said that rolling releases are becoming "more popular" than traditional releases. Although developers like rolling releases, Vaughan-Nichols said enterprises are seeing the benefits as well. While rolling releases have their advantages and become more popular, Vaughan-Nichols ended up concluding that regular folks should stick to traditional fixed releases for stability.
In other news:
* Poettering’s Dreams Of Domination Don’t End With systemd
* Welcome the New Breed of Linux Users
* KaOS 2014.12 review - Chaos and anarchy