I had to let the Fedora 18 spherical cow out to pasture. She just wouldn’t give me any milk. Nothing is more wasteful in a sandbox than a dry cow, except maybe a cat with well, you know, ha!
Now I am running Ubuntu 12.10 in the sandbox. That’s what the sandbox is, a place to try things you wouldn’t do to a critical computer. I also took out the dual boot I had into Windows 8 Beta.
The problem with Fedora 18 is the changes the team made in the version 18 release. The computer “Suspend” function disappeared after the update so I had to shut sandbox completely down when I wasn’t using it. The change from Fedora 17 to 18 removed that feature at least on my computer. I thought it might have been an “oops” and they would put it back with a patch upgrade but it hadn’t happened yet. The biggest problem I was having with version 18 is it would not properly do an auto update. Updates are terribly broken in my machine. So I have had enough with problems.
The Fedora teams allegiance to pure non proprietary Linux software is noble but a real PITA when what you just want to do is run the computer. It was fun while it lasted but the shift back to Ubuntu was very smooth. Ubuntu operates more on the user experience than a “pure” holistic ideal of only open software. So I am a Linux open source rat-out. So what?
I’m not saying or expecting Ubuntu to be the perfect distro. Damn close though. I’ll mention the problems, that promise you can take to the bank. I have had Ubuntu on my netbook for several years. Updates have gone well, never an issue. I ran Ubuntu as a server right here on the sandbox headless for several years. It was set for auto update and never had a down time.
So I guess I’ll see how the new load performs… It is nice to have options.