Kubuntu 20.04 LTS - Bland but functional

Kubuntu has been reviewed here before, albeit in a comparison with the Fedora KDE spin in the KDE 4 days. Quite a while I know, and since I happen to like Plasma it's been on the cards to check out a few KDE-centric distributions once again.  Kubuntu is one of the oldest official Ubuntu flavours from Canonical and should have become the default desktop offering long ago.

Upgrading Ubuntu Server 16.04 Droplet on DigitalOcean to 18.04

About five years ago I decided I need a remote server for backup and cloud services that are more under my control than when using the big names and free or even paid for storage space out there and after a long look around went for a Ubuntu droplet on DigitalOcean. Ubuntu 14.04 'Trusty' was the latest LTS release then and systemd wasn't an issue yet. I had used Ubuntu in the old days and am very familiar with Debian which explains the choice, not going for Fedora or CentOS. FreeBSD was and still is another option but due to often changing client side installations I wanted something that doesn't require an ssh key to log on.

Richard Stallman Calls Ubuntu "Spyware"

Ha, well, it was only a matter of time, and we all know that, just like Linus, Mr Stallman pulls no punches. Take that, Canonical. I'm far from a free software zealot or a Ubuntu basher, although I try and live without proprietary stuff as much as possible (is that a reasonable stance?) and I'm generally not using Ubuntu because I do not particularly like it. There are a lot of alternatives out there. At present I'ld be more likely to run Haiku than Ubuntu but that's besides the point. Do what you like but be aware of why you're doing it and the potential pitfalls.

Ubuntu Shootout - 10.04 LTS vs. 12.04 LTS

Although I'm mostly writing about Slackware and Arch Linux related distributions I've got nothing against Ubuntu. I used it back with 5.10 'Breezy' and was quite impressed. It even detected and configured all multimedia keys on the cordless Logitech keyboard, including the volume wheel, no mean feat at the time. That was when Debian Sarge was too old to be useful and X burped on my hardware, and I did not know enough to run Testing or Unstable branches.

Trisquel GNU/Linux - Free Software and Gorgeous

Welcome to Trisquel GNU/Linux! I've been wanting to write this for a long time, because trying this distribution really feels inviting. Trisquel GNU/Linux is as you can see by the naming convention one of the few distributions fully endorsed by the Free Software Foundation, and in return they're doing a lot to promote the FSF and their principles on their website. If you're yawning already, hold steady and read on, because Trisquel looks sharp and has something to offer.

Ubuntu's Unity in 11.04 - Not All That Bad

With all the upheaval around Unity and Gnome Shell and not having used Ubuntu since 'Breezy Badger' (that was 5.10) I thought I take a fresh look at the upcoming version and the new desktop. Well, it's not that bad, and at least to me seems more accessible than the new Gnome because it works in a more traditional manner.

Also, Unity actually got up and running where Gnome 3 via the Fedora live CD just dropped me into fallback mode every time, with barely functional panels and no right click shell menu. I only got ATI cards here, but it is a huge blunder to get such an impression right from the start. I can only assess Gnome Shell from what I've seen in desktop recordings, but Unity for me has already won here.