So… I am a fan of Solus Budgie DE. It’s elegant, beautiful and exactly what I’d want to design, taking cues from Apple OS, the simplicity of Linux with an added elegance that makes it enjoyable to work with.
It’s not perfect, though. I’ve had some issues getting a clean install and have had to deal with a few issues that arose, primarily in the install process (using the USB thumb drive method).
I’ve never been in love with Ubuntu. But seeing it offered a Budgie “flavor” I decided to take it for a romp. It was not smooth sailing either. While I did get an install and I liked the overall feel of it, I kept getting an error after it launched, saying there was an error and was it ok to report it. I clicked yes. But I didn’t see what the error was myself.
I worked for a bit, customizing it to my liking and did a sudo apt update/sudo apt upgrade just to expedite the process so I didn’t have to go into the software repository. Upon reboot, same error. Kept getting some flashing errors on boot as well. Rebooted, same thing.
The long and short of it is that while I do not necessarily love the look and feel of Pop! OS, it offers a lot when it comes to clean installs and just working out of the box. I prefer Budgie’s vibe over the weird retro-robot-themed Pop!, but I simply can’t find a better distro out there. The closest two are Mint and Zorin, but Zorin is heavy (as in it requires a lot of power) and Mint’s environment is just sort of meh! to me. As in Windows XP, and I was over it 20 years ago. I do like Solus Budgie a lot, but it’s been troublesome to load.
I am not a fan of Pop! and I am not on the payroll, etc., for System 76. And I sure wish they’d design something sleeker and more elegant. But it’s hard to argue with, “It just works.”
I use Budgie in Solus.
I have never tried it in Ubuntu… but I am not surprised you found issues. Most DTEs work best in their ‘native’ version of Linux.
I have never had any issues with Solus/Budgie. I am using VirtualBox inside Solus/Budgie, and it works well. I did have an install issue about the way Solus interactrd with grub, but that was a once only problem.
So, why not stick with Solus/Budgie instead of Ubuntu?
Regards
Neville
I should really not comment, because I have never tried Ubuntu, but I can say I am happy with Solus.
Independent distros like Solus tend to do something exciting and different. I like that.
I’m with you on the Pop! OS appearance. It looks kind of cartoony to me. I haven’t used it long enough to have any issues with it.
As for Budgie, I’ve tried it in a VM a few times, but didn’t ever decide to load it as my default. I’m running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Gnome, but with Plank for a dock. The normal Gnome dock is on the left side of the screen and autohides. Plank is on the bottom.
I’ve used Zorin just a bit too, also in a VM. It is very familiar when coming from Windows, but somehow the appearance just didn’t do it for me.
Did you try Budgie with Solus? I am led to believe its implementation in Ubuntu is not as good as in Solus.
Coming to Budgie from Gnome should be easy, they are similar.
Lots of great distros out there and I have played with several. The main attraction I have to Pop! is the lack of “under the hood” gazing I get compared to other distros. On boot> No lines of code or error messages reminiscent of the 80s film War Games. After boot> A well stocked software repository (Pop! Shop) that allows you to grab many, many titles through a GUI without having to use command lines. Helpful apps and utilities already installed (Popsicle for formatting USB drives with ISO files, Disks for cleaning up your partitions, the full Libre Office suite). It’s also very stable, reasonably customizable and totally intuitive to use.
I have used the terminal command line many, many times in my time on Linux and it’s fine. But it lacks the intuitive nature of a GUI and you have to KNOW PRECISELY where to find things inside the file architecture of your system. I am not averse to using it when I need to. I just prefer not to need to.
I have also found that my installs of Pop have been much cleaner than other distros. Sure, it’s probably because I don’t know what I am doing, but I find “remnants” of other OSs partitioned in other distros. I just don’t get as clean of an install. Yeah, the theme is corny, but it really is a good, stable, full-featured distro. And though I want Budgie as my daily driver, even in Solus, it’s not quite there yet as far as stability and a clean installation goes. I plan to keep it on one of my computers in the hopes that updates will make it a daily driver in the near future.
Yes, keeping something on the side, is a good way of having some easy options for the future.
It is all about picking a distro that is well managed. Thempeople behind a distro are at least as important as its features. They can change and one needs to be prepared.