Help me make a decision

[Mariius]

I would like you, dear reader, to help me make a decision which can cost a lot of time and a lot of nerves.
I am trying to figure out, weather I should give ubuntu a shot or not. This problem of mine, of course, sound ridiculous - whats the problem, eh, just test it and see how it goes, write? Well, the problem is what I am doing with my computer... Here are the most common tasks that I do with my computer:
1. Listen to spotify(music) / watch videos(mostly through browser) (I really enjoy equalizers, and as I know, ubuntu doesn't have a good one)
2. Programming in Java, C++(Eclipse IDE for linux, maybe?), Android(Java)(Using android studio IDE)
3. Browse the web in general (studying, looking for information)
4. Make presentations, write documents
5. Communicating / social networking (Skype, Facebook)
6. Messing around with my phone (installing custom kernels, radios, roms)

I have tried windows 8 and windows 8.1 - its a horror movie (or at least was) for C++ developers who want to use boost libraries (it seems that you need to run as admin pretty much anything there in order to make it work). Currently I am running Windows 7 and it is fine. But what I really do like about Ubuntu (and OSX) is the global menu... Don't know why, but it is much more comfortable.

I have tried ubuntu 13.10 maybe two months ago. Used it for a week and at the end - I hated it for a couple of reasons:
1. It was very buggy and unstable. Used to constantly crash.
2. Sometimes my touchpad didn't work (this mostly occured when I used to turn off or on my touchpad with special button for it)
3. I was unable to connect to wireless networks in some places and was able to with Windows 7. (my laptop has intel wifi 1000bgn card, its a Msi fx600 laptop)
4. I was shocked that it was not that customizabile. (Don't know what canonical is thinking, but Linux should be all about customizability, security, speed, stability)
5. I have Samsung 840 evo series SSD which has neat features for windows (like rapid technology, etc) and yet Ubuntu does not even have a feature in control panel to enable or disable trimming...

So, I am asking for your tips, your experience on should I try Ubuntu? Will it run smooth in my daily usage and is it possible to get rid of these "bugs" that I have named? Maybe I should test other Ubuntu version (like 14.04, or maybe I should wait for it to be fully released and then try to switch?). Or maybe there is a better distro for me with global menu? Please, do not hesitate do give me as much tips and "experience talk" as possible.
Thank you very much!

[rashdanml]

1. For Stability, use the LTS versions. Usually x.04 are far more stable than the x.10 version. If you want even more rock-solid stability, Debian is great and forms the base for Ubuntu. 

2. If you use the mechanical switch to turn it off, of course it won't be functional. 

3. Wireless should generally work out of the box, but then again, it could be a network issue and not a laptop/Ubuntu issue.

4. It is customizable, but, it requires stripping it down quite a bit to get exactly the setup you want. For a truly customizable experience, get an Ubuntu-based distribution that's very lightweight (bare minimal packages installed) make it easier to build up on. Debian might actually be a good starting point, but it's not really for a beginner Linux user. 

5. Trim is enabled by default in the kernel, as of one of the more recent kernel versions. You don't need additional settings for it.

 

Personally, I would bypass Ubuntu for either 1) ElementaryOS which is Ubuntu-based, lightweight and absolutely gorgeous or 2) Debian-based distributions like Crunchbang or Debian itself. 

[Mariius]

1. For Stability, use the LTS versions. Usually x.04 are far more stable than the x.10 version. If you want even more rock-solid stability, Debian is great and forms the base for Ubuntu. 

2. If you use the mechanical switch to turn it off, of course it won't be functional. 

3. Wireless should generally work out of the box, but then again, it could be a network issue and not a laptop/Ubuntu issue.

4. It is customizable, but, it requires stripping it down quite a bit to get exactly the setup you want. For a truly customizable experience, get an Ubuntu-based distribution that's very lightweight (bare minimal packages installed) make it easier to build up on. Debian might actually be a good starting point, but it's not really for a beginner Linux user. 

5. Trim is enabled by default in the kernel, as of one of the more recent kernel versions. You don't need additional settings for it.

 

Personally, I would bypass Ubuntu for either 1) ElementaryOS which is Ubuntu-based, lightweight and absolutely gorgeous or 2) Debian-based distributions like Crunchbang or Debian itself. 

I have tried Elementary os, but it was more then not okay to have a very huge bug for nvidia cards. After rebooting, desktop wouldn't load and you had to manually install drivers through terminal, delete the old ones etc. I have talked about this with Elementary os developers, and they said that this bug is out there and they are not able to do anything with it at the time. So that, for me, doesn't sound very stable. Plus, elementary os doesn't have global menu which I love.

[rashdanml]

I have tried Elementary os, but it was more then not okay to have a very huge bug for nvidia cards. After rebooting, desktop wouldn't load and you had to manually install drivers through terminal, delete the old ones etc. I have talked about this with Elementary os developers, and they said that this bug is out there and they are not able to do anything with it at the time. So that, for me, doesn't sound very stable. Plus, elementary os doesn't have global menu which I love.

Interesting. I've had the opposite behaviour with 2 friends who installed in on their laptops recently. The bug did occur though, but that was due to using "Additional Drivers" setting in the Software Center iirc, which does require command line to fix. However, there's also a very simple method to install proprietary Nvidia or AMD drivers, which doesn't have any issues (yet). 

 

It's not a major bug though, as there are alternatives to installing stable video drivers, resulting in excellent performance. 

[Mariius]

Interesting. I've had the opposite behaviour with 2 friends who installed in on their laptops recently. The bug did occur though, but that was due to using "Additional Drivers" setting in the Software Center iirc, which does require command line to fix. However, there's also a very simple method to install proprietary Nvidia or AMD drivers, which doesn't have any issues (yet). 

 

It's not a major bug though, as there are alternatives to installing stable video drivers, resulting in excellent performance. 

What distro do you personally use? Do you prefer elementary over debian, or elementary over ubuntu?

For me elementary looks like a distro which was made for people who are only interested in browsing the web, chatting. Not for serious use, that's what I am trying to say.

[rashdanml]

What distro do you personally use? Do you prefer elementary over debian, or elementary over ubuntu?

For me elementary looks like a distro which was made for people who are only interested in browsing the web, chatting. Not for serious use, that's what I am trying to say.

Personally, Arch linux, but I wouldn't really recommend it for a beginner or someone without much experience. It's rolling-release, so the software is bleeding edge; should still be fairly stable, but a software update could break the system. To be even more honest, Arch linux is my first distribution too; I've played around with Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu in the past, but I much prefer the customizability that Arch linux offers, and Arch is very well documented and easy to set up and configure by following the Wiki.  

 

To answer your questions, Debian over Ubuntu (Debian is more stable, perfect for servers and system admins, and for learning more about Linux) and ElementaryOS over Ubuntu (because it's sexy). 

 

On that last note: Ubuntu is also along the lines of oversimplifying things to satisfy Linux newcomers. You can still modify the heck out of it if you choose to, but out of the box, it isn't made for the advanced user. 

 

If you want more advanced customizability: Debian or Arch linux are excellent. Gentoo is even more advanced, but requires beefy hardware as everything needs to be compiled from source (which can be annoying). 

 

Go with Debian if you want stability. Debian is widely recommended for servers, and excellent for desktop users too. 

[Mariius]

Personally, Arch linux, but I wouldn't really recommend it for a beginner or someone without much experience. It's rolling-release, so the software is bleeding edge; should still be fairly stable, but a software update could break the system. To be even more honest, Arch linux is my first distribution too; I've played around with Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu in the past, but I much prefer the customizability that Arch linux offers, and Arch is very well documented and easy to set up and configure by following the Wiki.  

 

To answer your questions, Debian over Ubuntu (Debian is more stable, perfect for servers and system admins, and for learning more about Linux) and ElementaryOS over Ubuntu (because it's sexy). 

 

On that last note: Ubuntu is also along the lines of oversimplifying things to satisfy Linux newcomers. You can still modify the heck out of it if you choose to, but out of the box, it isn't made for the advanced user. 

 

If you want more advanced customizability: Debian or Arch linux are excellent. Gentoo is even more advanced, but requires beefy hardware as everything needs to be compiled from source (which can be annoying). 

 

Go with Debian if you want stability. Debian is widely recommended for servers, and excellent for desktop users too. 

Thank you. This is very useful and interesting information. I still have one question though - I have obsession with global menus - I love them. What about Debian? Is it possible to have global menu (just like in Ubuntu or OSX) in Debian?

[rashdanml]

Thank you. This is very useful and interesting information. I still have one question though - I have obsession with global menus - I love them. What about Debian? Is it possible to have global menu (just like in Ubuntu or OSX) in Debian?

Debian should support global menus (if not by default, it should be available as a package that can be installed). Ubuntu is based on Debian, so anything that works for Ubuntu should work for Debian.  

 

You'll probably need to install couple of packages for global menus, both for GTK2/3 applications and Qt applications. 

[Mariius]

Debian should support global menus (if not by default, it should be available as a package that can be installed). Ubuntu is based on Debian, so anything that works for Ubuntu should work for Debian.  

 

You'll probably need to install couple of packages for global menus, both for GTK2/3 applications and Qt applications. 

Thanks. All that's left is to think about it twice before doing something