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+--- Thread: 2020-06-12 OS Version Updates (/showthread.php?tid=2363)
2020-06-12 OS Version Updates - Haxus - 06-12-2020
It's that time again when Ubuntu posts a new long term support release. That happens every two years, in April. Sometimes the alternate flavors of Ubuntu lag that release a little, such as Xubuntu and Lubuntu and the server version.
I upgraded the OS on my personal computer, which was running Xubuntu 18. I installed Ubuntu 20, Manjaro 20, Debian 10, and finally settled on Lubuntu 20, for now. Here are some of the highlights from the various upgrades, starting with our attempt to upgrade the Mac Pro.
MacOS
Our Mac Pro failed in its attempt to upgrade to the latest version of MacOS. Physically it is a plenty capable machine by today's standards and it was very expensive when new. We even upgraded the video interface to a newer more modern one for this upgrade, because the upgrade program said it was needed. However, due to the age of our expensive Mac Pro, Apple decided that it cannot be updated. This is a lesson for anyone who plans to spend the huge amount of money that a decked-out Mac Pro costs. At some point it will become obsolete by decree from Apple and there's nothing you can do. This is the second time in my life that I have found myself cursing Apple and swearing that I will never buy another of their computers; I should have listened to myself the first time.
I read it is possible to load Linux onto the old Mac Pro. Paula currently uses it as her main work machine. If she upgrades to a new box, I might try loading Linux onto the old one, just for fun and because its a beautiful machine. My big Alienware box was bought at the same time as the Mac Pro. Comparing the two boxes, inside and outside, is like comparing a Ferrari to a mid range Ford. Don't get me wrong, I love Fords after/while owning several of them but they aren't Ferraris.
Speaking of which, and really off topic, we had the opportunity to see the movie Ford vs Ferrari. It was a great movie, kind of made the Ford guys look like a bunch of corporate asses. I highly recommend seeing the movie.
For now, I have dropped support for the MacOS build of Shores of Hazeron. That could change in the future but its not likely unless someone requests it. Then it is only a matter of building and posting the software so don't be afraid to make that request.
Notably, all the latest versions of Linux were quite happy to upgrade my vintage Alienware computer.
Ubuntu 20
Competent and stable. This would be a fine OS for most purposes. It woke up to my three monitor configuration without any trouble.
Shores of Hazeron built and ran just fine. As usual with a new version of the development system, there was a wave of new compiler warnings that needed fixing.
I was pleased to notice when running SoH that most emojis in the text were now rendered in full color, not the text color, including the ones that appear in the on-screen chat text.
I didn't care for the new Gnome desktop. I lamented to Paula that I would like to see them roll back all the stuff they've done in recent years, back to when Linux felt cooler.
I had grown to like Manjaro 18 after using it in a virtual build machine for the last couple of years. I decided now was a good time to give it a try.
Manjaro 20 Xfce
Competent and stable. This would be a fine OS for most purposes. It woke up to my three monitor configuration without any trouble.
The Xfce desktop was more traditional and likeable.
Running Shores of Hazeron produced an error message about not being able to set a custom style. Then the style of many dialog boxes was borked, particularly the system supplied dialogs such as the file browser.
Worse, the OpenGL scene was transparent through the window to the desktop below, and whatever other windows were behind the SoH window, like having a peep hole through the SoH window. I concluded this could be a bug in my own window configuration so I made some attempts to eliminate the problem. Nothing worked. This error happened when Manjaro 20 was running as the main OS of the computer and it also happened when Manjaro was running in a virtual machine under Ubuntu 20. Both were running on the same physical computer/video hardware.
For this reason, support for Manjaro was dropped for now. I can/will build a version of SoH for Manjaro if anyone requests it. Perhaps your computer won't exhibit the problem.
Debian 10
Competent and stable. This would be a fine OS for most purposes. It woke up to my three monitor configuration without any trouble.
The installer allowed me to install Gnome, KDE Plasma and Xfce desktops. There were others but I only picked those three because they were familiar. Then you could pick your desktop when logging in, a nice feature.
Shores of Hazeron built and ran just fine but the frame rate was extremely low. This is because Debian does not install any non-free software, such as custom video drivers. I probably could have located and installed the necessary video driver but I didn't want to mess with it.
Xubuntu 20
I started downloading Xubuntu 20, which is Ubuntu with the Xfce desktop. While I was waiting, I started reading about Lubuntu, which is Ubuntu with the LXQt desktop. Wait what? I love Qt. LXQt is a desktop built using Qt?
I canceled the Xubuntu download. I'm sure it would have been a fine OS for most purposes.
Lubuntu 20
Competent and stable. This would be a fine OS for most purposes. It woke up to my three monitor configuration without any trouble.
Shores of Hazeron built and ran just fine. My only disappointment was that the emojis are back to being text-colored, instead of full color. At least we know somebody is working on it, maybe next version.
Somebody was listening to my plea. The LXQt desktop is clean and simple and everything seems to work. Not only that, a few of the cool fun things are back in the distribution, silly stuff like having zillions of pointless screen savers, and a terminal window background texture.
I tried using the QtTerminal window. It was very nice but I had to give it up because I've grown too used to using Alt+number to switch screens quickly. It was easy to install the good old Gnome terminal but I miss one of the fun features in the QtTerminal. Alas, you can't have it all.
Work on Shores of Hazeron feels like I'm back to my old pace. OS version upgrades are disruptive and a bit stressful until everything is back in its place and working as intended.
I suppose I could have simply upgraded the Xubuntu I was using but where's the fun in that? Sometimes you have to live it and do it to find a better way.
The final line up of officially supported platforms is...
- Debian 10
- Mint 19
- Ubuntu 20
- Windows 64 bits
- Windows 32 bits
RE: 2020-06-12 OS Version Updates - BenjB83 - 06-19-2020
Does Ubuntu 18.04 LTS still work?
I have not yet upgraded, since my OS is working fine. Also I run a highly customized Ubuntu 18 with several packages removed, others added, running latest Kernels and video drivers, etc.
That said, I have not yet seen a need to upgrade and I have no plans to do it, until support for 18 LTS is running out. So I will probably get Ubuntu 22 LTS.
I would be happy if you let me know.
Cheers!
Ben
RE: 2020-06-12 OS Version Updates - Haxus - 06-23-2020
I will continue to build/post a build for Ubuntu 18 for a while. It is building now. I'll post it when it is finished.
RE: 2020-06-12 OS Version Updates - resonkinetic - 06-25-2020
Running fine on Windows 7, and was running on Ubuntu 18 just fine.
Now that I've upgraded to Ubuntu 20 however, using the updated launcher to open either Hazeron Mail, Hazeron Commander, or the main Hazeron client will open and be interactable for a few seconds before crashing. I thought maybe I needed to redownload the required packages but I already have the most up to date packages.
So for some reason it launches fine now that I've removed my custom launch shortcut, but I'm not sure why that had any bearing on it. anyway, running on ubuntu 20 fine now.
also, on the downloads web page the package "qtmultimedia5" is missing "-dev" from the end. there is no "qtmultimedia5" apparently but there is a "qtmultimedia5-dev" which is how I got the hazeron commander to launch at all.