You Can Have My Desktop Menu Bar When You Take It From My Cold, Dead Fingers

After five years, I'm switching back to Ubuntu.  There are three reasons for this: (1) a feeling that it really doesn't matter what distro you use, (2) there's a reason Ubuntu is the most popular, and (3) They'll let me have my Goddamn desktop menu bar.  Okay, it's mostly about the menu bar.

I've been using OpenSUSE for the past two years because it's the most popular--and most polished--distro that runs KDE by default.  I also tried Kubuntu but it feels to much like Ubuntu's little brother who isn't old enough to play with the cool kids, and I tried PCLinuxOS and liked it a lot, but their release time is abysmal.  OK, fine, I know their core developer group is like half a dozen people, but it is what it is, and I wanted something with better repositories.  OpenSUSE fit the bill very nicely.

The real problem is KDE 4.  More specifically, the fact that KDE 4 is actually a regression with fewer features.  More specifically, they took out my desktop menu bar.

This may seem like an awfully small thing, and from one perspective it is.  Linux gives you such incredible freedom with customizing your software and your interface that there are lots of other ways I can be productive.  But it's that very sense of freedom that makes me angry when they take it away.  KDE 3 had a menu bar.  Gnome has a menu bar.  Mac OS X has a menu bar.  There is a menu bar solution for KDE 4, but it's a third party utility and it's too funky for me.  (Ironically the guy who developed it used to be a KDE developer but he left for some reason.  Too bad.)  The guy in charge of porting the desktop menu bar to KDE 4 has said he's too busy to do it.

So, after years of sneering at Gnome, I'm back, because at least they have a menu bar.  Frankly, I've always liked the Gnome menu bar more than the KDE menu bar.  It's more functional and it's more useful.  And on the latest version of Ubuntu, it looks really nice.

That brings me to my next point.  I've also been realizing for some time that it really doesn't matter what distro you use, or what desktop environment.  While using OpenSUSE KDE 3, I was running programs made for KDE 3, KDE 4, and Gnome (ever heard of Firefox?).  It got to the point where I could have three different UI's open at once.  Often you see Linux programs only being released for Ubuntu (because they use the .deb packager and OpenSUSE doesn't), but usually some kind soul will take the source code and put it in an OpenSUSE package for me.  The SUSE "factory" (a collection of third-party repositories) made that incredibly easy.  I'll miss that, along with the one-click install feature.

But the truth is I've already transcended distros and desktop environments.  I use the software I want and it doesn't matter what it was compiled for.  When I was trying to solve a problem in OpenSUSE, I often found myself on fabulous the Ubuntu forums.

That brings me to my last point.  If it doesn't matter what distro I use, then I want to use Ubuntu.  This is partially because more things are compiled for Ubuntu than for any other distro (see above), but it's also because Ubuntu is more polished.  Of the top four distros, both Fedora and OpenSUSE are used as test platforms for corporate products, and Mint is based on Ubuntu anyway.  Ubuntu is the only project really focused on bringing a polished experience to the private desktop/laptop user and it shows.  Better hardware support, better stability, much more user friendly.  I got along great with OpenSUSE, but it had shortcomings.  Ubuntu is the most popular distro for a reason.

Of course, is Ubuntu lets me down, I've got the brand new OpenSUSE 11.2 installer disk right here.

J<

PS: I wrote the post while installing Ubuntu on the same computer.  Linux is awesome.