Ubuntu 10.10 not supported anymore

[rotten69]

Hi everyone,

I've just installed ubuntu 10.10 LTS and it is giving me an error that it can't update packages because this version isn't supported anymore.

Is there a way of fixing that? If not, I think I'm downgrading to ubuntu 10.4 which will be supported until April 2013. It sucks that we're kinda pushed to use 11.04 and above. In my opinoin, unity sucks badly and slows my machine.

Cheers,

[rubberman]

Usually, the x.04 (April) versions are LTS (Long Term Support) systems. If you want to have available updates then you need to install either the latest (and not necessarily greatest) version, or one of the LTS ones. Personally, I have not found an Ubuntu distribution that I can accept since 9.04. So, I am no longer using Ubuntu on ANY of my systems.

[mike_2000_17]

If the main problem is that you don't like the interface (unity), then just use a different flavor of Ubuntu. I recommend Kubuntu (12.04 LTS). Mint or Fedora are also good options.

[CimmerianX]

Mint Cinnamon is a great alternative to unity. I use that on the desktop now. I still use Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for a majority of the servers.

[rotten69]

I like the interface of 10.10 LTS, it looks great. Also, the problem with unity is that it slows the machine to a point where you think, Ooops hang on there is a problem with the machine I'm using. But there isn't. I've just had a fresh install of 12.04 and it is not responsive and lags. Is that a problem that people(if not all) are experiencing?

I want to disable unity interface on the side and have something like what I had in 10.10. Is that possible?

[rubberman]

Mike2K, it is not the UI I cannot live with, but their changes in hardware support. With 9.04 and earlier, all of my hardware cruft (WiFi and Bluetooth dongels, broadband modems, etc) worked out-of-the-box - no configuration or driver installation required. Now, not so nice. If I have to deal with that krud, then I'll find another distribution to use (which currently is Scientific Linux) where at least I know where I stand/sit...

[mike_2000_17]

@rubberman: I wasn't talking to you. The OP expressed distaste and problems with the Unity interface of the newer versions of Ubuntu, that's why I was talking about alternatives in that regard.

I've just had a fresh install of 12.04 and it is not responsive and lags. Is that a problem that people(if not all) are experiencing?

I've had the same problem, as many people have. Unity does require more resources than advertised. And Canonical has been trying to fix the issue, but the main problem is that the features that Unity provide (which are awesome in principle) are very heavy features that tend to lag a lot in inconvenient times. I've heard 12.10 is a bit better, but I don't know for sure. I have an older laptop that I recently retired from active duty, so I experimented with a few distributions. The hardware is limited (Centrino CPU, 2Gb RAM, 100Gb disk, etc.). When I tried Ubuntu with Unity, it was very sluggish, barely usable, for both 11.10 and 12.04.

I want to disable unity interface on the side and have something like what I had in 10.10. Is that possible?

I believe that it is not really possible (or at least, not easy) to remove Unity to replace it with something else. It won't be worth the trouble, and if you want to replace the interface, then it boils down to the same as just picking another Ubuntu-based distribution (which are all just Ubuntu with a different desktop environment).

My personal favorite desktop environment is KDE (Ubuntu + KDE = Kubuntu). Out-of-the-box it will look very similar to a Windows environment (bar at the bottom, tray icons and time on the right, start button on the left, etc.), but KDE is so customizable (everything can be changed or tweeked, almost without exception) that you can make it look like anything you like, including earlier versions of Ubuntu. After my little try-outs of distributions for my old laptop, I ended up settling for the KDE spin of Fedora 17, which is also a pretty good option, so is fedora in general. The point is, shop around a bit, if you're not happy with the latest incarnations of Ubuntu.

[Nutster]

I want to disable unity interface on the side and have something like what I had in 10.10. Is that possible?

That is exactly what I did when I installed 12.04 LTS on my Linux laptop. I installed the gnome package and then the next time I logged in, I used Gnome (Classic) as my GUI. I then purged Unity and the other components I did not like. Also, the modern Compiz does not play that nicely with the Gnome environment, so I got rid of that as well; besides, I find Compiz a bit of a resource hog anyway. I should really get around to seeing how the Gnome 3 environment behaves on this computer, but I am having too much fun with Gnome (Classic).

[rotten69]

@Nutster.. .By the sound of it, you don't have any problems after you removed Unity and its friends/children, do you? How did you go about deleting it?

The reason I want to get rid of it is that it slows my laptop really badly.

[Nutster]

Use your favourite package installer (Synaptic does it for me) and install xfce or gnome (or both, like I have) and accept all the extras that each wants you to have. After that, log out and log back in, but on the page where you enter your password, change the graphics session to XFCE or Gnome (Classic). These require a lot less resources than Unity, KDE or Gnome 3. Then using the package installer, purge (completely remove) unity package and anything else that begins with unity-. In Synaptic, just put unity in the search bar at the top and start purging. Some other packages will also be market to be removed as well. Go back and purge them as well. Compiz might be a good thing to purge as well, as all of its effects can slow down the machine as well. When you have done this, close Synaptic and then open a terminal. Enter:
sudo apt-get --purge autoremove; sudo apt-get upgrade
You will need to enter your password to run apt-get as root. The first command purges anything that was installed as part of the packages you removed and are thus no longer needed. The second just makes sure everything is up to date.