Good bye to Ubuntu 10.04

I used debian for many years, and Ubuntu was definitely easier to setup and maintain. Hardware support was/is much better in *buntu and Mint, and the everything generally works out of the box. I find Mint to be better setup than ubuntu (I can't stand Unity either), and is what I use now for my main desktop.
The command line is what most normal users would like to avoid if possible. Even as a pretty savvy linux user for 18+ years now, I have to look up options to all kinds of command line tools when I use them because I am not a system admin and don't do that stuff every day.
Debian still seems to be targeted toward the system admin level instead of normal users - and I think this is why normal users like ubuntu and mint better.
Cradek put quite a bit of work into the linuxcnc wheezy livecd to make it simpler to install and to have a better default setup, but part of the problem with wheezy is it's age. XFCE has some nice improvements since the version in wheezy.

Debian has the paper cut problem. Things mostly work but little broken things are super annoying.
Also the default program package are different then what Ubuntu used and are often very old versions.
These things really matter to first time users and actually matter to a long time user like me too.
As a Dev I dislike linuxcnc changing distributions because it often changes what programs and versions you can assume are available.

Unfortunately Ubuntu has placed restrictions on how we are allowed to re-distribute Ubuntu's package that are neither clear nor easy. (Ubuntu's Brand must be removed?)
I am not sure if Mint has the same restrictions.

I am really not impressed with Debian as linuxcnc's base but I surely don't have the skill to offer an option.
I would pick Mint - they seem to still understand what a desktop computer should be.
my 2 cents

Chris M

I Have just try wheezy and precise on same 2pc pc ... atomxxx and I3 ...... in my experience ... only for latency test, because the machine work only 4 hour at time,.... is better for performance on the same hardware, not to mention that it is much easier to do in the maintenance .... I am very sorry for the restrictions that ubuntu have entered .... it is equally true that the brand nobody cares ... . is it not true that many industrial systems (except those made by Major companies) are installed on WinCE that you can see or not? ... To tell the truth some achieve simple control systems on debian (normally starting from a minimal ...) ... but right now these are all switching to Android .... I can not understand the choice of debian ... but I have to trust .... the future explain me better ....

regards
Giorgio

I wasted last night trying to get Linuxcnc to work on latest Linux Mint Cinnamon edition, managed to get Rtai kernel working although it broke Cinnamon, but no cigar on the Lcnc front due to some dependency problems. Round 2 when and if i have some time.
As a side note ( mental ), i would love the 10.04 with updated stuff, same desktop and 2.8pre running on it.
I have 3 running 12.04 with 2.8pre without issues, but i used Ultimate Edition 3.4.2 for it. No Unity c.....!

The same for me...

As a side note ( mental ), i would love the 10.04 with updated stuff, same desktop and 2.8pre running on it.

Unity It is cumbersome over gnome to customize (or mate or xfce) .... but personally I'm used to work on unity and are now able to find it even functional ... (for LinuxCNC must create all the launcher by hand and save them as .desktop ... then depending on the job you can also turn into style icons gnome ubuntu 10.04 on the screen ..)

Now I try to envelope somethings in android like qtvcp (but I not use qtvcp only android and java) as remote gui for Lcnc... for my part Remote Qt Gui is just do (in these period I test my custom uspace comp for work with it... if test go ok i upload it to forum) .. surely android+java is more difficult then customize unity.....

SUrely the ubuntu direction actually is Qt ... so some legal noise about re-distribution there is ... but in the future we will Andoid our supreme commander ??

I am very sorry to bid farewell to Ubuntu 10.04 ... it was very nice to LCNC .... but now I'm in love with Ubuntu 04.14 (course for now I can not use it to LCNC) ... and I suspect I will like it also 16:04 ....

Regards
Giorgio

Actually Ubuntu 14.04 (and the derivative Mint 17) work fine with LinuxCNC,
Ubuntu 16.04 (and Mint 18) also work but have a few minor issues (mostly fixed in master)