Hedon James Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 I've done it again. I had previously provided a remix of Lubuntu for WinXP migrators, posted on this forum, referenced as XPubuntu. In actuality, XPubuntu was my 2nd project, which was undertaken in an effort to gain some additional experience and to learn some additional knowledge in order to solve some problems being incurred in my INITIAL project effort, which I have decided to call Pangaea. Having gained some of the sought-after knowledge from the simple exercise of XPubuntu, I was able to return to my original Pangaea project, and solve the majority of my issues and ideas. In other posts regarding the direction of Ubuntu, Unity, Mir, and other controversial topics within the linux community, I have always maintained that Ubuntu and Unity works for me, while acknowledging that I see what others see. While stating that my personal imaginary line has not yet been crossed, I've been preparing for that day when it might happen. And I have to say that I LOVE the choices available to us within the linux ecosystem! While I have remixed my project on a base of Lubuntu, and therefore Ubuntu, there is nothing preventing me from shifting to a Debian base if I should choose to do so. I have also professed to be a bit of a software junkie from the moment I joined this site. My biggest passions are cross platform software offerings that are available in Linux, Windows, and/or Mac OSX. Software such as Firefox, Thunderbird, DropBox, Evernote/NixNote, LibreOffice, VirtualBox, TeamViewer, etc... These software programs are available on each of these OS, with substantially the same feature sets. THIS is how I think software should be. My software choices shouldn't be dictated by my underlying OS, and my choice of OS shouldn't be dictated by the selection of software available for it. This is the primary reason that I choose the software programs that I use, and this was one of the primary considerations of remixing Lubuntu into Pangaea. For those interested, here's a link to the SourceForge host site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pangaealubuntu/?source=navbar More detailed information is available on the Wiki page. Keeping in mind that this distro was designed at nearly every step for the "perfect user"...ME! I'm the tech support guy in my circle of family and friends, and I've been wanting to reduce the number of OS that I provide help with. In a perfect world, that number would be ONE...but what would that have to look like in order to have the widest possible appeal to the greatest number of users who receive support from me? I wanted a familiar Unity-like appearance and behavior, as much as possible, with the ability to easily morph the appearance into something else, according to that user's tastes. I wanted cross-platform software offerings, to the extent possible, for familiarity to the greatest number of users, regardless of OS. And I wanted a low-resource system that would run suitably on older lower-specced hardware, but would absolutely BLAZE on newer modern systems. And with these basic criteria, I wanted it to look "better" than some tired old remix of Lubuntu, which is actually what Pangaea is! To accomplish this, Ubuntu Unity themes for Openbox were installed, as well as numerous beach-themed wallpaper backgrounds, a custom-designed Pangaea default wallpaper, and several custom icons that I like better than Lubuntu's default offerings. I'm pretty pleased with the end result and I'll be slowly switching machines over to Pangaea, in my world and my tech support world, in a slow and controlled manner over time, as machines/users require it. If Pangaea suits your tastes and your ethos of a suitable OS, I'm happy to share it with you! Enjoy!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 I was cleaning up some narrative in my Pangaea Wiki Page on SourceForge and stumbled on a Softpedia review of Pangaea, less than 24 hours after I uploaded it to SourceForge! How does this happen, especially so quickly? Other than a quick post here to notify my BATL brethren, I have taken no other special steps to get the word out, and I have notified no one! This thread has 25 views; has someone here passed this information on? Or is Marius Nestor a member of this forum? Marius Nestor wrote the review for Softpedia and I was pleasantly surprised (and somewhat flattered) with his favorable review (big THANK YOU to reviewer/editor Marius Nestor..."the check is in the mail", ha, ha, ha!). I'm fully aware that an LXDE desktop designed to resemble Unity isn't everyone's cup of tea (especially those who HATE the look of Unity!), so I'm glad that someone else "gets it", even if it doesn't suit their tastes. http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Linux-Distributions/Pangaea-Lubuntu-103499.shtml I was pretty surprised to see over 60 downloads of Pangaea from SourceForge within the first 12 hours of upload. I am SHOCKED to see another 130+ downloads from Softpedia in the first 24 hours! I created Pangaea to perfectly "scratch my own itch"; and I put it on Sourceforge for others to check out, thinking that maybe 3-5 curious folks from BATL would cue it up in a VM out of curiousity. This reaction is so far beyond my expectations, I'm having a little trouble processing it. Wow...just, WOW?!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 (edited) Very nice! Having the official cross-platform programs that folks have likely used on Windows and/or Macs is always the best way to get things going. As you know Unity is not my thing, but that is awesome about that great review (4.5 out of 5 stars) by Marius Nester (Twitter): "Full-time IT Geek @ Softpedia / Arch Linux Power User / Android Aficionado / Mac OS X & iOS Connoisseur" Very cool! Arch Linux Power User! By the way, Marius Nester is a Mozilla Firefox Extensions developer and on G+ Marius Nester (Works at Softpedia / Lives in Bucharest and says about himself: "I write about Linux software, Linux distributions and Linux technologies."), Articles by Marius Nestor - LinuxToday, and more. Based on his Ubuntu review at Softpedia and links on G+, he does like Ubuntu so it doesn't surprise me that he liked your re-mix with a different twist from the stock Ubuntu. Very cool. It is however, a shame that your Ubuntu distro Pangea is on SourceForge. I personally, would not download anything from SourceForge these days just on principal (1 (GHacks.net), 2 (Gluster), 3 (Reddit), upset FileZilla users, from SourceForge's own blog on DevShare, and more). Edited June 27, 2014 by LilBambi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 As you know Unity is not my thing, <snipped> It is however, a shame that your Ubuntu distro Pangea is on SourceForge. I personally, would not download anything from SourceForge these days just on principal (1 (GHacks.net), 2 (Gluster), 3 (Reddit), upset FileZilla users, from SourceForge's own blog on DevShare, and more). Unfortunately, if one does not like the appearance of Unity, my remix isn't for you...we can still be friends, right? If you don't like Unity because of the "bloat" and sluggishness, perhaps Pangaea MAY be to your liking?! Either way, it's all good. Use what works for you, as that is all the justification anyone needs for liking what you like! And for the record, LXDE/Openbox is SUPREMELY configurable...at this point, I can reconfigure the default Pangaea interface to just about anything else you can imagine in 10-15 minutes or less! IMO, the app selection is the centerpiece of Pangaea; the custom LXDE/Unity appearance is just the "wrapper".! As far as Sourceforge, it just ended up being the most "professional" and easiest way to get it off my cloud and my computer. Plus, I can track downloads now, somewhat, whereas on DropBox I didn't even know if people could see it. Seems like nothing is ever ideal, but Sourceforge ended up being the right solution for me at this time. Until the equation changes again... P.S. Thanks for the info on Marius Nestor! It's kinda flattering that a complete stranger, albeit one who reviews software for a living, gave it a nice review without any ass-kissing, cajoling, or palm-greasing of any sort. Then again, maybe the guy has no taste...either way, I'll take it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Of course we can be friends. I appreciate and enjoy folks with differing views. I am sure there are other places besides SourceForge and ones that accept donations rather than installing crapware on Windows computers. This is why I have stopped using SourceForge. Personally, I also would worry about them adding crap to your Linux downloads as well, or asking you to add some search crap like Ubuntu added but with SourceForge as benefactor. As I say, I no longer trust them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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