FAQ

What is Ubuntu GNOME?

  • Ubuntu GNOME is an official Ubuntu flavor featuring the GNOME desktop. We aim to provide a relatively pure GNOME desktop on top of the popular Ubuntu foundation. We believe the combination of Ubuntu and GNOME is the best choice for those looking for a beautiful, simple, and usable operating system.

What is Ubuntu?

  • Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution for desktop and laptop personal computers and is widely used on servers as well. A new version of Ubuntu has been released almost every April and October since 2004. Ubuntu releases will always be free. The Ubuntu project is funded by Canonical, which offers commercial support and related services for Ubuntu.

What is GNOME?

  • The GNOME Project began in 1997 with the goal of creating a free complete desktop environment. Used by millions of people around the world, it is the most popular desktop environment for Linux and Unix-type operating systems. Ubuntu used the GNOME desktop by default from the start of the Ubuntu project until 2011.

Why aren’t you named Gubuntu?

  • Gubuntu would sound too much like Goobuntu, Google’s internal distribution of Ubuntu. The GNOME Foundation Board did not want us to use a derivative of GNOME like GNOMEbuntu as our name. Anyway, we think the name Ubuntu GNOME is a good example of the simple usability we offer.

Why don’t you include GNOME Web (Epiphany) by default?

  • The GNOME developers currently aren’t able to provide updates for their web browser for the entire support lifetime of an Ubuntu GNOME release. We also can’t include new versions of the browser in our stable releases since the new versions depend on the latest system libraries like GTK+ and WebKit which can’t be easily backported. Ubuntu GNOME users benefit from Firefox’s prompt and reliable updates.

Why do you include Ubuntu Software Center instead of GNOME Software for installing software?

  • Ubuntu Software Center offers user ratings and reviews, screenshots, and better search. GNOME developers currently do not intend to support easy install of proprietary software like Steam or the Humble Indie Bundles.

Why don’t you customize GNOME more?

  • Customizing GNOME would take away from our goal of providing GNOME the way GNOME developers intended. Other developers are free to remix Ubuntu GNOME to offer a more custom experience. Check out the GNOME extensions site to easily add new features or tweak existing functionality to GNOME Shell for yourself.

How do I report a bug?

Can I report bugs about the GNOME3 PPAs?

  • Yes, use ubuntu-bug if you are using Ubuntu 13.04 or higher. Otherwise, use this link and please tell us what software versions you are using.

I am little worried about GNOME is taking a route that will be more compatible with Wayland display server, but Ubuntu will go for the MIR display server, how will this affect the next Ubuntu GNOME Releases?

  • Wayland support has been available since 15.04, however its not enabled by default just yet since it still needs some work. If you want to try it out install the gnome-session-wayland package.

  • Xorg support wont go away, even once we switch to wayland by default (perhaps around 16.10), you will still be able to use Xorg as a fallback.

  • Mir – We will not support this.

For more FAQs, please see also Ubuntu GNOME FAQs .

Thank you for choosing and using Ubuntu GNOME.
We hope you enjoy your time!

Comments are closed.