Website Article: christitus.com/ubuntu-decline/

Fun fact: Snap is indeed so bad, a former canonical employee made a script to replace it with flatpak packages While the official statement says the script is not intended to be taken that way, it's clear in between the lines The repo is (popey/unsnap)

Thank you, Chris. For me, as someone who was involved (not employed) in the community, everything that brought me to Ubuntu with Warty Warthog was slowly dropped by Mark and Canonical. I know that convergence was his real goal and once that was dead his interest in the desktop faded.

is sad that we are at the point that we have to "debloat" ubuntu

I saved a couple of seconds everyday by switching from Ubuntu. Now I am an immortal with unlimited time.

Ubuntu Mate does a decent job... The developers take a slightly different path than the other variants, it even includes Flatpack support out of the box to prove the point. However, I agree, Ubuntu is more focused on their corporate/server side now a days. They have some good software, but the standard Gnome desktop isn't one of them.

Yes! Thank you! Ubuntu was what got me into the world of GNU/Linux. Stopped using it a couple years ago, because of how bad it got. Sad to see.

I noticed these issues. This past week I installed Ubuntu as my first Linux distribution and was confused why the performance with basic applications was so bad.

I use Ubuntu 22.04 and i love it. I have tried many distros in the past but i always ended up installing unbuntu as my main os.

I think Snaps is NOT about Ubuntu not caring anymore. In a world of FOSS alternstives, the LAST thing a company would want is to p*ss off its users. Snaps HAS advantages. A company/school/enterprise does not care about a few more seconds of loading a program. Its us neckbeards who complain. Snaps mission isnt speed after all. Ubuntu goes the MS/Apple way of 110% seemless noob user experience. "Good" is a HIGHLY subjective term. I definitely should make a video about Ubuntu "going mad/down". I think it will rise even further.

Sadly this is a very common tale in human history. Becoming a rising star because you're providing a great alternative to your competitor, and then becoming the entity that you hated and swore to fight against and as a result alienating your hardcore fans.

I think Ubuntu needs some tough love at this point. I also believe your channel has gotten big enough that they may hear your comments and take note. I have always rooted for Ubuntu over the years. I will still root for them and celebrate any success they have.

Canonical did not kill off "Ubuntu One". It was an account service that came with online storage called "One Drive" and was slated for including DRM for media collections to increase Canonical's revenue stream from its desktop userbase. Microsoft got sued by the Sky media network for the use of the term "Sky" in their "Sky Drive" office product. So Microsoft did a deal with Canonical to buy the "One Drive" trademark, as a result Canonical shut down quickly their Ubuntu One service. As a result Canonical made more money from the sale of the trademark than they ever did make from their premium tiers of One Drive storage service. *Bonus Factoid: My hard copy of The Linux Bible (4th edition) has a copy of Ubuntu 4.10 on the attached CD of live distributions. These days I am using Pop!_OS because it has all the hardware advantages of Ubuntu and by default only uses Debian and Flatpak package managers with slimy snot that is 'snap' excised from the system. Ubuntu minus snaps in the form of Pop!_OS is actually very usable, reliable and aesthetically pleasing by comparison

First started using Ubuntu when it first came out with Warty 4.10. Was there for the first Fedora Core also. The glory days were pre unity I think. Ubuntu 10.10 was the last Gnome 2.x and then 11.04 was when Unity first came out. I can say it took a LOT away. I always for fun on the panel had "Eyes" installed. A pair of eyes that followed the mouse around the screen. It was fun. I made folders on the panel to hold multiple files, change the clock format and location if I wanted, all sorts of things. ALL of the customization I liked was thrown out when Unity came out. Now I use Zorin on one laptop, and Mint on another. (Cinnamon and XFCE DE's) The whole point of Ubuntu was to make Linux for humans. Then they got to big, and Mark was spending millions of his own dollars to keep it going so they needed a income source. Enter Amazon integration. Now I actually had no issue with it there, BUT it did slow down the computer a lot, and if you wanted to look for a local file, it would first search Amazon, even if it was not a product. If they could have separated the searches or just used the Amazon app by itself I think it would have been more successful. I ended up like most uninstalling the Amazon shortcut and disabling its search, which made searching instant again. Then the Ubuntu Edge smart phone issue...they tried to raise 50 Million dollars, and I think it got to "Only" about 35/40 Million. That would still should have gotten them a start, as working prototypes were made and out. I can say I was really hoping for the converting from a smart phone to a full desktop. Install the newest Steam and Proton for games and somehow make new versions that can use a E-GPU? It had options, but business is business...

Thanks for the video! I've never liked Gnome or Unity for that matter. I always went with Mate or XFCE even when I used Ubunutu. Currently I like Mint Cinnamon due to it's ease of use and similarity to the Winblows of old that I learned on. I do hope that Ubuntu can recover from their decline in the user experience since I think they could be great again.

I liked Ubuntu around 14.04 to 18.04. I used it briefly, but ended up settling on Linux Mint (liked the look and feel better). Tried 21.04 in a virtual machine and hated it. I think that was when they started using snaps by default. It felt so sluggish compared to other distros. I thought it might have been the VM, but I guess I was wrong. I never used it as a daily driver (I've been switching between Manjaro and vanilla Arch), so it's interesting to see and read other people's experiences. Great video!

Linux Mint, MX, PopOs. They are probably the best options for beginners and for people who just want their system to work.

I'm definitely not a beginner, and I mostly use FreeBSD, so maybe other people would have different opinions, but: For server, if I can't use FreeBSD for the task, then my go-to distro is vanilla Debian. I can't think of any reason why anyone would pick Ubuntu over it. On a server, you want the absolute minimum features necessary to run your application and nothing else. Debian does that. You get a very minimum install, and you apt-get whatever you need on it. For desktop, Linux Mint Debian Edition seems to be very beginner friendly without any of the rubbish that comes with Ubuntu.

Credit where it's due, Ubuntu established me with Linux back in 2012ish. For that, I'm appreciative of Ubuntu / Canonical. After a couple of years I moved away from it and landed on arch based installs for desktops. Not needing bleeding edge packages, I threw ubuntu 21.04 or 21.10 onto a fairly decent pc about 6 mths ago and the delay with opening things like firefox was instantly noticeable. In general it felt slow. I didn't bother looking into at the time, I just knew it wasn't right and reverted to my usual install. This explains it.

This is amplified on older machines too- my i3 struggled. Upgraded my machine & installed Linux Mint w/ Gnome environment - has been a pleasant experience. I personally really like Gnome & the side layout that Ubuntu defaults.

Ubuntu 22.04 has seven snap packages installed - one from Mozilla and the others from Canonical. The only delay I notice is with Firefox which isn't really that bad. If snaps are unreliable and not secure then that's a different issue. Ubuntu server 20.04 and 22.04 each have three snaps.

Obligatory comment complaining about how you pronounce Ubuntu, even though it doesn't actually matter at all and 99% of us pronounce it that way anyways :P

You are right and honestly right. I may not have used Ubuntu for a very longtime like many of you - I started with 14.04 LTS. However by the time we were getting to 18.04 LTS and 20.04 LTS, I realised something: 1. The OS ISO was getting larger with every release 2. The OS was becoming much more buggy and after a while it would Freeze no matter how powerful the PC was. I switched to Debian. And I have been all smiles

I started using Ubuntu Studio when I got into using Virtual Pipe Organ Software because it came out "out of the box" with a real-time kernel and virtually all the bits needed for that application such as QjackCTL. I am not doing that so much anymore but stayed with it due to inertia. Which brings up the question of whether there are other distros which would be accommodating of those applications. What setups do other musicians use?

Nailed it. Chris! So sad to see the mighty fallen on hard times. We too had a bad experience with Snap. For me, Unity was a similar slo-mo event on our elderly netbooks (at that time), but Bodhi Linux (built on a 'buntu LTS server base) rescued us back around 2011 (was it really that long ago?). Back then, Bodhi simultaneously provided the solid 'buntu server base melded with the newly-stabilised Enlightenment desktop - unusual, yes, but so lean and speedy with surprising levels of bling. Today it uses the 'Moksha' desktop, an E17 fork maintained by Bodhi and we are still happily using it to sustain old hardware within our posse of family and friends. It's properly minimalistic, but shares the 'buntu repos, so plenty of options. You are right, building on a 'buntu server base is pretty good!

Good rundown on Ubuntu, Chris. As a lng time Ubuntu user, still use ubuntustudio as my daily driver for audio and video stuff. I have, however. just started to use Fedora 36. albeit in virtual machine after watching your comparison linux distro video. I hate the continual dependence on snaps and flatpaks. I remember when it was the distro for the masses for ease of use, not anymore. As soon as I get all my stuff working on Fedora will probably switch. Full implementation of pipewire is key for me.

Agree with just about everything you say in the video. I find Xubuntu or Linux Mint XFCE far easier to use than the standard Ubuntu. In Xubuntu I don't really notice Firefox being slow to start.

I'd still recommend it for beginners due to the plethora of information on how to use it. Ubuntu built my confidence in using Linux.

6:04 is that for flavors also? or they are separated from the company or at least each are unique in packages i mean not all are slow and uses snaps by default?

That's a wonderful video Mr Chris!👏 I totally agree with you spapd makes Ubuntu slow, except this Ubuntu is still a good Linux distribution, Yet, personally i switched to arch linux experimenting it with some fantastic tiling windows managers like Xmonad, awesome and dwm i hope you prepare for us some tricks and tutorials to manage then in efficient way.😊 I strongly supporting you with tons of my friends in Africa my great mentor Chris, Keep it up! ✌️Respects 🤩🙏

Canonical could give us options to choose at the time of installation. This would be one way to solve this perfromance issue. I switched to Debian for all my business (own) laptops due to this startup lag in snap applications.

I switched to Fedora for machine learning projects. Its been alittle bit of a struggle whereas you have Lamada Lab's repo and packages to self install everything ML packages/SW and Graphics drivers that is needed for Ubuntu. I been managing and learning new experiences. I managed to get close to what Lamada Labs packages offers but with Fedora and possibly with RHEL with further testing needed. Ansible essentially does the whole install.

I think this is why Linux Mint is so popular, its pretty much ubuntu without snaps, plus cinnamon is a nice DE

It's not declining that fast, most people I saw in Dev community were all Ubuntu or MacBook Air (WSL is a gimmick, still it has more users than Fedora). It is still the most used Linux, people like it or not. Unity was the most polished Desktop Linux had. Lxd is pretty good, I wish they marketed it. It will take a long time for Ubuntu to decline. The only distro that will beat Ubuntu is Mother Debian, which is pretty amazing in comparison to Ubuntu. For most common and not nerdy people, Linux means Ubuntu only.

I find it weird that people are remembering Unity fondly! I can clearly remember it dividing the Ubuntu community and so many people jumping ship.

I am relatively new to Linux (having dual boot at home for 1.5 years Win10/Linux Mint). I use my PC mainly for VFX. Since CentOS was considered as best fit for VFX artists few years ago and now everybody steers away from it, can you suggest which would be best fit in the future. I want to use on my PC those apps: The Foundry NukeX, SideFX Houdini, Red Giant Silhouette and Mocha Pro, Autodesk Maya. Right now I am ok with Mint, but is there more appropriate distros?

You nailed it man, I too hope Canonical starts listening, although I doubt it. Switched to Mint 3 or 4 years ago and never looked back.Thank you!

I use Kubuntu for the desktop. I think that somewhere someone was having a rant that the calculator was a snap package and took 5 seconds to load - that's just crazy. What I do like about ubuntu is that I can run it on my entire stack from a raspberry pi to my laptop to my desktop to my HP Polient Server.

Other already mentioned it, but Pop_OS is a solution to the problems you are mentioning. It has all the good desktop environment, has ripped out snaps, and does a great job in having great NVIDIA drivers that are tested and really 1st class parts of their distro.

Will you be releasing a how-to video on your Fedora Config? Also is there a way to speed up dnf?

Great video. I wasn't sure why I disliked Ubuntu--which has been annoying, as it's the base distro for a lot of projects I'm interested in--but your video really put it in focus for me. What would you recommend for a lightweight server distro, to be used as the basis for a Proxmox container template (so, something I could use to, say, easily build a Minecraft server container). I was going to use a slimmed down version of Ubuntu Server, but now I'm not sure that's the way to go.

For me my interest in Ubuntu ended when I discovered: 1. Bad wireless nic support on some versions. 2. Bad update steps. 3. Updates killing my gui modz leaving me unsatisfied.

Ubuntu is the ROCK of linux. They may experiment with different technologies but if something doesn't work well they simply drop it in future versions. It's the long term winner. Other distros may get 5 minutes of fame but if what they were doing is any good these features will simply get incorporated in future versions of Ubuntu. Ubuntu will be here in 20 years time, 99% of the other distros wont be

I have some lower-powered machines that I tinker with. A thin client, some Pi computers, etc. I usually look for light and snappy (no pun intended about snap packages). I found that on my ARM systems that I just want a simple installer on, but great performance, something like Manjaro works well. I go with either KDE or something else lighter than Gnome. On more powerful hardware I usually just use something like PopOS, since it's been consistent for me for years, without fail. I was running Ubuntu on a couple of machines, but it broke itself somehow in a couple of instances. Especially in times where I was doing a version update, it would just kill itself.

Hi Chris! Love your videos. I agree with you on Ubuntu. It just feels way too heavy on the desktop. After a bit of distrohopping I've finally settled on good ol vanilla Arch (desktop hopping between my own DWM build and Gnome). Ubuntu Server though definitely has its place! I have the arm version of it running on my raspberry pi 4 in the attic, for the sole purpose of running Docker containers for all of my self hosting needs. I would eventually love to see more content on the state of Linux on laptops. My daily driver is my 2015 Macbook Pro (13" retina) on which I dual boot my Arch system alongside MacOs (which I mostly just use in emergencies these days). The battery life really is not the best... I've seen your video on auto-cpufreq which helps a little bit, but I may need to start thinking about potentially going the custom kernel route for some more advanced tweaking and optimizing. Any good recommendations?

Every time i start distro hopping, i end up coming back to Manjaro KDE. I love the way the Manjaro folks have setup their distro in a way that lets you get going with your work 5 minutes after installation. Pop OS is also good but I prefer KDE in general. I'm really loving Fedora as a base distro but the extremely plain default setup just takes too much time to configure to my liking (and while not as bad as snaps, I'm not a fan of flatpaks either)

Thanks for this. I’ve been getting more annoyed with the slowdown in Ubuntu and am looking to changing to a different distro. I just hate the idea of wiping my drives and reloading all the software. I can do it, I just don’t have a lot of time to devote to the task. Oh well. Sooner or later, I will have to take that route. I’ll just have to review some of your past videos on different distros. I want “fast”. Thanks, JohnB

The last version I used was 9.04. They added so many features and that was the penultimate version. In 9.10, they changed the overall theming, had some weird changes, and overall altered the trajectory of the OS for the worse. No version since 9.04 have been compelling.

@Chriswhich linux do you recommend then, do you have a script that can tweak ubuntu similar to your win10_win11 one?

I have been using Ubuntu exclusively since 2006. In the past year, I installed Awesome Window Manager. Ever since then, the system is so much better. I have nothing to complain about. This setup works well in all my machines, from old Thinkpad, to my modern powerful workstation.

For me the Ubuntu high point was 12.04 LTS. I used 12.04 until it was no longer supported. I didn't care for the Amazon additions in 14.04, even though I could remove them. After 12.04 I just got away from Ubuntu. I tried 22.04, but the snaps are just too slow to load. That, and many of the snaps are outdated and no longer maintained.

Ubuntu was the first distro I ever daily drove, it was only for a month but I loved it (right at the end of unity 2017) it is sad to see it decline. I almost want to revive it with rebuilt packages no snap and everything now that I know how to do that.

Thank you. So many Linux users get offended when these types of issues get brought up. As a developer, I had one of the worst times figuring out how to distribute my music player to Linux. I tried to snap it, too difficult. Redditors act like containerization has 0 overheard as if it's an android app. I tried flat and app image and those too were too complicated. I went with a custom installation script that doesn't require sudo. Until Linux starts prioritizing non sudo app packages, shit will not work. On android, you don't need to sudo to install something!

I generally recommend PopOS! for Gnome, Manjaro for KDE and Mint for Cinnamon. Sadly, Ubuntu has been off my radar for about 5 years and counting. That's unfortunate since Ubuntu 5.04 (2nd Ubuntu release) was the first Linux distro that was good enough to become my daily driver, so it holds a special place in my heart. It was the first distro that could reliably play DVDs without frame drops, a big deal back then. And Ubuntu Forums was a game changer, I learned more about Linux there than anywhere else.

Since almost 4 years ago I've been using Ubuntu for web development and I love it. Yes, it could be better, but as it is now, is great. Not slow for me, most of the tools I try simply work. The only drawback in my context is that you can't use Bluetooth headphones properly. I agree that snaps can take a few seconds to load the first time but I don't restart my machine for weeks, so that is not something meaningful to me either.

Im sitting here absolutely new to linux.and just migrated to Pop Os on one laptop and Mint Mate on another laptop.Had Mint once before. Used to love Ubuntu and thus it was my go-to Linux as a windows user. That was a mistake. I thought it was lightweight compred to WIn but its slooooooow. Im still trying out various distros but it seems like its Mint Mate and Pop OS. I find Pop way more snappy than Ubuntu in everything. As said im noob but understood that Pop is somewhat a shell on Ubuntu anyway. Why the major differnece in responsiveness? Wtf happened when he switched from Ubuntu to Fedora? Is that an inbuilt feature?

What about Ubuntu based distros - like mint and linux lite? Do you include those as having the same problem?

The first Linux distro that I used was Ubuntu 10.04, it was not very good at that point (FYI, Linux couldn't even natively play mp4 files at that time , only ogg was supported) , then I purchased a magazine called "Electronics for You" which came with an Ubuntu 12.10 DVD (I still have it) , and that was the first Linux I installed in my main computer alongside Windows.. I didn't update Linux that frequently, but here's my useage order:- Ubuntu 12.10 Ubuntu 14 Ubuntu 16 Ubuntu 18 Linux Mint 20 Pop_OS 21 Linux Mint 22 And well it's been quite a journey, Linux still has some rough edges in things like gaming, but it's nowhere near to what it used to be 10 years ago, and I'm happy for it..

Ubuntu's final nail in the coffin was announcing they wanted move away from deb packages. I've tried Ubuntu numerous times over the last 15 years. But I always end up staying with Debian Sid. Ubuntu is toooooo bloated.

Great video. Unfortunately I share most (if not all) of the issues stated. :( A side question - can you give some details about your desktop (on 1:01)? Looks pretty slick. What WM, extensions, etc are you using?

Does the whole snap thing apply to Ubuntu based distributions like Pop!_OS?

I use Zorin OS, and I like it a lot more. They have lite version for under powered PCs like PC sticks.

I'm kina liking Ubuntu 22 Jammy Jellyfish. It's stable and polished imo. Also the drivers work immediately for Nvidia and my usb monitor.

Can you cover the windows sandbox sometime, usually i spin a vm up in hyper v but sandbox windows are there..

I bought a new laptop and it has microsoft edge which I didn't want to use, so I'm looking at deleting edge and install Linux. I just got to learn how to do it without destroying my data. On that note which Linux destro would you recommend?

Well said! I had to switch to Pop OS because of these issues, but it wasn’t easy, Linux installers all hung - solution was to unplug all USB, SATA and Internet, sounds simple but it was baffling. I don’t think the developers use their own O.S

Yeah, I kind of agree because Ubuntu didn't really offer a good firm tangible benefit to the use of snap packages over the normal distributions that have been out there forever. They wanted to differentiate themselves but in doing that they made themselves slower and less appealing. If Firefox takes that long on your system imagine how much longer it takes on an older system?

what would you recommend for beginers? personaly i use linux for making laravel and react aplications

What do you think of Linux Mint? For a beginner, which distro would you recommend? I dont mind the customisability. I just need a stable one!

100% agree, I'm not fanatical about performance so I still install ubuntu on some machines for the look and the functionality out of the box, but when you switch to other distros you can clearly see the difference. Hope Canonical finally find some good solutions because I'm also attached to Ubuntu (having been my first linux experience)

Ubuntu didn't decline, other "easy to use" Linux distros just caught up

I was wondering, if they actually improve the snap package manager, to be faster and fix their issues, would people go back to it? I never actually used ubuntu long term mainly because of that thing that you mention about the search results and selling data for ads. But since its long gone and if they actually improved the experince in terms of the snaps I would prolly start recommending it again, right now Im recommending Fedora, because it is a great distro, my only "problem" is that it is vanilla gnome, nothing wrong with it, I prefer it that way but it kinda lacks that "fedora signature" feel you know.

Hello, I am trying to learn linux. Which linux distribution are you using? Is is fedora?

Snaps are indeed the bane of Ubuntu.

I moved to linux a few month ago and chose ubuntu. Because I had a bit experience with ubuntu server and I liked it. But I always wondered why everything takes a bit to start. Now I know why. Is there an easy way to move to debian for example? Or do I have to redo everything?

You are spot on. I started using Linux with Ubuntu 10.04 and loved it for years. Over the last few years,they have been declining so much.

I think the Ubuntu was great till the other distros also push out the more beginner-friendly desktops. Mint is a good example of this: mostly was based on Ubuntu, but they polish out the LMDE which is better than a forked fork like the bloated Ubuntu these days.

Ubuntu has always been my favorite Linux distro. In fact, this is an Ubuntu setup that I use every day. It works well with what I need. Granted, I don't develop software as much as other users, but as far as for web development and remote server management, it works best. The last Windows I used was 10, which came installed and it told me the hard drive was permanently damaged and a new one had to be installed. Because I'm involved in technology and know Windows should never be trusted for diagnostics, I formatted the hard drive and installed Ubuntu.

I have`nt used windows in over 10 years and I hate how everything I want to do is like tooth extraction so I want to create a dual boot on my Acer laptop that has windows 10 on it. You would have noticed that I am that upset with windows that I don`t and will not assign a capital letter when I refer to it... but I digress. So now Chris I`m not sure what to do. I mean I liked version 20 can I install an older version of Ubuntu? idk or can I do as you just suggested and pull out the snap out of the current version? I`m a little out of my depth here. Cheers and many thanks

hi. i love your videos. i currently installed Ubuntu distro on my asus laptop to familiarise myself with the linux OS. but ever since i downloaded it bare metal, i have seen a major hit in battery life, like i will need to be constantly plugged in, cannot charge without the laptop being on, automatically randomly shutsdown, takes nearly a whole day to charge up and lasting only a few hours unplugged. not to mention my fans running on full power, and i only use light web browsing, productivity apps and youtube. the entire operating system seems to be slow and quite often unresponsive. i tried uninstalling everything i dont need and reduce background tasks but it doesnt seem to make a difference. i have a core i5 and 8gb ram so specs seem fine for everyday tasks. what can i do to solve this issue?

Canonical has moved to concentrate on Wayland and IoT, i.e. running screens such as touchscreen for electric charging points. Ubuntu Touch is hotly maintained by a community and runs quite well. Snaps, love or hate, I am indifferent, I use Ubuntu for certain operations and it works for me. Much of a muchness. Tried PopOS, Zorin and others and found Ubuntu the most useful for what I want. Puppy is useful too especially on old PC's. Don't forget though, you can use Lubuntu, Xubuntu etc...

Would love to see something about switching from Ubuntu to ... something else. Obviously for only those that have a separate /home partition :)

I love your videos! I just wonder whether there is data about the decline of the Ubuntu desktop.

at 3:00 you mentioned snap can't be opened in competing distributions. but you can install snap in fedora and arch so i don't get what you mean by this

I hope ubuntu can improve on snaps so that they become more usable. Ubuntu 22.04 looks solid though. However i'm running opensuse tumbleweed as my daily driver.

MX Linux is rocking right now as a solid debian based Linux distro. Ubuntu Mate is not bad at all . But regarding ease of use and proprietary driver installation MX Linux does a much better job.

Hi Chris greetings, can you install Android 10 11 12 13 customised on Blackberry Q10 / Z10/ Passport??

Chris what's the best linux distro for you ? I'm a web developer. Thank you!

As a long time user of ubuntu, since version 8.04, I must say that up to versions 12.04 and 14.04 there were some bumps and highlights. I still use 18.04 as my main version (did not upgrade) on my laptop and desktop, because 20.04 and newer releases got me into trouble with my old hardware (old now is anything older than 3 years! crazy time we live in!), applications and user experience. I agree with you: SNAP is a pain in the a** - nice idea, very bad results. I use linux desktop as main system since version 12.04 LTS.

Installed Ubuntu on my sisters laptop. She just uses it for schoolwork and browsing the web. She hasn’t complained and I removed those snap packages. I actually like Ubuntu it’s a perfect beginner friendly desktop!

Okay, I'm totally agree 100%, but what is the best distro for performance?

I'm currently test driving Kubuntu (22.10) on my laptop. Was running Fedora 36 with KDE before, and have run many others prior to that, so I'm not exactly a fanboi or distro snob. As far as Firefox starting slowly: meh. I'm not starting my browser and closing it enough for the 1-2 seconds between a snap and a native install to make a difference. Usually I start it once when I log in and leave it running until I upgrade or reboot. OTOH the snap does sandbox firefox as mentioned below, and the snap also better handles library dependencies, on the rare occasion where an updated library might be incompatible with the current version of firefox. All that said, a quick search pulled up a few sets of instructions about removing the snap version of firefox and install a distro native deb, so it's possible to "go native" if you want. I also wonder how you have your 5600 configured. As I said, I'm currently running Kubuntu on my laptop (and old Lenovo W530 with 16GB of memory and an SSD) and it doesn't take 3 seconds to start up the snap version of firefox. I also have a 5600 (5600X specifically) I built that I plan on upgrading to Kubuntu over the holidays. It'll be interesting to see if I get the same results you do.

I honestly haven't been a fan of Ubuntu since Canonical kicked the beautiful and efficient Unity desktop. As if that wasn't enough, the forceful integration of Snaps was the nail in the coffin for me. I started my Linux journey with Ubuntu and it's always had a soft spot in my heart, but I still would never choose to use it unless they decide to pick up where they left off with 16.04 LTS. Ubuntu just isn't as reliable and dependable as it once was. It's too unpredictable, you never know if the next release will be better or worse than the last one. Now I daily drive Linux Mint and never look back. Mint is an amazing distro that is guaranteed to improve with every release and is rock solid. My absolute favorite part is the package manager. All Mint components are standard Debian APT packages and it has Flatpak (which is far better than Snap) installed just to give people a more broad selection of software from the Software Manager. I wish Canonical would step up their game with Ubuntu, but until they do, you won't see me using it.

The Ubuntu Touch OTA-23 looks cool and is good for prepping (prepper) with its FM-Radio support. Such smartphones can sync (and charge) to a computer via USB and so having Ubuntu (or Xubuntu, etc.) on desktop can help with that and having ubuntu-server can link it all together via snap. I'd wait to see how Canonical's changes with their Ubuntu's dedicated desktop gaming manager will help with gaming specifically written for linux, working on both the smartphones and desktop-PC _(as in games that get written to work on both with graphics like say a Wii or Wii-U),_ and yes, an OIDC _"sp and idp"_ by ubuntu for those _(to work with sync between desktop and ubuntu-smartphone)_ would be a good move. SDR functionailty on the smartphone would be cool since small amounts of data can be sent via HAM radio (such as a magnet-link), and usb-dongles to work with IoT would be a good way to go _(as gadgets sold can help profits in ubuntu, if they so chose that route)._ A Joypad with (ejabberd) chatpad functionality _(and a webcam in it, extended like antennae, and maybe a small LCD for video and GUI)_ could be an example I'd think of. Check out Gamebuntu meanwhile. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love. Also, I'd say Matthew6.

Is it possible you do a tutorial on how to install Garuda Linux. I found other tutorials confusing because they don’t go as in depth like you do.

What is the best destro for old laptops

I think one benefit of running Firefox in a snap is snaps are sandboxed, so that would help with security because the web browser is one area where your system could be compermised.

Ubuntu desktop 20.04 was worse (the entire OS was slow) than 22.04, but I think Firefox snap is a fail, as you say, slow. Snaps seem to work well in Ubuntu server, but I've still found some imperfections with the odd snap app for server use as well. There is some convenient snap apps, and there is a reasonable idea behind it (certbot and onlyoffice-ds snaps have been pretty useful, sitting behind apparmor, and i like that idea for servers). At the moment, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for now, since I'm seeing some usefulness from snaps, hopefully snap apps like Firefox get better, especially since it's default on Ubuntu.

So which Linux should I install then? Im a beginner , I installed Ubuntu, I enjoy the UI just like you said but I did notice the slow loading of firefox and such although the system runs quite smooth overall. Should I install a default debian?

As a Desktop, Ubuntu's Unity and Gnome/Shell, back then, were utter deal breakers for me, and I've never been back and I thank you for confirming my convictions today. So I switched to Arch Linux, or LFS, and learned how to build my own WM, and/or DE, like Openbox, KDE, MATE, XFCE, ... Presently, I've settled on Linux Mint MATE, or Cinnamon, for my daily use, simply for it's great stability and convenience. However, I also like to dabble the odd time with Kubuntu, openSUSE, or Manjaro - which are also all good Distro's.