@FaunCB This is statement is not a troll or biased it fact. it is a lowest common dinominator distro. In principal I have no issue with that. But if there is anything that is slightly outside the box it become very difficulty to fix. Ubuntu provide very poor support, documentation etc. But for a point and click user it doesn't matter.
I think your need prob warrant another distro, Arch is good start but lots of people really love OpenSuse and I would also recommend looking at Sabayon
Tried sabayon and killed it in the first week from compiling packages, no bueno. I used to be an avid opensuse user but I found arch and made ubuntu mate the secondary.
Also I'm not saying that ubuntu and canonical doesn't care, it's just I've never had to go to the ubuntu IRC for help. If anything I go to the arch IRC, have them assume I am using arch, and fix it from info I get from them IF I can't find anything on the archwiki.
Well here is the deal.
PEOPLE care. If you run ubuntu and you run into a problem, someone will do what they can to help you. To me that is probably the coolest thing about ubuntu.
But if you listen to interviews with various ubuntu representatives, they all say that the packages for ubuntu are very loosely regulated.
With arch, the packages are managed by the community and can be changed and tweaked fairly on the fly. With opensuse, they take great care to help maintain and pick the best packages to maintain stability for their distro.
Ubuntu basically lets the community do the dirty work of maintaining the packages, but then THEY decide what goes into an update without doing much testing at all.
Do some google searches for people who have broken ubuntu with an update. Hell the guy who runs the linux action show actually stopped using ubuntu on his production rigs because of the same issue.
IMHO ubuntu has just lost all passion and pride in the desktop. It looks like things might get better with 16.04, but IDK.
This is why we have linux mint. The mint team tries to do the bug fixing and they try to use more carefully selected packages right from the get go.
I stopped using proprietary graphic drivers in Linux years ago. All my Linux boxes, both at home and at work, uses Intel graphics thanks to their open source drivers being the least problematic. The closed binary blobs from both AMD and Nvidia just has way too many issues for me to take them seriously. Open source is where it's at, and AMDgpu is looking like a huge step int he right direction. Maybe my Linux boxes will start using AMD graphics/APU's in a not too distant future.
BTW. Here you go. Its really simply with ubuntu and debian.
I would try the open source driver in a new-ish kernel. According to:
https://wiki.freedesktop.org/xorg/RadeonFeature/
The support for 250X (Cape Verde AKA Southern Islands) seems OK. You'd want radeonsi for 3D support.
I use the i915 driver since I do GPU passthrough with an nvidia card to a VM and I actually had a bunch of issues with it at first but I mainly blame the fact that it's the Skylake HD 530 so it was pretty new. With some kernel updates it has gotten much better quite quickly! I really like the AUR with Arch because strangely enough after a BIOS update on my motherboard kernel 4.2.5 that was core to Arch at the time didn't work for me (couldn't get X to start) and I had to use 4.3.0-rc7 built from linux-mainline (or linux-git would have worked too). Now I update my kernel every week when the new rc comes out. :)
I just slotted my 9800 GT in place of the 250X. I don't think I'll fiddle with it anymore because I have had a lot of issues with the damn card since day 1. I'll be getting a fury in the future so I'm just going to say no one buy from XFX. Just stay away from them.
Have you been watch the linux news?
Some very interesting stuff is coming up for AMD. Keep your eyes on kernel 4.5.
Its going to be interesting to see how the fury does against the simple AMD 390.
I love linux. I do. Anyone that wants to challenge that I'll gladly send you a link to my Linux Format pdf dump via mega.nz. Servers= check. Dev= check Home desktop use= nope If I could summon Kazaam to grant me wishes one of them would be to solve all of the linux hardware headaches/kernel regressions. Fuck kernel regressions man seriously. If yo' shit works on kernel 3.x.x then any 4.x.x. branch should work flawlessly but that isn't always the case. I have 2 categories that I install linux on for the desktop. I refer to them as "Grandma" and "Relics" sometimes the two intertwine. Grandma= basic pcs that just need a vehicle to web browse and print and Relics which are old as shit pcs that have trouble running windows. Remember I'm not talking about linux in general. I'm not referring to super computers, servers, coders clickity clackiting away writing the latest android app that want permission to see all of the cat photos on my phone for no viable reason.
I had similar problems with a Haswell CPU thanks to the Skylake driver updates. Regressions etc. Intel kinda bungled that one a bit. Fixes came through fairly fast but still a bit of a bother. Running bleeding edge on Linux is a bit of a ride. Sure, shiny new stuff, but also shiny new bugs now and then. As expected, stable dists don't have this problem, but also doesn't have the shiny new stuff either...
My next line of upgrades is going to include a non-X fury along with better hardware and stuff. At this point I'm going to just watch what is coming up and slowly gather up 1500 bucks for the build I originally wanted but was punted to the side for reasons :P