Re: Not quite happy with Ubuntu... What should I try now?
- From: GPS <georgeps@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:22:08 -0700
Todd wrote:
Couple of things that bug me about Ubuntu.
[snip]
Second, you can install utilities from the repositories that require
you to be root to use, but since there is no root, you have to jump
through hoops to run them.
gksu and sudo are the hoops you can use.
Also, the latest version, 8.10, just seems to have been done badly.
(Admittedly, this problem could be a badly burned cd.) I tried it on
my dad's computer, and it took really long to load, and locked up the
computer when I went to shut it down. On my own computer, it wouldn't
even boot.
I'm not surprised. It's kind of hit or miss. ACPI problems aren't
uncommon. I've been having random problems with wireless, that are known
open bugs for Ubuntu. The "stable" kernel unfortunately has regressions
between releases. Linus Torvalds also refuses to block a release with
known regressions in the kernel test suite. Linus Torvalds has been wrong
about a lot of things over the years (SMP re: big lock; kernel debuggers;
CMU's Mach (which I think he didn't fully understand); lazy page allocation
and the OOM killer, and other technologies), but he didn't write most of
the code in Linux, so I take what he says with a grain of salt. Perhaps
someday Linux will have better release policies, and regression tracking,
but for now it's like hunting in the dark. That said, I use it, and it's
generally alright, though quite annoying, and a waste of time also, after
upgrades.
One version of the kernel is better with wireless, and the next has some
security fixes, and broken wireless with the dmesg output changing between
reboots for a particular wireless driver that works sometimes. Perhaps due
to some uninitialized data structure or driver state. Unfortunately it's
been like this the last year off-and-on. I also know I'm not alone in
experiencing these problems, and you aren't either.
I'm actually surprised that things work as well as they do, considering how
much rototilling the kernel gets on a regular basis. There are also so
many drivers for the maintainers to maintain, that things are bound to
break, because some people don't test the driver with actual hardware
between rototillings.
So any suggestions on which distro I should try now?
None. The Apple systems are nice...
I should mention that when I first decided to try Linux about a year
ago, I intended to install at least three distros on my system, and
replace ones I didn't like with other distros as I went. When I got
to the third one, which started with a d, I think, it made the first
two unbootable, because it expected me to know more than I did. And
all I got with it was a command prompt. So I said, the heck with
this, I'll stick with Ubuntu for now.
At this time, I don't think Linux is ideal for you. It may never be.
-GPS
.
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