Wow, we're in really different places about this. I've always been
cynical about the "Year of Linux On The Desktop" thing... In general,
OSX and Windows still seem well ahead of any Linux setup I've seen on
a traditional PC, and even if it really was just as good, I think it'd
be hard to get people to change.
But, in my experience, the gap continues to close. I'm totally with
you on this:
>Now that I'm a full-time freelancer, I certainly don't have as much
>interest as I used to in fiddling with Linux for my entertainment
>purposes, it's just a huge time sink.
When I first tried Ubuntu, I was amazed by how easy it was to install.
And then it was easy to apply software patches and install new
software. I never looked back. Or sideways. I'm sure many of you
could suggest other distros that you prefer and that I might prefer
too... but I don't want to shop for distros, I just want things to
work so that I can go about my business and my pleasure.
I just... don't have any of the problems you describe. I've run
Ubuntu on my main workstation for years. Ethernet trouble? I can't
remember the last time I even thought about linux visa-vis ethernet.
It just always works. X.org literally never crashes on me. I agree
that flash is not perfect, but I'm just an average flash user, and I'm
hardly ever bothered. Samba printing wasn't super-easy to get set up,
but ever since then, it's just worked.
And you kind of caught me at a particularly funny moment: I just
bought a refurb'ed EeePC. It came with Windows XP, which I was
curious about since my experience with Vista has definitely not been
great, and I used to like XP pretty well (huge step up from 98, and
don't even mention ME). Lots of weird things. Besides nagging me
about my computer being "at risk", I had all kind of intermittent
delays. Many of these I traced back to updates in the background and
the like, but... a lot of it just felt like weirdness. I wondered if
I had hardware trouble. Then strangely an application called
"PolicyControl" appeared... I really don't think it was there all
along. But I couldn't find out much about it.
When Ubuntu 10.4 was released, I downloaded the Netbook Remix. I
booted from an external flash drive, it's been running on that boot
ever since. EVERYTHING works, from the wifi finder/connector up
through Skype Video with the built-in webcam. The battery lasts hours
and it sleeps and wakes up just the way you'd hope it would. I could
go on and on, but basically, I'm giddy about it, and as I type I'm
blowing away WinXP to go pure Ubuntu on it. Unless something shows up
to disappoint me, I wouldn't hesitate to give it to a "grandmother".
So, am I saying the Year of the Desktop is here? Not really. I'm
really just against all of these wholesale "Good" or "Bad" views of
OSes. Apple still seems to lead on User Interface issues, but you
have to put up with their "do what we tell you do and buy what we tell
you to buy, and everything will be great" attitude. I can't deal. I
haven't used Windows 7, but I hear good things about it. I don't
expect people to dump those OSes any time soon, I don't even want them
to. But, I am quite happy that my linux "desktop" experience keeps
getting better and better.
David
On Tue, May 04, 2010 at 09:17:07PM -0400, Joe Auty wrote:
>I know this is sort of troll-like, but I do mean this in a constructive
>way. I've wanted Linux to be ready for the Desktop, but I just don't
>think it will ever get there. At what point does it make sense to just
>focus on using Linux on servers and give up on using it as a Desktop OS?
>
>The failings of Ubuntu, in my personal experience, largely don't have
>much to do with Linux itself, but with the general ecosystem. As of
>right now my ethernet controller just randomly panics and I can't do
>anything to restore network connectivity but restarting my machine. This
>is clearly documented in a bug report on Launchpad, this is a known and
>confirmed issue. The update to Ubuntu 10.04 broke LIRC for me - also a
>documented and known issue. I'm also getting random problems preventing
>DVDs from working with messages logged along the lines of the DVD being
>resized (I've had this problem off and on for ages). I've encountered
>reports of other people having the same problem. The NVidia drivers
>randomly cause XOrg to crash. I haven't had this problem in 10.04 yet,
>but the weakness of these drivers have been documented too, hence
>Nouveau except it doesn't have 3D acceleration yet. The 64 bit version
>of Flash doesn't support fullscreen video properly. The 9.10 update (if
>memory serves) partially crippled LIRC for me in using my IR blaster.
>Shared printing broke in Ubuntu 9.10, and SMB printer browsing randomly
>broke for me too. I can print to my shared printer when I restart SMB
>and enter its name manually. I've had file system corruption with ext4.
>It literally seems like more stuff is broken than is not, I've always
>had something or another broken, and maybe I'm anal, but I like having
>stuff work.
>
>None of this touches on the various usability problems I've encountered
>or problems I had some time ago, these are all just recent problems.
>Like I said, most of these have been documented and acknowledged. A
>couple might be fixed in the 2.6.33 kernels, but I've been unable to get
>sound the the NVidia driver to work in these kernels last time I tried.
>Like I said, I realize that Linux itself is not to blame for all of
>this. I appreciate something like LIRC existing pretty cool, I'm willing
>to overlook some problems.
>
>What is difficult to overlook is the constant regression and coin flip
>as to what will go wrong whenever I update. I should not have to wipe
>and reinstall an OS in 2010 as a troubleshooting technique, the idea of
>bit rot or some sort of corruption is weird voodoo, and it is most
>frustrating when I go ahead and do something like this anyway only for
>it not to make a difference anyway.
>
>So, it's 2010. We've been hoping that Desktop Linux will be more
>bulletproof for a long time now, it's just not there. Monitor
>arrangement is nowhere near as solid as its been on the Mac since
>probably the 1990s or something. The commitment from vendors like
>NVidia, ATI, Adobe, and probably many others is just not there. I'm sure
>some progress will be made, but it is so far away from being an OS that
>Grandma can use that it's laughable. Yes, one can setup a rig for
>Grandma for specific tasks and she can never update it, and yes Desktop
>Linux can be functional in some cases, but how about Grandma or even Mom
>being self sufficient like some can approach being with Windows or OS X?
>
>
>Is there any reason why I should not give up on Desktop Linux, guys? I
>don't mean to be troll-ish at all, I'm a very heavy Linux/BSD user, I
>like the idea of consolidating on Linux for my day-to-day use, I'm
>rooting for it. But, it is what it is. Is there a point where it's just
>a complete waste of effort to expend more resources into Desktop Linux?
>Now that I'm a full-time freelancer, I certainly don't have as much
>interest as I used to in fiddling with Linux for my entertainment
>purposes, it's just a huge time sink.
>
>
>
>--
>Joe Auty, NetMusician
>NetMusician helps musicians, bands and artists create beautiful,
>professional, custom designed, career-essential websites that are easy
>to maintain and to integrate with popular social networks.
>www.netmusician.org <http://www.netmusician.org>
>joe@netmusician.org <mailto:joe@netmusician.org>
>
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