Linux Sucks! Video from LinuxFest NW

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Now this is the way you discuss Linux shortcomings in a positive and productive manner. This guy does a great job cutting through the BS and giving a great presentation that everyone can understand…even when he was having problems of his own during the presentation. Thanks to Lazybones for the link!
 
sorry for all the lyrics today lol.. .linux still free tho

Freedom isn't free
It costs folks like you and me
And if we don't all chip in
We'll never pay that bill
Freedom isn't free
Now there's a hefty in' fee
And if you don't throw in your buck 'o five
Who will?

You don't throw in your buck 'o five. Who will?
Oooh buck 'o five
Freedom costs a buck 'o five
 
You know what also sucks? The audio. Every time people laugh, my ears bleed.
 
Linux does suck. The only distro I use is Damn Small Linux on my ancient P1 with 96mb EDO RAM. Even it sucks, though.
 
Anyone can point fingers.

Stop bitching, start making your darn OS better. You linux devs, stop having all your own agendas, we, the consumer, want a decent OS. If you can't provide, we can't use it.

That's why I use Windows for my OS and Office. That's why I use adobe for my creation stuff. Some devs like Mozilla can actually get it right, and that's why I use their Firefox and Thunderbird. The list goes on.
 
Yea I watched this video beginning to end. There wasn't one thing I disagreed with. The distros and kernel dev's all need to take note at what he says because it's all true. The problems are completely fixable but nobody wants to agree on how to do it. Linux on the desktop will never reach the masses if it continues on the way has since the beginning. I also agree with him in that he thinks they won't fix the problems, that's why I gave up on Linux. I still play with it just for the sake of seeing how its doing, but I am never convinced to try a fulltime switch again (even my game Eve online works in it). When you install a distro and see stupid problems attack you from all angles and those problems were there many years ago still going unfixed it's kinda discouraging.

Microsoft gets flamed for the smallest mistakes, if Linux was held to the same level on the desktop the flames wouldn't end. Stupid stupid problems everywhere, which doesn't cut it on a primetime desktop OS.
 
Completely agree with him. Tried Ubuntu for one month. Was great, ran rock solid stable. But no major apps to work with it natively is a major problem.

Only if you can go to bestbuy and buy a cd and install it on linux right out of the box, will their problems go away.


And why isn't wine a permanent part of the OS that automaticaly starts and installs the app when i put in a windows cd?
 
While I love the idea of Linux, it is the most frustrating OS I've ever used. I've tried different distro, and all of them had problems. Spending two days just trying to get all my hardware drivers to work was not fun. Also, I soon realized that there wasn't that many software in Linux that were better or weren't available for windows...so yeah, all of the problems stated here are valid: Linux sucks!
 
This guy spends too long stating the obvious, to summarize his presentation:

Unity for the win.
 
The problems at the start in getting the laptop to talk to the projector speak volumes in itself..... it does indeed suck!

I have yet to see a reason for Linux to exist to be honest, other than for the people who are genuinely too tight to go out and buy themselves a feature complete OS. Oh, and server junkies who dont care too much about a functioning desktop.
 
niconx said:
Microsoft gets flamed for the smallest mistakes, if Linux was held to the same level on the desktop the flames wouldn't end. Stupid stupid problems everywhere, which doesn't cut it on a primetime desktop OS.
Click to expand...

Microdoft gets flamed for the smallest mistakes because you PAY for a product from a MULTI-BILLION dollar company that should work right.
Linux isn't held to the same level because it isn't on it. Don't take this the wrong way, Linux is great, but not the same.
 
Son of a ........got to learn to type with more fingers.

^^ Microsoft^^

Can't we get some edit in here?!? Frag!
 
Cloud 69 should get credit for that link, I just commented that it was a great link.

Anyway nice to see it on the front page.
 
Good video. While it is stating the obvious it's a lot different when people make enough noise that it actually accomplishes something.
My first move though would be to go 100% GUI all the way. Mac ,Atari and Amiga had GUI and hence decent home marketbase in the eighties.The PC just got better at doing the same thing.
 
Monkey34 said:
Microdoft gets flamed for the smallest mistakes because you PAY for a product from a MULTI-BILLION dollar company that should work right.
Linux isn't held to the same level because it isn't on it. Don't take this the wrong way, Linux is great, but not the same.
Click to expand...

You completely missed my point. If Linux is to be taken seriously as a mainstream desktop OS then all this must be fixed. Whether it is free or not is irrelevant.
 
niconx said:
You completely missed my point. If Linux is to be taken seriously as a mainstream desktop OS then all this must be fixed. Whether it is free or not is irrelevant.
Click to expand...
That's the sticking point for the apologists. Linux is always "ready for the desktop" until you point out the flaws that prevent it from being considered a "mainstream" desktop OS. Then the story changes that Linux isn't really a mainstream OS. LOL, because without more user-friendly focus it will never become one either. Not everyone wants to be a Linux systems administrator. I know I don't, and I have been both a Xenix and Unix admin in the past (and used to install Sun Workstations). I have nothing against the command prompt, but following a fragile 2-3 page set of instructions is plain ridiculous to make a common piece of hardware work.
----

The funniest part of the video for me was the female bringing up 64-bit Linux off-camera and the speaker quickly dismissing it to the chuckles of others in the room (considering the topic of the talk, that' saying something). I'm pretty sure it's not that bad for server installations, but it's an absolute disaster for mobile and desktop users. I've been attempting to use 64-bit desktop versions for several years and the sorry state of it is beyond pathetic for general use. XP 64-bit had some problems as a desktop OS (Vista & Win 7 x64 are far, far better), but any of those look flawless next to 64-bit desktop Linux for general use.
 
pxc said:
The funniest part of the video for me was the female bringing up 64-bit Linux off-camera and the speaker quickly dismissing it to the chuckles of others in the room (considering the topic of the talk, that' saying something). I'm pretty sure it's not that bad for server installations, but it's an absolute disaster for mobile and desktop users. I've been attempting to use 64-bit desktop versions for several years and the sorry state of it is beyond pathetic for general use. XP 64-bit had some problems as a desktop OS (Vista & Win 7 x64 are far, far better), but any of those look flawless next to 64-bit desktop Linux for general use.
Click to expand...

Okay, so I was kidding above about the 64 bit flash issue. I am running Ubuntu 64, and I was able to watch the video fine (the 64 bit flash is an old problem and seems to be fixed now). Truth is, I've rarely run into any issue due to 64 bit. Everything in the repository that I've seen has a 64 bit version. And if it's not in the repository, chances are I have to compile it myself anyway, so 64 bit is irrelevant. Now, its true I've had my share of problems with the distro, but I've never been able to blame the 64 bit release (besides flash). It's also only on my laptop, which gets used almost exclusively for web, office, email, etc.

So, my question is, what were the problems you saw in 64 bit linux? I've only been running it for about a year now, so perhaps they've been addressed? In any case, the switch from Windows to Linux was a gargantuan leap as compared to the 32 / 64 switch.
 
cyprusxr3 said:
It's also only on my laptop, which gets used almost exclusively for web, office, email, etc.
Click to expand...
If only I had such basic needs. Try compiling and using a device driver for 64-bit that "should work" (i.e. written a while back, with little or outdated documentation) and then i'll welcome you to my world. :p I already detailed the many problems in the news forum Ubuntu 9.04 thread, but a significant amount of functionality was broken out of the box* and after a couple of hours of messing with it, it's just not worth the time to make the half-baked baked. I'll probably give opensuse a try this weekend, but i'm not going to waste more than an hour trying to get basic hardware working. It's 2009, not 1996. The configuration and usability bars have been raised several times since then.

*780g chipset based laptop, and I seriously should have not installed Win7 x64 first since that went virtually flawlessly. I pointed out in the thread referenced above that I only needed to install the fingerprint reader driver (and get this, it was a simple .exe based installer). That's all. Everything else, including all tablet features, worked great from the get-go. Liked I said, the bar has been raised. Significantly.
 
pxc said:
*780g chipset based laptop, and I seriously should have not installed Win7 x64 first since that went virtually flawlessly. I pointed out in the thread referenced above that I only needed to install the fingerprint reader driver (and get this, it was a simple .exe based installer). That's all. Everything else, including all tablet features, worked great from the get-go. Liked I said, the bar has been raised. Significantly.
Click to expand...

So are you referring to an HP tx**** Tablet PC? I have a tx2z which has worked VERY well with Windows 7 from build 7000, the only issue with mine has been driver support for the touch interface which should be straight in the next month or so.

Linux on a Tablet PC to me just doesn't make any sense, at least not as the primary OS. Sophisticated pen and touch capabilities simply don't exist in Linux.
 
heatlesssun said:
So are you referring to an HP tx**** Tablet PC? I have a tx2z which has worked VERY well with Windows 7 from build 7000,...

Linux on a Tablet PC to me just doesn't make any sense, at least not as the primary OS. Sophisticated pen and touch capabilities simply don't exist in Linux.
Click to expand...
I have the Wacom-based tx2500, which does work perfectly in Win7 RC.

I don't really care about the tablet functionality under Ubuntu 9.04 (assuming it even works in the 64-bit version :p), but when basic stuff like suspend, hibernate, wireless and sound don't work, there's a bit of a problem. You don't even get accelerated 3D out of the box. Thankfully the ATI installer went smoothly.
 
good video. i agreed with alot of what he said. basic functionality needs to work ALL THE TIME!. all the distros need to agree on basic programs/drivers to use. then they can get creative with other apps.
 
I didn't watch the whole video, but hearing the key points, I agree. Unity is something Linux definitely needs, and it's something coming from Ubuntu. It alone has made more strides towards usability in 2 years than the rest of the Linuxverse made in a decade. It just keeps getting better (9.04 fixed the two lingering issues on my Dell Vostro 1700 that were left by 8.10).

@htphm42: You clearly haven't used one of the latest Ubuntu releases (8.10 or 9.04), or you're on one of the 1% of retarded machines out there that just won't play well with Linux (manufacturer's fault, because frankly, I've yet to seen one of the play well with Windows either without the manufacturer's drivers). Of the ~7 or so computers I've installed Linux on in the past 6 months, every installation has gone flawlessly, the only issues ever coming from the binary nVidia drivers (always a PITA).

@lewchenko: There's a lot more to it than just being "too tight to buy" the OS. I suggest you read more about the ideas and concepts of the Open Source movement.

On a personal level, it's not about being too "tight" to buy the OS, I feel that I shouldn't have to: why should I have to pay for the hardware, pay for a whole bunch of applications (though this is also negated by OSS, but that's not my point), then pay another $200+ to get a system to install those on! Think about that logically for a sec: you have to pay for a computer, you have to pay to get the computer to do anything, then you have to pay for software to accomplish that task. You may have no problem with that, and I respect that, but I do: I won't pay the Microsoft tax, so I'll use a free OS. But that's just my personal opinion.
 
I don't mind paying for anything as long as it works, and works well.

I agree with him when he says we either need to start donating a lot more or at least be open to for-profit applications on Linux.
 
pxc said:
I have the Wacom-based tx2500, which does work perfectly in Win7 RC.

I don't really care about the tablet functionality under Ubuntu 9.04 (assuming it even works in the 64-bit version :p), but when basic stuff like suspend, hibernate, wireless and sound don't work, there's a bit of a problem. You don't even get accelerated 3D out of the box. Thankfully the ATI installer went smoothly.
Click to expand...
Addendum:

pxc said:
I don't really care about the tablet functionality under Ubuntu 9.04 (assuming it even works in the 64-bit version ), but when basic stuff like suspend, hibernate, wireless and sound don't work, there's a bit of a problem. You don't even get accelerated 3D out of the box. Thankfully the ATI installer went smoothly.
Click to expand...

I keep hearing people talk about these three issues. But I've yet to see them. On my Dell Vostro 1700, doing a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.04 x86_64:

1. Sound and graphics (driverless) worked flawlessly out of the box. One click into "System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers" to enable the package nVidia driver (which must not be installed by default due to legal reasons, but frankly, it isn't installed in Windows either) gave me full 3D acceleration. I don't like all the fancy effects, so the default of "Some" effects worked. As for sound, 9.04 uses PulseAudio by default, and I've yet to have a problem with it, either using my USB sound card, or the built-in sound on the laptop.

2. Wireless: hasn't been a problem for at least a year. Again, the driver pops up (for legal reasons) in the Hardware Drivers tab*. Enable it and wireless works.

3. Suspend/Hibernate: I don't use suspend so I can't comment, but I also have not had a problem with hibernate. The computer goes into and out of it without any issues when using ext3 or ext4 as my root filesystem. It however did NOT work when I used xfs as my root filesystem and LILO as my bootloader, but both of those are advanced options that, if you know how and why you're changing them, you should know how to fix the hibernate issues as well (I did).

*Caveat: The first time I installed 9.04 I had an odd issue whereby a bunch of the packages needed for this to work were not installed by default. However, upon trying a fresh install 3 more times on the same laptop, I could not recreate this situation, so I've dismissed it as a fluke.

I really don't see what the fuss is. The fact is, base installations on 99% of desktops and 95% of laptops with the latest Ubuntu comes with NO problems.

I know I come off as very argumentative in favour of Linux (Ubuntu specifically), but please: most of the commonly held "issues" are not even issues anymore (those 4) or are out of the hands of the Ubuntu devs and into the hands of software companies ("no software" or "no games"). And a lot I think just comes from ignorance and second-hand experiences (usually bad).
 
I've used Linux from time to time because it's cool and alternative, but really there is no reason not to use Windows, there is plenty of open source for Windows there are free movie players, free DVD burners etc that work extremely well. I wish there was a great Linux out there but the only thing it has going for it is that it's free and most people who are good enough at computers to run Linux are going to know how to pirate Windows. So the only reason to use Linux then becomes invalid. Sure there can be moral reasons and whatnot, but not many are going to care about that, that's just a fact. For a handful of hardcore programmers and such Linux might be great, but unless it manages to go mainstream (which I don't think it will) that's not going to change anything.
 
The battle for the desktop was never a battle for the desktop outside of a few people that wanted to champion something to put pressure on Windows to do something better.

Thats the truth. Linux was the anti-Windows to get Windows to improve itself. Its safe to say that they're doing just that.

Are there Linux distributions that are TRYING to be suitable for the desktop, yes, absolutely. Ubuntu is imo NOT it, it wants to change too much, move too much, its not something for the "average" person, and we have to keep that in mind, he said it, and its true.

If you watched this, IN FULL, you are not probably the average user. You have to go to the lcd method of thinking and developing (not your monitor, lowest common denominator).

Linux can support the open source concept, but till it supports the closed wallet source (a suitable commercial sales methodology) it will never survive. Again, very true. Till you can make money off it, consistently, developing talent will only use it as a second thought in most cases.

Linux needs to become Linux(LLC) or Linux(Inc). By that I mean literally that its consolidation needs to reach a level where it always has 1 stable, consistent company to turn to. The speed and complexity by which Linux moves is incredible in a TON of cases. In the amount of time that a distro can go through 20 revisions at least you'll see 1 Windows upgrade.
It needs something, that has that breakneck speed crowd...over here, and the always stable, consistent stable model that doesn't change once a week, patches come on Windows, once a month, you see where I'm getting I'm sure by now.

To do that, you literally need 1 distro, 1 company (that can make money! ). You won't have that, because everytime you turn around there's what...more distro's, it makes even the power user wanna stab themselves with a hot poker in the eyes.


Apple, Microsoft, have that, 1 stable, consistent company that you can BLAME, and also has sole responsibility over it. Till you get that kind of consolidation, it'll continue to have a "hey look at this toy" focus that consumers cannot wrap their heads around because its too damn complicated and too many directions. You have a hydra, and on each head, you have another hydra, and on that hydra's eyes, you have 2 more hydra's. There's too much segregation, and in that sense, it will never succeed because there's no core focus by ANY of them. "We want desktop Linux" oh look it runs on a desktop and it Linux, success! WRONG. Doesn't work that way, kudo's to them, they've come a helluva long way, they really have, but till they suck it up, and do that, it'll be stagnant for the most part.

Great video though, I will agree, they need audio software on Linux apparently, cause the editing of that video's audio component was horrible.
 
Running Ubuntu on a laptop and to date has done everything I have asked of it aside from playing retail DVD movies (no fault of Linux)
 
I think the monetary issue is a big one.
If a main distro had corporate funding, then a larger more organized team of developers could actually come together to work out the issues, and offer a mainstream distro on par with Windows. That's one I would pay retail for. Or......for free you can try to use one of hundreds of flavors of linux that need to be tweaked and toyed with to get working right. Hope you are the member of a good linux forum for help, cause there's no tech support number to call, because chances are there's SOMETHING that needs to be fixed.
 
The problem is not LInux, the problem is the 3rd party driver and software support of Linux.
 
niconx said:
You completely missed my point. If Linux is to be taken seriously as a mainstream desktop OS then all this must be fixed. Whether it is free or not is irrelevant.
Click to expand...

I agree with this here. For it to be mainstream these issues need to be fixed. Your average person doesn't care about the "windows tax" because it comes bundled with the computers they buy.

SixtyWattMan said:
Linux will never become the mainstream home OS.
Click to expand...

I don't think it will be either. Its greatest strength is also its biggest weakness. I'm talking about the broad range of customization that you can do. It really hurts it on the desktop side because it causes issues for the end user.


djBon2112 said:
You may have no problem with that, and I respect that, but I do: I won't pay the Microsoft tax, so I'll use a free OS. But that's just my personal opinion.
Click to expand...

I have to ask, did your vostro come with windows?
 
swatbat said:
I have to ask, did your vostro come with windows?
Click to expand...

Being his friend, yes, it did. Don't let him bother you too much, its just his personality, hes obsessive compulsive or something. One day he'll be RAWR coka-cola IS THE ONLY WIN, everyone else SUCKS, and may even give a few believable reasons for it, then a couple months later he will be RAWR ROOTBEER IS THE ONLY WIN, coka-cola and everything else SUCKS.

Hes even done it with Ubuntu, loved it, hated it, changed distros, then gone back to it loving it, hell at one point he was a Windows lover, a MASSIVE Windows lover, loved Microsoft with all his heart.

So don't let the fact that hes a little, pushy, annoy you, its just his personality. Next week he'll be going Gentoo is the bomb and Ubuntu sucks worse than yesterdays socks.
 
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