This forum has gone to hell in a handbasket!

[groundpounder]

When I first joined this forum (back when I first installed Warty), it was great. I found many answers to issues I had with relative ease. The way the forum is organized these days, I waste more time that I care to think about digging for answers and only sometimes find what I'm looking for. And the search function is all but useless. If I'm lucky I can find my needle in the haystack of threads that have nothing to do with what I was searching for.

Kinda like the operating system itself where things that were good in the past, aren't anymore. Like I used to be able to plug my digital camera in (on 7.10) and browse to it and work with my photos. Not anymore. Hell, I don't even have all the choices for screen resolution that I had with 7.10. wtf?! I'm getting very frustrated with things getting worse instead of better with each release (and the forum being harder to use to top it all off). It's like microsoft all over again. I'd just really like to be able to spend more time using and enjoying my system than I do trying to get <stuff> to work. I used to be able to do that, but not anymore.
[end of rant]

[steveneddy]

[end of rant]

Thank you.

[sirebral]

Just curious. Who is your computer manufacturer?

I started running with Ubuntu during 7.10 and I have found 8.10 to be the easiest most stable version to run.

[groundpounder]

This one is a Dell.

[sirebral]

weird. Mine too. What kind of Dell?

[groundpounder]

Dimension 4600

[sirebral]

Thanks. I was just curious. I would think that with DELL offering Ubuntu on their PCs they would offer more support and their PCs would be more ready to run a Linux OS.

I am running a Studio Hybrid which could not even install 8.04 without Safe Graphics mode.

[Rhubarb]

I agree that the search function in the Ubuntu forums is quite poor.
The best way I've found is to use google:
search_for_this_expression site:ubuntuforums.org
This will often bring up more relevant search hits.

As for screen resolutions, yeah, it can be a bit more of a pain.
Most of it has to do with Xorg evolving and binary closed source graphics drivers.
Intel's open source graphics drivers are also evolving with Xorg, so all of this is really just a temporary hiccup that should hopefully be resolved in future.

[jimmy the saint]

I second the google option. The forum search certainly could use some work (replacing?)

[poebae]

@groundpounder: the problem is not with Ubuntu per se, but the fact that it has to be configured to run on thousands of different hardware combinations.

Every time a new release comes out, there are people who absolutely love it because it works perfectly and fixes problems that they couldn't work out before (as it did in my case).

On the other hand, there's the "Everything was fine in $adjective $animal" camp, who unfortunately end up with a raw deal after upgrading to what they thought would be a superior distribution.

Unfortunately it will always be the case (in the foreseeable future, anyway).

[soro2005]

There should be a separate subforum titled "HelpmerescuemyMBR/GRUB"!

[Temüjin]

You're complaining that this forum has gone to hell and you put this (unconstructive) thread in General Help? Does the word 'irony' mean anything to you? (While you're at dictionary.com, also look up 'netiquette')

Anyway, if you actually wanted to solve your problem on this user forum, this was not the way to do it. If you just like to complain to tech support people, I'm sure the Ubuntu devs and employees will gladly refund you your purchase price and suggest you buy a Mac.

EDIT: A moderator was nice enough to move the thread, but the point still stands

[phidia]

I agree that the search function in the Ubuntu forums is quite poor.
The best way I've found is to use google:
search_for_this_expression site:ubuntuforums.org
This will often bring up more relevant search hits.

As for screen resolutions, yeah, it can be a bit more of a pain.
Most of it has to do with Xorg evolving and binary closed source graphics drivers.
Intel's open source graphics drivers are also evolving with Xorg, so all of this is really just a temporary hiccup that should hopefully be resolved in future.

Well, the OP might be a little angry sounding but he has a point-and often critics are really friends because they point out what others want to ignore. The search problem-like others said-use google. I find I can use the same term that failed to find any hits here in google and that leads me back here!

I've been using ubuntu since hoary hedgehog and I cannot understand why the move to the new xorg has been so lacking in usable information. I use the Ubuntu wiki extensively when helping here and there just isn't enough there to be useful anymore.

I am not able to help people with xorg problems because of this lack of info. I have experimented with "xfix" in recovery (I have a laptop that was troublesome in hardy but is really not usable in intrepid) "xfix" is not the answer and the older methods don't work. Mepis boots and installs well though and there are other distros like opensuse that are still possible to work with.

I'm sorry I had to say this and I too am wondering what's happening.

[cdtech]

I have to agree, I feel the problem might be new releases coming to soon apart, before the last release has all the bugs worked out. This causes an overlap within the forum. Everyone wants to upgrade thinking it may fix the problem when in reality it creates new ones.

I feel that the "tags" in each post lack the proper naming, maybe when you post you should put the flavor of the release along with the tag.

I spent a lot of time configuring "Gutsy" to make it work properly. Forget about "sleep and hibernate", it has always been a problem and has never been corrected through updates (gives Ubuntu a bad name for laptop owners).

In closing, maybe all of us who have been here awhile could correct some of these tags or use a sticky showing others how to make searching more user friendly by tag searching.

[Rhubarb]

I am not able to help people with xorg problems because of this lack of info. I have experimented with "xfix" in recovery (I have a laptop that was troublesome in hardy but is really not usable in intrepid) "xfix" is not the answer and the older methods don't work.

It's true there is a lack of documentation for Xorg.
I'll be posting up a new thread in the HOWTO section to address one such problem I and a few others have.
The new Xorg really is nice, it's just new, and breaks some backward compatibility, and is often a bit more complicated to resolve.

Heheh, I wonder how tricky Xorg will get with MPX support (Multi-Pointer X) soon. It's fun and interesting times for those who like to poke around.
Perhaps not so nice for those whom are in-experienced.
It'll soon be easier given time anyway.

[tvtech]

I like broken operating system. they make me happy.

[Bruce M.]

If Google is our friend, what would Ubuntu Google be?

A custom Google Search Engine providing results from Ubuntu related sites (http://crunchbang.org/ubuntu-search-engine/)

Now that's a bookmark we should all have!

Have a nice day.

[starcannon]

I feel the problem might be new releases coming to soon apart,
LTS is still 3 years apart as per usual, how much further apart should they be spaced?
Everything between an LTS is a gamble, if you need your computer to just work (all new releases require tuning) heres a few tips:

Only use LTS (Long Term Support) releases
Never, Ever, for any reason upgrade without backing up.
Never, Ever, for any reason upgrade mission critical hardware in the middle of a work week (save it for days when you have normal downtime, don't assume anything)

Live by those 3 rules, and you'll find that your computers are suddenly not waking you up at 3am; ignore those three rules, and live with the consequences.

[drubin]

LTS is still 3 years apart as per usual, how much further apart should they be spaced?
Everything between an LTS is a gamble, if you need your computer to just work (all new releases require tuning) heres a few tips:

Only use LTS (Long Term Support) releases
Never, Ever, for any reason upgrade without backing up.
Never, Ever, for any reason upgrade mission critical hardware in the middle of a work week (save it for days when you have normal downtime, don't assume anything)

Live by those 3 rules, and you'll find that your computers are suddenly not waking you up at 3am; ignore those three rules, and live with the consequences.
+1
But this thread is turning more into a support thread/war then a feed back about the forums.(At least in any useful way that we can implement and improve apon)

[cariboo907]

The above rules rules should be posted where every one can see them. It surprises me how often people decide to do an upgrade while in the middle of an important project. I do not feel sorry for these people.

Jim

[simtaalo]

The above rules rules should be posted where every one can see them. It surprises me how often people decide to do an upgrade while in the middle of an important project. I do not feel sorry for these people.

Jim

+1

i think alot of those people just have some itch to ALWAYS upgrade. experiences users can have difficulties after upgrades, so you would think that newbie's to linux (like myself) would maybe stave off a little. instead of going for that upgrade, just taking the time to learn more about the system they are running rather than what they can upgrade to.

if these people read the forum they would see that everything in intrepid wasn't ironed out. these same people don't think about waiting until the first batch of users download and install it to wait for reaction.

there's been a batch of comments that go along the lines of

"i'm new to ubuntu and had hardy heron running fine but when i upgraded to intrepid it broke my computer, what shall i do? "

there is a lack of understanding there, it does annoy me at times. as i said, i'm relatively new to linux, absolutely loving the move but i understand the need to read up and take the time to learn about the o/s,

learning little things like what LTS is does help. once you take that time to learn about what your running, you realise there ISN'T a big need to always upgrade to the next version. it CAN be beneficial to leave your system if you've got it running sweet.