Common Linux Complaints

[Curlydave]

One thing you have to conisider: It doesnt' matter whose fault it is that most modern games don't work on Linux, or that certain hardware doesn't function properly. Sure, you can often correctly blame the manufacturer or developer, but the simple fact of the matter is knowing that doesn't help at all, and won't make your favorite games or hardware suddenly work on Linux.

[poofyhairguy]

Sure, you can often correctly blame the manufacturer or developer, but the simple fact of the matter is knowing that doesn't help at all, and won't make your favorite games or hardware suddenly work on Linux.

Knowing helped me. It was the first step. The second step was top sell my incompatible hardware on Ebay and buy compatible stuff the same way. Next step was to sell or give me Windows games away (except one) and buy a Gamecube.

Now I a Windows free with a little work but almost no sacrifice of function.

[TeeAhr1]

#6: I can't run (Photoshop, MS Office, insert your gripe here) on Linux. True enough. But you can probably run something better.

(Special thanks to Poofyhairguy for the list, and my girlfriend for the complaint.)

[piedamaro]

What I'm saying is that I second the spirit of the thread, because I don't like to see people whine, but I'm afraid that someone will become even more upset with linux reading this. It would be nice if we could pass this idea really trying to explain why things work in this way, without "if u don't like unix, it's your fault" attitude, as I said, I think it's old.

p.s. I know what reverse engeneering is, and of course I'm thankful to who made possible to run "closed" hardware on linux.

[prizrak]

I think the most annoying thing is that while people percieve Linux based OS's as a competitor for Windows (which isn't bad in itself) they hold Linux to a higher standard. When a USB kbd driver crashes in Windows and the entire OS is brought down with it people reboot and say nothing. If the same driver crashes in Linux and you need to unplug and plug the kbd back in (or restart) people start screaming that Linux is not ready for the desktop. Yes there is hardware it does not support but there is plenty it does. I personally been using Linux of and on for like 6 years now and never had it not recognize my hardware on various machines. Right now I got 2 machines a laptop (with wireless) and desktop with all the hardware recognized straight out of the box (and I didn't get either with Linux in mind) the only thing that took some fiddling was my Lexmark Z25 (which took all of 20 minutes to set up by following a how-to) I even got the CUPS network sharing online and NFS file sharing. The only thing that I cannot do that Windows can is play some games, neither of my machines has power enough to run the newest games anyway and DOSbox runs PERFECTLY on Linux Oh and jDoom is da shiznit
It is obviously possible to have a completely working Linux desktop that enables you to do everything you need even by chance if you put some thought into it you will see what Trusted Computing (^_^) is really about. It's about me trusting my computer not to give all my private info and to work in the manner specified

[23meg]

It would be nice if we could pass this idea really trying to explain why things work in this way, without "if u don't like unix, it's your fault" attitude, as I said, I think it's old.

There's only a limited number of times one can explain why things work in the particular way they do; past that, one grows weary of explaining the same things that have been explained many times already, and it's useful to point people to threads such as this. If people need explanations, they will find explanations by asking around, searching, questioning, but not whining / bashing / trolling / complaining unconstructively.

The attitude here is more like "If you don't like *nix and don't plan on contributing to improve the aspects you're not satisfied with, don't use it. And don't whine and bash and troll either."

[aysiu]

I think the most annoying thing is that while people percieve Linux based OS's as a competitor for Windows (which isn't bad in itself) they hold Linux to a higher standard.

Amen. People will put up with mysterious errors, multiple reboots, applications crashing, whatever... as long as it's Windows. One Quicktime video doesn't play in Ubuntu out-of-the-box, and people go running for the hills.

[piedamaro]

There's only a limited number of times one can explain why things work in the particular way they do; past that, one grows weary of explaining the same things that have been explained many times already, and it's useful to point people to threads such as this. If people need explanations, they will find explanations by asking around, searching, questioning, but not whining / bashing / trolling / complaining unconstructively.

The attitude here is more like "If you don't like *nix and don't plan on contributing to improve the aspects you're not satisfied with, don't use it. And don't whine and bash and troll either."

I agree totally, using this thread to point people at is useful, I was afraid it would be understood like: "read here before you whine noob" and for me it's ok too, as long as "you're not ready for linux" it's omitted.
Why not something on the lines of "linux doesn't fly this way", etc.
Only my 2 cents in the end it's your will

[ardchoille]

Awesome thread!!! Thank you Arktis and I totally agree, this thread should be a sticky. I hear the same tired old complaints and I reply with mostly the same things Arktis said. I have been using Linux for about four years now and there isn't anything I was able to do on Windows that I can't do on GNU/Linux - in fact Linux can do much more.

Good work!

[JeffS]

Linux is a spectacular desktop. Most stuff "just works". Occasionally, some hardware is not supported, but that is becoming more and more rare. Linux gives you choice, including a very "windows-like" feel with distros like Xandros and Linspire (which also, btw, come with all the proprietary stuff like Java, Flash, MPS, etc).

And someone can choose a more "purist" distro, that's still easy to use (and downloading the proprietary stuff is trivial), like Ubuntu.

Linux gives you tons of great free software (which often works as well or better than proprietary equivelants), and many proprietary titles have Linux versions (like Adobe Acrobat), and if there isn't a Linux version, stuff like CrossOver Office (not only MS Office, but also Photoshop, Quicken, and many more), Win4Lin (runs Win9x in emulation, thus all titles targeted for that platform will run), and Cedega (tons of Windows games). will run most major Windows titles.

Finally, Linux has a vastly superior "out of the box", fresh install experience to Windows, simply because it detects the hardware and loads the drivers automatically (well, with most distros), and Widows does not (you have to have a hardware driver CD from the PC vendor, or manually search, download, and install the drivers yourself).

I just laugh when people say "Linux isn't ready for the desktop". But I just remind myself that those people are usually either speaking from ignorance (no true Linux experience), or they are paid Microsoft astroturfers (a common occurence these days), or they are among the few who have had some problems, and are just frustrated.

Linux is a great desktop, and an even better server, and a great embedded OS as well.