Things that you dislike in Ubuntu

[buzzingrobot]

Dealing with the way it deals with time. Why can't it just use the time I have set on the hardware clock, instead of assuming I have it set to UTC time? I don't use UTC time because I don't live in Britain.

Unix and Linux use UTC and Windows uses hardware time. Measuring time, elapsed and otherwise, is an important function of an OS and both platforms do it differently, and have for decades.

The time as actually displayed should be shown as local time.

[Dragonbite]

I think you can change it from using UTC to local time, and you want to use Local Time if you are dual-booting with Windows.

[mrbigmouth502]

Unix and Linux use UTC and Windows uses hardware time. Measuring time, elapsed and otherwise, is an important function of an OS and both platforms do it differently, and have for decades.

The time as actually displayed should be shown as local time.

I think you can change it from using UTC to local time, and you want to use Local Time if you are dual-booting with Windows.

I figured out how to fix it, just took a bit of googling.

[electriccandy]

The only issue I've ever had with Ubuntu is that it seems to run slow/poorly even on decent entry level hardware. I mean, I have a small touchscreen laptop with a fairly modern dual core intel processor and 4 gigs of ram -- nothing to write home about but certainly not outdated or the slowest laptop on the market -- and under Ubuntu the fan was going constantly when I simply had a web browser open, the app store always froze up, etc. I thought maybe the computer was dying, but switched to Linux Mint MATE and all problems solved themselves -- runs cool and quiet now (phew). On my somewhat more powerful Dell, it runs better, though still freezes up doing some pretty basic things, like using LibreOffice. I love Ubuntu, but man, it shouldn't need a $600+ laptop just to run okay.

[Bucky Ball]

I love Ubuntu, but man, it shouldn't need a $600+ laptop just to run okay.

It doesn't. I've installed on lots of machines from high to low end. 90% of the time the install is without issue. Bottom line: it's all about the hardware. Price means diddily squat. If the hardware is not compatible with Linux, it's not. I run a fairly basic set up but I sometimes wonder if I've been blessed by an angel when I read some of the fixes people find themselves in on the forums.

I will say this: prior to purchasing any new hardware I do a LOT of research to make sure it will work 'out of the box' or with the minimum of fuss. For software issues, I also research a LOT and generally things get fixed fairly quick smart.

Have you tried posting here about your Libreoffice crashes and what not?

[monkeybrain20122]

The only issue I've ever had with Ubuntu is that it seems to run slow/poorly even on decent entry level hardware. I mean, I have a small touchscreen laptop with a fairly modern dual core intel processor and 4 gigs of ram -- nothing to write home about but certainly not outdated or the slowest laptop on the market -- and under Ubuntu the fan was going constantly when I simply had a web browser open, the app store always froze up, etc. I thought maybe the computer was dying, but switched to Linux Mint MATE and all problems solved themselves -- runs cool and quiet now (phew). On my somewhat more powerful Dell, it runs better, though still freezes up doing some pretty basic things, like using LibreOffice. I love Ubuntu, but man, it shouldn't need a $600+ laptop just to run okay.

I have no idea what you are talking about. My main labtop is a $300 five year old laptop. Ubuntu is super fast on it (with unity) I have ubuntu on other older machines. Basically anything > 2Gs of ram runs great with Unity and for less ram I would install Xubuntu.

+1 to what Bucky Ball said.

[buzzingrobot]

Issues like "... the fan was going constantly..." might point to unusual hardware or hardware about which kernel devs don't have enough information to write adequate thermal and fan control code. Maybe the wrong or misconfigured driver. I had a 2011 Macbook Pro with AMD video that ran cool and quiet using Apple's hardware but maxed the fans on Linux immediately. That's done as a precaution if there's no way to properly control them.

MATE is less demanding of graphic and 3D rendering capabilities than Unity so the video card won't generate as much heat, and, as far as I know, it won't fallback to pushing graphics off to the CPU for rendering.

[electriccandy]

Have you tried posting here about your Libreoffice crashes and what not?

It doesn't crash; it freezes up for a brief period of time then resumes once the computer has had a think. I've only been a member of the forums for about a week, but if it continues, I will. As to unusual hardware, it wasn't; it was an Asus, and I believe they are generally supposed to be compatible with Linux. I didn't research prior to buying it as it was the first machine I put Linux on, and that had not been my plan at the time I bought it. I did research my second laptop purchase for Linux compatibility and other than the minor pauses here and there, everything works fine.

I have no idea what you are talking about. My main labtop is a $300 five year old laptop. Ubuntu is super fast on it (with unity) I have ubuntu on other older machines.

That's great, I'm happy for you.

I never said the slowness is a deal-breaker for me and that I plan to abandon Ubuntu forever; I figured the purpose of this thread was to give personal (so inherently subjective, experience-based) feedback on the few things one doesn't like, because constructive criticism is likely valuable to the people who build this OS.

MATE is less demanding of graphic and 3D rendering capabilities than Unity so the video card won't generate as much heat, and, as far as I know, it won't fallback to pushing graphics off to the CPU for rendering.

Ahh thank you, this was actually very useful feedback -- I think you're right, it may have been a video issue, as I had noticed some minor glitches (the display would occasionally sort of "scramble" a bit then resume looking normal) which has now also gone away.

[Dragonbite]

The only issue I've ever had with Ubuntu is that it seems to run slow/poorly even on decent entry level hardware. I mean, I have a small touchscreen laptop with a fairly modern dual core intel processor and 4 gigs of ram -- nothing to write home about but certainly not outdated or the slowest laptop on the market -- and under Ubuntu the fan was going constantly when I simply had a web browser open, the app store always froze up, etc. I thought maybe the computer was dying, but switched to Linux Mint MATE and all problems solved themselves -- runs cool and quiet now (phew). On my somewhat more powerful Dell, it runs better, though still freezes up doing some pretty basic things, like using LibreOffice. I love Ubuntu, but man, it shouldn't need a $600+ laptop just to run okay.

I find Ubuntu works well on most computers, but not necessarily the best on older computers. Whether it is the requirements of Unity or stuff Ubuntu has running under the hood, either way it is not a light distribution. I like the full-featured Desktop environments (Gnome, Unity & KDE) which means if there are any issues with the system (age, drivers, etc.) I feel it, probably long before people running quad-core monsters!

I often find Fedora running nicely on hardware, when Ubuntu has problems with it. I don't know what they do different (drivers, settings, utilities, etc.) but this is just and observation of mine.

Right now I am running a dual-core laptop with 4 GB of RAM and it handles openSUSE w/KDE fine. It handled the others alright as well, but it didn't feel as snappy.

[electriccandy]

I like the full-featured Desktop environments (Gnome, Unity & KDE)

Same; I'm not sure what so many people dislike about Unity, I really find it quite pleasant. I chose to keep Ubuntu and deal with a few minor slow-downs on my Dell because I like the look and feel of it, I was just surprised at the resource use as I'd always been told by my Dad in my pre-Linux days, "Put Ubuntu on your computers, they will run so much faster!" (but I was a young teen and only cared about games at that point...) I'm just going to buy a slightly faster laptop next time