Do you play with Ubuntu until it breaks?

[chrisby]

I have found myself upgrading to new versions with every release, and I think part of it is just to see how things have improved, but I think the real fun of it is fixing things that break. This leads to my question: Even if Ubuntu works "perfectly" on your system, do you find yourself playing with it until it breaks? If so, how many times do you find yourself reinstalling per release?

[crl0901]

All the time and it causes me big headaches. However, I will say, I learn more when I break it then fix it.

[TheLions]

I have found myself upgrading to new versions with every release, and I think part of it is just to see how things have improved, but I think the real fun of it is fixing things that break. This leads to my question: Even if Ubuntu works "perfectly" on your system, do you find yourself playing with it until it breaks? If so, how many times do you find yourself reinstalling per release?

no i get furious when something breaks, i had enough breakage with other OSs.

I like when everything works out of box!::)

[stwschool]

Guilty as charged.

[swoll1980]

Of course.

[ghindo]

That's what Linux is for, right? ;)

[srikar]

obviously :P ,I do :)

[Tristam Green]

I do, and after (re)discovering the glory of placing /home on an entirely separate partition, rebuild times are down to 1-2 hours for me lol.

[MaxIBoy]

All the time. It's crazy fun.


(You don't know what "fun" means until you've booted from a liveCD, completely rebuilt a broken /boot directory by hand including recompiling the kernel, repaired grub, and then have it work on the first try.)

Thank god my computers have 3 and 4 gigs of RAM, otherwise I wouldn't be able to download and compile the kernel sources on a live CD while simultaneously doing homework.

[liamnixon]

Yep, I break stuff all the time. Especially when it comes to kernel compilation. When one thing works, something else doesn't. ;)

All the more reason I like stable OS's. I have a habit of breaking enough myself because of these "great" ideas I get.

[BrokenKingpin]

NO.

I like a nice working system so I can get my work done. Once in a while I will start messing around with something that cripples my system, but I save of an image before I do so I can get back to a perfectly working system in no time.

[AlexDudko]

I don't play, I just work, get informed, have fun, relax and do everything (or almost everything) which is possible with my laptop.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

I have been using Ubuntu for 3 years. I have a setup I like, and configure each release to use the applications I prefer to use. Once I get it working the way I want I leave it alone.

[jojo1224]

Im always playing with linux till it breaks, but now im down to only one or two reinstalls a month on my netbook, but on my old laptop its like every week. I have this current install on my netbook from like 2 weeks ago when I got a new hard drive. Since then on my old laptop I have had fedora (lasted a couple days), mandriva (lasted like 30min before it crashed and I gave up on it), ubuntu 9.04 (currently using since release), ubuntu 8.10, ubuntu 8.04. Im thinking of trying freebsd or esxi on my laptop now. On my server running ubuntu my last reinstall was 1 week ago and I pretty much had it all setup perfectly in less then 30minutes, but the reason it got screwed up is i tried to install the ebox debs from the cd on my server.

[hatten]

playing with linux, but not with ubuntu. I play with arch until it breaks and when it breaks i use ubuntu.

[amg181270]

I always keep a separate machine or partition available for testing the next version of Ubuntu, just as many Linux people like to test the next version of their particular distribution.

Even Windows users do this. Human curiosity?

[gsp8181]

Same as I do with everything else that is technology related :D

Nothing changes :)

Managed to utterly destroy my first computer when I was 4 after having access to some rather senitive system files

[Paqman]

I think the real fun of it is fixing things that break.

This must be some strange new definition of the word "fun" that i'm not aware of.

[gnomeuser]

I do QA work, I break my computer so you don't have to. Not that you aren't welcome to join me provided you know the bugtracker is that way ->.

I find the entertaining to spot flaws in software and see my little meager touch on things.

However I would not call it playing, I use the software as intended (or at least within it's limits). It is enough to break it.

[Rainstride]

I have found myself upgrading to new versions with every release, and I think part of it is just to see how things have improved, but I think the real fun of it is fixing things that break. This leads to my question: Even if Ubuntu works "perfectly" on your system, do you find yourself playing with it until it breaks? If so, how many times do you find yourself reinstalling per release?

depending on what cool stuff i find to try, or what shiny new programs are in the repos anywhere between 1-5 reinstalls(usually only 2).

[Delever]

Hmmm.. I usually try to play until it does not break ;)

[mamamia88]

no i want a working system which is why i installed ubuntu in the first place. the more time i spend doing what i enjoy on my computer and the less time fixing it the better

[73ckn797]

A pox upon me for the tinkering I do!!

[jzalomon]

that the fun about ubuntu...but like i read before...the fun starts when something breaks and you learn with your mistakes...that's my fun...i love ubuntu since the first day i used it...good bye windows crappy system....i know there's a lot to do with new software but i think ubuntu has the essentials for a normal user to do the change over to ubuntu...if you haven't tried ubuntu...give it a go...you'll be surprised...1,000% ubuntu user..love it...i love getting something wrong and re-doing everything again...that's the way to learn...:guitar::guitar:

[CharmyBee]

Yeah, removing packages then accidentally removing some metapackage that removes the entire operating system is fun

[Rainstride]

that the fun about ubuntu...but like i read before...the fun starts when something breaks and you learn with your mistakes...that's my fun...i love ubuntu since the first day i used it...good bye windows crappy system....i know there's a lot to do with new software but i think ubuntu has the essentials for a normal user to do the change over to ubuntu...if you haven't tried ubuntu...give it a go...you'll be surprised...1,000% ubuntu user..love it...i love getting something wrong and re-doing everything again...that's the way to learn...:guitar::guitar:

exactly! every time you break something, you learn what you did wrong and what you should have done. I love testing programs and things from the repo's. its how you find the really good stuff.:)

[tcoffeep]

Mhm. When I was younger, I broke my computer because I accidentally broke Ubuntu. D:

[sailthesea]

Fixing things is what I do!:)

[|Mitch|]

I don't ever intend on breaking anything, but I can never just well leave it alone.

I usually have a "hey y'all; watch this" moment, and that's when the fun begins. :lolflag:

[Redundant Username]

I'm good at fixing things instead, but I still learn in the process.

[Icehuck]

The last thing I want to do after working on computers all day long is break my home OS and then "work".

[sailthesea]

The last thing I want to do after working on computers all day long is break my home OS and then "work".

Which is why you use Ubuntu Right?

[Chilli Bob]

The sound is currently broken on my Hardy, all my fault, was playing with Pulse and Alsa and Jack, and didn't keep track of all my to-ings and fro-ings.

Sooner or later I usually try installing a few different DEs, and usually find some incompatabilites that breaks something. At that point I usually get fed up and upgrade.

[pbpersson]

My computer is sort of like my car - I use it to get places and if it is broken I'm not going anywhere.

So no.....I don't purposely break it.

[Icehuck]

Which is why you use Ubuntu Right?

It works out of the box on this laptop and I don't have to do anything else. I tried 9.04 and things were broken once again. I went back to 8.10 and everything works out of the box. The most I do now is set a wallpaper and maybe change the theme.

[Hamchan]

While a lot can be said for a smooth OS (very much like 9.04), as soon as I get the system working just the way I want it to I start to look for "improvements." These tend not to work. Actually, this is one of the reasons that I switched from Windows to Ubuntu in the first place.

[HappyFeet]

I just install my apps and use my computer. It really doesn't "break" for me. I usually install something else out of boredom though.

[Rackstar]

It is always painful when I claim that Ubuntu is really stable to my girlfriend (who is a OS X user), and then every two month have to reinstall my system. (My /home is on another partition, so no worries).

But it's not that convincing, if you get my point. But I just can't leave things as they are, I push my luck too much.

One huge advantage is that I have a very good back-up system and I'll never panic when I notice it isn't booting anymore or something.

[Xbehave]

OFC i do, thats why i installed debian to use over my exam period. But when im done i inted to leave it around as a stable OS, while i play with something more cutting edge (either jaunty, fedora or gentoo, im not sure yet)