The excitement of Linux

[filifunk]

So I'm reading a book in the library, "Linux in a nutshell" and it states:

"You can get more from your hardware with Linux and be assured of fewer crashes; even its security is better than many commercial alternatives"

From my about 2 month experience with Linux, I've had more freeze-ups on Ubuntu than Vista. In fact, I can't remember Vista ever freezing up. Maybe freeze-ups don't relate to crashes, but do you agree with the quoted statement? Or do you think that statement is a bit biased being in a Linux book?

[henkgeb]

I've never had any freezes with linux. maybe you're an exception.

[halitech]

if the books purpose is to promote linux, then of course it is going to be slightly biased towards linux but, on the hardware I've run Ubuntu and Debian on, I've had very few crashes or freezes that weren't related to hardware issues and probably would have happened in windows as well (if I had windows anymore). Part of using and understanding Linux better is knowing what software to use with what hardware and not try to push a machine beyond what it is capable of doing.

[Bachstelze]

Not a support question. Moved to the Cafe.

[Captain_tux]

So I'm reading a book in the library, "Linux in a nutshell" and it states:

"You can get more from your hardware with Linux and be assured of fewer crashes; even its security is better than many commercial alternatives"

From my about 2 month experience with Linux, I've had more freeze-ups on Ubuntu than Vista. In fact, I can't remember Vista ever freezing up. Maybe freeze-ups don't relate to crashes, but do you agree with the quoted statement? Or do you think that statement is a bit biased being in a Linux book?

What version are you running? What are the hardware specs?? So many questions...

[hoppipolla]

I never really have problems either, and I am running KDE 4.3.2 on Kubuntu Karmic with compositing enabled! Hardly a combination chosen for stability! lol

It may be something to do with your own set up... if it locks totally dead then that is USUALLY a hardware problem not software, that's what is normally indicated by a system "freezing".

[JDShu]

My old gentoo box couple of years ago used to crash alot... :P

[djm227]

I've only had Ubuntu Wubi installed for the smaller part of two weeks. Had about 3 freeze ups. Eventually I could not even boot into Ubuntu do to having to hard reboot. I'm hoping a full install will change that...bout to find out this weekend.

[mamamia88]

i guess everyones difference never had a lockup cntrl-alt-backspace couldn't fix

[Wim Sturkenboom]

In general any system can crash. I have had one crash in eight years under Linux where X was totally dead (did not even react and <ctrl><alt><backspace>); could get in remotely and restart X without doing harm to other running processes).

In the last year I have a weekly crash of the USB ports on a WinXP machine to such an extent that my USB2 memory sticks
- are not recognized
- are recognized as USB1
- are recognized as USB1 but are empty
- are recognized but don't show in explorer but I can acces them using a dos prompt

The same sticks work without any problems on other WinXP machines or under Linux; the ony solution is to power cycle the system so my guess is that Windows leaves the USB ports in a ****** state.

Not sure how old your book is so check it in that light. In the late 90's any Linux was more stable than any Windows.
Personally I think that a number of distros (including Ubuntu) are going the wrong way and seem to get more buggy (9.04 should have never been released with the 'Intel video' issues that it had). But this seems to depend highly on the hardware that you use. I currently run Ubuntu 8.04 on my no-name desktop, Ubuntu 9.04 on my Aspire One 110 and Slackware 12.0 on a no-name desktop that is promoted to server without stability issues

For some people Vista has worked, for a lot it has not. I guess you're a lucky one. I don't have experience with Vista, but RedHat 8, Slackware 10.x series and 12.0 and Ubuntu 6.06/8.04/9.04 have worked better for me than Win2000/WinXP in the last 8 years.

[openfly]

The difference is... .with linux if you are doing it right your system probably won't need a reboot till 2038.

With windows... you'll be forced to reboot for the next patch set... or earlier.

So in terms of stability... linux trounces windows. But OpenVMS trounces ALL.

[koenn]

So I'm reading a book in the library, "Linux in a nutshell" and it states:

"You can get more from your hardware with Linux and be assured of fewer crashes; even its security is better than many commercial alternatives"

From my about 2 month experience with Linux, I've had more freeze-ups on Ubuntu than Vista. In fact, I can't remember Vista ever freezing up. Maybe freeze-ups don't relate to crashes, but do you agree with the quoted statement? Or do you think that statement is a bit biased being in a Linux book?


you should check what year that book is from - in the late 90's, with win 98 and NT4, crashes were quite common on Windows, and Linux was notoriously more stable.

That said, I don't remember ever having a (system) crash. I've seen firefox go down a couple of times (years ago), and I've had X freeze up but that was triggered by a program that was made to freeze your system, and killing a few processes got the system back to where it was (no reboot, no killing X and closing programs, ..)

So, while the book may be biased in that Windows doesn't crash all that often anymore, it's still true, in my experience, that seeing linux crash is rather extraordinary.

[RiceMonster]

The difference is... .with linux if you are doing it right your system probably won't need a reboot till 2038.

You mean there's no kernel updates until 2038? When did this happen?

[Sashin]

Its possible to do something that makes kernel updates not requre a reboot. I can't remember how though.

[koenn]

Its possible to do something that makes kernel updates not requre a reboot. I can't remember how though.

it's called "hot patching"
I don't know if it's ever been applied to linux kernels, though.

[Regenweald]

And what version are you running ?

[Regenweald]

Its possible to do something that makes kernel updates not requre a reboot. I can't remember how though.
Could be ksplice you mean.

[Xatolos]

You stated your using Ubuntu for 2 months now and it crashes more then Vista did for you, makes me think you are running Windows programs thru Wine.
I think this because thats what I did and found that Wine had a tendancy to cause lock ups with the system because if something goes wrong with the windows program it takes everything with it.
Try to not use any Windows programs and grab Linux alternatives if you can. Check on the Wine DB site (http://appdb.winehq.org/) for the programs your using to see if they needed special settings to work. If Ubuntu does run smoother for you without the Windows programs but you still want to use them, try running each one at a time to locate which one might the be biggest culprit.
Also did you have to use some Windows drivers to get something to work (like ndiswrapper)? I just had that problem with my desktop since the driver was already buggy for Windows cause my Ubuntu to just crash/lock up after a few minutes every time.

[jpmelos]

I've seen less Linux crashes in the last 10 years than I saw Windows crashes last month. That's not overestimated at all. Last month, I've seen a friend complain about the Blue Screen of Death, that it would happen every day or so. I bet my money Linux would run perfectly well in his machine.

[Exodist]

So I'm reading a book in the library, "Linux in a nutshell" and it states:

"You can get more from your hardware with Linux and be assured of fewer crashes; even its security is better than many commercial alternatives"

From my about 2 month experience with Linux, I've had more freeze-ups on Ubuntu than Vista. In fact, I can't remember Vista ever freezing up. Maybe freeze-ups don't relate to crashes, but do you agree with the quoted statement? Or do you think that statement is a bit biased being in a Linux book?

I got that book, but I dont remember reading that.

Also if your having Freeze ups, have you checked to see what the issue is? Most of the time its a video driver issue. But that will only lockup or crash X server. A flakey program will only crash that program.

So if your having system wide kernel lockups, You got some hardware going down somwhere you havent noticed yet.

[openfly]

You mean there's no kernel updates until 2038? When did this happen?

You don't have to push kernel updates. ( Mind you, you may want to )

But the question of how long you can run without a shutdown or crash... well aside from the timestamp rollover in 2038 there's nothing preventing a linux kernel booted today from running until then.

I've seen linux systems with several years uptime before. Most people don't push kernel updates often. In fact they avoid it like the plague since it can destabilize the system. Only major/relevant security issues really result in it these days.

=/

[Bölvaður]

So I'm reading a book in the library, "Linux in a nutshell" and it states:

"You can get more from your hardware with Linux and be assured of fewer crashes; even its security is better than many commercial alternatives"

From my about 2 month experience with Linux, I've had more freeze-ups on Ubuntu than Vista. In fact, I can't remember Vista ever freezing up. Maybe freeze-ups don't relate to crashes, but do you agree with the quoted statement? Or do you think that statement is a bit biased being in a Linux book?

after two decades of computer usage, I can agree with this statement. I have 5 computers running linux and I dont have any problems. It could be your hardware or drivers, but probably hardware. Try ramcheck from the live cd and remove/replace some hardware if you can.

[BrokenKingpin]

I find Linux (Ubuntu specifically) far more stable than Windows. I use Vista at work and I find it fairly unstable. I constantly have explorer locking up on me. I do not get this in Linux.

You could be having issues with device support or something.

[MellonCollie]

I've never had any freezes with linux. maybe you're an exception.

Searching the forums for freeze/freezes/freezing would suggest (s)he's not.

[SomeGuyDude]

Truth be told I've had more hiccups in Linux than I did in Vista (mostly Xorg related), but the overall experience has been far better so the occasional lockup doesn't bother me at all.

[tcoffeep]

You stated your using Ubuntu for 2 months now and it crashes more then Vista did for you, makes me think you are running Windows programs thru Wine.
I think this because thats what I did and found that Wine had a tendancy to cause lock ups with the system because if something goes wrong with the windows program it takes everything with it.
Try to not use any Windows programs and grab Linux alternatives if you can. Check on the Wine DB site (http://appdb.winehq.org/) for the programs your using to see if they needed special settings to work. If Ubuntu does run smoother for you without the Windows programs but you still want to use them, try running each one at a time to locate which one might the be biggest culprit.
Also did you have to use some Windows drivers to get something to work (like ndiswrapper)? I just had that problem with my desktop since the driver was already buggy for Windows cause my Ubuntu to just crash/lock up after a few minutes every time.


I laughed too hard reading this to even think of a reply.

[openfly]

Well, even with all the accouterments that ubuntu offers, linux is still like driving stick when windows is a manual. Takes some getting used to, but it's generally ultimately worth it.

[SomeGuyDude]

The assumption on UF tends to be if something goes wrong in Windows, it's because Microsoft sucks, but if something goes wrong in Linux, it's because the user messed up.

[Grifulkin]

The assumption on UF tends to be if something goes wrong in Windows, it's because Microsoft sucks, but if something goes wrong in Linux, it's because the user messed up.

Exactly.

[koenn]

The experience on UF tends to be if something goes wrong in Windows, it's because Microsoft sucks, but if something goes wrong in Linux, it's because the user messed up.

fixed.

[PuddingKnife]

Well, even with all the accouterments that ubuntu offers, linux is still like driving stick when windows is a manual. Takes some getting used to, but it's generally ultimately worth it.


Cool, I've thought that too.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1196893

[filifunk]

Well, I'm not having too many issues with freezing...just more than Windows Vista. It's not keeping me up at night lol, just curious what you all thought about that statement. I've figured out how to get the specs using

lshw
and put them in my signature.

I didn't know what Wine was...I checked it out, cool idea.

The book is copyrighted 2003.

A few respondents have used 'X' to refer to something. Is that just the system in general?

[filifunk]

test

[cariboo]

X as it is commonly refered to is the graphics system. For more info, have a look at this wikipedia article. (http:///en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.Org_Server)

If you are having desktop freezing problems, install the openssh-server on your Ubuntu system, it is in the repositories, and ssh in from a second computer to restart X, there is no need to do a hard reset.

[anonymous_user]

Crashes and freezes can happen with any OS, but I do agree with getting more out of your hardware with Linux.

From X-less (cli) installs, to Puppy, to Ubuntu, there are distros to match your machines capabilities and you don't have to give up security.