Ubuntu is a disaster! How do you manage to cope with it?

[sammiev]

If I had a friend who made an honest and informed effort to use Ubuntu, or any other distribution, and found it lacking, I'd suggest that friend consider Windows and OS X as the only other viable alternatives. Yes, it's nice when things "just work". Often, however, they don't, on any platform.

+1

Always said, use what works for you.

[neu5eeCh]

In my experience, any Linux OS has more bugs and challenges than either Windows or Apple.

However, there are bugs in Apple and Windows software. (I was just visiting a used bookstore having problems with their accounting software. A free-lance tech support technician was there. The store owner was getting billed by both the technician and the software maker--probably all added up to well over two hundred dollars. This was on Windows.) The difference is that over the years I've been able to resolve 99 out of a 100 bugs via web-searches and with help from the "Linux" community. With Apple and Windows, one either relied on a Knowledge Base, which frequently didn't solve the problem, or one had to pay a company to solve their own bug. Think about that. There's the up front cost of software and then the customer is milked for "software development". It's a great system if you're the company.

One of the reasons I switched to Linux is that more and more companies (Microsoft and Apple namely) were no longer supporting their products without a credit card number. I felt like I was being ripped off.

So, when I read posts like yours I don't feel much sympathy. Pick your poison. Use Windows or Apple if you like. When you run into a bug, give 'em a call and have your credit card ready.

[coldraven]

+1 for VTpoet
Don't forget that windows 10 costs money and comes with no useful utilities, not even a game of Solitaire.

[PaulW2U]

I've been using Ubuntu for some time now, and I can't help but notice the endless plethora of problems I'm faced with. Most (but not all) are non-fatal, and the rest are simply annoying.

yep, I have a list too.

You have chosen to participate in an enormous open-source project. We expect you to...participate.

ian-weisser, that music to my ears.

Don't complain. Help fix it!

This Will go into recurring soon probabbly.

I've stopped saying that as I've been proved wrong much too often.

In my experience, any Linux OS has more bugs and challenges than either Windows or Apple.

And there are documented procedures for anyone to help fix those bugs.

Don't forget that windows 10 costs money and comes with no useful utilities, not even a game of Solitaire.

I don't know about that but despite the thousands of bugs that are reported to be in Ubuntu and its flavours I still have something that is has cost me nothing and is very usable on all of my my four laptops (and many other items of hardware previously).

[QIII]

Moved to Recurring.

[1clue]

I reported it to Launchpad. It's a duplicate of this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...r/+bug/1320752

Years later, the status is still confirmed. I get it, Ubuntu isn't commercial. But programming isn't my area of expertise. My involvement with Ubuntu is as a working professional rather than an enthusiast with endless amounts of free time to fix any problem at will, so I can't really write a driver that would solve the problems of a few thousand people even if I would love to volunteer some free time; it's just not my field.

I get it. Ubuntu isn't commercial. Nobody is getting paid to help me get it to work. But there's no "bug bounty" feature. I can't pay for a specific bug to get fixed. People donate, but not for their specific problem; just to help the project overall. And I might do more to help the project if the basics were at least working properly. I'm not a fan of Windows. In fact, I hate it. But it at least helps me get my work done. When I spend days on end just to get sound to work properly, it's time I will never get back.

Imagine you had a friend or neighbor who was computer literate but doesn't have the time to fix major problems when they pop up. They support the open source philosophy, but they need something that just works. How would you make the case to them that Ubuntu is the right solution?

You can, however, find the specific package that has the problem and get an email. You can contact the upstream project and discuss ways to get the bug fixed, and offer your bug bounty that way.

You can find someone on odesk, get them to code a patch and submit the patch to upstream, or just keep it yourself.

There are a lot of options here. Some of them require money and others do not. If nobody who is developing is interested, find a way to get their interest.

[Bashing-om]

@; sanssadness; Et al .

I run old hardware, and have installed 'buntu on many other old hardware systems for clients.
I have never had a problem. I discontinued Windows with XP service-pack 2 - and have never looked back. In ubuntu, applications maybe not as polished as that of say Windows, but - gets the job done .

In my opinion, ubuntu is a system, and if one remains within that system there are no problems. Get out of the system and it is on you to "make it work " . Bleeding edge hardware is a collaboration between the hardware manufactures and commercial interest to satisfy the demands of the buying public - generally proprietary. Open source, we use what is available.

that's my story, and I am sticking to it

[SeijiSensei]

There was a MAC address cloning bug that still remains unfixed. It makes you unable to spoof your MAC address when you're connecting to a hotspot.

I reckon that 99% or more of Ubuntu users have never had a need to spoof a MAC address. If this is the kind of problem that you think makes Ubuntu (or indeed any Linux distribution) a "disaster," you must spend your time with a very different set of computer users than I do. I, too, am a professional, and I'm in that 99%.

[Geoffrey_Arndt]

And it would have been nice for the OP to advise he is not even using the Unity desktop in the first place, and to update readers that sound issue was hardware malfunction.

Let me reiterate - - especially for former Windows "Power Users" . . who have by far the hardest time transitioning to Linux - - if you really want an "apples to apples" comparison of Windows & Ubuntu . . . . just get it pre-installed on a machine designed and tested for Linux. My System76 Galago Ultra Pro laptop has zero issues with Ubuntu (and the last thing I want on my desktop are icons - - if I already have all I need in the Launcher - - which is a perfect solution IMHO).

[sanssadness]

And it would have been nice for the OP to advise he is not even using the Unity desktop in the first place, and to update readers that sound issue was hardware malfunction.

Let me reiterate - - especially for former Windows "Power Users" . . who have by far the hardest time transitioning to Linux - - if you really want an "apples to apples" comparison of Windows & Ubuntu . . . . just get it pre-installed on a machine designed and tested for Linux. My System76 Galago Ultra Pro laptop has zero issues with Ubuntu (and the last thing I want on my desktop are icons - - if I already have all I need in the Launcher - - which is a perfect solution IMHO).

To be honest, I don't even know what the Unity desktop is. If I did and it was relevant, then yes, I should have mentioned it. The sound issue wasn't hardware malfunction. I still have it on Ubuntu 14.04, though testing on 16.04 beta reveals that it was fixed there. So most likely a software problem.

I understand and respect your position on desktop usage. But the fact remains that there are users who do use icons on their desktop. On your iPhone or Android, would you want to go through multiple steps just to open your most frequently used apps, or would you like to have them handy on the desktop?

In my experience, any Linux OS has more bugs and challenges than either Windows or Apple.

...
One of the reasons I switched to Linux is that more and more companies (Microsoft and Apple namely) were no longer supporting their products without a credit card number. I felt like I was being ripped off.

So, when I read posts like yours I don't feel much sympathy. Pick your poison. Use Windows or Apple if you like. When you run into a bug, give 'em a call and have your credit card ready.

Are you an enterprise user? I use Windows as an individual, and I never even knew Microsoft provided support to be honest. Windows had bugs, but just like you, I found Ubuntu had more (if that's what you meant by Linux OS). Don't get me wrong. I don't particularly like Windows. But it doesn't have unfixable bugs that affect me to the degree Ubuntu does. That's why I have no choice but to use it until I find a solution.

I posted here because there seem to be many happy people in the community, and I'm wondering how they managed to cope with all the problems. Is it because they spent more time than me with Ubuntu? That their needs are different? That they are more tolerant of problems like no sound?