Ubuntu

No more 9.10's please

Asked by Gene

I signed up for this forum so I could make this comment.

First, I would like to say that I love Ubuntu and offer all the encouragement I can to everyone who works to make this system. Its great when it works...

But, please, no more distributions like 9.x. I have been a computer techie for 30 years and never had a computer problem I couldn't eventually solve until now--but I have spent four months trying to fix all the problems I encountered in the 9.10 upgrade and I give up. So I have wiped the disk clean and reinstalled 8.4.

Most of the problems have been with Nvidia video drivers and grub configurations. I'm not looking for a fix here, just letting you know how I feel. I accustomed to tinkering with computers and accept it normally. But I expect video drivers, especially for common video cards to install without tinkering and especially without the obtuse fixes that even the techies who manage to get it working don't understand them selfs.

The success of Windows is largely because it works out-of-the-box. But for me, Ubuntu 9.10 was DOA.

So this is my feedback and suggestion to the community, that's all.

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Ryan Dwyer (ryandwyer) said : 		#1

Tell that to the hardware manufacturers.

The reason it works on Windows is because the hardware manufacturers do their best to make sure it works on Windows. Nvidia only provides binary drivers for Linux and they don't support them as well as their Windows drivers.

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Arnaudus (a-lerouzic) said : 		#2

I think it's always important to remind that the distribution is actually working for most people. Of course there are bugs, and the fixed release strategy of Ubuntu is probably a bad thing for quality and stability. Nevertheless, I have several production machines running with 9.10, and they do run without major problem.

The second important point is the nvdia drivers. I think it's really unfair to blame Ubuntu. Even if the distribution can make some efforts to ensure that proprietary drivers are working (and it is possible that Ubuntu failed to do it as carefully as necessary), you cannot compare with Microsoft Windows. NVdia designs drivers to work with Windows and handle the responsability for it, but just release a binary that may work with some Linux distribution, the rest of the work being handled more or less independently by all distributions.

Finally, you may have forgotten about the thousands of potential fatal issues people daily experience with Microsoft Windows. Of course, you can claim that your own personal experience tends to favour Windows, but many people think the contrary. Overall, an operating system and the hundreds of pieces of software that are expected to run simultaneously on modern computers remain one of the most complex object ever created by human intelligence, and there is no hope whatsoever that an OS could ever be bug-free, especially because the features of the hardware change incredibly fast. It is actually amazing that this could work at all; and that you can get such an object, which required millions of work hours, for free with Ubuntu. If this is possible at all, it is because thousands of people have reported and fixed bugs when they encountered them, and your bad experience with Ubuntu is just part of this never-ending process.

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buringkantong (richardalariao) said : 		#3

I just wish this thing would make you change your mind of not using Ubuntu,the computer i'm using right has a defective disk,i tried to install Windows XP and i'm using the original cd which i bougth for a good price ,the outcome `SEtup could not detect any hard disk' Can u imagine my frustration I bought the LINUX just to try it on,and in front of that book says `Free software fore ever' i decided to pop out that cd and placed it on my drive ,bingo! Ubuntu went out` try install' set it up' it happen so quickly that i installed this OS to a broken disk?It's much better the have that LInux book and you can be familiarise with system, Isn't great!!!!!!.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#4

Gene,
very sorry for the trouble you've experienced, nevertheless bug reports are welcome which may improve Ubuntu for everyone.

From subjective view my title couldn't be more contrary: please keep on the good work based on 9.10
It's the best I've experienced until Lucid occured.
But instead,
> problems I encountered in the 9.10 upgrade

I've installed Karmic Alpha. Never upgrade to a release with major changes.

Hence,
> So I have wiped the disk clean and reinstalled 8.4

was a smart move.
## Which might also work with 9.10, because of better driver support, although it may depend on specifics, such as mentioned Nvidia status.

As a matter of fact Linux supports more devices than any other OS.
For your kind interest, you may translate this page which contents an interview with Greg Kroah-Hartman and the link to linux_driver_project page.
http://www.golem.de/0804/59322.html

My last point,
I've never understood the logic behind comparing MS with *nix architecture, is there one?
Hope "the trend doesn't become a friend".
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2010/02/09/is-canonical-becoming-the-new-microsoft/

Thus bottom line is, freedom of choice = "ZAP"

Enjoy Ubuntu.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#5

Concerning
>> Linux supports more devices than any other OS <<
 http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/linux_driver_project_status-2009-06.html

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Iowan (iowan) said : 		#6

I was surprised how well 9.04 worked on my (first new) laptop. I haven't been brave enough to try Karmic on it... maybe Lucid - if it works well on a testbed desktop I have.

Can you help with this problem?

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