Fuck You Ubuntu...

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m so fucking angry I could spit. I am so goddamned tired of these USELESS Linux apologists trying to get everyone to fucking switch to Ubuntu so we can all share in their misery. How many times do I have to read an article about how 2005/6/7/8 is the “Year of Desktop Linux!”

Guess what guys? Linux is a fucking joke and is never going to be ready for prime-time. It is a colossal waste of fucking time.

Here’s just a few reasons as to why I fucking HATE Linux.

Nothing is easy. Now things have gotten a LOT easier than before, I’ll admit, but they are still FAR too difficult to use. I’ve been working on my installation for a FUCKING WEEK trying to get it set up properly and I have yet to fucking accomplish it.

Wifi support? Nope. That’s how you answer that fucking question. Oh wait, that is unless you want to use ndiswrapper. Good luck with that shit. Nobody seemed to think that damn near everyone uses wifi these days.

Dual-monitor support? A BIG FUCKING NO!!!
How easy is it in OSX? Plug it in!
How easy is it in Windows? Plug it in!

How easy is it in Ubuntu? I’ve been working on it for THREE FUCKING DAYS and I have yet to manage to tell my piece of shit driver that I want one monitor at 1440x900 and the other at 1280x1024. That’s right. THREE FUCKING DAYS and I’ve still been unable to accomplish it. Not to mention the fact that there’s no fucking way to get any kind of repeatable outcome.

So you have to use the shell to configure this. I’m okay with that. I don’t mind. What I DO fucking mind, however is that there’s no clear relationship about what the fuck does what. There’s a shell application that will write to your xorg.conf file, which would make one think that the xorg.conf file is all that is needed? NO! If you simply edit the xorg.conf file to how you want it, it doesn’t do what you want. No you have to issue the commands through the program which is by the way, buggy as fuck. Sometimes you want to add a pairmode which automatically reports as not having worked.

HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT HAPPEN? You implement a feature which, whether it works or not, reports that it didn’t work. Fucking Brilliant! Jesus what a nightmare.

Let’s not even touch on media-player issues. I don’t expect much out of my computer but this is really pathetic.

In the end, I realize it’s not Ubuntu’s fault that ATI can’t make a fucking driver that’s worth a shit, but on the other hand, it kind of is. The reason why Linux fucking blows donkey balls with regards to drivers is that there are about 8000 different versions of it. Hell there’s at least 8 different mainstream ones. How the fuck is anyone ever supposed to support that shit? Nobody will touch it. It’s inherent in the customized OS game. Also, i’m not entirely sure that there couldn’t be better support on Ubuntu’s end. And that’s really the state of things with regards to linux these days. If you happen to be one of the VERY LUCKY FEW who has the perfect hardware setup, then maybe you won’t fucking kill yourself despite all of the stupid-ass open source names for the files. I’ve noticed in Ubuntu at least these are hidden from you in the main menu. But if you manage to get it set up properly, you may be very lucky. But what about when you want to do something that’s slightly unplanned for? Then you’re back into the hell-hole of compiling source and doing all other kinds of unnecessary bullshit.

Linux is free…Right! I’ve spent enough of my fucking time on this installation to not only buy an OS but enough to buy an entirely new computer. Had I been doing this instead of something productive in a real job, it’d be far too obvious that it’s a waste of time. Severs I can understand, but I’m just trying to write some software here, not fucking run NASA.

I realize again it’s not Ubuntu’s fault that ATI builds such shitty support for their drivers in Linux, but why exactly is that? Is it because they don’t care? I’m sure it’s not. I’m guessing it has a lot more to do with the environment being a piece of shit from the get-go.

So FUCK YOU UBUNTU! I’m sick of your garbage. It’s not even faster…
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

2

Man, I could taste the frustration in that. Well done. This is exactly the kind of furniture-chewing, wall-punching rage I experience when I’ve been working on recording something for hours, and suddenly I start getting the BSOD, and my files come up corrupted.

3

So…probably bumping it back to 2009, then?

-Joe

4

Some of the rants here can be pretty funny: http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/

5

The final irony…

After I gave up on Ubuntu, it looks as if it has hosed my OSX installation. I did a backup before installing Linux (obviously I’ve tried a few times before) so it doesn’t matter, but it just seems fitting…

6

Wow, that is nice. Usually you only see that sort of radiant, frothing fury associated with Vista.

(Well, maybe not “you.” But my wife does, whenever I try to perform some would-be simple task on her laptop.)

7

Well, obviously you just didn’t know what you were doing. :stuck_out_tongue:

I completely agree with the overall sentiment, and you focused your vitriol very well. Perhaps too well; my monitor started smoking at one point.

I’m hopeful that one of these days, Linux apologists will start making genuine attempts at understanding how the rest of the world works. (Thanks for the site, Revtim - fun to read.)

8

Well, if you can tell me how to take a folder, make it stop displaying as “Photos and blahblahs” and have it just display as a FUCKING FOLDER that would be nice.

Oh wait. I can do that. Easy as pie. Now tell me how to make it so I don’t need to do the same process THE NEXT TIME I OPEN THAT FOLDER.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

-Joe

9

Explain why nVidia drivers work so well, then? Very little customization happens in the kernel between distros. The simple fact is the ATI doesn’t give a damn about Linux support.

Wireless configuration under Linux does suck. That’s partially due to crappy or non-existent driver support, and partially due to terrible configuration GUIs.
I just built a new system two weeks ago and installed Kubuntu on it. The key to running Linux on the desktop is that you have to do some research and pick components that are supported.

10

Organize -> Folder and Search Options -> View tab. Change settings for that folder. If you want all folders to use the same settings, click the Apply To Folders button.

11

Really? Then tell me what I’m doing wrong that the NVIDIA driver on my laptop used to work with Redhat, but won’t with Ubuntu. I just get a panic if I try to boot with the old settings, and none of the hundreds of configurations I’ve tried works. Ironically, the RADEON X850XT card on my desktop now works beautifully under Ubuntu (after a few hours of hacking and tweaking).

12

That was wonderfully succinct.

If Linux is a great OS and free, why are so many are paying for an OS? I have been able to hobble along with Linux for a couple years, when I wish, but the original post summed up why I don’t use it.

13

I have Ubuntu on my computer, although i haven’t upgraded for a while. I’m still running 6.06.

I actually had very little trouble getting my dual monitors to work, although i never tried to set them up with different resolutions; they are both at 1280x1024.

Your general sentiment is still right on, though; the fact is that Linux—even Ubuntu—really isn’t yet ready for the casual computer user unless he or she has a very limited range of needs. If all you want to do is surf the web, do basic word processing, and send email, Ubuntu should be fine, but as you need more stuff it gets more and more difficult.

I don’t think you have to be an uber-geek to get Ubuntu up and running, but you do have to be willing to devote considerable time to getting everything set up properly and chasing down solutions to little problems. The fact is that most people just want their computer to work out of the box and, like it or not, Windows and Mac computers both do that extremely well, for the most part.

For me, part of the fun of installing Ubuntu was the problem-solving aspect, but we have to accept that most people want their computers to be tools or entertainment systems, and not puzzles.

14

I love Linux (I don’t know if that makes me an apologist, I’ll assume yes). I’m not sure what you mean about understanding how the rest of the world works. What’s to understand? I don’t care if you use Linux. I don’t care if anyone uses Linux. I like it, it’s free, so I use it.

15

Because they’re used to it, and/or it came with their computer.

I was sure this thread would be about the 8.04 update. I’ve had one or two problems with updates in the past (I think I wrote about one here in the Pit), but nothing like what I had with this, my first Long-Term-Support update. I’ve filed three bug reports after two days on 8.04. I’d still much rather run Ubuntu than any kind of Windows, though.

16

That’s a good link. They have the Linux problems down pat. Linux keeps splintering into new distros and everybody thinks their’s is best, while not worrying about the other distros. You have a lot of repeated effort for no real purpose.

With Windows I pop in a cd for the new equipment and it installs and works. When Linux manages that the majority of the people will at least consider it an option.

17

This guy says it better than I’d ever be able to.

A few key points. X Windows is essentially using 20 year old technology as it’s base. That’s why you use config files and have to restart X to see changes. Essentially it’s windows 3.1 hacked up to look pretty.

Linux’s problem is that since it is free everyone wants their own version. The guy at linuxhaters (I LOVE that site, btw!) has it down pat. It’s simply a moving target upon which nothing can be based.

I use OSX and Windows. Each have their quirks but really they are FAR better than Linux. Maybe there’s something to be said for working as a team in the same zipcode? OSX pisses me off at times because it does suffer from “This is how Steve thinks you should do it.” But on the other hand, a lot of brilliant things come from that approach too. Windows on the other hand seems to be more interested in just creating a sandbox for developers to play in. Only the big problem is that there are hardly any rules, so the developers just shit all in the sandbox and sort of ruin the quailty. But at least you can do what you want on Windows.

Linux seems to have no perceivable benefits. If I’d gotten my second monitor running in Linux, I’d probably get some satisfaction from that. Then I’d probably have to spend another few months hacking to get access to my music files and then I’d have an environment that I could work in.

On the other hand, considering how I use OSX, I can simply just run damn near anything I had indended to do on Linux and use it here. In fact, my boss would prefer it in order to get some experience on another platform. So really it’s a relief and a giant “Fuck You!” to the Linux community for the foreseeable future.

18

In my book, just loving Linux doesn’t make you a Linux apologist. Which is good, because I like you, Giraffe. :wink:

No, the apologists are the ones who think Linux is the rightful king to the OS throne, and look down their noses at anyone who makes the active decision to use Windows. (IOW, they do care if you use Linux.)

19

Well yes, but to be be fair, most people buy their Windows or Macintosh computer already configured with the OS, and tested by the computer manufacturer to make sure everything behaves as expected.
If one were to buy a system with Ubuntu installed by the manufacturer (e.g. a Dell PC running Ubuntu - http://www.dell.com/ubuntu ), I’m sure it would work out of the box too.

20

For a while now, I’ve been loading up the lastest desktop *nix OS every 12-18 months to see how things are coming along. Definitely Ubuntu is the best so far, but I’m comparing it to FreeBSD 2.0 which was seriously hostile. As of Ubuntu 8.0.4, Flash sound simply doesn’t work in the Firefox plugin. The response I read on the forums was essentially “It used to work, but it was hacked in because Adobe did a crummy job, and we probably won’t add it back because it’s so unstable. Oh well.”

Well, damn. I understand how these things go, and if Adobe won’t play ball, then they won’t. But you have to realize what this means. Think about what you’re giving the finger here. YouTube. Pandora. Movie trailers. Monkey Lander. YouPorn. And you’re telling me this is a desktop replacement? Riiiiiight.

However, I probably will use Ubuntu. As a work environment for Java programming, it’s great. I get a pure portable environment without any ugly Windows surprises. I can run web servers and integration builds just like on the big shiny machines at work where nobody will give me root access. As long as I don’t expect any multimedia bells and whistles, it’s great. But don’t kid yourselves, guys, Ubuntu is just a great leap forward into the 90’s.