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Ubuntu SUX. If you disagree, prove me wrong
So I installed Ubuntu on my laptop. Here is a tally of my experience so far:
Ubuntu refused to boot, the boot sequence stops at 3rd box in the boot animation, reinstalled.
spent 6+ hours getting display to work right.
spent many hours trying to get internet to work.
got my departments tech guy to get my internet to work.
Ubuntu starts refusing to boot again. Once again stopping at the 3rd box in the boot animation.
Total time with Ubuntu: <1week. Total time using Ubuntu: ~3hours.
Conclusion: Ubuntu is annoying, incompatible, glitchy, obtuse and doesn't want to work at all. I am really pissed off, especially since my programming assignment is on the HD and it's starting to look like I'll have to reformat again. If I didn't need a Unix like system for school, I'd declare this experiment a failure.
If you disagree, tell me how to fix this thing without reinstalling again, and make it stay up for more time than I have spent getting it to work.
Ubuntu refused to boot, the boot sequence stops at 3rd box in the boot animation, reinstalled.
spent 6+ hours getting display to work right.
spent many hours trying to get internet to work.
got my departments tech guy to get my internet to work.
Ubuntu starts refusing to boot again. Once again stopping at the 3rd box in the boot animation.
Total time with Ubuntu: <1week. Total time using Ubuntu: ~3hours.
Conclusion: Ubuntu is annoying, incompatible, glitchy, obtuse and doesn't want to work at all. I am really pissed off, especially since my programming assignment is on the HD and it's starting to look like I'll have to reformat again. If I didn't need a Unix like system for school, I'd declare this experiment a failure.
If you disagree, tell me how to fix this thing without reinstalling again, and make it stay up for more time than I have spent getting it to work.
Comments
In any case, I would love to help fix your problem, but you haven't really provided any details. Details such as what laptop you have, for example, would be very helpful (speaking of which, did you check your laptop against the list of supported laptops on the official Ubuntu site before you tried to install it?). Or what version of Ubuntu you're trying to install. Can you boot into single-user mode? Did you do anything on the last boot that could cause the system to fail? Do you get any error message? Ubuntu will drop down to the text boot and show what it's currently trying to do if the booting takes too long, and if it doesn't it's probably an indicator of Not A Good Thing. Or it could just be fscking the hard disk.
And, hate to break it to ya, you're gonna have to live with some incarnation of linux if you're gonna be a programmer.
And please, your opinion on something is not the definition of its quality so "I think Ubutnu sucks." would be more accurate than "Ubuntu SUX"
Let me ask you some things. Did you research on the net before installing Ubuntu for stories of anyone else who tried to use Ubuntu on your specific laptop? Perhaps going to the Ubuntu forums, Ubuntu wiki, or Linux on Laptops websites to find information about how to get it working? During those many hours you spent trying to get your display and Internet to work, did you perhaps learn something about displays or networking?
By the way, the next version of Ubuntu is going to have a new system making it ludicrously easier to get your display working and at the correct resolution. Also, if your network card was working, which it appears to, then your failure to get the network connection working would have been the same experience as in Windows. In fact, it would have been harder in Windows because Windows often does not come with network drivers built-in. You would have had no network connection, yet you would have had to get online to download drivers.
Installing operating systems on computers from scratch is a pain in the ass if you don't know about computers. It doesn't matter what OS it is. Some hate on Linux is well deserves, say for perhaps its shitty handling of audio. Some hate on Linux is not the open source community's fault, such as difficulty with some wireless cards. And some hate on Linux is from people who would have had a hard time installing any operating system, taking out their frustration on the one they actually tried.
By the way, I just want to point out the disregard for burden of proof in the subject of this thread. If you say Ubuntu SUX, you make the claim, you have to provide supporting evidence. Otherwise, Flying Spaghetti Monster, prove me wrong!
If your hardware isn't supported, it isn't supported. Windows has the same problem sometimes, though not as often.
More to the point, "reinstallled?" So, you're saying that you installed once, and it failed. You installed again without changing anything, and this time it worked? Did you test the CD to make sure it's not scratched or otherwise incomplete? Did you google around for similar problems others have had?
spent 6+ hours getting display to work right.
Did you look up any documentation? Did you ask anyone for help?
spent many hours trying to get internet to work.
Did you look up any documentation? Did you ask anyone for help?
got my departments tech guy to get my internet to work.
Obviously, he fixed it for you. Did you watch him to it? Did you ask him what he did? Could you repeat it?
Ubuntu starts refusing to boot again. Once again stopping at the 3rd box in the boot animation.
You've got a hardware problem of some kind.
incompatible
It works on the majority of computer hardware in the world without issue.
glitchy
Every "glitch" you experienced was a result of either ignorange or unsupported hardware.
doesn't want to work at all.
Unsupported hardware.
I am really pissed off, especially since my programming assignment is on the HD and it's starting to look like I'll have to reformat again.
You can get your programming assignment off easily before you reinstall.
If I didn't need a Unix like system for school, I'd declare this experiment a failure.
Ahh, but there's no alternative, is there? It's not like Windows can do what you need.
If you disagree, tell me how to fix this thing without reinstalling again, and make it stay up for more time than I have spent getting it to work.
You seem to be under the misapprehension that we care if people use Linux or not. ^_~ I prefer to use it. Scott prefers to use it. That's it. If you want to use it, then you're going to have to do your research and actually learn how to use it. There is no such thing as a powerful, simple to use, AND customizable OS. You have to give up at least one of those to have the others.
No operating system is perfect. I have problems with Linux all the time. I just have fewer than I did with Windows. Were that not the case, I would probably still be using Windows.
If you just have to have it installed though try Ubuntu 5.10 I think it was Breezy Badger but I'm not sure about the animal name. That caused the least trouble installing it on four different laptops. Your resolution will probably be a bit off still but everything else worked fine after a bit of tweaking and gathering of dependencies.
The whole thing looked like the next logic step for computers, with the Live CD installation, easy application install through a packet manager and a really big collection of games and programs, so that one can actually do something with a fresh install.
The only reason for me to stop was that Windows XP found a way to kill itself (using it, crash, reboot, checking the disk and then being unable to start explorer.exe), I had to reinstall it (Potoshop isn't working fully with WINE) and assy windumb had to overwrite grub. But I coudn't reborrow the CD from my friend and my internet had a dumb 10 gb max restriction.
The only downside of Linux isn't really Linux fault, most manufactures just don't make compatible drivers. Otherwise Linux is a great way of getting to know your computer ^^
(But right now I just love my Mac OS X
Hate to break it to you, but this is why Linux is never going to be a significant player on the desktop.In the corporate world, it's actually becoming a significant player prettty quickly. Remember: in managed environments, the users don't need to know anything about their computers. They get the applications they need, and they use them. They'll never intstall Linux on their own: their IT department will.
Certainly. But in home desktop... not so much.
As far as I'm concerned, that's what 100% of the cost of Windows is for: all the compatibility testing and special arrangements with OEMs that make Windows' ease-of-installation possible. The actual programming of the OS? Whatever.
Conquering the home desktop market is irrelevant. The rise of virtualization may yet make your choice of OS obselete. Have you ever used Parallels with Coherence? The free VMWare player? Virtualization renders most hardware incompatibilities moot. While it is somewhat less efficient than a native OS, hardware is rapidly getting more powerful, even while all virtualization applications are getting more efficient, more powerful, and less expensive.
For all the consumer of 2010 knows, the Dell he bought runs Windows Vista. Little does he know it's just a layer on top of Dell linux, which is serving up all sorts of backup, recovery, and remote assistance features to the nice fellows at Dell who can fix his broke-ass computer with the press of a button.
As far as I can estimate, this scenario is more likely than linux, or even Mac OS, overtaking Windows in the home desktop market. Eventually, the concept of having just one operating system may become quaint. The technically-inclined will have every OS under the sun, each running the apps it hosts best, all on a rock-solid (likely *nix-based) platform.
Well, I can dream, can't I?
It's also possible that Browsers make up most of the OS. Web 2.0 can recreate full programs, that way it doesn't matter what OS I use, I could even use a handheld.
When I wrote the original post, I had just come off of 5 hours getting no where on my HW and I was already pissed, so when Ubuntu decided not to boot I got annoyed and wrote off my frustration. Ubuntu has since been beat into submission.
To address people's questions, my Laptop is a dell inspiron 8600, yes I did research, yes I did learn stuff, and yes I knew what I was getting into.
Still working on learning how this thing works, anybody know good sites or books? One of my classes has UNIX as part of the topic, but the book is really old ("...the free software foundation...their project is known as GNU and although they have not written a complete operating system yet..." is in the introduction).
If I had done that I would have known that certain parts of my car were not compatible with that engine.
Yes, I am being sarcastic...
If it weren't for games, all of my computers would either be running Ubuntu, or they would be Apple products.
Except for the SLi setup on my gaming rig, and the fact that my laptop is pathetically equipped ram-wise, I have had no real problems getting Ubuntu going on any of the computers I have run it on since discovering it thanks to GeekNights.
Oh, and that isn't a small number of computers either. All the computer illiterate folks at work have horrible slow old systems that are loaded with viruses and ad-ware and such, and they bring them to me. Ubuntu is the quick fix.