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Well the last ruckus over operating systems had barely settled down here in the Linux blogosphere when another one started up anew. The cause this time? Oh, just a little article entitled, "The Disadvantages of Using Linux" by a blogger known as "DarkDuck."
"No standard edition," "learning curve," "non-compatible software" and "unsupported hardware" are just a few of the charges DarkDuck makes against our beloved operating system, sparking numerous outbursts of outrage.
Bluray is missing features but plays fine.
Posted by: kwhudson 2011-12-10 03:08:29 In reply to: Katherine Noyes
I have no problems playing bluray on Linux.. Open disk and stream with makemkv view the stream with vlc. I use a small script to do it all so 1 click and my movie is playing.
Obvious problem with Linux development environment: nobody pays for it; thus, there's no incentive to satisfy the needs of a "typical" user. This satisfies only the few who use Linux for Linux's sake. I love Linux Mint - for its vibe, its people, its quality. Still, so many apps are left unfinished, and they include the major ones. OpenOffice/LibreOffice has terrible change tracking, and so on and on. If PC-BSD worked reliably, I'd install it in a heartbeat. Oh, it does? Well, I'll just see...
@Barbara Hudson, Say it Isn't So!
Posted by: pogson 2011-12-05 08:45:53 In reply to: Katherine Noyes
I have admired your wit and wisdom. Please give GNU/Linux another chance. I think you are making a terrible mistake dropping GNU/Linux. The alternatives are worse. Please sleep on it or sober up...
I just did an upgrade from Squeeze to Wheezy (months away from release) Debian GNU/Linux and I had one package missing, one file out of 3 million. The alternatives are not any better.
I just did an upgrade from Squeeze to Wheezy (months away from release) Debian GNU/Linux and I had one package missing, one file out of 3 million. The alternatives are not any better.
If Barb who has more linux exp than a dozen guys here STILL can't get the stupid thing to run without promptly having the OS shoot itself in the head, what chance does normal folks have? that would be NONE. I have XP boxes than have been in the field for TEN YEARS and not a single driver breakage, NOT ONE!
THAT, that right there, is what you are competing against. Frankly If I were Ms Hudson and refused to run Windows (which I told her to try Windows 7, its really nice) then i would just call it a day and buy a Mac. The Mac WORKS, Windows WORKS, Linux? "LOL I made a stinky". this is why a free OS is doomed to fail, because without anyone to crack the whip frankly nobody, not the developers, not the distros, not even old Linus himself, cares if it works for anyone but THEM and their idea of "works' is frankly as long as bash functions most of the time.
But as Barb found out and what I've been saying for years Linux is fundamentally broken at this time. updates kill it, drivers just fall over and die, packages get borked, its a total mess. I gave up on Linux in my shop when after over 20 different distros I found I couldn't guarantee a single one, not one, would survive its first update fully functional. that is just sad folks, i have seen that level of bugginess since Win9X.
If you want to gain share and not just run off more folks like Ms Hudson this HAS TO BE FIXED. no CLI mess, no forum dances, no "LOL it fall down and broke", no excuses. if I can't build a box with bog standard hardware and get Linux to function for 5 years without disabling all updates and risking it getting pwned? then its not free as in beer, its free as in worthless, as Ms Hudson sadly found out when she lost her data. Losing data in 2011 is inexcusable people!
THAT, that right there, is what you are competing against. Frankly If I were Ms Hudson and refused to run Windows (which I told her to try Windows 7, its really nice) then i would just call it a day and buy a Mac. The Mac WORKS, Windows WORKS, Linux? "LOL I made a stinky". this is why a free OS is doomed to fail, because without anyone to crack the whip frankly nobody, not the developers, not the distros, not even old Linus himself, cares if it works for anyone but THEM and their idea of "works' is frankly as long as bash functions most of the time.
But as Barb found out and what I've been saying for years Linux is fundamentally broken at this time. updates kill it, drivers just fall over and die, packages get borked, its a total mess. I gave up on Linux in my shop when after over 20 different distros I found I couldn't guarantee a single one, not one, would survive its first update fully functional. that is just sad folks, i have seen that level of bugginess since Win9X.
If you want to gain share and not just run off more folks like Ms Hudson this HAS TO BE FIXED. no CLI mess, no forum dances, no "LOL it fall down and broke", no excuses. if I can't build a box with bog standard hardware and get Linux to function for 5 years without disabling all updates and risking it getting pwned? then its not free as in beer, its free as in worthless, as Ms Hudson sadly found out when she lost her data. Losing data in 2011 is inexcusable people!
I have been using GNU/Linux for more than a decade and very few times have I seen any such problems. I kept one system going for three versions of Debian GNU/Linux with regular upgrades and dist-upgrades. Today my whole household runs GNU/Linux and my wife who is still a complete novice after using PCs for 25 years has no problem with it.
OTOH, I have worked in places where a few percent of work was lost daily due to crashes of that other OS. Any problems of GNU/Linux reliability pale in comparison. Then there's malware...
OTOH, I have worked in places where a few percent of work was lost daily due to crashes of that other OS. Any problems of GNU/Linux reliability pale in comparison. Then there's malware...
You are choosing the "imaginary problems kill windows" meme along with "works for me", is this correct? please in the future go to TM Repo and choose the appropriate number of the lame excuse you are gonna use, kthanx.
Are you gonna say that Ms Hudson with more than a decade's worth of exp as an admin is "doing it wrong"? its a shame i can't post links here or i'd put the one from Dell where they have to run their own repo just to keep Linux from falling down and going BOOM! if one of the largest OEMs on the planet can't even get any decent QA from the developers, even though they ONLY offer Linux on a teeny tiny subset of hardware? The rest of us have better odds of winning the powerball.
Look pogson i've seen linux make a stinky with my own two eyes waaaaay too often, and we are talking bog standard hardware, realtek, atheros, ati and nvidia chipsets, the same basic bog standard stuff that has been in PCs for the past 8 years and STILL it breaks!
Until the community gets royally fed up with being jerked around by Torvalds and says "We are tired of broken drivers, either you find a way to fix it or give us an ABI" then things are simply never gonna get any better. For the love of Pete look at the numbers man, even giving your product away you are lower than the margin for error! Doesn't that give you a clue? Or do you believe its some vast conspiracy by OEMs to give their money away? I'd personally would LOVE to cut the costs of Windows out of my builds but handing people a PC that will either break in less than 6 months or with ZERO security patches for the life of the machine? No sale Pogson, no sale.
Are you gonna say that Ms Hudson with more than a decade's worth of exp as an admin is "doing it wrong"? its a shame i can't post links here or i'd put the one from Dell where they have to run their own repo just to keep Linux from falling down and going BOOM! if one of the largest OEMs on the planet can't even get any decent QA from the developers, even though they ONLY offer Linux on a teeny tiny subset of hardware? The rest of us have better odds of winning the powerball.
Look pogson i've seen linux make a stinky with my own two eyes waaaaay too often, and we are talking bog standard hardware, realtek, atheros, ati and nvidia chipsets, the same basic bog standard stuff that has been in PCs for the past 8 years and STILL it breaks!
Until the community gets royally fed up with being jerked around by Torvalds and says "We are tired of broken drivers, either you find a way to fix it or give us an ABI" then things are simply never gonna get any better. For the love of Pete look at the numbers man, even giving your product away you are lower than the margin for error! Doesn't that give you a clue? Or do you believe its some vast conspiracy by OEMs to give their money away? I'd personally would LOVE to cut the costs of Windows out of my builds but handing people a PC that will either break in less than 6 months or with ZERO security patches for the life of the machine? No sale Pogson, no sale.
GNU/Linux is Growing Faster Than That Other OS
Posted by: pogson 2011-12-11 20:32:38 In reply to: hairyfeet
What nonsense, hairyfeet. I have not seen a broken driver, ever, in a Debian release. Debian tests things before they are released.
I don't know what Ms Hudson's trigger was but I have seen nothing like it in thousands of GNU/Linux installations. In my own home I have 7 PCs running GNU/Linux and they all purr. Brazil, Russia, India, and China are all promoting GNU/Linux because it works. So do I.
I don't know what Ms Hudson's trigger was but I have seen nothing like it in thousands of GNU/Linux installations. In my own home I have 7 PCs running GNU/Linux and they all purr. Brazil, Russia, India, and China are all promoting GNU/Linux because it works. So do I.
"Use distro X" followed by "works for me". Please go to TMRepo and see those TMs as they cover every single excuse you've given so far. these same lame excuses are used SO often that you could print the top 20 from TMRepo and cover every FOSSie apologist post for the last decade, its like those scripts they hand out to Indian tech support.
But numbers don't lie friend and if i could post links i'd be happy to show you how Walmart, Best Buy, Asus, company after company tried your product and RAN AWAY. Why do you think that is? do you think its a conspiracy? i'll tell you why, its the same reason i won't have a single Linux machine for sale at my shop. Its because while the windows and mac machines run for years the first 6 month upgrade deathmarch comes around and its "LOL I made a stinky" with Linux. How many times have you had to go CLI in the past year? Don't lie Pogson and say none, we aren't stupid you know.
The dark truth is Linux IS Windows 98, nothing more. What was Win98? It was a CLI OS that had a GUI tacked on that kinda sorta worked but broke often and for anything other than the most basic of tasks required CLI and you could bypass the GUI completely because it was a second class citizen compared to the CLI. What is Linux? It is a CLI OS that has a GUI tacked on that kinda sorta worked but breaks often and for anything other than the most basic of tasks requires CLI and you can bypass the GUI completely because it is a second class citizen compared to the CLI.
Now if that is how you like things? fine and dandy, I know a guy that is still running winME too. but if you expect to compete with Windows 7/8 and OSX Lion with that I'm sorry but you're delusional. Too much is half finished, too much is unstable, to much requires fiddling and CLI. Apple and MSFT are bringing their A games and you're bringing Mickey mouse hobbyist time and that just won't cut it. Like I said how do you HONESTLY explain how a system admin with over a dozen years of exp like Ms Hudson can't even keep Linux from making a stinky?
But numbers don't lie friend and if i could post links i'd be happy to show you how Walmart, Best Buy, Asus, company after company tried your product and RAN AWAY. Why do you think that is? do you think its a conspiracy? i'll tell you why, its the same reason i won't have a single Linux machine for sale at my shop. Its because while the windows and mac machines run for years the first 6 month upgrade deathmarch comes around and its "LOL I made a stinky" with Linux. How many times have you had to go CLI in the past year? Don't lie Pogson and say none, we aren't stupid you know.
The dark truth is Linux IS Windows 98, nothing more. What was Win98? It was a CLI OS that had a GUI tacked on that kinda sorta worked but broke often and for anything other than the most basic of tasks required CLI and you could bypass the GUI completely because it was a second class citizen compared to the CLI. What is Linux? It is a CLI OS that has a GUI tacked on that kinda sorta worked but breaks often and for anything other than the most basic of tasks requires CLI and you can bypass the GUI completely because it is a second class citizen compared to the CLI.
Now if that is how you like things? fine and dandy, I know a guy that is still running winME too. but if you expect to compete with Windows 7/8 and OSX Lion with that I'm sorry but you're delusional. Too much is half finished, too much is unstable, to much requires fiddling and CLI. Apple and MSFT are bringing their A games and you're bringing Mickey mouse hobbyist time and that just won't cut it. Like I said how do you HONESTLY explain how a system admin with over a dozen years of exp like Ms Hudson can't even keep Linux from making a stinky?
