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Free is too expensive (Economist)Free is too expensive (Economist)Posted Apr 1, 2012 8:16 UTC (Sun) by Cato (subscriber, #7643)In reply to: Free is too expensive (Economist) by dgm Parent article: Free is too expensive (Economist)
I've mostly used Ubuntu 8.04 LTS - here are a few of the problems, all on hardware carefully chosen for reliability (Gigabyte ultra durable etc) and Linux compatibility:
- Ubuntu server - kernel panic due to WiFi driver, had to install kernel from 8.10 - this on a WiFi card chosen for compatibility
- Ubuntu desktop with 11.04 LTS
- Ubuntu desktop (main PC), NVidia 7900 then GTX260:
- frequent hangs/freezes over some months - solved by irqpoll and all_ide_generic on kernel command line
This isn't remotely all the problems, just perhaps the 10% that were most serious. Lots of other problems with sound have caused problems, and my Dell 3115cn printer still won't print with correct size from some applications.
It's not just one PC, nor just one distro version, though it has all been Ubuntu. Since Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distro it's reasonable to assume it should work OK, and most of these versions were LTS which is supposed to be stable - I usually wait 6 months after LTS for key bugs to be fixed.
Meanwhile, Windows 7 is really quite stable - it has some problems on my laptop PC with lots of corporate overhead, but on two other PCs it works rather well. These two are almost never rebooted. I also multi-boot into Windows XP for gaming, which is quite problem free. I do have many more minor application-level problems with the Windows systems, but that's partly due to who's using them (less techie person) or what they are doing (HTPC).
Linux takes a lot less maintenance once it's working correctly (easy apt-get type updates, no need to reboot, no antivirus overhead), but Windows in my experience is much easier to get working with all hardware functioning correctly, working full screen Flash, etc.
I am quite geeky e.g. building own kernel occasionally, getting a small fix into Apache 2.0, writing wiki code, etc.
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Free is too expensive (Economist) Posted Apr 1, 2012 12:55 UTC (Sun) by wertigon (guest, #42963) [Link]
My experience is the exact opposite.
I usually get Ubuntu working within an hour, another hour to install all the neccessary software I need, and then maybe 2-4 hours more to hunt down any additional problems (getting WiFi to work, Suspend/Resume, sound maybe...) - and those problems become less and less with each release.
Windows, in contrast, take around 1 hour to install, one more hour to locate all drivers to non-functioning hardware and peripherals (and try to avoid installing the associated crapware in the process), and then I have to spend several hours installing the software I use (again dodging a slew of crapware).
Not saying either is better, but both ecosystems have their faults.
Free is too expensive (Economist) Posted Apr 1, 2012 15:59 UTC (Sun) by tuna (guest, #44480) [Link]
"It's not just one PC, nor just one distro version, though it has all been Ubuntu. Since Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distro it's reasonable to assume it should work OK, and most of these versions were LTS which is supposed to be stable - I usually wait 6 months after LTS for key bugs to be fixed."
You make two assumptions: That Ubuntu should have the least problems among distros and that their LTS version actually provides bug fixes and back ports. Unfortunately for you, you are wrong on both assumptions.
Free is too expensive (Economist) Posted Apr 1, 2012 16:05 UTC (Sun) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]
Ubuntu has got worse over the years, but this illustrates the problem with desktop Linux - if the most popular distro is actually a bad choice, you need to be even more expert to choose the right one (and configure it, as Ubuntu is generally easy to set up, though with too many bugs).
Free is too expensive (Economist) Posted Apr 1, 2012 19:04 UTC (Sun) by tuna (guest, #44480) [Link]
I think this illustrates the problems with Ubuntu, and what Ubuntu promises its users. I do not know what the "desktop Linux" community can do about that.
Free is too expensive (Economist) Posted Apr 2, 2012 11:01 UTC (Mon) by sorpigal (subscriber, #36106) [Link] Ubuntu isn't alone. Problems like this appear on every distribution, old stable and brand new... and they're usually never fixed. The answer, instead, is to upgrade to the new release which may have fixes and certainly breaks other things.
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