Comments - My issues with Linux et al

#11 — Author comment /* 5 months, 15 days ago */

Stegosaurus, it's fugly. I know that's a matter of opinion but I just can't stand QT3 controls. QT4 looks a lot better but it's a far cry from the simplicity of most GTK interfaces. The default KDE3 menu is a bodge-job that needs replacing with some common sense. I think that's it mainly: interface. I love most of gnome because I find it simple. I dislike KDE because it looks like it's trying to emulate another popular operating system while layering on a ton more configuration but it just ends up messy. All IMO, naturally.

Richard, I can hope =)

Jacob, heh I've had a lot worse. Some times a "have you tried x?" might seem obvious but I've overlooked it. If you catch the right side of the RTFMers (I'm not calling any commeters one, btw), they can be extremely useful - you just need to show you're trying and not asking for hand-outs. It's not useful for really new users but possibly better, on balance, for users trying to learn.

Jeroen, I've already got that on. I want a sensible fixed grid where icons all line up on both axes. I know that would muck up scenarios with different-sized icons.

numberMan2000, it's only going to get better and that's awesome. Imagine 3 to 4 years from now, when we're on KDE 3 or 4, Gnome 3 or 4, 99.9% of hardware is supported, new apps and games are cross-platform and these ^^ issues are fixed =)

Shad0w, Thanks for the tip! I'm going to try that in the morning. I have a feeling I've tried it before and it lagged lots in games but I'm probably wrong and more than up for trying again.

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Oli Numero Uno

#12 /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

PulseAudio is beta, not final release. It's not PA's fault that Ubuntu enabled it by default on the latest release. You may switch back to ALSA if you like.

Proper list-view is being developed for Nautilus. The author has asked for help getting it out the door. Perhaps less time writing angry blogs, more time actively developing features that everyone wants in software would be in order? :)

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Super Jamie Normal User

#13 — Author comment /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

I wasn't trying to be angry, rather just get it all of my chest. It's critical review for anybody that wants it. I did say I'm trying to get into development on Linux. I'd love to become a Gnome hacker. That is my immediate aim.

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Oli Numero Uno

#14 /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

Then best of luck doing so :)

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Super Jamie Normal User

#15 /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

Great article.

I'm a big fan of Linux, and won't be switching any time soon, but I've recently found myself getting very frustrated with some of the default implementations -- especially in Ubuntu. The way PA was implemented in Ubuntu was a disaster for me (and, judging by the forums, for many others), but there doesn't seem to be any desire to fix it, or even to admit there's a problem.

The head in the sand approach doesn't work -- problems need to be admitted to, and then worked on (especially by the big professional companies like Canonical, RedHat, Novell, etc. who can afford to work on it).

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Steve Molloy Anonymous User

#16 /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

Linux is most definitely not Ubuntu. Even if by "Linux" you mean the GNU toolchain on top of the Linux kernel with or without an X11 environment on top of that. There are thousands of other distros out there, and most of your complaints look pretty Gnome and Ubuntu specific. There's something for everybody, except people who want a clone of Windows, and for that the closest approximation is probably Kubuntu or something similar, but none of those "newbie-friendly" instant desktop distros are really a good representation of what the GNU/Linux world has to offer. You want a configurable desktop environment? Try Xfce, or Fluxbox with a panel app tacked on. You want light-weight, high-performance eyecandy? Try Enlightenment 17. You want a highly configurable distro with a set of repos that stays useable and bleeding edge? Try Archlinux. There's plenty of software out there as good as and better than the proprietary alternatives as well. My sound setup works pretty well with just a mix of raw alsa and oss. If I needed it to do something weird that one might think could only be done with a higher-level sound server, some creative scripting on a rainy day generally does the trick. If you don't like doing creative scripting and also don't like Ubuntu, I would second the suggestion that you use XP or Vista. There's really no point in complaining and threatening to stop using something you got for free and are openly invited and even freely taught to change to your liking. If you're not contributing, nobody has anything to lose from you switching to MS.

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josomebody Anonymous User

#17 — Author comment /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

Shad0w: Top marks. Running steam this way: padsp aoss wine Steam.exe makes things work. Pulseaudio spikes to 10% at times which is a little worrying but, yeah, the sound works now. Thank you!

josomebody: Everything you've said is addressed by the post or its comments but I'll add: my complaints lie with Gnome, Pulseaudio, Compiz, Wine, Adobe, Canonical and possibly the ALSA team. Listing them all dilutes the title's punch.

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Oli Numero Uno

#18 /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

Glad to be of help. That drove me insane with 8.04 when I tried upgrading, also you can switch to basically all ALSA again from System > Preferences > Sound and switch the inputs/outputs to ALSA sinks.

If you're worried about PAs usage, I'd suggest you just give Wine a higher priority, should cancel out any issues you get with performance from PAs resource hogging.

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Shad0w Normal User

#19 /* 5 months, 14 days ago */

At work, I used Gnome + Multiple Desktops with no problems... until Hardy came out. With the Hardy release, I find that sometimes clicking in the taskbar will not switch to the proper desktop and restore the application. Instead, it just blinks at me in the taskbar...

Switching to KDE fixed that.

At home, I used Gnome + Multiple Desktops + Compiz with no problems. Decided to switch to KDE to match the work computer. I now find that KDE + Compiz does not completely support Multiple Desktops. In order to get KDE + Compiz to work, KDE must be setup for ONE desktop, while Compiz is set for Multiple. This means that the context menu for desktop selection does not appear on any of the windows. You can play around with spinning cubes and stuff... but you can't move a window to a different desktop, or make a window appear in all desktops, etc

Would be nice if I could read the flash on my digital camera, or use my webcam without needing to switch back to Windows.

Hibernate and Suspend work about half the time.

Firefox and Miro often battle for control of the sound card. If Firefox has played audio, Miro will freeze up..

It Just Works. Yeah. Right.

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Nexon Normal User

#20 /* 5 months, 13 days ago */

Here's another 2 cents for the jar,
1. Try using the esd option in winecfg to integrate pulseaudio with wine
2. Also, I suspect that quite a few of the problems you are experiencing are Distro-specific, if you want to ride the wave of cutting edge, give gentoo an honest shot. I love Ubuntu, but it isn't necessarily for the most serious user.

Keep up the interesting posts.

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gnudist Normal User

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