I hate Ubuntu >:(

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September 2010

A) Why are you running 10.10? Its not been released yet. B) Care to pass over your system information so we can all try to give you a hand?

A) o_O

“You are using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx - released in April 2010 and supported until April 2013.”

~> lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Release:    10.04
Codename:    lucid

B) No, I’d just go on Ubuntu Forums if I wanted “help” from the “community” of Ubuntu “experts”.  Anyone running Ubuntu needs to go there for help on a regular basis just to keep their computers running.  I’ve been doing that for years, and the experience is less than satisfactory.

And you seriously think you can “give me a hand” with a little hardware information?  Look around.  My experience isn’t just a little problem that could be solved on a forum thread.  It’s a systemic clusterfuck of fail.  This list of bad experiences isn’t even close to complete.  For every unintelligible error message I’ve posted, I’ve seen at least a dozen others.

It’s too late now.  I’ve given up on Ubuntu, and I’m buying a new Windows 7 computer as soon as I stop procrastinating and choose one.  The point of this blog is not to get help, but to document the problems I experience with Ubuntu as a normal user; to provide a counterexample to the ubiquitous claims that Linux is stable, reliable, and problem-free.

Sep 23, 2010

With Compiz enabled, the “Show Desktop” button doesn’t actually show the desktop.  The first click opens some windows in front of what you’re doing, and then the second click shows the desktop.

The normal Gnome desktop button, while identical in appearance, behaves as you would expect.

Sep 22, 2010
#Ubuntu #compiz #infuriating
You realise your screenshots are symptomatic of hardware-level failure, right? That looks like an overheating graphics chip ya got there. Now, it's possible the drivers on linux could still be responsible (not scaling back the clock speed when your laptop gets too hot, say), but most likely windows would be just as fucked on that system.

Sorry, but nope, the hardware’s fine.  It was a dual-boot before the hard drive died and it’s always worked fine in Windows.  The bizarre video fuck-ups only occur when I run Ubuntu and then try to suspend/resume.  It’s been like this since I first installed it years ago.  It’s kinda pretty, but not what you want to see when you go to use your computer and realize your work will be lost when you force a reboot.  RSEIUB.  Of course suspend/resume works on some computers running Ubuntu, but it doesn’t work on mine.  People who claim that Linux works with all kinds of hardware are being intellectually dishonest, like cult members lying to themselves about unfulfilled prophecies to quell their cognitive dissonance.

Linux fanatics love to whine about how it’s the video card manufacturer’s fault or the laptop manufacturer’s fault or Microsoft’s fault or Intel’s fault or anyone, anything except Linux: No one cares.  If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

Sep 22, 2010
#Ubuntu #YouAreUsingTheWrongHardware™
Sep 18, 2010
#Ubuntu #crash #bug #error
Sep 16, 2010
#Ubuntu #fail
Sep 16, 2010
#Ubuntu #fail #WTF
Sep 11, 2010
#Ubuntu #fail #video #suspend

Also, cropping an image in F-Spot is terrible.

Sep 7, 2010
#F-Spot #Ubuntu
Sep 7, 2010
#Ubuntu #Flash
Sep 6, 2010
#Ubuntu #video

Firefox is now crashing reliably every time I visit certain Wikipedia pages.

Bus error (core dumped)

Free culture FTW!

Sep 4, 2010
#firefox #ubuntu #crash

August 2010

Aug 28, 2010
#Ubuntu #fail #WTF
Aug 27, 2010
#Ubuntu #video #fail
Aug 24, 2010
#Ubuntu #Flash #lockup #Firefox
Aug 24, 2010
#Ubuntu #Flash #lockup #Firefox
Aug 22, 2010
#Ubuntu #error
Aug 5, 2010
#Wine #Ubuntu
Aug 3, 2010 1 note

July 2010

Often, I’ll click “Reboot” and it will begin to shut down.  The window decorations and toolbars will disappear, but then it will just stop, with decorationless windows still open and nothing happening.  Eventually I’ll do a Ctrl+Alt+1, login, and sudo reboot now.

No, I don’t know why, either.

Jul 24, 2010
#Ubuntu #shutdown
Jul 20, 2010
#Ubuntu #crash #error
1. Having the largest market share doesn't mean it's the best, see VHS vs Beta, among others... 2. I didn't say the fix for window buttons was easy. I said the *instructions* to fix the problem were *simple*, and they are. Simply copy and paste a command into a terminal. Any competent computer user should know how to do that. I was trying to be helpful, not play semantic games. 3. I agree with your assessment of Canonical's priorities, they're even toying with putting window menus on the top panel for the next version, making it even more Mac-like! I'll likely stay with the current LTS version or switch to Debian when the next stable version is released.
  1. When a product is free, and people still choose to pay money for a competing product, that’s a pretty good indicator that the free one is no good.
  2. Computer users should not be expected to copy and paste commands into terminals.  That’s absurd.  Besides, getting people in the habit of pasting things they don’t understand into a terminal?  There goes Linux’s “security”…
  3. I really hope they don’t put the menus on top.  Sigh.
Jul 18, 2010
#Ubuntu #ItsEasyToChangeIt™
it makes me sad you've been having such a bad experience :( ive had similar linux idiot moments where you just hate the thing tremendously (like when i tried to install a theme and instead overwrote all of gnome and started removing essential packages). the stability though... there's something to be said about this computer no longer crashing all the time, or having to configure and reconfigure the wireless.... both were a problem in windows 7 for me.

My experience is totally the opposite.  Ubuntu is unstable and unreliable (crashes, lock ups, CPU being ground to a halt, booting problems, blue screen of X, etc.), while Windows 7 has been stable and reliable.

After my experiences, I don’t understand how anyone can claim that Linux is stable, and I have to wonder if they’re lying.  But maybe experiences just differ.

Jul 18, 2010
Two things: 1. If you hate Ubuntu so much, why do you use it? There are other flavors of Linux or even other operating systems... 2. Simple instructions on how to move the window buttons back to the right: http://met.al/3uq I think a lot of your complaints are unreasonable.

1. Because rabid freetards on the Internet misled me by telling me it’s the Best OS Ever.  It’s clearly not, so I’m trying to do my part to counteract the forces of evil and dispel this ongoing deception.

As I said in my first post, I tried other Linux distros before I found Ubuntu, and they drove me mad.  Ubuntu’s the best Linux distro there is (as evidenced by it kicking all the others’ asses overnight in market share) but it still sucks by any objective standard.  I’ve spent the last few years waiting for it to stop sucking, but it hasn’t.  I’ve wasted far too much time on this experiment.  Life is too short.  I know many others feel the same way.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see the download numbers decreasing over the last few years.  Google Trends seems to show interest in Ubuntu is dropping off.

2. I’m looking for a new computer and it will probably be Windows 7, since that’s been working much more stably and reliably on my work computer, but I have so much invested in Ubuntu that it’s hard to switch.

Like an abusive relationship, I recognize on a rational level that Ubuntu is cruel to me and I should abandon it, but my brain still has this irrational emotional attachment to the “movement” associated with it.  So I have to actively fight against my self-destructive tendencies by documenting my frustrations, so I can’t forget them.

In fact, I’d really like to continue using Ubuntu.  It has some good qualities, and it’s free, and open source still seems like a good idea to me (the Kool-Aid must be very strong).  But… as much as I would like it to stop sucking, I don’t see any evidence that it will happen any time soon, if ever.  Canonical’s priorities appear to be:
1. Make it look like a Mac
2. Change default apps, realize this was a mistake, change them to something else with the next release, realize this was a mistake…
3. Improved boot time!
4. Shove it out the door on the release date, bugs or not
5. ???

I’m complaining and complaining everywhere I can, in the hopes that it helps open people’s eyes and influence their priorities, but it hasn’t had much effect.  Bug reports just sit untouched for years.  About a third of Ubuntu Forum’s members have “major problems” with every release, but there’s no improvement.  Ubuntu sucks.

3. Those instructions are not “simple”.  “Easy” has a meaning, you know.

My complaints are not at all unreasonable.

Jul 14, 2010
#Ubuntu #UseDistroX™ #GoBackToWindows™ #ItsEasyToChangeIt™

NTFS drivers are hogging the CPU, preventing me from doing anything

Jul 12, 2010
#CPU #Ubuntu #NTFS
How to watch YouTube videos in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx
  1. Flash worked fine in Karmic, but not in Lucid.
  2. Firefox drops down a plugin installer notification, and I use it.  “Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page.”
  3. “Wouldn’t you rather install a half-assed, buggy, experimental Flash player like Swfdec or Gnash instead??"  Fuck no.
  4. It starts to install Flash, then says… it’s already installed.
  5. Browser reloads the page, and hey, it’s not really already installed after all.  Surprise.  "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page.”
  6. Search the web!  Like every other problem with this stupid OS.
  7. Find instructions that say to go into Ubuntu Software Center → Canonical Partners instead of installing it in the browser.
  8. Install Flash Player 10!
  9. It just sits there, indefinitely.
  10. Notice the “In progress” spinning thing and click it.
  11. Under the flash player it says “waiting for other package managers to quit”
  12. So like, Synaptic?  Close Synaptic.
  13. It starts to install Flash!
  14. “Package operation failed”
  15. TRY AGAIN THEN
  16. IT’S INSTALLED
  17. Back to Firefox!
  18. “Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page.”
  19. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
  20. MAYBE IF I RESTART FIREFOX IT WILL WORK
  21. FINALLY IT FUCKING WORKS
Jul 2, 2010
#Ubuntu #Flash
Jul 2, 2010
#Ubuntu #error #package-management
Jul 2, 2010
#Ubuntu #Flash
Jul 2, 2010
#Ubuntu #Flash
Jul 2, 2010
#Ubuntu #gibberish

I’ve been “upgrading” to Lucid for the last few hours. It’s not finished and I’m already worried.

I like how the installer asks you incomprehensible questions and completely pauses the installation process while it waits for your answer.  >:(

You’d think that since people were complaining about this YEARS AGO that it would be fixed by now.  My guess is that Ubuntu is so fundamentally broken that it can’t be fixed.  They have to install in a specific consecutive order, and they have to interrupt you with questions in the middle of it.

And now there are SIX kernels in the grub list.  Hopefully one of them boots.

And the window management icons have been moved to the left-hand side.  I guess they’re trying to make it easier for us to transition to a Mac…

Jul 2, 2010
#upgrade #Ubuntu
Jul 2, 2010
#Ubuntu #upgrade #fail
Jul 2, 2010
#Ubuntu #upgrade #gibberish
Jul 1, 2010
#Ubuntu
Jul 1, 2010
#Ubuntu #gibberish

The Disk Usage Analyzer crashes if I try to view /root

Jul 1, 2010
#Ubuntu

June 2010

Jun 16, 2010 1 note
#Ubuntu #kernel #boot #BSOD #fail

Desktop Search used to work fine, but now it can’t find any of my files.  I can’t think of anything I’ve done that would make it stop working.  This process is familiar to anyone who has used Ubuntu.  Something works great for a few weeks/months, and then inexplicably stops, and I have to spend a few days trying to figure out how to fix it.

Jun 15, 2010 1 note
#Ubuntu #Beagle
Play
0:31
Jun 11, 2010 1 note
#Ubuntu #fail #BSOD #video
Jun 9, 2010
#Ubuntu #fail #USB #boot

“Upgraded” my desktop to Lucid. 

“An error occurred while mounting /proc/bus/usb”.

And the Bluetooth keyboard is no longer recognized, so my computer is unusable until I find an old-school keyboard.

Jun 8, 2010 2 notes
#Ubuntu #fail #USB #boot

The last three kernel upgrades have all caused my computer to stop booting correctly.  In different ways.  Re-installing the kernel package fixes it.  Awesome.

Jun 7, 2010
#kernel #Ubuntu

May 2010

May 15, 2010
#Ubuntu #kernel #kernel panic #BSOD #boot

After an update with a new kernel, my computer got stuck in a reboot loop.  Reinstalling the kernel fixed it. 

Seriously?  This can happen?

May 14, 2010
#ubuntu #kernel #upgrade #update
May 11, 2010 1 note
#Ubuntu #Ubiquity #WTF

beagled-helper is hogging the CPU.

May 10, 2010 1 note
#Ubuntu #CPU

When I try to play 10 seconds of audio in Audacity, it plays a bunch of noise for 1.5 seconds and then stops.

May 8, 2010 1 note
#infuriating #PulseAudio #Audacity #audio #Ubuntu

April 2010

Apr 25, 2010
#Gnome #PDF #Ubuntu #inexplicable #Evince

Why is my mouse pointer frozen???

Apr 23, 2010
#Ubuntu #mouse

File creation date.

Apr 22, 2010
#Ubuntu #Why Windows is better than Ubuntu #filesystem

When you use Nautilus to copy multiple things to multiple places, is it just me or does it do all the operations concurrently, slowing them all down as it scrubs back and forth between disk locations?

And why doesn’t it have a Pause button?

Apr 22, 2010
#Ubuntu #Gnome #Nautilus #file-management
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