I don't use Ubuntu, I use Debian. I tried Kubuntu for a while but I was never really happy with it.
I don't want to be negative, but Ubuntu just doesn't cut the souce with me. When people ask why I don't use Ubuntu, I can come up with many reasons. I've decided to list them here and then perhaps the Ubuntu community can address them within the Ubuntu and related distributions, and win me over. But, I don't expect hat will happen since I am so happy with Debian Sid as it is.
Over all, I want to express that this saddens me. I'd love to see more Linux on the desktop, but I really don't want to suggest to people that Ubuntu is the way to go. I feel that KDE has more going for it and that Ubuntu has too many problems. Of course, I am just one person, but here are my main grips with Ubuntu.
(1) Ubuntu packages aren't compatible with Debian yet are called '.deb packages' — makes it very painful to find a Debian package some times, and it's not useful for new users to have two distro packages that are named the same but incompatible. Yes, Red Hat, Fedora, SuSE, and OpenSuse (and others, I am sure) all use the .rpm format, but they have this same issue and that doesn't make it OK. Please, rename your packages .ubu or keep them compatible.
(2) I really dislike Gnome desktop and feel its extremely limiting in what you can do with it and how the defaults are usually poor decisions, IMHO. As long as Gnome is the main focus of Ubuntu, I am not interested.
(3) Ubuntu it's incredibly unstable and has issues that no other Linux distro that I've tried has. Others may disagree, but in my experience the Ubuntu packages have many issues that don't affect other distros. Check this bug that has been open for over a year https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/119730
(4) as a KDE user, the Kubuntu is horrible; lots of KDE people feel this way. If you want to try KDE, don't expect to really get a feel for it with Kubuntu.
(5) KDE doesn't get much attention even though its claimed to be an equal desktop. Kubuntu also gets the short end when any new system tools are created by the Ubuntu devs or community. Free Software shouldn't focus on excluding a major DE from innovations.
(6) I've never once had a successful upgrade from one release to the next. This may be because I've installed 3rd party repos, but if needed apps aren't provided by the distro, what is a user to do? Once even without these 3rd party repos it still failed. I've never had this issue with Debian.
(7) Cananocal releases LTS versions with new software like PulseAudio, which has caused a lot of issues for people; a LTS should NOT have untested software.
(8) Bug reports go for a long time with out being addressed, and then the response becomes, "The next version of Ubuntu is out; upgrade to that and tell us if it is fixed". Bugs should be fixed in this release, not pushed off to the next. What if a user's environment demands that they stay at release 8.04LTS or whatever? Here is one example of many like this that have been responded to bug reports https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/118842/comments/15
(9) Bug reports then get closed due to lack of attention, when its the developer's lack of attention that defines this, in my opinion and experience.
(10) I'll file a wish for newer versions of software, and the release team would respond with, "Too late for the next release, we'll get the one after that" — when (1) each release should have been synced with newer software already, but it's not happening, and (2) they'll then miss the software upgrade for the next release also. Here is a good example of this, with each comment promising it'll be available for the next release https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kmediafactory/+bug/194438
These are only 10 of the issues that I've had with Ubuntu, but they're enough to keep me away. I am sure others have disagreements with me over some of these issues, and I would like to see Free Software and Linux succeed but it seems to me that Cananocal needs some major improvements.
22 June 2009
16 June 2009
Two wishes for Gran Canaria Desktop Summit
The KDE Desktop people and the GNOME Desktop people are joining forces this year for the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit. I have two requests which I am sure won't get addressed, but here we go anyways :)
1. Let the file picker dialog (Open, Save, and Save as) for any application bring up the DE file picker, not the file picker based on that toolkit. For example, if I use Handbrake (a GTK app), I want the file picker to use my KDE file picker on my KDE system. GNOME users should get their native file picker also when using the great KDE apps available to them.
2. Let 'single-click to open' or 'double-click to open' work (and be set) across desktops. In my KDE 4.2.4 (Debian Sid) I very much like my single-click policy, but when I use a Gnome app I have to double-click every file and folder to navigate anywhere (usually in relation to Wish 1, above). I am guessing there is a way to set GNOME to single-click but likely I would need to fully install GNOME in order to find the one-of-a-million config apps which does this.
What are your wishes for the joint desktop summit, my readers?
1. Let the file picker dialog (Open, Save, and Save as) for any application bring up the DE file picker, not the file picker based on that toolkit. For example, if I use Handbrake (a GTK app), I want the file picker to use my KDE file picker on my KDE system. GNOME users should get their native file picker also when using the great KDE apps available to them.
2. Let 'single-click to open' or 'double-click to open' work (and be set) across desktops. In my KDE 4.2.4 (Debian Sid) I very much like my single-click policy, but when I use a Gnome app I have to double-click every file and folder to navigate anywhere (usually in relation to Wish 1, above). I am guessing there is a way to set GNOME to single-click but likely I would need to fully install GNOME in order to find the one-of-a-million config apps which does this.
What are your wishes for the joint desktop summit, my readers?
11 June 2009
2.6.30 Kernel and Sidux
Sidux Linux, based on Debian Sid (the 'unstable' branch) and touted as being 'Debian Hot & Spicy!', has released their 2.6.30 kernel with a huge surprise.
If you read around the web about the release of this new kernel, nearly every article discusses increased performance and a large number of new drivers for the 2.6.30 kernel release. But within Sidux, the kernel developer slh has decided to remove all non-Free (Libre) firmware from the Sidux kernels. The result is poor hardware performance within Sidux 2.6.30 kernels, at least thus far according to rants on the OFTC irc network on the #sidux and #smxi channels.
On my own system, my ATi Radeon card has much worse performance (under the Sidux 2.6.30 kernel) with the XOrg radeon driver or the XOrg radeonhd driver, both of which were suppose to be improved with the 2.6.30 kernel. Perhaps my drivers need to be at a newer version for the improvement to be seen, but there shouldn't be a regression. IRC forums suggested that I download the firmware from the internet (providing a link for me, even) but performance didn't improve. Graphics are still choppy when scrolling, and my fan was running higher than ever -- until I rebooted back into 2.6.29 for now.
Removing the non-Free bits from a kernel does increase the "Free Software" aspect of a kernel, which I do appreciate and support. But at the cost of hardware functionality, for many users, without warning? Had I wanted to be that in tune with Free/Libre software I could be running gNewSense Linux. Debian has long been a promoter of Software Libre and had struck a balance with FLOSS and closed firmware within the kernel; Sidux was supposed to be as close to Debian as possible, and thereforseemed to followed the same 'binary bits' philosophy, but no more.
Debian itself isn't yet at the 2.6.30 kernel and I don't know what they will do. Sidux may fix this, perhaps by a seperate firmware package to install, or perhaps the pressure will force slh to put the firmware back in, or perhaps another kernel will be available in the repositories. If something doesn't happen, however, I see Sidux alianating many of its user base.
If you read around the web about the release of this new kernel, nearly every article discusses increased performance and a large number of new drivers for the 2.6.30 kernel release. But within Sidux, the kernel developer slh has decided to remove all non-Free (Libre) firmware from the Sidux kernels. The result is poor hardware performance within Sidux 2.6.30 kernels, at least thus far according to rants on the OFTC irc network on the #sidux and #smxi channels.
On my own system, my ATi Radeon card has much worse performance (under the Sidux 2.6.30 kernel) with the XOrg radeon driver or the XOrg radeonhd driver, both of which were suppose to be improved with the 2.6.30 kernel. Perhaps my drivers need to be at a newer version for the improvement to be seen, but there shouldn't be a regression. IRC forums suggested that I download the firmware from the internet (providing a link for me, even) but performance didn't improve. Graphics are still choppy when scrolling, and my fan was running higher than ever -- until I rebooted back into 2.6.29 for now.
Removing the non-Free bits from a kernel does increase the "Free Software" aspect of a kernel, which I do appreciate and support. But at the cost of hardware functionality, for many users, without warning? Had I wanted to be that in tune with Free/Libre software I could be running gNewSense Linux. Debian has long been a promoter of Software Libre and had struck a balance with FLOSS and closed firmware within the kernel; Sidux was supposed to be as close to Debian as possible, and thereforseemed to followed the same 'binary bits' philosophy, but no more.
Debian itself isn't yet at the 2.6.30 kernel and I don't know what they will do. Sidux may fix this, perhaps by a seperate firmware package to install, or perhaps the pressure will force slh to put the firmware back in, or perhaps another kernel will be available in the repositories. If something doesn't happen, however, I see Sidux alianating many of its user base.
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