Linux is a pile of shit

[rcf]

I've worked with BeOS (it was a charming OS), OS/2 (really like OS/2), Windows 1.x (not pleasant) though Modern windows, MacOS (don't like it, but that's more preference than anything, it's certainly worlds better than versions 9.0 and earlier), and various other OSes. None of those required extensive knowledge of the OS or how to troubleshoot the OS to get them up and running in general.

I'd rather work with old DOS with autoexec.bat and config.sys resolving IRQ and DMI conflicts and trying to get everything I need loaded into memory to get a program to work and hardware to play nicely together than muck around with Linux.

I miss the simplicity and smaller size of those older operating systems, and some of their GUIs were actually more intuitive than today's "modern" ones.
"Modern" operating systems are disappointing because of their sheer size, complexity, bugginess, and the fact that they are still mostly written in C/C++ which results in a never-ending stream of security patches/updates for the OS (that can stilll be hacked anyway since it's bloatware with a huge attack surface).
Frankly, a lot of the hardware and software "evolution" of the last 2 or 3 decades is quite disappointing, and the computer industry really needs a total reset from both software and hardware perspectives, but unfortunaly that won't happen anytime soon.

And btw, I agree that Linux still sucks as a desktop OS even after 26 years of existence.
https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html

 

[imerso]

Although I will agree that there are still a few annoying bugs and some extra work some times, currently I like Linux much more than any other OS, and I just love the CLI.

Linux is so much flexible than anything else (to this date), we can fit it anywhere, you certainly run Linux somewhere and don't even know that. =)

 

[imerso]

How is your smartwatch today? Have you used your brand new 4k smartv today? Is your router OK? That IP webcam? Your home DVR security system? All most probably a Linux flavor.

 

[Grall]

How is your smartwatch today?

It was faster 6 months ago, but it's a little better in the most recent patches...

 

[zed]

It was faster 6 months ago, but it's a little better in the most recent patches...

They've prolly downclocked the performance to save the battery life

 

[Grall]

They've prolly downclocked the performance to save the battery life

The thought has crossed my mind, yes. And considering the battery is so tiny it does get cycled fairly deeply on a daily basis. It sees much heavier use than my iPhone, which I deplete only about 15% or so on average per day. Watch is 45-50% even if I don't really use it, and 60-80% if I do. Sometimes it has been more, a few times I've been close to hit the battery reserve limit*.

*Technically, apple watch battery isn't 0% charge when it hits 0% or close to 0%; instead it goes into dumb stupid idiot mode which does nothing except sleep and keep track of time and show you the time for about 3 seconds or so every 10-15 seconds at most if you poke it. Battery reserve mode gives you up to 3 more days of usage, except like I said, it doesn't really DO much in that state...

 

[Davros]

My new motorbike is complete crap. I keep falling over on it because it only has two wheels !!!!

I know what the problem is, it's the nut that holds the handlebars

 

[tuna]

All of them also have super crappy HIDPI support.

Gnome on Fedora has really good support for high DPI monitors and have gotten better every release (F27 had fractional scaling for different monitors if you have a multi monitor setup).

 

[tuna]

I'm a user, I need to run one piece of not that special software. It shouldn't have to spend more time on getting the damn OS to work than I did on learning the software package I'm using.

Why don't you use some other software if you don't want to use a Linux based OS? Maybe you can use some BSD OS or MacOS?

 

[tuna]

I'd rather work with old DOS with autoexec.bat and config.sys resolving IRQ and DMI conflicts and trying to get everything I need loaded into memory to get a program to work and hardware to play nicely together than muck around with Linux.

Regards,
SB

Well, why don't you do that?

 

[tuna]

- Try making something run on boot.

Do you mean that you want to run something special in the boot process? What exactly are you trying to do?

 

[rcf]

Gnome on Fedora has really good support for high DPI monitors and have gotten better every release (F27 had fractional scaling for different monitors if you have a multi monitor setup).

Fedora 27's install disk doesn't even finish to boot on my PC because the Nouveau driver doesn't recognize my Nvidia 1030 videocard. The boot process just stops with an "unknown chipset" message and that's it. Strangely, if I press Esc I can actually see the install program's graphical background but the installation doesn't go any further.

Well, why don't you do that?

I wish there was a modern 64bit version of Concurrent CP/M.
AFAIK it was easier to move executables between different CP/M machines than between different Unix machines.
With Linux it's difficult to do that even on the same machine since there are so many incompatible distributions.

 

[imerso]

That is NVidia's fault, not Linux fault. If I create a device that needs a driver, I will make sure that it is compatible with at least Linux and Windows. If I don't, no one can blame Microsoft because my device is not recognized under their OS. That is my responsibility, not theirs.

Now, we can't blame Linux just because NVidia does not care about its potential Linux clients. That is why I bought AMD RX580 recently, and I don't regret an inch.

 

[rcf]

That is NVidia's fault, not Linux fault. If I create a device that needs a driver, I will make sure that it is compatible with at least Linux and Windows. If I don't, no one can blame Microsoft because my device is not recognized under their OS. That is my responsibility, not theirs.
Now, we can't blame Linux just because NVidia does not care about its potential Linux clients. That is why I bought AMD RX580 recently, and I don't regret an inch.

And yet other distros have no video problems during installation.
AFAIK Fedora is the only distro where Wayland works with Nvidia, so it's inexcusable to not even be able to install with a Nvidia card. If Nouveau doesn't work then use VESA during installation until the proprietary Nvidia driver can be installed later.
And that's just one recent install problem with just one specific recent distro. I've been occasionally using Linux since 1996 (Slackware with kernel 2.0.0) and I've seen all kinds of bugs and glitches that show how unpolished, inconsistent and disorganized Linux really is when compared to other operating systems.

 

[imerso]

I believe that a good suggestion for anyone who wants to give Linux a serious try is: before trying to install it, check your hardware compatibility. See if you have a compatible NIC (network), compatible GPU etc. After confirming (or updating), then try installing it. I am not in any way trying to say that Linux is a perfect OS, but when you get a Linux box running smoothly, and you get used to the differences, it's generally a pleasant experience. It is really, really flexible, and if you don't misuse root, you also feel a lot more secure with it.

I am not a Linux fanboy as it might look like, though. If some day Windows becomes truly better (which imho it is not yet), I will switch happily. But, given the recent moves (phoning home etc), I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

 

[imerso]

Well, sorry if I'm spamming. I just want to finish saying that I also use Windows frequently, I dual boot to it and some of my work (I work as a developer) is for Windows, I also use it for gaming when I have time etc. I love Visual Studio for example. I like it so much that recently I started using Visual Studio Code on Linux, it's quite nice as well. Photoshop is also awesome. I don't like GIMP on Linux (well, sorry people, GIMP is bizarre). I am not a Microsoft hater, to be clear. But honestly, overall I just like Linux more, I feel more comfortable on it. The shell is powerful, the way the system works is different and, imho, simply better, even with all the (admittedly) rough edges that it has here and there. That is it, I think.

 

[rcf]

I currently use Linux only for homebanking, but that may change in the future since Microsoft's new business model (more like Google's) and their EULA, which basically says "we reserve the right to watch your every move", will eventually drive me away from Windows.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Well, why don't you do that?

If my only choices were Dos or Linux, then I probably would. Fortunately, there's both Windows and MacOS that I can use for home and business. And between those, I use Windows by default just due to the greater hardware support which is nice as I like to tinker with the hardware in my machine.

This isn't to say that Linux is universally horrible. It's obviously not. It's fantastic for datacenters and research where its benefits outweigh its negatives. For a home user, however, it's about the worst thing you can possibly use for most people. Not all people, but most of them. For the small subset of people that are both technically adept and have the time to learn the OS and troubleshoot Linux if something goes wrong, I'm sure it can work quite well as a home desktop OS as well. Some of the people I know do just that. And have been trying to get me to use Linux more for the past 20 years.

From time to time I'll try it out again to see if things have gotten better from a home user perspective, but while it's certainly better than it was 20 years ago, it's still not terribly good if you want something that "just works" without doing extensive research (what hardware to use, what driver to use, which distro to use, what hardware to use with that distro, what packages to use, what dependencies do those packages have, etc. etc.).

Regards,
SB

 

[tuna]

I've been occasionally using Linux since 1996 (Slackware with kernel 2.0.0) and I've seen all kinds of bugs and glitches that show how unpolished, inconsistent and disorganized Linux really is when compared to other operating systems.

Linux is not an OS, it is just an OS kernel. You use Linux as a part to build an OS like Android or Fedora.

 

[tuna]

And yet other distros have no video problems during installation.
AFAIK Fedora is the only distro where Wayland works with Nvidia, so it's inexcusable to not even be able to install with a Nvidia card. If Nouveau doesn't work then use VESA during installation until the proprietary Nvidia driver can be installed later.

It really sounds like you found a driver bug in that specific Linux version. Have you tried an updated install image (or a rawhide image) to see if your problem is fixed?