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from the it's-already-perfect-is-not-the-right-answer dept.
We all know about Microsoft's latest OS, so I won't rehash. A lot of us intensely dislike it, to put it politely. Those of us who can, use other operating systems. This is Soylent, so let's focus on the one that is the most important to us: Linux.
I have been using Windows as my OS since right after Atari times. A few years ago I bought an ARM (ARMHF/ARMv7) netbook and put Lubuntu on it. I had problems with my first Linux experience, mainly in the area of installing software: missing packages in Synaptic, small dependency hells, installing a package at a time by hand, some broken stuff. I put it down mainly to the architecture I have been using, which can't be supported as well as x86-64.
Now, we all know that no software is perfect, and neither is Linux, even though it is now my main OS. We support it in spirit and financially, but there is always room for improvement.
So, the question is: What are your problems with Linux and how can we fix them? How do we better it? Maybe it's filesystems, maybe it's the famous/infamous systemd. Let's have at it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22 2017, @03:46PM
The distros are the products. Linux, the kernel, or GNU, the base userland, or X11 (and omg Wayland run for the hills, not!, works fine for me and any day now Nvidia will play nice and I'll switch from X to Wayland and be done with it but no hardware accel won't fly for me), the display manager, or Gnome (fuck Mir)/KDE (Wayland?)/XFCE (yay Wayland!)/Mate (Wayland?)/IceWM/WindowMaker/Enlightenment (yay Wayland!)/RatPoison/XMonad/whathaveyou, the desktop environment, or whatever else are not "products" the way you're talking about a product.
I consider that a feature. I would never want to use a "product." "Products" fit somebody else's needs and solve somebody else's problems. That's fine for most people since as far as I can tell the masses are just being simulated by the Matrix--and not a very detailed simulation at that!--so they have everyman's problems and everyman's needs and want everyman's product.
You're possibly looking for Ubuntu, tho as we've seen Ubuntu exists to address Canonical's concerns first and foremost ($$$$$$$$$). I haven't tried Mint but I see it recommended regularly. Those are products. Those have marketing. Those are aimed at being complete without being bloated (lol not bloated and Ubuntu in the same paragraph!) While those offer alternative apps, if you install Ubuntu at least, what does it give you? Totem? You'll use Totem to play DVDs and you'll like it. Want to browse the web? If they chose Chromium for you, you'll use Chromium and like it. You won't have the consternation of deciding whether Firefox, Vivaldi, Palemoon, Midori, eLinks, Konqueror (is that still around as a web browser?), etc fit your needs better than Chromium.
And yeah, I've seen systemd boot blazing fast tho it'll never be install on my box. But Ubuntu's decided you want systemd and it makes their product work, so whatever. I've read the horror stories but that's their product. You'll have Mir and you'll like it. You won't even need to worry about Totem having support for X11 or Wayland "just in case", because Mir is part of the product.
(I have no idea how Ubuntu is put together these days so Im not trying to be 100% technical accurate about what ldd /usr/bin/totem is going to spit out.)
One coherent whole.
That does what somebody else wants it to do.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 22 2017, @05:24PM
""Products" fit somebody else's needs and solve somebody else's problems." "That does what somebody else wants it to do."
Interesting point of view. One I've never really considered. Sure, I've danced all around that point of view. And, yes, that's a very large part of why I don't like Windows. But, I've never thought it through to those terms. Modding up for visibility.
(Score: 2) by joshuajon on Wednesday February 22 2017, @07:57PM
Sure, some people would prefer to roll their own. And some people build cars from parts. For most people it's ok to pick one from a major manufacturer.