Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on November 10, 2006 09:19 AM
After going through THREE distros in the last week trying to fix their problems, it's time to acknowledge one fact.
The distro managers are doing a LOUSY job of testing their distros before release.
Mandriva 2007 is riddled with bugs and crashed for no known reason while I was out of the building for an hour. Bye-bye, Mandriva. I don't tolerate that nonsense - even from Windows.
Okay, it was a<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.0 release, and I should have known better. NEVER install a 0 release except for testing purposes!
SUSE 10.1 installed a ton of software, but trying to update all that stuff crashed and burned the system. Okay, I should have known better than to try to update a ton of packages all at once. I should have spent a DAY or more updating them one at a time - yeah, right. What do we have bulk updaters FOR, then?
Tried to install Kubuntu from the live CD's they mail out. Get this one - if you try to modify the mount points, YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE SCREEN!
Yeah, they sure tested that one thoroughly! Who in the hell at Kubuntu ran a test without ever trying to modify the mount points?
Mark Shuttleworth, listen up - if your people told you they tested it thoroughly, to quote Will Smith in "Hitch", they "are a-lying to you!"
An install of Kubuntu with the alternate test based installer went okay (another hour and fifteen minutes download, but, hey, it's only my life.)
Went to the Adept updater, spent an hour or more selecting packages (I know, same stupid mistake as SUSE, right?). The first package failed to download - so Adept dumped ALL the selections and I would have had to start over. Except I immediately installed Synaptic, instead.
Mark, here's another clue - dump the moron who wrote Adept. He hasn't a clue about usability!
That worked! Finally! I then tried using Easyubuntu according to the instructions on the Web site.
Nope - fails, unable to find a package XML file. Eventually found an Ubuntu unofficial site that simply said copy the Dapper XML package files. That worked - despite numerous GTK error messages.
Guys, this isn't acceptable. NO ordinary end user could have gone through this without throwing up their hands! You should have heard me screaming at the morons who failed at their design and testing tasks at two major Linux companies!
I have been using Linux for two years and am a total advocate of its value on the desktop compared to Windows. But GETTING it TO the desktop is becoming a NIGHTMARE because of inadequate TESTING.
Stop screwing around with the 3D eye candy crap trying to compete with Apple and Microsoft and start concentrating on the basics of end user usability!
Nobody should have to configure repositories to update their packages. Every distro should have ONE place (with mirrors) to go to find a list of ALL the relevant repositories and their mirrors. This should be updated every night with a cron job. The ONLY thing the end user should have to do is browse the available package catalog and pick what he wants. And the end user interfaces to that process need to be massively redesigned to be easier (although Synaptic is the best I've found, it could use some additional tweaking.)
If this isn't done, Linux will NEVER get on the desktop in a massive way except where it is installed by IT staff.
Linux works fine as a desktop OS and as a server OS. I fear for its future if the distro managers end up being as stupid and incompetent as the people who run Microsoft.
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on November 10, 2006 09:19 AMThe distro managers are doing a LOUSY job of testing their distros before release.
Mandriva 2007 is riddled with bugs and crashed for no known reason while I was out of the building for an hour. Bye-bye, Mandriva. I don't tolerate that nonsense - even from Windows.
Okay, it was a<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.0 release, and I should have known better. NEVER install a 0 release except for testing purposes!
SUSE 10.1 installed a ton of software, but trying to update all that stuff crashed and burned the system. Okay, I should have known better than to try to update a ton of packages all at once. I should have spent a DAY or more updating them one at a time - yeah, right. What do we have bulk updaters FOR, then?
Tried to install Kubuntu from the live CD's they mail out. Get this one - if you try to modify the mount points, YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE SCREEN!
Yeah, they sure tested that one thoroughly! Who in the hell at Kubuntu ran a test without ever trying to modify the mount points?
Mark Shuttleworth, listen up - if your people told you they tested it thoroughly, to quote Will Smith in "Hitch", they "are a-lying to you!"
An install of Kubuntu with the alternate test based installer went okay (another hour and fifteen minutes download, but, hey, it's only my life.)
Went to the Adept updater, spent an hour or more selecting packages (I know, same stupid mistake as SUSE, right?). The first package failed to download - so Adept dumped ALL the selections and I would have had to start over. Except I immediately installed Synaptic, instead.
Mark, here's another clue - dump the moron who wrote Adept. He hasn't a clue about usability!
That worked! Finally! I then tried using Easyubuntu according to the instructions on the Web site.
Nope - fails, unable to find a package XML file. Eventually found an Ubuntu unofficial site that simply said copy the Dapper XML package files. That worked - despite numerous GTK error messages.
Guys, this isn't acceptable. NO ordinary end user could have gone through this without throwing up their hands! You should have heard me screaming at the morons who failed at their design and testing tasks at two major Linux companies!
I have been using Linux for two years and am a total advocate of its value on the desktop compared to Windows. But GETTING it TO the desktop is becoming a NIGHTMARE because of inadequate TESTING.
Stop screwing around with the 3D eye candy crap trying to compete with Apple and Microsoft and start concentrating on the basics of end user usability!
Nobody should have to configure repositories to update their packages. Every distro should have ONE place (with mirrors) to go to find a list of ALL the relevant repositories and their mirrors. This should be updated every night with a cron job. The ONLY thing the end user should have to do is browse the available package catalog and pick what he wants. And the end user interfaces to that process need to be massively redesigned to be easier (although Synaptic is the best I've found, it could use some additional tweaking.)
If this isn't done, Linux will NEVER get on the desktop in a massive way except where it is installed by IT staff.
Linux works fine as a desktop OS and as a server OS. I fear for its future if the distro managers end up being as stupid and incompetent as the people who run Microsoft.
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