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"Oh no, my desktop experience on a completely free operating system made by volunteers doesn't work as well as one made by thousands of well-paid employees. I
by pfarnsworth 11y ago
"Oh no, my desktop experience on a completely free operating system made by volunteers doesn't work as well as one made by thousands of well-paid employees. I guess I'm going to write a rant blog post, and then sit back and wait for someone to fix my problems instead of learning how to help with the effort."
Honestly, these posts have been around since the dawn of Linux. Unless the author actually decides to get involved with the effort, I don't see how relevant this is. Making a complete operating system is hard and requires a lot of work, which is why the desktop still is Linux's biggest challenge. There's a reason why Windows and MacOS are still around, because it does a lot of very hard things right, and it's easier when you're paying people and forcing them to do the boring grunt work that makes a completely OS.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoIts a fair criticism. Its been a decade, and the free OS still doesn't work as well. This is not likely to change.
- reitanqild 11y agoWorse, it is now more broken than it used to be according to some of us. For me it is Unity. For others it is suspend/resume or graphics.
- reitanqild 11y agoWorse, it is now more broken than it used to be according to some of us. For me it is Unity. For others it is suspend/resume or graphics.
- lorenzhs 11y agoCanonical is a for-profit company, but your comment isn't very constructive regardless of that.
- slazaro 11y agoSure, but this kind of experience has been going on forever, and your kind of complaint won't change the fact that most people won't use Linux ever. Users don't care about this.
- cuckcuckspruce 11y agoSo no criticism of any Linux distro is ever acceptable. Got it.
- pfarnsworth 11y agoCriticisms where all they do is rant and file bugs are 100% useless. How about proposals on how to fix the issues? Or is that only reserved for the people who work on the actual product?
- cuckcuckspruce 11y ago>Criticisms where all they do is rant and file bugs are 100% useless. You might not know about a bug until it is reported because your particular configuration doesn't trigger it. Or should everyone run your "blessed" configuration?
- overcast 11y agoYou know, I see these types of comments a lot. Where because someone hasn't done something equivalent, or the skills to do so. Means they have no right to criticize. This software is released under the premise that it is free, and the assumption that it is an actual working operating system. Unless you're the master of everything, then I'm assuming you've never been a critic of any movie or your favorite sports team. Right?
- pfarnsworth 11y agoYup. A sports team is a great analogy. Someone I know was on the 49ers team plane, and one of the part-owners started throwing a tantrum about Frank Gore's performance that night, and pointing out all the things he did wrong. Of course, I would be $10,000 that that particular owner has never, ever taken even a high-school-level tackle in his life. And to think of him berating Frank Gore and telling him how to run the football is ludicrous. So yes, complaints from people who aren't in the business are pretty much absolutely irrelevant.
- stephenr 11y ago> Oh no, my desktop experience on a completely free operating system made by volunteers doesn't work as well as one made by thousands of well-paid employees According to Wikipedia, Canonical has 700+ employees.
- favadi 11y agoI wonder how many of them are working on Ubuntu Desktop? I think most of the effort is in Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Mobile now.
- marcus_holmes 11y agoWhen I build something, I ask people for feedback on it. The people who say "wow that's awesome" are great, but the people who say "yeah it's OK, but that bit doesn't work for me" are better, because their feedback is actionable. I can use it to improve. The post was actionable feedback. Ubuntu can use this to improve. The alternative is that they release something, there's complete silence, and no-one uses it. Which is much, much worse than people criticising it.
- pfarnsworth 11y agoThis works when you're asking your friends about your app. It doesn't work when you have millions of users. You will be getting complaints about everything and anything and everyone has their own agenda as to what is the most important.
- marcus_holmes 11y agowell, there's tools to help you scale, but the principle remains the same. Users telling you why they don't use your product is still much, much, much better than people just walking away silently.