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I didn't quite say it was _perfect_, shit happens - and I've had my share of systems hosed by buggy updates everywhere: be it Windows, Linux, Mac or BSD. I stil

I didn't quite say it was _perfect_, shit happens - and I've had my share of systems hosed by buggy updates everywhere: be it Windows, Linux, Mac or BSD. I still hold that in 2013, a modern Linux distro has _the fewest_ of such problems. Or, to put it differently, of my simplified boxes for basic users, Linux generates the fewest trouble tickets.

spongle 13y ago
I disagree. Ubuntu hosed our central devops MySQL completely on a 10.04 LTS update... As with everything in IT, YMMV.
- Piskvorrr 13y ago
  To reiterate: I'm not saying that Linux is the silver bullet, or problem-free; just that switching _a specific set of users_ to Linux has, so far, ensured the least problematic operation for them. How does your anecdote fit into that, apart from "it both says Linux, so a single user desktop and a MySQL server is totally the same situation"?
  - spongle 13y ago
    Well I'll bite on the whole anecdote thing. My anecdote simply states that nothing is perfect and things do go wrong. A more pertinent question is: is that less problematic as far as you are concerned or as far as the users are concerned? Also are you fully sure that you are qualified to judge this as a success based on the metrics you set out? Perhaps things take them ten times longer but they are ignorant to that fact?
    - Piskvorrr 13y ago
      Ten times longer in the same Firefox, Skype, Libreoffice, Thunderbird combo that they already had before? Not likely. (No, I'm not an UX expert, nor do I play one on TV; but I have seen the users "in action" enough to make an educated guess)
fauigerzigerk 13y ago
>a modern Linux distro has _the fewest_ of such problems Interestingly, I keep reading these claims online but every time I try it turns out to be exactly the other way around. Maybe I'm haunted by the Linux ghosts, but even though I love running Linux on servers, Linux on laptops has always been a complete disaster for me. It runs hot, drains the battery, and updates ruin the entire installation with alarming frequency. It's not even remotely as stable as Windows or Mac (or Android, which is particularly interesting since it is Linux as well). I've spent weeks investigating power management issues on Linux laptops down to individual drivers. I don't recommend the experience to anyone.

spongle 13y ago

I disagree. Ubuntu hosed our central devops MySQL completely on a 10.04 LTS update... As with everything in IT, YMMV.

Piskvorrr 13y ago
To reiterate: I'm not saying that Linux is the silver bullet, or problem-free; just that switching _a specific set of users_ to Linux has, so far, ensured the least problematic operation for them. How does your anecdote fit into that, apart from "it both says Linux, so a single user desktop and a MySQL server is totally the same situation"?
- spongle 13y ago
  Well I'll bite on the whole anecdote thing. My anecdote simply states that nothing is perfect and things do go wrong. A more pertinent question is: is that less problematic as far as you are concerned or as far as the users are concerned? Also are you fully sure that you are qualified to judge this as a success based on the metrics you set out? Perhaps things take them ten times longer but they are ignorant to that fact?
  - Piskvorrr 13y ago
    Ten times longer in the same Firefox, Skype, Libreoffice, Thunderbird combo that they already had before? Not likely. (No, I'm not an UX expert, nor do I play one on TV; but I have seen the users "in action" enough to make an educated guess)

fauigerzigerk 13y ago

>a modern Linux distro has _the fewest_ of such problems Interestingly, I keep reading these claims online but every time I try it turns out to be exactly the other way around. Maybe I'm haunted by the Linux ghosts, but even though I love running Linux on servers, Linux on laptops has always been a complete disaster for me. It runs hot, drains the battery, and updates ruin the entire installation with alarming frequency. It's not even remotely as stable as Windows or Mac (or Android, which is particularly interesting since it is Linux as well). I've spent weeks investigating power management issues on Linux laptops down to individual drivers. I don't recommend the experience to anyone.