Comment by subjectsigma | Hacker News Reader

Comment by subjectsigma | Hacker News Reader

My short list from a recent Ubuntu install:

- KDE crashing so many times in a few hours that I had to switch to GNOME

- Steam randomly crashing and refusing to launch games

- Kernel seems to want to update every 10 days and somehow the default /boot partition isn’t big enough so every time it tries to install something apt breaks and reports that it’s out of space

- USB audio has random cracks and pops, this is certainly related to drivers because it gets worse whenever a graphics-intensive application like a game is being run. I spent a few hours googling error messages from dmesg and then gave up and bought an adapter for the 3.5mm jack

- Wanted to change a theme but first I had to install GNOME Tweak Tool for no reason

- still haven’t figured out how to have a system tray which many apps like Discord, Steam, Spotify, caffeinate need to run

- caffeinate doesn’t work, computer still sleeps, no idea why as the same program has worked fine on every computer I’ve used for 10 years

- Brave browser doesn’t seem to understand the default KDE theme as the window buttons are broken. Switching to GNOME fixed the problem

- Firefox doesn’t respect the system theme so every other app is in Dark Mode and Firefox is bright white

- I ran an installer script for a program and it somehow made two menu entries and one doesn’t work so when I search for it in the menu I have to guess which one to click

- went to install program A but there’s only a Flatpak available and I don’t want yet another package manager on my computer

Well if you are clueless and not ready to learn a few things than Linux might be not as fun as it can be.

> Wanted to change a theme but first I had to install GNOME Tweak Tool for no reason

Windows does not even offer themes, why would you need a theme, they pick a great looking theme for their defaults for a reason, because Linux DE first impression and screenshots sell distros. Nothing wrong with Ubuntu's default no need to change it, crying about installing a tool that WORKS that takes you 5 seconds is no argument.

> still haven’t figured out how to have a system tray which many apps like Discord, Steam, Spotify, caffeinate need to run

Well, maybe take 10 second search? You need a Gnome extension for old style stray. Do these apps really "Need" tray icons to run? I think you just made that up. Ubuntu comes with "Ubuntu App Indicators" BY DEFAULT! That show the legacy tray icons. You claim you did an "Ubuntu" install, then you speak of KDE and DE switching. So, did you install Kubuntu? You are doing it wrong TM if you install Gnome on Kubuntu or KDE on Ubuntu. I have "Tray Icons Reloaded" running because I need that for my Gnome extension setup, works perfectly fine.

Refusing Flatpaks is you just adding an arbitrary limitation on yourself so you can complain about it. I personally run Ubuntu, and it comes with Snaps, and I never ever came across any app I needed that did not have a deb or a Snap. I would prefer Flatpak if I had to chose, but because Ubuntu has Snap integrated by default, I just use that until I really need Flatpak.

Been using Linux for nearly 15 years. Try again

You are using it on the server, and/or you refuse to learn some basics. Go back to whatever shitty OS you are really using if you think Linux DE are broken or "not even worth" looking into. Linux DEs offer more than any other OS, specifically Gnome and KDE the ones you claim people should avoid. And they are perfectly stable and usable. But if you use them for 50 years and refuse to do a 2-minute search for something that is not the way YOU want to be out of the box, then I guess ALL DEs are broken and not worth looking into from your perspective.

If you did not even had legacy tray icons, you probably installed just Gnome on Kubuntu with the wrong package and did not even try to install `ubuntu-desktop` or whatever the metapackage is called that has all the default stuff. So you probably did a double "Doing it Wrong" TM. 15 years and still clueless, of course you hate everything.

Why are you babyraging like a petulant child because someone said something slightly mean about your favorite toy? Do you ever take a step back and wonder how you got here? It doesn’t even affect you if my computer doesn’t work. How do you function in society with this little control of yourself?

Indeed -- that rant made me SO glad I haven't touched a Ubuntu-related distro in a solid 10 years. It frankly made me want to take another shower.

It never fails to amaze me how much the average Linux fanboy hates themselves and other users. I get that 99% of the Linux crowd are normal people but boy do those 1% make themselves known

I noticed a lot of these are KDE related. Am I right in presupposing that you installed KDE on top of the regular GNOME Ubuntu? If so, you might have a bit more luck with Kubuntu.

If not, bummer to hear you've had so many problems.

No I installed Kubuntu as KDE is my preferred environment but it was underwhelming. A friend of mine recommended KDE Neon saying it was much more stable, so I’m currently trying to decide if it’s worth a reinstall

Neon is an opposite of stable. It’s a betatest distro for a fresh kde.

I’m just telling you what he told me.

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