Charlie Wilkes <charlie_wilkes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:17:22 -0400, Linonut wrote:
>
>> * Charlie Wilkes peremptorily fired off this memo:
>>
>>> I sometimes get frustrated about the situation with Ubuntu. On the one
>>> hand, it is an excellent OS, more stable than Windows, faster on
>>> comparable hardware, and with a better UI. But when I run across a
>>> broken driver in the repository, that _wasn't_ broken in the previous
>>> version, it gives me pause...
>>
>> Well, Windows updates that break things give me pause, too.
>
> Sure. Windows can be frustrating... but there is the huge MS support
> database, usually an OEM you can call if it's a new machine, and lots of
> people around who are familiar with Windows and its foibles.
The windows fix which is typically provided is "restart the
application", then "reboot the machine". If you're really lucky, there
might be some registry tweaking, before "ah, we'll need to reinstall".
The grief that our ICT folk go through merely to find a working
combination of hardware, windows, dlls/applications which is reasonably
reliable is nightmarish.
These dependencies are solved extremely well on linux systems.
> Troubleshooting Linux can put one in touch with some very interesting
> people, but it is a hit-or-miss process, and it might take some skill
> with a search engine.
I'm not sure where you've grabbed that idea from. All problems can be
taken to mailing lists, usenet groups, irc channels, websites, even
magazines, as well as any of the very large number of support houses out
there which offer commercial support. Actual bugs are publicly
registered and documented and their progress tracked up until a fix is
made.
Talking about "skill with a search engine", I've never heard of anyone
who wasn't a "professional" who'd even heard of the MS support database,
let alone would have any chance of finding anything in it, or executing
any kind of solution.
>
>>
>> With Debian Lenny, I've noticed little changes and minor glitches now
>> and again as I do updates (usually do them every other day or so). I
>> don't use apt to update the kernel or nvidia stuff, I prefer doing that
>> manually. So I've avoided those issues. However, genisoimage 1.1.6 has
>> a bug in Joliet (a Windows extension) support, so I've got it held at
>> 1.1.2, and the repository is /still/ at 1.1.6.
The joy of choice and control.
>>
>> One other gotcha. My VM stopped working one day. After a good search,
>> found out that my /var was full. Found about 6 Gb of old Deb packages
>> in /var/cache/apt/archives. Multiple versions of each package.
>>
>> I imagine Ubuntu auto-purges them. (?)
>
> I don't think so, but I do it manually.
>
Auto-purging is a settable option, like pretty much anything else. The
default on the pre-installed Ubuntu machines I have is to purge
automatically.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
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