Linux is a solid operating system, fast, stable, secure and efficient. However, like all software products, it has some problems which should be corrected and can be annoying sometimes. In this post, I'll detail some of the most annoying Linux glitches, bugs and lacks. The base for my post is Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn". openSUSE 10.2 might be mentioned as well. THE PROBLEMS OF LINUX We can divide the most prominent problems of Linux in two categories: compatibility problems and usability problems. Many of those have been corrected with the years, but some are still there and sometimes they aren't problems that can be easily corrected. Usability problems The lack of a consistent interface is sometimes annoying. Under Linux, there are two popular desktop environments, KDE and GNOME. KDE and GNOME use different application toolkits and human interface guidelines, which means that their applications look quite differently. Applications written using the Qt toolkit used by KDE and relying on KDE libraries might not work properly under GNOME, and vice versa. There are even some applications which use legacy toolkits, such as Motif, which look "foreign" on both desktops. As very few applications at the moment use toolkits other than Qt (used by KDE), GTK+ (used by GNOME and Xfce), one should focus on Qt/GTK+ seamless interoperability. At the moment, KDE can skin GTK+/GNOME applications to make them look as KDE-native as possible, with some minor inconsistencies. On the other hand, GNOME displays KDE/Qt applications either using the active KDE theme (if KDE is installed as well) or by using a generic, Windows 9x-like theme (if it isn't). Two major applications which aren't consistent with either desktop are Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice.org - a problem which is also evident on Windows and Mac OS X. The cause is that these programs use especially designed toolkits. The lack of a proper graphical configuration tool in some desktop-oriented Linux distributions is, in my opinion, a major flaw. After having tried many desktop-oriented distributions, my personal pick is the excellent YaST Control Center provided with openSUSE. Mandriva Linux has a control panel too, which is easier to use than YaST for some tasks, but it is also quite buggy. Ubuntu, as of version 7.04, lacks a proper configuration tool. Under Kubuntu, the System Settings program provides some basic options, like the administration menu on the GNOME-based Ubuntu. The Ubuntu developers are working on this and it's expected that some new tools will be included in the next release, version 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon". A team of developers are, in parallel, porting openSUSE's YaST to Ubuntu. The project hasn't released a stable version yet. The lack of a configuration tool implies heavy reliance on command-line tools for some "desktop-oriented" distributions, which is not appealing at all for the average user. Compatibility problems Probably, the most notorious compatibility problem under Linux has to do with hardware compatibility. Many devices don't work under Linux because the manufacturers don't write drivers for that operating system. Other devices work poorly because the available drivers are reverse-engineered versions or because the manufacturers don't pay as much attention to the Linux drivers as to the Windows drivers (the fglrx driver for ATI graphics cards being a prominent example, cards work under Linux but the driver lacks some important functions). There is no viable solution for this problem, because that solution depends on the manufacturers' good will. The increasing number of Linux users might be influential in their decisions, though. Another problem is compatibility between distributions. Not all programs run on all distributions: some, especially configuration tools, are very distribution-specific. There are hundreds of Linux distributions, so maintaining 100% compatibility is impossible. Mainly, problems arise between distributions which use the RPM software package format (Fedora, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS and Mandriva are the most prominent examples) and distributions which use the DEB format (like Debian and Ubuntu). RPM-based distributions cannot use DEB packages, and while DEB-based distributions can use RPM packages indirectly (by using Alien) it isn't recommended to do so. Therefore, applications have to be packaged at least in two formats, RPM and DEB. However, as there are incompatibilities between RPM-based distributions, software has to be packaged separately for each distribution most of the time. Regarding Debian and Ubuntu, Debian packages are supposed to work in Ubuntu, although not vice-versa. Another usability problem is caused by the fact that Linux software packages rarely include their own dependencies. That is not a problem when the computer has broadband Internet access as the package manager should resolve dependencies automatically, but it is a huge problem for dial-up users and users without an Internet connection. It can be solved relatively easily (by, for example, packaging the program and dependencies in a compressed file without merging it into the main package to prevent dependency conflicts), but no one seems to pay much attention to that. Other problems A problem specific to RPM-based distributions is (in my opinion) the RPM package manager. In my personal experience, the Debian DEB system has much less potential to make trouble. For example, doing a full upgrade to an Ubuntu 7.04 system (DEB-based) didn't cause any problems, while doing the same to an openSUSE 10.2 system (RPM-based) rendered most of the system (most notably the X server, the GNOME desktop and Mozilla Firefox) unusable. After the upgrade, the graphics system would refuse to start up. Once I got it running, I found out that I had no desktop... and when I switched to KDE (at least that was working) and connected to the Internet, I realized that Firefox would run, but it would not display any web pages, as if it was off-line. That made me switch to Ubuntu. I love Linux - in my opinion it's much better than the slow, buggy, unsafe Windows. But those are its problems, problems that should be corrected and probably will be. I hope so.
My main problem with Linux has always been problems with software. Once I had what was supposed to be a Debian compatible distro, and I downloaded a DEB package off of a developer's site, and first I had to figure out how to get it to install a package that wasn't in the main distribution tree. Once I got it to try to run it had problems with the fact that I had an older kernel. I tried updating the kernel and after I did that it still didn't install the package right. At the end of the day the purpose of an operating system is to allow you to run applications that will do your work. If I can't get the applications to install than the Operating System is useless.
Usually, all what you need can be obtained through the main repositories or by adding third-party repositories, instead of by installing individual packages. However, if you don't have Internet access, you have a problem.
But how about this. I installed Ubuntu 7.04 (along with all the apps) in about 15mins. The first time i start the installed system up, i am connected to my wireless network, i can browse the internet (firefox); i can write documents, spreadsheets and presentations (open office), i can edit photos awesomely (the GIMP), play a couple of lame games (GO SUDOKU!!! w00t ) and so forth. My graphics are working properly (i only have a built in graphics), along with wireless. I dont need to install any drivers at all. I have a FULLY working OS in 15mins But windows on the other hand (let just say XP, but it still applies to vista), it takes about 30-40mins to install the OS alone. Then i have to install display drivers, graphics drivers, ms office etc and all those apps. So, it would take about 1-3 hours to get a FULLY working OS. But yes, you do raise some valid points. But, most of them i dont really find a problem with. eg: I hate Yast with a passion. Ubuntus 'control panel' system is fine for me. Then there are the GUI apps for the CLI commands all in the system/admin menu. As for the unified GUI, well i dont really see what you are getting at. All the apps i run and use all are skinned properly and they display properly. And then there is the compatibility issue with the apps. Remember, each linux OS is like its own seperate OS, different from the rest. Do mac apps work on a windows? No. Or if you like, you can even compile the apps yourself. No need for the packages. Different OS's use RPM's and .deb's because that's just what they use. They were never supposed to provide all-round compatibility
That's one of my issues with a lot of Linux distros, they try to be everything to everyone. So yes they do include "out of the box" all kinds of apps installed, but many times I don't want those apps, so then I have to go around and try and remove unused ones. As a result of trying to be everything, many linux distros have system requirements as bad or worse than Windows. As far as install times, my Vista machine has a stupid recovery partition but it's my understanding that for clean Vista installs from an authentic Vista disc, it's actually moreso "directly copying an image" which will allow for faster load times. As far as drivers go, yeah if your linux distro comes with support for your hardware you're in business. If not LOOK OUT. My Windows XP machines are so old that XP includes drivers for all the hardware (except the wireless cards... which Linux doesn't support) so installs are fairly painless. And with windows you can install windows, drivers, and all your base applications, then save an image of the hard drive to a DVD which will allow you a quick restore to a fully functioning OS. Yes different distros use different package formats for software, but installing software can be incredibly frustrating on a Linux machine if a package isn't available for your distro, and software is why people use computers. Having more distros with different package formats makes it less likely software you want will work in the Distro you have. If people can't get their software going they have no interest that it came with Sudoku or the Gimp. The average consumer just wants to be able to use their programs and IMHO Linux doesn't make that easy if you step outside basic apps.
I never had problems with "not finding a particular application for my distro" (except for a configuration tool for earlier versions of Ubuntu...)
