Why Linux Sucks

Hello all,

I am a Linux noob, sort of. I have distro hopped for several months and I have tried almost every Ubuntu distro, PClinuxOS, Debian, Puppy (I like this one for silly stuff) and several others. I would like to share some of my horror stories with you. I truly hope I am missing something, but if not, this story will be quite typical of why so many users won't/can't make the switch to Linux.

By the way... I am aware that Linux as a whole is a "FUBU" kind of system, and it is all (mostly) done for free. Mostly open source, and that most linux users will look at this post as an insult. That is not it's intent, but the comments that follow will most likely speak for themselves.

-----------

I have finally settled on Xubuntu, i think. The XFCE4 desktop is light enough to run on my HP-ZE5457WM laptop that is out dated and Ubuntu and it's distros seem to have enough programs and updates in their distro's to keep me busy with most of what I want to use the computer for. That being said, it still isn't perfect.

Linux users can find a program that will preform the function they want in their distros repository. If you don't know what it's called, just search "dvd burning" and sure enough two or three (or more) options will turn up in synaptec. The problem is, the programs that you have an option to use may not do EXACTLY what you want to do. For example, Brasaro will burn your DVD's, but it won't convert them, so you have to install another program for that. Something like VSO's ConvertXtoDVD isn't available (or it doesn't appear to be) so you have to settle for two programs to do the work of one.

Of course you can try to run a windows app in WINE. I have put ConvertXtoDVD into wine and it works great... except for the fact that while WINE will see my DVD drive, ConvertX running in wine does not. OK... Simple enough, just Google the problem and someone will have an answer - or not... The hardcore Linux user seems to understand how to resolve this problem, but they can't explain it to you. You will be told to configure something in Wine, or go to the terminal and enter some long piece of code, and at the end of the day it doesn't work and you have wasted hours of your time trying to get something to work "out of the box"

Now... The example above is a WINE issue, and any Linux user will tell you that windows apps working in Linux is just a shot in the dark. They will also tell you that you are crazy for wanting to use that commercial app anyway when "there are tons of open source linux apps that work just fine, thank you!" But - the apps you have to chose from might not work EXACTLY the way you want... so you keep Googling for other options.

I have pulled myslef slightly away from the problem I wanted to address, so I will get back to it now. I wanted to install a dock bar similar to the one found on Mac systems, and on my son in law's vista PC. I put one called "rocketdock" on my XP system and it works great! I thought to my self... everyone says you can do anything on Linux, so surely there is one I can put on my Xubuntu system.

I first looked in synaptec. I think there was one there, but it seemed the configuration would be a nightmare so I Googled for other options... and I found one that looked perfect - WBAR. They even had a "deb" file on the google code page so I figured I would give it a go.

I installed the "deb" file and.... nothing. No option in the start menu, no "wdock" in the /usr/applications folder, nothing. so... I Googled some more and I found that I could start it by running the command "wbar", but it didn't work. Then I realized that wbar was running under the desktop, so I went into the terminal, typed "killall wbar" and tried again. This time I ran the command "wbar --above-desk" and sure enough, there it was.

I was thrilled. It looked great and I though I had exactly what I needed. I went to right click on the bar so I could change it, and nothing. Back to Google and I found that you can't configure it without downloading another program. So... I downloaded the configuration utility, crossed my fingers and voila! I went in to configure the program, and sure enough you have to know the execution command for each program you want to put on the bar. I wanted a shortcut to "home" too, so I tried to put in the command for the file manager, but which one?

As I said earlier I have distro hopped for some time, so I tried Nautilus, pcmanfm, and a few others before I realized that Xubuntu has Thunar, so... I put in Thunar, but there was no Icon. Ok... I'll just find the icon for "home" and put it there. Wait... which theme am I using? /usr/shared/icons lists several icon sets to choose from, so I looked for about fifteen minutes until I found the home folder icon that matched the theme I had installed. TaDaaah - Home folder works in the bar, and that only took about an hour.

Since I knew what I was doing now (lmao) I decided to put an icon for frostwire on there. Same story as before, except frostwire's icon wasn't listed under my theme, so I looked under default, gnome, and a few other choices before I found it. Another fifteen minutes wasted. Now I decided to go under the configuration utility and change a few more things... Icon spacing, What happens when you press the icon, etc... Just some eye candy stuff. After I got it fixed I saved and refreshed and it looked great, so I closed it out and re opened it. My eye candy was gone, but the icons were still there so I decided to just leave it alone and reboot to see if it all worked.

Guess what... The program didn't work on reboot because I didn't add it to the startup items. I googled it once more and found that I needed to download another script, put it in my /usr/bin folder, then call that script from the startup items in the xfce settings wizard. Finally I just said the hell with it and went to bed.

This is typical of almost any installation of any program that you try to put on linux that isn't neatly packed in your distro's repository. Of course you can add more repositories, but you have to know what you are doing there too, either in synaptec or by typing code into the terminal. Then once you get your program, YOU have to configure everything about it, and YOU have to take alot of time doing it.

Linux is all about configuration, doing what you want with your system. You can make it as big or little as you like. You are not hindered by microsoft's policy of locking everything in to the distro, and therefore you can't customize anything. This is good, but... Some things should be taken for granted. A menu bar/dock should come with it's own configuration file, it's installer should know that since it's a dock, it should be on top of the desktop and not underneath it, it's installer should offer the option of auto-starting with your OS, and it shouldn't take a college degree to be able to set up.

Now, there will be hard core linux users that will reply to this and say "what's so hard about that... all you have to do is go to terminal, enter about 10000 characters of code, download these packages, customize each set, find your icons, find your programs, reboot, run the configure.sh script, turn around three times and tap your heels together... I don't see what the problem is... man there are lot of whiny people around here!" :)

The true fact is that Linux is made by people that know how to do this stuff, and the aren't getting paid for it, so... there is no fancy GUI Installer, and all you get is the files. Every little detail must be configured by you, and without the GUI, you are often times left with typing code into the terminal, and heaven help you if you typed anything wrong.

In the end I deleted wbar, as I have so many other programs. I'm not dumping linux... I like it alot, I like what it represents. I like that I don't have to get a "cracked" anything because I don't have 1000's of dollars to spend on software. I am also the kind of guy that likes to figure out how things work, so eventually I will try the wbar and countless other programs again.

Eventually I will get it, but most PC users just want to use the computer, not build one. Most PC users want to set up a network between the two or three PC's in their house and be done with it. Most PC users want to install "Application A" and just use it. It doesn't matter that games don't work, or that full screen streaming flash video doesn't work. It doesn't even matter that the windows program doesn't work. There are Linux alternatives. The problem is that the linux alternatives don't work.