Things I hate about Linux (Ubuntu)
What the heck is Linux?
This kicks off a little series about operating systems. If you've heard of Linux but you're really not sure what the deal with it is, here's your opportunity. Stick around for a few posts, and I'll give you what I think are the pros and cons for Ubuntu Linux and Windows. (For the mac-lovers who are probably steaming right now, I'll try to work in some stuff about OSX. The thing about that is that I haven't used it for any extended period of time and don't know much about it).
Network Manager - is just plain flaky. It goes through phases for no apparent reason. It'll go through a phases where it works perfectly, then one day it will suddenly not be able to connect to a usual wireless network. Eventually I figure out some trick to make work again (toggle the wireless switch...or the power) and that's about when it shifts to a different phase with a totally different problem. This thing is so creative with the problems that it has, I sometimes have a hard time beleiving that it is a deterministic piece of software.
Hardware Support - is often lacking. Honestly I'm actually really impressed by how well this works on a variety of machines with a variety of peripherals. Still, it's pretty frustrating when your printer is on the list that either doesn't work, or only works after sifting through forums and fiddling with config files for a day.
Networking - is hard. I have yet to figure out how to get to windows machines on the LAN without knowing their IP address. I didn't work on it for very long, but shouldn't it be pretty straightforward?
Open Office - is the number one reason why I don't recommend Ubuntu to every single person. Compared to MS Office 07, it is just plain lacking in terms of features, ease of use, and the experience in general. Every time I use it, I found out some little thing that isn't there. The other day it was that you can't crop pictures that are inserted into a text document. The day before that it was that charts in the spreadsheet program can't be displayed in log scale. Admittedly, that's probably a rarely used feature; but when you need it, there's no substitute. And the only thing I know about the slideshow program is that I started it once when I had a presentation to make, tried to work with it for 5 minutes, then rebooted my computer into windows to use PowerPoint. I haven't looked at OpenOffice Slideshow since.
So I was kind of shooting for a top 10 list, but I could only come up with 4. Next time I'll be back with Things I hate about Windows (I wouldn't expect it to be as short as this one).
This kicks off a little series about operating systems. If you've heard of Linux but you're really not sure what the deal with it is, here's your opportunity. Stick around for a few posts, and I'll give you what I think are the pros and cons for Ubuntu Linux and Windows. (For the mac-lovers who are probably steaming right now, I'll try to work in some stuff about OSX. The thing about that is that I haven't used it for any extended period of time and don't know much about it).
Network Manager - is just plain flaky. It goes through phases for no apparent reason. It'll go through a phases where it works perfectly, then one day it will suddenly not be able to connect to a usual wireless network. Eventually I figure out some trick to make work again (toggle the wireless switch...or the power) and that's about when it shifts to a different phase with a totally different problem. This thing is so creative with the problems that it has, I sometimes have a hard time beleiving that it is a deterministic piece of software.
Hardware Support - is often lacking. Honestly I'm actually really impressed by how well this works on a variety of machines with a variety of peripherals. Still, it's pretty frustrating when your printer is on the list that either doesn't work, or only works after sifting through forums and fiddling with config files for a day.
Networking - is hard. I have yet to figure out how to get to windows machines on the LAN without knowing their IP address. I didn't work on it for very long, but shouldn't it be pretty straightforward?
Open Office - is the number one reason why I don't recommend Ubuntu to every single person. Compared to MS Office 07, it is just plain lacking in terms of features, ease of use, and the experience in general. Every time I use it, I found out some little thing that isn't there. The other day it was that you can't crop pictures that are inserted into a text document. The day before that it was that charts in the spreadsheet program can't be displayed in log scale. Admittedly, that's probably a rarely used feature; but when you need it, there's no substitute. And the only thing I know about the slideshow program is that I started it once when I had a presentation to make, tried to work with it for 5 minutes, then rebooted my computer into windows to use PowerPoint. I haven't looked at OpenOffice Slideshow since.
So I was kind of shooting for a top 10 list, but I could only come up with 4. Next time I'll be back with Things I hate about Windows (I wouldn't expect it to be as short as this one).
posted by RJC at
8:49 AM
1 Comments:
My (Windows) computer has both MS Office and Open Office, but I only use the latter. I guess MS Office has too many features for me. Come to think of it, it's time for me to upgrade to OO 3.0... does it have log-scale charts by any chance?
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