Linux sucks

[AluminumHaste]

Please don't kill me and read.

 

I decided to give Linux a try on my desktop after reading about all the bullshit over at Microsoft. Well I went and got Ubuntu as it's supposedly the easiest for nubs like me.

God what an awful experience. From installing the OS, to updating drivers, to installing steam and playing games.

Linux is crash happy, stutters in games, and overly complicated.

 

Also setting a drive as being somewhere for Linux to have Swap Space, gives no indication that it's going to format that drive, and then hide it from Windows. So stupid, such a waste of time. Now I have to spend the next few precious hours before work, doing Linux damage control on my Windows partition.

 

Fuck you linux, you are NOT an alternative to Windows and at this rate you never will be.

 

Do you know that in the latest version of Ubuntu they merged the mouse acceleration and mouse sensitivity into one slider bar? How in the fuck do those things correspond with one slider? So if I want to increase my speed I get more acceleration?

There's no way to turn it off completely, aside from running some retarded script every time the computer boots up.

 

Installed Steam, or tried to, went to the App center and it's right there. So signed up for their stupid Ubuntu one service, and tried to install steam. App center crashes. Wonderful. Reboot computer as it won't reload either.

Comes back up, run Steam, click on Half Life 2 and click install, Steam disappears and won't re-open. Reboot again.

 

Open Steam, click install on HL2 again, this time it installs. Finally get in to play, takes 4 minutes to load the loading screen.

Finally load up a save game from my steam cloud (that worked perfectly), and the game is a stuttery mess. Goes smooth for 3 seconds, then hitches for 2 seconds.

I know it did that a little bit in Windows, but not this bad. It's unplayable.

 

I'm not going to bother to try Darkmod here, it will run worse then in Windows.

 

Linux = not ready for prime time even though it's had 20 years of development behind it.

[Bikerdude]

Linux = not ready for prime time even though it's had 20 years of development behind it.

When it is(as in I can play any of my pc games on it) will be the day it has a serious shot at becoming my primary OS.

[GameDevGoro]

I can only agree to some extent.

There are things where linux is a good choice, sadly having it as the "average user" OS is not one that it's very good with.

 

Also Ubuntu has quickly grown to be a PITA. They try to innovate where there's no need to do so.

 

Linux Mint is what I use when I get my Linux on, don't really care what people say about it and how it's just a "derivative" of Ubuntu.

It's better.

It's not hampered by retarded tablet PC design philosophies and has a better desktop environment (Cinnamon) that's a lot better than Gnome or Gnome 2 ever was.

I've had nothing but pleasant experiences with it. Then again I do not play a lot of games on Linux.

[Obsttorte]

Also setting a drive as being somewhere for Linux to have Swap Space, gives no indication that it's going to format that drive, ...

What did you expect? The swap is used if the memory isn't enough. So it has to be vacant!

and then hide it from Windows.

Linux isn't hiding its partitions from windows, windows just don't recognize the format.

 

Regarding steam. I guess that's more a fault of steam then of linux. All applications that were programmed for linux run pretty well on them. I didn't even know that you can run steam under linux. Did you really do so or did you use wine or something similar? In the latter case its no surprise that it turns out to be non-performant, as it's like an emulator taking massive resources themselves.

 

I'm not going to bother to try Darkmod here, it will run worse then in Windows.

This is completely wrong. Before 1.08 came out, I could only play TDM under linux, because under windows I've always got framerates below 30fps independent from mission size or graphic settings.

 

You should notice that the intention behind linux never was

• to let you run windows aimed application that were ported in a deficient way
  
• to support the latest graphic gadgets
  

Btw.: Most games use DirectX, which is a microsoft product.

 

If you want an operating system which is suitable for working on it, provides a hugh amount of free software and the possibility to interact with their developers by posting bugs and requests and want to have the ability to use hardware which is ten years old or more without being told that there is no driver for your current os version, then linux is the choice to make.

 

If you want to have an operating system where you can just insert a disc, click the install button and everything is fine, don't care about driver support as you are buing yourself new hardware every two years and are completely indifferent regarding the size and the computing power programs need to work as you always have the latest stuff, then windows is your choice.

 

What is good and what is not always depends on what you are looking for. Some people say a Mini is enough, others want to have a Porsche. Neither of them is bad, though.

 

And comments like

Fuck you linux, you are NOT an alternative to Windows and at this rate you never will be.

are just unproductive, non-reflective and childish.

[lost_soul]

What, you mean your Ubuntu machine can actually shut down? You're lucky! I installed the new Ubuntu on my laptop because it was necessary to make the hybrid graphics work. At shutdown, it parks the disk/unmounts as its supposed to, but then hangs. I'm not impressed, because I tried Ubuntu 12.04 last year on multiple machines and I had a similar problem.

 

Six years ago, Linux was a better product. The underpinnings and default configurations of distros were better for games. There was no Pulseaudio, no default desktops that *required* 3D support, and people weren't trying to take away all of the advanced configuration settings as you pointed out.

 

I personally do not believe that Linux will *EVER* dethroan Windows for the average Joe. The past few years have made this crystal clear. Android, however, is another story. I'm cheering for Android now. Pretty much all of the OEMs are introducing Android products.

 

*written from a Debian Wheezy machine*

Edited June 24, 2013 by lost_soul

[Obsttorte]

There was no Pulseaudio, no default desktops that *required* 3D support

Disabled and I use another one (forgot the name) which is 2D.

 

I personally do not believe that Linux will *EVER* dethroan Windows for the average Joe.

This is absolutely true. But the problem is that the average Joe's as you call them are always the ones who post things like

Fuck you linux, you are NOT an alternative to Windows and at this rate you never will be

[AluminumHaste]

What did you expect? The swap is used if the memory isn't enough. So it has to be vacant!

 

Why? I know what a swap file is, and any other OS that I've used, the swap file resides on the same drive as the OS, along side the OS and doesn't need it's own vacant partition. Linux does not need all 256 GB of my SSD for it's swap file. It can dedicate however much it needs on the drive as it was 80% empty, it didn't need to format the whole thing.

And if it's going to format the drive it should WARN THE USER, this is just poor design decisions on the devs part.

 

This is completely wrong. Before 1.08 came out, I could only play TDM under linux, because under windows I've always got framerates below 30fps independent from mission size or graphic settings.

 

I've never had that problem, I've had Linux running on my laptop before with Dark mod just over a year ago, and Dark Mod ran way worse. Didn't get more then 20 fps in Linux, but on Windows I got 40-60 fps.

 

are just unproductive, non-reflective and childish.

 

Yes it was a bit childish, but what do you expect, I was ranting.

Everything I can do in Linux that I've seen, I can do in Windows 7 just as well if not better. The only thing linux has going for it, is that it's free.

For me, gaming, video editing and surfing are my primary uses of my computer, and so far Limnux falls short on all those.

Firefox came bundled with Ubuntu, and it's glitchy, and slow and hitches when loading pages, scrolling is not smooth at all etc.

I guess I could try Chrome but I've already abandoned Ubuntu.

[lost_soul]

One of the other advantages though is no artificial restrictions. I use blender sometimes. With my Windows 7 H/P install, I am limited to 16 GB of memory. With Linux, the limit is sky high. I've already got 16 GB of memory...Also, Compiz absolutely kicks ass. It has masses of customization options, runs great on limited hardware, and I feel more productive when I need to have a lot of things open at a time here in Debian than Windows.

 

I can switch between 2D and 3D window managers on the fly with a press of a key, so they don't get in the way of games.

Edited June 11, 2013 by lost_soul

[Obsttorte]

For me, gaming, video editing and surfing are my primary uses of my computer, and so far Limnux falls short on all those.

Regarding gaming and surfing, windows may be the better choice. But if you are really going to work, like for example programming stuff like I did for my Diploma (a finite element implementation to solve a nonlinear, viscoelastic damage evolution problem), then windows just sucks. I was not able to install the programms needed on windows, but under linux I had no probelms at all.

 

And regarding video editing, there is nothing that could beat a mac. I've once done this under mac on a 400 Mhz CPU computer, and it rendered movies ten times faster then my 1.8 Ghz computer at home using windows and Adobe Premiere.

[i30817]

Been using ubuntu gnome on my desktop for 3 years.

 

Haters gonna hate

[zergrush]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_%28psychology%29#Baby_duck_syndrome

 

and

 

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

[AluminumHaste]

In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system

 

Well duuuuuuhhhhhh. How else would I measure the effectiveness of another OS except by comparing it to the experiences I've had on other OSes? We're not talking apples and oranges here, I'm not comparing my bicycle to my cellphone and stating that the cellphone isn't better then my bicycle.

 

Trying to tell me that Linux isn't the same as Windows therefore they shouldn't be compared is a bit ridiculous, they are both Operating Systems, they both have a similar GUI that you use to control the various functions of the OS (to varying degrees of success). They are both used to run applications and perform tasks on. They are both for entertainment and work. They are both used to tinker and to learn and to get pissed off about.

Trying to defend Linux's shortcomings by saying it's not Windows is not a valid argument.

90% of people use and grew up with Windows. Getting those people to move to *nix will require similarities in usage and functionality to Windows, otherwise it will be like people moving from Windows XP to Windows 8; unbearable, unintuitive and unusable.

 

From that second article

 

But every Windows user who tries Linux, does so because they hope it will be better than what they've got.

Therein lies the problem.

 

LOL yeah there's the problem, because it's not. So what's the point of Linux then? Aside from what Obsttorte pointed out, the vast majority of average users looking to migrate away from Windows, will want it to do the same things as they could in Windows.

[AluminumHaste]

BTW I've read that linux is not windows article before and it's always a refreshing read. The ony problem I have with it is that while linux is not windows, Linux users should stop telling Windows users how much better Linux is and to try it. Because we listen, we do try it, we don't like it's inability to do things that we need it to do.

 

I desperately WANT Linux to supplant Windows, it has the potential to do so, Apple is just too busy circle jerking itself, and while the software price is lower then Microsofts, the hardware costs are out of this world, which makes it even more expensive in the end to get into Apple.

Linux has been on my radar since I was in highschool and I've tried it over the years, trying to get rid of Windows.

 

I like the idea of Linux, I like the culture behind it, it's the same culture that allows me to do awesome things on my Android phone that my girlfriend's iPhone can't even dream of.

 

So for now it seems, Linux still sucks for the average Windows user. I'm sick of being told by *nix users that their OS is so much better and I should try it and that Microsoft sucks and is a horrible company (which it is).

[MacD11]

It depends on what linux OS you use and what programs you use with it.

 

Ubuntu is popular in gaming for example.

[AluminumHaste]

Yeah I heard that too, it's good all rounder for new users. Was trying to use Steam and Half life 2 with it. It worked but didn't run as well as in Windows unfortunately.

[PranQster]

I'm not going to get into the fray, nor pick apart the original post. To each their own, I suppose.

I've used Linux as the only system on my machines for 10.5 years now. It was the resolution I made New Years Eve 2002* and was installed before midnight. Within a few days on a new-to-me OS I had Quake I and II running with GL. I knew then I'd never be turning back.

My first permanent Linux install was Mandrake 9.0. I stuck with Mandrake through the Mandriva years until it reached Mandriva 2011, with every release in-between. That distro sucked because the main developers had already abandoned it after 2010.1 to make Mageia. I am now using Mageia 3 and love it.

I also keep a drive on hand with Mint 14, which is awesome too. I currently need Mint 14 for running DarkRadiant, and if I ever need to watch drm encoded videos on Amazon Prime. I much prefer Mageia for the control center (mcc), its menus and both the console & gui package management. So much nicer to type, lets say for vlc... 'urpmi vlc' than to type 'apt-get install vlc'.

Netflix works on both with an easy installer script for netflix-player (wine+firefox+silverlight).

 

Steam (native for Linux, not under wine) works well on both and was in the package repositories. It installed via 'apt-get install steam' and 'urpmi steam', in Mint and Mageia respectively. And for the Steam games which need wine: 'winetricks steam'...Portal2, HalfLife-2 players etc will need this method (Unless Ubuntu does that in the background when installing Steam).

 

One thing I will comment regarding the original post. Half Life 2 on Steam for Linux (running native) does not exist at this time. That means that Steam (for windows) had to have been running under wine on that machine to install HL-2. That does not represent the native Steam for Linux and stability/performance should not be expected.

 

*2002, not 2012, LOL

Edited June 12, 2013 by PranQster

[PranQster]

Yeah I heard that too, it's good all rounder for new users. Was trying to use Steam and Half life 2 with it. It worked but didn't run as well as in Windows unfortunately.

Since Valve has already released all of the original Half Life games for Steam Linux, I'd like to think that a native port of HL2 will happen. It's available on Steam for Mac, so doesn't that mean it runs in GL? If so, then a Linux port will definitely be coming.

[AluminumHaste]

One thing I will comment regarding the original post. Half Life 2 on Steam for Linux (running native) does not exist at this time. That means that Steam (for windows) had to have been running under wine on that machine to install HL-2. That does not represent the native Steam for Linux and stability/performance should not be expected.

 

Source engine has been ported to Linux using OpenGL, that includes Half Life 2, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead. These are native ports, not running with Wine.

 

Valve announced in July 2012 that they were developing a Steam client for Linux and modifying the Source engine to work on native Linux, based on the Ubuntu distribution.

Valve claimed they had successfully completed the Left 4 Dead 2 port as of early August 2012.

 

You might have to subscribe to the Linux Steam Beta in your account to see access to the Source engine betas.

 

Not sure if this counts but:

 

Release date(s) Microsoft Windows^[1]

• November 16, 2004
  

Xbox^[2]

• ^NA November 15, 2005
  
• ^EU November 18, 2005
  

Xbox 360^[3]

• ^NA October 10, 2007
  
• ^EU October 19, 2007
  
• ^AUS October 25, 2007
  

• ^JP May 22, 2008
  

PlayStation 3^[4]

• ^NA December 11, 2007
  
• ^EU December 14, 2007
  
• ^AUS December 20, 2007
  

Mac OS X^[5]

• May 26, 2010
  

Linux^[6]

• May 09, 2013 <---------------------Recent
  

More people:

 

http://www.gamingonl...-hit-linux.1988

[PranQster]

Also, a Linux tip to the pc fixers... This combo already sucks:

• Certain variants of the Moneypack virus which affect safe mode
  
• Certain laptops (ie. Dell Inspiron N-5000 series) which have no access to the hdd without full case/mobo disassembly.
  

Solution for cleaning without pulling the drive:

1. Boot laptop w/ Mageia live CD, (mageia 2 or 3)
   
2. Open the control center and set up a package repository, enable the nonfree and nonfree-updates repositories (just in case)
   
3. In a console, do 'su' followed by 'urpmi wine zenity clamtk' and let the packages install
   
4. Find the 'winetricks' script, save it, then 'chmod +x winetricks' and, as root, 'cp winetricks /usr/bin'
   
5. Then do 'winetricks vb6run'. This will open firefox to get VB6 installer and a temp directory to put the installer into. Then run 'winetricks vb6run' again to run that vb6 installer (very fast install).
   

Now time for virus killing.

1. As root, run 'freshclam' in a console, then as a user you can run clamtk and do a recursive scan of the laptop hard drive.
   
2. More importantly: Wine and VB6 installed earlier will allow Malwarebytes to properly run in Linux, allowing for scanning the laptop drive. :)
   

Fixed 3 machines so far with this method when other live antivirus CDs have failed.

[PranQster]

Source engine has been ported to Linux using OpenGL, that includes Half Life 2, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead. These are native ports, not running with Wine.

 

 

 

You might have to subscribe to the Linux Steam Beta in your account to see access to the Source engine betas.

 

Ahh, Thanks, I missed that news. Strange I have the betas for the original Half Life games enabled, never saw the others.

 

I was going by the fact that HL2 was not listed as a Linux game and I had no way of seeing the steampipe beta as available until after I purchased it. Portal 2 is missing the beta tab entirely, so it looks like I'll have to re-do it from scratch.... looks like P2 isn't ready for Linux yet, but Portal (1) is in beta.

Edited June 12, 2013 by PranQster

[lost_soul]

Imagine where Linux would be if people were able to agree on design though. Instead of doing things like moving the window buttons from the right to the left, re-ordering them, and then having a community spending hours fighting over whether that is a good idea or not, human effort would have been better spent fixing outstanding issues.

 

That is, I think, what a lot of us are looking for. We want an alternative to Windows that just functions properly. When I say "properly" I do not mean exactly like Windows. For example, I load up Audacity to do some recording through my line-in jack. Under Linux, I get an inexplicable crackling/stuttering in the recording. My first guess was a buffer size issue, but after throwing away fifteen minutes trying to track it down, I just rebooted to Windows and got the task done with no trouble.

[Mortem Desino]

That is, I think, what a lot of us are looking for. We want an alternative to Windows that just functions properly. When I say "properly" I do not mean exactly like Windows. For example, I load up Audacity to do some recording through my line-in jack. Under Linux, I get an inexplicable crackling/stuttering in the recording. My first guess was a buffer size issue, but after throwing away fifteen minutes trying to track it down, I just rebooted to Windows and got the task done with no trouble.

I've gotten that "I want it to just work" argument before from friends. Yup, sorry, but Linux gets shafted on account of hardware and drivers all the time. I remember my first linux install was Ubuntu "Breezy Badger" back when I was in high school on a frankenstein laptop that I built. I had a baaaad first experience. My fans were on low all the time, and never throttled up when they needed to. My wireless card wasn't supported whatsoever. My video card drivers didn't persist after rebooting (leaving me in 640x480-8-bit color). And ALSA sound stuttered terribly. Trying Mandriva 2006 a few months later was inexplicably easier. And I got to impress a bunch of high schoolers with my fancy-schmancy multiple desktops.

[PranQster]

HL2 native Steam update. Running full screen 1920x1200 on an grforce 550ti, almost perfectly smooth. I haven't checked the fps, but since I can run it perfectly playable at max resolution, I'm happy. This is on Mageia 3.

[jay pettitt]

I think folk sometimes forget how frequently stuff in Windows doesn't work for lots of people. You know - oh my computer has gone slow, oh I can't get my printer to work etc etc etc etc etc etc etc.

 

Computers are complex, openly modular, legacy devices. I'm not saying things can't or shouldn't be better - but I certainly don't think Linux is a worse experience compared to Windows. And if you absolutely must have a faultless consumer friendly experience, get an ipad.

[PranQster]

An update regarding Half-Life 2 in Steam for Linux. Keep in mind that this is still in beta.

 

First the negative (though fixed):

• At first I had some random USB freezes, mainly with the mouse, forcing me to exit the game and shut down the computer with the keyboard. I could successfully log out from kde, but then the whole system would hang and I'd have to hit the reset switch. This was better or worse in varying areas of the game. This might be only related to my hardware since no reports in the forums regarding this. Modifying the mouse settings in-game seemed to make things better if I put the main sensitivity lower and the acceleration higher (rather than max sensitivity and small accel). This was when running in max 16x10 resolution 1920x1200. I decided to try max 4x3 res 1600x1200 and I have not had the mouse freeze since. I changed resolution when making the return crossing under the train bridge. I have been through the sand traps, past the lighthouse, through Nova Prospekt, and am now back in the city. No mouse/usb freezes since the train bridge.
  

So far, that's all for the negative, other than occasional bugs which are also in the Windows version (a certain switch for a security gate in Nova Prospekt comes to mind).

 

Positive:

• Fast, smooth gameplay. Even when I was at max 16x10 res and all options on an 550ti card.
  
• No audio or graphic glitches noticed yet
  
• Relatively fast load times on my 3-4 year old hardware.
  
• No game crashes. Not even one so far.