We are all laughing whenever Windows messes up updates. For good reason. On the other hand mistakes happen. No problem at all.
But I don’t expect minor updates to break essential things like sound. It took me weeks to test and find out what the error actually was. Now finally a patch arrives.
Driver management can really be frustrating, if it works it's great, if it doesn't you're likely gonna hit your head against the walls trying to make it work...
Manual driver management when using drivers for lesser known hardware. The driver management is amazing when automated through the distro’s package manager but as soon as you have to do any management manually it becomes really convoluted and confusing.
There is always a zoo of tools for any problem, but none of them is really finished. If you ask the community, they sell you that as a feature. You tend to believe them if you are a beginner. After all, lots of it are hobby projects, and it's great to have them instead of nothing. You cannot tell others how to do their hobby. But technically, it's soo much wasted potential, it's really a shame.
Another thing: The Linux desktop feels like an eternal construction site. At any time, so things work well bcs they matured enough, but other things are a mess bcs there is work going on in the background, but you are the beta tester. Graphical subsystems, sound servers, networking, all those things...
X11 is not stable anymore and declines while Wayland is still just 95% working. Things like that.
One thing that is a source of constant frustration is the fact that every toolkit has their own ways of defining fonts, themes and colors (If they even offer user definitions...). And things get worse with software which overrides user choices, like Gnome's horrible libadwaita. XDG specification should be expanded to cover those toolkit settings, too.
Occasionally my bluetooth connection with my Earphone's is not working. Very unpleasant. Some distro's are better than other. Waiting for an update help's sometimes. But if I can't fix it, I reinstall my OS. Or install an other OS.
Updates that break a working system. I am fighting against an update pushed out last week that made it so that my headphones/speakers sound device is no longer found. And I have no idea which of the 20 updates that got installed together broke things. Looking online (forums, Discord, IRC) for solutions has turned out nothing that fixes my system. And there is no support that I can call for help. So very frustrating. This worked before the update and with the live boot!!
This even confuses me more. At least in my personal experience point releases where less "reliable". Which ranges of library incompatibly with some proprietary software due to slightly older libraries as what the software expected to find. To hardware support due to them not adding new features through out their lifespan including new / improved drivers. Either some was lucky with a setup which just worked or some had to deal with bugged / missing drivers until the next major release.
Even if you’ve found the right distribution for your hw and decided on a desktop, for me it’s still the toolstack. Even with simpler installations using something like Flatpak, many of the available alternatives are powerful but lag significantly behind in usability - LibreOffice feels sluggish and cumbersome compared to Pages, GIMP is a disaster compared to the Affinity products, and you often spend hours learning how to use them instead of actually getting results.
When an app or function breaks down, there’s no self-repair mechanism - a web browser that won’t display windows anymore can’t be fixed by simply deleting and reinstalling it. This means I can’t give this to computer beginners like Dad or my Childs because I’d end up being the sysadmin for my entire family.
Luzzy
in reply to It's FOSS • • •$: Iam_jfnklstrm
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to $: Iam_jfnklstrm • • •Back To Analog
in reply to It's FOSS • • •kontrollierterWahnwitz
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Getting hardware to work and keep it working.
I decided to revive an old chromebook with a full featured UEFI firmware, making it an actual PC notebook.
It worked like a charm for over a year, then out of nothing, an ALSA update messed up the audio configuration.
Luckily, there is a patch repairing the last patch upcoming.
But things like that should not happen under no circumstances.
It's FOSS
in reply to kontrollierterWahnwitz • • •kontrollierterWahnwitz
in reply to It's FOSS • • •We are all laughing whenever Windows messes up updates. For good reason. On the other hand mistakes happen. No problem at all.
But I don’t expect minor updates to break essential things like sound. It took me weeks to test and find out what the error actually was. Now finally a patch arrives.
Average users aren’t that patient.
Lingüista Aburrido
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to Lingüista Aburrido • • •🇺🇦 Johnydon he/him
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Idaho
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to Idaho • • •Terry
in reply to It's FOSS • • •The driver management is amazing when automated through the distro’s package manager but as soon as you have to do any management manually it becomes really convoluted and confusing.
Mario
in reply to It's FOSS • • •OpenSoul ✅
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Olle Gladsø
in reply to It's FOSS • • •pino
in reply to It's FOSS • • •pino
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Another thing: The Linux desktop feels like an eternal construction site. At any time, so things work well bcs they matured enough, but other things are a mess bcs there is work going on in the background, but you are the beta tester. Graphical subsystems, sound servers, networking, all those things...
X11 is not stable anymore and declines while Wayland is still just 95% working. Things like that.
cyberpunkrocker
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Bubbedia
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Bipo the Clown
in reply to It's FOSS • • •unpleasant. Some distro's are better than other. Waiting for an update help's sometimes. But if I can't fix it, I reinstall my OS. Or install an other OS.
Duy
in reply to It's FOSS • • •bruuteuzius
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to bruuteuzius • • •Judah Hansen
in reply to It's FOSS • • •breakpoint
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to breakpoint • • •lohynochka
in reply to It's FOSS • • •WG
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to WG • • •Z-Ray Entertainment
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to Z-Ray Entertainment • • •Z-Ray Entertainment
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Nkululeko
in reply to It's FOSS • • •DooDee
in reply to It's FOSS • • •DooDee
in reply to DooDee • • •It's FOSS
in reply to DooDee • • •el_haych2024
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to el_haych2024 • • •el_haych2024
in reply to It's FOSS • • •bparcons
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to bparcons • • •deregon
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Bob
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Bob
in reply to It's FOSS • • •