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When my iBook broke last year, I decided to replace it with a Linux laptop. Not because I’m a big computer person — ever since 12 when I first tried to learn to program in C, I’ve been steadily approaching the level of the average computer user.
No, it was more starry-eyed idealism about free and open-source software. Just what you might expect from a recent liberal arts graduate. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Except that Linux hasn’t been all I was expecting.
“Linux never crashes,” they said. “You don’t need to restart it all the time just to get things working.” Well, in my experience so far, you bet your ass you do. Programs crash less often, but only slightly. The worst instance happened while I was in the middle of the research paper I’ve mentioned about 90 times. Luckily, the OpenOffice autorecover feature worked beautifully (much better than Word I’ll admit).
What’s that you say? Programs aside, Linux itself never crashes? Au contraire, mes amis. I rarely use “suspend” mode anymore, because when I try to wake it up, about 5 percent of the time it shows me the usual password prompt, except it’s completely frozen and unresponsive.
Even when I don’t have to reboot, about 20 percent of the time something doesn’t work when I get back to the desktop. In increasing order of frustration, usually it’s one of the following: the power button, the speakers, or the wireless. Logging out and back in doesn’t fix it. I have to restart to get it back to normal — you know, just the sort of thing you have to do with Windows.
If you know Linux, you’re probably wondering by now what my setup is. I’m on a Dell Inspiron 1420N that I bought with Ubuntu (7.04) preloaded. I figured since I’m just a regular guy, I’ll go with the least-possible-fuss option. Turns out the least possible fuss is still pretty damn fussy.
I’ll end on an optimistic note. I realize the newer version of Ubuntu is supposed to be better. (No kidding, that’s the whole idea.) I’m upgrading tonight, and hoping for the best. We’ll see if it’s good enough to persuade me from getting a MacBook Air next time.
9 Responses to “In which I partially regret my Linux conversion.”
By John on Feb 7, 2008 | Reply
Hmmmm. We’re trying to kick our expensive Mac habit around here. I just ordered our first $300 Asus EEE PC. This isn’t encouraging…
By Zach on Feb 7, 2008 | Reply
Glad I could help :)
To be a little more reasonable — which I thought I’d do in the comments, to preserve the post’s integrity as a rant — I imagine these issues may be more Dell’s fault than Linux’s.
I think it’s not that they’re more frustrating than the average computer, just that I apparently had my expectations too high.
By Dan Farina on Feb 19, 2008 | Reply
Suspend and Resume is a tricky one because it requires deep knowledge of many hardware devices on the machine, i.e. capable drivers that can prep for save and restore. It seems a shame that the 1420 you got doesn’t seem to do a terribly good job with this, but sadly support for every wonky device under the sun put out by the cheapest Taiwanese integrator is not going to come easily to any relatively rare operating system. They barely work well enough for Windows.
On the other hand, I have not had many of the problems you describe with sound, wireless, et al, even on relatively unsupported hardware. I’ve been happy with my Ubuntu Laptop experience in general as a result.
By Zach on Feb 20, 2008 | Reply
Yeah, I can intuit somewhat why that might be the case, which is why I thought it might really just be a problem with Dell not configuring the installation very thoroughly. (Which is an argument in Apple’s favor — they get the whole package working great.)
And the wireless, I’m sad to say, has been worse since upgrading to Gutsy, which is the opposite of what I expected. It seems to stop working after resume slightly more often, and much worse, often crashes when I try to restart, forcing me to do a hard reset. (I accidentally typed “resent” just now, which indicates how I feel about this.)
And to top it off, Firefox won’t boot up anymore, since the last crash. I’m using the browser built in to the eMusic.com client right now actually. GRRRRRR
By Michael on Apr 19, 2008 | Reply
I’m all about some OpenOffice. As even more of a regular guy than you, I’ve been completely satisfied with all the open source software I’ve tried (and since I refuse to pay for software, having no real need to, open source is all I use). At one point I figured I’d give Linux a go, and was looking at Ubuntu, as it’s apparently the most novice-friendly, but even it perplexed me. Luckily, and as much as I hate to say it, I find Vista to be wonderful, and really have no complaints with it (I’ve been using it since last summer, so any big problems should have presented themselves by now).
By tracyanne on Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
Have you tried any other Linux Distribution? According to my friend Helios, there are problems in the Ubuntus that have been there for several releases, and have not yet been fixed.
You could try Mandriva 2008.1 or PCLinuxOS, and I believe the Ubuntu derived Linux Mint has those Ubuntu specific problems ironed out.
I’m using an Optima Centoris and suspend resume and Wireless work flawlessly with Mandriva Linux 2008.1. The only problem I have with it, in fact, is that the alleged dual Layer DVD doesn’t do Dual Layer, but it didn’t do Dual layer when this machine had Windows on it.
By kimmy on Jun 14, 2008 | Reply
Ok…why do you want to use Linux? If you’re not a programmer/system admin/absolutely pissed of about windows/geek you should try something else. Installing Linux is EASY so just about anyone can do it, but properly configuring it and its programs can be quite challenging. For the average user it’s a huge mess… and i mean HUGE mess.
If you’d be a ‘regular’ computer user you’d end up wasting more time on configuring it rather than using it for what you need. There’s no such thing as an ‘user friendly Linux’… it’s just ‘more’ user-friendly than the previous distro let’s say.
Linux DOES offer huuuuge benefits regarding some aspects, but if you’re a home user just reading mail, browsing the web and writing a few documents (plus watching a video clip or listening to music) these benefits don’t really show themselves.
I’ve been trying out different Linux distros for about 5 years now and i’ve found openSuSE10.2(RedHat-based) and Debian ETCH 4.0 R3 to be the best suited for me (accent on Debian). Ubuntu is a distro based on Debian, but supposed to be ‘more’ user-friendly than Debian. As far as i know Mandriva is also based on Debian, but Mandriva(the former Mandrake) has been given the boot by me… no outstanding reason…
So far i haven’t used Linux on laptops but the hibernate option worked just fine on my desktop.
Oh! This reminds me… have you tried using hibernation in stead of sleeping? Hibernation shuts down your computer after saving most of the contents of RAM, as opposed to sleeping, when your computer powers down you display, graphics card, etc except your RAM and peripheral controller(and probably some other parts of your computer). During ’sleep’ your computer still draws power from the battery or power outlet, while hibernation does not. Sleep is more hardware-dependent because when you power on your computer its BIOS initializes all the components present (cpu, video adapter, ram, wireless, etc), BUT if you send your computer to sleep the power is cut from most of the components without proper de-initialization(not all components require this). When you ask him to ‘wake the hell up’ it’s the kernel’s(Operating System’s) duty to reinitialize those components(note that in hibernation it is always the task of BIOS to initialize them… there is no ‘re-initialization’ in hibernation) using the procedures specified in the operating system drivers that your OS has. If those drivers are faulty regarding this initialization your system will most probably freeze-up (or ‘hang’) and you’ll need a ‘hard’ restart(forcing BIOS to initialize them). Some of the drivers for Linux aren’t as well written as the ones for windows probably because most computers run windows.
Try to use hibernation if you are using a laptop because this will save more battery power in the long run.
Hope i’ve been of some help :)
By Zach on Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
Tracyanne, I’m not convinced trying to install new versions is going to solve more problems than it creates.
Kimmy, I think I explained my Linux motivations in the post. Thanks for the hibernation suggestions – will try them.
By Craig on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
Your post got mentioned over at the Linux Hater’s Blog.
http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com
Quoted:
“Anyways. So obviously, the problems with Linux are that the OEMs don’t really support it, right? I mean if you get a Dell that’s preconfigured with Linux, then it’s a totally awesome experience right? Sure it is.
This account of disaster makes me so very happy. All you peeps out there who thought, “Oh if Dell would take the same shitty software and ship it on their machines then all our problems will magically go away!”. I hope you all bought Dells. I hope you are all suffering like this guy.
The even sadder part is, he thinks upgrading to Hardy is going to fix his problems. It’s like watching a guy stab himself. You want to help him, but you know he can only learn on his own.”
He doesn’t offer any help, but if you can get your computer working long enough you should go and check out some posts, for the laughs and education.