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.
