Worst Linux Annoyances?

greenrd writes "Ever spent hours trying (and failing) to get a printer driver to work on Linux? Struggled to configure something ever-so-slightly out-of-the-ordinary? What have been your biggest annoyances when using Linux? Three O'Reilly authors are compiling a book on Linux annoyances - and their suggested solutions - and they've started a mailing list here. I can't help but think, though, that such a book will be dated quite quickly. Sure, some problems do languish unfixed for years - but equally, I suspect many of the problems will be fixed before, or soon after, the book's publication date. Still, increased visibility might motivate developers to create fixes or workarounds for some of the problems, so maybe this is an ideal opportunity to get your pet peeve finally addressed!"

Comments

My horror story

[PhysicsExpert]

My most infuriating experience with Linux happened a few months back when the University asked me to help on witht he installation of a new data processing centre.

Originally that had wanted to buy a large supercomputer such as a cray (we were modelling weather so there were a large number of quadratic equations to solve) but they ran into probles with snmp and realised that it would be easier (and cheaper)to just get a large cluster of x86 boxes and use linux.

Anyway I got Mandrake 9 put on them ok, but at some point ssh went down on all of the boxes simultaneously. As some idiot had configure them all not to accept telnet (on security grounds!) I couldn't correct the problem and had to spend the next 3 weeks reinstalling. I was not happy at the time, I can tell you.

Still better than windows thogh.

runlevels.

[xeeno]

I hate redhat's spin on runlevels, with a zillion soft links to S011232StartMENOW and such. It's one of the reasons that I love the bsd's and now I really love gentoo. That and ports. Screw 99% of the distros out there, I could give a rat's ass about .rpm and .deb crap. I just want my ports and 3 or less runlevels.

Re:Here are a few...

[justsomebody]

# TWO desktop environments with similar capabilities.

So, you've got choice, so what, I always install GNOME only

# Distros that put things in weird places.

Yep I give you that one

# The fact that distros have the freedom to put things in weird places.

Basic word is freedom, as in what GPL stands for

# The fact that 'weird places' means that there are a half-dozen places for binaries to go (/bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin/, etc...)

Which is well chosen, what and where

# ... in fact, I find the whole /usr heirarchy annoying. Why was that necessary? Weren't the six other folders for binaries enough?

Again lack of knowledge

# Don't even bring up /opt!

Well, I use that one for networked apps on server

# ...or /usr/share!

Being boring with folder and not intuitive, maybe you should ask for job at SCO

# "User-friendly" management tools with a learning curve that is almost as steep as that for the service or feature they are managing.

Well, which tools, system tools in redhat are simple, but if you take webmin. You can configure a lot, so no pain no gain

# The same goes for script-based management systems.

This is where I started to love linux

# The fact that these tools are necessary so I can cope with the management idiosynchosies and conventions of two dudes in Argentina that have been sysadmins of a UNIX server farm for 16 years.

yep, they are but I don't know about any idiosynchosies

# /root is not under /home.

Well, Sherlok. Ever heard about network home profiles???

# The SH/BASH scripting language. (!!!!)

Again, that's the beautiful and powerful language. But it might take little knowledge, which I really don't expect from you

# Configuration files based on archaic paradigms like the SH/BASH scripting language.

Yeah, no registry, World is beautiful don't you think

# Software that uses configuration files that served as an experiment in parsing for somebody's undergrad senior project. (Therefore, it has a unique, confusing syntax with zero readability and requires one of them there "management tools" I mentioned earlier.... I'M TALKING TO YOU, SENDMAIL!!!!)

Yep, Sendmail is like that, but go with the wind and use qmail or postfix

the cost

[514x0r]

i just wrote a check to SCO for $699....i thought this stuff was free?!?!?!?!

Best Linux Feature

[npsimons]

You know what I like the most about Linux? Besides it's being truly free as in Freedom. The fact that if something annoys you about it you can fix it. And not just because you have the source code, but because it is legal to do so! So all you people bitching about Linux: put up or shut up. Show us the code.

how about "lack of commercial apps"?

[t1nman33]

Don't give me "well, just use GIMP or WordPerfect or something." I don't WANT to use GIMP, I want to use Photoshop.

Don't give me "well, just run WINE." I don't WANT to use WINE, I want the apps to run natively.

I will run Linux, full-time, all the time, when I can get native versions of the following apps:

Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Fireworks
Imageready
H omesite
Flash
Visio
Word
Excel

The last three, I'll accept something that will at least allow me to seamlessly interact with their file formats, as I doubt MS is likely to produce Linux versions of Office anytime soon...I'm almost surprised that they have a Mac version.

I like Linux. It's a good OS, and a good concept.

I don't use my computer to feel good about my OS. I use it to work, or to play.

Which reminds me...until native versions of popular games, like Star Wars Galaxies, Half-Life, Warcraft, and the like, come out for Linux, I will ALWAYS have some kind of box running whatever OS those games will run on.

Sorry folks. Those are the rules if you want Linux to transition effectively from a "hobby" OS to a "mainstream" OS.