(K)ubuntu drives me crazy

brazzmonkey · 2006-12-08 14:57:33

well i bought a laptop recently (never had one before), and i use it for work. i wanted to install a distro that works out of the box, and i chose kubuntu (i had bad experience with suse and mandrake, not sure if i should still take it into account, though, new versions seem more polished...)

well, stuff like wifi and bluetooth seems to work (i don't need these things anyhow), a few extra buttons work, and i was (nicely) surprised about some software that comes in bundled (katapult for instance, which i'm very addicted of).
otoh, tv is source of trouble, energy management seems very basic, hibernation doesn't work... and ubuntu forums are not a good resource imho. documentation is mostly crap, and so on. this is what surprised me the most. i have the feeling this community is 99% noob (no offense), and 1% developper. you need to be lucky to get info from someone helpful, most of the time you won't get any answer, apart from a "+1" and "me too" or "same here". not very useful...

there are many good things about ubuntu, but i'm most disappointed with its community... arch's is much more friendly and resourceful...

i suppose arch will replace my kubuntu soon... i haven't been using arch for 2 weeks, but i still browse these forums everyday...

XVampireX · 2006-12-08 15:50:16

Arch Linux is definitely the best choice for more experienced people

chaosgeisterchen · 2006-12-08 16:06:06

I think I have to avouch for Ubuntuforums here now... the time I spent over there was mostly very interesting and nice, many people do have an concrete idea of what they're talking about. At this number of users it's no wonder that Ubuntuforums also has loads of noobs among its users.

But the 1% are far off realistic circumstances, I was helped with most of my problems and I cannot say that I have ever met a majority of trolls or unfriendly people. Though I would not call it a 'familiy-like' atmosphere, it's a very nice place to stay. It's mostly talk in the Café but they do have brains on their side which make up for much more than 1% of the usership.

pelle.k · 2006-12-08 16:06:54

I suppose ubuntu as a whole is aimed primarily at newbies (and also at advanced users, since it's based on debian), and that is why ubuntuforums aren't so much support, as they are community forums.
I've been using ubuntu since 2004, and ubuntu is also what got me started in this linux buisness. Since edgy i run arch as my main desktop though. I got tired of the complex nature of debian, with an (over)simplified GUI on top.
I would happily recommend ubuntu to anyone as a first distro though. When you have got the hang of it you can try another distro (like arch linux...).

If you like the slimmed down nature of kubuntu, then try kdemod from this thread http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=23319
I've got everything working including hibernation (using powersave by the way) on both my laptop (centrino) and my brand new desktop (core2duo)

daedalusman · 2006-12-08 16:14:27

I must second chaosgeisterchen, just having switched to arch three days ago now. I thought there forums where quite helpful. In fact I never would of been able to switch over the arch without the base skills I picked up through the forums help. Though I did get a little frustrated with some of their packages not performing well for. One such package was the binary for fluxbox. I had to install for source in order to get a fluxbox environment that actually worked. Since coming to arch I have been able to setup my system how I want without ridiculous dependencies on some packages, azureus required that mozilla be installed, what?! But anyways, I do think ubuntu has a great community and a well learned one at that. Arch's community is looking great so far as well, I'm glad to now be apart of it. Thanks.

Acid7711 · 2006-12-08 19:30:19

Thing that always ticked me off when looking around ubutuforums was the lack of any real answers for the most part. If they aren't directing you to another forum someplace or their faq/wiki, they're babbling about how they wish someone knew the answer instead of someone actually stepping up with some info about a solution. You want to talk about a strong community, talk about the Gentoo forums. I've YET to find another distro that's as well organized without the cooperate feel going on that more "funded" distros have. I being a Gentoo-convert, I still find myself having to go over there to find answers to things sometimes simply because the amount of helpful people is outstanding. Not sticking up for them or bashing anything else here, just stating a fact.

Aside from that, I simply cannot stand the way (k)ubuntu distos function. While I've gotten damned near every person who I know looking to convert from windows to convert using either of the (k)ubuntu distros, I still find them to be amung the worst out there. I hate the way things work and are done, and yes I've used Debian and found it no where near as painful to use. Not that I can say I like Debian much either, but I'd rather use that than (k)ubuntu.

chrismortimore · 2006-12-08 20:45:58

I find that with ubuntu (and it's others), the basic stuff, yeah, you get the solution. For configuring things, they'll give you an amazing how-to on it. But if you have an obscure issue, they arn't much help.

I agree with Acid7711, the Gentoo forums are amazing, but I have one issue with them. Because of the sheer size of the community, there are a lot of people there that try really hard to help others, but don't actually offer any useful advice (purely down to lack of experience). Kudos for trying and all, but I don't know about anyone else, but I don't really look at threads that have more than a few posts in them. Because of this, I find a lot of threads on Gentoo go unsolved. Bet I now sound like a right arse..

arooaroo · 2006-12-08 21:33:16

pelle.k wrote:

I suppose ubuntu as a whole is aimed primarily at newbies (and also at advanced users, since it's based on debian) ...

I think the term 'newbie' is not helpful. My mum has been been using PCs for years. I think she's pretty well up on computing and knows a lot about how to keep her PC ticking over smoothly. If she were to install Linux, she may choose Ubuntu not because she's a newbie - it's because she's an average desktop user. That is someone who justs wants their PC to be a tool for DOING things.

pelle.k · 2006-12-08 22:24:17

Maybe not. I didn't really mean it like that. Maybe "new to linux" is a better way off putting it

brazzmonkey · 2006-12-09 21:09:24

i actually meant several things :
- it's sometimes more difficult to cope with something easier when you're not used to it
- a good linux distro is also a matter of friendly, helpful community
- i'd rather be part of a small tribe than a big community
- "out-of-the box" doesn't mean bugfree, nor easy to maintain, nor easy to customize.

nothing really new, but eh, sometimes you need to make some wrong choices in order to recall where the truth lies.

brazzmonkey · 2006-12-10 12:06:05

i couldn't resist so i gave arch a try on my laptop.
well, too bad, network didn't work at one, swap couldn't be mounted, and other troubles. shame i don't have time to dig these issues... so i'll stick with kubuntu for the time being...

deficite · 2006-12-10 15:13:51

Shut up! Arch isn't friendly! You're a flippin' idiot! j/k
This reminds me of all those times when Arch's community was called a bunch of "snobs" and a few other names. So, I give you a "+1", a "me too", and a "same here" :-P

I used Kubuntu for quite some time and grew quite fond with it. After using Arch though, (K)ubuntu actually seemed harder to use. The first few hours on (K)ubuntu was almost euphoric. There's a lot of good things in that distro. However, I am a programmer and hacker and (K)ubuntu just got in my way way too many times. I found myself looking up documentation or reading the message board for the most basic tasks. In the end, I just want a plain Linux system without a platform built on top of it.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-12-08 14:57:33

(K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#2 2006-12-08 15:50:16

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#3 2006-12-08 16:06:06

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#4 2006-12-08 16:06:54

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#5 2006-12-08 16:14:27

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#6 2006-12-08 19:30:19

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#7 2006-12-08 20:45:58

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#8 2006-12-08 21:33:16

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#9 2006-12-08 22:24:17

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#10 2006-12-09 21:09:24

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#11 2006-12-10 12:06:05

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

#12 2006-12-10 15:13:51

Re: (K)ubuntu drives me crazy

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