Linux is getting out of hand now.

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Behind you... Naked!
I dont think I need to say anything really.

Every time I try out a new Distro, its bigger slower and not only does it fill you up with numerous apps that all do the same thing, but these apps are getting bigger and bigger all the time... No better, not more functions, just bigger and slower.

Now, I can go with Windows - it gives you Internet Explorer and Outlook Express ( Or windows Mail if Vista ) and thats it.

Linux however, gives you half a dozen of the sods.

And Open Office? not only does it give you a whole handfull of office apps but why?

And Media players?

I have only just got into Amarok with ubuntu 8.4 and along comes 9.4 and can I play any music with it? Can I buggery... Talk about a stupid way to play music, Id rather do without and thats exactly what I have done.

I really liked Fedora but can anyone tell me of a way to get it to play an MP3 without it asking for a codec pack I have to pay for?
Sure, there is a way with using XMMS and I have read through it and it does work apparently, but come on!

Ubuntu 8.4 for me was near to perfect in everything except that if I use the touchpad it will hang, and if I update the graphics then it will crash, unless I have a mouse pluigged in ( No dont ask ) and then I can have a 3D Desktop but as lon as I use a mouse?

WTF?

I have a massive list of hates that Linux has given me as of late, but I know that many will agree.

There is a really poor excuse that thre are other distros to chose from, but this has to be most useless answer of all... They are all starting to bloat even beyond that of MicroSoft, and in fact, Microsoft have done a good deed with Windows 7 and now look at it... Its half the size and twice the speed of vista!

I think its about time Linux distros started to take a leaf out of Microsofts book and start thinking about he bundled junk, because thats what half of it is... Bundled junk, or at the very least give us a better selection at the start instead of us wanting to select one small app thats about 15K but needing 120MB of others installed along with it.

And stop giving us a dozen EMail clients and browsers FFS!

Rant over.
 
What on earth are you talking about? :confused:

The Debian install in my sig didn't even start with a GUI. I deselected everything, then only installed what I wanted. Less than 1.5GB used.

If you just want an easy, one-size-fits-all distro, then you can't complain when they make assumptions about what you may want. :p

A fresh install of Vista Ultimate takes up 12GB, on my rig. I think there is a little more than just IE and Windows Mail.
 
I think this should be more a dig at Ubuntu than Linux in general.
Not all distros are like this.
Debian isn't. Arch isn't. Gentoo isn't.
Use one of those.

They all have their bad points but they're certainly not bloated. Debian in particular is very stable as well.
 
This does seem a dig at ubuntu in general, but if theres something you dont like, just remove it in a clean and safe way with 'add/remove' or synaptic. unlike windows where it leaves loads of dll and registry crap behind. secondly if you dont have the right codecs just install them FREE again via 'add/remove'. simple.
 
I don't think any of the main distro's can't play MP3's off the bat, personally I wouldn't touch Ubuntu with a barge poll as it's a bit like "Linux for kids" if you ask me.

However most of your points are just, well I'm sorry to say moronic and moreover inaccurate. As eXor points out a reasonable install of Debian wouldn't take up more than 2GB at a maximum, and for that you actually have useful software unlike with Windows.

The reason most Linux distributions include Open Office is because most people actually want some office software when they install an operating system Unlike windows that gives you Wordpad, Linux distros give you a fully functional office package without charging you a penny!

Most Linux distributions WILL NOT install multiple applications to do the same thing, in fact major distributions like Debian purposely don't do this. You can install them if you like, but that's not a criticism of linux in the slightest you can do that with any operating system including Windows.

Amarok is built so that if you encounter a codec problem it'll go off and find the files you need to install in order to get them working, what the hell is wrong with that?

You sound like you haven't got a clue fella.
 
Your rant appears to be about three things:

1) Linux can't play MP3s
2) Linux comes with loads of stuff that isn't necessary
3) Linux doesn't work on your hardware.

Well, I think due to licensing issues, most linux distros don't play mp3s out of the box. However, on ubuntu, that's fixed by doing an `sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras`. Hardly difficult.

As for 'coming with too much stuff', I'm not sure what you mean. I don't think on any distro that I've tried I've found two programs that do the same thing. Do you have any specific examples of apps that you think "are getting bigger and bigger all the time"?

For the third point, hardware support is coming along, but still isn't perfect yet. At the moment, if your hardware isn't supported by linux, then it can be a bit of a job finding the right drivers to make it work properly. However, this is hardly the distro maintainer's fault, and more the fault of the hardware seller. Bear in mind that a lot of companies refuse to release linux drivers, or even the spec, so some of the hardware support is reverse engineered by smart people. It's fairly easy to check before installing if your hardware is supported. Just use a livecd and if everything works on that, it should work on the installed version.

At the end of the day, if you want Windows, use Windows. If you don't want to take the time to learn about why linux is like it is and how to use it properly, you're always going to be frustrated with it.
 
Humm seems like poeple are getting angry about this but i sort of know what FatRakoon means... (though im no fan of vista bashing anymore!)

It feels like most "pre made" distros seem to give you everything and hope you whittle down what you do and dont need out of it, ubuntu, fedora and mint come to mind where you get a few apps that can all do similar things (i got a little confused to what i should be listening to music with in ubuntu), but i think its a little unfair to bash all of linux being like this.

Now time to redo slackware....
 
Yes sorry.

I was ranting really against Ubuntu mostly.

As for the MP3 thing, with ubuntu 8.4 and amarok, yes, its automatic, you let it go find it does and job done. Not a problem. But have you tried it with 9.4? Even when it does play MP3s have yo ujust tried Amarok itself? - the program has gone really bad.

And fedora has no FREE option with playing MP3's or it didnt with 9 anyway, there was 2 options for playing MP3 CHEAP, Not so cheap and expensive, but no free option.

Yes I know that you can still use other distros but what we seem to have is going from one extreme to the other.

And I think that comparing a nice light Debian install to Vista is even more idiotic than my posting! - I could ven compare it to my Atari Falcon and that has a fully preemptive Multitasking Operating system, that runs both Atari and Linux apps side by side and yet is under 16MB big. Its functions are poor however and I seriously doubt that the fundtions of Debian at that size are comparable with Vista. Compare it closer to a MicroSoft O/S of comparable size, such as 2K or even 98 and I doubt that Debian would be shown in such a good light.

However, the functions are what the end user requires, so thats really down to what is asked of the O/S I suppose?

No, I also like SuSE and thats not as bloated as many seem to think it is, its also very quick and I do like it.

Debian also rarely changes, similarly with slackware.
But have you seen the difference between Ubuntu 8.4 and 9.4 ?

Perhaps you are right. Im argueing over idiotic things, but I have just got into Ubuntu, moving from Gentoo and all of a sudden its getting silly.
 
FatRakoon said:
Yes sorry.
As for the MP3 thing, with ubuntu 8.4 and amarok, yes, its automatic, you let it go find it does and job done. Not a problem. But have you tried it with 9.4? Even when it does play MP3s have yo ujust tried Amarok itself? - the program has gone really bad.
Click to expand...

Don't know about Amarok myself. I use Exaile - isn't Amaroko KDE based? You using Kubuntu?
And I think that comparing a nice light Debian install to Vista is even more idiotic than my posting! - I could ven compare it to my Atari Falcon and that has a fully preemptive Multitasking Operating system, that runs both Atari and Linux apps side by side and yet is under 16MB big. Its functions are poor however and I seriously doubt that the fundtions of Debian at that size are comparable with Vista. Compare it closer to a MicroSoft O/S of comparable size, such as 2K or even 98 and I doubt that Debian would be shown in such a good light.
Click to expand...

Well, now I'm confused. At first, you're complaining that certain distros give you too much, now Debian doesn't give you enough? The point about Debian is that you get exactly what you need. You can install every package possible on Debian and it can do more than Vista can out of the box. Or you can have basically nothing. Or anything in between.

Debian also rarely changes, similarly with slackware.
But have you seen the difference between Ubuntu 8.4 and 9.4 ?
Click to expand...

Debain stable rarely changes, because it's going for stability over everything else. Try unstable or testing Debian if you want more bleeding edge.
 
It's certainly something the mainstream distros are guilty of.

But there are loads of lightweight distros, even some well developed ones like Xubuntu.
 
growse said:
Don't know about Amarok myself. I use Exaile - isn't Amaroko KDE based? You using Kubuntu?
Click to expand...

Amarok is a KDE Media player but Im running ubuntu / Gnome

growse said:
Well, now I'm confused. At first, you're complaining that certain distros give you too much, now Debian doesn't give you enough? The point about Debian is that you get exactly what you need. You can install every package possible on Debian and it can do more than Vista can out of the box. Or you can have basically nothing. Or anything in between.
Click to expand...

Sorry no, I dont mean it like that.
Its more of that it was said that a small Debian install has more functions than vista has.

I want so much to go with Debian, but for some reason, I am unable to get my graphics workign on my laptop under Debian, or slackware for that matter but its fine ( sort of ) under a buntu distro.

growse said:
Debain stable rarely changes, because it's going for stability over everything else. Try unstable or testing Debian if you want more bleeding edge.
Click to expand...

I will re-go with debian then, and see what happens.

I will though have a look at the info CaptainCrash gave me with Fedora cos I loved fedora for some strange reason??? - I also know that I got rid of it for another reason not only the MP3? What was it?

Ah right... Well, as I said, I did try MP3 playback but that was with Fedora 9 so that page and the support didnt exist, since thats for Fedora 10.

Still, the info is there now, so I will definitely have a look.

Ok thanks guys... Dont be too harsh.
 
The latest Amarok is pretty poor. I wasn't a fan of the older versions either but the latest one stinks. Try Audacious, Exaile, Banshee.
 
rsatd said:
In that case it needs KDE libraries.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, its not just that.
I use a fair few KDE bits and therefore I do have lots of KDE installed

rsatd said:
People have their favourite linux distros and will defend them no matter what, just like windows people will defend windows :)
Click to expand...

Yes, I love Mandrake... but not mandriva ? WHY?
I love Gentoo and I absolutely loathe DEBIAN based distros and thats simply ilogical if ever there was a reason to be.
 
No no no.

With Gentoo, I dont have a dozen different EMailers, I dont have half a dozen different browsers, I dont have 20 Media players that all do 75% of things without a single one being any use requiring me to use at least 3 to play all my media types, and I dont have 4 complete Office Suites either.

But even so... Even when I last installed a live Gentoo that still gave me a number of sames in that... My first ever attempt at gentoo took me over 4 weeks to get a KDE Desktop on it and a further 2 weeks to get it to actually play an MP3... Thats was way back when I had my AMD K6/2 400 as my Linux box.
 
You're picking the distros trying to compete with Windows, i.e. bloatware.

Pick a slender distro like Gentoo, Arch, Debian, or if you want to go really hardcore, Slackware.
 
FatRakoon said:
No no no.

With Gentoo, I dont have a dozen different EMailers, I dont have half a dozen different browsers, I dont have 20 Media players that all do 75% of things without a single one being any use requiring me to use at least 3 to play all my media types, and I dont have 4 complete Office Suites either.

But even so... Even when I last installed a live Gentoo that still gave me a number of sames in that... My first ever attempt at gentoo took me over 4 weeks to get a KDE Desktop on it and a further 2 weeks to get it to actually play an MP3... Thats was way back when I had my AMD K6/2 400 as my Linux box.
Click to expand...

Seriously, which debian-based distro gives you (by default) 20 media players and 4 office suites?

From memory, in Ubuntu, you get 1 mail client (Evolution), 1 music player (Rhythmbox), 1 browser (firefox) and 1 office suite (openoffice) as standard.
 
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