Linux Stability Doubts

Pman85

Pman85

Pman85

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Joined
26 Feb 2009
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53
Hey people!

I thought I would ask what everyones thoughts are around the stability of Linux.

Personally, having used Ubuntu and Linpus on my Acer One, I'm not 100% convinced it's as 'stable' as I would like to believe.

For instance, when using Windows, I am able to give it a really hard time and pretty much 99% of the time it works like a charm. However, when using Linux in the same manner, I've had many problems such as:

- Firefox stalling and becoming grey'd out (Ubuntu)
- RhythmBox stalling a few times whilst accessing a Windows share
- The desktop not loading and leaving me with a background and mouse pointer only (Linpus)
- The OS failing to boot at some random point, after using the system well for a few weeks (Ubuntu & Linpus)

Of course these issues may be distribution specific and not kernel related. I have been led to believe by many people/books that Linux is rediculously stable, hence its use in LAMP stacks for example, but I'm just not sure.

Thoughts?
 
I think you'd be hard pushed to find any one here argue for Windows over Linux in terms of stability. I don't own a netbook to draw any comparisons though.
 
Firefox is an app, so unlikely to be OS issue.
No idea what rythmbox does, but if you are using wireless and connection drops you may have issues accessing the share, as it is already mounted on linux machine but windows already removed your access?
Never tried linpus, and did have a similar thing with badly configured ~/.xinitrc
Never seen that happen though.

With regards on issues booting, are you using some sort of strange hardware? Perhaps with dodgy drivers? Unfortunately windows does support more hardware then linux.
 
I have used Linux on a good number of hardware config's and the best experience was a factory built dell with pretty standard on-board features (Obviously no nVidia, ATi, Wireless issues).

Maybe I'm just not that lucky on the applications side of things. I must admit Linux has never actually 'fell-over' or stalled on me though, just a few niggles I don't seem to get with windows.

On the other hand, I love how it handles memory etc but the performance is a given these days I guess.

I'm pretty much after others experience with the OS since we all know how good it is now and what it has the potential to be.
 
Do have to say that just because its linux, doesn't guarantee anything in terms of stability. Both my linux box and windows box are relatively stable, and windows just seems to have a tad more issues, though since I restored BIOS to its factory settings, haven't had any issues there yet.

Linux is pretty much like a lego kit, once you build your kit and start adding on more bits and bobs, it adds unreliability into the whole kit. Technically they fit together, but when using it some extra wing (assuming a plane kit ;)) can fall off.

Edit: Linux to me is not a salvation, you just have to keep in mind that its an OS, and just that. I prefer linux because of its kit like properties, that you can always change window manager, graphical login and having terminals is a lot easier for me then using gui to configure things. Lots of things, which you don't have in windows, stability, doesn't rank that high on my expectations from OS. Windows is not that bad if you look after it. Although my work machine does seem to have a blond moment every now and then. While my home windows box is used primarily for gaming and it does that quiet well.
 
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I experienced multiple hard locks when I was evaluating a previous release of Ubuntu. :eek:

I think that was a kernel specific problem that has since been resolved.

Nowadays, lockups / BSODS are practically nonexistent on either Windows or Linux. For me, anyway.
 
once you get linux up and running it is ok. but I found it to not be too stable when you are trying to install things etc. if you don't know what you are doing. You end up with random files everywhere and probably problems later - this doesn't happen if you use the package software.

Overall I'd say windows is more stable if you don't know what you are doing, but linux can be more stable once you set it up.
 
Pman85 said:
- Firefox stalling and becoming grey'd out (Ubuntu)
Click to expand...

Firefox "greying out" is usually down to a problem with a plug-in (mainly Flash) in my experience.
 
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