From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I am disappointed we still don't have a solid FOSS smartphone OS that can compete with the 2 monopolies who have cornered the market.
I don"t want ro sell my soul to Google or Apple just to use my bank (even on my computer thanks to mandatory 2fa apps) or to renew my government issued ID or to buy a train ticket on European public transport.
That disappointment isn't with Linux
depends on where you draw the line.
in the past, i've been mildly dissapointed by the drama-queen-esque antics of the kernel developers; but i most recently DEEPLY disappointed by how thoroughly the kernel developers to caved to the us gov't's demand to kick out russian developers instead of complying maliciously like others do.
both are separate from linux, but linux can't exist without them.
postmarketOS, LineageOS, GrapheneOS?
I know they have limited hardware support but that's only a matter of involvement at the end of the day
Unfortunately only postmarket is actual Linux os from these and it's far from daily driveable, lineage and graphene are android roms and are therefore dependent on Google's decisions with AOSP.
Technically AOSP also runs a Linux kernel. Lineage and Graphene are like this only for compatibility reasons, no one stops them if they decide to fork. And AOSP itself is still not that bad though
Out of curiosity, what about PostmarketOS is not daily driveable? Postmarket is a vague umbrella OS with a lot of DE options, all of which have vastly different user experiences. KDE mobile, phosh, and GNOME mobile have all come a long way and provide everything a smartphone OS needs. The only thing I’d argue that could prevent daily driving is lack of app support and lack of good mobile Linux hardware, but that’s not PostmarketOS’s problem.
Mainly in terms of firmware for actual phones, taking photos is basically impossible as the photos either look horrible or don't work at all. Frequent sound issues, lower battery life, unreliable mobile network connection and lack of inbuilt esim support. OSes based on halium have better experience though they do still lack the app support.
have you tried it on a real device? maybe this is a hardware support issue, but no matter which DE i use (be it phosh, plasma mobile, gnome, ..) it was extremely buggy and mostly unusable. battery drained like crazy, calls didn't work properly, the list goes on. to be fair this was on a poco f1 and lg k10, which aren't in main or community though..
my daily driver is a 2013 phone with custom rom and i've daily'ed a self ported ubports phone in the past, my level of tolerance for buggy experience in daily driver phones is very likely much lower than others
Yeah, device support is the biggest issue. But the OS as a whole is pretty good. I used it with a OnePlus 6T and a Nothing Phone 1, both of which have pretty decent support. Some things about it were broken, and I didn’t try putting in a SIM card and making calls or texts, but the overall experience was good. I have high hopes for when we eventually get good “flagship” linux mobile phones that have full PostmarketOS compatibility.
Gestures vaguely at Ubuntu.......
The moments I have been disappointed by Linux were the moments I learned most about hardware and software.
Linux made me switch the WiFi card of my computer, which is something I’ve never done before and would have deemed “impossible”.
Linux is like a teacher that sometimes slaps you on the hands, but who is always helping you to expand your knowledge.
I usually blame this on the hardware manufacturers for being secretive gatekeepy fucks that make things only work with shitty drivers
The biggest thing I fought with since getting started has been audio. First figuring out how to make an Elgato device cooperate (not exactly the most linux-friendly company to say the least), then setting up virtual sinks and routing everything appropriately, and finally getting my mic to not sound like actual garbage.
Frustrating as hell and a very long process to get all of that working out, but definitely learned a lot from it.
Oh sure, all the time.
A computer running public auditable software refined by some of history's top computer scientists...is still just a computer.
We taught spicy electrified rocks how to help us fill out tax forms.
It's going to fall short every so often.
I'm annoyed at modern Gnome's hostility towards user customisability. Their refusal to support server side decorations has trickled down to Cinnamon's Wayland compositor and it looks like it's going to be a barrier in Wayland Cinnamon.
I like gnome's approach to a unified and opinionated human interface design. I think it makes a nice cohesive user experience. If other projects don't want that then they probably shouldn't be building off of gnome.
In 2014, I felt like Canonical / Ubuntu actually added value beyond the Debian it was based on.
As the years rolled on, Debian's "shortcomings" became fewer and less important, meanwhile Canonical's handling of Ubuntu has slowly accumulated what I consider "negative value." Since 2024, my new installs have been Debian based, no more Canonical/Ubuntu. Fresh Ubuntu installs are still a bit more polished than Debian, but not in any way that compensates for the negative aspects of virtually forced use of snap packaging, Gnome (Xubuntu is a viable option, but so is XFCE on Debian), holding LTS updates hostage behind paywalls, etc.
I am disappointed at professional application support, but not with Linux specifically. In my professional life I have needed to use products like Visio, Adobe Suite, Autodesk software, and others.
I am often forced to use Windows for my work computer because of these limitations, and while I realize its not the fault of Linux, the lack of install base demanding professional applications run on Linux is a community issue. While I always prefer FOSS over PROP software, sometimes I really do need to run PROP software on linux, and that means convincing enough people to demand that support from the developer.
that means convincing enough people to demand that support from the developer.
I think it means convincing people to drop the proprietary platform and telling the sales rep that both lack of Linux support is why you're dropping them and what application you're switching to. As long as you're still a revenue stream for them they're not incentivized to change. I do recognize, though, that this isn't always professionally possible as the end user.
Yes because Linux encourages you to make it your OS by customizing it, but it’s not easy as it should to create a backup of all that work so that you can easily deploy it on another computer.
I know that Clonezilla works in some situations or that NixOS coulb be a solution, but it’s not should be easier.
Isn't everything in dot files in home? Create package lists and export them, add dot files.
Or keep home on a seperate partition or drive.
New installation, import package list.
This seems straight forward to me.
Before Proton, I wasn't able to consider Linux as a viable solution for home computing at all. I could set up and manage a pihole, and salvage an old laptop to use for word processing and email, but couldn't run anything my family or non-techie friends were familiar with.
Sure Wine was a thing, but I think for most casual users it wasn't worth the hassle.
My first attempt with Ubuntu 15ish years ago was horrible; almost nothing worked, GPU support was trash, it was just an all around miserable experience.
With proton, stuff just works. It's like a whole new ecosystem now.
with windows i can just blame m$, but on linux it's my fault
I am perpetually disappointed by both Windows and the various flavors of Linux.
The difference is: there's relatively little you can do to "fix" Windows when you really need to. When Linux is broken, it may be a lot of work, but the option to fix it as you believe it should work is always there...
Edit: not the kernel or the GNU utilities themselves, but rather some people on the various affiliated forums. While most people have been kind and helpful, a handful of bad apples don't know how to behave. They are hostile to the point where one could easily lose the will to have anything to do with Linux.
I have only ever been positively surprised. Just a few of all the good habits that Linux has made me adopt:
All the time but then I remember it's my fault because it's open source and I am not fixing it either.
For years...every time I needed to configure a printer. Sometimes when I needed to find drivers for a wifi card. These days...it just works.
During the early days of Pulse Audio. Sound sometimes would stop working for inexplicable reasons.
Before Pulse Audio sound on Linux was literally lame.
Yes, the packaging mess that Atomic distros cause.
I want a couple of functional things:
I’d like to be able to do all that efficiently and cleanly too. Atomic systems generally fulfill those first two while traditional distros struggle, which is why I stick to Atomic distros.
But whereas you can use a single package manager on Arch and get everything (albeit without easy sandboxing), Atomics keep adding more and more. Here’s your rpm-ostree, flatpak, toolbox, homebrew, sysexts, etc.
I find sysexts particularly insulting because they regress so much on traditional packages for so little upside. Doesn’t even have dependency management.
I would wish we would stop creating so many package managers and just focus on improving existing ones.
In a more ideal world we would have something like
More the people behind it than the distro, but CachyOS. Aside from the performance improvements only being marginal, I was happy with the convenience after a decade of using Vanilla Arch. It was the first distro ever to tempt me away in that decade. I was really, really disappointed by the response to the age verification bs. The mods did a terrible job with discussion on the forums and the devs never made a formal response. The upside is I learned more about Systemd and now happily using Artix. So at least some good came out of my disappointment.
The best way to learn something new is to be upset by something old.
Worse case you learn something new! Best case you find a better option for yourself.
Yes, I installed Fedora and everything was working OOTB. Nothing to tinker with, no issue with sound, WiFi, Bluetooth or external screens. Then I moved this SSD to a new AMD laptop and it worked perfectly. It even switched from Intel to AMD utils by itself.
So disappointing.
Nope, okay I fiddle more with complex scenarios than ever before with windows. But I never lost files/progress than I lost with windows bluescreens. And since everything is open source and documented. There is always a way to find a solution, even if its a reddit post 12 years ago.
It happens. But when I boot into Windows those disappointments ease up.
Not with Linux per si but surely I have with the LKML and Linux Foundation guys. With Linus and Greg. RH, Canonical, Gnome. And so on...
I get it with Canonical and Red Hat, but why Linus? What is he doing recently?
It's more what he's not doing: blocking MIT licensed drivers in the kernel.
Also there was that thing with banning Russia from the LKML. He stressed over he was a Finn at that opportunity. Don't ask what the Finns were doing at the WWII. And he's a pro status quo kind of guy.
In the old days, lots, mostly around hardware support and until very recently the ability to run most games.
Nowadays, I’m mostly disappointed with the desktop environments lacking features that BeOS had in 1997. This is honestly a kernel and filesystem issue since most of those features require that the kernel/filesystem fully support indexed, extensible attribute queries. xattrs aren’t nearly sufficient. The remainder are framework/UI threading model limitations, which aren’t really kernel related.
The plasma drawing tablet calibration tool does the opposite of what its supposed to and it only has one job.
It's difficult to be disappointed with something that is free.
Actually, one shouldn't be disappointed with things. Only people can disappoint you.
I was disappointed in the Debian crew when they standardized on systemd when it clearly wasn't ready yet.
And I was disappointed in the people running some distros that made Wayland the standard when it clearly wasn't ready yet (a few apps I rely on don't support it or run poorly on Wayland even now).
Other than that, free software, free choice, and a lot of learning possibilities. You just have to adapt your expectations. Change hardware, change software, change distros, and learn.