Farewell, Ubuntu

[dartrod]

Victor Mendonça wrote:
> I'm glad you are not giving up on Linux completely. If it's other distros that you want to try, I'd say go ahead with it. One thing I should mention is that most of the distros will not be so easy ot use and setup as Ubuntu. Ubuntu aims to have an user experience similar to that of a MAC computer.
>
> I also have had many sound problems with Ubuntu 8.04 (and I do like 7.10 a lot more than 8.04). Right now my volume control on my panel does not work as I changed some configuration to use the speakers for skype. Another problem that I've been having is with playback in VLC when I have a firefox window open. The fix was to change vlc to pulse audio, which worked for the first few days, but after a while it stopped working. I haven't had time to looks for fixes.
>
> Again, these problems are not even close to the other major problems I would have with other Linux distros (being a noob myself). And I know that Ubuntu has the best forum support compared to any other distro. I too sometimes don't get my answer, but that does not mean that I will stop there. I make it personal to resolve the problem (because I enjoy troubleshooting).
>
> Good luck with the experimentaion. You only got more to learn from it.
>
> Let us know if you'd like to give the sound problem another try (even if just for the heck of it).
>
>  
>
>
> Victor Mendonça
> IT Worker - Linux enthusiast
> http://wazem.org/
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: George Borusiewich <v.g.borus at sympatico.ca>
> To: ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> Sent: Sunday, October 5, 2008 9:03:02 AM
> Subject: Farewell, Ubuntu
>
> I first tried linux with Ubuntu 6.04, dual-booting with Win XP. I was 
> delighted. Ubuntu auto-detected all of my hardware with no difficulty. 
> When 6.10 arrived, I switched to that, then 7.04, then 7.10, all with no 
> difficulty. I then installed 8.04. Disaster! No sound. I fiddled around 
> for a couple of weeks (I'm a newbie) with no success. I posted a report 
> to ubuntu-ca and asked for help. I received one reply from someone who 
> expressed puzzlement, but offered no suggestions. I checked some 
> websites to see if I could find a solution, and found 2 other poor souls 
> suffering from the same problem. One suggested that Ubuntu 8.04's switch 
> from "pulse audio" to "alsa" was the problem. I switched my 8.04 
> installation from "alsa" to "pulse audio", but still no sound. I posted 
> another report to ubuntu-ca with an update on my efforts, but received 
> not one reply. I then waited patiently for Ubuntu 8.10, knowing that the 
> problem would be corrected. It was not (I downloaded and installed 8.10 
> alpha 6). Grasping at straws, I installed Ubuntu 8.04 Satanic Edition. 
> No sound. The maddening thing is that I repeatedly reinstalled 7.10 and 
> got sound every time. Since Ubuntu is debian-based, I tried Debian 4. 
> Too geeky (I didn't even install it). I heard that Linux Mint is 
> Ubuntu-based, so I installed Linux Mint 5 (which is based on Ubuntu 
> 8.04). No sound, but in my opinion, Ubuntu cannot hold a candle to Linux 
> Mint 5 in terms of elegance and simplicity (try it). Unfortunately, 
> Linux Mint 4 (which I assume is based on ubuntu 7.10) does not have a 
> 86x64 version. Therefore, I am temporarily running ubuntu 7.10 until I 
> find some other linux distribution which will work. I have just 
> downloaded Mandriva 2009, but haven't had time to try it. I looked 
> through the 2008 edition of "Ubuntu Unleashed" (which covers 8.04 and 
> 8.10) but it offered no help at all. Parting is such sweet sorrow.  
> George Borusiewich
>
>   
I am a noobie to Linux but not to personal computing (25 years personal 
and professional IT).  I have tried Linux over the years and have not 
been very impressed. My professional focus has always been end user 
usability.  After reading good things about Ubuntu I decided to try it 
out.  I purchased a bare bones PC and added some new components to come 
up with a simple configuration, see below.  I installed 8.04 and it has 
run well but with some , as I see it, serious problems.

1. Printer installation was not as straight forward as it should be, but 
eventually resolved.  Not a user friendly experience.
 
2. Lack of display control from the desktop.  Resolved by switching 
monitors until I found a monitor that was satisfactory.  Again not a 
user friendly solution.

3.  Sound doesn't work.  I have searched for a solution that doesn't 
involve rebuilding whatever.  Again not user friendly and a show stopper.

I am awaiting the next version hoping the sound problem will be 
addressed.  I know, I know, that hacking the distro and hardware could 
likely solve these problems.  All that would prove is that Ubuntu is not 
ready for the average user.

If the sound problem and other problems are not solved with the next 
version of Ubuntu it will be Bye Bye Ubuntu and I will not recommending 
Ubuntu  to anyone.

Windows has it's problems but they can be resolved fairly easily by the 
average user and if not there is a ton of expertise readily available.

My configuration is:

AMD Athelon 64 LE 1640 2.6 GHZ 45 watt L2-1MB AM2
AMD Athelon 64 original Stock Fan and Heatsink
Kingston DDR2 PC2-5400 1GN/667 MHz
BIOSTAR MCP6P-M2 (NVIDIA GF6150, SATAII, RAID, DDR2-800
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 GPU Memory share upto 512MB
Onboard High Definition Audio
Onboard Network Card
450W ATX Power Supply
Western Digital CaviarSE 160GB 7200RPM SATA
LG DVD-RAM GSA-H55N


Ralph Walker
Calmar, Alberta

2  PC's and 2 laptops in the house.