Well, Windows is back on the disk.

[Michael T. Richter]

I've given it an honest try being pure-Ubuntu, but the fact is Ubuntu is
nowhere near ready for that.  Mysterious hardware and software failures
(half-)solved by Mystic Incantations so typical of UNIX-derived systems
are emphatically not what a modern desktop should be based upon.

The big killer, in the end, was multimedia.  Ubuntu's handling of sound
and video is flatly unacceptable.  The whole point of me wanting to
watch a movie is my enjoyment, not to further increase the frustration
of a day.  Under Windows I double-click on a file and it plays.  The
sound goes to where I want it.  The video goes to where I want it.
Everything just works.  On very rare situations -- usually when some new
fad hits the scene -- I have to download a codec to make things work.
In such cases, however, it's similarly trivial.  I Google on the codec.
I download and run it.  And then everything works.

The Ubuntu experience -- and keep in mind that I think Ubuntu is the
best Linux distro I've come across! -- is almost diametrically opposed.
Using the same hardware I get mysterious, random switching between sound
cards -- when I get sound at all.  I get AC3-encoded files not working
at all.  I get some files (or programs, for that matter) that will only
work on one sound card and if that sound card (ironically the one with
less capability!) is disabled not working at all.  All of this behaviour
is "documented" solely by lore through a thinly-attached web of gurus
who have the information in their heads but seem completely unwilling to
spend the time to put it down in a coherent format once, favouring
instead answering the same questions repeatedly and at length.

Ubuntu still has a prominent place in my computer.  It is not ready for
a mass audience yet, but I still hold out some hope for it.  Just not a
lot.

Michael T. Richter
Email: ttmrichter at gmail.com, mtr1966 at hotpop.com
MSN: ttmrichter at hotmail.com, mtr1966 at hotmail.com; YIM:
michael_richter_1966; AIM: YanJiahua1966; ICQ: 241960658; Jabber:
mtr1966 at jabber.cn
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