Goodbye Ubuntu!

Thursday, October 28, 2010
I have first encountered Ubuntu with version 6.06.1.  I knew almost nothing about linux back then and I just managed to burn to a CD this and another linux distro to install on my computer and use it for my desktop.  I installed it previouslly in a virtual environment to see what it was like.  So after some testing I felt I was ready to install it and use it for every thing that I need to for my daily work which was mostly surfing the net.  It was only then I really got the feel for linux and it was in fact that version that helped me in large part shift from windows and on to linux.


I really liked Ubuntu 6.06.1 because it started up so fast.  From the minute that I turned on the computer and clicked the fireforx icon I do not think that more then 10 seconds elapsed.  That really motivated me to continue using it because on windows I experienced quite the opposite.  In fact some times I felt like I had to waite for a minute for things to settle after loging in.  Windows are unstable and they like to crash especialy because I like to push my equipment to the limits and windows just was not working for me any more.  

Any way over the years I used other Ubuntu versions.  With 7.04 I realized that it was not as fast as the previous version was but any way it was good and I continu using it.  After that I had a lenghty period where I did not use ubuntu any more and I tested other linux distributions like Opensuse, Fedora (back then I was called Fedora core), Pardus,...to mention just a few.  Still I continued using Ubuntu especially after I learned about dual booting and since it has a simple GUI installer it was easy to install it along side another linux distro.    

So now I decided to give Ubuntu another try.  Well it was more of a chance decision because I was talking with some one on hotmail and the conversation turned towards ubuntu.  I remembered that the new distribution came out when I checked Distrowatch.  So I visited the site and noticed that it was five days after the release so I figured I might give Ubuntu one last shot and so I downloaded it and burned it to a CD.  In fact I downloaded it for AMD and intel chips because my laptop has AMD and I also wanted to give it a try on my desktop pc.  So the following is basically my diary of how I used Ubuntu 10.10. in the comming days.


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1. Day: We have seashore installed by default in ubuntu 10.10 but it is completely useless with out the python nautilus extension crypt-manager.py that allows you to encrypt a folder by right clicking on it.  Crypt-manager.py is now provided with crypt manager but crypt manager can not be installed via repos nor did I locate any download link for it any where on the net.


All day my laptop that I installed Ubuntu on seemed to be under increased load.  The fan was really loud and the programs were opening really slow.  It did not really occure to me until I opened up system monitor and noticed 100% cpu usage and there was nothing in the processes that indicated to me what application it was that was using that much CPU.  So I figured it must be a frozen process so I reboted my machine.  I do not believe that I have ever had any such situation on any of my linux instalations and I have tested many.  It this is how this is going to continue I do not think I am going to last a week with ubuntu 10.10.


I was already thinking that would be pretty much it for the day 1 but I was wrong.  Well I guess one week was in fact a too optimistic view.  This is the second time today that I got a frozen porcess.  The same thing happened.  Well this time one of the cores went all the waz to 100% while the other one was stuck there around half of CPU usage.  I guess from now on it is just about how long I can survive with Ubuntu.  At this very moment I am already looking at possible replacements and I have a few in mind.


2. Day: I was on an IRC today not doing any thing particular on my computer when it suddenly froze.  I was still receiving irc conversations but I could not do any thing on my computer.  When I loged back on the IRC channel some one advised me to press alt next time.  Well I am going to try it and see if that does any thing.

Indeed it happened to me again and I kept pressing alt like crazy.  I guess it does work but the problem on Ubuntu was that it was crashing all the time.


3. Day: So I gave up on Ubuntu.  I still have it on my desktop pc.  I moved those few files I had to my USB key and I installed Archbang on my laptop.  It was not easy because it has a text installer and I had to use gparted to partition my HD but I know my way around linux now that I managed to pull it off any way.  

4. Day: On my Desktop PC I wanted to install FWbuilder.  I needed to portforward some ports.  I have to admit though that I have not really looked into iptables.  This is some thing that I am going to have to do soon because I am going to be using more advanced linux distributions but I preffered using OpenSuse because it has a nice GUI firewall interface in yast where you can easily make any adjustements to your firewall.  

So any way I install FWbuilder via repos.  I run it and the first thing that it says is that it does not work and that the Ubuntu team is working on it.  So after my initial shock and anger at every thing I installed some other GUI firewall and set my portforwarding ports there.  


9. Day: Well I was away from my desktop PC so I did not have a chance to use it and I was using archbang on my laptop.  So it must have been five days from the last time so I am going to make this day 9.    


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I am not really sure what they did with 10.10 but it is even worse then Unity that I tested several days ago.  It just seems to me that some one on Ubuntu team has been sleeping.  I spent a while on their IRC channel asking for help and it was not easy getting answers.  They answered the questions they knew the answers but as soon as I started asking about why there was not option for encryption when I right click a folder there was nothing but silence.  I had to ask that over 10 times for some one to finnaly give me a direction to look at...I was basically pulling information out of them.     


I have used Ubuntu over the years to surf the net, test out various software, dual boot,...Now though I have no need for such a distro any more.  I pretty much know what I want in terms of the sofrtware that I want to use or graphical interfaces and I know linux by now well enough that I can use other linux distros to achive my goals.  So I have decided to never use it again.  Not just because ubuntu is a beginner distro and I am now looking towards more advanced linux distributions but even more so because it seems to me that every new release loses a little bit of that magic that I first experienced with 6.06.1.  It has really disapointed me this time so I am calling it quits.  Good bye Ubuntu.  Good bye Ubuntu community.    

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