News Canonical to halve Ubuntu support lifetime

Sure you weren't aiming for this?

http://i.stack.imgur.com/FeBDo.png

 

I think you are very confused between the desktop versions and the server versions.

Desktop versions have a nice gui - meaning, you never have to do any of the config file diving etc. Server versions have no gui and is all text. I LOVE TERMINAL, I think, it's extremely accessible - and I think you dislike it on the grounds that you don't understand it or aren't bothered to figure it out/learn it. Which is fine, ultimately that is entirely your choice, but it doesn't by that regard make it "bad".

There are quite a few things that in windows you have to open the command line in order to achieve something - like how do you edit your hosts file without opening it from an elevated command prompt?

 

That right there is EXACTLY proving the point Gareth is trying to make about you. Like it's mind blowing how ironic this is and yet you're still not getting it. I hope you realize that every post you're creating is making you seem more and more ignorant on how OSes work, linux in particular.

 

Sorry, I was distracted by trying not to spray my coffee all over the place with amusement at the line "device eth0 has entered promiscuous mode."

Maybe, but it's also a fairly typical example of how a linux machine's desktop ends up looking after you've actually tried to achieve anything with it. Three different ways to quit things, and massive quantities of repetitive, spurious precision, because of course that helps.

 

I would be the first to accept that windows 8's new UI looks like absolute arse. Quite how one is supposed to run any productivity application within a UI made up entirely of two-inch squares is anyone's guess.

Anyway, your attitude is ridiculous; I haven't attacked you personally at all. I know you may feel attacked, but I'm fairly used to that reaction from linux people. I'm not criticising you; I'm criticising the OS. I know people get religious about it a lot but please do try to maintain that separation. Conversely, you've already directly called me a liar, among other things.

But OK, if that's your style, let's do it that way. Why am I vocal about this?

Because I'm fed up with being the target of this sort of conversation. I think I'm a reasonably advanced windows user, which means that I quite frequently end up using software that brings me into contact with the open source world. I am frequently told, as are many experienced windows people, that I should use linux. Obviously, I have to then explain that this is impossible, and this being linux people, that's taken as a personal insult.

For the record, my interaction with computers is mainly as a video editor. I use Adobe's After Effects several days a week. There is nothing, no application, absolutely nothing whatsoever on Linux which comes even remotely close to what AE does at the same price (or free). Usually, I'm told that Kino is really good, or that Cinelerra is really good. Anyone who knows either of these projects is sorely aware that Kino is basically Windows Movie Maker, and Cinelerra is a proper opensource project - that is, forever incomplete and unreliable, and at this rate, decades from feature completion and usability.

So yeah, Linux people, if my refusal to drop AE for Kino makes me an idiot, then I am a very considerable idiot.

So maybe I get a particularly negative impression because I work in the media and even its greatest supporters tend to admit that Linux's media-fu is not strong. But what's really sad is that the app support isn't really the big problem. The linux attitude is just crushing. It is expected that everything is difficult to use. It is expected that documentation is halfhearted or absent. It is expected to be inconsistent and unreliable. I've done jobs where I was required to use linux, and I existed in a constant state of fear that I would appear to be incompetent because everything was taking so long compared to similar tasks on Windows. And in that job, eventually, having voiced these fears, I was gently led aside, hyperventilating mightily at the anticipation of an imminent letting-go, and told (I quote directly):

"This is just normal ****. Don't worry about it."

It wasn't about linux being slower than windows, or more difficult than windows. It was about linux being slow, and difficult, on its own terms.

So, if you want to take something positive from this conversation, be aware that what I'm doing is actually giving you a list of instructions in how to stop linux sucking. It's usually impossible to do this because - as you have - people start shrieking ad-hominem and defending the status quo, as if the status quo is somehow good or acceptable.

 

@Phil: Let's see my Linux computer (HTPC/Server/desktop for 24/7 applications).

Right now there is XBMC running locally and JDownloader, Chromium and X-Chat IRC client throught remote desktop (yes, using the Windows remote desktop client).
A Windows equivalent would be... XBMC running locally and JDownloader, Chrome and X-Chat (yes, the same GUI IRC client, just compiled for Windows) running through Remote desktop.

I guess my Linux desktop(s) are just not enough "Linux"-like.

 

Well, it's a bit of a generalisation, but if the hat fits!

 

The attitude isn't as bad as you think it is, but it is necessary nonetheless. Everything you claim was true... 7 years ago. It's not about being religious, it's about you making negative and false claims about something. The irony is religious people are exactly the type who refuse to look the other way regardless of being shown hard facts.

If you're targeted this often, how have you not realized that maybe, just maybe, you're not right? I know how you feel, there have been times where I've had people gang up on me even if it was just an opinion, but what you're saying here is more oudated facts than opinionated.

This I don't disagree with. I'm not sure what people recommended you to use linux for, but considering the way you prefer your system to run (which is fine) is not something linux is known to cooperate with. Treat linux like Windows and you'll hate it. Expect it to do things the way Windows does and you'll hate it.

There is 1 professional program that will be released for Linux, I believe called Lightworks, but I'm sure it doesn't compete with Premier. But see, your situation with video editing is a reason why you shouldn't use Linux. This comes back to my point about how you can't treat linux like Windows - it won't play your games, it won't run your creative programs, and it won't have a "double click to install" solution. Every OS has it's place, and I think it is very narrow minded to expect 1 to be good at all tasks; I state this in general, not targeting you. I personally feel linux happens to be better than Windows in nearly every way in a kernel perspective. But in userland, Windows is probably more ideal if you just want something that will run.

I wouldn't say linux being difficult to use is expected. Linux is a power user's OS, Windows is for the general public. If you want the ability to do almost anything you can imagine with a computer, it will get complicated. As of right now, I don't think linux is suitable for the average person. People who install it and dread opening a terminal even once are going to have a bad time (even if they never need to open one). People who install it and expect fancy desktop effects are also going to hate it. People who expect it to replace Windows entirely will hate it the most.

What in particular was so slow? Today, GPU drivers are the only thing that's slower compared to Windows AFAIK. Everything else tends to be faster on average.

 

Oooh! I'm getting all tingly seeing that!

/hits download button.

 

I'm all over powercmd - downloading it now!

 

While on the topic of terminals, anybody have a good terminal app for KDE? Something like iTerm or Terminator? Yakuake really doesn’t appeal to me and it seems to be the suggested one after normal konsole?

 

Huh ? http://software.jessies.org/terminator/

 

Yes but its desinged in GTK3 and looks out of place on KDE which is Qt based. Its actually fine anyway it would appear im just an idiot and you can do split view in konsole! this makes me happy

 

What's wrong with konsole? It does everything I need it to. If you want something over the top fancy, you could go for Terminology