| "We should be glad that open source (Linux/Ubuntu) works when it does. Its such a curious case that its expected of Linux to support all myriad kinds of hardware systems." It really is impressive that things work as well as they do, but OTOH, if Ubuntu is really going to be "desktop ready" then it has to support modern hardware. I attempted an install of Ubuntu 9.10 on an HP box with a Dell LCD monitor and an nVidia graphics card, and though it started out OK, the screen eventually went black. Turns out there was no workable default video driver in place to allow even crude graphics. Even the text/low-res installation options failed. I did finally get it running (assorted usage of virtual terminals and ftp'ing of driver), but hibernation and suspend still don't work. And gnome-terminal has acquired some bug where it never warns you if you're closing multiple tabs. Maybe this is an apples-and-oranges deal, but when I read of new gee-whiz crap like twitter integration in the task bar, while core behavior such as hibernation is still a crapshoot, and key apps are buggy, it makes me wonder where the priorities are. Perhaps I'm just bitter about KDE3 being dropped for the saccharine mess that is KDE4. :( Bottom line seems to be that OSS developers, by and large, hate working on the mundane stuff, and much prefer to invent Really Cool Stuff, regardless of any real need for it. Shouldn't bitch about stuff that's free, but I'd like to think the people calling the shots care if the end results are properly usable. The Magic 8 ball is telling me "Xmonad looking REALLY good". :) |