So here we are, 2011. Linux has been around for nearly 20 years.
Would you like to load custom fonts?
No thanks, I’m fine with VGA.
Well FUCK YOU!
Look guys, it’s been WAY too long, and really this is unacceptable. I’ve tried to live the ‘year of the linux desktop’ back in 1994, 1995 ad nauseum, and really, when it comes to simple stuff, like a TEXT MODE INTERFACE, and it’s fucked up… Yeah Linux will remain where it is. And that’s nowhere.
I know that the 0.7% of the internet will rush in to apologize, or flame, because Linux simply cannot drive a simple VGA console, or how it’s my fault, but really get a grip.
It’s 2011, and asking for a normal textmode install is a fucking disaster. I can almost expect that after 40 years of Linux it’ll still fail.
To be fair, Slackware wouldn't be one of my top choices for a "just works" distribution.
Have you tried Ubuntu (which built its reputation on "just works"), Debian (which has an very good text-mode install), or Fedora (which is also popular, although I haven't used it in a while)?
And this is the other reason, the insane fragmentation. I 'fixed' the issue by removing all the framebuffer device drivers from the disk. Not that the installer would ever ask if I wanted a framebuffer display (I would have said no anyways), nor did it bother to test to see if it even worked.
Downloading another 4GB+++ for a driver issue has fail written all over it.
I'm sorry it's 2011 and things really should 'just work' I went through this shit in 1993 and the joke is that it's just as bad today as it was back then. However before Linux had TCP/IP I could be a little more forgiving, but come on, it's 2011!!!!
I know EXACTLY how you feel! Unfortunately I sometimes feel this way about Windows, too, and I even get to pay for that shit! The recent Win7 SP1 broke a bunch of stuff – as you noticed. Funny thing is, I was just about to install the new Slackware this morning, and did Ubuntu 11.04 instead. Then I had "Unity", and no frickin idea how to open a terminal window! I do run Ubuntu Server on my production machine, and that is a nice distro. But it is CLI only.
I get the impression that there is no real 'testing'.. Even MS has fallen down this whole with the disaster that is automated test units (anyone remember Vista?!). But it feels with Linux stuff it's even less.
Before they kicked out their CEO there was some hope when Caldera did Linux. At least they were professional, and RedHAT? lol don't get me started in the fucked up world of RPM's.
It's still funny that I can load Win32s programs from 1994 on Windows 7 sp1, and they run, but there is no way you can run 1994 linux anything on a 64bit linux box.
Totally agree with Neozeed. Linux can be useful, no doubts about that, but it's simply not mature enough.
i honestly feel your pain. although i've never had this problem with slackware, i still wouldn't run it (or any other distribution of linux) on a production machine. not even opensuse, which is the most reliable in my experience.
i honestly tried to use linux, but the problem is that most of the linux developers don't understand what 'stable' means. instead of making a mature product, software is left in a perpetual alpha~beta stage, and every update that fixes some issues introduces just as many new ones.
linux always looks promising to me. but it never delivers, it just continues to look promising. even windows, with all of its annoyances and bugs, is a much more stable operating system.
i'm happy with os x on my macbook pro. it satisfies all my unix needs, but remains a solid system that even my grandma can use. and while i don't necessarily agree with apple's decisions as a company, nor do i feel any need for their portable devices, i can only applaud them for this operating system.
one last note: it's really funny how a hacked copy of os x (that runs on my desktop machine) is more stable than any linux i tried to throw at it.
IAWC#1. If you want a Linux distro that "just works", try Debian or Ubuntu. Yes, they're big (although a the business card ISOs are under 50MB), but you said it yourself: It's 2011.
all they had to do is give an option for vga text mode in grub. i don’t understand how with windows you always can get some kind of generic video whereas in linux the framebuffer is broken. i’ve had the same problem with a mac with a native efi booting. the framebuffer loads junk with kms.
there are some very stable linux distributions/versions.
Try a debian lenny (5), try it on every PC you can find and you’ll fully install it with no major problem.
also… when your system works… just install security patches and nothing unneeded…
ubuntu is also great (but choose gnome as the main window manager, not ‘Unity’ (that is a strange name for something massively rejected by end users… (well, in a sense, it’s a kind of unity…))
And there lies the problem, the massive distro fragmentation. Telling someone they need a new and almost identical OS because of some minor configuration is a major issue.
What is funny to me, is that in the 90’s the whole appeal to Linux was that you could fix it, and you didn’t have to ‘re install’ because it’d take too long to fix. Now its windows that is fixable, and Linux that is not only broken, but you have to defect to a whole different packaging strategy to get around what should be trivial issues with configuration & drivers.
The constant shifting ABI’s, libraries, and far too overly complicated start up has lead to this diaster. And look at OS X, the most popular UNIX, and it suffers neither of these issues…