mccJul 9, 2024

I'm nearing a year of using this Linux laptop as a 50% daily driver and I really have to say…

Linux's quality of life on an ordinary laptop is *embarrassing*.

Like, I'm able to use it. But it is embarrassing. No normal person would put up with the garbage desktop Linux puts me through. I put up with it because I'm stubborn and ideologically motivated.

Show threadmccJul 9, 2024

I see problems including, but not limited to

- When I close the laptop lid and open it again, a shocking percentage of the time it does not wake up and I have to force power it off ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-oem-6.8/+bug/2064595 , ongoing since April)
- Every time I briefly brush my fingers against the screen, GNOME enters an entirely broken "touchscreen mode" in which it pretends my keyboard and mouse don't exist. It fixes itself after an unpredictable amount of time ranging from 5 to 30 seconds. Can't be disabled

Bug #2064595 “AMD Rembrandt & AMD Rembrandt-R: Suspend hangs sys...” : Bugs : linux-oem-6.8 package : Ubuntu

[Impact] On some OEM platforms observed bad suspend occurs on lid close and power LED stays on without normal sleep behavior at that time. Needs to call GFXOFF to the right state during the suspend stage. https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/ca299b4512d4b4f516732a48ce9aa19d91f4473e Closes: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/3132 Fixes: ab4750332dbe [Test case] test that s2idle works after installing the update [Regression potential] minimal

Launchpad
Show threadmccJul 9, 2024

- Firefox can't show image previews when selecting attachments (because of "security", somehow)

- Often, when I direct a program to open a new window, GNOME refuses to let the program do it, and instead opens the window at the back of the stack and shows a top-of-screen notification letting me know there's a new window (I guess also "security")

- Just fresh weird stuff happening at random intervals. Since last week, when I right click in Firefox, I can't click on the menu. It's happening RN

Show threadmccJul 9, 2024
I can use even a very poorly functioning OS because the OS, to me, is just a thin support system that allows a web browser to run. Linux is not succeeding well at this very minimal goal.
Show threadmccJul 9, 2024
Note: I assume that I will get responses to these posts (okay, I was GOING to say that, but I have got two such responses so far, I didn't even get to finish typing the thread) saying I wouldn't have problems if I didn't use Ubuntu. *I don't believe you!* Using a different distro means yanking an arm on a slot machine. MAYBE I get a functioning system. MAYBE it gets worse! And the cost of *trying* is a few days of intensive work and maybe screwing up my daily-use computer.
Show threadJosh SimmonsJul 9, 2024
@mcc only one of those issues is a ubuntu problem anyway. then there's a few wayland ones, and i guess the last one is just firefox being broken. it's certainly a game of choose your broken, or perhaps roll the dice and have the broken chosen for you.
Show threadmccJul 9, 2024
@dotstdy I'm not using Wayland. At least one of the issues is a Snap issue.
Show threadJosh SimmonsJul 9, 2024
@mcc the "popups opening in the background" is an xwayland issue, unless there's a specific bonus problem with your configuration, hurray for a rare dice roll. the firefox attachment one is because you're using snap indeed (which is arguably a ubuntu thing because snap is ubuntu only madness).
Show threadOblomovJul 9, 2024
@dotstdy @mcc yep, the forced snapification of everything (and especially firefox) is the main reason why I won't be installing Ubuntu anywhere anymore. Fool me once and all that. Pity because it used to be the distro I could put on machine I didn't want to get handsy with. Oh well, back to Debian 12 even for non-power users it seems.
Show threadRaven667Jul 10, 2024
@oblomov @dotstdy @mcc it's getting to be funny to me that a company self-described as "Canonical" is never able get traction on any of their technology initiatives, every one ends up in a tech preview/public beta state for years without the resources needed to fully work out the issues, before they abandon the project and move onto the next shiny. They are still very popular and have a lot of available documentation to maintain your system, but damn.
Show threadmcc
@raven667 @oblomov @dotstdy on the other hand I must admit now that I've seen Wayland in its completed state I'm wondering if maybe we shoulda just let Mir happen
Jul 10, 2024 at 2:14amTusky
Show threadRaven667Jul 10, 2024

@mcc @oblomov @dotstdy nah, it would be even worse, Wayland protocol and reference implementation was designed by X11 veterans, the problems are mainly resources (volunteers are limited and not easily organized) and social, everything is in extensions like X (mechanism not policy) and the major desktops take ages to hammer out and agree on anything (volunteers again).

The salaried man hours that have been poured into Win, Mac, ChromeOS are likely orders of magnitude more than GNOME or KDE

Show threadRaven667Jul 10, 2024

@mcc @oblomov @dotstdy it may be more frustrating when it *mostly* works, if it didn't work at all you could just drop it and move on, but it's always close enough that maybe just one more bugfix will do it, maybe just one more tweak...

My current bugaboo is I most recently used Windows Terminal, liked it, and started heavily using frames to organize ssh sessions. I was shocked that reliable old GNOME Terminal doesn't seem to have this feature, Konsole does but its janky. Just one more tweak...

Show threadOblomovJul 10, 2024
@raven667 @mcc @dotstdy sorry but no. I'm not going to defend Mir here, but Wayland is completely different from X in design, much more about policy than mechanism. And it was intended to be “not being so many extensions” (LOL). Plus, most of the people working on Wayland were not X veteran volunteers, but people who got into X maintainership through their day job. But what's worst about it is how it's being forced through despite it being still far from feature parity. (Cue JWZ post on CADT.)