Linux losing stability?

[Ryan Rix]

Jim March wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 5:53 PM, Lisa Kachold<lisakachold at obnosis.com>
> wrote:
>> What a load of horse puckey!
>>
>> Silly, silly, silly, silly!
> 
> Well...not entirely.
> 
> He uses Network Manager and it's WiFi setup as one example.  And I'm
> afraid he's right, or at least he was.  Network Manager 7.x series as
> used in Ubuntu Intrepid and Jaunty was a mess.  Debian refused to go
> there even in Sid and with good reason.
> 
> The "release candidate 8" code found in Karmic is much more solid.
> 
> We've also had a period of time lately when the "GUI stack" was in
> flux.  Jaunty shipped with badly screwed up Intel drivers for example
> - it got about half of the upstream kernel/xorg/mesa/Intel parts it
> needed and a VERY good case can be made that it should have been
> delayed.  Karmic is yet again going to sort all that out.
> 
> HOWEVER, if you don't need the latest and greatest bleeding edge
> stuff, it's always been possible to set up a stable system.  In the
> Ubuntu family, you went with Hardy.
> 
> And that's what he's missing: if you know what to look for, there are
> always stable options out there, either Debian or Centos or Ubuntu
> LTS.
> 
> The issues he does cite are pretty rapidly getting sorted out in the
> "edgier" areas.

And some of the issues that are cited have no bearing on other distros. 

*The non-buntu distros did not suffer from the Intel-hell that Ubuntu 9.04 
shipped with. (you cited that, not the OP, but still)

*"where people are assumed to not know their base from their apex," This is 
a load of horse puckey indeed. We all know that. How many boys in here stick 
to using only a command line? Anyone?

The wording of this article at times seems to stipulate a negative point of 
view, a view somewhat attacking desktop linux, even if it isn't necessarily 
true:
>Things like hardware detection, graphical setup, removable media control 
>and networking have had several attempts over the years to be automated so 
>the unwashed masses can wash their hands of those matters. Due to the 
>unimaginable amount of different configuration possibilities these are 
>enormous tasks. Some have been successful (relatively) and some not. 
Relative to what? Windows? BSD? DOS?

What is wrong with the hardware detection? Most problems of non-detected 
hardware are the fault of the hardware vendors choosing to only ship 
proprietary drivers and firmware which distros cannot, and should not, 
support.
What is wrong with the graphical setup? Same problem: vendors shipping non-
free and buggy drivers (nVidia, I am looking at you!)
What is wrong with networking? Okay, okay, network manager can be a little, 
ahem, messed up when dealing with encrypted wireless networks, but that is 
because that stack is constantly in flux and being improved upon. You can 
also in some cases, again, blame the vendors, for shipping in many cases, 
proprietary drivers, or forcing users to use ndiswrapper, which never really 
worked or performed well for me.
What about remote media control? Explain that a little better, I'd ask the 
author. Of course, that isn't going to happen, because it is a one sided 
'discussion.'

All in all, I find this article borderline FUD.

-- 
Ryan Rix
(623)-826-0051

Fortune:
It's time to boot, do your boot ROMs know where your disk controllers are?

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