Linux losing stability?

[Technomage]

Dazed_75 wrote:
> A very interesting train of thought at
> http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/linux-is-losing-its-stable-title-33866
>
>   
Interesting in that I pointed out some of the very problems as detailed 
in this article over the last several weeks.
Frankly, I've been noticing that linux (whatever distro you feel like 
going with) hasn't been very stable
"out of the box" and I have had to lay in lots of time to get it working 
properly.

In the case of my room mate (he uses opensuse 11) the settings just 
simply will not stick (in some cases
especially dealing with cups, the service will not remain setup from 
boot to boot).. I really do expect that once
a system is configure, that it will remain stable over the course of its 
usable life through multiple reboots
(barring any excessive problems resulting from broken updates or other 
user related nonsense).

I use windows on my primary machine and OS X on the intel branded 
machine in the other room. Mind you
windows (windows 7) is "stable" after a fashion, but cannot hold a 
candle to OS X (unix based OS using a GUI
overlay) that works out oif the box and is exceptionally stable. We used 
to have this kind of stability
out of linux (as a vanilla install) up until about 2 years ago.

The above is not a rant btw, its an observation based on my nearly 
continual use of all three OS'es involved
(OS X, windows ,any flavor> and linux <any flavor>). Now, I do offer my 
services to repair problems in windows
on a daily basis (house calls, drop off's, etc) and every once in a long 
while I see a problem with a mac based machine
(very rare these) and recently, I've been having to troubleshoot some 
linux issues as well.  Windows and OS X are
fairly easy to deal with (depending on the problem), Linux, not so. My 
prices tend to reflect this (the more difficult
the problem, the more it costs to resolve it).

Anyway, the point is, I have seen a degradation in linux stability for 
longer than a couple of years (and it doesn't
look like its improving with time either). I think, perhaps, its time 
that the linux community starting putting the
screws to those in charge and state (bluntly): "you have some problems 
to fix, so FIX them!"

Those of us out here in the field don't want to hear about the "office 
politics" or who did what and how. we just
want the problems resolved in the mopst expedient manner possible with 
the best possible results (because, frankly, I'd
rather be enjoying my time using the technology, not having to fix all 
the bloody errors generated from someone
not properly coding in the first place).

just my thoughts.