There are some issues I have had with Linux since the beginning of my usage with it. I have mentioned most of them before and have gone to considerable lengths to resolve them, but all to no avail.
I don't know if it's memory leaks, faulty distro coding, or just plain bad luck; but my taskbar/kicker still reloads itself every morning at 4 am. All of my running apps in the system tray fail to redock and it's a real pain trying to redock them. I went through the PCLOS forums, Ubuntu forums, and Google trying to hunt down a solution. The only thing I came close to figuring out is that it may have to do with memory leaks. But that's not even for certain.
Memory leaks. ahhh... I need someone to clarify something to me. Is it true that all Linux Distros interpret RAM and Virtual Memory differently than MAC and Windows do?? Because I read
here and
here that Linux purposefully uses 90% of the system RAM because it does read it differently. I also learned that this is the reason why programs like Firefox and Opera and OpenOffice will slow down and temporarily lock up, causing the window to grey out. So why is Linux considered such a lighter weight OS compared to say Vista when it can't even read the RAM correctly??
Speaking of Firefox. 3.0 is sluggish on Linux. But the package managers don't have the lastest version available. So I manually updated to 3.0.3 on my computer. Well..... now Flash Player isn't installed on 3.0.3. I tried reinstalling it in synaptic, but 3.0.3 doesn't have flash player on it yet. So either I use the broken 3.0 to have flash, or I use the better 3.0.3 without flash because I can't get Flash to install to the updated version of Firefox. I know flash isn't good, and I do have the blocker plugin enabled. But I need it for sites like
NHL.com - The National Hockey League,
www.homestarrunner.com,
www.mlb.com, ect, ect, ect.
*takes deep breathe*
Ok, iRiver. This is really annoying. BigTomRodney, heads up here because you where the one helping me with this before. I installed the libIFP packages to use iRiver manager with my iRiver mp3 player. Well, it didn't work. So I did some research. Turns out that my specific model: IFP-890 is incompatible with not only Linux, but the Linux packages used for iRiver. I ran a USB ls in a terminal and sure enough, Linux is reading my mp3 player when it is plugged in. Talk about some real sh***y luck for me.
Overall, it is amazing how much Linux users are at the mercy of programmers to keep up with the latest stuff. Especially when the entire OS slows down and is forced to close just because Amarok, Firefox, and Pidgin are open simultaneously. Opera is probably the worse. I can't go three pages of browsing without that browser freezing, greying out, and locking up my OS. I have tried and tried and do not understand why Linux is so difficult to understand and work with.
Wine.... I'm not even going to go there. I will not be able to control my language.
To end off, I remember a conversation I was having back in June. Me and some of my friends were discussing viruses. I said, "Convert to Linux and you'll never get another virus ever again."
My friend said, "Convert to Linux and you'll never do
anything ever again."
.... sad day.
