Comment 1044 for bug 1

houstonbofh wrote:

> This really shows that we have a perception problem. I am addressing
> your issues, not to attack you, but to show you other answers. The real
> question is why you did not see them.
>
Why do you dismiss this as a problem of perception and not a real
problem? Do you really think that Ubuntu's only problem is perception
and not finding information? See my comments inline.
> Ittay Dror wrote:
>
>> Ever since Ubuntu 8.04 I have seen a regression in how usable the distribution is for me:
>> 1. It uses a lot of memory: I had to upgrade my memory recently since 2GB were not enough for 4 applications (thunderbird, terminal, firefox and eclipse). My computer at home, with 1GB of memory and Windows runs much more applications without problem.
>>
>
> I do not have a single system with over 2 gig. My laptop is 512 meg,
> and I am currently running several applications. What are you starting?
> And why do you feel this is an Ubuntu issue, and not a user issue?
>
I have compiz disabled and I have 4 desktop applications running -
thunderbird, terminal, firefox and eclipse. this is what free shows:
 > free
             total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 4044664 2772556 1272108 0 476432 931564
-/+ buffers/cache: 1364560 2680104
Swap: 2851496 10896 2840600

So 1.3GB is used.

These are the top memory consumers, broken down to private and shared
memory:
  8.9 MiB + 1.6 MiB = 10.5 MiB nm-applet
 10.5 MiB + 1.3 MiB = 11.7 MiB python2.6 (2)
 13.5 MiB + 59.0 KiB = 13.6 MiB vmware-serverd
 22.6 MiB + 2.8 MiB = 25.5 MiB pidgin
 32.5 MiB + 3.6 MiB = 36.1 MiB Xorg
247.1 MiB + 2.4 MiB = 249.5 MiB firefox-3.5
295.4 MiB + 1.6 MiB = 297.0 MiB eclipse (2)
464.7 MiB + 2.4 MiB = 467.1 MiB thunderbird-bin

Running the same set of applications in windows doesn't take so much
memory. I have now running outlook, firefox, word, internet explorer,
emule and sketchup and the total used memory is 871MB.
>
>> 2. It is not stable: in 8.04 and 8.10 X used to crashed a lot. Now I
>>
> get random freezes of the laptop.
>
> I am with you here. There is a known bug in the 8.04 kernel, and
> Intrepid had a few regressions. Most of the Intrepid regressions are
> fixed now, but I have not looks at the LTS in a while. However, I have
> been very pleasently surprised with 9.04. I also still have a lot of
> Gutsy systems in production. There is no reason to move if it works...
>
Well, I use Jaunty and yesterday my laptop froze 4 times. All while
working with the 4 applications I mentioned earlier.
>
>> 3. Many times it fails to suspend: I get no clear indication what
>>
> interrupted the suspension, and I have to wait every time to see if it
> manages to suspend and if not, shut down (loose my state of work), and
> reboot later. In Windows I can unplug the power line, put in my backpack
> and not worry.
>
> I have seen several laptops that can not suspend properly under Windows.
> This is really a power management bug, as the spec is not clearly
> defined or well followed.
>
My laptop is Thinkpad T61. I think the Thinkpad line of laptops is very
reliable and widely used that it should just work.
>
>> 4. Basic stuff like sound (pulseaudio) and fan cooling don't work
>>
> properly.
>
> Same with Windows. Buy well supported hardware and it will work. Buy
> poorly supported hardware and it won't. I have a Paperport scanner that
> won't work under XP or better, but will work in Linux.
>
As mentioned, my laptop is Thinkpad T61. I think it should be well supported
>
>> 5. Some things that are basic in Windows are hard to do in Ubuntu. For
>>
> example, how do I check my disk? In windows it is through a context
> menu, in Ubuntu I have to create some file under '/'. And why do I have
> to reboot just to check? Note that the fact that it automatically checks
> every 20 boots or so is not good, since I don't want to reboot. ever.
>
> You need to reboot to run chkdsk in windows as well. There are
>
I just made sure. To check the C drive in Windows, click Win+E,
right-click on C, select properties->Tools and click Check Now in Error
Checking. To fix errors you probably need to reboot, but just to check,
there's no need.

And even if I have to reboot, why is it so hard to ask a disk check? Why
isn't there some intuitive way of doing it from the desktop? Why is
there no way of defragmenting (I know, Ext is built so it allocates
space in the center, so less fragmentation occurs, still over time
there is fragmentation)
> applications (like https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AutoFsck ) you can install to
> allow you to run an fask on your next boot. Some will also then
> shutdown and reboot then shutdown again, so it seems like you run fsck
> at shutdown. I have never "created a file" to run fsck.
>
> So the bug is that you could not find the answers to your problems. You
>
I think the bug is that Ubuntu uses a lot of memory, freezes, forces me
to reboot when I need to take my laptop and has several usability issues.
> can help us by saying where you looked and what you found, or what you
> expected to find but didn't. Believe me that a LOT of us want to fix
> that bug!
>
>