I've written an article discussing the alarming issue of inconsistency in the quality and results of various distributions and desktop environments, highlighted through the recent release of the Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf family, including Unity, Plasma, Xfce, and MATE editions, a call for action, and more. Thought for food, will fork. Enjoy. http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/war-on-inconsistency-linux.html Cheers, Mrk
Excellent article, thanks! As for your conclusion... While I agree with it 99.9%, I think that it is very hard to achieve a degree of consistency across different (or even all) distros. But I fail to understand why is it so hard inside a group of distros (like the ones that are Ubuntu based, for instance)...
This just shows that what I've been saying is true: Linux needs more standards. But hey, I'm sure our freedom will drive some developers to fork yet again a current DE (say, MATE) so that they can change 1% of it and call it "the new gold standard" We need to unite, way more than to fork.
I even see inconsistency between default Debian xfce vs manual minimal xfce installation. Default one has sound issues. Minimal one works better for me.
Even worse: The Live CD had lots of problems by the time I tested it, such as no network, or not being able to issue a few root commands.
A few things are at play here: 1. Ubuntu is a Unity distribution and Fedora is a Gnome distribution. The other "flavors" and "spins" they release are created and supported by small groups of enthusiasts who meet and adhere to the standards Canonical and Fedora set for such things. Those standards aren't sufficient to produce the consistency of design and execution that are needed. The resources -- human and otherwise -- devoted to the flavors/spins are, I suspect, woefully inadequate. 2. Gnome and GTK3 are wedded, and Canonical is focused on Unity 8. The side projects get to deal with the chaff that rains down on them. 3. The "new" KDE seems a special case, at the moment. The rapid and frequent point releases of its not-yet-done multiple components must challenge the resources of projects that are stretched merely to build each new point bump, much less integrating and testing things in any effective way. In addition, the continuing incomplete status of the port of all components to the "new" KDE means distributions mix-and-match old and new packages, with seriously mixed results. 4. These issues cannot be addressed on a cross-distribution basis because there is no way to discipline a distribution for releasing crap. There's no carrot to reward it and no stick to punish it. FOSS means being free to be great or being free to foist rubbish on the public without accountability and consequences.
Great reading as always, thanks! Will you review CentOS 7.2 soon? I tried to install but it failed when I clicked on a link to review the install destination... Tried a second time, failed again, so it went in the garbage bin...
I'll throw in another wrench. My days of compiling wifi & messing with sound are over. I've dealt with a lot of older hardware so I spin a lot of distros on some. I've had the unpleasant experience of spinning 6 sometimes a dozen Live distros till I find one that works. Then I install it & the kb, wifi & sound don't work. First time that happened it was a wtf moment for sure.
No. W7 is my primary, LXLE is my second most used. Last night I spun a half dozen distros with longer end of life dates than LXLE. None ran right on that ancient hardware. So LXLE is staying.
