I switched to Ubuntu about 4 months ago after my Windows XP system crashed and I had the choice of taking an entire weekend to reinstall, or finally make the jump. Overall I've been incredibly happy with Ubuntu. I mean how much can you really complain, it's free right?

I just want to highlight some issues I've been having since the switch. I don't want this post to be taken as a gripe session about Ubuntu, but to point out the flaws that average users are going to come across, and could ultimately hurt adoption. I think how few issues I've had and how minor they are actually speaks for how far GNU/Linux has come and more specifically, how far Ubuntu has come.

I also want to make clear that a lot of these problems aren't necessarily Ubuntu's fault, but these are things that people will expect to work normally, as they did in Windows.

1. The Linux community can be as hurtful as it is helpful - I love the Linux community. It's the reason Linux is where it is...but they seriously need to relax. They're all going to have ulcers if they don't take a step back and breathe. The perfect example is the girl that got an Ubuntu laptop from Dell and said she dropped out of school because of it. How did the Linux community react? By helping her through her troubles and showing her the power of Linux? No, they tarred and feathered her not knowing how to write BASH scripts. Was she in the wrong? Yes. Stupid? probably. But Open Source is suppose to be about COMMUNITY. These are the chances to show people that anyone really can use Linux instead of turning them off by becoming an angry herd of rabid fanboys.


2. PulseAudio is really bad - I have to reboot my system at least 3-4 times per week simply because my audio dropped out. Yes I could switch to ALSA, but if this is the path Ubuntu decided to take, I'm going to try and ride it out with them.


3. AWN Dock crashes on boot - Everytime I reboot my system, AWN loads, then immediately crashes. I have to sit and keep starting it (sometimes 10+ times) before it loads and keeps working.


4. Firefox is crashy - Firefox crashes on me at least once a day.


5. There is only one good browser - It's not necessary, but sometimes it's nice to have a couple browsers to choose from. Firefox is the only good one IMO. The other's aren't terrible by any means, but I could never use them on a daily basis.


6. There isn't a good alternative to Camtasia - Right now I'm using gtk-recordMyDesktop which is an ok screen recorder. It took me hours and several bouts with death to get audio working correctly. It also outputs to .ogv which no one supports. I have to convert it through the command line after I record with it.


7. GIMP is quaint, but not Photoshop - I still have to use Photoshop for designing. GIMP isn't even close to replacing PS for me.


8. Screenshot software is weak - The default screen capture program is very limited. I would love to see something like Greenshot ported to Linux and bundled into Ubuntu.


9. Copying files from cd to desktop - When you do this, Ubuntu only gives you Read access to the files. Easily fixable? Yes. Again, the average user isn't going to know how to fix it, however.


10. Mounting external drives - Although this is done automatically and I even forced them to mount through the fstab, I still ended up having to go into the command line again to find the UUID in order to force them to mount to the same location. The reason I had to do this is because I have a playlist referencing files on an external drive. After I would reboot, the drive would be mounted to a different location and therefore making my playlists useless.


11. Adobe AIR still seems a bit wonky - Several AIR apps still work a bit weird. When TweetDeck is maximized, it moves to desktop 4 on my Compiz Cube. Also, if you're updating Doomi and you try to do something else, you get an error that says it can't get a lock on your mouse and fails. This wouldn't be an issue if the dream of AIR was to build one app and have it work the same across platforms.


12. Songbird isn't quite there - I still use iTunes to manage my iPod, mainly because of Songbird's lack of podcast support. I've tried several different apps to manage my iPod, but nothing worked the way I wanted it to.

I'm sure there are other things, but this gives you an idea of what I'm having issues with. They're very specific issues and some that the average user would never be doing in the first place, but issues nonetheless. I'll be working on a post about all the good things about Ubuntu as well, which should be much longer

What problems are you having with Ubuntu? Or more importantly, what good experiences are you having with it?

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