Friday 15 March 2013

UBUNTU 12.04 FAILS IN DIFFERENT WAY

SIIIIIGH!!!!

Right I am not typing it all out again but I can tell you I was so disgusted at the utter crap I have been trying to sort out that I have now emailed THREE companies over it and they are...

Computer Active Magazine

Who obviously knew not a dman thing about Ubuntu having difficulties with AMD Graphics Cards which means bad journalism.

AMD

For their abysmal DRIVER SUPPORT for Linux OS and...

UBUNTU

Because their OS seems to fall over at the slightest thing and then fails to boot up at all.

So here for anyone that is interested the email I sent, same for all three, I have copy and pasted below.

The reason I emailed them is that I think Microsoft are finally going to lose the plot, after a nice Windows 7 there is now the rubbish Windows 8 and they are running after the tablet market so PC OS going to get worse.

That leaves two options...

LINUX ... OH DEAR and...

ooh shuddering at the thought...

APPLE?!?!

That really worries me, it really does. I always thought, hoped that Linux would get onto an equal footing with Windows one day but for the PC to survive, I cannot believe I just typed that, it has to be first and foremost damned easy to set up!!

Windows, despite its flaws, has got easier and easier each time but admittedly I have skipped certain versions over the years. Two of these would be Windows 98 ME and Vista. Hmm was it ME or SE I cannot remember now.

 I installed beta versions of Windows 98, or one of them, Windows 2000 and Windows XP and used NT 4.0 too.

The most annoying of those was XP and its refusal to communicate with MODEMS so no Internet. never thought it could be worse than that in all honesty and I MEAN THAT! LMAO!

Such a shame I really liked the look and feel of Ubuntu!

THE EMAIL:



Dear Sirs

UBUNTU 1.04 LTS (Delivered to AMD, Ubuntu & Computer Active Magazine)

I have been a long admirer of the Linux OS and first had a run in with it when I dual booted Red Hat back in 1998 with Windows 2000, I think it was, while at Middlesex University studying for a BSc Applied Computing Single Honours Degree.
After eventually abandoning the Linux platform I told many fellow students it would be 15 years before a Linux Operating System could even hope to achieve to take anything away from Microsoft and it's Windows platform... quite unfortunately.
That was 15 years ago and I had been hearing that the Linux OS had come along in leaps and bounds since those days long since past. Today I have a whole series of blogs on different subjects and one of these is computing involving software and hardware.

Many years ago I set up one of the first SLI systems and completed this before Custom PC Magazine did a feature on how to do it, along with how hard it was. I also did a Raid 0 using two WD Raptors and a Raid 1 using two Hitachi drives. That system cost £3,500 GBP.

On my blog someone who had become a friend suggested that I go over to Ubuntu as it was a great OS and I had heard many things about it.
I ended up with a Computer Active Magazine Special on How To's and ended up downloading Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
Well I can honestly say that I have spent four days attempting to sort this OS out and it is the most abysmal time I have EVER had the misfortune to spend with ANY piece of software EVER and I started with computers by owning a Commodore VIC-20 when I was a kid, when everyone else owned Spectrums.

First Installation...

Laboriously Slow

Took forever to download anything

Took even longer to install anything

Stated it had downloaded and installed AMD Graphics Drivers when it had not

Lost functionality of the separate Desktop screens and would not let me drag windows to other screens after the failed AMD driver install, though it told me it was being USED it was not.

Windows kept locking up and freezing for twenty seconds to a minute before control had been given back to me.

When I tried to sort out the issue from the advice on Ubuntu forums many solutions either did not work or where extremely and unnecessarily lengthy and when I chose one it then refused to boot up at all?!

I then later discovered there was a problem with the ATI drivers but nowhere was I warned about this either from Ubuntu nor AMD or indeed Computer Active Magazine, in fact the latter clearly stated in their Magazine that the only problems reported was Windows 8 and as over half the computers in the world have AMD Radeon Graphics installed I FAIL to see how this can be the case. REALLY BAD journalism that is but then that is rife today and the main reason I no longer buy Custom PC Magazine!
I also read that this 12.04 LTS version is supposed to be wonderful and two other versions were listed as catastrophes and I thought thank bloody god I did not attempt to install the others then?!?!

I then decided to un-install it and get that 18.8GB section of my hard drive back only there wasNO CLEAR WAY to un-install it?!?! I then decided that I do not like being beaten and that maybe I just reid to do too many things at the same time and should have installed the proprietary drivers methodically and one at a time. So I decided to have a go at re-installing Ubuntu only now it stated that I could not do this either?!

I then noticed that my hard drive's missing space was back and wondered if a reboot was needed and sure enough everything was back to normal. So I ran the Wubi executable again gave it 25GB this time around and re-installed Ubuntu. This time I patiently waited to install the broadcom driver, which now kept failing several times so I left it alone while downloading the AMD graphics drivers AGAIN. After this was finished I then tried to re-install the broadcom drivers again and this time it was successful?!

Second Installation

I gave that another go as I recalled on the first installation that error messages were coming up stating things had FAILED to install and when the 'OK' button was pressed I had a window with a progress bar informing me that this was STILL continuing and then successfully installed?!

Bloody madness!!!

This time the AMD drivers seem to install correctly and I was relieved that after three days at trying to get this fabulous Ubuntu to install I had finally achieved it...

Only when I booted up I receieved a message to tell me that my graphics chips were not recognised correctly and then gave me options of

Using back up configuration [DID NOT WORK]

Using Low Graphics Configuration [EXITED TO BLACK SCREEN AND FROZE?!]

A series of other options all of which did nothing except return to the same dialogue window when clicked except for start up errors which showed a small blank window and the log, which to me did nothing except produce a bunch of code I am not familiar with and could not check via the Internet as I was stuck on this dialogue box.

So for the second time I found myself with a Linux OS that REFUSED to boot up?!?! IN THREE DAYS?!?!


I have NEVER taken any notice of the naysayers preaching about the demise of the PC but in all honesty what with Windows 8 and that Steve Bullmer leaping about stages screaming like a demented Chimpanzee and this abhorrent Ubuntu I now do fear for the PCs future.

Something I was very much looking forward to turned out to be three days of utter frustration and disappointment at both the state of things after 15 years and the bad reporting going on, or NOT as the case may be, in a number of magazines which now cost a small fortune to buy?!

Terrible...absolutely terrible state of affairs.

A real shame it really is...

ooh and if you was wondering about my hardware...

HP Pavilion DV7 Laptop

Radeon HD5470 & 4200 graphics

8GB RAM

No point listing anything else as all worked fine, even the WIFI with or without the Broadcom drivers but I suspect it was the drivers included in Ubuntu for this which rendered the OS to an absolute crawl! And I DO MEAN CRAWL!

Yours faithfully

Martin Haswell BSc


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