My Opinion on Ubuntu

Don't get me wrong, I've used Ubuntu before, in fact, it was my first distro. My mother's computer n
ow runs Ubuntu specifically because I found that it was easier for her to use. My biggest problems w
ith Ubuntu Linux are coming from the Unity interface, which I was very much objective of, despite fi
rst trying Ubuntu roughly 9 months ago, when Unity had first begun to rear its ugly head in 12.04LTS
..


 Lag and Slow Boot-Up Times.
        Sometimes, you want to use your computer, but if you're like me, you'll turn it off so that
you don't kill your battery life when it's not in use. Bad idea with Ubuntu 12.10. For me, it takes
roughly 5 - 10 minutes for Ubuntu to load, even after removing grub's 5 second count down feature in the boot loader and adding readahead. I won't say it's because they aren't using Systemd because I've used other distros that don't use systemd that don't boot as slowly as this. I am going to just assume it's because of the next reason why I don't like Ubuntu.

At Times, *understandable* Software Bloat.
        Ubuntu is meant to be a complete distro with a complete suite and set of applications. And that's fine, but there are some things that it includes that should be left out, like for example, maybe "gimp". That sounds silly on some level, but think about it, most people who switch from Windows to Linux(Ubuntu) Aren't necessarily doing it for the painting/image editing programs. I see that there is something called "Ubuntu studio" that should already have these things packaged with it. There are a few others that I can't name off the top of my head, but there are quite a few applications such as VNC that seems to have come preinstalled on the Desktop version that most people wouldn't even really look into, and somehow the number of preinstalled applications make it really hard to have a lightweight system in general. Your System can be lightweight AND stable, it's just a matter of method This also slows down the time it takes for the desktop to load on unity, which is what I find as unsurprising.

Limited GUI System Settings [Though this could be Gnome 3's Fault], and the long APT command [probably Debian's fault also].
        Why is it that I can't change some things around with the launcher? Why can't I change the color from the apperance settings? And what's the deal with this bluetooth thing? How many people use Bluetooth with their computers?! This can't be right. And why must I have to update the system with "sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" everytime I log in from SSH?

Dock that sucks up screen realestate.
        This a big one. Especially since the feature there is to mess with the existence of the launcher is the "hide" and the "resize" feature, both of which are functionally retarded. I've tried unhiding the launcher only to watch it bounce back into "crouching position" when I'm trying to get work done.

Buggy and incomplete GUI that lacks important features.
        When you go into ubuntu's System settings and page around a bit, you'll notice that there are a few things that you might want to change that aren't so much listed up there. Why should you have to install Ubuntu tweak or *insert_some_other_appearance_setting_manager_here* to make it look nice? What's the deal? What if I want the launcher on the right side instead of the left? What if I wanted it on the bottom? Why can't we move the unity launcher? Would it be that hard to flip it around a bit? Less lag on the launcher bar showing please and maybe a bit of an interval adjustment with numerals instead of "slow and fast". I've seen videos with older versions of Ubuntu that have far more features in the software center than the CURRENT system settings. That, in my opinion, is a bit sad.

Unity that seems to suck the strength out of the graphics card.
        If you were to play minecraft on my Archbox, and you were to play minecraft on the Ubuntu laptop in the house, you'd see a significant difference. What's the deal? Why is that? Is it Unity's fault? Or is it the software bloat?

Broken "sleep" mode.
        I won't blame Ubuntu entirely for this, I feel that this is on part of the fact that my Mother's Ubuntu installation is a wubi installation. Though, that is no excuse for being unable to close the lid, and then expect myself to see Ubuntu's horrific Unity mess pop back up again.

But It's All Good.
        Fortunately, this is a Linux Distro, enabling us to install something that is less non-sensical, like... KDE[Also bloated on ubuntu], GNOME3 [Ha, ha... Right ], or Xfce4[This is just about right]. But what were the devs thinking? I mean, I can understand having the community judge and mess with your interface to find bugs and whatnot, but can't you at least make some real changes and get rid of the real functionality faults in the interface itself? I don't ask that you include less software in your distro, as I understand that it's supposed to be complete, but it seems like there is more than what is necessary in this distro. Ubuntu could be a distribution worth mentioning to people to install, but because of the unity interface, it is really making it heisitate on suggesting it over maybe something like Linux Mint. I'm certain that it could be something much better than it is, and that with a few more additional features and updates, it would make the userspace a better place.

Feel free to comment if you think my arguments are biased, or out of place.

Harddrive Failure & The Troubles that Come With It

So, my last hard-drive failed, so I paid $20 to retrieve my old one and popped it in. I figured "It should work just fine if I just pacman -Syu." It had an older version of arch from like two months ago and everything. Then I realized that I had forgotten that it was a 32-bit harddrive! I had to pop the Archlinux CD into the computer and then update everything that was known on the system, as well as uncomment the multilib repository. But even then, that didn't stop the system from being buggy, so I just formatted the root partition and keep the home folder and all of my files. So now, my personal computer has become the project of the weekend. I hope I can get it done in time for some school work.