lol omg, ubuntu let a release where you can't even open the software downloader out of beta

[cimorene]

Wax and I are both long-term Ubuntu linux users. (We've dabbled in other OSes, not ENTIRELY Ubuntu-based ones - Debian and Fedora have been experimented with - but Ubuntu and Ubuntu variants have been what we've used for most of the time for more than a decade.) So although we are not super linux-literate, we're both intermediate users more or less.

So when I complain that Ubuntu didn't work out of the box, I'm not concerned with my own convenience here: I've installed OSes that weren't expected to do that. My issue is that Ubuntu presents itself publicly, and people continue to introduce it as, the new-to-linux-friendly distro, and even specifically to tout its Working Out of the Box-ness, when in fact it has never reliably worked out of the box (there ARE distros that do! I would start with Linux Mint, if someone isn't familiar with Linux and wants to dip a toe in, though)...

...but yesterday when Wax installed Ubuntu 20.04 it reached new lows, because 20.04 has a bug where, just in general, the software center doesn't open. That's the sole application that you use to install programs! Someone who isn't prepared to google for hacks, comb through threads, and try multiple command-line solutions is gonna be sitting there with no way to install new software on the OS, unless they think to google how to install software directly from the command line instead!

Not only that, apparently the team released an official 'fix' for the bug on Launchpad which also did not fix the issue! Wax had to uninstall and reinstall the program, which changed its name in the list of programs and its package name incidentally (?!?!), before it would work. Mine worked, but I upgraded through the software center from the last release while Wax's OS was so old it was no longer supported and she made a clean install from a usb stick.

Comments

[tozka]

Ubuntu was my first Linux distro and the one I go back to whenever I need to revive a dying laptop, and I generally enjoy it. But! Yeah, it's never worked out of the box for me. I think they just have really good marketing? Easy to say, easy to look at, the instructions are clear to install it. It's just everything else that's wonky. D:

[cimorene]

I mean, maybe it's not fair to bring up history this early, but back in the I/J years, it was pretty normal for networking, graphics drivers, or even once THE ENTIRE MONITOR to not work on first install. The last time I had to do a hack to fix networking or printers was ONE RELEASE AGO. And Linux Mint has been around being more user friendly for basically that entire time!