End of the road for me and Linux (Kubuntu)

[Frank616]

oshunluvr:

EDIT2: I stand somewhat corrected: The Canonical LTS description page does say they use more testing and a longer pre-release stabilizing period than the regular releases, however I still stand by what I say above about upgrading too soon.

That is my understanding as well. It is also my understanding that usually, they try to be somewhat conservative with any changes in an LTS version. However, I also agree that it is best to wait a few months before upgrading for the reasons you mention. There will always be bugs.

Frank.

[GreyGeek]

Oceanluver makes an excellent point about not having to upgrade to every new release. While upgrading to each new release was fun when I was younger, had a better memory and willing to explore, now I stay with the LTS releases precisely because it involves no major upgrading. I was using 9.04 from its alpha in Feb of 2009 until 12.04 went gold and I installed it in the second or third week of May of 2012. My plan is to stay with Kubuntu 12.04 until 17.04. I'll be 76 then, and this Acer will be 5 years old. What the situation will be like then is nearly impossible to predict, if the last five years are any indication.

[oshunluvr]

Well, GG based on my math you only have six or seven LTS's left in you, then you'll have to start thinking about slowing down a bit...

[dibl]

GG and oshunluvr are quite correct, as usual. I have 2 cents to toss into this -- if stability is really and truly the overriding concern, then you should steer away from *buntu entirely and go with Debian stable (currently Debian 6). It was tested very hard before release, and then updated for bugs and security only since that date. Matter of fact, I would go so far as to advise that if Debian stable were installed on OP's hardware, and it also crashes, then that would be proof positive that there is a hardware problem of some kind -- either defective or incompatible. The consequence, of course, is that Debian stable offers rather antiquated software package versions. Linus Torvalds recently commented that you might need to understand cuneiform writing to run stable -- the software is that old. ;-)

[wrender]

People are not going to install 10.04. as it uses KDE 4.4 which was an unhatched egg and they are not going to install Debian because they want an easy, fun, relevant/stable experience hence they use a Buntu LTS release. It has been 4 months since the LTS was released... if you do a fresh 12.04.1 install you still get lightbulbs that crash, K3B continously offering extras, etc...

[oshunluvr]

People are not going to install 10.04. as it uses KDE 4.4 which was an unhatched egg and they are not going to install Debian because they want an easy, fun, relevant/stable experience hence they use a Buntu LTS release. It has been 4 months since the LTS was released... if you do a fresh 12.04.1 install you still get lightbulbs that crash, K3B continously offering extras, etc...

Then these "people" will not have a stable environment until the version they installed matures. The point of the discussion is stability vs. cutting edge. The two are mutually exclusive. The LTS release will eventually be more stable obviously but currently, 11.04 and 11.10 are more stable in my view than 12.04 is. "People" that declare stability is their primary goal should install the most stable environment they can get. As dibl points out - Debian Stable is likely the best choice for those users.

BTW: It's worth noting that I (as many others here do as well) do not find 12.04 unstable at all. I have been using it daily since Beta 2 without any instability concerns. I've had a couple of small issues with a particular desktop theme (not Kubuntu's fault) and a change to NFS versions I was unprepared for but was able to resolve quickly.

It's somewhat more likely that users reporting high levels of frustration with 12.04 are unprepared for the work that comes with getting a new release fully tuned and running smoothly and are unwilling or unable to post proper forum requests to seek out the help they need to get things working well. Installing 10.04.4 or some other distro that focuses on stability is clearly their best option.

[Snowhog]

BTW: It's worth noting that I (as many others here do as well) do not find 12.04 unstable at all. I have been using it daily since Beta 2 without any instability concerns. I've had a couple of small issues with a particular desktop theme (not Kubuntu's fault) and a change to NFS versions I was unprepared for but was able to resolve quickly.

I've been using 12.04 since just before it went 'final', and I've been very happy with it. Best of the Kubuntu's I've used so far.

[GreyGeek]

I've been using 12.04 since just before it went 'final', and I've been very happy with it. Best of the Kubuntu's I've used so far.

That's my experience as well, except when I had RAM problems because of poor advice from a BestBuy techie about the compatibility of the RAM they recommended.

[OldSmoky2]

You could download and run the OpenSuse Live CD to see if you have hardware problems. I inherited my current desktop computer, a Dell, from a friend who bought a new computer after he started having too many problems with this one. He was running Windows on it. So I tried to install Ubuntu, Kubuntu and even Debian on it, but kept running into problems. Then I tried OpenSuse. It wouldn't install or run off the Live CD either but instead of just freezing or crashing, it notified me that it had detected system hardware problems and asked if I wanted it to diagnose the problems. I did and it ran some tests, then informed me that both hard drives were corrupted, even identifying the specific corrupted blocks. So I went out and bought two new hard drives, installed Ubuntu and eventually Kubuntu (which I mostly run now) and for about $80 had a new computer. That was around versions 10.10, I believe, and now I'm running 12.04. I can't say that I remember any crashes with Kubuntu. I think it's the smoothest-running OS I've ever used.
So my suggestion would be to stick an OpenSuse Live CD or USB stick in there and see what happens.

[oshunluvr]

"BestBuy techie" - A new one for my Oxymoron list...

[SteveRiley]

OpenSuse...notified me that it had detected system hardware problems and asked if I wanted it to diagnose the problems. I did and it ran some tests, then informed me that both hard drives were corrupted, even identifying the specific corrupted blocks.

Additional datapoint... I've encountered the same thing, but with Fedora. Earlier versions of Ubuntu came with a disk analyzer tool -- maybe it still does, not sure. Anyway, Ubuntu's analyzer would never show any problem with any drive. Fedora's analyzer -- the exact same GNOME program -- would show errors on certain disks (I have a small collection of laptop hard drives).

To this day, it mystifies me why the same tool in two different distros would show such different outcomes. I had forgotten about that until I read this post.

[woodsmoke]

Re: the "unstable" discussions, I have never experienced any kind of instability in ANY distro except one time in which I thought that the OS had "hung" on shutdown and I pushed the off button. Apparently, it was actually doing a background update and when I logged in again, the desktop would not work.

Ao for moi, the distros either work or they don't, there may a lot of problems to deal with, but if they do work they work and are not "unstable".

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

"BestBuy techie" - A new one for my Oxymoron list...

Their quality varies. Unfortunately it is impossible to predict the accuracy of any of their prognostications unless you are personally familiar with them and their training. Knowing this I took a gamble and lost $27.

[ScottyK]

Even my 7 year old son has picked up on my disdain for the "geek squad". Heard him telling his younger brother this morning that the "Geek squad are a bunch of morons." Love that boy.

[SteveRiley]

Even my 7 year old son has picked up on my disdain for the "geek squad". Heard him telling his younger brother this morning that the "Geek squad are a bunch of morons." Love that boy.

Say 10 years from now, your 17 year old son gets a summer job there. Will you still love him then?