During the HTML 4 days.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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In the old days, lots, mostly around hardware support and until very recently the ability to run most games.
Nowadays, I’m mostly disappointed with the desktop environments lacking features that BeOS had in 1997. This is honestly a kernel and filesystem issue since most of those features require that the kernel/filesystem fully support indexed, extensible attribute queries. xattrs aren’t nearly sufficient. The remainder are framework/UI threading model limitations, which aren’t really kernel related.
All the time but then I remember it's my fault because it's open source and I am not fixing it either.
with windows i can just blame m$, but on linux it's my fault
I am perpetually disappointed by both Windows and the various flavors of Linux.
The difference is: there's relatively little you can do to "fix" Windows when you really need to. When Linux is broken, it may be a lot of work, but the option to fix it as you believe it should work is always there...
It happens. But when I boot into Windows those disappointments ease up.
It's difficult to be disappointed with something that is free.
Actually, one shouldn't be disappointed with things. Only people can disappoint you.
I was disappointed in the Debian crew when they standardized on systemd when it clearly wasn't ready yet.
And I was disappointed in the people running some distros that made Wayland the standard when it clearly wasn't ready yet (a few apps I rely on don't support it or run poorly on Wayland even now).
Other than that, free software, free choice, and a lot of learning possibilities. You just have to adapt your expectations. Change hardware, change software, change distros, and learn.
Time has value.
Trying a new distros is a 10 minutes endeavor. Tops. 🤷♂️ And there's Ventoy.
Yes, I installed Fedora and everything was working OOTB. Nothing to tinker with, no issue with sound, WiFi, Bluetooth or external screens. Then I moved this SSD to a new AMD laptop and it worked perfectly. It even switched from Intel to AMD utils by itself.
So disappointing.
During the early days of Pulse Audio. Sound sometimes would stop working for inexplicable reasons.
Before Pulse Audio sound on Linux was literally lame.
ALSA works better than Pulse Audio. Fite me irl
More the people behind it than the distro, but CachyOS. Aside from the performance improvements only being marginal, I was happy with the convenience after a decade of using Vanilla Arch. It was the first distro ever to tempt me away in that decade. I was really, really disappointed by the response to the age verification bs. The mods did a terrible job with discussion on the forums and the devs never made a formal response. The upside is I learned more about Systemd and now happily using Artix. So at least some good came out of my disappointment.
Noob take.
I'm annoyed at modern Gnome's hostility towards user customisability. Their refusal to support server side decorations has trickled down to Cinnamon's Wayland compositor and it looks like it's going to be a barrier in Wayland Cinnamon.
Modern? Gnome developers were always like that.
I like gnome's approach to a unified and opinionated human interface design. I think it makes a nice cohesive user experience. If other projects don't want that then they probably shouldn't be building off of gnome.
I am disappointed we still don't have a solid FOSS smartphone OS that can compete with the 2 monopolies who have cornered the market.
I don"t want ro sell my soul to Google or Apple just to use my bank (even on my computer thanks to mandatory 2fa apps) or to renew my government issued ID or to buy a train ticket on European public transport.
Jolla was a massive disappointment. As was the M$ buyout of Nokia.
What’s wrong with Jolla?
Failure to deliver their tablet in 2016, in a big way. They're trying to do a phone now, it's going better - but that's not saying that it's going well...
Ah, I see. That makes sense. I don't actually know that much about them, other than that the Commodore phone uses Sailfish.
postmarketOS, LineageOS, GrapheneOS?
I know they have limited hardware support but that's only a matter of involvement at the end of the day
Unfortunately only postmarket is actual Linux os from these and it's far from daily driveable, lineage and graphene are android roms and are therefore dependent on Google's decisions with AOSP.
Out of curiosity, what about PostmarketOS is not daily driveable? Postmarket is a vague umbrella OS with a lot of DE options, all of which have vastly different user experiences. KDE mobile, phosh, and GNOME mobile have all come a long way and provide everything a smartphone OS needs. The only thing I’d argue that could prevent daily driving is lack of app support and lack of good mobile Linux hardware, but that’s not PostmarketOS’s problem.
Mainly in terms of firmware for actual phones, taking photos is basically impossible as the photos either look horrible or don't work at all. Frequent sound issues, lower battery life, unreliable mobile network connection and lack of inbuilt esim support. OSes based on halium have better experience though they do still lack the app support.
have you tried it on a real device? maybe this is a hardware support issue, but no matter which DE i use (be it phosh, plasma mobile, gnome, ..) it was extremely buggy and mostly unusable. battery drained like crazy, calls didn't work properly, the list goes on. to be fair this was on a poco f1 and lg k10, which aren't in main or community though..
my daily driver is a 2013 phone with custom rom and i've daily'ed a self ported ubports phone in the past, my level of tolerance for buggy experience in daily driver phones is very likely much lower than others
Yeah, device support is the biggest issue. But the OS as a whole is pretty good. I used it with a OnePlus 6T and a Nothing Phone 1, both of which have pretty decent support. Some things about it were broken, and I didn’t try putting in a SIM card and making calls or texts, but the overall experience was good. I have high hopes for when we eventually get good “flagship” linux mobile phones that have full PostmarketOS compatibility.
Technically AOSP also runs a Linux kernel. Lineage and Graphene are like this only for compatibility reasons, no one stops them if they decide to fork. And AOSP itself is still not that bad though
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Yes because Linux encourages you to make it your OS by customizing it, but it’s not easy as it should to create a backup of all that work so that you can easily deploy it on another computer.
I know that Clonezilla works in some situations or that NixOS coulb be a solution, but it’s not should be easier.
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The moments I have been disappointed by Linux were the moments I learned most about hardware and software.
Linux made me switch the WiFi card of my computer, which is something I’ve never done before and would have deemed “impossible”.
Linux is like a teacher that sometimes slaps you on the hands, but who is always helping you to expand your knowledge.
I usually blame this on the hardware manufacturers for being secretive gatekeepy fucks that make things only work with shitty drivers
It's usually not malicious. Hardware is that way by default, and it takes effort to make it not be that way, and then someone still has to write the driver.
Technically all the info you need is inside the Windows driver, it's just a bit difficult to get at. It's on us to git gud so we won't need the cooperation of the hardware companies.
Ironically, we're getting into situations where our WiFi card vendor (Ezurio) supports Linux but not Windows.
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Oh sure, all the time.
A computer running public auditable software refined by some of history's top computer scientists...is still just a computer.
We taught spicy electrified rocks how to help us fill out tax forms.
It's going to fall short every so often.
Gestures vaguely at Ubuntu.......
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