Quote: "I've been using Linux for over a year, not that long, but it's been long enough to experience a few different distributions."
I've been using Unix in some form or another for over a decade, with quite a bit of experience with a large number of builds.
Despite what Linux users wish to believe, it is still designed as a cut-down portable variation of Unix. Hense why I've always called it a Kiddie OS, because it is. It's more for learning purposes, or recoding it for specific work applications without the huge over-head you find in Unix.
The fact that the Linux community seems to ignore this fact seems quite amusing to me. Linus cuts it down to the bare essentials, the bare-bones can still fit on a Floppy Disk; and what do people and companies do? distribute it on 3-5 CD Variations bulking it up with hundreds of things that I swear most people don't have a clue they're even there let alone use them.
As far as the stability goes, it's all down to Hardware and Software really. Although yes there is a common library for accessing the Kernel; as far as other libraries go for building applications well those can vary wildly. So for example say someone released a Messenger build for Fedora around UI 1.0 and NET 1.0, then if he released the RPM then... it would compile as a very stable thing on any up to date OS (provided those are what your Linux build had).
Now issues start when you run the program and it compiles on a system with UI 1.0.1, or NET 2.0. While you will get a warning your libraries are out of date, most builds never warn you if your libraries are different than those expected (ie newer). So it will compile but the minor changes can cause some very huge bugs.
The reason it's praised through-out universities as 'The One OS to rule them ALL' is because Uni-Students have 10Mb if not 1Gb connections to play with. Downloading new libraries, just to compile a new application can be just as quick as if it was on thier local Hard Disk; in-fact most Uni setups will access files directly from online CVS rather than even making a local copy.
So thier libraries are always the exact versions required. No worries about downloading extremely large updates just to run a fairly small application. Further-more they never have to worry about Hard Disk space as very few machines use local drives. Often your space is stored on a Server somewhere with several hundred terabytes of storage space.
When you combine this with the fact that if you ever get stuck because everyone around you uses it, they can always help you learn how to use it.
Linux still isn't close to MacOSX or Windows, no matter the build.. even the super-friendly SuSE I use can still be quite confusing to what is where and why, or annoying having to fall-back to SHell just to do something that in MacOSX and Windows would be attached to the context-menu. So getting used to them as a home-user is a pain in the arse without help.
This is something else the Linux community REALLY needs to work on. As far as most Linux experts are conserned, you find an FAQ online.. if you don't understand it. Tough.
This attitude pissed me off when trying to find out why exactly Windows isn't seeing the Microsoft Network & Internet Sharing I'd setup in SuSE. I've still not been able to figure out why, despite DamnSmallLinux automatically setting it up for me. I had tried asking several SuSE rooms, and read up many documents on how to set it up. Nothing seems to work.
The overall lack of support is enough to be infuriating. There is also the fact that while MacOSX and Windows are very vocal about hardware issues. (Windows will BSOD your arse every few minutes if there are hardware problems, not that anyone ever checks them :p)
Linux and I've not used a single build yet that doesn't do this... will just keep running.
Now some people might see this as Linux being better due to it being able to run no matter what's wrong. Unfortunately it's this exact 'keep running no matter what', that has recently destroyed several hundred pounds worth of hardware. While sure only one part of the system was faulty to begin with, because of Linux accessing everything.. issues actually spread without me realising.
So from the RAM's corruption, it spread to the BIOS causing detection errors; this in-turn spread to the IDE and knocked out 1 hard disk and set another one to use only PIO mode (which is it's failsafe to prevent damage, IBM explained how to reset it). It also took out a CD-Rom and Diskette Drive just for good measure.
The result was very expensive to replace rather than just the RAM.
Alright so maybe stuff like that isn't common-place for everyday use, however something as simple as installing hardware is.
Again while sure some builds have one-click systems; not all of them do. This is something that is easily forgotten. Installing the NVIDIA Drivers on SuSE for example is difficult without understanding how XFree86 works, or how to boot in Run-Mode 6 (or what Run-Mode 6 even is). The NVIDIA instructions doesn't explain this, so anyone without knowlage will never get the drivers installed no matter how much they use the .run file.
Linux is good for Students and Businesses. I very much doubt that a real home alternative variation will be created.
