Dedoimedo: Slimbook Titan report 4 - The good mojo is gone

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Conclusion

What can I say? The emotional yo-yo never stops. And that's a huge problem. The lack of consistency makes the Linux desktop look simply inadequate and amateurish. What can I tell people if they ask me, can I use Linux as my daily driver? The answer will be: yes, but. Only that's not how technology should work. You're not supposed to CHANGE your life and habits to serve technology. It's like the electric cars thing - start worrying about your driving routes, plans for multiple stops to recharge, worship the machine. Nope. Technology should serve the user. Period.

My Slimbook Executive, my other Linux-only laptop, works just fine with its Kubuntu 22.04. But that one is a classic, mainstream browsing-and-office machine, with an integrated GPU, no gaming stuff. And that's not good enough. Gaming is the bread 'n' butter of Windows usage. There are few things I desire more than to say bye to Windows and its low-IQ games. But I'm a realist, not a fanboy. And with a month-to-month psychological turmoil I must endure with these random-bug-after-update things, it's very hard to sound positive.

The fact Microsoft is now doing the same thing with their toy-like Windows 11 is no consolation, either. Two pointless don't cancel out. If you read my articles one after another, I come across as some bi-polar dinosaur. But it's not me. It's the disdain for the end user, the lack of true deep desire by Linux people to make Linux great. Oh they work hard, they are dedicated, they want to succeed, they are simply unaware that, at the subconscious level, they never want to stop being the underdog. Because being the big dog is a terrible, terrible responsibility. I can't blame them. Here and there, back in the day, I had my opportunity of being the big company guy, CTO stuff, whatever, and I decided it's not worth the hassle. Then again, I'm not offering any Dedoimedo software out there.

Well, there we are. In a month, or even sooner, I'll do something cool in Linux, and I'll be happy or cheerful again. Whatever. At the end of the day, it doesn't make any difference. Perhaps one day, we shall have maturity and stability in the Linux desktop space. For now, my Titan is back to being finicky. But I will work around this pointless kernel bug very shortly, so stay tuned. There's gonna be a tutorial for that in a couple of days. See you out there.

Slimbook Titan report 4 - The good mojo is gone

Long-term usage review and report 4 of the Slimbook Titan laptop, with Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS as the operating system, including latest round of updates that led to occasional system freezes due to a kernel bug, inconsistent and confusing firmware update process...

www.dedoimedo.com

Previous reports:

Slimbook Titan, long-term usage report 1

Long-term usage review and report 1 of the Slimbook Titan laptop, with Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS as the operating system, covering hardware, ergonomics, keyboard functionality, false positive regarding NVME storage failure, some software errors, day-to-day usage, gaming...

www.dedoimedo.com

Slimbook Titan report 2 - Shaping up nicely

Long-term usage review and report 2 of the Slimbook Titan laptop, with Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS as the operating system, covering hardware, resolved problem with suspend & resume, performance, noise, battery life, one-time crash, software compatibility including Windows...

www.dedoimedo.com

Slimbook Titan report 3 - I am happy with the machine, finally

Long-term usage review and report 3 of the Slimbook Titan laptop, with Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS as the operating system, covering hardware, stability, temperatures, battery life, Steam gaming, harmless disk decryption error bug, some problems related to system updates due...

www.dedoimedo.com

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Slimbook Executive, long-term report 5

Conclusion

I don't have too much else to share here, but hey, it's been an eventful three months period! Various hardware-related bugs, Samba and Android annoyances, side by side with excellent feel, great looks, solid speed, and overall, good productivity. I mean, you may think I'm being grumpy or unhappy, but no. I love the Slimbook Executive, it's proper fun, and every time I pick it up, physically, or open the lid, I'm pleased with the sharpness and clarity and vibrancy of colors of its screen. Hasn't gotten old yet, and that's a good sign.

The issue of randomness and erraticity of the Linux distro world remains, and it's the biggest future threat to the adoption and viability of Linux at home, so to speak. Not among nerds. Among normies, if they ever end up using Linux. The thing is, people expect their systems to behave one way, good or bad. They do not want changes, and they need any surprises. And if their operating system suddenly does something untoward, they will get angry and resentful.

By and large, the severe lack of any production-grade QA in the Linux world makes long-term commitment to the operating system (and all its various distros) difficult. So, a person decides to use it now. Great. A year later? The Super key stops functioning. Those kind of things are killers, and must not be allowed. Sure, most modern operating systems are quite fragile, badly tested, and of low quality. But that's no excuse, and certainly not the norm we ought to strive for. Looking at my Slimbook Executive, the machine has fared quite well in the past year. It's a thoroughly enjoyable laptop. I hope things stay that way, especially on the software front.

Slimbook Executive, long-term report 5

Long-term usage review and report 5 of the Slimbook Executive laptop, with Kubuntu 22.04 LTS as the operating system, covering ergonomics, everyday usage, and various problems and annoyances like Super key that suddenly and randomly stops working, inconsistent screen dimming on long media...

www.dedoimedo.com