What’s Missing in a Linux Distro?
April 8, 2009 by Clair Ching
Filed under Questions
This is a question I’d like to ask you whether you’ve been using a Linux distro for only a couple of days or maybe many years. I suppose that there are still things that we can’t do properly on many Linux distros. Are you contented or are you still bothered by what’s missing?
sometimes we still look for a feature in Linux but it doesn't exist yet
Is there something that you’ve been used to that you miss? I suppose that you’ve been using Windows for a long time now, then the Linux distros would look quite differrent for you because … well, they are. It’s as simple as that, really. But if you’re trying it out for the sake of using something they claimed to be user-friendly, maybe it’s not your kind of user friendly. So what will make it feel like really usable to you especially for your work + personal needs? Are there features you wish it could have?
For me, right now, I’d like to change desktop environments without logging out. Something like switching from GNOME to KDE (or anything) while I am logged in, so that when I am using an extended screen, I could use a full DE of my choice. When I am using my netbook alone, it’s perfectly fine for me to use Openbox but sometimes I wish to switch to GNOME for the full DE experience when I have an extra screen. Oh well.
I haven’t been able to use my Canon scanner (LiDe 60)since Ubuntu’s Dapper 6.04, because it’s not recognized in 8.04 or 8.10. Same condition in several other distros as well.
Even if what you ask for were possible, it would mean using too much memory while the change takes place, and possibly wait 15 seconds or so. Then you would be complaining about that!
I have my needs almost fully covered by my Slackware setup, but what I would really like to have is a fully MSN compatible client.
I use Pidgin or Kopete, and they work fine for text-only, but there is no way to get a MSN videoconference working on them. Kopete only works with the camera (no sound) and Pidgin does not support anything but text.
I use skype sometimes, but not everybody has it, and I can’t just go on asking people to install it and set it up just to talk with me once in a while…
aMSN doesn’t work either: you can use sound and video but not videoconference (voice+video at the same time).
That is what I miss, and it is one of the few reasons I keep a virtual machine with WinXP around.
User experience.
User experience is what is totally lacking in all Linux distros and is what is totally ignored by all FOSS developers and advocates.
No one is responsible, and pushing, for user experience.