Ionrock Dot Org

Lately I have been very frustrated with Linux. I am currently bouncing back and forth between the different issues with different distros looking for the happy medium where everything Just Works &tm;. What makes things so hard is that there is no consistency. As a usability person I am fan of consistency but this goes beyond the user interface. The problem is that with the amazing pace of Linux desktop development, every distro is at a different place in the iterative process. This makes it insanely difficult to nail down what a distro should and shouldn't do. One distro does well with compiling software and making life easier as a developer. That same distro provides crappy packages though where every day usage can be hard without spending time compiling. Another distro is a dream for day to day work but when one tries to do real development or get bleeding edge software, things crash and crash hard. Another distro manages to balance these things to provide a utterly mediocre experience where you feel like you just spent money to have your computer work good enough. It is all pretty pitiful really.

The biggest frustration though is that there is so much potential. There can be so many great things with Linux that the latest and greatest is just too good to let go of for a few months. Powers beyond your control drive you to find a simple way to see the newest version of some piece of software that looks amazing. Sometimes it is the opportunity to help with a project that turns your desktop upside down looking for a way to make that makefile work like you know you want it to. In other words, when you have seen the potential it is so hard to sit and wait for things to become commonplace with all the distros where you just know it will work. It is really sad but true.

Of course, there have been the lofty goals to merge all the different kinds of distros and how things are done but they are all pointless. We are just too smart for our own good to realize that mediocrity in some ways allows for excellence in others. I guess I will just keep searching and know that the reason behind the madness is raw desire to make something the best it can be. I suppose I would much rather see a never ending struggle for perfection in the Linux and Open Source community than a collaboration toward "good enough" software and technology.

In other words, if it ain't broke, there has gotta be something better...