These Are The Biggest Problems With Linux

Last week I asked What Are The Biggest Problems With Linux? and since then there have been more than 220 responses and tens of thousands of views regarding the biggest issues with Linux.

Below are some of the highlights as far as what are the biggest problems with Linux. The public comments in full that came into the forums can be viewed in this forum thread. All views shared are those of their authors.

First up are some of the common themes that were illustrated across multiple posts:

- Many Linux hardware driver issues.

- Regressions happen far too often in different software stacks.

- Too much bloat.

- Poor marketing.

- Various package management issues.

And some of the other responses:

- Linux needs reduced complexity of various distributions and software stacks. (P) "I don't understand why for example archlinux already installs three different ciphering libraries, libssl, libgcrypt and another one I forgot if you don't even install a user interface. Of course they don't exactly do the same, but it should be possible to reduce code which was implemented two times (f.e. the des algorithms) and install only one library..."

- Lack of commercialization and standardization. (P)

- No stable driver APIs between Linux kernel releases. (P)

- Lack of proper documentation in many areas. (Illustrated in many posts.)

- Desktop environment problems. "The desktops suck. kde is an unholy mess that gets in the way. gnome is too watered down. unity is like a fugly version of gnome." (P)

- Monolithic kernels suck. (P)

- Configuration can be an awful pain. (P; a long, detailed post.)

- A range of other issues. (P) "Distibution-wise it needs to become even more professional. Less obscurity, more professionality. Meaning, no strange error msgs, no unesscesary obfuscation, no strange rules etc. You should boot it up, and expect a well-working system for professionals, without geekery."

Continue reading in the forums.