On Linux Desktop Bugs and Regressions

Greetings all you Fluffalos, I said I was washing my paws of this buggy Linux nonsense but here we are again, I just can't stay away from the stuff.

In my own defense, I'm done with distro hopping and chasing the next "hot new feature". Just want to say that Ubuntu Studio has been great and in this video I touch on one major reason why it's so great.

The Problem

"Oh no! I ran an update, rebooted, and now all I get is a black screen. Login via tty, open a file with nano, save this string, and reboot? Neat - it worked!" – This followed by a half dozen other people in a forum post saying "hey that worked for me too"!

Then a couple months later, boom it breaks again.

The Cycle

1. User A has a problem
2. User B suggests a script or config fix
3. User C ships the fix in the distro
4. Upstream makes a change that breaks the fix
5. User D reports something is broken

This is common in any large software project. But what are we learning from it? Because from the looks of it, the problem is getting worse.

The Fix

Support your local bug triagers! Help them find & fix (actual) bugs! Ensure bugs are reported to the right place (is it a packaging issue? lib compatibility? config? upstream?). And if you can, help fix them!

If that sounds like a lot, you can do what I did and use a distribution of Linux with an established bug triaging process where you can participate (or not) with confidence that next update won't leave you with a broken machine.

Thank You!

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