racemaniac

If your screen is at 60hz and your source is at 24hz, some frames will last 2 frames, some will last 3 frames, it's a subtle stutter you see when for example the image is panning (and linux defaulted to 30hz on my monitor, so 24fps on 30hz refreshrate the effect is even more noticable), so i prefer the system to just switch to the proper refresh rate. The monitor/projector support switching to exactly 24fps, in the infinite power of linux, how hard could this be, for real. I get this is "advanced" and "a nice windows feature". But ffs, it's switching your display output. I can right click on my linux desktop, go to the display settings, and select 24fps refresh rate, and it switches. How hard could it be to provide an api to let an application do the same...

If the community is like this on every nice to have feature that shouldn't be that hard to support, linux probably also isn't for me.

(reminds me of another subtle issue i noticed in Kodi. on the windows version i can use the back button on my mouse to go back to the previous screen, on the linux version that didn't work. found an issue about it, where the replies were "we can't map every specific input system you have by default" (but the windows version can). And even better "wtf is a back button on a mouse" (that guy apparently missed the last decade of computer mouse development). And even after multiple users mentioning "we just want the linux version to behave like the windows version", but that question was just ignored in favor of "configure it yourself in the settings (even though the config didn't allow to map that button", and the ignorance of what even a back button on a mouse would be.

So expecting the stable version of ubuntu to not just have thrown away its installer for one of the main ways of installing things on it, and for it to have disabled a protocol that was used in ransomware attacks almost a decade ago is... "i'm expecting ubuntu to behave like windows".

I'm sorry, but you're just ridiculous.

Regarding the refreshrate: this also connects to a projector, and i don't think it's able to wait for frames, it'll just push out x frames per second, and if it doesn't match your video source, you'll see smooth motion isn't quite that smooth. It may be an "advanced" usecase, but if supporting something like this is "expecting ubuntu to work like windows", then yeah, maybe i better stick to windows... I had expected linux to also be good for htpc usage, but maybe not then.

But for real, i've got multiple headless linux machines here, i ssh in to them, got docker containers on them with some complicated usecases too, i know what to expect from linux and i don't expect it to be like windows. But for the very first 3 things i try on a popular "beginners distro" to be this awful. This is not expecting "this works like windows", this is me expecting a vulnurability of 2017 having been addressed, them not fucking up something as major as a package installer in a "stable" version, and the refreshrate is maybe a tiny bit specific, i can kind of forgive it that (but it would make linux bad for my usecase sadly, but for a modern desktop OS, i don't see why it wouldn't be supported).

Regarding the deb files not being the way to do it. I'm sure that's why plenty of sites have install instructions for ubuntu be like "here, install this deb file". You say this is not the way to do it, SO MANY APPS say it is. can this community please make up its mind??

Yeah, it's not as if memes like this are still all over here on the fediverse: https://lemmy.gockandgum.party/post/https%3a%2f%2flemmy.gockandgum.party/4488?thread=0.16856.18063

and everyone upvoting it and people getting the impression that starting on ubuntu is still a good idea.

i've probably got nearly as many distro recommendations as i've got replies here, because as if you guys know which distro would support a whole 3 complicated usecases i gave (not use a vulnurable protocol, have an installer, and supporting some slightly advanced feature for applications to use).

I gave ubuntu a try because i've seen regular posts here about ubuntu vs mint, and people being pretty balanced about both, maybe i missed all the posts that said "using ubuntu will cause you hours of pain avoiding vulnurabilities that are almost a decade old by now, with unstable 'stable' version etc...", but i do remember plenty of posts here being like "just start with ubuntu or mint, it'll be fine".

It's not that i don't believe you, but i just typed out the nice surprises i encountered while just trying some (imo basic) things on a fresh install.

the SMB thing, seriously... this is a vulnurability from 2017, and ubuntu not only defaults to this protocol, but doesn't even have a way to disable it??

the refresh rate thingy, maybe a bit specific, but in windows it's just a setting you enable in any app, and it works.

and the installer being "oops, we forgot to replace it"... if the ubuntu version was marked as "this is bleeding edge unstable", i would have just taken the LTS version. but from all i can tell 23.10 is just the latest stable, that seems to be anything but stable?

This is not about "being open to it", this is just 5 hours of googling, trying things, realizing that things that i expected to be pretty basic are just working sooo badly. and i know switching from windows would take some effort, but hours of struggling to have to end up working around a vulnurable protocol that i can't disable, having to struggle with just getting some package installed (defeating the entire point of why these packages would be easier), and for now giving up on a nice playback feature.

And of course in this thread i've already had at least 3 different distros recommended with noone really knowing if the kodi usecase is supported by them because even people who use linux for everything have no way of figuring out which distro, if any, supports refreshrate switching...

you can be all "you have to be open to it", as i've got multiple headless linux machines and even got some complicated stuff running on it requiring me to do some more advanced stuff via ssh and actually understanding some parts of linux. It's not that i don't want to learn, i wouldn't even know how. Read the replies yourself, people are already "do you really need refresh rate switching?" (aka, we also don't know how to figure out how to get this feature that just works in other OS'es to work in any linux distro).

I'm not expecting everything to just work, and don't mind googling. but these were literally the 3 first things i tried on this linux, and each of them was hell... and googling for solutions was also hell with a lot of outdated advice, and regarding the refreshrates... not really much advice at all, even though htpc on linux is relatively popular & this is something that can be a known benefit to the playback quality.

And of course i'm getting downvoted for this post because posting the reality of trying desktop linux (as an experienced IT guy) is something that's rather not seen?...

I'm willing to engage this discussion with you :).

I don't believe i'm entitled to any labor for free, but i do oppose the mechanic of huge corporations starting with good & free services, and when they then become a monopoly, suddenly i'm "entitled and want labor for free and an idiot" when i don't agree with all the enshittification, money grabbing, privacy violations, and everything else they think they can get away with.

If you start a service with a certain premise (it being free, little ads, ...), and then once you're a monopoly and want some extra money start changing all that, while making sure any competition has as little chance as possible to challenge you... yeah, good luck with that XD.

And i'll make a predition, give it 5 years at most before game passes go through this phase. Currently all the gamers are "wow, these are such good value", once it gives the publishers enough of an excuse to stop allowing you to buy them, watch the same fragmentation & raised prices, enshittification, possibly even advertising getting added to it once you're stuck using such a system.

I don't believe i'm "entitled", but i won't support such tactics & monopoly abuse. They came to power by pretending to be a free site to share videos on, and they'll die that way as far as i'm concerned. Good riddance.