UGLYING UP UBUNTU

Ubuntu is famous for being a user-friendly desktop distro, but what happens when you want to do un-user-friendly things like, say, compile your own software from source? Bad things. First of all, you actually have to install a bunch of very basic software

apt-get install gcc g++ make

Then, of course, there’s what comes with dealing with packaged versions of software you normally install yourself: installation in weird places. Why are the PHP libs in /usr/share/php/ and not /usr/lib/? What the hell? Gentoo is far more sane when it comes to these things, but with far less hand-holding when it comes to X11 nonsense, which is why I’m trying Ubuntu. But wait! How do I get Ubuntu to recognize my Apple Cinema Display and set correct resolutions? What’s that you say? Open up a shell?! What is this, Gentoo? I shouldn’t even have to fix that. And getting dual displays working apparently requires some more xorg hacking.

Ubuntu has a ways to go as far as I’m concerned.