For various definitions of crap :-)

The crap starts to show when you do more than use it as it's given to you.. when you start poking at it... use it as a server OS. Then the gaping holes (aka cracks) start to show.

Fine for beginners because it makes a boatload of assumptions and choices which are fine for someone who doesn't know what they are doing, but... for someone who knows the drill, and wants to actually "use" his or her Linux for real work.. .it starts to fail in rather interesting ways.... from the historically and severely broken OpenOffice.org implementations (the standard line on any OOo help forum has been, for years, "Oh, you're using Ubuntu? Remove Ubuntu's OOo and install the vanilla one because.. Ubuntu broke OOo" Not one.. but for several years running). One example in a very very long list of many...

We used, for a while, an Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for a server implementation... constantly having to reboot to clear up oddities, remote consoles failing in unusual ways and so on... switched over to a SuSE install.. never had to touch it after initial setup... it's still humming along there. Got another one running on Fedora... I don't think it's been touched except to do a kernel update... no one in the office has even thought about it.. it just does its job.

I just get frustrated when I see a comment.. Linux does this or that really badly.. and then you discover that the person's exposure has be a sloppy implementation on Ubuntu... and elsewhere, it's not an issue.

I guess you missed out on Desura?

Stop using Ubuntu. It's fine as a beginner Linux with training wheels, but do NOT assume that the crap you put up with there is a normal part of Linux. Every single time I use Ubuntu, I shake my head and wonder.. if people think this is the norm for Linux, they are sadly mistaken. I use Linux every single day at the office and at home... and you couldn't pay me to use Ubuntu. Anything is better.. openSUSE, Fedora... well, almost anything.

Ask a random person on the street, or better yet, a customer standing in the software section of your local mega mart if they've heard of Microsoft Office. The answer will invariably be yes. They have it on tehir home computer already, they use it at work, they've seen the TV commercials.

Now ask that same person if they've heard of OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice, or Calligra... and they will give you a blank look.

Why have people bought Office 2010? Because it's the only choice they are aware of.

Pick an "average" man or woman on the street and ask them what programs they can use to write a letter or build a spreadsheet. Assuming they even know what a spreadsheet is, you can pretty much count on every single one of them saying MS Office. They don't use it because it's the best product, they use it because it's there on the computer at work, and it's on a PC they buy from the local shops. If LIbreOffice was installed, most people would simply use it without even knowing anything was any different.

People complain about Windows crashing and problems with viruses, but how many look into the alternatives? Virtually zero. They just suck it up and keep plugging along with a broken OS. Sometimes they will ask for help re-installing... most times they wont. Sometimes they will think to install or update their anti-virus software... most times they wont. They just complain the computer is too slow and reboot in hopes it'll magically sort itself out.

People are lazy and computers are an appliance to them.. they use MSO because it's there, and MS knows this.

Apparently you've never tried to round trip an ODF file from LibreOffice to MS Office and back to LibreOffice have you. Microsoft CLAIMS to support ODF, but the hard reality is.. MS Office does not support Open Office files... it appears to, but they've intentionally broke it so that it looks like ODf files are crap... when the reality is MS is playing dirty games.

Try this... create a Calc spreadsheet with a formula... something simple like =LEN(B1) and type a short text string in B1, open it in MS Office and take a look at your formula field. Nice eh? MS Office strips off the formulas. Surprise, now your spreadsheet is useless.

Open a docx file in LibreOffice and chances are something will fall off... because Microsoft's "documented" Office Open XML format is NOT actually what they use for docx. Surprise... again.

The list goes on. The file formats are not portable.. they give the appearance of working and being portable, but they are not. If the document is simple, it will mostly work, but if it has any mid-level content, it'll fail... either way (LIbreOffice to MSO, or MSO to LibreOffice).

How do I know? I actively participated in the development of OpenOffice from 1.5 through to 3.3, and then LibreOffice from 3.3 to now.

I've never had to have a drug test as a condition of signing a work contract... ever. Oh yah, I don't work in the USA anymore. :-P

Or you can simply use one of the many free streaming sports options. You can stream just about any sport being broadcast on the planet.

I had a very well paid home office job for little over 5 years, and loved it. I was productive, enjoyed the job, got all my targets met on time etc etc. I really worked at it to make sure it wasn't taken away for any reason (that could be attributed to me).... and then along came a bigger company that bought out the big company I worked for. Within 6 months after the buyout deal was finalized, the bigger company gutted and butchered the company I worked for, cancelled all the projects, and basically ran amuck. The result... 100% layoffs in the division I worked in... and my sweet job went with it :-(

Lets see...

- I can type faster and more accurately on my Android than I can on the micro buttons of my Curve.
- I can easily make a call, answer a call and hang up a call with my Android, yet with my Curve, I have to peck at microscopic buttons on the left side of the keyboard, and I have to try and remember which button it is to hang up - I always want to hit the one just to the right of the touch pad.. every single time... which leaves the call open.
- I don't have to swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe to use my Android.. it's an Android, not an iPhone (I detest those phones too... more than BBs actually)
- Saying "You're using it wrong" doesn't help me at all. i know how to use it.. and it's annoying. Scroll scroll scroll scroll... it's worse than swipe swipe swipe

Worst of all.. call quality. Oh man.. it's horrible. On the same stupid mobile provider as my Android phone, and it is consistently worse by several orders of magnitude. People I call for business are constantly commenting on how bad the call quality is.. .it's as bad as it was with my Sony Experia (an Android phone which I threw in the trash it was so crappy).

This is not just my experience... it is echoed by each and every co-worker where I work... no one likes their BB phone. The only ones who might begrudgingly admit it's "not bad" are the Touch owners. I am not providing a view on these phones as someone who poked at one in the shops.. I use one every day, and I can say with confidence (as can everyone I know who has one) it's a crap phone from top to bottom.

I've got both a Blackberry Curve 9360 (my work phone) and an HTC Android... and I detest using my Blackberry. The UI is terrible... really terrible. The call quality (on the exact same provider as my Android) is atrocious to say the least - which is a much bigger issue than an annoying UI. Trying to read an email, type an email, send an email is an exercise in annoyance and frustration, swiping that stupid track spot and invariably having to back-track all the time.. Trying to dial a phone number... or worse, remember which button it is to hang up the call instead of leaving the call open which I always seem to do first.... every single call.

Basically my Blackberry sits on my desk in standby because I have to have it there... but if I want to do anything "real" I use my Android which works very very very well.

I'm not the only one that feels this way either. Amongst the staff where I work, exactly zero like the Blackberry phones (we all have slightly different models of either Bold or Curve and 2 people have the Touch).

That exists in KDE4 too....

Stop using Ubuntu and use a better Linux distro... there are several that are far far better than Ubuntu. open your eyes.. there is more to Linux than Ubuntu.

I find that consistently Ubuntu is slow on all machines (in the same way you find it slow vs Windows) I install it on, yet I install some other non-Ubuntu (or Ubuntu derived) distribution and the speed issues are gone.

Downvoters will have a heyday with my comment, but... whatever.

I assume he'll take a cut of any judgments in favor of the Class Action lawsuit. The paperwork I signed with him so he would take my case says that I will owe him a fixed fee (which is quite low) the case is lost... and loosing.. who knows. It seems unlikely given the reputation of the shady law firm trying to extort money, and how far the case appears to have progressed so far.

I'm in the middle of a lawsuit now.

I received a letter from a scummy law firm in another city. They blitzed the city I live in... more than 10,000 letter sent out apparently. They had "proof" in the form of an IP address that was apparently assigned to my account at my ISP and a P2P log showing that someone at that IP apparently downloaded a movie made by the production company they were representing. I've never heard of the movie. I go look it up on IMDB... it appears to be some terrible low quality, low budget SciFi that no one watched... ever. I certainly had never heard of it, and I never downloaded it.

The law firm was demanding money. If I didn't pay up the "I'm guilty" fee, then they said I'd be taken to court and sued for 10's of thousands. I called a lawyer who is well known for defending this sort of crap. He looked at the letter I received, immediately recognized it, and said.. IU know these guys, let me add you to the big pile of people I'm representing on this same threat and I'll make it go away. That was over 2 years ago...

I have had two letters from him informing me what's going on. Basically he said that this rogue law firm was full of crap, that there was now a Class Action suit open against them and they had a fixed period to reply... the law firm never said a word, so now the second letter said that it's going to court with more than 1000 people being represented... but it could take years for it to reach an end. Basically he said.. don't worry about it, it'll be tied up in the courts for years and it's not cost me a cent.