Look, I have had issues with any OS I've used over the past 30+ years. But I've never had this many crashes with a browser as Firefox manages on 14.04, not even with Netscape on IRIX. Ubuntu 14.04 just feels unfinished to me, especially compared to 10.04. I have had in a single month more issues with 14.04 than with 10.04 in 6+ months. And I don't think my hardware just got flakey right after a fresh install on a new hard disk drive.

Thanks, it did indeed the trick (just rebooted). It looks like the crash report got stuck because of the Unicode decoding error.

OK, I deleted one crash report, let's hope that's the reason I saw 4+ "System problem detected" windows. I actually did find that page a few months a go but was not all that happy with the "Disable apport" part. Anyway, let's see if it makes a difference. Thanks!

Ubuntu 14.04 user here. Every time I login I am greeted with a stack of "System problem detected" warnings. Both Firefox and Thunderbird are extremely unstable. Firefox crashes a few times a week. Thunderbird does so twice a week (about). Now and then the whole system hangs when doing a rsync to an external disk (hangs, not busy).

Oh, I am sure Linux apologists blame me, my hardware, etc. But I've been running 10.04 for years on the same hardware, except that I replaced the 320G HDD for a 1TB one and switched to AHCI. Maybe that's the problem?

One issue I see often is this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubu... It gives a very unfinished/unstable feel to 14.04

What do you mean, not strong enough? We've managed to walk an Apple wall wart out of an outlet several times. The lightning connecter stayed connected to the iPad.

Never used a ZX Spectrum keyboard?

B) documentation is boring, unrewarding and time consuming to do well so nobody wants to bother.

I actually like to write documentation. And at 100 USD/hr you can certainly drop me a line if this crowd sourcing ever happens.

Exactly. Moreover, clients who insist on 24/7 availability etc. are also the ones that drop you as soon as they've found someone who claims to be available 24/8 and/or asks a few cents less. Rent-a-coder et al are good places to find such clients (can you write a facebook clone, the budget is 200 USD...).

I work with clients in /several/ countries besides the USA (e.g. Japan, The Netherlands, UK). Call? They can email me. And if it's urgent, they should've emailed me earlier. Of course there are exceptions, but those are extremely rare, because I make clear that the preferred way to reach me is email, and that I don't want to use Skype (or similar). And it really works. I can't be standby 24/7 because that would affect my work, and so far there hasn't been any need for this.

With one project they hired a new guy. He asked me (on Skype) "how do I edit a file on Linux" (really!). So I replied "vi, otherwise just transfer the file and edit it locally". He picked vi but .... he insisted that I was going to teach him how to use vi via Skype. No thanks, even if I could declare my hours. In general, my experience with Skype has been that the other side sets a time, and when I am on Skype, on time, they always have to finish some business first. If I can hold on for a while (20+ minutes). One of the reasons I don't do Skype anymore. The other one is that some customers tried to use it to get a real time quote. I need time to think about such things (most things, in general), so no. Besides brain storming via email also gives a nice transcript (which I am more than happy to turn into a formal document).

"[Emacs] Cua-mode allows one to use ‘C-v’, ‘C-c’, and ‘C-x’ to paste, copy, and cut the region. Since this conflicts with very important keybindings in Emacs, these CUA bindings are only active when the mark is active. The package does a whole lot more, too: ‘C-z’ to undo, Shift-movement to select, and it includes support for rectangular regions" http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs...

just keep an eye on what device types are showing up in /sys/bus/usb or device manager.

I'll pass this on to my mother, thanks!

typos: Single borad computer & Reapberry Pi & Respberry & Pi Raspbery Pi & SATA is 2T not 2G. I almost have the feeling you did some (bad) SEO... Anyway, thanks, I like to stay somewhat up to date with SBC. My current favorite is the CubieTruck, though.

That's a choice that has been made. AFAIK the iOS device asks if the computer can be trusted....

Clear, thanks for the clarification/correction. TBH, I was surpised that nothing had to be paid.

Disadvantages*. But overall, I think it's better than having a pair of reading glasses, or switching to glasses. I hike a lot, and check during hikes for small animals (arachnids, mainly small scorpion species), and being near sighted is good for that. With both contacts in I am "as blind as a bat". Prices and menu cards also have become unreadable, hence why I switched to monovision. Not sure if I want to laser my right (dominant) eye to make it permanent. Probably not.