Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

The hits keep on rolling this time with the Adobe Flash plugin.  I read a blog where the new default sound system in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy is something called PulseAudio.  Apparently, there's a bug in the Flash plugin when working with PulseAudio so your whole system freezes as a result when you play some media files.  In my case, the system would crash and the audio would go into an infinite loop.  It's definitely an audio issue as I have narrowed this crash down to Flash sites.

There is a work around that involves some wrapper and utilizing Alsa instead.  But I just can't fathom how people can go about making these stupid decisions without testing them.  I mean, why employ a new default audio system when you don't bother testing the base system for what might be considered a commonly used feature?

The great thing is that it's not only me who is complaining.  I've read numerous other comments where frustrated users say that the latest release has been a complete and utter disaster.

The old slogan where Ubuntu would "just work" no longer can apply if it slowly is becoming a new form of bloatware.  I avoided Fedora because I was sick of untested bloatware and wanted a cheap distribution that would "just work."  I'm not getting it and am deeply disappointed.

It's obvious that the Ubuntu community seems far more interested in pushing the envelope of technology by trying to push new, untested default software rather than stable releases.  I think in attempting to compete against Fedora or other distributions, the Ubuntu community is going to slowly wreck itself in this path.

I keep saying this but if Linux as a whole wants a flagship distribution for the desktop, the main thing it needs to prove is to be stable and "just work" out of the box.  Without these basic requirements, there's absolutely zero possibility of Linux becoming a standard desktop distribution.  At this point, you're really going to be better off purchasing a low end Mac, since at the very minimum, you're guaranteed that stuff will work.