I clearly worked hard on metaphors in this post but decided to leave it because I felt maybe I was letting my frustration cloud my judgement about Ubuntu. This was definitely a good call as I more recently posted somewhere, though I forget where, that I was impressed by Ubuntu's ability to fix itself when it got screwed up. This applies to failed upgrades as much as anything else. So, enjoy the post, and don't call me on the last few paragraphs - I don't really feel that way any more.
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There was a monkey, a heron and an ibex. Before those there were other animals, fawns and the like, but I never met them.
The monkey was something I had never expected. An effective, efficient companion.
When the heron showed up it offered promise. I was perfectly happy with the monkey for company, but curiosity got the better of me. Somehow the heron and monkey had words and knocked each other out. In real terms thats a win for the heron. He shouldn't really have been expected to win, size wise.
The heron came around first, and although I couldn't really see anything in him to make him a better companion, the monkey wasn't getting any younger, so I decided to hang with the heron, and in time grew to like him as I had liked the monkey. In fact, apart from their different looks, they were essentially the same.
This ibex showed up some time later. I wasn't even sure what an ibex was or what he might do for me. For quite some time I ignored him. When you have a heron tending to your needs just fine, why stray?
Then one day when the I was asleep the Ibex started making all kinds of noise. I'd tied him to a tree but he'd eaten the rope. I hadn't told him to do this, but I could have stopped him had I been thinking straighter.... Saved the heron, for now at least.
Sadly, turning to the heron, well, there was no heron. The bird was gone. I knew what had happened, but it was hard to swallow. For me at least. The Ibex is a goat like creature it turns out, and has no trouble swallowing birds whole. What happens after that is a different matter...
The Ibex vomited up the heron, dead of course, and slumped to the floor, now looking a little worse for wear. I tried to feed him a boot (a hard one I found by a stream) but he wouldn't swallow it.
What's the moral to this story of three animals? Simple. Ubuntu is really fucking bad at upgrading itself. Both times I've let it try, it's failed half way through. Last time it left a mess, whereas this time it's left me with a console and a read only file system. I can say quite categorically that not one Microsoft Windows Update or OS upgrade has ever left me with a broken OS. This would be a crime of enormous magnitude from MS. Last time I badmouthed Ubuntu I got a rare comment telling me I was wrong. Let's see if i'm wrong this time too. If the response is that I shouldn't expect the update not to kill my machine because Ubuntu is open source and free, you're dumb. If the response is that I should find the problem and fix it rather than complain, you're also dumb. The first idea is bad publicity for the entire concept, and the latter is unrealistic. Not everybody that finds problems are going to either be able to fix them, or in many cases even be able to afford the time to get involved in helping.
I'm sorely tempted not to bother to figure out what went wrong here, but no doubt I will.
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