Comment 200 for bug 330824

On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 2:16 AM, Jason Waddle<email address hidden> wrote:
> I registered just to say that I have been seriously affected by this
> bug, and it certainly deserves more than the "medium" designation.

While I can definitely understand your frustration, please keep in
mind the context of your issue. Ext4 is not the default file system so
it only affects a small minority of users. See
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Importance for more information. I am not
sure if this would qualify as a severe impact and it is already fixed
in newer kernels as you noted. Also this isn't affecting all ext4
users, as some people on this report including myself are unable to
reproduce it and have had absolutely zero problems with ext4.

>
> I love Linux in general, and have been very happy with the "hands off"
> safe, stable feel of Ubuntu distros, but this latest install was a
> freaking disaster since I primarily use this machine remotely.  If EXT4
> was known to be so unstable, it should have been marked so.

As others have said, if you want the most stable release, go with the
file system the OS recommends. The fact that it isn't the default
should in itself tell you it is believed to be less stable. The
overall stability also was not fully known, which was the point of
including it as an option in 9.04, to get testing and learn about
important bugs like this so they can be fixed. As with any software,
you are not going to know all the bugs until it is released.

> I've gone to the mainline kernel 2.6.30 and I had to install the newer
> 180 version of nvidia drivers in order to do so.  Very helpful
> directions for how to do this are given here:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-common/+bug/384639.
> After the switch to the mainline kernel, no problem with the mass
> deletes.

Excellent, glad to hear another confirmation that the issues will be
addressed in Karmic.

>
> Ubuntu folks, when am I going to be able to tell my mom it's a good idea
> to ditch the Windows and go Ubuntu?

Right now, because she is probably not going to select a non-default
file system. This is really only relevant more advanced users. Your
Mom probably doesn't know or care what a file system is, and shouldn't
have to. It is for this exact reason ext4 was not the default in 9.04,
and is becoming default in 9.10 (I believe) only after testing and
resolving all the issues. So your Mom can happily install Karmic
without issues including this one just as she could have Jaunty :)