Honestly though, the only thing that attracts me to Linux in the first place is digging into the source and pulling apart the pieces and putting them back together again, so that I can understand the tools I use more intimately.
To me, distribution projects like Debian, Arch & Gentoo serve as a useful source for complete repositories of working, interoperable packages, moreso than they serve as a convenient provider of a working operating system.
I tend to chalk up buggy, quirky work-arounds and long waits for bug fixes in Linux as the price I'm willing to pay to be able to see the source, and receive the software for free. Annoying glitches are something I wouldn't tolerate from Apple or Microsoft, if I'm going to shell out for the high price tags placed on their operating systems.
I'm with you 100%. Often times I do use Linux as a dumb platform to do work like I would Windows or OSX, but occasionally I love tearing into it and messing with it, which is priceless in my book.
To me, distribution projects like Debian, Arch & Gentoo serve as a useful source for complete repositories of working, interoperable packages, moreso than they serve as a convenient provider of a working operating system.
I tend to chalk up buggy, quirky work-arounds and long waits for bug fixes in Linux as the price I'm willing to pay to be able to see the source, and receive the software for free. Annoying glitches are something I wouldn't tolerate from Apple or Microsoft, if I'm going to shell out for the high price tags placed on their operating systems.