One-Off Problems in Linux?

[Arnox]

Do you guys often encounter issues in Linux that pop up once or twice and then completely resolve themselves for good? This has been an odd phenomenon I'm starting to notice across Linux distros.

[figueroa]

Not in 40 years.

[Eadwine Rose]

Crooked volt, is what I call those.

[Nokkaelaein]

Do you guys often encounter issues in Linux that pop up once or twice and then completely resolve themselves for good? This has been an odd phenomenon I'm starting to notice across Linux distros.

Heh, can you describe some examples? :) As in, more like cosmetic issues or some deeper system mishaps that then "magically" self-correct?

[BV206]

Does it count if there is a problem but it doesn't occur again after logout/login or rebooting?

[Arnox]

Does it count if there is a problem but it doesn't occur again after logout/login or rebooting?

Yep.

Heh, can you describe some examples? :) As in, more like cosmetic issues or some deeper system mishaps that then "magically" self-correct?

For me personally, there used to be an issue with the MX package manager where when I click on the search box in the Enabled Repos tab, it wouldn't let me type anything until I clicked the package filter dropdown box or just refreshed the package list altogether. Problem later disappeared entirely. Maybe an update fixed it?

There was also another problem where the internet connection was acting very weird. I restarted the system and then it behaved itself almost entirely afterwards. Never had that issue since.

[Adrian]

For me personally, there used to be an issue with the MX package manager where when I click on the search box in the Enabled Repos tab, it wouldn't let me type anything until I clicked the package filter dropdown box or just refreshed the package list altogether. Problem later disappeared entirely. Maybe an update fixed it?

I think I fixed that in an update, I wish though people reported the problem with steps how to replicate them instead of wishing for the problem to go away by itself

[DukeComposed]

Does it count if there is a problem but it doesn't occur again after logout/login or rebooting?

Yep.

I recall at times having to reinstall Windows 95 multiple times in a day to get the default WordPad behavior back that I liked.

I also remember situations where I had Linux Mint or Antergos running on (the same) laptop and some quirky problem would show up requiring me to do a little web investigation and find a config file that I could update to make the problem go away. Nothing too major, but always something that would crop up after a week or two of steady use.

I also remember several similar situations with Windows 98, Windows XP, and so forth, that made me scratch my head and wonder how much testing they actually did on their operating system before they started selling it to people.

The answer? A lot. A whole, whole lot.

As it turns out, operating systems are complicated. Like, really complicated. And ensuring flawless performance on a million devices is pretty much impossible unless you're willing to spend billions of dollars to handle the top 80% of use cases, and if you're a major OS manufacturer like Microsoft, that only covers a few hundred million configurations.

When you stop for a second and think about how all of modern computing is based on billions of transistors made out of sand pushing little shocks of lightning through tens of thousands of tiny channels smaller than the width of a human hair, you start to appreciate that fault tolerance is the lowest it's ever been, and still the occasional quirk is going to pop up and annoy you.

Everything around you is a miracle. You have a phone in your pocket you can use to call anyone in the world or look up when any of the Three Stooges died whenever you want. Information from the other side of the planet can reach you in minutes. You have a computer running a free operating system that gives you up-to-the-minute news, sports, and weather. You can play games on it. It will show you pictures of ladies in bikinis, sometimes whether you want it to or not. You can write the next New York Times best seller on it. You can e-mail your mom, or write yourself a letter meant for someone who passed away ages ago. But once in a while the icons aren't exactly where you left them on the Desktop. It happens to me, too.

Have some perspective.

[Eadwine Rose]

For me personally, there used to be an issue with the MX package manager where when I click on the search box in the Enabled Repos tab, it wouldn't let me type anything until I clicked the package filter dropdown box or just refreshed the package list altogether. Problem later disappeared entirely. Maybe an update fixed it?

Yes, update fixed that after extensive reports by a few users.

Ah, missed Adrian's post on the next page.

[operadude]

Does it count if there is a problem but it doesn't occur again after logout/login or rebooting?

Yep.

I recall at times having to reinstall Windows 95 multiple times in a day to get the default WordPad behavior back that I liked.

I also remember situations where I had Linux Mint or Antergos running on (the same) laptop and some quirky problem would show up requiring me to do a little web investigation and find a config file that I could update to make the problem go away. Nothing too major, but always something that would crop up after a week or two of steady use.

I also remember several similar situations with Windows 98, Windows XP, and so forth, that made me scratch my head and wonder how much testing they actually did on their operating system before they started selling it to people.

The answer? A lot. A whole, whole lot.

As it turns out, operating systems are complicated. Like, really complicated. And ensuring flawless performance on a million devices is pretty much impossible unless you're willing to spend billions of dollars to handle the top 80% of use cases, and if you're a major OS manufacturer like Microsoft, that only covers a few hundred million configurations.

When you stop for a second and think about how all of modern computing is based on billions of transistors made out of sand pushing little shocks of lightning through tens of thousands of tiny channels smaller than the width of a human hair, you start to appreciate that fault tolerance is the lowest it's ever been, and still the occasional quirk is going to pop up and annoy you.

Everything around you is a miracle. You have a phone in your pocket you can use to call anyone in the world or look up when any of the Three Stooges died whenever you want. Information from the other side of the planet can reach you in minutes. You have a computer running a free operating system that gives you up-to-the-minute news, sports, and weather. You can play games on it. It will show you pictures of ladies in bikinis, sometimes whether you want it to or not. You can write the next New York Times best seller on it. You can e-mail your mom, or write yourself a letter meant for someone who passed away ages ago. But once in a while the icons aren't exactly where you left them on the Desktop. It happens to me, too.

Have some perspective.

Just for fun, I entered this in my DuckDuckGo Browser:

name of paradox or syndrome where expectations grow as things improve

And, almost INSTANTANEOUSLY, this is what I got back:

Tocqueville Paradox

As you said, "Miraculous"