I have a mini PC at home, which sole purpose is to run a browser to play stuff from Netflix, its display being my TV, of course. There's no point in throwing money at the thing, so it's a pretty low budget configuration, plus I didn't see a reason to buy OS for it. For last 2 years or so, it had Ubuntu 16.something (I think). Apart from initial problems with display (desktop moved to the left, with about 5cm offscreen), it worked ok.
The only thing other than running Chrome and watching Netflix I did on that system was to click 'ok, install updates' every two weeks or so, when constant nagging about them got on my nerves. Some time ago the update process finished with this result: "New version of Chrome is not supported on this ancient Ubuntu install. Do you want to upgrade your OS automagically?". Hmm, ok, why not, I'm installing updates anyway. >click<
Two minutes passes and: "It's not possible to upgrade automagically".
Ok, great UX, as expected. Let's just forget about updates and use what is installed until it stops working.
All was fine and dandy until three days ago I accidentally clicked 'install updates' again. Nothing to worry about, it will just run in circles for a minute or two and fail. "Updates installed successfuly." Wait, what? What was installed exactly? Not the unsupported version of Chrome, surely...
Click Chrome icon, 30 seconds of silence, "Chrome crashed. Run it again?", 30 seconds of silence, "Chrome crashed. [...]".
What a piece of crap. Oh well, I quess it's time to install newer version of the OS.
Installation goes fine, select language, next, next, next, copying files, done.
Want to reboot?
Yes.
Welcome to something that looks like a desktop, but doesn't actually work. Do you want to install Ubuntu?
What is this shit? I already installed the OS. No, don't install anything, just let me use the desktop and stuff.
Ok, no installation for you. What do you want to do now?
Open system menu.
Not working :D
... start browser?
Not working, ha ha ha.
Wait, is this some kind of live shit booted from USB? WTF?!?! WHY? Reboot and show me boot options.
Yes master.
Fuck me.
OCZ VERTEX
(ubuntu) OCZ VERTEX
OCZ VERTEX
(UEFI System)
(ubuntu) OCZ VERTEX
(UEFI) OCZ VERTEX
I don't even... Disable booting from USB and boot from (ubuntu) OCZ VERTEX, the first one.
Welcome to your new desktop. What do you want to do now?
Start Firefox. Go to Netflix.
Continue watching?
Yes.
Not working.
Ehhh. Open software center.
Here you go. I found 4 packages online. Also no repositories are available.
What? Reload available packages.
I found 4 packages online. There is no internet connection. That's a total of 0 packages found.
... Download Chrome from Google.
Downloaded. What to do with this file?
Install it.
Installation successful. And also installation failed.
What?
Nothing. No info. Everything is fine. Why?
Start Chrome?
Of course.
Go to Netflix. Continue watching.
[movie plays]
Good. Glad it's over.
[system freeze] ha ha
Googling for Ubuntu system freeze solution gives a fuckton of results. All not working. Or maybe some work. Who knows, but what is certain is that comments like "MONTHS OF HELL!" are not encouraging.
Right, so let's ditch Ubuntu and find something else. But what... someone told me that Mint is hassle free. Ok, their site says that streaming services work great, they have a screenshot with Netflix...
and someone rants on forum that 'we are 100% compatible with Netflix!'. Looks good, let's install that.
Language, next, next, next, reboot. Check boot options... Huh, no new partitions, and no 'Mint' mentioned. That's good, maybe.
Hello! Welcome to your brand new fantastic Mint desktop.
Sure, great, start Firefox, go to Netflix.
Netflix wants to use DRM, enable that?
Oh, that's promising. Yes, enable.
All good to go.
Continue watching.
Pff. Not working, you moran.
I'm still calm. I'm still calm... Open software center.
Quadrilion packages found.
Search for Chrome.
We only have Chromium, but it's even better.
Ok, install that, go to Netflix and continue watching.
It is a not working.
Download Chrome. Install.
Chrome installed. Also Chrome is not an installable package, couldn't install it.
So it's installed or not?
It sure is.
Continue watching...
[movie plays]
[second movie plays alright too]
Phew, that was close, almost lost my temper. Now let's disable updates and never think about it again. Open system settings.
[system freeze]