Why I Dislike Ubuntu - Reason #37

I got burned by Ubuntu again this morning - as if I needed to be reminded why I dislike it so much. I have a number of computers around here, and they all have a moderately complicated multi-boot configuration. Each of them has multiple Linux distributions installed, and most of them have some sort of Windows as well. I always use the openSuSE Legacy GRUB bootloader. The overall result is that it does what I want, and it's reliable. At least, it was reliable until I installed some Ubuntu updates this morning.

I was catching up on updates on a variety of systems, when I let one of the install the latest available updates for Ubuntu 12.04. When it was done and rebooted, it came up with the Ubuntu GRUB 2 bootloader. I thought that was a bit odd, I must have overlooked something said it was ok to overwrite the MBR, or at least a notification that is was going to do that. So when I installed the Ubuntu updates on another system I paid closer attention to the process - and there was no such question or notification, but sure enough when it rebooted, it came up with the Ubuntu GRUB 2 bootloader. Grrr.

It's not too difficult to fix this, and recreate my preferred bootloader configuration. But it is rude and/or careless of Ubuntu to do this. Those who have a multiboot configuration which includes Ubuntu 12.04, watch out for this.

jw