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General discussion

Why has Ubuntu not taken over yet?

by jotter507 Feb 4, 2009 12:53PM PST

I'm just goofing around in my office tonight, cleaning out some stuff and I came across an 8 year old Dell C600 Latitude laptop gathering dust. I decided to pop an Ubuntu disc in and let it do its thing, just to see how some pretty old hardware would respond. Inside of 30 minutes it was up and running perfectly. This was a laptop manufactured well before every laptop had an onboard Wifi adapter, so I plugged in an old Linksys USB adapter, the kind that had an extension cord and a little flip-up antenna. A few seconds later, all I had to do was type in my WPA password and I'm on the net with this thing. If this was Windows install, I would still be finding the right drivers for the wireless adapter. I don't get it.

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
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For me...
by aMUSICsite-22314524647241 Feb 6, 2009 6:43PM PST

The one thing holding me back from Linux is last time I tried it there was still no easy way to download free software from the web and one click install it.

I typically give up when confronted with 'then open the terminal' then 'copy this long string in' and stuff like that just to get an app installed.

As soon as software is as easy to install/uninstall as Windows and Macs then I'll probably have the option to boot into Linux on all my machines and slowly start using it more as I get the software I want running on it.

It's also the problem of support by the big companies like Adobe and Apple and hardware problems. It can still be an issue with Mac's and they have almost a 10% market share and a huge corporation backing them.

Linux would need to get a huge boost in market share to get wider support. The net books are starting to help in this area.

I think the time for Linux is getting near but it's not quite there yet.

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Because....
by Nicholas Buenk Feb 6, 2009 7:05PM PST

It's still not as easy to use as even Windows. They need to have a more minimal philosophy, they throw everything they can think of into programs without thinking about the usability.
And it lacks commercial software, if you're happy to stick with open office and gimp you can use it I guess... that's not most people.

I would like to see it succeed though, I don't think the software install situation is that bad. Infact with package managers you have an automated system to always update your software and can install all of it from just one place. I've wanted something like that in OS X for a while, an app store for the desktop... Linux has that.
But if the software isn't on your package manager... it's to the command line to install something.

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Precisely...
by DKhoji Feb 6, 2009 8:13PM PST

...the problem is not Linux itself, at not now that there are really good, user-friendly distributions like Ubuntu and Open Suse, but the open-source applications. They are just not as good in terms of user experience as their commercial equivalents. A lot of them are OK for experts and computer enthusiasts who are willing to spend a lot of time learning them, but even a package like Open Office still doesn't have the polish that MS Office has. (Heck, even the Mac version of MS Office doesn't have the polish that MS Office for Windows has, it's a radically inferior package. My primary computers are Macs but I still have to use Windows for writing because the Office for Mac simply sucks.)

Many of the disadvantages of Linux programs are the little things that really add up in day-to-day work -- detail polish on things like selecting text, deleting and so on and all the hundreds of little functions you use all the time. I write for a living and I've repeatedly tried Open Office and I would still rather pay several hundred dollars for MS Office than take Open Office for free. Other Linux programs are similar -- yes, it is possible to shell peas while wearing boxing gloves or to make love standing up in a hammock if you really put your mind to it, and it's quite impressive at first, but it's not something you want to do all the time, and I feel the same about Linux.

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computer repair
by Balls_Maximus Feb 7, 2009 3:46AM PST

I have this family friend, she's been paying me to clean crap off her computer for years. Every other month, the kids in the house, download a virus, or click the wrong thing when social networking. So, I cleaned it on more time, installed a duel boot Ubuntu / Windows. Mapped their documents folders, to a new partition, had linux mount that partition at start up, changed GRUB to say:
Virus Free Internet (ubuntu) and
WINDOWS (be careful)
configured ubuntu to auto log in at start to a user name with not many privlages.
If they follow my simple instructions and as soon as they see something that looks suspicious, reboot into ubuntu, they will never get a virus again. and the mother who just checks e-mail, who gets frustrated to all get out, when she logs on in windows and can't get the internet. Well, She will always have a fast stable way to check her webmail.

So that is my perfect solution, Let the older kids play games on XP, let everyone else browse the net on ubuntu. don't let them change anything, and keep a disc image of the windows partition ready to go. Since I re-mapped the documents folders of the whole family, I can remote desktop into ubuntu, and simply re-image their windows, and anything they "broke" will be back to normal.

My 0.02

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Fear. Lack of features...
by robstak Feb 9, 2009 9:00AM PST

Id say im pretty computer competent, but I still have yet to venture to Linux. I'm not against it, but I'm worried that it'd be a pain in the *** overall.

I think for a netbook I'd be ok with linux cuz id just use it for internet and light work, but for my home lappy, no way.

in linux:
Can I seamlessly stream to my xbox?
Can I access my NAS?
Can I tether my phone's 3G connection via bluetooth?
Can I get ms office (i really dont like openoffice.org)?
Can I use iTunes?
Can I play Crysis?
Is there driver lag compared to windows?

I'm almost certain there's work-arounds for all these things, but I don't want friggen work-arounds, I want convenience...

and n00bs want familiarity.

That's why linux will never succeed. even WITH netbooks, now you are seeing most with XP instead.


again i have nothing against linux, it's just not for me, and i dont think you are 1337 if you use it...

btw does android count? Silly

-karl

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Yeah I Don't Like.....
by drhjr Feb 9, 2009 9:10AM PST

Everytime it seems, when I want to do even something simple, it turns into a 27 step tutorial with a bunch of code that needs copying and pasting.

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Good question
by Renegade Knight Feb 11, 2009 6:22AM PST

There are a few reasons I can come up with. The first that my box already comes with an OS. Windows or OS X. Both of those work well enough I don't need Linux.

Then when you get to Linux programs need to be easy to install. I haven't even messed with that yet. However there isn't much commercial support. In time that won't be a problem in my world. The non opensource software is making it harder and harder for me to work with it with DRM, online authentication, one time only installs and all that crap that just gets in the way of doing the job.

MicroSoft even went so far as to not let me buy their software when I both tried and was qualified by the terms of their program. Hell if they won't even sell me the softare that's a pain to keep going there are less ties for me to the commercial operating systems that worthless software runs on.

Linux is now OEM installed on some machines. It's OEM in a lot of special applications (Like my Archos). OS X is only one step removed from Linux.

I think it will continue to gain marketshare. Especially if it's so easy to install on old junky hardware where it's lesser overhead demands make it work better.

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