Let me start by saying that I am so excited by the prospect of moving away from the andriod/apple control of the mobile phone market, that the prospect of the Ubuntu offering of mobile/tablet/desktop is simply stunning (although I suspect that Apple users may have that experience now? but as a WIN7/Andriod user I have no clue).
I first tried Ubuntu in 2010 (10.4) and after wasting evening after evening trying and failing to get wireless connectivity and Java to work to my requirements I gave up and eventually migrated from XP to WIN7, when it came out.
So, four years later what has changed? Can I move from WIN7 to Ubuntu? I've got two use cases.
1. 65+year old parents: email, internet (including BBC iplayer), word processing and Skype.
2. Me: email, internet (don't really care about BBC iplayer), Lightroom/DXO Optics Pro (not photoshop), Video Editing (home videos - yes, removing lots of video of the floor and wall).
Having spent 2 evenings with 14.04, apart from really simple wireless setup - nothing has changed.
iPlayer does not work, in fact the BBC website also fails, (I know it's flash and it doesn't work on Andriod and it's a BBC problem, but it works on WIN7, WIN8 and Apple)
Photo editing - GIMP: great; but I am not interested in photoshop either. WINE, what? simply no? Getting a programme to work in WINE defeats the point (and in the case of lightroom does not work, I didn't bother with DXO Optics Pro)
Video editing - well that is almost pointless in the exteme.
So, 4 years later - nothing has changed (apart from Microsoft ensuring that you have to boot from DVD or USB and cannot dual boot).
Four years ago I didn't think that Ubuntu was ready for the mainstream
2014 Use Cases:
Parents: Email - Pass
Parents: internet: Fail
Parents: Word Processing : Fail
Me: Email - Pass
Me: Internet - Pass (um... yes, ok)
Me: Photo - massive fail
Me: Video - massive fail
So, a question to Mr. Shuttlewoth - where is this really OS going? Is it chasing the office worker? Really? Um, good luck with that.
The Cloud - ? Great - have fun.
If it's the comsumer, he needs to take a leaf out of the Apple manual and bundle up the photo, video and music applications up with the OS or ensure that there are a host of players in the arena.
The file directoty of WIN7/WIN8 details the minimum:
- My Documents
- My Music
- My Photos
- My Videos
It's been great watch and a great dream - but really, an OS is not enough (as Firefox will find out) - it needs the full suite of top class applications to get people to move
I will now be unplugging the USB stick and giving my parents a WIN7 laptop - it's a shame, but Ubuntu is still not tool for them or a WIN7 replacement for me.
See you in 4 years.
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