Bored of Ubuntu generally.

[cespinal]

Dont mind me but... anything exciting happening to Ubuntu lately?

Been unsing it since 2008. Nice to see all the progress made but at this point, I feel like we reached the end of the race: that's it. Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) are finally, complete OS that everyone can use and are ready to jump to the mainstream market (there are hints that tell this is happening).

What is the next big thing? I mean, I have a nice Kubuntu laptop, everything works 100%, is fast, responsive...but that's it!. Internet, emails, documents, a game here and there....The rest of the 38423048023482304802834 applications Ubuntu claims to have available and free in the software centre are pretty much boring...hoy many of you wander around the SC just trying to find something exciting but end up trying and removing all those apps?

Forgive my small rant, but I would like to open a discussion from it. What should the next big thing be for Ubuntu? Games? Enterprise applications?

[Thewhistlingwind]

Go become a developer if your becoming disinterested in current offerings, theres always a cool idea to do.......

(Ideas are the easy part.)

[8_Bit]

I disagree. There is still a lot of work to do.

There is still no viable equivalent to Adobe's Creative Suite.

There is still much work to do in terms of hardware support. The hardware support forum here on this website is proof.

Ubuntu / Linux is still lacking heavily in the games department. There are games, sure, but they're hardly ever of the same quality as the ones found on other platforms.

What pains me is that I still can not recommend Ubuntu to family members. One example: my sister has a small keychain-sized digital "photo album". It's like a thumb drive that displays photos. You hook it up to a PC and put photos on it, and they display on the keychain.

Well, this device does not work in Ubuntu, unsurprisingly. And this was a deciding factor for my sister, so she stuck with Windows.

It's these small consumer devices that techies and Linux nerds never consider, that are often the main reason "regular people" use a computer. Thus Ubuntu still has a long way to go to achieve the goal of converting that demographic. Until an average joe can go to Walmart, buy a gimicky digital photo album or some other similar device, and hook it up to Ubuntu without a problem, Ubuntu will remain an OS exclusive to tech-heads. (And yes, I know it seems silly to give up all of your software freedom for such simple gimmicks, but this is reality, people - not everyone uses a computer to compile the latest Linux kernel.)

[lz1dsb]

Whether Ubuntu is going to become a mainstream OS is still to be seen. It is popular, yes. But mainstream? There is a still long road ahead...
I would be happy though, if Linux in general becomes mainstream. This would mean a much better hardware support and more mainstream applications ported to Linux.

[el_koraco]

Yeah, that seems to be a problem with Linux users, none of us are happy when stuff doesn't break.

[vehemoth]

Yeah, that seems to be a problem with Linux users, none of us are happy when stuff doesn't break.

That's why you try to build your own distro from scratch so that others can break it.

[Gerontion]

Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) are finally, complete OS that everyone can use.

I'm pretty sure support for visually-impaired users of Linux is behind Windows. The Linux screen-reader website even says that it's not as good as the Windows counterpart; that's a lot of people who are being cut out.

[3rdalbum]

Ubuntu was getting boring for a while there, but Unity and Gnome 3 have made things more interesting again.

Software Center is still rather dull to look through now, I've seen most of what's there. But the new paid section has a few new interesting things.

[t0p]

I wouldn't say Ubuntu is "boring". I like being able to hook up any device to my computers and see them work. (Actually, I can't hook up any device and see it just work. I've got a virtual XP in VirtualBox just so I can use my HP Deskjet D2660 printer. I bought the damn thing because it was cheap and listed as "Linux-compatible", yet I still have to jump through hoops to print a photo, dammit! Grr!!)

Where was I? Oh yeah, pretty happy with Ubuntu. And if I did become bored with it, I could look for ways to break it. Or shift to a more "interesting" (ie one that doesn't work very well) Linux distro. There are a number of those available, I believe.

[juancarlospaco]

People looking for Windows INSIDE Linux will Fail everytime.

Proyect Bossanova try to make a open source nice 3D game, Blender already do it.

FreeCAD is a nice program, like the propietary ones but open source, if i have spare time i would to like to learn it.

[cespinal]

I wouldn't say Ubuntu is "boring". I like being able to hook up any device to my computers and see them work. (Actually, I can't hook up any device and see it just work. I've got a virtual XP in VirtualBox just so I can use my HP Deskjet D2660 printer. I bought the damn thing because it was cheap and listed as "Linux-compatible", yet I still have to jump through hoops to print a photo, dammit! Grr!!)

Where was I? Oh yeah, pretty happy with Ubuntu. And if I did become bored with it, I could look for ways to break it. Or shift to a more "interesting" (ie one that doesn't work very well) Linux distro. There are a number of those available, I believe.

I love breaking stuff as well... not that I know how to repair a lot of the things I break but meh....

Becoming a developer for me is simply not an option, I don't have neither the time nor the skills to engage in that.

Unity certainly was a breeze of fresh air, but I got the feeling that it got old FAST. Maybe lack of customization?

KDE, works beautifully... but all those lovely afternoons working to make it look like I wanted are gone: the system just works now lol.

So yeah... games?... meh (although I LOVE Urban Terror), CS suite? nada... QCAD? sorry... but is a joke next to the current VectorWorks or Autocad.

You know what? KERKYTHEA! now that is something for linux users.. oh... wait... sketchup doesnt work in Linux...forget what I just said.

here, have some more stops .................

[Frogs Hair]

Maybe I'm too new to Ubuntu , but it seems like the next adventure is only clicks away .

[Islington]

cespinal, this is what happened for me a while ago around hardy or jaunty. My need to tweak led to theming. Others go to more remote wm. Others learn to tweak the code.

:popcorn:

[wolfen69]

What should the next big thing be for Ubuntu? Games? Enterprise applications?

I thought Unity was the next big thing.

[forrestcupp]

@ the OP

Basically, you've just gotten past the excitement of something new, and you're at the stage where you realize that it is just an OS, which is nothing but a tool for you to get things done on your computer. Ubuntu is just as exciting as it ever was to people who are new to it. And it's just as boring as it ever was to those of us who have been around for a long time. ;)

[rg4w]

Personally, I think an OS being boring is a *good* thing.

The time I spend with my computer is about my work; the OS is just a platform on which my work is done. If I find the OS more interesting than the work I'm doing on it, that's a failure.

That said, with Unity and the Asus preinstalls and the new System 76 laptops and the hint of a new machine from ZaReason, I find plenty to stay enthused about with Ubuntu even as it's merely stable and stays out of my way in my daily use.

[pookiebear]

yep if canonical can get adobe to port creative suite there will be a ton of converts. otherwise it will be a slow but steady climb. I do wish more games had linux ports too.
I like boring OSs cause that means they work.

[Ghost|BTFH]

I think posters have aimed at the ground and missed on this one.

OP was asking what the next major project for CONTENT should be. We have a huge selection of software, a lot of it just isn't awesome and shiny and sparkley and worthy of discussing at the proverbial water cooler...

With that being said, allow me to offer the suggestion we make a cooler interface (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1773921) for the user and perhaps something really impressive on the RPG end - epic scale game, solid graphics...I'm thinking Dragon's Age on steroids or something similar.

Just NOT another FPS...those have been done to death.

~Ghost|BTFH