My wife actually wants Ubuntu

[VE6EFR]

A few weeks ago I installed 12.04 LTS on my computer. Once I figured out how to get around and actually do what I wanted it slowly got more and more painful any time I had to boot into Windows to do anything.

Earlier today I was showing my wife Ubuntu on my computer. I encouraged her to sit down and give it a try to see what she thought of it. In the past she has been a die hard windows user but after talking with her about the advantages that Ubuntu brings to the table she surprised me by asking me to install it on her computer. So tomorrow while she is at work I will be doing the install on her machine.

Gotta love it when the family finally starts to see the light.

[Bandit]

Yep. Hopefully she enjoys it. :)

[xaegis]

You know what "THEY" say; Once you try UBUNTU you never go back... or something like that. ;)

[sammiev]

Let her try it first on your computer for about a week so she can try all the web sites she visit. In all likely hood she will be very happy and want it like the rest of us. :)

[Shadius]

I have a similar story. After I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my computer dual-booting Windows XP, my brother and all his/my friends were intrigued about Ubuntu. My brother actually wanted me to set up a user account for him on Ubuntu so that he could learn it. The Ubuntu philosophy is at work! :) Gotta love Ubuntu Linux. :guitar:

[Mikeb85]

My wife uses Ubuntu all the time and likes it, our family computer is now Ubuntu only. It suits all our needs, 12.04 LTS is nice and stable, and it really is easier to use than Windows. She can Skype with her family, use Google's range of services, etc..., Libre Office is more than adequate, etc...

[codingman]

=D>

another ubuntu user (hopefully...)

[mips]

It's always in your best interest to give your wife what she wants :biggrin:

[Simian Man]

Does she know she can't use it to run Word, itunes, The Sims, etc?

[sffvba[e0rt]

Does she know she can't use it to run Word, itunes, The Sims, etc?

... assuming she wants to run Word, itunes, The Sims, etc ...


404

[mips]

Does she know she can't use it to run Word, itunes, The Sims, etc?

We will discover that if he starts a new thread called "So who has slept on the couch lately?"

[MisterGaribaldi]

Indeed.

Of course, we'll also know it went the other way if we see a thread posted in here by a new user titled "Top 10 Reasons why Ubuntu is better than a husband..." :guitar:

[thatguruguy]

Does she know she can't use it to run Word, itunes, The Sims, etc?

Weird. The one program that my niece HAD to have working on the computer my sister has running Ubuntu was Sims 3. I installed it through PlayOnLinux, and it runs flawlessly. Perhaps you and I have different understandings of what the word "can't" means.

Maybe, just maybe, not everyone's experience is the same as yours.

[KiwiNZ]

Does she know she can't use it to run Word, itunes, The Sims, etc?


This post I find to be quite offensive, so because it's the OP's wife and therefore being a woman she only has shallow computer requirements.

I showed your post to my wife, she had some ummm "innovative" uses to which you could put your computer, most of which are anatomically impossible.

[wilee-nilee]

This post I find to be quite offensive, so because it's the OP's wife and therefore being a woman she only has shallow computer requirements.

I showed your post to my wife, she had some ummm "innovative" uses to which you could put your computer, most of which are anatomically impossible.

That is not the only sexist post, but good eye. :)

[Bandit]

does she know she can't use it to run word, itunes, the sims, etc?

wine :)

[bob-linux-user]

Just curious... what desktop environment did she like? Unity? Gnome? XFCE? KDE etc?

[josephmills]

This post I find to be quite offensive, so because it's the OP's wife and therefore being a woman she only has shallow computer requirements.

I showed your post to my wife, she had some ummm "innovative" uses to which you could put your computer, most of which are anatomically impossible.

For once I agree with the dark side !

my GF also uses Ubuntu and I don't get what the difference is between a guy and a girl that use ubuntu they are both human

and Ubuntu saying is

Linux for Human beings

sexism is not tolerated around these parts and you might want to think about what you are saying.
:lolflag:

[viperdvman]

Hey, I don't care who you get to use Ubuntu. It's a damn good OS, and anyone who discovers it, tries it out, and likes it, be they man, woman, child, elderly, doesn't matter... is a win in anyone's book :D

[Paqman]

This post I find to be quite offensive, so because it's the OP's wife and therefore being a woman she only has shallow computer requirements.


If Word, Itunes and The Sims qualify one as "shallow", then most computer users (male or female) are indeed shallow. Those are some pretty ubiquitous and well-loved programs.

[VE6EFR]

She really doesn't use games other than on facebook so not having those isn't going to be much of a problem. We did use Microsoft Office but the Ubuntu equivalents work quite well so that won't be an issue either. However since her computer is still setup as a dual boot system she can always boot into windows if needed.

She sent a few text messages asking how things were going. Install is complete. I had to move a few files over to my machine over the network to make room while I partitioned her hard drive. Now that everything is installed I have moved them back to her computer again. Everything has been configured (email, music, messenger, twitter etc) and all updates have been applied. I think she will be pleased when she gets home.

[Duncan J Murray]

This post I find to be quite offensive, so because it's the OP's wife and therefore being a woman she only has shallow computer requirements.

I showed your post to my wife, she had some ummm "innovative" uses to which you could put your computer, most of which are anatomically impossible.

Well, it's a valid question.

I'm all for converting people over to linux, but my wife had a nasty surprise when she found that openoffice didn't behave in the same way as microsoft office, and screwed up some presentations she was working on. For a while she wanted windows and office back on it.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

My wife asked me to install Ubuntu on her eeePC; because, the upgrade to Windows XP SP3 wouldn't fit on the SSD. I installed Ubuntu on it and she was happy with it for a very long time.

She is an accountant and eventually needed to run accounting software at home. The eeePC couldn't do it even if it was running Windows. She bought herself a new Laptop with Windows 7, then bought all the proprietary accounting software she needed.

It isn't that she prefers Microsoft Windows or Linux. The truth is, when it comes to accounting software, it just isn't available on Linux, and a lot of it doesn't work with wine. It is simply that she needed the right software for her job.

If someone is happy with Ubuntu, great. However, may people just want a computer that does what they need it to do at the time. If it doesn't, they will get something that does.

Oh, and by-the-way, she is not a shallow computer user. She got all the software she needed and installed the software herself.

[DingusFett]

I'm trying to convince my fiance to give Ubuntu a try, as her laptop runs poorly with Windows 7, but she isn't that big on change and knows her way around and knows the software she's used to so not having much luck yet.

Have converted one friend though who saw it on my desktop, asked to have a play with it, then took my install disk home and put it on his laptop. He kept it dual-boot with Windows because his Mum uses it frequently, but one day he left it in Ubuntu and he said she preferred it to Windows and now just uses Ubuntu.

[forrestcupp]

I've been trying to get my wife to try Ubuntu for years. She's pretty stubborn. When she got an Android phone and tablet, I laughed at her and told her she's a Linux user. :)


Does she know she can't use it to run Word, itunes, The Sims, etc?
It's true about iTunes, but The Sims works, and I use Word and Excel in Ubuntu almost every day.

[KiwiNZ]

I don't have to try and get my wife to use anything, she is more than capable of researching and obtain any product she desires be it a new car, cellphone, computer OS or investment.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

i don't have to try and get my wife to use anything, she is more than capable of researching and obtain any product she desires be it a new car, cellphone, computer os or investment.

+1

[WyattJ]

That is terrific!

I was an instant Linux lover when I first used my sister's laptop when I was 9. Hopefully she will be too!

[zombifier25]

I got my best friend to use Ubuntu. At first, he only uses it occasionally, but then when his Windows system was completely borked by a malware, he's now using Ubuntu almost-fulltime. We frequently discuss about Compiz effects and stuffs, but mostly Compiz :P

Other people were tempted by me into this Ubuntu-thingy, but never got around to installing it though.

[Brimwylf]

Same thing happened here with my better half. She wouldn't even hear of it when I was on tiling window managers, but now that I'm on KDE 4 she wants of piece of the action. All she needs is Firefox + vlc + a music player so I doubt it'll be a hard transition from windows.
Ubuntu makes it easier for people to switch, that's for sure.

[vasa1]

Why don't the ladies sign up and post directly ???

[forrestcupp]

I don't have to try and get my wife to use anything, she is more than capable of researching and obtain any product she desires be it a new car, cellphone, computer OS or investment.

This is true for most of our wives. But sometimes people don't know something is there to research. As for my wife, she just doesn't care about OSs or user interfaces enough to bother installing something that may not let her run a program she wants to run.

[JOHNNYG713]

My girl (Now my wife) saw my Ultimate Edition OS, and said "wow" "what is that"! I told her I was like a cheap maid ! I don't do windows !! she saw how fast it booted under 50 sec. and your on the net ! she found it to be so easy to work with, she is now a hardcore fangirl !!!:lolflag:
"Computers are like air conditioning, nether work when you open windows" !!!
"Linus torvolds" :guitar:

[sffvba[e0rt]

Why don't the ladies sign up and post directly ???

Forums are not everyone's cup of tea (and not everyone gets excited about someone using a specific OS :p)

My wife doesn't want to switch from Windows, on the other hand she uses Libre Office and when I got Office 2010 with three licenses she refused to install it :)


404

[hakermania]

Hah, just like I gave the ubuntu spirit to my brother as well ;)

[Simian Man]

LOL I'm surprised my post spurred such a response. I would have posted the same if the OP was a woman who wanted to switch their husband to Linux. (Though I might have switched The Sims for Skyrim). My wife and I both play both games, so that's not sexist either :).

I just was asking whether the OP was honest about what Linux can and cannot do. If he wasn't then this experiment is likely to blow up in his face someday.

Oh and that's cool that the Sims works in Wine, but Wine is normally quite difficult to set up. In my opinion it's not worth the trouble even if Winehq says the game will work.

[stalkingwolf]

several years ago between the release of freespire 4.5 and 5.0 I converted my wife. I was playing with different distros, had xandros , centos, and a few others. Among them was freespire 4.5 I liked freespire it was something she could jump to with no problem. So long story short after several weeks of her lets say colorful objections to windows and some of its "added features". I installed freespire on her computer.

While she was happily going on without the added features. I was looking at other distros. Then i discovered ubuntu 6.10. i installed it. I loved it. But having experienced the oh **** factor more than once i was not in a hurry to change her computer.

At some point freespire began to get flaky and i installed ubuntu , by then 7.04.
I just upgraded her system to Zorin when her 10.10 hit EOL. She has never looked back.

I have installed ubuntu or variants of it for many people. From 6-7 yr old kids to the most recent a retired mathematics instructor. He is an "experienced user." Of course his "experience" runs from a trs80 to a system running win98 and gwbasic. He hasnt touched a computer in over 10 years.

His brother is a win fanboi. when i installed Zorin on the laptop he got his brother had all the standard objections. limited software, hard to use, hard to learn , yada yada yada.

I took them point by point and destroyed them. limited software, hm i wouldnt call 34,000 + packages in one spot limited. ranging from simple games to advanced programming and design software.
Hard to use, hmmmmmm, I would think if a 7 yr old can do it you can.

Hard to learn. hmmmmm you havent touched a computer in over 10 years what ever system is on here you will have to learn to use so what does it matter? His primary concern was to be able to run his gwbasic and not lose the programs he had written in it. wonder of wonders. His new laptop does all he want and then some.
Its a Dell M6300 2.6 dual core, 4 gb ram , 17"display. Set up triple boot.
1 win98 his original system cloned from his original drive.
2 win xp runs gwbasic native and all his hardware.
3 Zorin 5.2 runs gwbasic in dosbox , has several IDEs installed so he can take his time and choose one that works for him and move out of the age of the trex. several astronomy programs, scientific calculators. and other toys he has mentioned.

And like Mastercard says, the priceless part is when he asks how much will i have to pay for this or that i take less than a minute look in synaptic and say, " its in the repository, we just install it."

[forrestcupp]

Forums are not everyone's cup of tea (and not everyone gets excited about someone using a specific OS :p)

My wife doesn't want to switch from Windows, on the other hand she uses Libre Office and when I got Office 2010 with three licenses she refused to install it :)


404That makes even less sense than using Linux. I'm the opposite. I use Ubuntu, but I won't use anything but MS Office.



Oh and that's cool that the Sims works in Wine, but Wine is normally quite difficult to set up. In my opinion it's not worth the trouble even if Winehq says the game will work.Nah. It's only difficult to set up if you think you have to create a separate wineprefix for everything you want to install. I just installed Wine from the repos and associated exe files with Wine. Now all I have to do is double click an exe file and it works like it does in Windows (assuming the program has good Wine support).

Also, there's always PlayOnLinux, which makes installing things really easy.

[MisterGaribaldi]

Why don't the ladies sign up and post directly ???

Because usually when a woman self-identifies as a woman, they get hit on by every half-baked loser on the board, or otherwise harassed, stalked online, etc. Honestly, it's pathetic.

[sffvba[e0rt]

That makes even less sense than using Linux. I'm the opposite. I use Ubuntu, but I won't use anything but MS Office.

Also, there's always PlayOnLinux, which makes installing things really easy.

I guess you have to be different to be original and she is one of a kind for sure http://www.veryicon.com/icon/png/Love/Dating/Flying%20heart.png

And if you really really want things easy try Crossover... should have started using it AGES ago...


404

[KiwiNZ]

This is true for most of our wives. But sometimes people don't know something is there to research. As for my wife, she just doesn't care about OSs or user interfaces enough to bother installing something that may not let her run a program she wants to run.

My wife is very aware, she is a senior exec for big blue

[BrokenKingpin]

My wife gets Xubuntu because that is what I put on her computer :P. She was not to happy at first, but she ended up liking it because it was faster and things broke a lot less. It was an easy transition for her as she already used Firefox and OpenOffice under windows.

[Irihapeti]

Because usually when a woman self-identifies as a woman, they get hit on by every half-baked loser on the board, or otherwise harassed, stalked online, etc. Honestly, it's pathetic.

That certainly isn't true on these forums. There are a number of self-identified women on these forums. I'm one of them, and I've never had that kind of problem here. If I did, I'd let the mods know and it would be dealt with.

[codingman]

She really doesn't use games other than on facebook so not having those isn't going to be much of a problem. We did use Microsoft Office but the Ubuntu equivalents work quite well so that won't be an issue either. However since her computer is still setup as a dual boot system she can always boot into windows if needed.

She sent a few text messages asking how things were going. Install is complete. I had to move a few files over to my machine over the network to make room while I partitioned her hard drive. Now that everything is installed I have moved them back to her computer again. Everything has been configured (email, music, messenger, twitter etc) and all updates have been applied. I think she will be pleased when she gets home.

Doesn't it just feel good to have another Linux machine in the house ;)

[KiwiNZ]

My wife does not use Tech Forums, she just does not need them.

[oldos2er]

Because usually when a woman self-identifies as a woman, they get hit on by every half-baked loser on the board, or otherwise harassed, stalked online, etc. Honestly, it's pathetic.

I really haven't found that to be the case for a long time.

[Bandit]

That makes even less sense than using Linux. I'm the opposite. I use Ubuntu, but I won't use anything but MS Office.

Nah. It's only difficult to set up if you think you have to create a separate wineprefix for everything you want to install. I just installed Wine from the repos and associated exe files with Wine. Now all I have to do is double click an exe file and it works like it does in Windows (assuming the program has good Wine support).

Also, there's always PlayOnLinux, which makes installing things really easy.


I agree with most everything. Except I believe if more users used Libre or OOo then MS would accept and make open standards their default. I dont mind MS making Office, just think that all documents should be interchangeable without any glitches.

[llanitedave]

My wife was a devoted Mac user for years, she had an old eMac that you would have had to pry from her cold dead hands. Finally, when that old machine started showing signs of giving up the ghost, I talked her into giving Ubuntu a try. I built a new desktop for her, and loaded it all up, starting Kubuntu 9.04. The only program she really needed to have was Photoshop Elements -- the GIMP just didn't quite have all the features she needed. We loaded Elements on with Wine, and it gave us no trouble.

Now she's in Ubuntu 12.04, happily using Unity with twin monitors. She's found some things that GIMP does better than Elements, and so she uses both depending on her needs.

Her only criticism is that color management is still not as good in Linux as it was on the Mac, and her printouts are not quite as sharp. Other than that, she's completely on board with the Free Software philosophy, and she's even incorporated it into her business decisions.

[uRock]

OP. glad to read about your wife wanting to give ubuntu a shot on her machine.

My wife started using ubuntu with 9.10 and has been using it 90% of the time. Her system is still using 11.10 and will soon be upgraded to 12.04.

[alelinuxbsd]

I think is good hear this story about common user that once try Linux, like it, as desktop environment.

[jroa]

My wife hates everything about Linux. I think she got a bad taste for it when I first started using it and I had trouble fixing things when they broke. The kids love it, though. I have Ubuntu installed on one of the kids laptops and Fedora on another. The three active desktops in my house have either Linux or BSD installed on them. The only active computer in my house that does not have an alternative OS on it is my wife's laptop. She said she would leave me if even thought about it.

[thatguruguy]

My wife was a devoted Mac user for years, she had an old eMac that you would have had to pry from her cold dead hands.

Same here. My wife loves running Ubuntu (12.04, with Unity), and has never once complained about it being "unintuitive." I think there's at least some chance that Mac users find the transition easier than Windows users.

Her work still uses Windows XP, which she has come to hate with a burning passion.

[thatguruguy]

Oh and that's cool that the Sims works in Wine, but Wine is normally quite difficult to set up. In my opinion it's not worth the trouble even if Winehq says the game will work.

You're completely right. I had to do all of this to make Sims 3 work for my niece:


Fire up PlayOnLinux
Insert the Sims 3 CD.
Follow the on-screen prompts.

Needless to say, this whole process was incredibly nerve-racking. What do these people think I am, some kind of rocket surgeon?

[forrestcupp]

My wife does not use Tech Forums, she just does not need them.My wife can divide by zero. :P


I agree with most everything. Except I believe if more users used Libre or OOo then MS would accept and make open standards their default. I dont mind MS making Office, just think that all documents should be interchangeable without any glitches.
I wish MS would use open standards, too. But when you have MS Office, using LO instead, for the sake of forcing MS's hand, is a pretty big sacrifice. I don't care that much.

[Paqman]

Lol, I think you'll find the "my wife is better than your wife" room is down the hall on the left.

[VE6EFR]

Well it's Tuesday. She started using Ubuntu on her machine when she got home from work on Sunday and so far I haven't heard a single complaint. I started to walk her through a few things and she mentioned that she would rather discover how to do things on her own but would ask if she had any problems.

So far the only thing she asked about was how to sync her calendar from Outlook. She has a lot of time invested in her calendar and looked at me with one of those looks that sent a chill up my spine when she asked if she would have to enter everything by hand all over again. So after doing some digging for a solution I set her up with Google Calendar to sync between Outlook and Thunderbird/lightning. Now she has the ability to not only see what is in her calendar if she is in Ubuntu or Windows they automatically stay up to date no matter where she enters the new info. I also set up her new Android phone so she can see/modify as well. +1 for Ubuntu in her eyes as she didn't have this capability before (yeah, I know, she could have but if she wants to give credit to getting the new OS instead of what she had on windows I am not going to stop her).

Our daughter was playing around with Lana's computer when we had a friend over for dinner last night. Our friend asked about it and Lana started to tell her the advantages of Ubuntu over windows so I think she is hooked. I think time will tell but I believe we have another convert in our midst.

[DingusFett]

Good to hear. Last night I my fiance got a bit curious so I showed her around on my desktop and she is now very interested, she said she always thought Linux was hard and largely text based, so explained things have come a long way. She wants to give it a try before deciding to reinstall Windows 7 on her laptop or go with Ubuntu, so have set her up a user account on my computer to play around with for now. Looks like soon there will be no more Windows in my house :)

[wilee-nilee]

Lol, I think you'll find the "my wife is better than your wife" room is down the hall on the left.

:lolflag:

[thatguruguy]

Wives wanting Ubuntu??? Isn't that like fish wanting bicycles?

I don't understand. Could you explain what you mean, and why you think it's funny?

[urgnom]

Best contribution to this discussion! (Wife can choose for herself.. and do her own researching)

[BigSilly]

My missus is very anti-Microsoft/Apple, and actively wanted me to put Ubuntu on her laptop. Even bought a Dell Ubuntu laptop years ago with 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. She still has it, but it's now running Xubuntu 12.04 as I don't think it's up to Unity sadly. She would have really liked that as she's very much a keyboard shortcut user, but the demands of it would have been too much for her spec. However, she really loves Xubuntu, so all is well. :)

[DingusFett]

Still working on converting my missus. She's just scared of ever having to use a command line, but have tried explaining to her generally she wouldn't need to. I just tend to use it for a lot of things if I know the commands simply because I'm used to it from work. (My day is spent connected by Telnet to various OpenVMS Alpha machines across the country that car dealerships are running off)