What can we do to get ubuntu to all people, all computers, all devices in the world?

[newbie14]

I think, the most important and critical thing we can do is to post a step-by-step tutorial of how to install, or do anything with an offline ubuntu device. Tutorials complete with comprehensive photos, screenshots, every mouse click, every keyboard button pressed, everything in as much details as possible. And everything are arranged linearly, chronological order. This might be utterly tedious for anyone to wade through, but The way I see it, this is exactly how windows, OSX and other OS's wins its users; by doing a lot of these tutorials. And many of those tutorials contains learning materials of how to do things or get things done -.w.i.t.h.o.u.t.- -.i.n.t.e.r.n.e.t.- -.c.o.n.n.e.c.t.i.o.n.- Therefore, I as a new ubuntu linux user, will contribute with posting as many tutorials as I can with most details possible, as much as I can.


Or, if ubuntu doesn't aim to get ubuntu operating system to all people, all computers, and all devices in the world, or if ubuntu aim to spread only to devices connected to internet, then it's a whole different story.

[newbie14]

I am going to post an example... about apprenticeship... soon...

[QIII]

I'm not sure "world domination" tops Canonical's list of things to do.

Linux will not ever get there on the desktop.

But since Linux on other devices outnumbers anything produced by Microsoft by an order of magnitude or two, I don't think they, or any other distributor of Linux OSes really cares.

[stalkingwolf]

just getting it installed and showing how to use it is not the answer. People are so set on doing things the windows way that they wont change. getting some of them to accept a different thought process
in computing would be like getting members of say WBC to accept and try the lifestyle mentioned in 50 shades.

[newbie14]

just getting it installed and showing how to use it is not the answer. heh... no wonder...

[J_Me]

I tend to compare computers to cars, how many people are willing to get under the hood of their car and tinker not many, it's a shame but that's just how it is.
Anyway linux is out there that's for sure it's just under the hood doing it's thing.

[monkeybrain20122]

Actually, most people don't install Windows and don't know how to. OEM did it. So having OEM support is key to popularity (and OEMs are supposed to use compatible hardware unless it is DELL) Marketing is also very important. The Mac is at least 60% a marketing phenomenon if not more IMO. I see many people using Mac nowadays, much more than Windows in my area. Are these all graphic artists or creative professionals?? Doubt it very much. But Linux distros don't have that kind of money for PR.

[grahammechanical]

Canonical employs someone as Ubuntu Community Manager. And up until last year the post was held by Jono Bacon and he held regular Q & A sessions on Ubuntu On Air. He explained the situation this way:

As regards the desktop, there is an elephant in the room. As regards mobile devices, there are two elephants in the room. A Ubuntu phone will be a success if it gets 1% market share. Where Canonical has an head start is with this idea of convergence - a user interface that is appropriate for whatever device it is installed on. That means a phone UI for a phone, a tablet UI for a tablet, a desktop UI for a desktop and a television UI for a television but one Ubuntu.

There is another area in which Canonical seems to be streets ahead and that is with server and cloud related stuff and now there is the Internet of Things.

Canonical does not make money from a free to download and install desktop OS. It can make some money from doing deals with OEMs for them to pre-install Ubuntu on their machines. Especially if the OEM does not want the financial cost of maintaining the OS. And it does not prevent anyone from buying machines, installing Ubuntu on them and selling the machines. Canonical does care about its trade marks and copy rights being violated. And people selling a machine with a broken OS and calling the OS Ubuntu.

May I suggest Ubuntu Local Communities for those of us who feel like being an evangelist for Ubuntu? Events organized by Ubuntu Local Communities are used as opportunities to show people how to install Ubuntu and teach Ubuntu.

http://loco.ubuntu.com/
(http://loco.ubuntu.com/)
Regrads

[newbie14]

I still see it as an issue on the tutorials. It surprises me that even linuxs ('s possessive, how to write that linux's? or linuxs?) large user base and support, many of them, on my surprise, when a beginner user ask for solutions, only give reading material and endless redirection to that beginner, and often confusing, instead of some direct klik this, type this, press this tutorial. In my experience, there are some experienced user who are willing to help by giving direct instructions, but the scarcity of the direct help is what surprises me.

[QIII]

The possessive is Linux'.

No extra s needed. Odd English thing.

The reason we don't say "click this, click that" is that every desktop environment is different and it would be impossible for us all to know the details of each. But the command line is, with very few exceptions, common to all.

[ian-weisser]

there are some experienced user who are willing to help by giving direct instructions

Direct instructions (of the sort you seem to mean) can sometimes be a waste of time for everyone.

A complete set of direct instructions requires that the querant provide full information. If they understood the problem enough to provide that information, they wouldn't be asking for help.

A complete set of direct instructions requires that the problem is easy to identify and diagnose - that symptom X must be due to problem Y. Most of those simple problems were solved long ago.

These forums are full of users who did follow a set of complete instructions from Google or a blog post or a wiki or this forum...but for the wrong version, or to solve the wrong problem...and made the problem worse.

Whole classes problems are not actually Ubuntu problems at all, but user's invalid assumptions and expectations...brought over from imprinting (prior experience) on other systems.
Instructions don't help these at all.

[chileno35]

I think Canonical is on the best way to get more popularity. Ubuntu is on more-and-more devices (Smartphones, Servers, Desktops). They made Linux more user-friendly than it was before. How we can help them is to spread the advantages of Ubuntu to the people. Here in Germany the City of Munich gave priceless Ubuntu-CDs to the people. That is a good start and if you see what Partnerships Canonical made in the last month, so they are on the right way.

[newbie14]

Everyone. It's finished. I have posted an example of how a proper tutorial should be. And what I hope and expect to be an example of how to guide a user to get things done in linux or ubuntu. And the way I see it, this is the most proper form of apprenticeship. It's funny because after wandering around the sticked "tutorial" topic, I have just did exactly what the "Tutorials Sub-forum – Guidelines" said. Another surprising discovery is that: Very very few users or contributors post help, guide or tutorials as compliant to this exact guidelines. Very few user read this guidelines. I think, everyone must read this excellent guidelines before posting any reading materials to someone seeking help.
This is the hyperlink of the excellent guidelines of how to post help / tutorial:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2143602&p=12640525#post12640525
Everyone please, pay more attention to criteria number 2 stated in hyperlink above.

And this is my finished example:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2272475&p=13259948#post13259948

[newbie14]

but oh... one can only hope...

[sam-c]

First end "war" between ubuntu and mint
Uncle Sam;)

[sam-c]

rubbish android is linux....

[kevdog]

The OP needs to calm down. Do you really want every computer to run Ubuntu in the world? What about freedom and choice?? Try some other Linux distributions first and then come back to get your head around everything that running a Linux OS incorporates. You'll learn about some of the decisions the Ubuntu designers took to come up with their implementation. A Debian based linux system such as Ubuntu, unfortunately is not a one shop for everyone.

[monkeybrain20122]

The OP needs to calm down. Do you really want every computer to run Ubuntu in the world? What about freedom and choice?? Try some other Linux distributions first and then come back to get your head around everything that running a Linux OS incorporates. You'll learn about some of the decisions the Ubuntu designers took to come up with their implementation. A Debian based linux system such as Ubuntu, unfortunately is not a one shop for everyone.

Funny you talk about choice while virtually every generic laptop or desktop computer comes with Windows. It may be in some parallel universe where every computer runs Ubuntu. ;) Also, if something runs Ubuntu I am more than 99.9% certain that it would run other Linux distros as well (if one needs a bit more work to get firmware of driver, e.g Debian or the FSF endorsed distros) Same cannot be said of computers that run Windows, which are the majority.

[sammiev]

I like Linux because of choice.

There are people who only like Windows or Mac.

It's about choice.

[monkeybrain20122]

People who like Windows or Mac always have an abundance of choices in our universe, and MS even can prevent alternative OS from installing on generic hardware with the secure boot shenanigan . So it is unrealistic to say it is just personal choice as if Linux is competing on a fair playing field (at least on desktops and laptops) Maybe Windows and Mac users can worry about lack of choice when > 90% of computers come with Linux and may not run proprietary OSes.

[newbie14]

I like choices.
That is why I try ubuntu.
My title "What can we do to get ubuntu to all people, all computers, all devices.... " is originally intended as a thought-provoking sentence to trigger readers to contribute / help canonical achieve its aim.
And to my surprise, the title of this thread has a very similar aim with canonical's aim: "We are Canonical It is our mission to make open source software available to people everywhere." displayed at the very top center of their (canonical) main website page.
Ubuntu has done great progress by providing very simple and fast process to install many useful, productive programs to its clients with internet connection.
And Ubuntu has done very good job in maintaining it (the simple online installation).
But the problem is, there is a lot lot computers out there which doesn't have access to the internet.
And there are many beginner enthusiasts who want to switch to ubuntu / linux and willing to learn but their computers cannot connect to the internet.
Therefore, canonical, and all of us, the way I see it, must do the "unconventional" by doing: (not arranged in chronological order)

Action 1: Provide a lot lot lot of precise, easy to understand, and complete tutorial.
By complete, I mean if there is a slight variation of steps in doing something, we must make the new tutorial for that new variation. Example:
I have made a tutorial of how to install ubuntu using flash drive to another flash drive using a computer without internet connection. at this u.r.l address:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2272475&p=13259948#post13259948
And if there is another will-be user asking how to install ubuntu using flash drive to an SD Card, we must make that tutorial too as soon as possible.
I am well aware that building / posting tutorials for every background variation takes a lot of time and resources, but hey, linux / ubuntu has many many supporters right?
Action 2: We as linux / ubuntu have a lot of smart person capable of coding programs for long hours with great detail, wonderful. How about in writing and providing complete tutorials too for a little change?
Action 3: The speed of the writing and building new tutorial must match or at least similar with the speed of like when a bug in linux / ubuntu is found, and a patch is made available for that bug.
Action 4: Provide volunteers who are willing to guide and mentor to complete new users. Or at least post tutorials.
Action 5: There is someone at the other side of the globe, without internet connection to his / her computer. Willing to travel 10 kilometers back and forth only to acquire the nearest internet connection to get help and information about troubleshooting his / her computer. Let's us show him/her a little pity shall we? by answering his/her questions directly.
Action 6: reading materials and redirection to other discussions are sometimes good, but please make the "direct instructions" as a primary, priority action in answering request / instructions.
Action 7: How do we build programs for linux / ubuntu that are independent, free of dependencies. and an installer program can be carried around physically (inside storage media) and installed everywhere.

In short: We need much much more support for offline computers / users. And;
No matter how much demand of a tutorial, we must provide it as much as possible. With sufficient amount of detailed tutorials, one day, new users will eventually become knowledgeable enough to tinker for him/her self.

I don't really want ubuntu to run in every devices around the world.

But I am certainly sure, if we do all the actions mentioned earlier, Ubuntu will be on everything everywhere, online and offline, regardless of whether we want ubuntu all around the world or not.

[newbie14]

And, oh; Examples.
we need a huuuuuge amount of examples covering everything.

[Elfy]

And, oh; Examples.
we need a huuuuuge amount of examples covering everything.

I assume you're collating these examples so you can out them forward for something like the install slideshow during the next cycle.

Not hard, achievable contribution to the community that is \o/

[lastopier]

Well, I had some ideas about windows/linux(ubuntu) and I feel like tossing them out. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong (that is the purpose of discussion after all).
I started using linux by dualbooting win 7 and Ubuntu, just as a cute hobby and to see how it is like - I study teaching training program with computer science and English language and I felt that having different experience would be beneficial.
However, I quickly realized how much was Ubuntu faster compared to Win7 on my rather old laptop (six years I believe). And I started to use it and like it more and more. So much that I just formatted win partition just to get more space. Then I did clean install. Now I use Ubuntu (Lubuntu, in fact) even on my desktop, which is mostly used for entertainment. My anti-virus license ended and I was too fed up with Microsoft bs to continue using it. To sum it up, I spent approximately 10 years using Windows and I guess not even a year using linux. However, I feel that during 10 years of win usage I learned precisely bugger all (about computers in general, how the system works, etc.) while I learned quite a lot in six months with linux (holy crap, six months? it seems like ages to me!).
That is just one of many reasons why to use linux in schools:
-I feel it is much easier to maintain a classroom of linux PCs than win PCs. Why? Secure shell, easier file sharing, better cross-distribution compatibility, it's free, better networking...
-It's free. Schools, at least in Slovakia, are grossly under-budgeted.
-Related to that, age of machines ranges from ancient to hopelessly old. Luckily, Debian with LXDE doesn't give a ****.
-Why the hell doesn't windows come with a bloody c/c++ compiler? Linux distros have much better toolset imho by default, and this doesn't only mean dev tools.
-If you want to be a good teacher, you need to be a good learner first. Teacher that doesn't learn is no good, especially in fast-developing branches such as IT. Considering my first point, teachers can learn much more efficiently. If they are very good, they can even make their own stuff and share with other teachers. Hell, there could even be a distro created for teaching.
I guess that's all. What is your opinion on linux in education?

[Olivia_Zane]

the best way is to introduce people to ubuntu or any linux version. and also lobby government and educational institutions to use ubunutu. i think a ground up approach with schools will work

[newbie14]

With live demonstrations. At the side of the road with 2 performers with an offline laptop, and a tall stool for the laptop rest. Guy A narrates what guy B is doing while holding a stopwatch. Guy B is demonstrating what ubuntu is capable of.

[monkeybrain20122]

I don't really want ubuntu to run in every devices around the world.
.

To the people who worry that when Ubuntu runs on everything it will remove "choices" for Windows and Mac fans, I would like to know which planet they live in so I can move there, or at least buy a computer through interplanetary mail. :)

[user1397]

newbie14, while your intentions seem great, I don't think you have the best approach. There is already a great wealth of information out there, tutorials, guides, wikis, etc and there are people working on documentation all the time. There are guidelines for a lot of these websites already and for the most part they know what they're doing.

While I do agree that some people want extremely descriptive guides like the one you wrote (I clicked on your link) I don't think most people like that kind of tutorial. That guide of yours had something like 70 steps and many of those steps seemed to be for people who never even saw a computer before (which granted is still a problem in some places) but I do not think that is the norm for the type of people that usually encounter/are willing to try ubuntu.

You also say there are so many computer users without internet connections...while this is true in many parts of the world still, it is becoming less and less of a problem as the years go by and most people don't even see the point of a computer anymore if they can't connect to the internet.

Like someone else mentioned earlier in this thread, the advantage of guides that use terminal commands over GUI point-and-click is quite noticeable. Terminal commands are short and easy to follow, and what you can do with a one-line command usually takes a couple of paragraphs and screenshots the other way. So if anything terminal commands are a cleaner, simpler approach to user guides. Of course they don't apply to all cases but to many.

Also, the idea that people are suddenly going to step up and write tutorials that are extremely specific use cases is just wrong. Most people just want their computer to work, and believe it or not this is true even within the ubuntu crowd (maybe not the arch or gentoo crowd). Most people aren't going to want to take time out of their busy lives to write tutorials 24/7. Let's be thankful for all the countless volunteers out there that DO take the time to make the great guides and tutorials that we have.

[stalkingwolf]

@newbie14. IMHO what you suggest is simply not possible or logical. A detailed step by step tutorial would have to be produced and TESTED for each and every hardware configuration available, every
version of every release and kernal.
Some method of checking and verifying every piece of hardware attached to the system in question BEFORE install would be needed. each would need to be verified as functioning and compatible with the
OS being installed. If it is an older system then the question of replaced hardware comes into play.
While the number grows smaller there are still pieces of hardware that for one reason or another either dont work in linux or only have minimal functionability. Software as well.

And of course when the new user/ convert finds that this or that obscure hardware or software does not work automagically the result is always Ubuntu ( or fill in os of choice) is a crap system, not ready for the general public or any number of other excuses. It is never that the user didnt preform their due diligence, check their hardware for compatibility or functionality or clicked the wrong option. is ALWAYS Ubuntu or what ever os's fault.

In my experience i have had professional people install a ubuntu flavor and not be able to use it while on the other side i have installed edubuntu for educationally challenged preteens and they have had no problem, infact never looked back.

I had a friend in FL, she was constantly having issues with her computer. Her tech would get there when he wanted ( she is disabled and he was an ex husband, still good friends allegedly) he took parts she bought for his wifes computer and gave her the old ones.

She bought a new computer. when it came I helped her install the distro i was using at the time Zorin or mint i dont remember. she hasnt had a problem since. Another "benifit" her ex hasnt spoken to her unless he wants something since. He has however tols her what a s**** system linux is. 2 yrs ago we sent her son a laptop with linux installed for his birthday. she and i watched him for over 3 hours as he explored , never looking back.

[mastablasta]

there would be far less issues if good drivers were provided.

[stalkingwolf]

that is true. however the only way we can make manufacturers provide them is to show them how much they lose by not providing them.

The way to do that is not use their products.

[newbie14]

Oh, and we can do video demonstrations too.