PC World touts Ubuntu...sort of

[m.musashi]

The Feb issue of PC World has a short article on dual booting windows and Ubuntu.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128136/article.html

It's cool that Ubuntu is getting some mainstream press but I wonder how impressed the average windows user will be with a default Ubuntu install. It would have been nice if they would have mentioned automatix or similar tools as well as the different DEs available. The customizability of Ubuntu (and Linux in general) is its real strength (well, one of them at least :)).

[rocknrolf77]

I agree that the article lacks some nice features about ubuntu, but it's good to read something else than vista this and vista that. Can't understand why he recomends using a fat32 partition that you have to defrag when ext2 IFS is a much better option. We need more linux users in the press.

Almost every article is about ipod/apple or microsoft something. But it's getting better. I'm seeing a lot of linux users that write comments to the articles., and the more people who read about linux/ubuntu, the more people is curious about trying it out. :)

[OldTimeTech]

There are always lots of Linux users in the feedback.

But I've found that when the nice points are pointed out to people writing about Linux, they just kind of say.....well I was just trying it out, I'm not going to use it.

Adrian Kingsley is the one I have the most problem with, he likes to start wars between Linux and M$ users.

[maniacmusician]

When I have more experience in journalism, I'm going to try and get a spot at Wired.com. Hopefully eventually I'll get a column that'll be tech-oriented and Linux will certainly be one of the hot topics.

One of my goals, at least.

[spockrock]

why do I have the sinking feeling we are gonna have an influx of troubleshooting questions.....not thats bad, but I imagine there might a several unanswered questions and then reflecting poorly on the community.

[m.musashi]

I think it's great that Ubuntu gets good press and I'd love to see more people using it. I don't know much about the PC World readers but based on the technical level of the articles (usually quite low) I'm not sure how positive the response will be from those who try. Maybe I'm just overly pessimistic but I'm a fairly competent computer user and moving to Linux has not be easy for me. I stuck with it because I have personal motivations and it's actually been fun. However, people I talk to at work (I teach at a high school) are not overly interested and generally quite computer illiterate. However, the key to Ubuntu's success is more and more exposure so this is probably a good thing.

As a side note, I started subscribing to a couple Linux specific magazines and while I don't know what they used to talk about, Ubuntu is frequently the distro that is used to describe installing or using an app. For example, the Oct issue of Linux Journal had an article on F-Spot using Ubuntu, Myth TV and the guy was using Ubuntu and a chapter from the Ubuntu book on tweaking your setup. Of course, I don't suppose many windows users are reading Linux Journal.

[Alveric]

why do I have the sinking feeling we are gonna have an influx of troubleshooting questions.....

It might seem incredible to those of you who have read some of the stuff I've posted across the forums since I put ubuntu onto my home machine, but I am not completely computer-illiterate.

But googling for answers to problems in ubuntu/linux doesn't always get you an answer that makes any sense and so you *have* to ask questions on the forums.

After you post so many questions, in my experience, people just stop bothering to answer.

Yes - I *am* a newbie at this, but us newbies need the help of experienced people so's we can stop being newbies, and maybe - just maybe - we can answer someone else's question at some point...

Cheers,

Al.

PS - I *much* prefer using linux to using Windows!

[Daveski]

Yes - I *am* a newbie at this, but us newbies need the help of experienced people so's we can stop being newbies, and maybe - just maybe - we can answer someone else's question at some point...

Then I suppose you would be a nowbie, and then eventually you'd become an oldbie.

[m.musashi]

But googling for answers to problems in ubuntu/linux doesn't always get you an answer that makes any sense and so you *have* to ask questions on the forums.

After you post so many questions, in my experience, people just stop bothering to answer.

You know, I wonder if there isn't some truth to that. I have my "bean count" hidden but it's probably in the 700s. Most of those are me asking for help rather than giving it (but I do try and help whenever I can). Sometimes I feel that my questions go unanswered not because no one knows but because no one cares. To be fair, only a small handful of my questions have gone unanswered but it does leave you feeling a little left out. However, eventually you just accept that not everything you post will be seen by someone in the know. If it goes a week and I can't figure it out myself, I'll post again or revise my original. In the end almost everything has been worked out.