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View Full Version : The Future of Ubuntu?



billdotson
March 8th, 2007, 02:57 PM
What do you think is the future of Ubuntu? Will it be the first OS to be pre-installed on consumer desktops or laptops (I am talking a company like HP or Dell) Will it eventually run on a different kernel than the Linux kernel.. like the OpenSolaris kernel or the Haiku OS's kernel?

Will Ubuntu bring professional software support like adobe photoshop to GNU/Linix?

What do you think is the future of Ubuntu?

karellen
March 8th, 2007, 03:01 PM
if there's a linux distro that can effectively wide spread on desktops, ubuntu is that one....
or at least I hope so :confused:

billdotson
March 8th, 2007, 05:34 PM
I hope so.. Ubuntu is pretty good and I like it alot.

It seems like it has such a big community because it is pushed by Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical. He really (and the Linux community) really want it to be big which is good because people shouldn't feel like they are dependent on Windows or Macs to get their computing needs.

Somenoob
March 8th, 2007, 05:52 PM
hopefully it wont change the kernel.

muncrief
March 8th, 2007, 06:35 PM
I think if Ubuntu could assist the developers of current multimedia players to get their browser plug-ins fully operational, Ubuntu could be installed as a primary desktop OS right now.

Although I recently switched to Ubuntu I haven't been able to convince any others to switch simply because they can't fast-forward, rewind, or pause multimedia in their browsers, and can't play some multimedia at all. And yes, this is with all the appropriate codecs installed. I'm also aware that some players have keyboard shortcut commands, but for the most part these don't work either, and in any case the average user simply won't accept an ugly gray bar with a non-functional button or two, and keyboard shortcuts they have to look up and remember, as a modern way to enjoy multimedia in their browser.

The odd thing is that after many years it actually seems Linux developers have done a great job on producing the codecs themselves, its just that for whatever reason the player developers haven't integrated progress bars, fast-forward, reverse, or pause buttons into their browser plugins, which as I said before causes almost all average desktop users to reject any Linux system immediately.

In fact, time after time the first thing I see a potential user do on my system is open a browser and go to their favorite web site to play some kind of multimedia, and when they can't and there is no available, or simple, solution they simple scoff and judge Linux as inferior and unfit for desktop use.

I've even shown them that they can play multimedia by running Windows XP under VMware, which of course always brings forth the obvious question - "If I have to run Windows XP under an emulator, why shouldn't I just use it as my desktop OS in the first place?".

This is a shame, since it seems so needless. I'm not sure why basic multimedia functions have never been built into Linux browser plug-ins, but its 2007 and no matter what anyone may say, if any Linux distribution wishes to gain any significant desktop market share it must include robust multimedia functions that are easy for the average user to install and use.

Other than this weakness, which is a blaring and fatal one for most desktop OS users, I think Ubuntu is awesome. Just fix this problem and I bet you'll see Ubuntu become the first Linux distro to gain significant desktop OS market share.

forcesofhabit
March 8th, 2007, 06:52 PM
I believe it has a better chance than any of the other Linux OSs out there. Ubuntu is the only distro I've never had big problems with. I've tried Suse, Zenwalk, Freespire, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, and DSL. I've never had any really problematic issues except for when trying to upgrade to Edgy.