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View Full Version : My college senior project - Ubuntu vs Vista!



1cewolf
October 5th, 2007, 04:40 AM
What's up, my fellow Ubuntu aficionados? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is...well, yeah, you can just call me Icewolf. I'm a senior Computer Information Systems major in a particular college, and like the title suggests, I've decided to compare Windows Vista to Ubuntu for my Capstone (senior project).

Now, I know what you're thinking - Icewolf, why on Earth are you doing something like that? Your major has "computer" in the title, so why don't you program something instead and be a good Open Sourcer? The answer is, well...I really can't. I'm a pretty lousy programmer. My greatest accomplishment was creating an AI Tic-Tac-Toe player in Java which could never be beaten, and that's not really saying a whole lot.

In fact, I didn't know what I was going to do for my senior project until I just happened to stumble upon Windows XP crapping out on me for the millionth time over the summer. Y'see, I happened to grow tired of the 3 color themes that XP came with, so I decided to change my drab desktop up a bit - except MS's ridiculous restrictions wouldn't let me do what I wanted to. To get rid of them, I installed a small patch...which somehow ended up completely and totally corrupting Windows. I decided that I had had enough of M$'s proprietary shenanigans, so I went out and bought the Official Ubuntu Book. I read it, popped in the CD, and was able to access and salvage EVERYTHING I wanted to on my Windows installation before wiping the HDD clean and installing Ubuntu.

I've been using it ever since. It hasn't been entirely smooth sailing now that I'm using Gutsy - IBM's stupid Lotus Symphony suite is tormenting me by being impossible to get rid of - but overall, it's been a lot better than Windows ever was. It feels more secure, I can tell that the community really cares, and most importantly I can only marvel at how much money I'm saving by going with GNU/Linux and Open Source instead of proprietary software. It's terrific being able to just grab a program I need from Add/Remove instead of handing over a chunk of change in exchange for a proprietary counterpart with a heaping helping of restrictions and DRM.

It was these positive experiences with Ubuntu that gave me the idea for my project - if I, personally, can stand to benefit a great deal from switching to Ubuntu, what about the benefits that an entire institution could reap? Think of the cost savings in time and money!

"Why would they want to upgrade", you ask? I believe Windows XP to be far from an ideal solution for institutions in the long-term for a variety of reasons which I don't feel I need to elaborate on to this particular audience :). In my mind, there are two viable upgrade paths which offer an improvement from the XP's shortcomings - Microsoft's Vista or Linux. And since Ubuntu is a very popular distro which I've had good experience, I've elected to make it Linux's representative against Microsoft as I attempt to answer the question - for institutions which are looking to upgrade their computers from XP, is Ubuntu Linux or Windows Vista the optimal choice?

Since I happen to be attending an "institution", I intend to make my college the focus of my question. I plan on finding the answer by comparing Vista and Ubuntu in three categories: overall cost, efficiency in terms of software benchmarks, and usability in terms of the feedback I will get by tasking a group of volunteers (college students) with minimal Vista and Ubuntu experience to sit down and do the same set of tasks for each OS under an "ideal" setup of applications and configurations.

That's what I've got so far. I'm still trying to figure out what "ideal" setup is for Ubuntu - that is, which applications would be ideal to go toe-to-toe with Vista. Ideally, the computer should be able to cover all the things a student who can't afford his own machine would need it for. It's really hard because the average college student doesn't have patience for "complicated" software...

Ehh, I think I've said enough - I'll do my best to ensure that Team Ubuntu gets a fair shot against Team MS. Thanks for reading - any suggestions or feedback would be much appreciated! :guitar:

p_quarles
October 5th, 2007, 05:16 AM
The answer would depend on what tasks you would be comparing between the two.

In my experience, the two most common applications used in college computer labs are the web browser and word processor. Ubuntu would require very little setup (basically, just creating a non-admin default account). Firefox and OpenOffice.org Writer aren't going to give basic users any trouble. To give Vista a fair shake, though, you'd need to get Office 2007, which is another expense.

I like the idea, btw. Good luck.

borris.morris
October 5th, 2007, 05:28 AM
Overall cost: well, seeing how Ubuntu is completly free.... The only cost would be learning/teaching IT people. Once that's done, all upgrades are FREE!!! Forever! And, MS Office isn't being used, nor Photoshop, etc., etc., etc.

I'll let others continue on the other issues or whatever. I need to hit the hay (school tomarrow).

uxe1
October 5th, 2007, 06:35 AM
at my school ther was a small amount of space on the server whare you could store your unfinished work, so i think youll be looking in to server aplications. i dont know how free (beer) you will find switching all that over. but then theres no telling the networking may already be linux.
i nevver thought about it but how much does microsoft charge for the privledge of making sure that the only access most students have to a computer is there brand??? you should post that number so i can be dazed or something.
as long as i was able to watch the flash animations and vid clips emailed me, and (i know its wrong but i cant help my self) Msn messenger was working i was a happy camper. and for time trials on the learning curve, take a group of people who are accostomed to M$ Office 03. have a third do a series of tasks in M$ 07,, a third do the same tasks in Open office, and a third do the tasks in M$ 03. im betting the average time in all 3 will be about the same.
i know that the office'es arnt part of the operating system, but it the part most students need the most.

any way good luck and please post the final report when its all done so we can have a look. :KS

popch
October 5th, 2007, 07:30 AM
To give Vista a fair shake, though, you'd need to get Office 2007, which is another expense.

When the comparison is to be Ubuntu vs Vista, you could just as well use Open Office on both platforms. That would not be an unrealistic scenario since most computers are bought with an OS but without an Office application.

1cewolf
October 5th, 2007, 01:37 PM
It's true that OpenOffice can be used on both operating systems, but Team Vista will be using Office 2007 for the same reason that it will be using Internet Explorer 7 instead of Firefox - the stated purpose of the project may be Ubuntu vs. Vista, but I intend on tackling the issue of proprietary versus Open Source software on the side. Well, that and Vista at least comes with a trial of Office 2k7 if memory serves me correctly.

Besides, if I didn't give Office 2007 to Team Vista then it wouldn't be much of a competition. Office 2007 vs. OpenOffice 2.3, FIrefox 3 (which will be out by the time I do the testing) vs. IE 7, Rhythmbox/Totem vs WMP11, et cetera are some of the top matches on my testing card! :)

SuperDuck
October 5th, 2007, 02:16 PM
Just out of curiosity, did you run this by your professor yet? How in-depth are you going to go?

jonathonblake
October 5th, 2007, 02:34 PM
I plan on finding the answer by comparing Vista and Ubuntu in three categories: overall cost, efficiency in terms of software benchmarks, and usability in terms of the feedback I will get by tasking a group of volunteers (college students) with minimal Vista and Ubuntu experience to sit down and do the same set of tasks for each OS under an "ideal" setup of applications and configurations.

Which version of Windows Vista are you going to be using?

Windows Vista Starter Edition?
Windows Vista Ultimate Limited Edition?
Or one of the other 15 odd versions?


which applications would be ideal to go toe-to-toe with Vista.

Something to consider:
A Windows system that only applications found on the OpenCD or the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society Open Source Windows CD..

A Windows systems that only applications from Microsoft are used. (If no Microsoft program is available, then that function can't be done on the system.)


Ideally, the computer should be able to cover all the things a student who can't afford his own machine would need it for.

The software literally depends upon what the student is majoring in.
I doubt many Biology majors will use Bible Study Software for their term papers. Theology students are unlikely to use statistical analysis software for their term papers. Law students are unlikely to use Chemical drawing software in their term papers. Chemistry students are unlikely to use WestCite in their term papers.

xan

jonathon

outerspaceguy
October 5th, 2007, 03:03 PM
You need to narrow the subject down significantly. How is one better than the other? "Better" can mean a million things in a million different scenarios. You are most likely going to have to back this up with cold hard facts based on accepted studies and research.

Planning to utilize a group of college students to base your research on means your data is already statistically flawed if you ever plan on making assumptions outside of your particular college. College students do not represent the general population. You say that you will choose students that have minimal Vista/Linux exposure. What do they have background in, then? If it's XP, then they may very well bias to Vista. If it's Linux, then they may bias towards whatever Linux you use. Your results could be skewed before you even begin. Again, this is all very subjective and not technical at all in measure.


Bottom line is, there are many questions you still have to answer in order to make such a study rock solid.

1cewolf
October 5th, 2007, 03:17 PM
Yeah, I've run this project by my advisor and she thinks that it's a terrific idea. In fact, everyone I've talked to in the entire department (including the students) has told me more or less the same except the one professor on campus who uses GNU/Linux - he think that Vista will be the winner, but hopes that I'll prove him wrong.

It's difficult for me to say definitively exactly how in-depth I'll be going just yet, but it goes without saying that I plan on doing the best job that I can. I may not be a good programmer, but I'll be darned if I'm not an excellent researcher and writer. In fact, I'm already well aware that several such comparisons between Vista and Ubuntu (or another LInux distro) have been done before and I've got my sights set on putting out a report worthy of being among them.

I probably should have mentioned this before, but I'm going to be speaking with my college's system administrators early next week to determine, among other things, which version of Vista I'll be using. I'll use whichever version they would likely purchase if the college was to upgrade its computers to Vista.

You definitely hit the nail on the head with the software requirements, jonathon - it is difficult to plan for a generic student's needs since there are so many different types of software that people with different majors might need. It won't be much of a problem assembling a lineup for Team Vista, Fortunately, my college is relatively small and lacks the sheer diversity of majors a larger campus might have, so hopefully it'll make things a bit easier in that regard.

I know very well what you mean, outerspaceguy, and I appreciate your feedback. My proposal is still being finalized, so I do expect the project's scope to come down considerably from what it is right now - what I have now is a general outline, and I've got to determine how to proceed from here given my resources. I'd like to have more than just college students for test subjects, for example, but scheduling difficulties would make getting a comparable amount of faculty to participate impractical and the college itself is situated smack in the middle of Amish country so it's...well, rather hard to get a comparable number of people from other age groups. I'll also likely end up narrowing "institutions" down to "colleges", given my test subjects.

marco123
October 5th, 2007, 03:23 PM
This link could help.:) - http://www.itnews.com.au/News/62060,five-ways-linux-is-better-than-vista.aspx