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:
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: