What does Ubuntu lack to be the perfect OS?

[luisjorge]

Hi everyone!

Maybe this sounds a bit idealist, but Ubuntu could be the perfect OS. It's relatively a new system, and has getting better and better. Yes, there are still problems with it, but that's why it's growing with every release, and in fact, with every post in this forum and every update that is available. In my opinion, the one thing that would approach the rest of the world to Ubuntu is hardware compatibility and ease of use. How many posts in here are titled "x problem in x computer" or end with "I have an 'x' brand of computer with 'x' hardware on it"? I think that's something important for future Ubuntu releases. Everything (or ALMOST everything) should "just work", and if someone has some piece of hardware that hasn't been installed automatically by Ubuntu when installing, it should be really easy to install drivers for new hardware. Currently, it is REALLY hard to do this. Anyway, I believe that Ubuntu really has the potential and is a really great thing. Thanks to the team of developers and thanks to everyone that reads and tries to answer posts in this forum, Ubuntu is already something that Windows or even Mac, with all the years on the market, will never be.

So, what do YOU think Ubuntu could use for being even better?

[some_random_noob]

Ubuntu needs to be more of a monopoly and have a bigger install base; That's what worked for Windows.

[Nunu]

Ubuntu needs to be more of a monopoly and have a bigger install base; That's what worked for Windows.

Well that grows with every release

[zugu]

- a longer release cycle
- a solid line drawn between the OS and the rest of the software ecosystem
- excellent game, multimedia and hardware support

So considering the actual circumstances and design vision Ubuntu can't be my perfect operating system - at least for the foreseeable future.

[PartisanEntity]

It needs more support from hardware manufacturers i.e. more drivers for hardware.

[Shin_Gouki2501]

game api support

[rjmdomingo2003]

No such thing as a perfect OS, only a suitable one.:KS

[RudolfMDLT]

Feature freeze 7.10, for an entire year! Make Open office WORK and make the thing stable as a rock. Compiz is advanced enough now! Get SIMPLE gui's in place for simple tasks such as network folder mounting.

[PricklySponge]

I agree. Stop adding new features and make everything already here completely rock solid.

[captaink]

Ubuntu needs to be more of a monopoly and have a bigger install base; That's what worked for Windows.

There is no need for monopoly! Ubuntu and linux in general has survived for 15 years without the need for monopoly.
Besides, only through competition a product can be evolved successfully.

Ubuntu does not need to be the perfect OS. It already close to an ideal distro. Hardware compatibility, full community support, good performance and easy to use.

It just needs to be a bit more secure, using SELinux or some extra security besides iptables firewall that ubuntu already has.

[aimran]

NOT this discussion AGAIN!

[NIT006.5]

Two-side answer:

For me personally, it is already pretty close to being the perfect OS, otherwise I wouldn't be using it. It is definitely the best choice in my opinion, and that's all that really matters.

However, for the "Win-doze" people I speak to about Ubuntu, I think the following points are the main concerns:

1. There are still a few stability issues, but quite often this appears to be more about individual applications than Ubuntu itself. e.g. I have personally had a LOT of stability problems with Evolution and there are still a number of bugs there that I think need to be sorted out. And I know a lot of other people have had the same problems, so it's not just my setup.
2. As mentioned by a few others, broader hardware compatibility does need some work. e.g. Someone recently switched to Ubuntu on my recommendation, but was immediately unimpressed that their onboard sound did not work at all, while it had worked fine with Windows.
3. And obviously the whole gaming scene is also a concern for many people.

On the other hand, there are just as many people who have instantly fallen in love with Ubuntu. Every single person I've dealt with has been very impressed with the interface and clearer, crisper graphics (as compared to *******) and a number of laptop users have been thrilled with the extended runtime they get out of their battery (although this is inherent for all distros since it's more about how the kernel is engineered).

In summary though, I believe Ubuntu already IS the perfect OS, in that bugs will always be there, no matter what OS/distro is in use. However, I think Ubuntu is the OS of the future and is moving more rapidly in the right direction than all the other options. i.e. it's the "spirit" of Ubuntu, first and foremost, that makes it the perfect OS, not the code.

[voided3]

It wasn't first in the market. If it came before the Windows desktop and was free then as it is now, the demographics would be very different. Though if I recall correctly, Windows won the platform wars with other OSes of the late 80's/early 90's because it supported the best office suite of the time. Therefore, native major commercial app support is huge. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome that you can run things like iTunes, Photoshop, and M$ Office in WINE or Crossover, but if they were native apps people would probably see Linux as having more appeal since you would only have to pay for some applications you want while still getting the whole operating system and/or a free alternative to the commercial apps for free, making cost an option. Unfortunately, because of our smaller portion of the market share and the stigma of "Linux people won't pay for software" most developers don't really bother right now. Oh well, as other have said though things are only getting better and I see it with each release. Basically if I wasn't interested in playing some of the windows-only racing games I have, I wouldn't have windows at all. I use OSS on windows for everything anyway, most games aside (sans open arena, nexuiz, etc.). Maybe I should get Cedega and ditch that other partition I have...

[Paqman]

Get SIMPLE gui's in place for simple tasks such as network folder mounting.

Seconded. Anything that involves manually editing a critical file like fstab should be GUIfied if people are wanting to do it a lot. Which, judging from the amount of discussions on this forum about mounting shares, they are. Seems like there are a few discussions in Launchpad about how to resolve this, but nothing much concrete happening.

[Nunu]

I think it might be a good idea to create a how to file comprised out of the general questions that is posted in the forums. I have seen quite allot of post in the last two days about installing the nvidia drivers. all of them was resolved with the same answer. That might help the new guy get up and running quicker.

[n3tfury]

no wonder why this place has a subforum for recurring discussions.

[jediscout]

While I love the layout of Ubuntu, it could be more user friendly for us newbies who are not knowledgeable about command language.
Being adaptable to use hardware for any computer would be nice, and throw in the many downloads you should be able to use from sites on the internet.