The Ubuntu Experiment.

[wildman4god]

As the title says, I am conducting and experiment at my church, where I installed ubuntu on a windows machine using wubi and they interns that work there agreed to give it a try for at least a week and only switch back to windows if they can't figure out ubuntu. My goal is to see truly how ready ubuntu is for the "average" user the primary persons that will be utilizing the computer I install ubuntu on are all college students, mostly female but a couple of guys too, and they have never used, or seen, linux before (most of them) I started the experiment yesterday and after one day the responses range from "wow linux looks a lot better that it did 10 yrs. ago." to "hey this isn't that hard." one of the girls is even addicted to a linux game called frozen bubble. So as this experiment continues I will check in on them regularly and offer any help they need to get used to how ubuntu does things differently than windows. Wish me luck.

[jimi_hendrix]

i think its ready if the world knows how to google their problems...

[dwanders]

Ahh men

[unknown03]

i think its ready if the world knows how to google their problems...

Haha

[david_lynch]

Good man! Do keep us updated as to how the subjects do. This could eventually make a nice feature article, depending on how it goes.:popcorn:

[zmjjmz]

It should work.
My 6 year old sister can use Ubuntu perfectly fine.

[unknown03]

Yeah you should record their reactions on hidden camera like Windows Vista. Only the difference here is they will be saying "WOOOOW!" because of Compiz and not because it kept crashing or it wouldnt let you edit a simple text file.

[brunovecchi]

Great initiative, good luck! Keep up posted!

[chris4585]

anyone can use Ubuntu if they know what to do or what to google, a simple walk through of how things run under Ubuntu would go a long way

"Give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish you feed him for a life time."

[Swagman]

Just yesterday (Thursday 20th) my father in law was whinging how slow his windows machne was running and how he really didn't want to have to go through the re-install... Everything option AGAIN so I said to him "Why don't you give Ubuntu a thrash ? I can install it so it wont affect windows and if you don't like it you can uninstall it and windows will be as before".

He said ok.

His first comment was .. "Wow.. It really boots up fast". He was then asking how to install his fave proggies etc so I showed him how to install stuff and how to google and problems. I suspect he'll ask me to cure those though.

I'll let you all know how he gets on.

[billgoldberg]

If my 10 year old brother can use it without problems, I don't see why adults should have any problem.

[Swagman]

Adults get stuck in their ways.

All my three daughters use ubuntu on their own machines.

Youngest is now 11

Mid is 15

Eldest is 20

[brunovecchi]

If my 10 year old brother can use it without problems, I don't see why adults should have any problem.

I'd expect more difficulties from an adult that has already learned a way of doing things than from a kid that has a much more open mind, less specific computing needs, and generally better predisposition to learning new things.

[eternalnewbee]

I'd expect more difficulties from an adult that has already learned a way of doing things than from a kid that has a much more open mind, less specific computing needs, and generally better predisposition to learning new things.
Adults with an open mind do exist, you know.:lol:

[billgoldberg]

I'd expect more difficulties from an adult that has already learned a way of doing things than from a kid that has a much more open mind, less specific computing needs, and generally better predisposition to learning new things.

People aren't stupid, sure they can learn.

Most of them just don't want to.

[Swagman]

People aren't stupid, sure they can learn.

Most of them just don't want to.

That's why I said ... "Stuck in their ways".

[chucky chuckaluck]

after they've gotten adjusted to ubuntu, put arch on their computers for a week (at least, we don't have to worry about someone buying them all macs for a week). an OS is a tool and the number one criteria for deciding its quality should be in how effective it is for a particular user. if this experiment is successful, all it demonstrates is that ubuntu is useable by the general public (meaning, it isn't as useless as most people ignorantly assume).

[Yownanymous]

My mum's addicted to Frozen Bubble...:lolflag:

[chucky chuckaluck]

before i figured out wireless, i would put in a live knoppix cd just to play frozen bubbles.

[bgs100]

Go Frozen Bubble! WooHoo!!!
By the way, once before I knew about linux I had actually seen Frozen Bubble on an arcade game machine at a pizza place (GASP!!!)