Re: Linux Desktop Readiness Thread
I want to acknowledge that this statement is very well reasoned and pretty much what I tell people who ask me about Linux (again, I am not a new to Linux guy). What prompted my post and the arguments that followed is that much of the Linux community, particuarly the Ubuntu community, do run around offering it as a perfect replacement for XP and that is just not right. It may be the best alternative to XP in terms of Linux distros but it is far from being capable of sitting on 95% of the desktops around the country where Windows computers sit. And without addressing many of the still needless command line functions and fragility of the GUI and other legacy UNIX operations it will never get there. So what - Linux fan says I don't care if it gets there - fine, then don't EVER whine about getting no love from the manufacturers because so long as Linux remains in the low single digits of the desktop market you will struggle to get drivers and such for yoru preferred OS (not to mention software support too).
And you are basing this assumption on how many installs? What you fail to realize is that you are using a singular experience to extrapolate your conclusion. Additionally you did not do a single thing that an average user would do. An average user does not install his/her own OS. He/she will either buy a pre-built system with an OS already isntalled and configured or will pay someone to install and configure the OS on their current system. As such they would not run into a hardware issue like you would. You can order and Ubuntu system from Dell and I'm willing to bet that it will work just right as soon as you turn it on.
As for Nautilus not telling you you don't have permissions to the folder and letting you elevate them. It would be a pretty nice feature to have, however any user who doesn't know to use gksudo nautilus to open up the window with full system permissions should not be attempting to write into a system directory.
I installed Ubuntu on 3 systems for myself all with very different hardware and never had to touch the CLI. In fact my mother was able to use Thunderbird on my laptop to get some addresses out of my address book that she needed, all on my Ubuntu machine (Breezy I think it was). Just an FYI one of the machines is a convertible (tablet/laptop) and in Feisty the tablet portion was picked up and configured out of the box. It also uses an nVidia card as well as my desktop and both of them work perfectly with either the FLOSS or proprietary drivers. Even run Beryl AND Compiz (I played with both) without a single issue. This was all set up without ever touching the CLI.
Another point I would like to make is that I had very idiotic problems with XP. If you go back about 30-40 pages you will see me documenting my experience with it. It failed to recognize my Intel RAID controller and required a floppy with drivers. We are talking XP SP2 here not Gold. The systems engineers at my current job tell me they have the same problem with Server 2003 installations where they have an external floppy drive lying around just for that. So based on this singular experience Windows is a horrible OS and is not ready for the desktop.
Another thing I would like you to consider is that home user desktops comprise at most 50% of the market. The other 50% or so is taken up by organizations. While Linux based OS's in general and Ubuntu in particular may not be a good OS for home users for whatever reason. It is a very viable alternative for an organizational desktop. Breaking into that market is much easier than a home user market and it could provide Linux based OS's with a significant enough marketshare to be supported by major ISVs/OEMs.
For your car analogy there will always be a learning curve somewhere when trying something new no matter how user friendly it is
As a complete and utter gearhead I would like to expand on this. If you have driven FWD cars your entire life you will get into trouble on an RWD. RWD tends to oversteer and allow for a spin out, while FWD tends to understeer, which would just make you go wider around the turn. Recovery procedure for either of those are very different in both FWD and RWD vehicles. For instance in an FWD if you are understeering you just tap the brakes (or left foot brake if you are good), in an RWD under same conditions you will give the throttle a quick whack to get the rear tires sliding. You can't say that one layout is better than the other (although I do think that FWD is useless with AWD/4WD cars comming down in price lately) they are just different. Ubuntu is different from Windows, it has it's quirks and issues as does Windows neither can be said to be perfect.
P.S. The recovery procedures I outlined are obviously simplified for the purpose of making an argument.
Last edited by prizrak; July 6th, 2007 at 02:49 PM.
Since I get asked alot, I am originally from Ukraine but am Russian by nationality. My nick means specter in Russian.
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