Linux Desktop Readiness Thread

[ubuntu_demon]

Hi,

I define an average-desktop-user as :

users who have never worked with a computer
users who have only worked with windows XP
users who just want it to work

with ready I mean :
-easy
-works out-of-the-box
-has big benefits for end-users above windows XP

I would like to see a discussion about

-what features ubuntu misses (if any).
-the feasibility of converting the average-desktop-users to ubuntu

[ubuntu_demon]

My opinion :

yes hoary will be ready but requires installation,configuration and intro by nerd

I will install mplayer,xmss,firestarter and thunderbird for them. And do a daily :

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade -t hoary-security -y
apt-get upgrade --trivial-only
apt-get auto-clean

I will give a short introduction and explain how to install software.

I would like to create an custom-hoary-cd when it reaches stable for this purpose.

what features ubuntu misses (if any). :

-warty misses firefox 1.0, thunderbird 1.0 (I hope it will make it into hoary)
-warty misses some "polish" like X.org with neat theme
-warty misses nice graphical configuration tools and wizards (like boot configuration tool)

-hoary most likely will miss : beagle, dashboard, a killer-app

-ubuntu misses real MS office compatibilty (microsofts fault)

the feasibility of converting the average-desktop-users to ubuntu (when I've created my custom hoary-cd):

-if people come to me with computer( read windows) problems I will recommend ubunt
-I will recommend ubuntu to my friends

Let's try to convert them before longhorn

[ubuntu_demon]

Maybe Ubuntu should look for features that mac OS X offers and Ubuntu does not and focus some time to tightly integrate them into ubuntu.

I don't use OS X so I don't know if there are much of such features. Please post them.

[ubuntu_demon]

At least on of the following features should be in ubuntu repo in the future :

audio converstation+webcam support for gaim
audio converstation+webcam support for amsn
gnome meeting support for msn

Come on IM developers your software would rock even more if it would have these features.

[BWF89]

Other: Until Linux gets to the point where when you buy a printer (or other piece of hardware) and along with having Win and Mac drivers it will also have a Linux driver no version of Linux will be ready completely ready for an end-user. I predict this will start happening when I think Linux will start hitting the mainstream in 8-10 years...

[jdodson]

Other: Until Linux gets to the point where when you buy a printer (or other piece of hardware) and along with having Win and Mac drivers it will also have a Linux driver no version of Linux will be ready completely ready for an end-user. I predict this will start happening when I think Linux will start hitting the mainstream in 8-10 years...

whooo that long huh? i think in a few years. gnu/linux is rapidly approaching the mac user base in numbers, will only be a matter of time.

[poofyhairguy]

-hoary most likely will miss : beagle, dashboard, a killer-app

I'm trying not to be noob, but neither wikipedia or google told me what beagle or dashboard is. Care to explain? (please)

[ralph_ubuntu]

I'm trying not to be noob, but neither wikipedia or google told me what beagle or dashboard is. Care to explain? (please)

http://www.beaglewiki.org/index.php/Beagle
http://www.beaglewiki.org/index.php/...is%20Dashboard

[poofyhairguy]

http://www.beaglewiki.org/index.php/Beagle
http://www.beaglewiki.org/index.php/...is%20Dashboard

Thx.

Wow, that looks cool! If Ubuntu is going to throw all its weight behind Gnome, it needs this kind of stuff.

[Lovechild]

Warty hardly is ready, I think Hoary will be a good indicator of how much work is ahead of us.

The main problem is still that we can't legally ship a lot of functionality that end users expect, like the ability to play DVDs, mp3s, wma/wmvs and so on. That problem sadly has no easy solution.

Another thing is translations, they are far from perfect in Warty, hopefully Ubuntu will work hard to reach out to the translation teams to get their own stuff translated properly, and please reconsider the idea of only shipping 10-15 languages, I would feel violated as a translator if I worked my ass off and I didn't get my work shipped by Ubuntu, looking at how the translation efforts are doing right now:

2 languages at 95% or better (Danish being one of them thank you very much, MWH has worked his butt off getting us there)
11 at 85% or better
25 at 80% or better

And this is for the development branch of GNOME (2.10), this early in the game that's impressive, since the string freeze isn't even in place yet. I'm willing to bet that we can get 25 at 90% or better with proper support (for the GNOME 2.8 branch that's now 33 languages). So it's a matter of someone (Ubuntu maybe) sponsoring the right interstructure for translators, and you will see impressive results.