I find validity to all of your points, but I think you cite a couple of bad examples. Photoshop? How many people actually use photoshop? 3 in 100? Maybe.

Also, the effect of Lindows (now Linspire) on the market was the advent of ‘click and run’ software for Linux. I think many people use what is available without regard for the command line - as many people do with Windows. I know many people who get chills when they see a command prompt open, no matter the OS.

Rather than saying is is a bad idea outright, I would use a qualifier (you choose which one), as few things in this life are so cut and dried.

Obviously, you have never used Gimp if you compare it to Microsoft Paint…

WOW.

So much of what you have written falls into the “half-truth” type of commentary. It’s really kind of funny.

First of all, Applications.

If you think that one absolutely MUST have the latest greatest of any app on any OS, you are gravely mistaken. As our friends at MS have shown us, brand spanking new version almost always have brand spanking new bigs that take several months usually to work out the kinks. Much better to work on software and apps that are stable, been around awhile and have had the kinks worked out. This goes for apps in any OS.

Next, Command line.

Linux desktops are rapidly minimizing the absolute need for use of Command Line/console activity all the time. Currently, there are very few times when a new user MUST resort to use of the console. Most applications and software are installed and configured by use of package installers that are very efficient at their jobs.

At the same time, why, by golly, is that the re-introduction of command line/console use on Windows systems that MS is bragging about, actually making it a “selling point”? Yes, it is.

So not only is Linux minimizing need of the console, MS is actively adopting it.

third, hardware support.

Well, again, you got it halfway right. there are few hardware sellers that “certify” their equipment for use on their equipment. At the same time, there are more drivers available for current and older pieces of equipment available for Linux than there is for any current MS system.

As a matter of fact, it is known that MS Vista has knowingly and intentionally removed support for less than new hardware thereby forcing MS users to replace equipment that was “new” as recently as a year ago.

Fourth, DRM.

DRM does not inhibit only Linux users. It affects ALL software and/or services that previously were accessible and available without compromising a users ability or right to use said items.

DRM goes beyond preventing theft. It is used by companies, like RIAA, MS and others to document activity and restrict ones ability to effectively use something they thought they had bought/paid for fairly. If DRM was only used to block illegal copying, it wouldn’t be the issue, unfortunately, it is used to hide unethical business behavior by many corporations who are not concerned with user rights, only increased profits.

Lastly, Ubuntu Just works.

Well, I cannot say I am a huge fan of Ubuntu. Not because I think it is that bad of an Linux Distro, only because it offers certain default settings that I don’t personally prefer to use, ( sudo, etc)

But So as not to confuse readers, Ubuntu is NOT the only version of Linux that is available. Linux is and has been made available in many forms and presentations. Thanks to the ability to customize Linux at the most basic to the most cosmetic , without paying through the nose for the privilege of optimizing something you have already paid for, supposedly, Users can find at least one Linux distribution that will accommodate their needs greatly. And they can still customize it even further to tailer it pinpoint to their wants if they choose to do so.

The worst thing you can do for Linux, as someone who “loves” Linux as much as you do, is to use MS products as a measuring stick. At best, it is misleading, at worst, it is a broken stick.

If you want to see how Linux measures up, match it up against need.

How well does the distro/app/tool fill the need. Either it does, or it doesn’t. Comparing Linux to Windows is a haters game. let each stand on their own merits.

Here’s a great irony. My copy of Photoshop CS2 doesn’t run in Vista! You’ll have to upgrade to CS3, says Adobe. And yet - Photoshop from v.7 through CS2 runs pretty much perfectly with Wine on Ubuntu. Even complicated plugins like Noise Ninja work just fine. You’re way off base here. Wine is a rapidly improving project and is now astonishlingly good and hack-free. They are releasing Wine 1.0 in the next few weeks, and it’s gotten really really good. For that matter, Gimp is far superior to Paint. About the only thing it can’t do these days is 16 bit color per channel. There are even a number of good open source Raw photo processors, and two fantastic proprietary Raw photo programs ported to Linux. Photo and graphics apps aren’t the problem in Linux. (Video editors, on the other hand, are more of a problem . . .)

You make it sound like most hardware doesn’t work in Ubuntu at all. Huh? The truth is, 98% of all hardware works *without ever having to install single driver* (Hardware drivers are built into the kernel) and the rest can be pretty easily made to work with available proprietary drivers or adaptations.

Hardware incompatibility was once worse, but is now a vanishing problem in Linux.

The command line. Ubuntu users pretty much never need to use the command line any more if they don’t want to. Of course, it’s true, we still see the command line referenced in how-to’s - Why? Because it’s a great way to give people a super fast and precise, cut-and-paste way to adjust their system. Instead of a long and drawn out description of navigating through umpteen graphical menus and finding obscure buttons to push, you can cut and paste a line or two of text on the command line and be done with it. The power of the CLI is a huge advantage, not a drawback.

Virtual machines - also getting super easy to install and configure. VirtualBox is an wonderful VM package with an amazingly ’seamless’ mode giving you the best of both worlds - running your favorite Linux apps and Windows apps side by side. Even the aforementioned video editing, as well as your DRM problems, can be gotten around simply by opening a Windows VM when necessary. (And such a relief to close it when it’s no longer needed.)

Sure, Linux is still not for everyone. But you’re picking a strange time to abandon Linux. It’s never been a better time for the adventurous persons to switch.

Incidentally, you can easily use your OEM copy of XP in a virtual machine installation. You just have to call MS and get an authorization, same as if you upgrade some hardware and your installed XP stops working. (This is just the kind of proprietary BS hassle that open source like Linux expressly aims to make obsolete.)

DVD playback=

Click help icon
Read
Install 2 package via command line or synaptic.

Done

Sure, ubuntu isn’t perfect, but neither is Windows XP or Vista and Mac OS X.
Each of them has some strong parts and weak parts, you just seam to ignore.
Your article is biased.
Ubuntu may be a really good idea depending on your needs.
For example, the movie http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ was created using inkscape, gimp, blender and python on ubuntu. So what will you say now?
Yes, using something that doesn’t satisfy all your needs is not a good idea, but judging for other and spreading FUD is just as “good”.

Gimp is inferior to MS paint? Hmmm, interesting assertion and one that hints at a dismissive scorn put before the facts. DRM is actually a good thing…my god, tell that to all the Microsoft customers whose legally paid for, Microsoft DRM’d music is going to be blocked because Microsoft are changing their DRM system to something ‘better’. So if you like to be dumped on from a great height just stay with Microsoft. Steve Ballmer has come out and described Vista as a ‘work in progress’ well I am sure that has gone down with everyone who were told it was a completed product. That may have been one of the reasons they may have purchased it. Hardware manufacturers and sellers must be so happy about the appalling state of the whole now it works now it doesnt chaos of Vista and their hardware. So if hanging out with a company with a criminal record - willfully criminal in the case of flouting the EU regulations and also their refusal to pay up afterwards-cheers you then wahay, heres Microsoft!

Ubuntu is not perfect. Linux isn’t perfect. Microsoft windows is not perfect. But at least Ubuntu is safe, secure, flexible, adaptable, free - in all senses of the word and pretty fun too. whats more its fans do not promulgate the view that Photoshop is inferior to tuxpaint.

This article reads true for a lot of us who tried to experiment with Ubuntu and realised what a piece of crap the OS really is.

Microsoft should really help promote Ubuntu. Once you’ve tried living with Linux for a week, suddenly you fall madly in love with Bill Gates and forgive them for the terrible pre-SP1 Vista release.

Once you’ve tried Linux you’ll never betray your Windows installation again.

1. Applications
“You also get to miss out on the joys of playing with the updated versions of your favorite software when new versions are released.”
that is.. after you’ve paid for them, whereas the open source applications give you the updates without having to pay for them (most of the time), or requiring registration keys, or any other hassle. Plus, most people don’t need Photoshop and the Gimp is not the only application available.

2. the Command Line
Helooooo welcome to the 21rst century! I’ve got my LAPTOP working fine and I have not *had* to go to the command line even once!

3. Hardware support
It may not be Linux’s fault but the developers have done a damned good job of supporting hardware when the manufacturers have given the cold shoulder!
Heck, I have a computer where Windows 2000 won’t detect the on-board Intel NIC card! Or the cable-modem. Ubuntu, on the other hand, had me online immediately!

4. DRM
Why bother with something so broken it’s being phased out (of its current form)?

5. Ubuntu just works
At least the title is correct. I can get Ubuntu working on systems that Windows has to either hunt for drivers (if there are any) or spend money and upgrade despite having a perfectly good working copy in my hand. We don’t even have to go into Vista to have this argument either!

So in summary, you are either doing something wrong (most likely) or gleaming your information from other people who are doing something wrong or living in the past. Either way you seem to miss an extremely powerful asset of Linux that most people don’t get; the Community.

Plus, as mentioned before, there are different version of Linux available so maybe you need to pick one more suitable to your needs or experience level.

To use Linux you have to first open your mind.

You have my respect for at least having used the OS, as opposed to blind bashing.

However you also have me really confused as to what you were looking for out of linux. If you like it on your servers, I can’t see what the problem would be on your desktop.

I have some fairly weird requirements so I had to do a lot of research, but most people can plug and play. Xubuntu has not failed me with hardware detection, with the popular exception of one wireless notebook network card.

As for apps, I can read and write in any work app format I need to. I can even run IE under linux, which may or may not cause an antimatter chain reaction that will destroy the universe as we know it.

I tried Vista This is one of the reasons my company will not use it. They did such a great job making a pretty interface useful that we can’t FIND anything. Those must have been some expensive consultants.

Otoh, linux occasionally goes on our production floor as a loaner unit and there hasn’t been a single usability issue. That says something.

Thanks for the article,

-lefty
ThermionicEmissions

I operate Photoshop 9 under Wine and it works very well

I’m not saying Drop windows all together , but you go to give Ubuntu some credit .

I find it very fun and works fine. I would say Dual sperating system is good for a change , and you will find that Linux recognizes other OS whilst Windows does not

I read your xp/vista reinstall blog  http://www.lockergnome.com/eksodos/2008/…)before reading this one! Wow!
And you complained about having to Google answers to help you with Linux!

I have been using Linux solo on two different laptops since Dec 2006 and dual-booted with xp for 6 months before that.
Problems? Yes…I have been through 6 different linux distributions before deciding on Kubuntu (finds and uses ALL my hardware..connects to wifi better (faster and during startup) than xp and vista EVER did (and this was also true for 3/4 other distros)

Do I miss using my Visioneer scanner connected to my wife’s MS box…yes! Do I miss using the Dell 3010 color laser at work? yes.
Do I miss using greeting card apps? yes
Do I miss installing tax programs? yes and no (hee hee)

But with almost everything else, I have a Linux app to use or driver for hardware to accomplish my work.
OpenOffice has been my office suite since late 2000 (first on windows, then linux) firefox and gimp followed soon after.

But I also don’t mind missing the forced updates; like the one that installed the program to ‘help’ categorize all your media on your computer, when we had only one audio and no video files to categorize? and which slowed my wife’s system to a crawl for a day-and-a-half?!!!
I don’t mind missing having to run, update and maintain an anit-virus program, while Linux has security built-in.
I don’t miss having the hidden and special backup partitions that robbed me of 1/5 of my hard drive space…you need that in windows because of its tendency to crash, and NEEDS that backup protection.
Linux does and has caused me to completely reinstall it….but generally…within an hour, I have a functioning system, with most apps that I need, and my own docs safe and secure in its own partition.

Oh yes, I bought a dell 1330 with plenty of ram and hdd space and cpu power to run vista. I installed linux to dual boot, because I wanted to try vista…it really wasn’t as bad as I had heard…I had no hour long slowdowns after moving or deleting files, for example. But vista did not like the linux install for some reason…and would give me a BSOD at EVERY shutdown! My linux (kubuntu) was running fine. Dell techs would not help me, as they said that linux had caused the problem…uh really? I responded…Linux is running fine, it is windows that has the problem!
After three weeks, I reinstalled Kubuntu to be the solo OS.
built in cam-works,
media buttons-work
audio- works
wifi-works
command line-works, I guess, I’m too lazy to learn to use!

I’m sorry but as many people have pointed out above, this article is complete nonsense. Full of half-truths.

Mark my words, Linux is the future. The Web 2.0 ideology marks a transition from proprietary to open-source.

guys dont bother replying,the guy who wrote this is obviously a moron…

2001 called. It wants it’s Linux review back.

Anyone that attempts to review Ubuntu and brings up “configure” clearly hasn’t touched the thing. I don’t care if others think you have. You’re clearly someone parroting other people’s talking points.

If anything, Ubuntu has taught me to stop and check for a GUI option before trying something based on some Slackware 96 approach to doing something.

…as far as “apps” go. Try complaining about some that a large portion of the userbase are likely to be using. Concentrating on the sorts of apps that Apple likes to bundle would be a good start.

I’m sorry, but the author of this article is correct. Actually, I’m not sorry. I am a retired IT manager. Our shop was Win-based, but we did support HP-UX, and although I personnally did not do hands-on support of unix, I have some familiarity with it. So after buying a new laptop a year ago, I decided to take my 5 year old Vaio and load Ubuntu. After three tries, I finally got it to load. It was incredibly slow, and of course my Linksys wireless card did not work, and niether did m Canon printer. The video problem is well documented, but after 2 weeks of off and on playing around, I eventually had an Ubuntu system that ran Firefox, Thunderbird and VLC media player. The system was incredibly slow, so I switched to the Xubuntu distro since it was supposed to be easier on resources and better for older slower machines. The performance did not improve. And, there was a continuing problem with Firefox. It would freeze if I opened 4 (or more) tabs.

After researching on the web, I decided to try the Suse linux distro. Frankly, I found it a much easier setup, and it worked much better than Ubuntu when first installed. Of course its’ wireless support is no better, nor its’ printer support. It did solve my Firebird freeze problem. Eventually, I did get my printer working, but not in a networked environment. And linux still runs slower on this old laptop than Win/XP did(does). I’m sure that if I felt the urge to devote the time to it, I could eventually tweak linux to be an acceptable system to use.

But, the point is: would I recommend Ubuntu (or Suse) to any of my non techy friends? Absolutely not! And that is the problem with linux.. Linux supporters are a very elitest group. Their attutude is “If you’re not smart enough to figure this out, you don’t deserve to use a computer”. That’s bollocks. The holy grail of hardware and software development is “user friendliness”. And while no one has reached hat level in computing, Windows and Mac OS are light years ahead of linux. Why should I go backwards? I still have my Suse Linux machine, and I fire it up regularly and experiment with it, but It isn’t my primary machine, and most likely won’t be in the forseeable future.

[...] know, all those powerful tools you need to achieve professional results. The same applies to other productivity software like your expensive copies of Dreamweaver and Fireworks. And don’t get me started on Gimp. It’s [...]

HAHA! Your spite against Linux is, what shall I say, oozing through the network interface?

Your ‘reasons’ are simply not valid - any of them… you have no clue about actuall USING a computing machine or the many issues of software or content - ethical or otherwise! For example, DRM being about platform lockin???? Come on! HAHA!

I hope that if you grow up you will look back on this post and at least blush, if not hide in shame…

Ubuntu is for Newbies and MSFT is for Idiots. I use CentOS. BTW a new version will be released in a few weeks. CentOS is a legal clone of RedHat Enterprise Linux. Check out http://www.top500.org/
to see what the most powerful computers are using as an operating system. Note that only real juice can be found here, thus, no cool-aid.

Ubuntu is Linux for dummies, and it really isn’t a very good distro.

1. Applications - Many Linux applications are far better than their Windows counterparts. Photoshop runs great on Linux, but with programs like Digikam, and Krita, I rarely have reason to use Photoshop. And most people don’t have the money to buy it either. Digikam is easier to use, and free.

2. The Command Line - Many Linux users never see it. This is an advantage that a powerful tool exists, but again, only if you need it.

3. Hardware Support - How many vendors have yet to release Vista drivers? And what about old hardware, when the manufacturer is no longer providing drivers. I have to hunt down Windows drivers all the time. With Linux, all the drivers are built-into the kernel. Furthermore, device drivers are modular, so a driver crashing won’t crash your whole computer. In Windows, device drivers are the most common source of BSOD’s.

4. DRM - DRM stops you from playing your content, and is a hassle at best. If you bought all your music through a store with the “Plays For Sure” logo from Microsoft, and then bought Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player, you were probably disappointed to learn those files wouldn’t play. So much for “Plays For Sure”. On Windows you may need to install codecs to view videos, no different from Linux. The DVD/CSS issue is odd, because people are paranoid it is illegal to install that package in the US, which is bunk. The DCMA says it is illegal to make copies of work, not to play it. Plenty of lawyers have gone on record saying there is nothing wrong with the libcss package to enable DVD playback. You unfortunately used a distro that doesn’t have it preinstalled, but it can be installed in about two seconds. Even better, you don’t have to search for a package, since all software is in one repository.

5. It just works - Apple products don’t just work. Windows products don’t just work. And Linux products sometimes don’t just work either. No one makes a perfect product, but your article skips over the NUMEROUS advantages of Linux.

Next time, try a better distro. Sabayon is pretty incredible. openSUSE is nice, so is Mandriva, Fedora, etc. etc. etc.

I smell a troll.

I agree and disagree with the original author. Photoshop does not run natively on Linux, and it can be a pain to configure sometimes. He stated that he ran Ubuntu 8.04 and I now have that on 4 of my systems, 3 workstations and a laptop, and didn’t have to go to the command line once. I did have to edit a config file but I used the GUI editor, just like windows. I think what we read is a totally frustrated and pissed off writer’s vent. Okay, we heard you. And we understand. We don’t agree with you, we didn’t have such issues, but we understand that you did and how you feel. I feel much the same way about Windows having had similar experiences with it. Unfortunately there is no perfect Operating System, all of them crash sometimes, all of them need updates and none of them work perfectly. I wish you well with Windows, if it meets your needs then good for you, you found what you need and like. So did I, Ubuntu. For about 11 years now Linux has been my desktop, Caldera, Redhat, Gentoo, Mandrake then Ubuntu. Haven’t looked back, my kids prefer Linux also. My wife is very happy with here W2k box. To each his own. I wish you well.

PK

Let’s take this point by point, shall we?

1. Applications

You claim that you cannot get Photoshop CS2 to work with WINE. First, this is NOT a Linux problem–it’s a WINE problem. Nice use of a non-sequitur to try to pin the blame on Ubuntu. Second, Photoshop is a critical app to…how many people? Not many. So, Ubuntu is bad for everyone because an infrequently used Windows program does not work with an Ubuntu program that doesn’t even ship with the default install? That’s a faulty inductive argument right there.

Also, you are ill-informed if you think GIMP is comparable to MS Paint. GIMP has over an order of magnitude more features than Paint; a quick Google search could have told you that. Besides, if you don’t like GIMP, use Krita. It looks more like Photoshop than GIMP in my humble opinion.

Your claim that you can’t use the “latest and greatest” Windows software on Ubuntu because “you have to wait for some hobbyist developer to get it working” is both empty and insulting to the WINE developers, who are by no means hobbyists (they are far better developers than you; they are far better developers than me; they are far better developers than everyone else who has tried to clone an MS product). Your claim is empty because you give no examples–it’s just an opinion without substantiation. Besides, most average users see no reason to upgrade if they can avoid it–why pay money for a newer version of the same product that already serves their needs in its current form? If you want evidence of this, just ask anyone who has used Quicken or MS Office–I’d like to meet a non-power user who likes getting sunset-ed by Quicken or a non-power user who prefers the new MS Office interface to the old one.

2. The Command Line.

Your first paragraph is another non-sequitur–just because power Linux users like the command-line doesn’t mean that everyone should use it. A similarly ludicrous argument would be to dismiss Windows as a bad OS just because a few Windows users will open up a DOS command prompt to do their work. Your Windows-ish thinking also reveals itself here–in Linux-land, you use a package manager to install software. You will almost never need to directly install a .deb manually (also, for what it’s worth, a .deb is closer to a .zip than a .msi or .exe–specifically, a .deb stores the files to be installed and some installation and un-installation scripts that are invoked by the package manager).

Additionally, having multiple package managers and packaging protocols is mitigated by the similarity between their respective GUI front-ends. Also, I research scalable and secure software deployment at my university–having multiple software installation vectors makes it difficult for a hacker to use a package manager exploit to disrupt all existing Linux systems. Finally, software repositories controlled by the distro maintainer are on average far more trustworthy than a typical .msi installer you grab from the internet–the former are under strict quality control measures and are safeguarded, and most of the latter contain malware.

3. Hardware Support.

So, it’s Ubuntu’s fault that the hardware vendors do not publish Linux drivers? You just love the non-sequitur fallacy. Also, just because the bug listing on a Linux driver is publicly visible does not mean that Windows drivers are any better–in their case, the bug listing is usually hidden away from outsiders. You will find that open-source Linux drivers that are in the kernel proper tend to be very well-maintained and do not cause any OS problems.

I don’t follow your conclusion that each and every driver problem must be resolved from the command-line. Ubuntu uses the Restricted Drivers Manager to install proprietary graphics drivers without requiring the user to even know what the xorg.conf file is. Also, you can get additional drivers for your hardware from the package manager (which you don’t seem to have used).

Additionally, for your information, Linux supports more hardware out of the box than any other OS in existence. It’s just not all x86 hardware. Ever try to run Windows on…
a Playstation 3?
an UltraSPARC server?
a PDA?
a Mac?
a router?

4. DRM or lackof.

You can use the package manager to grab proprietary codecs. Due to licensing restrictions on behalf of big media, Ubuntu (and every other Linux distro) cannot legally provide them out of the box (and the same goes for proprietary drivers). You seem to think that it is Ubuntu’s fault for big media’s licensing restrictions. Besides, DRM isn’t exactly a “feature”–it’s more like a bug.

5. Ubuntu just works.

If your Dell computer is not working properly, then go complain to Dell for not setting it up properly. Do you blame Microsoft when Dell doesn’t install Windows properly for you? Of course not. You excel at using the non-sequitur fallacy.

You are also falsely inducting again–just because you had a bit of trouble with your hardware does not mean that it always happens to everyone. As mentioned above, Ubuntu often will get everything to work out of the box. That’s more than Windows can do, where you almost always have to spend your time driver-hunting after installation.

Also, configuring your printer is done graphically these days. I use KDE, so I just use the KDE Print Configuration module. GNOME has a similar component.

No OS works with every piece of hardware in existence–not even Windows. That does not excuse Ubuntu, of course, but you come across as having a double standard. In all, like a lot of “journalists” these days, you use half-truths and logical fallacies to prove a point that has no basis.

never used the command line on ubuntu

Sorry sir, but I had the problems you are writting about about a year ago, when trying switching from XP to fedora 7 and it was because it was first time using linux at all. I´m using ubuntu for 9 months now and didn´t had any problem. By the way I´m finding more problems using the pirated versions of XP, vista, and CS2/CS3 we have to use here in Venezuela because propietary software is insanely expensive.

P.S. I fresh installed my latest ubuntu 8.04 with Nvidia drivers and windows networking without using a command line. Everything else: soundcard, TV capture, network, monitor. just worked out of the box.

I don’t run Ubuntu, but I do run Debian Gnu/Linux. I have not had any real problems with it. Debian is harder to run for a Noob. I had no problems installing my hardware. I have used Ubuntu for a short time and found it not to my liking, but it is a good beginner Distro.
I think you are comparing apples with pine cones. I had harder times installing new hard ware with Wintrash. I had to fix many problems with Wintrash. I have more time doing work on my Linux System than I ever did on Win.

Oh and I’m a plumber by trade, so if I can run Linux anybody can.

I’ve used Linux 99% of the time for the last 3 years. Finally, someone has the guts to say what so many Linux users were thinking. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of flack for your post from the Linux fanboys, I haven’t bothered to read them. They’re not worth reading.

I love linux

I went from slackware 10 to ubuntu and almost cried ubuntu was so crappy..

Ubuntu made me install vista……… shortly after I formatted back to xp pro corp. VLK..

YOU WILL NEVER HAVE MY $$ MS, NEVERRR!!

This really is a poorly exaggerated article. Like a bad movie review, it may have a fact here and there correct, but the larger point that fact is being used to illustrate is questionable at best. In other words, its disingenuous at best.

From this article:

So getting your sound card, graphics card, or printer running close to perfectly in Linux is a game of chance and extreme good fortune. Dealing with driver issues in Linux almost always brings you back to reason #2 why switching to Ubuntu is dumb: you’ll need to solve these kinds of issues from the command line. It’s not pretty!

From the previous retracted article:

The first thing I discovered when I booted into Windows for the first time after installation, Windows XP does not recognise anywhere near as much hardware as Ubuntu Linux does.

From this article:

You also get to miss out on the joys of playing with the updated versions of your favorite software when new versions are released.

From the previous retracted article:

I then attempted to install Windows Media Player 11 on my machine. That too failed at the first attempt, and yes, you guessed it, Windows Update was wrecked in the process. This time Dial-a-Fix just did not want to know. I attempted to completely remove Windows Media Player, that didn’t make a blind bit of difference. After about two hours of Googling help guides, attempting various repair suggestions and registry hacks, I gave up on this Windows XP install and decided to start all over again. What fun!

Just can’t seem to make up your mind? Did you pull the previous post because you didn’t want anyone to call you on your blatant hypocrisy? Not Ubuntu’s OR Windows’ fault that you’re incompetent.

[...] This guy has a few points, but he makes a few mistakes, too, and thus I am required to point them out and discuss them.  And don’t get me started on Gimp. It’s a nice free toy for photo manipulation and editing graphics - but it’s about as comparable to Photoshop as is Microsoft Paint. [...]

I been a Win user for 9 years, been on Ubuntu for about 6 months now and enjoy it every day. But it WILL take some time to get the hang of things if you been using the same OS for as long as I have. Plus if you never used a computer before then Ubuntu is the best choice.

As for hardware (as a system builder) everything works for me. I just built a system with 8.04 and it dosen’t need Video, Audio, or Ethernet drivers. How crazy is that!

Long Live Linux!

Reason 6: you are desperate for hits and willing to dredge up arguments from years past, pick and choose cases to support them and otherwise act like a troll.

If you aren’t willing to make an honest attempt to use a Linux desktop, don’t try it, and don’t write about it. Just leave it for the arts grads like me.

Quite a flame war you have created here. Good Job with that.

I am an old lady (over 55) who dumped her XP for Linux on two different computers. While I don’t use Ubuntu specifically, I do use Linux and I think you are way off base on your article. All the other comments have addressed the reasons. If I can install, configure and use Linux, anyone can, and I very rarely do anything from the command line.

The Seven Kinds of Ziff-Davis or CNET anti-Linux FUD Pundits.

I’d give you five out of a possible seven, but I can’t dance to it.

Ubuntu is crap!!! Really? I dont need to read this article to know that.
Ubuntu it’s no perfect but it works for me. Using Linux its all about power and freedom. I dont want some company to tell-me what i can, or not, do whit my PC.

You say that you have Linux in your servers…. How can you can you administer your server if you dont like the shell env. ?

Oh…. I know, you are talking about your streaming server, and about your little webserver, and about your piracy server…..

Yes, im a linux Fan Boy… and you are a Microsoft Fan Boy…
I know both worlds. Can you say the same?

Do the homework before write about something you dont know.
http://www.google.com
http://www.wikipedia.org/

I can’t believe I wasted my time reading this nonsense.

Now, how about doing 5 Reasons Why Switching To Windows Vista is a Really Dumb Idea

You forgot to mention that Windows has many of the same problems. I have been using it since the days of Windows 3.1, and have NEVER gotten a printer to work properly with it. I have never found a TV capture card that works properly either (from AverMedia, Pinnacle, Leadtek (the best by far)).
Are we perhaps forgetting that Microsoft pratically invented the concept of software bugs, and Windows is full of them.
Fact is ALL operating systems and software are full of bugs, often badly designed, etc. Linux is no better or no worse.
But I do agree that the software installation system sucks bigtime, and that the GUI interface only partially implements the required range of functions necessitating resorting to the command line. Its definately not as user friendly is some areas as Windows, but in general is more reliable.

FUD. FUD. FUD. I smell a Troll! I ran Ubuntu for a while, I prefer the KDE brands instead. PCLinuxOS is my cup of tea now. Had an old PIII 450 which ran PCLOS just fine, recently built an AMD dual core box which simply SCREAMS with PCLOS. NO command line work needed! What were you doing wrong????

Awesome troll. I like the way you refer to the employees of Codeweavers as “hobbyists” and say that most vendors don’t deliver certified drivers (as if linux has a certification program). It perfectly brings out the Lintards in the response section. It’s like that troll social experiment that the dude did for linuxtoday.com a year ago.

I thought it precious that you wrote that ./configure was a “command”, and that make and “make install” were actually two separate commands.

The DRM section almost made me choke on my gourmet pizza.

Great job and peace out,
Frank

This blog entry was obviously made to caused to stir up a ruckus. Probably to generate more traffic and to make more pennies from ads.

Lame

Wow, You have missed the point entirely. Do us all a favour and stick with Windows and stop commenting on things you don’t understand. In the meantime, I’ll be upgrading my system with a single click and running software that Vista is unable to, thanks.

I have been dual booting Ubuntu and Windows XP PRO on a Dell D620 laptop for over a year now. I use Firefox for a browser, Thunderbird for Email, and OpenOffice for most of the rest on both systems. I use a bluetooth mouse and my network connections are always wireless.
Updates including the recent update to Hardy Heron have been as painless as XP patches. Perhaps I expect less of this computer than others but it gets my work done.

Let’s make one clear from the start. I’m not a “Windows fan boy” as you Open Source kids like to believe.

I posted my experiences migrating back away from Ubuntu to Windows XP/Vista a couple days ago. And I had plenty to say about how troublesome the Windows installation experience was for me:

http://www.lockergnome.com/eksodos/2008/05/31/its-a-myth-windows-does-not-just-work/

Second of all, I did not post this article to generate hits or revenues. I’m on a free blog hosting service. If I wanted to drum up traffic and revenues from an insincere post, I would have setup my own Wordpress site in less than an hour and claimed all the traffic as my own.

My post was a genuine summary of my experiences of running Ubuntu on my desktop and laptop for a year. I’m sorry if you open source advocates can’t tolerate someone sharing a negative experience. Bottom line as far as I’m concerned is Linux is not ready for mass-adoption on the desktop and probably never will be.

1. there are a TON of apps that are FREE meaning you can download them legally
2. You for got one inportent thing. Where was windows about about 7 years ago hrmm do you remember the old dos command prompt??? from dos 1.1 through windows 98? hello it still hasnt changed xp emu the dos command prompt.
3. Mine worked almost out of the box the only thing that didnt was my drawing pad but after reading on the subject it worked
Ok so you had a bad experince so what just look at vista a crud os that needs 2gb of ram to run on 32bit system and 4gb for 64bit just jaw droping my system works just fine with 512mb and is faster than any windows distro out there. my point is it could be worse your computer could be crashing every 2 sec with vista I’ve been using ubuntu for 3 months now and have learned things that i wouldnt have 10 years ago with red hat some linux distros a crud i do admit but dude give it a chance.

I dismiss this as disgruntled ranting. Dude, if you can’t handle working with ubuntu because using the command line stresses you out, why are you using your computer for stuff that needs the command line?

I honestly believe that the type of user who is honestly taken aback by typing commands, will never actually need to do so in ubuntu. Its only for more technical tasks that it is required.

The beauty of the command line is that it is scriptable. Two possible tech support responses:

“Open up your control panel, go to networking, click the Advanced tab. What is the third entry down in the list box? Is it TCP/IP? Click on that, ok, now click on Properties…”

vs.

“Download this script from our website at http://www.company.com/support/checkscript.sh. Ok, type “sh checkscript.sh” and tell me what it says…”

I write these kinds of scripts for people frequently. Even made one that can check if a there is a WarCraft 3 server running on a list of IP addresses recently, lol.

I am a power user of Linux (I develop embedded apps) and I couldn’t agree more with this article. Every point is dead on. IMO, if you aren’t frustrated with Linux, then you are either A) not doing much with it or B) just running some server app that requires very little beyond the basic NIC, keyboard and mouse. Linux is great for some things like embedded devices or servers but, for ordinary public, forget it. Most people don’t have as much time and patience as some people here seem to have. Doesn’t matter what distro it is.

It’s fine for you to express your bad experience about Ubuntu. But, I think you better use your word wisely. Your article just burnt you back.

My experience with Ubuntu is great. I guess I am an open source fan boy to a certain extent, but there’s some open source software that I don’t like too. I stick with the Adobe Flash player rather than use the open source Gnash, because it works.

But I can tell you I haven’t had the problems you have had. I hardly have to touch the command line.

GIMP is a great program, and far better than MS Paint. GIMP had support for layers, PSD files many more file formats, filters, etc etc way before MS Paint. How many of those features does MS Paint have right now? I don’t know, I haven’t used MS Paint lately myself, but I used to use it and I know GIMP was way better at the time.

I’m really liking Krita now though. Check that one out.

The only times I had to use the command line for anything in Ubuntu were to set some things up with Apache and to run ies4Linux, and it wasn’t even that hard. I haven’t touched the command line for anything other than that.

There are some programs where only the source code is available for downloads on their web sites. If you can’t find it in the synaptic package manager, then yes, you’ll have to go to the command line. But most of the time, there’s a .deb package available these days. Believe it or not, there are some programs that will work in Windows too, where only the source code is available. What does Windows come with that will compile it? Oh, you have to buy that software.

If only the source code is available, generally it’s not stable yet in the first place, so even regular computer users aren’t going to run that software anyway., whether it’s in Windows or Linux.

My friend just installed Ubuntu on another friend’s laptop. Until now, his only experience has been with Windows. He hasn’t had to touch the command line at all. He’s able to use openoffice fine, able to get on the web just fine, and use Skype. He’s doing well in Linux.

I’m curious to know what you had to do on the command line, actually. What were you trying to do?

Sad, but its all true. I’ve been using Linux since ‘99. At that time I thought it might be ready for the desktop in about 5 years. Now I don’t think it will be ready in even another 5 years. The lack of driver support, key applications and the other problems the author cites in his article are really symptoms of Linux’s real problem:
No cohesive vision for the platform. Its’ all in “pieces”. Whether you like/dislike WIndows or Mac does not matter, you have to concede that they both have visions for their platforms that make for as close to seamless environments as possible.

Are you kidding right?
I think you know less than 10% about photoshop
And you just talk like this about gimp cos you suck…
Dreamweaver? this must be a joke….

Maybe your mum or dad will have problem to click in Applications and Install or Remove Program and select in a list, won’t they? Well, my mom doesn’t have any problem about it.. Btw I am here to configure and keep this working, she just uses to read e-mails and search things in Google..
You can ask your mother to compile you firefox, I prefer to install it and show her how to open it..

Hardware? DRM?
Which planet do you live?

Well.. You could learn about Linux before talking about id…

Have a nice day

experience is a continuous choice, you just expressed yours, great! free country man

regards,
d

More like “5 reasons this author is a dumbass.”

I installed Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit on an HP (Compaq) 2510p (brand new) and EVERYTHING worked OOB. Wireless, widescreen, touchpad, volume, sound, graphics, 3D games, bluetooth… everything.

I even went to add a new printer and it found my Brother 5250dn laser printer and installed it for me. It’s a networked printer, by the way. It’s a major pain to install in WinXP, which I just did a few months ago on my wife’s laptop.

Oh, and I used GIMP in a Photoshop class at college and the instructor was none-the-wiser. MS Paint? You’re a jackoff.

I went to the command line once to copy a file but I could just as easily have done it graphically.

I have to finish out with Virtualization - VirtualBox rocks, it’s free, and you probably have an old version of XP laying about. I’ve used OEM versions, as long as it’s not a “quick restore” CD. But I have about 4 versions sitting around from systems that I’ve never used, including a copy from college that I never used. Anyway, seamless mode in VirtualBox is pretty cool, just tried it yesterday. Can’t seem to find any reason to use XP, though, just wanted it “just in case.”

Compare to the XP system I recently set up for my wife - I need to find DVD players for XP, it doesn’t come with a CD burner for ISO images, my wife hates IE6, I had to download a metric buttload of drivers to get basic stuff working, and none of the special keys works (it’s an original generation Centrino laptop from Toshiba). Then I had to dig up my Office XP CDs, then I had to download and manually install all the apps she needs, like a usable image viewer, blah blah… you get the point.

All that stuff was included with Ubuntu or a couple of clicks away in Synaptic (or apt-get from the “dreaded” command line).

Perfect? No. But nowhere near what this article depicts.

Pablo, my 68 year old mother in law that barely knows how to turn the computer on uses ubuntu linux every day and has for the last 4 years without any problems and has never had any need to touch the command line. My 10 year old daughter has never used windows and happily listens to music, plays online games, watches youtube etc and has never had to touch the command line. My 5 year old daughter happily listens to music, plays online games, surfs the net and has never had to touch the command line. Of course none of them are “professional artists” with a need for advanced photo manipulation tools like Photoshop and they don’t create masterpiece web pages with dreamweaver. (I create web applications but use eclipse, netbeans, adobe air etc on linux and have no need for a simplistic tool like Dreamweaver). Are they technical geniuses? or just smarter then you?

-1 Troll

And not a very good one at that.

What a rediculous article.

Don’t switch to Windows, cause you won’t be able to run Linux software on it! OMG. You know, amarok doesn’t work on Windows (yet), you could try winamp, but it’s as close to amarok as windows media player is.

Command line? If you plan on only using a computer for email, web pages, you never need the command line. If you want full control of your computer, pick an os other than windows. If you have time to read a book, man pages, and a few tutorials on the web, you will have a powerful and robust linux system in only a few days/weeks or less.

I’m glad we have free speech on the internet. It lets other people reply to shitty posts (just look at the number of comments this post has received) and really educate.

I haven’t read your article fully and also don’t want to read it also, because I upgraded from Windows Vista to Ubuntu last month, and I am happy with the speed (startup and applications), no crashes, better firefox support, more applications options, good community support, completely free, no need to worry about antivirus, defrag, and yes I want to dumb Uncle Bill’s operating system to get with the “cool” crowd.

You dont compile stuff yourself on top of Ubuntu/Debian - you might end up corrupting your local repository.

Optional stuff you install under /opt.

See you soon!

Was going to argue against your 5 so-called reasons (”assumptions” might have been a better word), but I can see that others have done that very well already.

Next time, write about something you actually know something about.

Get a grip, man.

Ah…so you prefer using Windows on your desktop? Man, you’re making me laugh. You’re gonna get tonnes of viruses, trojans, worms, spyware etc….Antivirus? Alright, use it, and hohoho…you’re gonna slow down your system a whole lot…..Don’t wanna use it? Hohoho, you’re gonna spend hours cleaning your system, even if you’ve got some skills and tools…And after all that is done, OMG, and ta-da! You have yourself a beautiful screen of white cryptic texts on a blue background. Congratz, you’ve got the blessings from Micro$oft.

If your only measurement of the suitability of a OS is the support of MS Windows programs or unsupported hardware, you’ll never find any OS other then Windows that will match.

There are bad things about Ubuntu, that’s true, but none of the things you’ve mentioned make any sense to me.

If I wanted to quote all that was incorrect in this article I’d need to quote it completely.

1. If you want to use Windows software, use Windows. You don’t go into a Spanish library if you want to read English books. Linux does not run Windows programs just like Windows does not run Linux programs. There are tricks to make it work somewhat, but it’s a last resort, not something you should count on.

2. Command line? Why is it that so many people are scared of that? Why is it that Microsoft is now giving a PowerShell to its OSses? Maybe because it is a good idea to have a simple fallback? I have seen messed-up Windows computers fail to boot even to a command line because the graphical log in you have to pass (!) did not work anymore.

Most people never have to use the command line. I bet you didn’t set up your Windows yourself, you bought it with your computer. If you had someone with at least average knowledge set up your computer with Linux you’d have no trouble, and you’d probably never have to use the command line. Not that it was the hardcore geek tool so many people make it out to be. When you don’t understand the command line that doesn’t necessarily tell us something about the command line; it might be it tells us something about you.

Ah, and installing new software is far simpler than on Windows.

3. Any desktop Linux today supports far more hardware out of the box than Windows. You don’t even need vendor-supplied driver CDs. I have yet to actually install a scanner in Ubuntu; in all cases of Ubuntu installations the scanner was setup up automatically and immediately. I had a little more trouble with the odd printer, but most of the time if you do your homework beforehand and use printers from such exotic and hard-to-find Linux-supporting vendors like HP, setting it up takes all of 30 seconds. Same goes for WiFi these days; In installed Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 on computers with WiFi access prerequisites, and lo and behold, it worked out of the box. Again, do your homework first and make sure what you buy is supported. You don’t go and buy Apple mice for your Windows machine, so don’t buy Windows-only hardware for your Linux machine.

4. DRM? That should be dead and buried. How can anyone support that? You’re practically thanking the industry for treating you like a criminal. Even the industry is getting that, why aren’t you?

Go buy yourself a HD camcorder, record your next birthday party, and try to get Vista to display this premium HD content (which you own) using you run-of-the-mill monitor. Ths gives a new meaning to the phrase ‘does not run out of the box’. It adds ‘on purpose’ to it.

But if you think Microsoft is better suited to deciding what your computer should do for you, you might even be right.

5. Well, Ubuntu at least works out of the box more often than Windows in my experience (which incidentally is 18 years of administration). What you call a working Windows is what I call a huge security risk. I don’t consider an OS as working just because it happens to support all my hardware; I consider it not working well when it is as open to abuse as Windows is.

Windows is still a single user, no network operating system with half-assed user control and networking tacked on as an afterthought. The registry is the single worst idea in the history of computing. Really, if there’s anything you can do wrong when designing an OS, you only have to look at MS to see who has done it.

I was going to write an essay but I can’t be bothered. Someone here said that “Ubuntu is crap” - all that demonstrates is that the author of that post has not and cannot be bothered to investigate, learn and understand.

I have used Windows for over 20 years, and I’m now using Ubuntu at home. I can do everything I want to do in terms of digital media processing. I am getting used to Open Office (there is a shiny new version on it’s way though). I have forgotten about Viruses, Spyware, Trojans et al. I don’t need to defrag and run chkdsk every week to keep my PC running even half reasonably. All my hardware works, including my Nvidia graphics card, audio, printer, camera…

Now what was so good about Vista again…??

“Fair and honest articles dealing with my daily experiences living in a world of computer technology.”

Epic Fail - when ordinary failure doesn’t describe how badly you blew it!!

Serious lack of any truths regarding the state of Linux in 2008.

Who do I see about getting my two minutes back?

You’re a tool. Nothing more than a shill, or else you’re simply dumb.

Which is it?

Lol, I stopped reading your tripe right after I read “certified deivers”.

lol. What a tool.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!

I LOVE satire. Hilarious piece. Nice trolling.

Well, I’m off to Best Buy to get a couple more gigs of RAM to support my Vista DRM overhead requirements.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

I use WindowXP for one BIG reason, the Flighgear simulator in Linux is not yet as nice as the MS Flightsim. So i dual boot Linux and XP. My Window XP installation is pretty basic, no antivirus, antivirus antiwhatever, no mail program, no office suite, no internet enable in the device manager, nothing but the basic so my flightsims runs nice. For all the rest i rely on my thrusted Mandivra installation.

WOW, just WOW. Seems like you’ve written this back in 2001 and now are posting it by accident…

Photoshop — how many peoplne NEED photoshop? Sure, lots of people use pirated PS to crop photos and adjust brightness… but those don’t NEED it and even Gimp (which you falsely compare to MS Paint) will be a bulldozer for them…

Dreamweaver? I use Eclipse and it’s a highly powerful thing even for the most exacting devs…

Fireworks — well, Linux really doesn’t have any really killer vector app. But go see what people are able to accomplish with Inkscape. Some wouldn’t create such things even with 5 fireworks and 20 illustrators… It’s about talent first, tools are secondary…

But what’s most funny is “./configure –with-options and make and make install” are the essential ingredients to surviving in Linux land” Man… I’m a web developer working on several server side platforms with pretty high requirements on software. And I also do all the things regular users do, listening to music, watching movies, burning DVDs, writing text, spreadsheets, even web design sometimes… and I haven’t used configure & make & make install FOR SEVERAL YEARS on Ubuntu… What you’ve written is simply a blatant lie.

And all those other attacks you do on Ubuntu… man, stay with things that you know and don’t mess the Internet with such rubbish about things you don’t even try to understand…

Oh please, what a load of bollocks. If Ubuntu is not for human beings, I and many others must be supreme beings.

Any change of OS forces the user to compromise. Ubuntu is the alternative OS for someone keen on embrancing the open source initiative, not a drop-in replacement that can run proprietary software of a completely different OS. Try OS X, Haiku or openBSD if you think differently.

As for “just working”, I’ve upgraded recently to Ubuntu 8.04 on my laptop and everything is working. Everything, including sound, touchpad, wifi, bluetooth and graphics card. No fussing, no having to compile obscure drivers, nothing. So yeah, it works.

DVD playback is clearly mentioned why it is not enabled by default but that is easily addressed by agreeing to activate the correct repositories next time you try to play a movie. I can play my FairPlay DRM’d songs using Songbird as well, which was also installed automatically. Magic!

If you are really so keen on Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Fireworks to dish out the small fortune they cost, I am sure you’ll be happy to stick with Windows anyway. I don’t understand why you were expecting Windows-specific software to work on Linux, unless you would expect it to run on Mac OS X as well. Yes, it runs but you need to re-purchase the licenses, thus defeating your point. Yes there is Wine for Linux but that is an experimental solution and thus not a main feature of the OS. By being experimental, you can try it out and help out working out the kinks. Alternatively you can properly investigate the alternatives beyond criticizing the looks of the app. But no, instead you complain.

OEM Windows works in virtual machines.

What exactly is the problem of googling for answers? Like you never had to do it for solving Windows problems? Try playing an Indeo movie in Windows Vista, for instance, and have some fun finding out how to do it. A similar situation in Ubuntu would lead to active discussion in the main forums and the quick surfacing of a 3rd party or official fix.

I haven’t laughed like this in weeks.

This article is pure and utter FUD.

And ubuntu killer bug that damages you laptops harddrive. Woehahha? Get real.

The guy somehow blaims ubuntu for not being able to run windows programs. That’s like blaiming a toyota car for not running on lamp oil.

I had a good laugh and am not even upset about articles like this anymore.

I’ve got to admit the installation of the below application is difficult. For a 5 year old that hasn’t learned to read.

How to get OpenJDK 6 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
by Karsten Wade

What’s funny is, the instructions are shorter than the title of this post.

1. Install the Fedora Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository files:

su -c “rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-2.noarch.rpm”

2. Install the OpenJDK 6 package:

su -c “yum install java-1.6.0-openjdk”

Read more about how to use EPEL. Fedora EPEL is a community run project to bring Fedora packages to Enterprise Linux users when the package is not included by Red Hat in an Enterprise Linux release. Read more on the Fedora EPEL wiki pages, including links to package view (i386, x86_64, ppc) per EPEL version (4, 5 to correspond with Enterprise Linux versions.)

This entry was posted by Karsten Wade on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Java, OpenJDK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Very humorous article.

From your previous blog It’s a Myth: Windows Does Not Just Work Saturday, May 31st, 2008 by Pablo Richie:
“But attempting to install MSN Messenger using the ‘brilliant’ new Live Installer was a complete nightmare. After the install failed on the first attempt, it completely wrecked my system’s ability to receive any further Windows Updates at all. Apparently this is a common occurrence for Windows XP users. The only way around this ‘little’ problem was to install a tool kit called “Dial-a-Fix” that cleans up messed up Windows Update problems. (it took me about 45 minutes to find this solution)” Did you search Google for the solution? Why is searching Google for solutions a negative for Ubuntu and not for XP/Vista?

Also as others have pointed out there are other distros of Linux. Maybe you should try them.

I have used installed Ubuntu 8.04 on 2 different pc’s. On one the scanner works in XP, with manufactures drivers, however on this same pc the scanner does not work in Ubuntu 8.04 but it doesn’t work in Vista either because there are no manufactuers drivers.

I am trying Ubuntu 8.04 using Wubi. This is a great way to test the waters. It is an install option now with Ubuntu 8.04.

Applications? What if you are like 95% plus of the population that don’t use Phtotoshop? Why not run the native applications. Don’t like Gimp, try GimpShop, or Picassa or …, If you don’t need it, why pay through the nose for Photoshop to do red eye reduction? I have been using Linux for 10+ years now, never had or needed Windows. Daily, at work, corporate environment, VPNed in, totally painless. Bottom line, if you are handcuffed to Windows with a few applications, Linux isn’t for you, for the other 95%, try the native, superior to proprietary counterparts, applications.

Command Line? I have set up 80+ folks on Linux (50/50 family+friends/colleages at my work), and only my Unix colleagues ever use or need the command line because they like it. Try Mandriva One, you never need to use the command line.

Hardware support? Where, honestly, have you been? It is a rare exception to find hardware that isn’t autoconfigured. Why does Windows get a pass when it supports little out of the box, being made to “just work” by the large OEMs.

DRM? OK, even if everything else you say is true, pushing DRM as a bennefit in any way shape or form is laughable. Even on Windows, I teach folks, going to great lengths to never, ever purchase DRM infected C.R.A.P. Do you know why Amazon offers MP3? I’ll give you a hint, tens if not hundreds of millions of people know DRM is C.R.A.P.

Ubuntu? Don’t use it, so can’t comment on your experiences, and honestly, it doesn’t matter. You are treating Linux as if it supposed to be Windows. The reason it is growing leaps and bounds is simply because it isn’t Windows.

Pablo,

You are right on the money with your observations. This is why you have generated so many negative responses.

I have been regularly using PC Linux on my laptop for almost 2 years. For me it works wonderful. But I would never put it into a non-tech friend’s computer for the reasons you stated.

Here is something I don’t understand. Why are there so many people working on projects like “Beryl-Compiz” and other 3-D crap, when you can’t even get some of the most basic hardware to work, especially in Laptops. Some of these smart-alec Linux “Gurus” should devote their attention to better hardware compatibility, as opposed to “bells-and-whistles”. After all, isn’t this where Vista went wrong as well?

I’m quite sure I’ll be flamed and called a troll for daring to criticize any aspect of Linux. But if it is ever going to be adopted by the other 98% of computer users then someone needs to learn to take a little constructive criticism.

You are pretty much right about Ubuntu, from my experience, though maybe a little hard. But consider the alternatives. Many of my colleagues have had similar problems with Vista (assuming the old box could even take it at all). I am at least glad that I did not have to pay for my bad experiences. And my Ubuntu box does at least get better with each update.

Installing a new, hungry OS on limited old hardware has always been a risky business. Tell me something new.

this guy is a moron.

The truth is that this guy has no knowledge about something as powerful as Linux, maybe he tried some distro 10 years ago and decided to bash Ubuntu since it’s probably the most famous of all distribtuions.

If Linux was such a bad thing, why are more people getting more and more into learning its true capabilities, how come the hole cellphone market is heading that way? how come there’s more servers running Linux than windows? how come i never have to scan my machine for virus, trojans or worms? do i really care about DRM, Photoshop, or any other program or application mentioned in this blog? You know why?
Because i have GNU/Linux and it’s not just Ubuntu, there’s hundreds of other distros to suit your needs.

There might a time when you have an old pc or laptop and you try to run one of the heavy weight distros like Ubuntu or OpenSuSE and it doesn’t work because your laptop is so old, guess what, use Puppy, DSL or any of the smaller distros around.

The author of this blog is not a moron, he’s just living in the past, when the world had not other alternatives to his precious infested rotten world of M$.

I just have to make a few more comments. I do love Linux. I run it on my main desktop and 2 laptops. I have spent the past 3 years trying out different distros including but not limited to Puppy, DSN, DSL-N, PC Linux, Vector, Zenwalk, PC BSD, Absolute,…………I could go on for a while but you get the point.

As I stated before the main drawback is hardware support, especially wireless cards. In one example I tried to install Linux in an old Toshiba Laptop with a 400Mhz K6-2 processor and 160Mb ram. I intentionally used distros designed for older equipment. I have yet to get the wireless PCMCIA card to work, even using NDIS wrapper. I got it to work on the live cd of DSL-N but then it crapped out when I installed to the hard drive.

Now with Windows 2000, SP4, everything just works.

That statement speaks volumes.

Vector Linux, supposedly for older hardware, recently upgraded to the latest kernel. When I tried to install it in the Toshiba and it didn’t work, it stated it couldn’t find any hard drive. I was later told on it’s forums that the new kernel no longer supported some older IDE interfaces! Yet it is supposed to be designed for older hardware? What’s wrong with this picture?

Also there is no standard for the locations of files, folders and sub-folders, not to mention file names. These can vary from distro to distro, so even a good book (Rickford Grant has one) on Linux can leave you scratching your head.

I’m a reasonable guy and I’ve even designed circuits, but if you don’t know your way around the OS and good, complete, reliable information isn’t available you’re still screwed. I have also looked into classes. It would seem that our community college system is lacking in this area (at least in Denver). The courses I have found are ridiculously expensive and short

When you have a specific problem and post on a forum it’s pure luck if you’ll be able to get help. I don’t feel entitled as I realize the folks there are just trying to help and not getting paid. But when you ask a question ad get steps 2,4 and 6 of an 8 step process you’re just as lost. Many folks posting on the forums assume that you know how to do some things. But like when they tell you to look in a certain folder and sub folder for a particular file and it’s not there you’re back to square one. Then someone else will try to help and tell you that that file was moved/ renamed after version x.x.x, etc.

Yes I’m ranting. Just trying to illustrate the problem from the view of someone who has tried their damnedest to learn this OS without formal schooling. I’d really like to contribute to Linux and the open source community as a whole. But someone has so sit down (Maybe Linus himself) and say whoa! These distros are going off in a thousand different directions at once (just take a look at “distrowatch.com”). Some kinds of conventions need to be applied, if nothing else but for the sake of sanity. And there needs to be a concerted effort by the best of the best Linux programmers to get the hardware support issues solved once and for all.

I am not trying to just be a “whiner”. Linux has become a passion of mine and I love it when I do an install and everything “clicks”. I also love helping friends and family revive old pc’s they thought were lost causes. If anyone has good advice on books or especially classes, I’d love to here any suggestions.

Linux has come of age and it gets better and better all the time … I have 5 XP,s ,1 desktop BSD and eight Linux,s including Ubuntu 6.06 and 8.04 …its not unreasonable to find a distro that really makes you smile and be glad that you are so fortunate to have found Linux. sudo apt-get lost crummy article…

Hey, 1996 called, it wants it’s anti-linux FUD back.

I have been MS-free for about two yrs… started playing with gentoo, but got frustrated with compile times– Switched to Sabayon– which was a very imperfect gentoo based distro… but it has gotten magnitudes better… and does not require very much in the way of geek-genes– I am now using the 64-bit version and am (finally) 100 percent satisfied… It does what it’s told and NEVER makes me call “Jimi” in Mombai to get a fresh product key when I change out the video card …Strange– Sabayon is free, but I have the recurring urge to send in some money

Your article insults my intelligence.
Most of the other commenters have echoed my thoughts.

Open your mind.

Well, it’s easy to see who the 12-year-olds are in this thread. Anyhow; thought I’d throw in my two centavos.

I’ve been trying (off and on) for the past 6 years, to find a distribution of linux that would run all of my hardware properly. And out of the two or seven hundred burned CDs I’ve got cluttering up my drawers, there is NOT ONE single distribution that fits that description (and we’re not talking about anything exotic… just 3com, Creative, ATI, NVidia, etc…) . Are dual-monitors and a TV card REALLY too much to ask for?

Needless to say, I’ve had little practical experience actually USING linux… What little software I COULD make use of didn’t impress me much. My time was wasted mostly on continuous re-installs., and putting up with 15-year-old computer geniuses in anonymous newsgroups calling me a moron for not worshiping Linus Torvalds as the new Messiah

And, trust me… After having been everyone’s “No. 1 Computer Guy” for the past eight years, I have NO GREAT LOVE FOR MICROSOFT! I WANT linux on my machines; if for no other reason than it’s not a target for every would be hacker on the planet. But mostly just because it’s free. Wise man once say: “You get what you pay for.”

I am 66 years old. I have used Linux since 1999. This discussion is rather lame. The problem is not Linux, nor using Linux. The two problems are:

1. Installing Linux on computers designed for Windows. This is all part of MS monopoly practice to create all sorts of computer parts which are integrated with Windows. Try installing Linux on a machine which was designed for Linux. Or, do what Windows users do, which is buy a computer with the OS preinstalled.

Or, get someone with brains to install it for you, just as the overwhelming majority of Windows computers are installed by experts.

2. Companies have refused to port applications to Linux. Linux is being used by organizations and government offices all over the world. Eventually app vendors will realize they are being left behind, since the US is not the whole world.

Five or six years ago, I helped a nephew in Mexico City install Mandriva on a government computer, and this year they are converting all 500 computers in his organization to Mandriva.

In the past Linux made no headway in Mexico because you can buy XP with cracker for less than $5. But, with politics, it is becoming non-PC for political parties to use pirated software, and they don’t have money for new computers every three years to run the new MS OS.

I asked my nephew if they had any special software they needed to run, and he said yes, but it was written for Linux.

I am in a little mountain village. An engineer had me teach her Linux for free for her thesis project, and now the computers in the local high school have Linux as a dual boot.

The big news is, while these cry babies whine how hard Linux is, the number of people of all ages, including little kids in the Third World who use it without needing classes increases.

you have no clue, do you?

Y0u dum8 455, L1nux 15 f0r 7h3 3|173!

Translation: You dumb ass, Linux is for the elite!

Complete BS.

I’ve been working several years as a sys admin with a large newspaper somewhere in Europe. I have my MCP, MCSA, MCSE and MCTS(vista), and I left the MS OS for what it was.

On my job the only thing for me is Linux, and yes, some people even love the command line, nothing wrong with that is it?

All my private customers are having Ubuntu installed when they come back for a problem with XP or Vista.
None of them, and they are all ‘normal’ users and they like it. Until now, I never heard a bad word about it.

Ok, because they are used to the M$ stuff, they have to get used to Ubuntu, but they are learning it very quickly. A lot of them think Ubuntu is much better and nicer than XP and Vista.

But ok, everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion, but I have to say, and that is my freedom of speech, your arguments stink.

If you’re to lazy, or to dumb to put some effort in it, then yes, stay with Microsoft. But put the blame on yourself and not on a good OS. Yes, a lot of things have to be done, but this is realized in a much shorter time than it takes Microsoft to fix. That is one of the best features according to me.

So I hope you will spend the rest of your life happy with your windows, for me there is nothing but Linux. Although I got my MS certifications and I make money by it.

[...] last article on Ubuntu desktop hell provoked quite a reaction from a strong army of open source enthusiasts who run around [...]

I totally agree with this article. I have tried “Linux for Human Beings” but since I am a designer and webdeveloper, I instantly noticed the shortcomings of this so called great desktop OS: Photoshop won’t run on Linux, and indeed GIMP is absolutely not comparable whatsoever. GIMP is confusing, slow, takes too much time to find all options and is just clumsy and clutters my whole screen. It also has an ugly, shitcolored interface, ugly fonts, ugly icons and it refuses to install my onboard sound card and external sound card as well.

So, I know a lot of you Linux geeks now get mad, and I know I can configure that and bla bla, but with windows I can plugin no matter what or install no matter what and it just works, without command line, without googling, without any hassle… So that I can do what I do best: design and develop websites and let my Operating System just operate my system, instead of messing it up with time consuming dependency errors and other crap that I just have no knowledge of or time to master.

Welcome to the click-universe, I present you: Windows Vista. The only OS that supports 15 year old hardware out-the-box, supports over 10.000 applications, DirectX. the .net framework and all the other stuff that makes it great. Above all: it works.

LOL
What entertaining article and comments!

Pablo,
Very sorry to hear your experience with Ubuntu. Hope you have a better experience with Windows.
If Linux doesn’t do what you need it to do then it’s not for you. I personally don’t have the same issues as yours, and I find myself much more productive using Linux / OSS over the Microsoft and friends’ variants.
Choose what fits best for you, as that is what “freedom of choice” in computing is all about.

Fellow Linux users - Please stop (over) reacting to everything you see anti-Linux. Not every one gets a good experience out of Linux, and what may work for us doesn’t mean that it works for everybody else.

Unless of course this article is a big bait to fish fanboys who take things too seriously - or simply can’t take satire. LOL

Great Post!

Let’s see, in my apartment…
wireless networking - CHECK
graphics cards - CHECK
printers - CHECK
scanners - CHECK
soundcards - CHECK
embedded laptop hardware (networking, sound, graphics) - SEE ABOVE
and VOIP phones - NAT’s the bigger issue, but yes, I’ve gotten VOIP to work fine

Nope, haven’t had a problem with any of that stuff. Oh, before you say it, yes, my webcam and print server work dandily too.

The print server was the only thing bought for Linux compatibility. The rest is random hardware. It all worked out of the box, no fiddling about required.

Oh, and most streaming video is Flash (works fine) and streaming audio is generally (at least with all the online radio stations I’ve seen) done with a .m3u playlist, so I have no idea what you’re talking about there.

I’ve been using Ubuntu now for about 3 months and i will never go back to Windows, i installed Ubuntu on my laptop and everything worked straight away including my wireless. I played around with it for a week reading the forums everyday just so i could start thinking differently then what i was used to on windows, and when i did that i wondered why i hadnt changed years ago. I then installed it on my main PC, again no driver problems what so ever, both systems do what i need alot faster and now im getting used to the command line, easier as well. Yes people might say Ubuntu is for noobs, and thats fine with me least im getting away from microsoft and in time i will switch to another distro thats a bit more complicated, at the end of the day if you want to learn a new operating system you will put the time in, as i did years and years ago when i first started using windows. Maybe you had a bad experiance with Linux and sometimes that happens but dont go bashing it and putting people off from trying it, and trying to keep them tied to Windows. Just my 2 Cents

This blog post is filled with nonsense and mistakes.
Your experience might not have been great, but, seriously?
First: Applications. Every application you mention has its equivalent perfectly suitable for a normal user. Sure, a pro will have troubles with its PS plugins. But a basic end-user can use GIMP, it requires 20 minutes to see where are the functions, and it’s over. Dreamweaver = Kompozer.

Second: Dude, what Linux version have you used? I never HAD to compile anything in my 3 years of Ubuntu use. I always found a package or a .bin file to install my program (I did compile KDE4, but that was because I wanted to).

Third: Ok, many hardware pieces are not recognized. On this point, I must agree, it’s luck and/or choice (if you build your computer yourself, which most of people don’t). But Linux makes progress every year, and the hardware vendors are progressively releasing the specs or the source of their drivers, so that they can be quickly improved. It’s moving, slowly, but moving anyways.

Fourth: If you’re sufficiently dumb to buy DRM’ed music, then no wonder you’re seeing the lack of DRM as a bad point. Come on, you can’t tell that nobody told you about this: it’s been almost 5 or 6 years that everybody says that DRM sucks, that they lock you down. If you trapped yourself with these, blame yourself!

Fifth: Hem. This point looks like the third. Once again, some pieces of hardware are not well recognized. Personally, on four computers (three of which were laptops) I only had to install proprietary drivers via the GUI that’s shipped by default. So no problem. However, many people report some problems. That’s what the liveCD’s for, to test your hardware.

So only four reasons, which only one seems valuable. I don’t think that switching to ubuntu is a dumb idea. It’s only a choice, nobody forces nobody to switch to anything, once again, if XP/Vista works for you and you’re not bothered with viruses, why would you want to change?

Ubuntu works perfectly for me and millions of people (estimation here). It doesn’t for other millions. You give it a fair shot, and if it suits your needs, use it. if not, don’t spit on it, it’s just not designed for you.

What a generalist. 90% of the people need a computer for only one thing: INTERNET. XP is slow. Ubuntu is fast and looks better. End of story.

It would appear that you are using a different Ubuntu OS to what I am. My reason for this is that I have found it to quite a good OS, far superior in so many ways to any Microsoft product that I have used to date. I am the first to say that it is not perfect bu what OS is.
I have three PC’s running Ubuntu on a network with multiple logins on each, all working fine. The newest machine came with Vista installed, in my opinion Windows ME was a gem by comparison to the latest offering from MS.
To say the least I indebted to all those open source people that have dedicated so much time and effort creating such wonderful applications that form the basis of any Linux distro.
Without these people we would have no choice, so WIndows or Windows.
At the end of the day competition for Microsoft is a great thing, if it makes them be innovative thats a positive. They need to move forward rather then treading water like they are.
The time for Linux is approaching at a ever increasing pace, all I hope is that what was once a trickle is becoming a stream of greater intensity every passing month.
Overall everyone has their opinion is entitled to it, if we all enjoy a constructive debate we all win. If we balance the good and bad of all OS fairly then the truth wins.

First of all I use windows and i am happy too! But i’ve tried linux for few days. i want to say about these points in short.

1) I THINK I NEED PHOTOSHOP TO EDIT MY ASS’ PICTURE ARTISTIC WAY AND SEND IT TO YOU, SO THAT YOU CAN JUSTIFY YOUR POINT-1.

2) DO NOT BOTHER.

3) DO NOT BOTHER.

4) WHO CARES! AS LONG AS TORRENT RULES THE WORLD I CAN GET ALL THE MOVIES, TV SHOWS AND MUSICS FREE FROM THE NET.

5) DID NOT GET TIME TO COMPARE BOTH WORLD.

I THINK AND DO BELIEVE, WINDOWS IS MEANT FOR GAMES AND ONLY GAMES.

FOR OTHER REGULAR TASKS ANYBODY CAN USE ANY OPERATING SYSTEMS ACCORDING TO HIS/HER IQ LEVEL.

150+ IQ = GET LINUX
100-149 IQ = GET A MAC
BELOW 100 IQ = WINDOWS IS SUFFICE

ALL’S BULLSHIT !!!

STOP COMPARING OPERATING SYSTEMS.

ALL ARE MEANT AND TARGETED FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF USERS AND ALL JUST WORKS IN THEIR DOMAIN.

FUKCER

My frustrations with XP are witha the number of times I have to go to terminal mode and use the cmd option to open up the command interpretor.

If you need to run a series of commands, then the choice is quite obvious. Write a *.bat file by opening up the cmd option and using a horrid text editor.

And many times cmd does not work and I have to use the command shell, Back to dos

So, we have the pot calling the kettle black.

okay so I’m going to agree with everyone else here that you don’t know what you are talking about and leave with this.

FREE is not about price. It’s free as in freedom, not free beer.

Also, when you speak about Ubuntu, you’re talking about the biggest n00b operating system ever. And it’s funny you can’t figure it out, because my mom is having no problems and she loves it.

I don’t even know what else to say to you.

[...] [...]

I have been very hands on with Windows / Linux / Unix / and OSX for many years.

OSX has always been one of my favorites, but cost is sometimes a little much to swallow.

I also have had issues in all of these systems, incompatibilities, things freezing etc etc etc.

Essentially what it comes down to for me, I having a gaming machine, I usually only run World of Warcraft, and then I do allot of coding etc. One thing that always bugged me with Windows was directx crashing tabbing from my game to browser, apps eating my memory alive and having to try and track down, sometimes through services the offenders and shut them off.

I have found OpenGL + Wine as a very nice alternative, and I haven’t really needed to arbitrarily reboot my ubuntu.

Now did I have a touch of trouble with my wifi usb card and my sound card, sure … but now that it works I am enjoying everything working well.

Now could someone like my father have installed the drivers necessary for wifi, probably not, but here is the flip, computer novices are also the kinds of people to accidentally click things in windows that open doors for viruses and malware. I can’t tell you how many times I had to install windows on my father’s laptop, so I gladly took a day out of my life to install ubuntu, get his wifi driver figured out, show him how to easily install apps and send him on his way, knowing I’ll never have to re-install his OS, fix settings maybe, but not the daunting task of installing an os.

I think people will find this year to be a year of change, OEM’s traditionally steered clear of talking to companies charged with managing open source linux distro’s because of agreements with Microsoft. However, with the popularity of the ASUS eeePC OEM’s are now saying, “Sorry Microsoft, people don’t like Vista and we want to go compete in the sub notebook (netbook) emerging market. OEM’s talking about and loading linux distro’s on machines is almost unheard of. And Intel working directly with the Meebo project and indirectly with Ubuntu.

There is change coming my friends, and if there was ever a time for linux to begin to break on to the main line, this will be it. Not saying it will happen or succeed but right now the market is ripe.

I like how the tag line for this blog is “Fair and honest articles dealing with my daily experiences living in a world of computer technology.”

If you have to tell people you are “Fair and honest”, then you aren’t.

Among the many distortions, I especially like how you suggest the restrictive Microsoft OEM licensing in regards to virtualization is somehow the fault of Ubuntu.

A similar little attempt to shift the stink of DRM onto Ubuntu is another nice touch.

Ubuntu is not perfect. Nothing is. However, it works and works well for a LOT of users. Continuing to try to paint it as for “computer fanatics” (along with other dishonest attacks) only can only mean two things:

1. You have an anti-Ubuntu/anti-FLOSS agenda.
2. You are simply stupid.

These are not mutually exclusive.

Dude….that’s hilarious! Wait….you’re _not_ kidding?
i think you all better read this;

http://easygeek.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=26

Have fun with that

1. Applications: Ever looked in the repository? There are hundreds of programs, and most are hidden from Add/Remove, look in Synaptic. When you want to run a Windows-only application, then you can dual-boot (what I do), or use Wine (may or may not work). Nobody forces you to use Ubuntu (or indeed, any OS) exclusively.
Non-deb packages: Simply pasting commands into a box isn’t too bad, and again, a lot of software is in the repository, albeit as an older version.

2. The command line isn’t too intimidating; there was a study which had people who had never used a computer using the command line well. Also, many fixes can be done with the GUI: It’s just quicker to use the command line. If you don’t like this, then blame those who write guides for not explaining it.

3. 64-bit Vista isn’t much better here. Some devices run *better* on Linux than Windows. I have an optical mouse that only works 50% of the time on Windows, but always works on Linux. Remember that Ubuntu has a very generic kernel, so not all devices are compiled in. All this means is that you’re unlucky. If anybody reading this is not sure, then try using a LiveCD to test it. As for the Dell, then just blame them!

4. Ubuntu should prompt you if you want to play an MP3. VLC Player plays DVDs fine. And don’t tell me you don’t have to Google for help all the time on Windows! Once Linux works, you don’t have any problems.

5. This isn’t a point so much as an insult. Isn’t “just works” a Mac marketing slogan ((Google “just works”)? It was adopted as a parody AFAIK. The actual slogan is “Linux for humans beings” actually.

I’m typing this on Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron”, but my Windows XP installation usually gets a BSOD every 5 minutes (literally), and often crashes. Ubuntu? It copes extremely well under pressure (crash one program and the rest go on fine, try that on Windows), and only crashes under extreme load (like compiling a Linux kernel.)

P.S. Just because you had a bad experience, then don’t assume others will too.

If Windows is Sooo much better then Linux as you are saying is this article, then why is Windows 7 running a Kernal???? And why are they using most of Linux’s features in their new version. If it is so bad, then why would “Uncle Bill” be biting off of Linux so much? Hmmm, interesting… Sorry, I love Linux and I will NEVER go back to windows!

hello??? has everyone forgotten about the damned viruses that are there in windows??

well, i am a person who has used linux for about 3 years now and i still remember when i used to bring my friend’s pen drives to remove the viruses from them.

you might say that there are a little less hassles in windows as many people do not like the command line interface… but the fact of the matter is that you pay a very heavy cost in the long run.

by the way.. i can say this from personal experience that due to viruses you need to reformat the whole system twice an year and take the whole backup.

and moreover, none of the anti-viruses are supposed to remove more than 60% of the viruses.. so whatever you do.. some viruses will still creep in.

so in the end you simply cannot do without the power of ubuntu.

The author makes a mistake common to many Windows suers: The assumption that
PC = Windows,
and by extension:
Linux = Ubuntu.

Neither assumption is true.

Personally, Ubuntu is a fine distro, and GNOME is a fine desktop, but I prefer PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe and the KDE desktop.

PCLinuxOS does a better job of identifying hardware and automatically configuing it than any other Linux distro I have tried. I prefer KDE because I can configure it to work like XP, which I dual boot with. That makes it easy to switch between the two without changing mindsets.

I develop using Qt4.4 on my Linux side and to create Windows apps from my source I just compile it unchanged on my XP side. Write once, compile everywhere.

I have been using Linux for 10 years and for the last 8 years I have used it for 98% of the time my PC is on. In all that time my Linux side has never been infected or hacked into, and I do not use any subscription anti-virus software. As far as that goes, since I use a Linux firewall to connect to the internet my XP side hasn’t been infected either, but it is a MUCH BIGGER pain to keep secure than my Linux side, and I don’t trust most MS updates.

I’m inclined to agree with the various Linux supporters here, primarily since I’ve used Linux exclusively for close to two years myself.
There are well over 400 separate Linux distributions available on the market today.
Some cost of course, the majority are free to the user.
After reading the article, and shaking my head the entire time, I came to the conclusion the author wasn’t much different than my young stepson;
He has learned to spell Linux and Ubuntu and has become an instant expert on both.
He has also made the mistake of thinking Ubuntu = Linux.
It doesn’t.
There are numerous Linux help forums and Ubuntu has their own.
There are Wiki’s available as well that are associated with the distro of choice.
Again, Ubuntu has their own.
These Wiki’s will normally tell one whether or not their hardware is compatible with the distro they have chosen.
Don’t slam an OS simply because you didn’t bother to do your homework.
When I ran XP, I had to learn it, to include going into the registry and cleaning it out.
I’ve had to learn a bit to run Linux also, to include using the CLI at times.
Big deal.
It wasn’t like I had to attend 4 years of college to learn to either bookmark a command for future reference or maybe save it to kwrite in a folder.
At least I’m not bookmarking all the sites that tell me how to fix updates or remove virii from my system.
I also saw the comment that those who use Linux consider themselves elitists.
If reading a Wiki to ensure hardware compatibility before downloading and knowing I have an Nvidia graphics card as well as a Realtek network card makes me an elitist, so be it.
As a side note, the majority of the Linux distro’s were originally put together for the use of the creator.
They were made available to the public as a courtesy in the instance someone else may be able to make use of them.
If someone could use them great, then use them.
If you couldn’t use them you are more than free to change them to your liking or move on.
To criticize the distro is downright rude as it was an act of generosity that originally made them available to begin with.
If Ubuntu doesn’t float your boat then move on to another distro.
There are hundreds to choose from and Distrowatch will list the top 10.

“guys dont bother replying,the guy who wrote this is obviously a moron…”

this should have been the first reply

i read this article for 2mins then pissed in my mouth for wasting my time

The author just worships MS and Closed Source…Ive read almost all his articles regarding Linux and in all of them Linux is shown to be fucked up as compared to MS Windows….;lo0ll….

Everybodies thinking it so I’m just gonna go right ahead and put it out there…. You sir, are a TOOL!” That’ll be all.

I can run Windows & whatever other operating system I want from inside Ubuntu so I used Windows XP in Virtualbox as well as Ubuntu when I first started using it. Now I rarely need to run it ever.

Why would you use Photoshop if there is GIMP?

“Unfortunately, Mum and Dad have enough trouble just double clicking the installation icon.”

Of course. If n00bs can’t even handle Windows, what hope do they have on ANY operating system, be it Mac, Windows, Linux, or BSD?? That’s flawed logic.

What a n00b needs is PCLinux OS or TinyME.

But you know what the BIGGEST problem n00bs have is? SECURITY! And guess how Windows’ security is.

Understanding Linux is a learning process JUST LIKE WINDOWS OR MAC when you first start using it.
I remember I went around deleting DLL files all the time when I first got my Pentium 1, 100Mhz. It takes a person MANY years to truly master an operating system.

People don’t SWITCH to Ubuntu, they EVOLVE beyond Windows. As soon as I heard about Vista and did some reading on the insanity, I jumped ship.

Well I don’t have too much to add except that it seems like the author is bitter for some reason or another against Ubuntu and Linux in general. I have installed Ubuntu on many systems, ranging from old Toshiba laptops to brand new custom built systems and I can honestly say, that I have never had a situation where I could not get something to NOT work.

As a matter of fact, after I put Ubuntu on my systems at home and showed my wife how and what to use, she is now 100% An Ubuntu user. And she does not like change, it took me 2 years to talk her into a new cell phone. She held on to her original phone for 4 years. But now I do keep a dual boot on hers and mine and she never boots to Windows, NEVER.

And I guess that’s one of the positives of Ubuntu, it’s ease of use. When I first switched it took me a couple of days to get accustomed to doing things a little differently but once I got used to it, it really just makes more sense than does Windows. And if I didn’t do any kind of web development I would not spend any time in Vista. As it is I have to just to make sure the sites I work on all look right in Windows. And unbelievably (because IE is still the most used browser)it’s IE that gives me the most problems.

So you know what? By all means stay with Windows and keep spending thousands upon thousands on your shiny newest buggiest software, I’ll just keep upgrading my hardware with the money I save on software. Oh yeah one more thing, if your a pro, you can do almost anything with Gimp that you can with pshop, or just simply run pshop in Wine. I know guys that run Call of Duty and other games too by the way. One last thing, if you decide to switch to Ubuntu, you’ll realize how much or how little you know about computing.

I wrote an article called 20 reasons why I switched to Ubuntu, some of you guys might be interested in reading it at http://www.blogtoinspire.com/component/wordpress/archives/4.html I believe it’s a lot more accurate than this.

Okay enough out of me. Peace to all!!

This guy obviously sucks uncle bills balls!

As with anything else in life there are different opinions and different ways to express them. The author of this blog chose a less objective approach, based on his opinios and feelings about the subject. Effective as a criticism, such as throwing gasoline on fire. But his words lacks credibility.

The truth is that there is much more behind the classic dilemma of which desktop operating system is the best for a particular individual.

Have a look at some technical comparisons of facts and download the latest version of a live Linux distro to see with your own eyes. Ubuntu is actually very good and is getting better and better.

My professional opinion having 30 years experience in the area is that GUN-Linux is a superior solution for the future.

There is much to disagree about in this article. Exaggerated and outdated are a couple of worthy adjectives to describe it. The few comments critical of Ubuntu would appear to have been penned by someone who failed to verify their download’s checksum or chose an unstable variant. Ubuntu does not have to be everyone’s cup of tea. Indeed even Linux itself does not. But Ubuntu’s later iterations work perfectly for me and I have yet to have a difficult installation. Drivers have been no more problematic than for Windows. Applications have been delightful and plenteous. I will probably give FreeBSD a whirl for fun, but Linux & open source are here to stay. I feel sorry for those (who I consider to be something of Luddites) who can see no farther than the latest version of Windoze. What a small world they must dwell in! And they think WE are sacrificing something?!!! From where I stand with my particular interests, it is the Windows crowd who is running to catch up for good applications. Or rather, they are waiting & hoping for someone else to port them over for them.

Viva Linux!

This article and the writer is on the mark!
I used linux for years and it is actually geting WORST!
I am so sick of linux that I hope that Gates&Co actually go after it and hang it from a tree somewhere.
And yeah I really did use linux/unix (freebsd) for many years.
The time spent hunting down weird problems and hardware issues was a total waste. I can use CLI and those delightful command strings like dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg but guess what the latest xorg doesn’t give a fig about that command nor many of the debian based distro’s devs either apparently. So you learn things but the devs make changes for their own reasons (trying to get more marketshare) and then you start over from scratch again. Just forget it! Win7 beta works. If you get linux/unix half *ssed working you’ll be lucky!

“Bottom line as far as I’m concerned is Linux is not ready for mass-adoption on the desktop and probably never will be.”

It seems like the masses don’t give a fig for your concerns, and even as I write they are busy adopting Linux on the desktop. Like some others who have posted comments here, I have switched a number of people from Windows to Linux, and this is symptomatic of a big problem for Microsoft: they may be able to keep OEMs in line with threats and bribes, but out here in user-land, Linux has gone viral. An installation here, an installation there, a company here, a municipality there: it’s a steady drip, drip, drip that’s slowly wearing away the Microsoft monolith - and most switchers never return to the Redmond fold. Bill Gates knew that the game was up, and he left with his tail between his legs so that his legacy wouldn’t be even more tarnished than it is now (who will ever forget the Vista fiasco?). You are apparently blissfully unaware of what was clear to Mr Gates - Microsoft software is now legacy.

My family and I have been using Ubuntu for three years now, and we’ve had a much better experience than when we had XP. We don’t get the bugs that we did with windows. And Ubuntu does just work. OK so there was a learning curve, but it was painless, (and I’m certainly no geek). My 11 year old is able to use it just fine too.

The reason I tried Ubuntu in the first place was because I was having so many problems with XP. We kept the Vista on our laptop on a separate partition just in case we needed it for a program or something. After a year, we deleted it because never used it.

My biggest complaint was with Ubuntu was getting flash to work. But with the newer Ubuntu versions this works out of the box.

I’d recommend Ubuntu for many people, but of course its not for everyone (what is?). For instance, old people who hate simple learning, or change, should probably stick with what they have.