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CBC Recommends Linux To Average User
rustalot42684 writes "The CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] has posted an article on its website promoting the use of Ubuntu Linux to the 'average computer user'. 'With the exception of gaming, which is limited, almost all of the average person's basic computing needs are well looked after with this package. I've used the last three versions of Ubuntu on my main portable web-surfing computer for years just to avoid viruses and spyware (as the vast majority of these nasty programs are written for Windows), and I have yet to be disappointed.' The author seems to have made some sweeping generalizations about the development of GNU/Linux, but that aside, will mainstream media coverage help more people switch?"
I disagree.
A awful lot of people have never heard of Linux nor do they know that there is anything other than Windows.
If they start hearing about something which doesnt have the pitfalls of Windows then it will be very interesting.
Also there is the people who think its a nerds only OS (e.g. my mother). When they start seeing in mainstream media they may want to look in to it.
As it stands right now, I dont have a snowball's chance in hell of getting my mum to switch.
It was hard enough getting her to use Firefox.
It will let the average Joe know that something other than Windows and OS/X exists. It's Linux. It's free. And know with Ubuntu average Joe has a shot at getting it to work. Most people don't know that Linux exists, so maybe this won't convince them to make the switch, but it will let them know what Linux is. They can then ask the friendly neighborhood geek a few questions and its all penguins from there.
They will be interested precisely up until the point where they find that they can't play the games that they just bought from their local CompUSA (or PC World, or whatever).
Or until they try plugging in an arbitrary device and find that it doesn't work.
Or until they install one of the rare Linux games and find that the open-source nvidia or ATI drivers are so insanely slow as to make the game unplayable, due to lack of proper 3D acceleration support.
None of this stuff is the Linux community's "fault", per se. In fact, all of it is due to the hostile and pro-monopolist (read: pro-Microsoft) attitude of the software and hardware industries.
That doesn't, however, make it any more tolerable to the average user.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
No, they treat their computers like they treat their furnace: it should just work. Like it or not, Mom and Pop expect their computer to work like an appliance: it should do what it's supposed to do, and they shouldn't have to fiddle with it. Maybe it will break once every 5 or 10 years, but other than that it should basically do what I want it to do with a minimum of hassle. Mom and Pop are not tinkerers, they just want shit to work and not require any extra time or effort to operate.b
Microsoft's monopoly has actually made this sort of mindset easier to cater to, since hardware manufacturers and software programmers only need to deal with one operating system. Linux, meanwhile, has continued to lag behind in hardware and software support because of this.
So you're right, they may ask for Linux if they see enough coverage about it. But until Linux can (relatively) painlessly run everything people want to run on it, they will not stick with it, and they will certainly not evangelize it to their friends.
Most of that stuff simply isn't true. Hardware generally works and the proprietary 3D drivers have perfectly good 3D performance. It's true that Windows software like games doesn't work, but that should be pretty obvious - no one gets confused or complains when their Mac won't run some Windows app, an Ubuntu system is the same.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
What is this fascination with saying that the problem lies in making Linux friendlier to "the average user"?
Like the article says, Ubuntu covers very well the needs of the "average user". He needs basic tasks done, and Ubuntu does that well. Will he/she have issues along the way? Of course, in the same way that Windows does, which is the very same reason that you need to go to the average user's house every to months to clean up all the crapware that's installed in their machine and install codecs. After all, VLC and Firefox didn't appear on their desktops all by themselves now, did they?
No, the obstacle for Linux now lies in the odious "power user": the person that has developed a relatively good skill set for using Windows but is too stubborn to port it to another operating system, be it Linux, OS X, or whatever. This is, interestingly, a group of users for which many of us have contempt: they can achieve complex tasks but only because or rote learning and memorized steps. They will get that pretty Windows theme or know all the shortcuts to the one application the use frequently, but god forbid they have to use something else and they're lost all over again. They're the people that have command line phobia and yet will have no issues with editing registry files, difference being that the CLI is immensely useful and the Registry is the spawn of Satan.
Addendum: Gamers are not regular users. Regular users don't spend $250+ on a video card to play $60 games. CAD and design app users are not regular users either: they're domain specialists in whatever their application is, and industrial CAD solutions do exist for Linux and Unix. Ask 3d animation shops that used to be IRIX shops what they're using now.
There he goes again, putting those fucking lame ass questions at the end of the blurb. Has Zonk had enough already, or is he really homosexual?
I've yet to meet a USB Scanner, External Disk, Digital Camera, or Name-brand Printer that didn't Just Work with Ubuntu. Maybe you've got some obscure edge case device that doesn't work, but they mostly just do.
I plug and unplug network cables all the time. This is probably a feature of Network-Manager - I'm pretty sure it was enabled by default in Edgy. Dunno, but it's definitely enabled by default in Feisty Beta and it's running great on my Edgy laptop and I don't remember any effort installing it.
Wait... which first person shooters run on Linux that you'd expect to work on an embedded 4 generation old Radeon card? Quake III should run fine with the "radeon" drivers.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Or until they try plugging in an arbitrary device and find that it doesn't work
I like the gist of what you're saying, but I think this point is a moot one. Vista has plenty of incompatibilites.
And sadly, it'll wind up being the best selling OS of al time, most likely.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Let me get this straight, you're suggesting Windows is like that? I can understand people not switching to Linux just because they read a glowing review on the CBC site, but I don't understand their not wanting to escape from Windows and from the shit they seem to regard as normal. I think it may be due to some form of learned helplessness syndrome.
Loose lips lose spit.
> unless some uniformity can be presented in how games are designed for the platforms
That would be OpenGL, OpenAL and SDL . Now that Micro$oft crippled Directsound in Vista and advises ppl to move to OpenAL the only thing left to do is move DirectX programmers to SDL and Direct3D programmers to OpenGL.
The problem is that a huge amount of games are backported from consoles. Since DirectX is exclusively used in Xbox titles they cannot be ported to SDL without a major rewrite or using compatibility layers (Cedega). Playstation 3 might help in this regard since it uses OpenGL but it's architecture might be too different to port to PC.
Another problem is program startup time. Now that Vista has made programs start near-instantaneously (yes even the mozilla apps) linux seems far less snappy on the same hardware. Openoffice with tweaks and quickstarter is still painfully slow to start. This isn't a problem for people until they see the alternatives though.
I think, therefore you are.
It is not ready for your mom or your grandmother or your little sister.
My grandmother (both of them) is dead, you insensitive clod. My mom was programming computers before PCs were invented and my little sister is a software consultant.
Yeah, I think it's ready for them.
If you don't know what you're doing, then no OS is easy and you spend your time trying to figure out how to do the simplest things. Once you've done that, it's not difficult. OTOH, if you do know a bit about the OS (whether Windows or 'nix), it's generally a hell of a lot easier to do simple-but-multi-step things in 'nix than in 'doze.
I wouldn't recommend that somebody who knows nothing about any unix and doesn't know anybody who does should try to install it and figure it out on their own (unless they like that kind of thing). But I'd recommend that over someone who knew nothing about Windows and didn't know anyone who did trying to install and learn Windows on their own. That's the kind of thing that would have them running away with initial bad experiences.
-- Alastair
To be completely fair, a default installation of Windows XP will give you a very nice unaccelerated 16 bit colours in one resolution.
Anyway, most people don't use their PCs for games. Hell, I've got a really nice rig with a pretty high end video card, and even I mostly use my PS2 when I want games. It's simply easier not having to deal with Computer-isms. I pop the game in, it works. Windows can't compete.
It's been a long time.
As another user mentioned, the proprietary drivers aren't installed by default in windows either. Under Ubuntu you check a box and have 3D acceleration. I do agree it is silly though, why would anyone want to run WITHOUT 3D acceleration.
Before I start, I'm not a Windows fanboy, I use primarily Linux at home (Kubuntu to be precise).
Quote: "no one gets confused or complains when their Mac won't run some Windows app, an Ubuntu system is the same."
You've obviously never met someone who's used only windows and switches to anything else for the first time. I worked in a school for two years, while there I was repeatedly asked why application XYZ wasn't installed on the mac laptops the school had. They have quite a surprised look on their face when I inform them that without emulation software there is no way to run windows applications on mac's (and then I have to explain what emulation software is and why we didn't have it... but that's a longer story).
Same goes for Linux. Principal hears "school ABC is running their Terminal Services network on Linux and having less problems than we are, why aren't we doing that too?!?!". After getting in contact with the school and finding out exactly what they were doing I found out they didn't even have Terminal Services, and they only had one Linux box. The PDC was Linux with a bunch of fat XP clients. But that's not the point is it? The point is that roughly half of the uneducated users I have every met don't have the slightest clue that there's any more difference between OS X and XP than there is between XP and 2000, so why on earth would they expect that their applications wont all run Linux?
For further proof just look at Linux is NOT Windows. If everyone knows that Windows applications will not run on Linux why did that ever need to be written?
I live in Australia, I suppose it is possible users are better educated elsewhere in the world, but I doubt it.
Until Linux is commonplace in the Government sector which would cause private enterprise to follow, then and only then will the home user start to adopt Linux. I cannot see this happening anytime soon in the USA, but correct me if I am wrong here since I would love to be proved wrong on this.
Currently Governments in countries like Europe, Asia and China are seriously looking at adopting Linux for a variety of reasons and this is starting the acceptable adoption of Linux, but it will be many years unless certain Government heads push a very courageous decision (commonly called political suicide) to adopt Linux overnight.
Linux adoption is happening but it is slow since MS Windows is so entrenched.
With regard to trying to get your friends and acquaintances to adopt Linux I think this is going to be very frustrating for you. I have tried to get close family to make the switch and while they agree that Linux is excellent they all eventually backslide back to MS Windows, so now I only do full (no dual booting) Linux installs so there is no backsliding. Of course I tell people about this and in the majority of cases they say no (I know all the excuses) which is great so I don't waste my time.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
And even there it's pretty warm! Look to Winnipeg, then look up -- Waaaaay up, and you'll see me, praying on my pillow every night for global warming to bring summer in faster.
Anyway, I'm done with the whole Global Warming thing on my end. The whole phenomenon is turning into a way for would-be ascetics to peddle misery when there are solutions which don't require living in a cave. For example, both the Pulp and Paper industry and the lumber industry are moving to burning the waste wood from their processes, or gassification it to create natural gas, both of which are carbon neutral since trees grow back. With a carefully managed forestry program and an efficient power boiler, these massive industries can not just achieve energy independence from the grid, but can start selling relatively clean, carbon neutral, sustainable energy to the grid. The answer to global warming is the same answer that turned cars from 3mpg guzzlers to vehicles like the 50+mpg Toyota Prius(though I'm not sure that the batteries used actually let the life of the car be any less polluting).
More science, better environmental regulations to entice polluters to put the capital into less polluting equipment that also happens to be more efficient, and overall just speeding up the implementation of newer, cleaner technologies is what'll work. Asking people to become hermits, to give up their nice cars, their nice houses, to go wander the desert for 40 years, it's just a bunch of self-righteous pricks who think that ascetic solutions are the only solution.
It's been a long time.
The article does a decent job at introducing Linux and letting unaware people know that there is an alternative. However, it seemed to me that Linux was painted a little too much like a "hobby OS", light on functionality and not as powerful as commercial OS's. The whole "Linus Torvalds and a growing group of volunteers eventually did the highly improbable..." may show Linux as someone's project and nothing more serious, specially for people who are not aware of how Open/Free Software works. I would have liked to see reference to companies such as Google, IBM, HP, etc investing in Linux in terms of using it for their own purposes as well as pitching-in with the development. It may have put things into perspective and show how serious Linux really is in the technology world today.
[alk]