Hardy Heron Making Linux Ready for the Masses?

desmondhaynes writes "Is Linux ready for the masses? Is Linux really being targeted towards the 'casual computer user'? Computerworld thinks we're getting there, talking of Linux 'going mainstream 'with Ubuntu. 'If there is a single complaint that is laid at the feet of Linux time and time again, it's that the operating system is too complicated and arcane for casual computer users to tolerate. You can't ask newbies to install device drivers or recompile the kernel, naysayers argue. Of course, many of those criticisms date back to the bad old days, but Ubuntu, the user-friendly distribution sponsored by Mark Shuttleworth's Canonical Ltd., has made a mission out of dispelling such complaints entirely.'"

Comments

Ubuntu

[argStyopa]

....still not there.

I'd say I'm an intermediate to expert Win user, but I found Ubuntu a challenge.

I installed Gutsy Gibbon so that I could hopefully run stepmania on a fairly old system.

Installing a program - if it's not on "the list" of stuff you can download for "your" flavor of Linux - and figuring out its dependencies is NOT for anyone less than intimately savvy with Linux.

Ubuntu: great to use when it's running, but changing anything, or troubleshooting? Ick.

Also, I have to say - I know it's a Windows-operation meme but for some reason Ubuntu wouldn't just RUN an executable on the desktop when it was double-clicked. Simply RUNNING a program that wasn't on the executable menu was a ridiculous headache.

Re:They're doing great

[Computershack]

Vista is better about drivers, yes, but in my experience it's still behind Ubuntu. Especially when, god forbid, your driver isn't Digitally Signed and Certified by Microsoft, at which point Vista just refuses to install it. LIAR

As for your other point, yes, a computer to the average person is a box with useful programs. In that light, what do you get on a fresh Windows install? Practically nothing -- a crippled, hideous audio/video player (WMP), a crippled word processor (WordPad), and a browser that, while it is making progress, is still pretty much a gaping security hole. And why is that? Oh yeah..because if they did people would say it is anti-competitive just the way they are doing about IE being bundled.

That's pretty much it. Anything else you want, you're going to have to seek out, buy, find shareware, or pirate, and install it yourself, sifting through dozens of .exe installers or CDs and whatever else. No different to having to search through Google for Linux apps then...

Those programs you've been using since the early days of XP suddenly won't install in Vista, or won't work because they're written for 32 bit and you've got 64 bit, or some other crap. More complete bullshit. You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. UNLIKE LINUX Windows x64 runs 32 bit apps with very little problem.

Ubuntu comes with practically everything the average user would ever care about. Email, browser, Office suite, IM and IRC client, music player, video player, CD burner... it has it all, out of the box. Perhaps Microsoft should protest to the Govt about anti-competitive practices that Ubuntu and other Linux distros seem to be doing.

And at the end of the day, I still can't use Ubuntu on my laptop unless I want to have it prematurely die from the load cycle recount bug or fry from overheating from the load cycle recount bug workaround....

Re:Yes, and yes.

[EvanED]

It worked for Windows, which just eliminates the previous MBR without asking any questions at all.

Only on initial install and not, as your parent claims Ubuntu will do, at updates.

Re:No, and No

[ElizabethGreene]

> And did they fix the ACPI bugs, leaving at least Dell notebook users with without suspend?

Hi. Suspend and Hibernate both work on my dell d820 in Hardy and Gutsy. No fiddling required.

> Oh, and WiFi support for mainstream cards, without screwing around? No, wait, that's not fair,
> 'cause the haredware manufacturers are such &$*hats as to want be paid for their SDKs...

On my dell d820 with a broadcom wireless nic, I plugged in my ethernet cable, clicked "restricted drivers" on the taskbar, checked the box next to "Broadcom wireless nic" and clicked apply. The comparable process in windows is to download the ethernet driver and wireless drivers on another box, burn them to a cd, and install them on the laptop. This worked in Gutsy too.

>And it's ready to do battle with Windows for the hearts and minds of desktop users, just leave the notebooks out of it...
> Mine too. I'm too busy to test Heron. Lemme know when they fix these notebook issues, k?
You've just been told they are fixed. Please wait until the final Heron release before upgrading though, it's unfair to get a beta product and then gripe about it.. betas are to give the developers a chance to fix those annoyances before the masses start finding them.

Ubuntu has had, and will continue to have, issues on some hardware. Windows has had, and will continue to have, issues on some hardware. Being completely honest though, getting a Ubuntu box "ready to go" is several hours faster than a windows box. That has been the case for over a year now.

Boot from CD -> Install Windows -> find and enter 25 digit key -> Install video, sound, chipset, wireless, LAN, and printer drivers -> Activate Windows -> Install Office -> Find and enter 25 digit key -> Activate office -> Install Antivirus, Anti-spyware, and firewall -> windows updates -> Install Adobe Reader -> Install flash -> Install Firefox -> Install adblock plus.

Boot from CD -> Install Ubuntu -> Enable restricted drivers -> Install ubuntu-restricted-extras and flash-nonfree -> Install Adblock Plus in Firefox.

The argument is not "is linux ready?" IMHO, the argument is "how do we tell the people the emperor has no clothes?"

-ellie