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Ubuntu 9.04 For the Windows Power User
crazipper writes "Know a Windows power user who is (honestly) good with technology, but hasn't yet warmed to Linux? Tom's Hardware just posted a guide to installing and using Ubuntu 9.04, written specifically for the MS crowd (in other words, it talks about file systems, mount points, app installation, etc). Hopefully, by the end, your 'friend' will realize just how easy Ubuntu can be to use and start down a long path of exploration with a new operating system."
Yessir! If there's one thing that will convince those M$ power users to convert, it's another tutorial about using Ubuntu!
Dr. Pepper is not a valid substitute for Mr. Pibb.
What I've found is that many Windows users are quite happy to try other operating systems, especially free systems like Linux. They download MS Virtual PC, install the distro, fiddle with it for a while, then return to their Windows world.
It's not so much that there is something wrong with Linux that makes them reject it. It's not even really rejecting Linux so much as simply not finding their needs satisfied on the system.
Maybe it's lack of apps. Maybe it's lack of quality. Maybe it's the pain of actually migrating over all their data.
Whatever it is, Windows users usually seem to find their way back to Windows because it just does what they need. Emulating the look and feel of Windows isn't going to change the fact that their needs aren't satisfied by Linux.
As a Windows desktop user who has considerable experience with Linux (I run a bunch of Linux servers and spent some months exclusively with Linux on the desktop), I believe this is the wrong crowd to try to get to switch to Linux. Experienced Windows users simply don't have the problems about which everyone complains about Windows. Windows just works for experienced users who don't install viruses and ad/spyware. Windows hasn't crashed on me since before XP. Ever. Never frozen... nothing. I'm currently on 7, spent a year and a half on Vista, and the rest of the decade on XP (after it was released).
Technically inclined people who aren't programmers simply don't need linux, and programmers will already know about it.
That's my 2 cents.
And how is that different then friends running windows calling you at 2am?
A persons OS of choice doesn't negate them having issues. It does perhaps change the types of problems however.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I'm not an MS fanboy... but using MS dev tools, writing software to work on MS operating systems, and with a user audience where MS software has a nearly-100% market share by choice... is my day job.
As such, I don't have the luxury of time either in or out of my regular work hours to explore other things. I'm busy enough keeping up with current trends on the .NET Framework, which is exactly what the folks who fund my living want and need me to do.
End of story.
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
I was hoping that there would be more tutorials for getting wine to work with apps that users like. I'm sure that there are a hojillion wine tutorials, but it would be nice to have seen the author pay heed to the fact that people don't use computers for their operating systems, they use them for the apps. When I fire up my computer, I'm not fiddling around with the command prompt or using the calculator. He could have gone over what it would have taken to get adobe photoshop or microsoft office to install, or get gimp properly configured with gimpshop or photogimp or whatever. I've been using photoshop for so long that its second nature muscle memory and when gimp doesn't do something the same way, it's like flipping the blinker to signal and getting a windshield washer spray. I'm sure that's what the "average" user or even some power users feel when they do A and would get B in a windows app but the linux app does C.
I know that linux isn't windows, but for a lot of people, a computer is the tools you use for it, and people are probably less likely to give up microsoft office than windows. I wonder how much less successful OSX would be without office.
Please, I am aware of open office and gimp and all of that stuff. I'm posting from my debian partition right now.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
Because they can blame you for pushing them into an OS they otherwise wouldn't have used.
it would be nice to have seen the author pay heed to the fact that people don't use computers for their operating systems
Whoa there cowboy! This is Slashdot. This is where OSes are for religious zealotry. What are these applications of which you speak?
Any Windows enthusiast who is "uncomfortable or outright hostile towards the use of a command line" does not qualify as a power user.
if you look at what the "average" person does on a computer, listen to music/watch videos, type documents, do email, browse the internet, and deal with pictures, then replacing 1 app (microsoft office instead of open office) may be what keeps a power user from booting back into windows, or a novice user from complaining about this strange new os.
Nobody will argue with me when i say that there are tangible benefits to switching to linux and linux based apps for 80% of what a user does on a computer, but there are those applications, like microsoft office and photoshop that users have a lot invested into learning and using that they just don't want to be bothered to replace. Its often those apps that keep people anchored to windows and prevent people from switching. I have too many first hand accounts where I've installed open office on someone's system so they can open a document in the short run, but when they have the cash, they go out and buy microsoft office. That is enough to convince me that to get people to switch to linux, you have to tell them that they can bring a few of their favorite apps and show them how.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
He could have gone over what it would have taken to get adobe photoshop or microsoft office to install...
If a user wants to use Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office why shouldn't he just stick with Windows?
When I fire up my computer, I'm not fiddling around with the command prompt or using the calculator.
Precisely. So what is the point of him installing ubuntu, only to have to fiddle around with WINE tutorials to manually install something onto an unsupported platform? He ALREADY has an OS that works, that officially supports and runs his apps.
Installing Ubuntu only makes sense if he actually wants to play with a new OS and try new applications.
I think my core issue is this: I'm bored of computers.
I've been using them since early 80s (ZX Spectrum FTW!) and they don't hold much of an interest to me anymore. Hex editing? Done that. Assembly programming? Done that. Writing my own simple 3D engine? Done that, too. Configuring something obscure for weeks and tinkering with configuration files? Done that. In my youth I even had huge-ass ISA cards with a couple dozen relays on each and I used to build things that I'd control with my computer. I've done it all.
For me, the computer stopped being a toy some time ago. When I'm at work, it's a tool that I use to earn money; at home, it's an appliance that plays music (TV is reserved for videos) and lets me browse some sites when I'm bored, or play a game five hours a month. Had I been born a decade later, I'd be a Linux user, I'm absolutely sure of it... But I've just had too much exposure to computers already.
I used to be a power user, but I'm not even an average user anymore, though. I have no idea what drives those... And the kids these days just seem to be interested in playing games.