Ars is wrong here on both accounts. Win7 will suffer the same thing as Vista since it is a rework of the pig with lipstick. It isn't worth upgrading to Win7 at any cost for an upgraded taskbar. Yeah, there are some other changes but they could easily roll that up into a service pack for Vista and skip Win7 altogether.
There was a lot of positive and negative hype about Vista prior to the release. There were huge numbers of reviews and most of the pundits ranked it high. One reason is that a new OS brings pundits revenue. Why? Well, they get to talk about all the new tricks and changes. More words mean more money. The Brian Livingston site is a prime example. He rated it very positive while commentary posted on his site rated it way down. He'd even written a book with the release date to coincide with the Vista release. If Vista didn't do well then his book wasn't going to do well.
If Vista had turned out to be as good as they said that would have been a different matter altogether. Clearly though Vista 7 has the same underlying structure that Vista has and that's going to be the cause of the same sort of issues. DRM at the core, every sort of lock in mechanism on the planet created in an attempt to lock you into only Microsoft products, etc. The fact that there are 47+ programs that collect and report information about what you have on your computer and what you are doing with it to Microsoft, including your IP and the date/time. They even went so far as to militarily draft the hardware manufacturers to add support circuitry that monitored whether you were trying to alter the component to bypass their DRM.
The driver issues and poor performance were important but like with any other product those rough spots could be ironed out. You can't overcome this spy philosophy by fixing drivers. When people found out about the spying many wanted nothing to do with Vista. Vista 7 is the same only with a bit more lipstick.
Again, lots of people gave Vista very positive reviews, including Ars prior to the release of Vista. And today there are still people that can't understand why Vista didn't take off. Vista 7 won't take off just due the pretty taskbar. And yes, the main modification to Vista 7 is that taskbar. I find it incredibly questionable to expect people to upgrade to Vista 7 for a taskbar and a few other changes. Those should have simply come as a service pack or update to Vista instead. I have Vista 7 installed on one of my computers and though it seems better it still has the underlying spying components and it still has problems with their interface design flawed philosophy.
If your comment was posted on digg.com, though true and honest, would have netted you a large number of negative diggs.
Rating someone down like that is not the purpose of the rating system. What they should rate someone down who is lying, or making misleading statements, or spewing intentional inaccuracies. You stated your experiences and the reason you changed. You wouldn't have deserved those negative diggs but you would have received them.
The purpose behind the rating system of digg.com was not to spread your happiness but to give honest ratings to the content.
Vista sucked. Vista 7 will suck the same, it is afterall just the same pig with a bit more lipstick.
Your option 4 isn't valid. You rate down something because it is wrong, misleading or inaccurate. You rate it up because it is correct, valid, and true.
I really believe Microsoft had people there astroturfing.
I fix computers for a living and even to this day with all the fixes Vista still has a serious number of problems. You can't make them go away by digging down comments regarding those problems.
As the build up of Vista 7 started it became apparent to me that this sort of thing was happening on Digg.com. Critical review of Microsoft simply disappeared as anything was just dugg way down to hide it.
It seemed readily apparent to me that someone was artificially altering anything Microsoft or Windows on Digg.com. I noticed a change where anything negative about Microsoft and Vista were dugg down and anything positive was dugg up. It didn't matter if the negative was spot on and making valid points, it was dugg down. Anything about Microsoft was dugg up. Even if the company was doing nasty things still.
I attributed it to: 1) either a few people had been creating multiple accounts in order to influence the vote, 2) people were being paid by Microsoft to go to digg and change the outcome, or 3) a bunch of Microsoft employees were actively seeking to alter the vote to make Vista 7 and Microsoft look better.
I also noticed several other people commenting as they saw the same thing.
This was like an overnight thing. One day everyone is telling it like it is about Vista and Microsoft and the next day anything anyone said that was negative was dugg way down. Anything positive was dugg way up, even if it was utterly false and few in the face of history.
I will say that Digg.com has declined. I have had to bury a slew of articles that were purely fluff, and moreso of late. Way too many totally stupid posts, uninformative conjecture articles, and poorly thought out pieces that tend to just waste my time.
Combined with the seemingly altered rankings of pro and negative comments regarding Microsoft and Vista I concluded that Digg.com was headed for a big decline.
Now that I see this sort of thing occuring regarding other large company products I can only conclude that there must be something more to my observations on Digg.com
You are attempting to use the fact that someone likes Linux as a negative thing. That's sad. Not only that you have no idea how things transpired or how she actually wound up with an ubuntu laptop.
Finally, most people now have heard of Linux. Its just that they don't know how to utilize it nor why they would as they seem to get Windows for free (or rather they already paid for it).
No evidence exists that she didn't actually order Ubuntu even if the reports state she didn't. We don't know her thought process nor who inspired her to order the ubuntu version.
Please, in the future, keep your bias and biggotry to yourself. Just because someone likes Linux doesn't mean they are bad nor that fanboism is wrong.
If someone were to talk to you in the same light about cars would you be so insulting and demeaning of them and their delights? If you did they'd probably beat you up.
DSL and even cable modems need to be activated to tell the ISP that it is active. I would guess this is so that they can tie an IP to that modem.
Generally you would get the DSL modem (and set it up), install filters on your phone outlets and then start your computer and run a CD which initiates the activation process. Unfortunately it also installs software on the unit that is unnecessary. Examination of it lends one to understand that the ISP is trying to brand the machine as a Verison internet box instead of a box using Verison as a service. They also use it to monitor what the customer does. What better way for marketers to target you and for Verison to get some extra money selling information about you to someone else.
They also sometimes install ridiculous software on the computer for trying to diagnose a connection issue. They'll find out more by just having you turn on and off your computer than having you have that installed. If you have one problem in 3 years you had their software running for 3 years for nothing.
Almost every day I have customers, when I tell them that the software is not necessary, say that they are surprised and thought it was necessary.
This is a lack of full disclosure on the part of Verison regarding the software, the fact that they are monitoring the customer, and what they do with the data they collect.
She would have had great difficulty getting on the net after installing Windows. That'd be because she'd have had to seek out and install the drivers for the components.
Many people here don't understand that a base install of Widows almost always lacks 1 to ALL the drivers necessary to do much of anything. Generally a CD install of Windows results in generic drivers for video (and usually a successful USB series) and everything else, such as sound, video, network, wireless, and chipset are missing. Buying the CD would have resulted in a net loss for her. Though, she may have managed to get that CD to run to get her DSL modem active.
This is different than Linux as Linux generally has ALL drivers or just lacks 1 (generally good wireless support). Linux, over the years has had to fend for itself and the end result is that it has more driver support in the kernel than any other OS in the history of computing (including Microsoft and Apple). This is due to the hardware manufacturers falling for Microsoft's coercion. As a result entities such as NASA and IBM have worked for years, as well as Linus Torvald's team working hard to consolidate driver functions. Now a days when someone says "they installed it and it just worked" it means something.
Also, her courses were over the net. That's becoming popular as Universities can now target students from a lot farther a way. But it also means that the Professors are less likely to actually care about the students.
It has nothing to do with Linux. More than anything I'd say it has everything to do with Windows (the status quo), her, Dell, and attitudes like yours. The assumption you make and conclusion you draw is that in one's life they should never be expected to use anything other than the status quo. I do wonder how people manage to make it from job A to B to C, throughout their lives. And, given that this woman was in college I find it hard to believe that we wouldn't expect her to have an open mind--to look past the status quo.
We aren't talking about a grade school child here. We are talking about someone who is in life expected to learn and grow with society. Linux is part of society now. No, it is not the status quo and thank goodness for that.
What we should expect of every/anyone is that at any given time they could find themselves in another job with all new undiscovered duties using equipment they've never seen before and still be expected to deliver something. It's called the learning process.
There's nothing wrong with the way the Linux folks answered, and, in fact, the way they answered was absolutely the correct way. To answer by stating that she should just be expected to accept the status quo is riotously funny.
I installed Vista 7 on a 3 gig p4 with a gig of ram. I did all the updates. Nothing else is installed except Firefox, flash, VLC, and a few other free programs. It seems to perform well except:
Full screen hulu.com vides run like crap.
Well, there are a slew of other issues so don't get me wrong.
But as far as performance goes running firefox with the latest flash full screen leaves the videos very choppy.
Dell has a problem with creating BTX based machines too. If they were really following his advise we'd not have the BTX platform. This is used only by the pre-fab makers for the purpose of forcing customers to return to the manufacturer for repairs/replacements.
I worked yesterday for about 2 hours to clean a system of all the crapware that came pre-installed on a compaq computer. By removing it I turned this extremely slow and annoying Vista box into something that was quite snappy.
Let's just say that companies such as Dell and HP are wasting a lot of consumer time putting this shit on the computers. I mean there was a lot of shit and it did nothing. Even the start up process was so slow and convoluted I ended up just alt+F4 to close it and began uninstalling the junk.
And it seems Microsoft is working hard to get companies such as HP to install all their crap on the computer, such as Silverlight (preinstalled), Live toolbar (preinstalled), search engine preinstalled to Microsoft, Live messenger (links everywhere to install it).
At least with their Ubuntu offerings this shit isn't pre-loaded.
I have a PC which I used to help me diagnose computer issues and perform back ups on customer computers. I also use it for gaming. I bought it over 5 years ago. With 2 gigs of RAM and 500 gigs of storage and a nice video card on a high speed network with a nice flat panel display it is perfectly suited for anything we do today (except maybe Vista).
What happens is people begin to get their computers fixed rather than getting a new computer, which is something they should have done all along. Most computers of yesterday are more than capable running today's software (with the exception maybe of Vista--which should have been a no-go to begin with).
Always fix rather than replace unless the computer is far too old. Any honest technician worth anything will be able to tell you that.
In the Linux world today no one compiles drivers unless they want to. The Linux kernel contains more native driver support than any kernel in the history of computers.
Unless you have a pre-fab install of a box such as Gateway, HP, etc with Windows and never need to redo the box you'll never have a driver issue either, unless you add new hardware. Then you have to deal with the drivers. I've been involved in computer repair and maintenance for 5 years as an owner operator of a small business and I have almost 20 years of work prior to that. When I say Windows has problems with drivers I'm not kidding and some of them can be super nasty.
In Linux you'd just plug it in and it would work. Though this is the case, some exotic hardware, such as the Verison component she had can cause rough spots in smooth and well done hardware support. Why did Linux get this good? It was due to the manufacturers failure to provide drivers so the community reverse engineered them and when they were mature enough they were incorporated into the kernel. Who created the drivers? NASA was/is a big contributor to driver support. IBM is another.
There hasn't been a need to compile drivers for the past several years.
And, if you understood the story you'd understand it had nothing to do with the drivers, it had to do with activating the modem and submitting documents for the completion of work assignments.
From her level of knowledge she should have had a very difficult problem even under Windows. If not being able to configure something is an example of why you should put your life on hold then almost everyone at some point would be so lethargic that they can't function in society.
She has friends. Family members have computers. Libraries provide internet access for doing research. Computer repair stores exist. Internet Cafes are another choice.
None of the issues she had appear to be due to Ubuntu. They appear to be in this order:
1) she didn't get what she wanted -- didn't know what she wanted and maybe randomly picked, but what she says she wanted was a bread and butter PC.
2) She didn't know how to get her DSL active without the CD.
3) She didn't know how to create.doc files without Word.
First things first. A couple of questions:
1) What if the CD for the DSL activation didn't work? Would she still have skipped 2 semesters (which is almost a whole year of school).
2) Did she realize that it would have cost her money to purchase Office? If she didn't know that would she also have dropped out?
The point behind these questions is that it seems far too questionable that any one or both of those issues would have resulted in someone deciding not to enroll for not one semester of college but two. If something that simple was happening just about anything could have set her off and caused her to decide not to enroll.
There are computer labs, there are neighbors and friends, there are computer shops to help configure and repair--what's more important going to anyone of those or wasting a year of your life by waiting for a solution to any of those two given problems? So, she didn't waste the time, but she did delay her education for a year. And why not more than 2 semesters as it seems no one has given her a solution yet.
And for someone whom it seems is unable to accept anything but the status quo she seems pretty well posed in the picture, as if she's using it.
On to the Verison DSL. She should have called Verison and had them activate her modem or send a technician out to do it, or get friend's laptop to activate the modem.
The obvious problem with that is that Verision wants to take ownership of her computer by branding it and by tracking her via software they install. I generally uninstall that stuff when I see it and I inform them that it is optional software completely unnecessary. So, she could have borrowed a computer or had a friend come over and activate the modem but she didn't know it because Verison wasn't performing full disclosure as to what that software does and whether it is necessary once the modem is active.
She may not have been aware that Office costs a pretty penny, unless of course she knew this and was after the college's student & home version of Office (for non-commercial use only). And she didn't know that using crossover office or even Wine she could have it up and running.
She probably wasn't aware that she also could use Open Office, which many pointed out here. And yes, there are many formatting issues and yes, instructors do grade you down for mis-spellings and poor formatting--they only give you so much credit for the actual content of what you write.
But nonetheless if they were using the proper filters she could have used ODT as her file format and it would have been up to them to ensure that they used a product that could read it and format it properly, as ODT is an ISO standard. In this sense she would have been right and they would have had the burden to accept industry standard file formats that are accepted by a world-wide standards organization. Which is what the schools should be doing as they are governmentally funded.
Foremost in all this the issue had nothing to do with Ubuntu nor its usability. Her installation of the Verison CD could have failed under Windows, easily. There are many problems that crop up when installing drivers and software under windows and if that was sufficient to stop her education under Ubuntu it should have been sufficient to stop her education under Windows--so this is a no-go for blaming Ubuntu.
Her college stated they'd take whatever format she chose to submit her assignments in showing that at least they had some modicum of technical knowledge so Open Office documents submitted in ODT format should have sufficed. The end result is that she let her educati
Though booting in 21 seconds is nice, they need to shut down in 1/10 that time. Right now it seems to take as long to shut down as it takes to start up. Close my files, prep the file system, and shut down in 2 seconds or less. That's it. It isn't enough to boot in 21 seconds as most leave their computers on for days at a time. What's best is to shut down faster. I don't need every daemon shut down in reverse order. Just close my files and boom, end it.
Timestamps can be changed. So, you are saying that one could distribute and get away with it because, though they left their email address in the file, they were able to alter the date/time stamp?
I think you think these people are simpletons. They don't care about no stinking time stamps.
Unless Apple puts your email in when you played it through iTunes. Say you purchase a CD, you rip it to their format. You wouldn't have to show that you didn't purchase it through iTunes. The ASSHOLES at the RIAA would find every way and accuse you of everything including murder to place blame and collect 200 dollars and pass go.
They don't give one flying fuck about whether you say you didn't. They only know they are happy that you can't show you didn't.
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Ars is wrong here on both accounts. Win7 will suffer the same thing as Vista since it is a rework of the pig with lipstick. It isn't worth upgrading to Win7 at any cost for an upgraded taskbar. Yeah, there are some other changes but they could easily roll that up into a service pack for Vista and skip Win7 altogether.
The reputation that Vista got Vista deserved.
LoL, you are talking about how they used a Monster cable and checked performance/clarity and then used a hanger and got the same result? :)
This isn't about Linux. Stay on point.
This isn't about Linux. This is about companies using others to artificially alter reviews and to jury rig rating systems.
There was a lot of positive and negative hype about Vista prior to the release. There were huge numbers of reviews and most of the pundits ranked it high. One reason is that a new OS brings pundits revenue. Why? Well, they get to talk about all the new tricks and changes. More words mean more money. The Brian Livingston site is a prime example. He rated it very positive while commentary posted on his site rated it way down. He'd even written a book with the release date to coincide with the Vista release. If Vista didn't do well then his book wasn't going to do well.
If Vista had turned out to be as good as they said that would have been a different matter altogether. Clearly though Vista 7 has the same underlying structure that Vista has and that's going to be the cause of the same sort of issues. DRM at the core, every sort of lock in mechanism on the planet created in an attempt to lock you into only Microsoft products, etc. The fact that there are 47+ programs that collect and report information about what you have on your computer and what you are doing with it to Microsoft, including your IP and the date/time. They even went so far as to militarily draft the hardware manufacturers to add support circuitry that monitored whether you were trying to alter the component to bypass their DRM.
The driver issues and poor performance were important but like with any other product those rough spots could be ironed out. You can't overcome this spy philosophy by fixing drivers. When people found out about the spying many wanted nothing to do with Vista. Vista 7 is the same only with a bit more lipstick.
Again, lots of people gave Vista very positive reviews, including Ars prior to the release of Vista. And today there are still people that can't understand why Vista didn't take off. Vista 7 won't take off just due the pretty taskbar. And yes, the main modification to Vista 7 is that taskbar. I find it incredibly questionable to expect people to upgrade to Vista 7 for a taskbar and a few other changes. Those should have simply come as a service pack or update to Vista instead. I have Vista 7 installed on one of my computers and though it seems better it still has the underlying spying components and it still has problems with their interface design flawed philosophy.
If your comment was posted on digg.com, though true and honest, would have netted you a large number of negative diggs.
Rating someone down like that is not the purpose of the rating system. What they should rate someone down who is lying, or making misleading statements, or spewing intentional inaccuracies. You stated your experiences and the reason you changed. You wouldn't have deserved those negative diggs but you would have received them.
The purpose behind the rating system of digg.com was not to spread your happiness but to give honest ratings to the content.
Vista sucked. Vista 7 will suck the same, it is afterall just the same pig with a bit more lipstick.
Your option 4 isn't valid. You rate down something because it is wrong, misleading or inaccurate. You rate it up because it is correct, valid, and true.
I really believe Microsoft had people there astroturfing.
I fix computers for a living and even to this day with all the fixes Vista still has a serious number of problems. You can't make them go away by digging down comments regarding those problems.
As the build up of Vista 7 started it became apparent to me that this sort of thing was happening on Digg.com. Critical review of Microsoft simply disappeared as anything was just dugg way down to hide it.
It seemed readily apparent to me that someone was artificially altering anything Microsoft or Windows on Digg.com. I noticed a change where anything negative about Microsoft and Vista were dugg down and anything positive was dugg up. It didn't matter if the negative was spot on and making valid points, it was dugg down. Anything about Microsoft was dugg up. Even if the company was doing nasty things still.
I attributed it to: 1) either a few people had been creating multiple accounts in order to influence the vote, 2) people were being paid by Microsoft to go to digg and change the outcome, or 3) a bunch of Microsoft employees were actively seeking to alter the vote to make Vista 7 and Microsoft look better.
I also noticed several other people commenting as they saw the same thing.
This was like an overnight thing. One day everyone is telling it like it is about Vista and Microsoft and the next day anything anyone said that was negative was dugg way down. Anything positive was dugg way up, even if it was utterly false and few in the face of history.
I will say that Digg.com has declined. I have had to bury a slew of articles that were purely fluff, and moreso of late. Way too many totally stupid posts, uninformative conjecture articles, and poorly thought out pieces that tend to just waste my time.
Combined with the seemingly altered rankings of pro and negative comments regarding Microsoft and Vista I concluded that Digg.com was headed for a big decline.
Now that I see this sort of thing occuring regarding other large company products I can only conclude that there must be something more to my observations on Digg.com
Is this another study created by Microsoft as an effort to try to drive a stake between various distros?
No matter. This is mostly a farce anyway and impossible to prove and full of conjecture.
You are attempting to use the fact that someone likes Linux as a negative thing. That's sad. Not only that you have no idea how things transpired or how she actually wound up with an ubuntu laptop.
Finally, most people now have heard of Linux. Its just that they don't know how to utilize it nor why they would as they seem to get Windows for free (or rather they already paid for it).
No evidence exists that she didn't actually order Ubuntu even if the reports state she didn't. We don't know her thought process nor who inspired her to order the ubuntu version.
Please, in the future, keep your bias and biggotry to yourself. Just because someone likes Linux doesn't mean they are bad nor that fanboism is wrong.
If someone were to talk to you in the same light about cars would you be so insulting and demeaning of them and their delights? If you did they'd probably beat you up.
DSL and even cable modems need to be activated to tell the ISP that it is active. I would guess this is so that they can tie an IP to that modem.
Generally you would get the DSL modem (and set it up), install filters on your phone outlets and then start your computer and run a CD which initiates the activation process. Unfortunately it also installs software on the unit that is unnecessary. Examination of it lends one to understand that the ISP is trying to brand the machine as a Verison internet box instead of a box using Verison as a service. They also use it to monitor what the customer does. What better way for marketers to target you and for Verison to get some extra money selling information about you to someone else.
They also sometimes install ridiculous software on the computer for trying to diagnose a connection issue. They'll find out more by just having you turn on and off your computer than having you have that installed. If you have one problem in 3 years you had their software running for 3 years for nothing.
Almost every day I have customers, when I tell them that the software is not necessary, say that they are surprised and thought it was necessary.
This is a lack of full disclosure on the part of Verison regarding the software, the fact that they are monitoring the customer, and what they do with the data they collect.
I agree.
But...
She would have had great difficulty getting on the net after installing Windows. That'd be because she'd have had to seek out and install the drivers for the components.
Many people here don't understand that a base install of Widows almost always lacks 1 to ALL the drivers necessary to do much of anything. Generally a CD install of Windows results in generic drivers for video (and usually a successful USB series) and everything else, such as sound, video, network, wireless, and chipset are missing. Buying the CD would have resulted in a net loss for her. Though, she may have managed to get that CD to run to get her DSL modem active.
This is different than Linux as Linux generally has ALL drivers or just lacks 1 (generally good wireless support). Linux, over the years has had to fend for itself and the end result is that it has more driver support in the kernel than any other OS in the history of computing (including Microsoft and Apple). This is due to the hardware manufacturers falling for Microsoft's coercion. As a result entities such as NASA and IBM have worked for years, as well as Linus Torvald's team working hard to consolidate driver functions. Now a days when someone says "they installed it and it just worked" it means something.
Also, her courses were over the net. That's becoming popular as Universities can now target students from a lot farther a way. But it also means that the Professors are less likely to actually care about the students.
It has nothing to do with Linux. More than anything I'd say it has everything to do with Windows (the status quo), her, Dell, and attitudes like yours. The assumption you make and conclusion you draw is that in one's life they should never be expected to use anything other than the status quo. I do wonder how people manage to make it from job A to B to C, throughout their lives. And, given that this woman was in college I find it hard to believe that we wouldn't expect her to have an open mind--to look past the status quo.
We aren't talking about a grade school child here. We are talking about someone who is in life expected to learn and grow with society. Linux is part of society now. No, it is not the status quo and thank goodness for that.
What we should expect of every/anyone is that at any given time they could find themselves in another job with all new undiscovered duties using equipment they've never seen before and still be expected to deliver something. It's called the learning process.
There's nothing wrong with the way the Linux folks answered, and, in fact, the way they answered was absolutely the correct way. To answer by stating that she should just be expected to accept the status quo is riotously funny.
I installed Vista 7 on a 3 gig p4 with a gig of ram. I did all the updates. Nothing else is installed except Firefox, flash, VLC, and a few other free programs. It seems to perform well except:
Full screen hulu.com vides run like crap.
Well, there are a slew of other issues so don't get me wrong.
But as far as performance goes running firefox with the latest flash full screen leaves the videos very choppy.
Dell has a problem with creating BTX based machines too. If they were really following his advise we'd not have the BTX platform. This is used only by the pre-fab makers for the purpose of forcing customers to return to the manufacturer for repairs/replacements.
I worked yesterday for about 2 hours to clean a system of all the crapware that came pre-installed on a compaq computer. By removing it I turned this extremely slow and annoying Vista box into something that was quite snappy.
Let's just say that companies such as Dell and HP are wasting a lot of consumer time putting this shit on the computers. I mean there was a lot of shit and it did nothing. Even the start up process was so slow and convoluted I ended up just alt+F4 to close it and began uninstalling the junk.
And it seems Microsoft is working hard to get companies such as HP to install all their crap on the computer, such as Silverlight (preinstalled), Live toolbar (preinstalled), search engine preinstalled to Microsoft, Live messenger (links everywhere to install it).
At least with their Ubuntu offerings this shit isn't pre-loaded.
I have a PC which I used to help me diagnose computer issues and perform back ups on customer computers. I also use it for gaming. I bought it over 5 years ago. With 2 gigs of RAM and 500 gigs of storage and a nice video card on a high speed network with a nice flat panel display it is perfectly suited for anything we do today (except maybe Vista).
This is a given.
I don't know why anyone would question it.
What happens is people begin to get their computers fixed rather than getting a new computer, which is something they should have done all along. Most computers of yesterday are more than capable running today's software (with the exception maybe of Vista--which should have been a no-go to begin with).
Always fix rather than replace unless the computer is far too old. Any honest technician worth anything will be able to tell you that.
In the Linux world today no one compiles drivers unless they want to. The Linux kernel contains more native driver support than any kernel in the history of computers.
Unless you have a pre-fab install of a box such as Gateway, HP, etc with Windows and never need to redo the box you'll never have a driver issue either, unless you add new hardware. Then you have to deal with the drivers. I've been involved in computer repair and maintenance for 5 years as an owner operator of a small business and I have almost 20 years of work prior to that. When I say Windows has problems with drivers I'm not kidding and some of them can be super nasty.
In Linux you'd just plug it in and it would work. Though this is the case, some exotic hardware, such as the Verison component she had can cause rough spots in smooth and well done hardware support. Why did Linux get this good? It was due to the manufacturers failure to provide drivers so the community reverse engineered them and when they were mature enough they were incorporated into the kernel. Who created the drivers? NASA was/is a big contributor to driver support. IBM is another.
There hasn't been a need to compile drivers for the past several years.
And, if you understood the story you'd understand it had nothing to do with the drivers, it had to do with activating the modem and submitting documents for the completion of work assignments.
From her level of knowledge she should have had a very difficult problem even under Windows. If not being able to configure something is an example of why you should put your life on hold then almost everyone at some point would be so lethargic that they can't function in society.
She has friends. Family members have computers. Libraries provide internet access for doing research. Computer repair stores exist. Internet Cafes are another choice.
Her choices are far from limited.
LoL, perfect.
None of the issues she had appear to be due to Ubuntu. They appear to be in this order:
1) she didn't get what she wanted -- didn't know what she wanted and maybe randomly picked, but what she says she wanted was a bread and butter PC.
2) She didn't know how to get her DSL active without the CD.
3) She didn't know how to create .doc files without Word.
First things first. A couple of questions:
1) What if the CD for the DSL activation didn't work? Would she still have skipped 2 semesters (which is almost a whole year of school).
2) Did she realize that it would have cost her money to purchase Office? If she didn't know that would she also have dropped out?
The point behind these questions is that it seems far too questionable that any one or both of those issues would have resulted in someone deciding not to enroll for not one semester of college but two. If something that simple was happening just about anything could have set her off and caused her to decide not to enroll.
There are computer labs, there are neighbors and friends, there are computer shops to help configure and repair--what's more important going to anyone of those or wasting a year of your life by waiting for a solution to any of those two given problems? So, she didn't waste the time, but she did delay her education for a year. And why not more than 2 semesters as it seems no one has given her a solution yet.
And for someone whom it seems is unable to accept anything but the status quo she seems pretty well posed in the picture, as if she's using it.
On to the Verison DSL. She should have called Verison and had them activate her modem or send a technician out to do it, or get friend's laptop to activate the modem.
The obvious problem with that is that Verision wants to take ownership of her computer by branding it and by tracking her via software they install. I generally uninstall that stuff when I see it and I inform them that it is optional software completely unnecessary. So, she could have borrowed a computer or had a friend come over and activate the modem but she didn't know it because Verison wasn't performing full disclosure as to what that software does and whether it is necessary once the modem is active.
She may not have been aware that Office costs a pretty penny, unless of course she knew this and was after the college's student & home version of Office (for non-commercial use only). And she didn't know that using crossover office or even Wine she could have it up and running.
She probably wasn't aware that she also could use Open Office, which many pointed out here. And yes, there are many formatting issues and yes, instructors do grade you down for mis-spellings and poor formatting--they only give you so much credit for the actual content of what you write.
But nonetheless if they were using the proper filters she could have used ODT as her file format and it would have been up to them to ensure that they used a product that could read it and format it properly, as ODT is an ISO standard. In this sense she would have been right and they would have had the burden to accept industry standard file formats that are accepted by a world-wide standards organization. Which is what the schools should be doing as they are governmentally funded.
Foremost in all this the issue had nothing to do with Ubuntu nor its usability. Her installation of the Verison CD could have failed under Windows, easily. There are many problems that crop up when installing drivers and software under windows and if that was sufficient to stop her education under Ubuntu it should have been sufficient to stop her education under Windows--so this is a no-go for blaming Ubuntu.
Her college stated they'd take whatever format she chose to submit her assignments in showing that at least they had some modicum of technical knowledge so Open Office documents submitted in ODT format should have sufficed. The end result is that she let her educati
Though booting in 21 seconds is nice, they need to shut down in 1/10 that time. Right now it seems to take as long to shut down as it takes to start up. Close my files, prep the file system, and shut down in 2 seconds or less. That's it. It isn't enough to boot in 21 seconds as most leave their computers on for days at a time. What's best is to shut down faster. I don't need every daemon shut down in reverse order. Just close my files and boom, end it.
Timestamps can be changed. So, you are saying that one could distribute and get away with it because, though they left their email address in the file, they were able to alter the date/time stamp?
I think you think these people are simpletons. They don't care about no stinking time stamps.
Unless Apple puts your email in when you played it through iTunes. Say you purchase a CD, you rip it to their format. You wouldn't have to show that you didn't purchase it through iTunes. The ASSHOLES at the RIAA would find every way and accuse you of everything including murder to place blame and collect 200 dollars and pass go.
They don't give one flying fuck about whether you say you didn't. They only know they are happy that you can't show you didn't.