30 Days With Ubuntu Linux

[5829]

30 Days With Ubuntu Linux
By Tony Bradley, PCWorld

different blog every day - currently ongoing

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... day_1.html

[piplopegord]

wtf? I do not believe :)

[jdog]

He sums up the issues I had with Linux right here: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... aints.html

With the exception of the iPhone, which I will never own an Apple product, and Banshee (which I don't see a problem with). WINE is buggy at best, won't work with some newer apps and games. Some stuff does take research, it's not as simple as it just working. And the Linux community is it's own worst enemy.

One of the biggest obstacles to more mainstream acceptance and exposure for Linux is the Linux community itself. I realize it is a vocal minority, and that most of the Linux community at large is helpful, and supportive, and is actually one of the greatest strengths of the platform. But, Linux users who are arrogant, self-righteous, jerks online to newcomers trying to understand how to work with the OS and the culture that goes with it give Linux a bad name.

Many of the flames are on par with the Apple iPhone 4 'antenna-gate' response that users were "holding it wrong". You can't attack the user for simply doing what seems natural or intuitive to them. You can explain how things are done differently on this platform, and/or you can use it as a lesson to develop tools that work the way average users trying to switch to Linux might expect them to.

The Linux flamers should be thankful that the actual developers of Ubuntu Linux, and the developers of the tools they rely on within Ubuntu Linux do actually listen, and pay attention, and use experiences like I have documented over the last month as a teaching moment.

In the long run? He chose to stick with Windows 7...

So, I will revert to using Windows 7 as my primary OS after today, but I plan to leave my Ubuntu Linux installation right where it is (although I did switch the default OS at boot to be Windows 7).

[5829]

Unfortunately, I will have to agree about the Linux community. If you don't know what you are doing, and you state that in your question, you will probably get the following responses:
01. None
02. People saying that I am having the problem (or similar) too.
03. Answers that don't help from jerks.
04. Answers that you don't understand because they are beyond your level of knowledge and experience.

The one thing that I don't think was mentioned was time. You can post a question in a forum and wait a day or two for a response. And if the response is something like 'run this command and post the output' it will probably be a day or two after you post that output before you get another response. Could take a week or more to figure out what is wrong if you, or the person/people helping you don't give up.

As far as sticking with Windows I can understand his point. Windows is still more user friendly for people that don't know what they are doing and more compatible with what most of the people and business use.

[jdog]

Yeah, most people don't have time to research anything. But I think for most common use, web + e-mail, Linux more than meets all needs. I have Linux Mint KDE 10 running on a Dell Optiplex 960 at work. Runs smooth as butter but it's just a test rig and not connected to the production network. I also have an IBM X60s Thinkpad running Lubuntu 11.04 that works perfectly.

I have a co-worker that is a Linux fan too and he and I spend an occasional free moment messing with new distros as they come out. He's running Peppermint on his desktop and tossed Linux Mint KDE 10 on a laptop.

But at home? Windows 7 64-bit just runs my world.