Comments on: Where Ubuntu Fits Between Apple, Microsoft

By: Stephen C.

Stephen C. — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:36:37 +0000

My Pangolin is going on 4 years old. I must of bought one of the first. It is still a great system and hasn’t given me any problems at all. I am getting the itch to get a new laptop but my wife says truthfully that the one I have still does the job quite well. It runs Hardy right now. If you want a Linux laptop, System76 is an excellent choice. Their hardware is very good and the technical support is excellent. I suspect that when it is time to retire this Pangolin I will be back to System76. Also they make desktops. But I usually build those myself.

By: Vadim P.

Vadim P. — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:57:16 +0000

I don’t think Ubuntu is bothering to win over customers who think of it as hobbyware. There are tons of other people who need computers to do simple tasks, “just work”, not break down, and not cost a fortune or have a mantra of style and fashion associated with… checking your facebook or chatting with a friend.

By: Socceroos

Socceroos — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:14:38 +0000

@Robert Heron

Ubuntu has had a meteoric rise in popularity because they focused on the things normal users found important. Ubuntu became popular because they focused on making their distro *very* easy to use – especially with their hardware support, all the extra drivers they shipped with. This was when Ubuntu first came out.

Other distros were playing catchup there while Ubuntu was enjoying huge success. Things have levelled out a bit now.

Having said that, I still find that Ubuntu will configure everything for me better than the other distros I’ve tried.

By: Robert Heron

Robert Heron — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:15:37 +0000

I gotta agree with Francois.
Its good but its not THAT good as hype makes it seem. Suse and Mandriva have been doing user friendly for years and desktops like Gnome and KDE dictate more the feel than icons and wallpapers can. You dont love the Ubuntu desktop top, you like the GNome desktop that Canonical has modified which is barely discernible from other distros.
And then you have the Mint’s and PCLinuxOS who take the user thing one step beyond their predecessors.

I’ve been running KDE4.1 and 4.2 distros on a couple of machines for the past few months and you cant tell a Mandriva2009 from a Kubuntu8.10 (which is still by the way not a top 5 KDE after running it on 3 different machines)

Im not saying its not a heck of a good OS though, just not as superior as the vocal fans make it seem it be. Yes, the Ubuntu Live CD is nice but so are all of them (Puppy and DSL are still the kings because of their size-footprint). Of course, the vocal ones are the ones you read so joe windows sees this and goes “Hmm, it must be better than others, thats the only one I hear about.” sort of like a selfperpetuating myth.

But then again, Im a Gentoo guy so what do I know about usability?!?!!!

By: Rob Jakiel

Rob Jakiel — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:57:14 +0000

For anyone that says Ubuntu or for that matter Linux is hobbyware they have never really used it. I have been using *nix since the early 90′s exclusively and I can tell you that I have no reason to even look at a Windows machine. As for Mac OS X and everyone singing its’ praises you do realize that it is a *nix as well. OS X is based heavily on the BSD kernel which is Unix. Not only that but OS X has a terminal just like Linux and can also run a X-Server and compile open source programs to run on it as well. SURPRISE!

By: dragonbite

dragonbite — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:11:21 +0000

Can’t tell you the number of times an Ubuntu LiveCD has saved me from losing everything when the OS crapped out on me.

Of course, now I use Ubuntu on the home server, desktop and laptop and haven’t had to use it in this way since!

I’ve often looked at replacement systems to come with Windows in case Linux doesn’t work well and I need a “fall-back”. Now Linux *IS* my fall-back and I am much more confident at getting a Dell (Mini 9?) or System76 machine with Linux installed, especially if they include the codecs and all drivers!

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:51:11 +0000

Thanks to all for providing those open source alternatives to iMovie, GarageBand, etc. I’m going to give them a look this weekend.

By: Wesley

Wesley — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:56:27 +0000

Dyco: I think you hit on a good point. Linux works best for some, it doesn’t for others I love using it just for web browsing, email, and also for audio recording. Seems like this is where Linux software does sometimes get into a little bit of a pickle, great software for the simple and complex things but those middle ground things aren’t always there.

By: Dyco

Dyco — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:56:52 +0000

Endolith, you haven’t got a clue about what you’re saying. Linux is not hobby ware. It depends what your needs are. I’m a scientist and do all my work in Linux computers, in fact, the whole division works with Linux. It seems it is the OS of choice for computer scientists, physicists, statisticians, computational biologists (like myself), etc. In fact, now that I remember, people like Pixar do all their rendering stuff with Linux …, well maybe their hobby is making good movies …

By: Ben in Seattle

Ben in Seattle — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:00:48 +0000

I don’t know about kdenlive, but the other video editing software Marc mentioned is heavy duty stuff used by professionals. For something simple like stitching your family vacation together from a DV cam, try one of the smaller movie editors like “kino”.

–Ben in Seattle

By: Ben in Seattle

Ben in Seattle — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:49:26 +0000

I know it may not make much sense to you, Joe P., but to many creative folks, like me (and Marc above) Apple is just too proprietary. I love their products and the excellent end-to-end quality of Mac OS X. But even in the cases where Apple bests Ubuntu (which are becoming fewer), I still cannot bring myself to support the corporation.

I hope that someday you’ll realize that Apple products are like a lovely garden. No matter how enchanting, if it’s walled in, it can become a prison.

–Ben in Seattle

By: LS

LS — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:41:07 +0000

Apple is proprietary and dumbed down just like Windows. Our business has run completely on Linux for quite some time.
We have no artificial need to run expensive software.