Any Ubuntu Users?

[Deleted member 176933]

Linux has 3 users? You must be smoking some serious CRACK. .

My bad....I should have put the /sarcasm tag I'm one of those 3 users.

If Adobe were able to sell $10 million in licenses for whatever software on the linux platform with the current user base...how much would it cost them to develop/support it?

Now lets say the linux market share rose to 20% (I know...high number). They will find a way to tap into that market.

It's not worth the effort currently b/c there just arent enough users.

 

[kac77]

IMO, the majority of computer users fall into this category - the platform doesn't matter (maybe my POV is skewed since I work in a support role) Getting a larger market share = getting more commercial apps/support....but it also = getting a larger idiot base = people wanting/trying to take advantage of this idiot base.

See where I'm going?

Okay I can see that. As the idiot user base rises there will be more and more opportunities for those same people to be more susceptible to virus's etc. I guess it's a catch 22 though. The learning curve does put off some. But that's the exact reason that Linux is considered more stable/virus proof than Windows.

 

[requiemnoise]

My bad....I should have put the /sarcasm tag I'm one of those 3 users.

If Adobe were able to sell $10 million in licenses for whatever software on the linux platform with the current user base...how much would it cost them to develop/support it?

Now lets say the linux market share rose to 20% (I know...high number). They will find a way to tap into that market.

It's not worth the effort currently b/c there just arent enough users.

I'm not saying famous Windows apps will never come to Linux. I don't think packaging multiple versions of packages and supporting various Linux platforms will be their directions. I have feeling WINE will be soon working with many large commercial app vendors. As wine gets easier to wrap. Many Winodws apps will have an additional pre-bundle WINE that is already wrapped with their programs. Instead of reverse engineering WINE to force to work with Windows apps, many vendors will think about WINE before programming for Windows. Also, I heard few people who are planning to write MSI kind of thing that is designed for WINE.

 

[Canadian in Berlin]

Jumping in late and I'm going to ignore the previous arguements for the most part. I am the poor unfortunate owner of sound techinical computer owner... and a wife who likes Ubuntu.

When I first installed it, i was excited, I thought it would be a great chance and great fun.

Well, the install went fine...
Then the problems started: sound support (Creative Audigy, frustration and manually loading a variety of modules and editing files), video support (Nvidia Drivers), Webcam Support (had to hack it), detecting her MP3 Player (Creative Zen Stone, had to tweak lots of complicated files and hope the user guide was correct... the first one (on ubuntuforums) killed the system), File-sharing between windows (still doesn't work consistently, windows problem I know).

After the MP3 player configuration killed the system, I did a complete re-install and knew what I was doing (while reading the guides) to get most of that stuff solved.

Amarok was ugly, no matter what plugin we put there. Granted, its a massive step up from that pile of feces known as Itunes, but Foobar is a great mp3 player...

So we tried Banshee... PROBLEMS... Mostly related to us manually having to open the music harddrive (not partition) in order to get it to play anything, every time we boot. Plus other random sound problems.

Ongoing troubles....
- Sound randomly won't work
- Some movies won't play sound or not on all the tracks (w00t spanish), works fine on my side
- The eternal search for software that carries out tasks completed easily with XNview or Adobe Lightroom (end result: Virtual box and an XP machine, she needed it for Office 2007 anyway)
- OMG Office 2007.... yes, but it does stuff that Open Office still won't, and for once.... MS Office is actually faster.

False Advertising
- "If it just works out-of-the-box" then why do I always have to tweak so many things for common hardware?
- Downloading a driver is still easier
- Things still crash, lockup and give errors (blame the software developers, whatever)
- Security: Sure, its more secure, but I've been using XP and Vista for 5 years without a virus or malware: I use Firefox with Noscript and Adblock and I don't go to russian porn sites or download warez (or at least not without doing a virus scan first)


Where Windows is Better
- It just works.... by downloading a driver
- There are commercially produced software packages that are __often__ superior
- There are still free software packages that are AMAZING (or at least just free)


HUGE POINTS IN UBUNTU'S FAVOUR

To avoid purely bashing ubuntu....

- The user support is GREAT, best forum ever!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Running a heavy load on the box, it performs just fine, unlike windows with a half-load

- Searching for new apps via the App Manager tool is quite easy, the challenge is finding the right one for the job, but sometimes it still isn't as good as the windows option

- Its free, has good support, and frequent updates....




In the end, I'm an embittered and disappointed Windows Hater who was hoping for a valid alternative.... but Ubuntu fell fall short of my hopes and expectations, perhaps I set the bar too high.

As my work generally includes an implied "constantly learning new shit" I don't have time to really learn linux/unix enough to try something like freeBSD or Gentoo. I doN#t even have time ot properly learn Ubuntu.

For a normal user, Ubuntu is an Epic fail (unless they are one of the lucky ones)
For a Linux user/Person with time: I'd still reccomend it.

 

[requiemnoise]

Most admins/tech support need to understand few things in command line to get the hardware working. Such as how to upload and unload kernel modules. It is very easy to do. Most Linux books should have a section on loading, unloading, and blacklisting a buggy modules. For Office2007 to work, I will agree that only 90% of Office 2007 will work under WINE due to Microsoft's constant releases of Office service packs that break the WINE. Office 2003 runs perfect under WINE. Most users only use 35% of features in Office. OpenOffice should fill all their need. Not to mention, if you are saving 200 per license and you have least 500 employees, that is $100,000. That is enough to save two tech employees from getting canned. For mp3 players, you got tons of choices. I don't know why you have a problem with mp3 players. You install the package and just launch the program. Instead of focusing on the latest eyecandy versions, stick with a stable mp3 player. That goes for the sound servers too. I would never use PulseAudio in the production environment. I would stick with ALSA. I bet your sound isn't working due to using the latest cutting edge PulseAudio.

Anyone who use Gentoos in the production server should get fired. Gentoos is a developer distro. For FreeBSD, I would only use it for routers in the production environment. It is developers' favorite distro, because everything is bleeding edge. If I have to spend time compiling every new source packages, I would never get any real work done. Stick with distros that are package based. Also, there is reason, why Debian has unstable and stable releases. There is also a reason Ubuntu has normal and LTS releases.