[ubuntu-vancouver] Showing Off Ubuntu

[Russell McOrmond]

Bob Jonkman wrote:
> Linux will not get full marks from me until it is no longer necessary to 
> buy a particular brand of hardware to ensure that everything "just 
> works".  That's not the fault of Linux, it's the fault of hardware 
> manufacturers who either don't create drivers for Linux, or don't open 
> their specs to let others create drivers for Linux.

  By this criteria, MacOS, Vista and Windows 7 also can't get full marks
(or, realistically, any more marks than Ubuntu).   The only operating
system that can (today, after years of pain transitioning from Windows
9x) is Windows XP.

> manufacturers.  Most non-tech people don't understand that, and purchase 
> closed hardware and then blame Linux for being hard to use.

  This is where Microsoft getting off their butts and releasing newer
threads of Windows is good for compatibility in general.  We had the
pain of Windows 9x only hardware and people lost that when they
upgraded.  Now there is Windows XP only hardware.  Hopefully with a
large number of people sticking with XP while others move to Windows 7
that the diversity will move us away from OS specific hardware.


  My mom would never buy hardware without asking her sons for advice,
regardless of what operating system she was running.   My father was an
auto mechanic and knew not to simply assume that parts made for one
brand of car/computer would automatically fit into a different brand.
Nobody ever claims that a different brand of car is "harder to use"
simply because the parts aren't interchangeable with the previous brand
they owned.

>  From my mom's perspective, Ubuntu is difficult to use. I think it's 
> just that she's not used to the differences yet -- mom took to Ubuntu 
> with far less need for assistance than when she was first introduced to 
> Windows.

  It is what people are used to -- having been using Linux of various
flavours she finds the Windows computers that her sisters use to be oddball.

  My wife, also not a techie, learned first on Mac's at work (she's a
teacher), then work switched to Windows.  She uses Linux at home (Fedora
and now Ubuntu) and flips back and forth going from home to work and
thinks all these people who worry about which is which are just being
silly (IE: they're all just about the same to her).

> Manager[1].  But that's me.  When my mom can do that, then Desktop Linux 
> has arrived.

  Funny -- I'm expecting to demo Compiz to my mom to demonstrate she has
a newer-generation computer, and then turn it off.  I seriously doubt
she'll find it useful.  She doesn't even like having multiple desktops
in general.

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