[ubuntu-uk] Leaflets

[Sean Miller]

norman wrote:
> OK folks, get the knives out and shoot me down in flames. (I know, I
> have mixed my metaphors).
>   
One can dwell on the negative ("my obscure card won't work in Linux so 
it's cr at p") or one can look at the positive, which is that 95% of what 
most people need in a computer can be done without paying loads of money 
for proprietary software and operating systems...

...and when people start realising this, and start using up-to-date 
Linux distros rather than old machines with Windows 98SE (because, 
perhaps, they can't afford the new ones and the ones they can afford are 
unable to run Vista) the manufacturers will take note... in fact, they 
already are... why do you think that Adobe has now created a Flash 9 
Beta for Linux?!?! AOL have an IM client... Google Earth is available... 
so is Limewire, SecondLife, most of the P2P clients and much more...

In terms of "out of the box" Linux is much better now than it was 5 
years ago, as the solid core upon which it is based is gradually being 
complimented by a day-by-day more friendly interface...

The key is freedom to choose... we're not railroaded into any particular 
distro or any particular way of working, in the way that Microsoft and 
its ilk would like us to be... if there's some feature lacking in Linux 
that Microsoft's offerings have, there are sure to be hundreds if not 
thousands of people out there *as we speak* working on making it happen...

...proprietary drivers for obscure devices are always going to be 
difficult... but you've got to look at the "bigger picture"... the 
manufacturers will sit up and listen, it is only a matter of time... and 
until then, to be honest, I wouldn't give up my OS because I couldn't 
get a USB Freeview card to work... I'd probably go down Argos and pay 
£20 for a Freeview box and plug it in next to my computer and continue 
to enjoy having a laptop that runs well, does everything I want and 
isn't constantly informing Microsoft of what I'm installing...

...what a pain it would have been had the Model T Ford been mothballed 
because they couldn't install a phone in it...

Sean