[ubuntu-uk] Viral Videos - Who's actually interested?....Just another thought....

[Rob Beard]

Quoting John Matthews <jakewc2 at sky.com>:

> That is all well and good having all those things which you have all
> pointed out, but, which are when you think of it, in need an Internet
> connection. Connecting to the Internet,is the most important thing and
> very few, if any ISP's give support for connection problems with Linux.
> If the Netbook experience is anything to go by, you have to sort out
> making it more out of the box, and give more immediate support. It wont
> work otherwise. People wont buy into it, they will just send the
> computers back. I say that because I have three computers, all of which
> only half work. Two of which I need started up all the time, because I
> have to swap and change depending on what I need doing.
>
> Its also not going to help any if you keep saying 'so what, windows
> causes problems, that never runs smoothly' but at least there is support
> even if you have to pay for it, there is support. That isnt part of a
> solution.
>
> To own a computer running Ubuntu, its not simple, it takes a little bit
> of getting used to, and quite a bit to get it going, and unless you make
> it so its not a hastle getting it going, and more is added to make it
> run out of the box, how will you get people to accept it, and use it.
>
> John

I'm pretty sure I read a little while ago that there is a project  
going on for an application which will be run on the first run of  
Ubuntu to assist users in things like connecting to the internet.

Of course this doesn't alter the fact that sometimes hardware isn't  
supported too well.  I find that with NVidia cards, 9 times out of 10  
the Ubuntu Restricted Drivers application will detect the card and  
prompt to install the driver, but on the odd occasion it won't work  
properly.  The same can be said of some wireless cards, although I  
tend to find that most of the cards I've tried have worked fine.

On my machines all my hardware is detected and works fine without any  
problems.  I can't say the same for Windows.

For example, last weekend I installed Windows XP from scratch on an  
Dell Optiplex GX260, it didn't have drivers for any of the hardware.   
It started in 16 colours with no network, no sound etc.  I had to  
download the drivers from Dell, pop them on a USB stick and install  
them.  Ubuntu on the other hand worked fine, detected all the hardware  
first time without any problems.

I think there seems to be a general idea that Windows is easier as  
everything works, but I find that is only the case with a  
pre-installed copy of Windows or with a Windows recovery disc, or in  
the odd occasion that the hardware is older than the version of  
Windows I'm installing so is a higher chance that drivers are available.

By the way, there is Linux support available out there, in fact there  
is commercial support available from Canonical for Ubuntu, or free  
support from the web site, mailing list, loco teams, LUGs.  Okay it's  
not as widespread as Windows support and you may not be able to say,  
take your PC into PC World and have them sort it out, but I dare say a  
lot of Windows users who aren't technical wouldn't install Windows or  
Ubuntu themselves.

Rob