<html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> I came late to Computing (in my late thirties as a mature student at University, I'm 56 now). I've been mucking about with Linux since around 1998 when it took me about four days to get a Red Hat release partially working on a laptop. I've been looking with interest at the posts on here for a number of years and learned an awful amount about gnu-linux in general and Ubuntu in particular from you wonderful techies without ever posting (I haven't yet not found an answer to a question already posted by someone else). I thought I might just put my two penn'orth in on this particular subject where there seems to be such strong feelings about the direction things are going. For me the debate has never been about how this looks, or whether that is the best distro (my 83 year old mother uses Xubuntu, though she doesn't realise it, she just knows what she needs to press to get the internet or email). Nor does it seem to be the major factor to the myriad of people that I try to introduce to Ubuntu on a daily basis. For those that do show interest after overcoming their innate distrust of 'something for nothing', it is the revelation that there is a massive community of people 'out there' willing to give time, expertise and money to something they passionately believe in and that in a world seemingly run by a bunch of self interested grifters, there are alternative ways of doing things. That collaboration and co-operation can actually produce something better than naked competition and greed (Windows 8?, what a pointless rip off). For those getting worked up about Launchers and and such like, reminds me of those ancient philosophers who spent their time worrying about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. The fact is, there is an Ubuntu distribution for pretty much everybody (and I always try to make a point of showing these alternatives once someone has shown a willingness to try Ubuntu). People tend to be impressed by the novelty that they have a choice. Almost always, the reaction is astonishment that something can be so good without costing anything 'so there must be a catch'. I haven't tried 12.04 yet and when I do, I daresay here will be things that I don't like at first. Personally I'm comfortable with that. There were things I didn't like about that version of Red Hat all those years ago. The difficulty appears to me to be the same now as it was then; the restrictive practices of proprietry software and hardware vendors and the massive negative propaganda of the big corporations aided by ignorance in government. So I would say to everyone involved 'keep calm and carry on!' The times are changing. Chris On 23/03/12 22:44, Alan Pope wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:4F6CFCD0.9010909@canonical.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 23/03/12 22:11, scoundrel50a wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">oooh and who took your dummy away....... </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">Actually my patience is somewhat thin today because we cremated my best friends Mum. Perhaps that has a bearing on my response, but it puts things in perspective. Life is short. Sorry if it seems that I'm being more harsh than usual. I'm just pretty tired of people bitching about Ubuntu and Unity and doing nothing about it but sending rants to people who can't actually fix the problem. We have developer lists and IRC channels for a reason, use them. </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">that was my reaction when I read that.......but the thing is, you work for Canonical, so your going to say that, whatever happens........ </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">That's pretty insulting to me. Well done. </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">what is frustrating is people on here are giving an opinion </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">"Opinions are like <bodily_feature>, everyone has one". </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">and its being thrown aside is if it doesnt matter because you have all this research into what people like, but people are here telling you different, that has been going on since 11.04 people have said they dont like it......and its not getting better its getting worse..... </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">Other distros are available. Cheers, - -- Alan Pope Engineering Manager Canonical - Product Strategy +44 (0) 7973 620 164 <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:alan.pope@canonical.com">alan.pope@canonical.com</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://ubuntu.com/">http://ubuntu.com/</a> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://enigmail.mozdev.org/">http://enigmail.mozdev.org/</a> iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJPbPzQAAoJEMx6UFtfvV4wnc8H/17ExoQzzrEHAR8oEPSIZFQS AI+BU+ps1t+3LbLTUJMq6UqpDfvl4RRmeQKLPoUk/Fo3BqE+JH4cLVdzenYbKODN AkxCTEvmgHcwQ8zpf+YH5KsLo+gp8S2fFzpGhRFf94NzOko6cM/Hr78IoNa9YrRd kEv5hOEaEbMc8oyCbQPnaCKvG5m48wtz6xE4y2LxoL1PRA8tecmzSnnLMTc/ImL/ vxX1xINnSGoVx3oJj8FMBHpDg8YTEJzS97WOoWPcQrxMgy5v4PF+ed2kRpm+AIHZ M4Tv2vLfKF2Hk/uX+UxeDqcYbXoW3iSqhW3CfMahV3j1ep0igosKk89Zs5bS+5k= =vuMg -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>