Has Ubuntu Replaced Windows on Your Box?

[neil woolford]

On Mon, 2005-12-05 at 07:15 +0000, Mark Nottingham wrote:

Of Windows XP;

> Everything is so much easier to install and use.  If I want to install a program I just
> double-click on a file and the application is listed in the 'All Programs'
> menu. In Ubuntu, if I can work out *how* to install

By using the "Add Applications" tool to add ready packaged programs
perhaps?  At the bottom of the "Applications" menu.  If that doesn't
suffice, then clicking Advanced under Preferences starts up Synaptic,
the package manager, which allows you to add, remove and generally mess
with applications from many sources.

>  it I then have no idea
> where it has installed it to, and there is usually nothing listed in the
> menus so I can run it.

People are still sloppy about this;  the facility to add menu entries
automatically exists, but not all packages do it :(


> Maybe in a year or so I can make the switch permanent. Until then I'll have
> to hang on to XP I'm afraid.

I'd always suggest caution and steadiness about migrating.  I've run a
Desktop machine with Ubuntu on since Warty Warthog, more than a year
ago.  I've had an experimental Ubuntu Breezy partition on my laptop for
a month or so, which seems very stable, but I've only just started to
move my work accounts data from Quattro Pro on Windows to OpenOffice.org
Calc.  Even there I'm sticking to the Windows version until I'm certain
I've ported everything without disasters (and that my 'improvements' and
tweaks on the way are the good ideas they seemed to be).

After that I will re-write an improved job handling/client contact
application in OpenOffice.org Base (replacing a venerable Paradox
system)  Then, and only then, will I move to Ubuntu on the laptop.  (And
Windows will stay available until *long* after I've stopped using it
regularly.)

This may seem over cautious (it is, frankly), but I've heard horror
stories of keen advocates moving (people) over to OpenSource too fast.
Perhaps it is better advocacy to start by getting people to try Open
Source systems on smaller, *new* projects and to 'backport' working
systems later?

Neil
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