The Ubuntu Experiment

[Gilles Gravier]

Dotan Cohen wrote:
> 2008/7/30 Gilles Gravier <gilles at gravier.org>:
>   
>> How much time do we have for a demo? This is more or less prioritized...
>>
>> - Ease of installation (we need to show "as good as, or better than
>> Vista", since in most cases, PCs' come with Vista, not Ubuntu)
>> - Live CD (Vista can't compete on that one)
>> - Sexy GUI (compiz - again "as good as, or better than Vista")
>> - Avant Windows Navigator (with bouncy icons a-la MacOS)
>> - OpenOffice.org (you get it directly as part of the OS... no
>> incremental purchase necessary)
>> - Evolution (I hate it, but people want to see something familiar to
>> Outlook / Outlook Express)
>> - Firefox/Thunderbird/Sunbird/Lightning suite (for those who have
>> already made the open source choice even on Windows)
>> - Java web applications (yeah... we've got that too)
>> - Flash web applications (yeah... we've got that too)
>> - Skype (yeah... we've got that too)
>> - Acrobat Reader (yeah... we've got that too)
>> - Stellarium (cool OpenGL astronomy software)
>> - GIMP / F-Prot with a digital camera (one of the things that has kept
>> Windows on my home PC for a long time)
>> - KDE Desktop Environment (with Ubuntu, you can actually completely
>> choose your desktop environment)
>> - Updates Manager (with Ubuntu, you get free updates to everything, OS,
>> security, applications, without cumbersome registration)
>> - If the person is a developer, show NetBeans (free, good, IDE) and GCC
>>
>> - AND ALL THAT FOR FREE (yes, at the end)
>>
>> Note that, since I work for Sun (hence the OpenOffice.org and Netbeans
>> plugs) I tend to follow a similar script when demoing OpenSolaris ... :)
>> (except for Avant Windows Navigator and Skype which I have not yet
>> managed to get to run on OSol - KDE is in the works).
>>
>> Gilles (also Gilles.Gravier at Sun.com)
>>
>>     
>
>
> Thanks for the ideas, Gilles. I suppose that I would limit the initial
> demonstration to five minutes, then an extended 15 minute demo if they
> are interested, with a full hour to sit down and have at it for those
> who want.
>
> But I disagree that we should demonstrate what Ubuntu has that they
> already have with Vista. That is not much reason to switch. We should
> show things that Vista doesn't have. For instance, with Mojave MS
> showed off the ability to easily stitch photos together in a panorama.
> What can Ubuntu do that Vista (or at least XP) cannot [easily] do?
>   
As I mentionned :
- Live CD
- Free updates (no registration)

By the way, panoramas in Windows are much better with professional tools 
like AutoPano (unfortunately unavailable on Linux)

OK... You can add :

- Zonefree DVD playing (with libdvdcss installed)
- No need for an antivirus
- In general the sheer quantity of similar functions that you get on 
Vista... but for free.

Keep in mind that most modern operating systems can mostly all do the 
same things... just in different ways (different costs, different GUIs, 
different constraints). So trying to show things that can't be done on 
Vista will :

1) Be hard
2) Lead to a pissing contest where Vista will likely win in "number of 
proprietary features not available on Linux"

Gilles.