Ubuntu 8.04 Is Ready to Take On Windows

Avi Greenbury avismailinglistaccount at googlemail.com
Fri May 2 13:20:52 UTC 2008


On Fri, 02 May 2008 08:53:29 -0400
John Toliver <john.toliver at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> as with most, I'm stretched in too man directions as it stands but it's
> on the todo list if someone doesn't beat me to it :-)
> 

tldp.org seems to have a similar aim as yourself, and I'm sure there are other documentation projects out there.

<snip>

> 
> > 
> > > *One area I think would really set Ubuntu ABOVE Windows, is if ALL the
> > > necessary tools to repair most problems with an OS were included on the
> > > CD/DVD.
> > 
> > They generally are. What're you finding yourself missing? 
> > If they're not, there are free full recovery CDs.
> 
> OK I concede, I'm still working on the recovery aspect.... but at this
> point, can I stick my original Hardy CD in and recover from most system
> problems I can run into?
> 

Pretty much.
You have a shell, you have text editors. You can reverse any configuration-based problem.
You can also reinstall grub from the LiveCD, as I recall.

You're missing things like data recovery software, partitioners and the like, but that can all be installed onto the LiveCD if you have a network connection and the ram.
<snip>

> > 
> > > But emphasis shouldn't really be on compiz, or any of the "bling" yet.
> > > It should be on making the core functionality rock solid.  It should
> > > take a computer science major to break it,
> > 
> > No. I completely and utterly disagree with that. When breaking something, it should be made obvious that you're breaking something. People in general should be made more aware of the inner workings of computers, computers shouldn't be made stupid.
> 
> Here in is I think a perfect example of the difference between the user
> of a Linux, and a windows user. 
> <snip>
> 				I understand the conflict in what I'm
> saying but on one hand you have to protect those users from themselves,
> but on the other, you need to teach them how an OS is built (IF they
> care to learn)
> 

If you're the kind of user who doesn't care how it works, and would rather it was difficult to break, you're probably more likely to have someone else doing your IT for you. In which case, you use the system as an unprivileged user. Those don't exist in Windows.
If you're the kind of person who likes tweaking things but doesn't know what they're doing, you're going to break whatever you're given.

> I am still discovering many of these niceties, but I think, before we
> start think about incredible graphics and "the cube", we need to
> stabilize the forward steps being made. (I'm just bitter because my
> laptop can't handle compiz ;-)
> 

I keep discovering that mine can. I accidentally hit <start>+<tab> the other day and thought I'd broken something...

> > 
> > The biggest thing that Linux is missing, IMO, is a proper Exchange rival. But one-big-app-that-does-everything just isn't the nix way.
> 
> Now here in, I'm at a loss.  I've no need of the collaboration tools exchange brings.  I hated it the first and only time I tried to install it personally, but what would you say is the problem with it?
> 

Problem with what?

Where I work, we're entirely MS. Everyone uses windows because only Windows runs Outlook. Everyone uses Outlook because only Outlook does Exchange reliably. We use Exchange because it's _everything_ in one package with a nice GUI.
I've tried pushing the idea of *nix but there's little point in trying to migrate any of Exchange's duties onto anything else - it integrates too well and does exactly what we want it to.

-- 
Avi Greenbury




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