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Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

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Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#21

Post by colonelxc »

freehunter wrote: post #9

Here's the big question on my mind: why can I not go on Amazon right now and buy an Ubuntu laptop? There is one I have seen (and I have searched for a while), where someone is reselling used laptops with Ubuntu installed. There are so many device makers out there trying to replicate the feel of a MacBook Pro with Windows. Seems like it would be easier with Ubuntu. The success of Apple sprang mostly from marketing and…

If you're looking for a Ubuntu preloaded laptop, you can take a look at System76 ( http://www.system76.com ). They only make Linux computers (laptop/desktop/server), though they don't sell through Amazon.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#22

Post by mappu »

nextparadigms wrote: post #2

About time. In many countries there are laptops that come with "FreeDos", which is rather pointless. If they aren't going to use Windows, why not just use a great Linux distro like Ubuntu? Sure Microsoft might not like that, but unless Microsoft is paying them to not allow Linux on their laptops (which I think would be illegal), then who cares?

There was a line of Thinkpads that you could buy with FreeDOS installed for a while. I think there was an understanding that everyone would replace the OS before even booting into FreeDOS once. Perhaps they didn't want to support an official distro?

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#23

Post by bad_user »

sk5t wrote: post #10

My honest first thought: hasn't Ubuntu's share of the Linux market been dropping since their introduction of the universally-reviled, highly unintuitive Unity UI? I tried out 12.04 a couple months ago, tried to use it for a few weeks, and very enthusiastically retreated back to CentOS.

Ubuntu has by far the biggest mind share. On HN it's the only distro I'm seeing in the news. On VPS hosting it is most of the time featured alongside Debian.

I hate Unity myself, but I've switched to Xubuntu. There's also Kubuntu, and even if these are supported by the community, they do a better job than most other distros.

Also don't be fooled by stats.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#24

Post by diminish »

glesica wrote: post #3

Doing deals with OEMs actually seems like a better strategy today than it was even just a few years ago when Canonical did their original deal with Dell. For one thing, Ubuntu has (for better or worse) made significant progress toward their UI vision. Unity has been polarizing, but many users (especially the "normal" people who are likely to buy an Inspiron or similar) seem to like it. Even more importantly, a signif…

I only using a web browser and emacs and don't care about polish much. 1) Canonical did a good thing by owning the UI with Unity; they should make it cooler, more beautiful with every release 2) They should focus on providing several high end, many low end models for developers, and experiment better with ARM based models, for example raspberry pi ubuntu 3) 6 months intervals seem to frequent now and maybe it would be better to shift to yearly releases. 4) the software center should be improved better and better.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#25

Post by pjmlp »

sk5t wrote: post #10

My honest first thought: hasn't Ubuntu's share of the Linux market been dropping since their introduction of the universally-reviled, highly unintuitive Unity UI? I tried out 12.04 a couple months ago, tried to use it for a few weeks, and very enthusiastically retreated back to CentOS.

I am a very happy Unity user.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#26

Post by pjmlp »

jrockway wrote: post #19
sukuriant wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give me some stats? I wouldn't expect a population to go and spend a lot of money on a CD to install Windows onto a marginally cheaper machine

My guess is that people will get their Windows install media from the same place they get their Blu-Ray rips.

But at least the sale counts as a Linux sale, which is positive.

I've also seen people that replace Mac OS X with Windows or Linux on their Apple laptops.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#27

Post by redthrowaway »

josefonseca wrote: post #15

The latest Ubuntu desktop is absolutely stunningly beautiful. The first time I saw it couldn't tell if it was an improved Windows 8 or some new release of Mac OS X. The fact is I think this may have a shot with the masses. If the latest rumors of EA being in talks with Ubuntu are true, then if massively successful games start appearing for the platform, it may well signify a turning point for desktop Linux. Here's ho…

>Here's hoping widespread desktop Linux finally becomes a reality.

If it did, it would be doing so on the downswing of the desktop as a platform.

People will still do work with traditional computers, but mobile looks set to replace them for entertainment and browsing.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#28

Post by fauigerzigerk »

I'm not sure it's a great idea to distribute Ubuntu too widely in its current state. It's not fit for end users. Yesterday I had to fix my third broken Ubuntu installation in a year or so and it's always for the same reason: Failed upgrades. Upgrades leaving the system in an unbootable state has to be an extremely rare event and it's not.

How can this be fixed? I think the entire package management system has to be based on a more robust transactional infrastructure. Unless the user confirms the success of an upgrade, the system has to be rolled back to its original state. If the system doesn't boot, it must boot straight into the old system version on the next reboot.

Upgrades should not be something that anyone hesitates to do, but I know Ubuntu users who'd rather install new software on a separate computer instead of upgrading the fragile Ubuntu installation. The close coupling of application versions to OS versions is the main reason for that. The sources.list concept is just too complicated for most people.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#29

Post by fierarul »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #28

I'm not sure it's a great idea to distribute Ubuntu too widely in its current state. It's not fit for end users. Yesterday I had to fix my third broken Ubuntu installation in a year or so and it's always for the same reason: Failed upgrades. Upgrades leaving the system in an unbootable state has to be an extremely rare event and it's not. How can this be fixed? I think the entire package management system has to be b…

I think we easily forget just how broken the rest of the OS were. If I evaluate Linux as if I am a few years back in time, I don't mind the lack of good QA.

I've also broken an install because I tried an upgrade and there wasn't enough free space.

But that doesn't mean Ubuntu isn't fit for end users. My mother and my sister are running Ubuntu on their laptops and do just fine. And they are in no way technical: they just use the OS for their needs, be it browsing, music, movie playback, photo management, etc. I was actually surprised when I went at a small barbecue for my sister's birthday and she had brought her laptop and was playing CDs some friends brought with music. There was no friction -- the laptop just did its job, just as it would have been with any other OS.

You do have a point though: upgrades should be transactional and I'm surprised there is no way to rollback a failed upgrade. I'm actually postponing upgrading them to 12.04 because I don't want to risk breaking the current setup they have and give myself extra work for nothing. I've decided to only apply the security updates for now and switch to 12.04 when end-of-life is reached for their current version.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#30

Post by fierarul »

colonelxc wrote: post #21
freehunter wrote: post #9

Here's the big question on my mind: why can I not go on Amazon right now and buy an Ubuntu laptop? There is one I have seen (and I have searched for a while), where someone is reselling used laptops with Ubuntu installed. There are so many device makers out there trying to replicate the feel of a MacBook Pro with Windows. Seems like it would be easier with Ubuntu. The success of Apple sprang mostly from marketing and…

If you're looking for a Ubuntu preloaded laptop, you can take a look at System76 ( http://www.system76.com ). They only make Linux computers (laptop/desktop/server), though they don't sell through Amazon.

The thing about Amazon is that they sell almost worldwide and they also have customer support.

I wouldn't want to buy a System76 laptop in Romania and ship it back to the States if it needs service under the warranty.

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