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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

#31

Post by fierarul »

joejohnson wrote: post #12

...when I talk with OEMs and others about Linux pre-loads, I commonly [sic] here a "significant percentage" of these Linux pre-loaded systems usually get wiped by their customers and replaced with pirated copies of Windows -- especially in the Asian markets, where customers are just going after the Linux PCs due to the lower sales cost. Can anyone confirm this?

In Romania it's common practice to sell cheaper laptops running FreeDOS or some Linux (say, Acer with Linpus) with the expectation that people are just going to wipe it and install a pirated Windows on it.

If you look at the online review for them, the first remark people have is about how Windows drivers are hard to find. Or they ask about the Windows score.

I once called the Samsung hotline asking about Linux support for a laptop they were selling with FreeDOS and the answer was that they only collaborate with Microsoft.

Otoh, it is actually quite hard to find a laptop that's Linux certified. We bought a HP ProBook just because it was certified although it came with Suse.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#32

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

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…

If they are doing deals with OEMs, they can fix it by being the Apple of Linux distros.

You can still install it on your own machine, but as far as official support goes, you're on your own.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#33

Post by gouranga »

I don't believe the figures until after they've been sold. The demand for Ubuntu is pretty much non-existent outside the technology enthusiast arena. Ubuntu is just not as polished as Windows either.

OEMs also know there's an easy way out if they don't sell - chuck windows on them and shift them out through clearance sales.

This is all marketoid speil from their marketing VP at the moment.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#34

Post by b0rsuk »

fierarul wrote: post #29
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 j…

Debian upgrades never break for me.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#35

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

w1ntermute wrote: post #6

> Canonical will be opening their first Beijing office this year > At more than 200 Dell stores in China, there is Ubuntu branding present and Dell China employees knowledgeable about Ubuntu Linux. One of the things I noticed when I went to download Precise Pangolin is that there's a "Chinese Ubuntu" link featured prominently at the bottom of the page[0]. It looks like they've made China a primary target market, sinc…

Perhaps Canonical will finally liberate the world from IE6...

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#36

Post by fierarul »

b0rsuk wrote: post #34
fierarul wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 j…

Debian upgrades never break for me.

So if I upgrade, for example, on a disk with low disk space it magically rolls back?

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#37

Post by archangel_one »

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…

Canonical may not see Ubuntu as having the luxury of waiting until everyone on the internet deems it's "fit for end users", because their competitors haven't. Microsoft never waited until DOS or Windows were perfected, they just released them once they thought they were adequate, and the standard advice there forever has been to do a full reinstall of the system rather than an in-place upgrade.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#38

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

archangel_one wrote: post #37
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…

Canonical may not see Ubuntu as having the luxury of waiting until everyone on the internet deems it's "fit for end users", because their competitors haven't. Microsoft never waited until DOS or Windows were perfected, they just released them once they thought they were adequate, and the standard advice there forever has been to do a full reinstall of the system rather than an in-place upgrade.

"Microsoft never waited until DOS or Windows were perfected, they just released them once they thought they were adequate"

NEVER WAITED??? I bet you were too young to remember those days because Micorsoft(Bill Gates) promised Windows(3.11) like 6 years before it was ready. Windows was coming "soon", and "soon" and "soon", for years.

And better we don't talk about DOS. DRDOS was much better than MSDOS, but MS made windows over DRDOS so they had not to compete on technical merits.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#39

Post by RyanMcGreal »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #38
archangel_one wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canonical may not see Ubuntu as having the luxury of waiting until everyone on the internet deems it's "fit for end users", because their competitors haven't. Microsoft never waited until DOS or Windows were perfected, they just released them once they thought they were adequate, and the standard advice there forever has been to do a full reinstall of the system rather than an in-place upgrade.

"Microsoft never waited until DOS or Windows were perfected, they just released them once they thought they were adequate" NEVER WAITED??? I bet you were too young to remember those days because Micorsoft(Bill Gates) promised Windows(3.11) like 6 years before it was ready. Windows was coming "soon", and "soon" and "soon", for years. And better we don't talk about DOS. DRDOS was much better than MSDOS, but MS made win…

I think you miss the grandparent's point: when DOS first came out, it only supported 8 character file names and didn't support directories.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#40

Post by Lednakashim »

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…

Fact: normal people invested significant time learning MS Windows. They will not be happy about the loss of productivity involved in switching GUIs.
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