Ubuntu is supposed to be a very user friendly distro. I guess the real test, as far as I was concerned, was to see how my wife (a computer neophyte) and my 6 year old son would do. My wife just sat down, opened FireFox and went to Ebay without noticing she wasn’t in Windows. Read the full review at GUILinux.com.
ubuntu!
i run ubuntu on vmware and it works flawlessly. i’ve tried almost every linux disto, but this is the one that i enjoy the most.
I enjoyed this review. I can’t wait till Hoary comes out (I’m using it now), because the problems this guy had would be solved as far as I can tell (save for DVD support and other legal issues).
So this guys wife that uses only IE was able to use only Firefox on Linux. Wow, someone alert the media.
I am running Ubuntu 4.10, also, have your wife come over to my place to get my Dell sound blaster 5.1 working, and my ATI 9700 Pro so I can get more than 3 frames per second in Tux Racer.
His wife didn’t realize that she wasn’t on Windows, when the menu is on the top edge of the screen instead of the bottom, the background says “Ubuntu”, the widgets look different, and icon is in a different place?
BS
This can only be true if his wife had never used windows before.
I’m using Hoary and I think it is not that different from Warty. People need to calm down and stop the hyping of Ubuntu. It is actually just ordinary distro – although with clever developers, I must say.
Hoary still has sound problems. Polypaudio is buggy and I get no sounds at login. Windows SMB browsing with Nautilus hasn’t worked for months. However, Gnome seems just a bit snappier than in Warty.
Faster boot was one of the goals for Hoary but it is still slower than Windows XP.
*Reenacts conversation
Background: Phone call, needs help installing a driver.
Ok, what operating system are you running?
—
DELL!
Face it, some users are clueless.
> Ok, what operating system are you running?
Most Support Services I know don’t ask what operating system you are running. They usually start telling you to right click on ‘My Computer’.
We also support Mac. I guess we could say “are you running a PC or a Mac”, but is that really any better?
Sorry I should have mentioned that the customer didnt say that it was a driver problem, he just said he couldnt get his network connection to work.
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 11:19:21 EST
From: [email protected] (John J. McLaughlin-SunFlash Editor)
To: [email protected]
Subject: SunFlash: Why UNIX Will Win on the Desktop
———————————————————————- ——
The Florida SunFlash
Why UNIX Will Win on the Desktop
SunFLASH Vol 25 #17 January 1991
———————————————————————- ——
This is an article by Dr. Eric E. Schmidt. It is reproduced with
permission. -johnj
Dr. Eric E. Schmidt is vice president, General Systems Group, at Sun
Microsystems, Inc. , Mountain View, Calif.
———————————————————————- ———-
Why UNIX Will Win on the Desktop
By Dr. Eric E. Schmidt
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
It’s trendy to say that the line between PCs and workstations is
blurring. The real truth is that UNIX-based systems are taking over,
and by the end of the 1990s, the market will clearly distinguish
between two types of desktop computers: machines that run DOS and
machines that run UNIX. DOS machines will be purchased primarily as
single-user systems for stand-alone applications. And in the long run,
the only single-user machines the only DOS machines will be in people’s
homes.
Why is this? Because the power of distributed, networked computing is
effecting a profound change on corporations. The fact is that humans
are inherently networked: we inherently need to commmunicate with each
other. Anyone that has networked application needs will turn to
UNIX-based solutions, because UNIX is the only multi-tasking,
multi-user, multi-vendor operating system available today. That’s what
makes it the only choice for the next generation of distributed
applications. That’s why UNIX will win. It’s the closest thing the
industry has to a pure open standard. Because AT&T Bell Labs made it
available in source form in the 1970s, nearly all systems companies
either base themselves on UNIX or offer a form of it, including major
players such as IBM, Apple, Intel, HP, Sun, DEC, Olivetti, Fujitsu and
Unisys.
UNIX is available on all PCs today in one form or another. Within five
years, all high-end ‘386 and ‘486 PCs will be running UNIX with DOS
emulation. Gradually, the final “dumb terminal” applications will
disappear when this occurs the death knell of the minicomputer. And
mainframes? They aren’t going away: they’ll become servers. We’ll just
stop using them with dumb terminals.
The other operating system in contention (more or less) is OS/2. While
OS/2 provides multi-tasking, it’s still a single-user operating system.
It will have some following because of the existing installed base of
DOS applications. However, users are looking for open solutions and
OS/2 isn’t open. Particularly since IBM recently took back primary
control over it. The resulting perception of OS/2 as a proprietary
solution will stunt its growth and limit it to the derivative market of
DOS applications.
Besides pointing to the “threat” of OS/2, UNIX foes have brought up
other arguments. But they just aren’t valid anymore. For example:
Myth: The UNIX market is splintered.
Fact: we’re down to two choices: UNIX System V Release 4 and OSF/1.
All the major computer companies have endorsed one or the
other. OSF/1’s sponsors say that it will be interoperable with
SVR4, giving us as close to a single standard as possible
without having a monopoly.
Myth: There aren’t any UNIX applications.
Fact: the leading PC software applications Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect,
dBase, Ventura Publisher are ported or are in the process of
being ported to UNIX. The combination of these applications and
new distribution mechanisms based on CD-ROM will initiate an
explosion in UNIX use by former DOS users. CD-ROM is
inexpensive, easy to use and stores up to 644 megabytes of
information, making it a much more effective software
distribution medium than floppy disks.
Myth: UNIX is hard to use.
Fact: Sun and other companies have created graphical user interfaces
like OPEN LOOK that conceal the complexity of UNIX, making it
easier to install and use. DOS, of course, has been easier to
use because it doesn’t do much. There’s no functionality, so
it’s not complicated.
Myth: UNIX will always be outdistanced by Macintosh OS and DOS.
Fact: Although they currently have a larger market share, UNIX is
catching up. According to UNIX International, UNIX has more
than 10 million users worldwide as well as the highest growth
rate. There will surely be more than a million SPARC/UNIX seats
alone within the next few years, translating to more market
opportunity for software developers and more innovative
solutions for end users.
Myth: UNIX systems are too expensive.
Fact: A comparably equipped high-end PC now costs more than a Sun
SPARCstation, which unlike a PC comes standard with such useful
features as Ethernet connection, large memory and a monitor.
And the cost of UNIX systems will continue to drop. UNIX is
synonymous with “open,” which is one reason why UNIX and the
accompanying open systems movement are revolutionizing the
computer industry. The amazing events of the past year, with
long-time proprietary vendors being pushed onto the open
systems bandwagon, will only ensure UNIX’s ascendancy.
The guy doing the review put Ubuntu on a new machine, for all his wife knew it was just different because it was new. And if you had read the review you would also have noticed that he added shortcut icons to the desktop and changed the background so the background did NOT say “Ubuntu”.
I am a Redhat/Fedora guy but I could get anybody up and running on it quickly. The same is true for all of the distributions. Linux is ready on the desktop.
Your right, it’s on my desktop.
Typical sugar coated review full of BS. And come on, is he really saying his wife did not notice that Ubuntu looks differently from Windows?!
why is it that whenever an author of an article or review wants to make the point that even the most dumb, illiterate or incapable person can use system X, that person must be female. a girlfriend or wife, a mother or a grandmother?
are the female of the species really the last hurdle in the testing process?
i am lucky in that i work for an organisation which is very good at employing women. about a third of our technical staff is female – that includes programmers, IT project managers, core network designers and engineers, … we even have male receptionists!
True.LOL
Peace
Why is it all reviews of Linux distros seem to dwell on the install? Do they really feel that it’s the installation process holding back the masses?
I don’t care how easy it is to install, I want to know how well it works. Is the GUI responsive? Are the interfaces created logically? Can a paste a spreadsheet into a document? Drag a file onto an application? etc. That’s what should be focused on in these reviews.
And the reason why children and grandparents are used as test subjects is because they are simple users. Give them a web browser and an email client and they are happy. It’s the power user that is picky when things aren’t quite the way they like it. As well I’ve met many users who don’t realise the different versions of Windows out there (95,98,NT4,Me,2000,XP). To them, they all look the same, therefore they are the same.
Great…another Mobootoo article. We haven’t had one for the last 15 mintues.
It should be pointed out that all those things you list are themselves superficial, since they’re all perceptions of usability. If you want a deep review, it would have to cover things like package manager upgrade schemes, config file quality and clarity, filesystem hierarchy, and cleanliness of source for any distro specific tools. So are you looking for less superficiality, or just a broader, more even look at the user experience?
As for installers being the focus of many reviews, why not? It’s the double edged sword that can make or break a distribution. Double edged because a new user will be lost with the complexities an enthusiast demands. A novice would be perfectly happy with, and best suited by an installer which does little more than autopartition and install a set of preconfigured, best of breed apps. Me? I want the leanest of base systems which I configure and build upon myself. So the installer can be very telling about both a distribution’s goals and it’s failures.
What I don’t like is that most reviews and articles tend to forget about everything after that install, which is where I probably agree with you.
I was turned off by the distro’s overt politcal correctness. Religion, race, and politics should be left out of a distro.
My wife just sat down, opened FireFox and went to Ebay without noticing she wasn’t in Windows.
Well, my girlfriend sat down before my FreeBSD machine, double clicked the firefox icon on the desktop, and went on to check her email. Does that mean that … well, what? That FreeBSD is teh userfriendly? Or fluxbox is user-friendly? (because it was running fluxbox with idesk).
I’m the last one to complain that I am tired of something … afterall, no one forces me to read these … but still, isn’t Ubuntu a bit overhyped by now? Is there a policy to this, or is everything accepted? Let’s say, one review of the same OS/week sounds reasonable to me, but his?
why is it that whenever an author of an article or review wants to make the point that even the most dumb, illiterate or incapable person can use system X, that person must be female. a girlfriend or wife, a mother or a grandmother?
are the female of the species really the last hurdle in the testing process?
Very good point – and even I came up with my girlfriend… for what reason? Well, it actually happened that way – but she did not seem in any way less capable of finding her way around in a new OS than any of my friends. When we speak of absolute n00bs to computers, I saw no difference between trying to explain things to man or women – or if I did, that was in favour of women, perhaps because men seemed to assume much faster that they understand what I’m talking about only to come back later complaining about things not working…
Uhhh…. I sit here typing this on an ati 9700 with ATI binary 3d drivers, listening to music on my sound blaster live 5.1. Both of these are pretty well supported, and ubuntu makes it a snap to install the ATi drivers, where it’s a pain on other distros. try apt-cache search fglrx for the ati drivers. As for the sound blaster, if it really is an SBlive, the emu10k module should work fine.
Typical sugar coated review full of BS. And come on, is he really saying his wife did not notice that Ubuntu looks differently from Windows?!
I completely believe it. My dad can no longer tell the difference between KDE 3.3.0 and Windows XP. Though I did not tell him to find the differences, because he probably could have discovered it was KDE soon enough; but it wasnt apparent at first glance.
opened FireFox and went to Ebay without noticing she wasn’t in Windows.”
You must be kidding me, mate! I don’t think your wife is so stupid as not to realize the diference between Xp and Ubuntu.
Seriously guys…
“Summary: Ubuntu is supposed to be a very user friendly distro. I guess the real test, as far as I was concerned, was to see how my wife (a computer neophyte) and my 6 year old son would do. My wife just sat down, opened FireFox and went to Ebay without noticing she wasn’t in Windows. ”
To some people, end users, they might not notice. But how is this:
Good wife:
“O’oooo that husband of mine… Playing with the PC again. I best not say anything.”
Bad wife:
Hey, the wife could have been really good about that. Or she could of said:
“O’what now!! What has he done to the computer!!!” Insert various rants.
Its possible but not likely for the first situation to occur.
So, lets all play nice.
“opened FireFox and went to Ebay without noticing she wasn’t in Windows”
just yesterday, i was at a small party, in a flat, together with around 20 people. i took my notebook with me, connected it to the stereo and it played music the whole night.
out of those 20 guests, at least 12 looked at my ubuntu-desktop. i explained rhythmbox to about half of these people, the other ones just used it right away. also, i had gthumb running and put the photos i took on the notebook. some people also looked at those photos.
one person asked me if this was a mac, one person said that this “looked strange”, the other 10 either didn’t care what it was or didn’t bother to ask. i don’t recall anyone having problems using my notebook.
that kind of surprised me, but i’d say, people aren’t that dumb or windows-focussed as one might guess…
regards,
christian
“are the female of the species really the last hurdle in the testing process?”
No, most of them are just not stupid enough to dedicate their life to tinker with stuff that doesn’t work out of the box and being proud of it.
Too bad more developers arenät women, that’d improve most user experiences.
Isn’t a desire to tinker with non-working things a prerequisite for being a developer?
So what you’re saying is that you wish women were stupider…
Infact yesterday I installed Debian on a secondary computer, installed firefox and I used my grandmother as a tester. Unfortunately she was not able to double click on the firefox icon and navigate in internet.
So I cleared my hard disk I installed ubuntu and now my grandmother is happily surfing on internet and reading mail!!!!!
Thanks ubuntu! You let us doing things we cannot do before!!!!!!!
Your fud is really old. Let’s cover a few points about predicting the future. I would love to hear you predictions on the desktop market. This predition is 15 years old. Alot has changed and a lot of Unix philo. has been adopted.
“It’s trendy to say that the line between PCs and workstations is blurring. The real truth is that UNIX-based systems are taking over, and by the end of the 1990s, the market will clearly distinguish between two types of desktop computers: machines that run DOS and machines that run UNIX. DOS machines will be purchased primarily as single-user systems for stand-alone applications. And in the long run,
the only single-user machines the only DOS machines will be in people’s homes. ”
Well, yes, until various companies like Apple and MS turned their systems into multiuser systems. Gee, kind of a unix philosphy there. But he was right, there was a change to the mult-user concept: OS X, w2k, xp. Give some props.
“The other operating system in contention (more or less) is OS/2. While OS/2 provides multi-tasking, it’s still a single-user operating system. It will have some following because of the existing installed base of DOS applications. However, users are looking for open solutions and OS/2 isn’t open. Particularly since IBM recently took back primary
control over it. The resulting perception of OS/2 as a proprietary solution will stunt its growth and limit it to the derivative market of DOS applications. ”
OS2 a great OS but sadly, IBM never got it to come to fruition. Also MS had its had in playing with interoperability issues. But, guess what, Dr. Eric E. Schmidt was right. OS2 never took off.
“Myth: The UNIX market is splintered.
Fact: we’re down to two choices: UNIX System V Release 4 and OSF/1. All the major computer companies have endorsed one or the other. OSF/1’s sponsors say that it will be interoperable with SVR4, giving us as close to a single standard as possible without having a monopoly. ”
To an extent it is correct, it is splintered. Well, thats because their are several makers of Unix. However, look at the auto industry, it is also splintered. I have a GM car and I cannot use Chrylser parts. I guess the auto industry is on its last legs.
“Myth: UNIX is hard to use.
Fact: Sun and other companies have created graphical user interfaces like OPEN LOOK that conceal the complexity of UNIX, making it easier to install and use. DOS, of course, has been easier to use because it doesn’t do much. There’s no functionality, so it’s not complicated. ”
I guess to prove that he is correct: Unix is actually easy to use. Three letters: OS X. Guess he is right on target.
“Myth: UNIX will always be outdistanced by Macintosh OS and DOS.
Fact: Although they currently have a larger market share, UNIX is catching up. According to UNIX International, UNIX has more than 10 million users worldwide as well as the highest growth rate.”
I have seen some OS studies that report that there are 20 million Linux users alone. Apple has 2-3 percent of the PC market. Now how users are in the market 400-800 million. At 2 percent, that is a huge chunk. Now add in the Linux, BSD and Solaris users. Looks like the numbers are growing.
“Myth: UNIX systems are too expensive.
Fact: A comparably equipped high-end PC now costs more than a Sun SPARCstation, which unlike a PC comes standard with such useful features as Ethernet connection, large memory and a monitor. And the cost of UNIX systems will continue to drop. UNIX is synonymous with “open,” which is one reason why UNIX and the accompanying open systems movement are evolutionizing the computer industry. ”
*nix like systems aren’t that expensive. Most PC’s will run Linux/BSD or so forth.
Not bad for a 15 year prediction, he was right on several point, not all but several. Dr. Eric E. Schmidt never predicitied that MS nor Apple would go multi-user. True there are several other OS’ that were multi-user, potentially before unix.
_____________________________________________________________
Now Octavian Belafonte, what are your predictions? Dr. Eric Schmidt PHD has done an impressive job. You have done some impressive cutting and pasting. Please share your enlightenment with the mass’.
1. They made it very hard to install mplayer. I followed the guides on the internet to try and figure it out, but none of them worked for me. I personally think this is on par with shooting yourself in your own foot.
2. It didn’t ask me before blowing away my pre-existing boot loader. Maybe I didn’t want grub?
Ubuntu looked like a pretty awesome distro, but the whole “jump through hoops to get media players” is silly. I don’t care what their ideals on open vs proprietary codecs are — let the end user make that decision on their own.
So I’m back on FreeBSD now.
1. They made it very hard to install mplayer. I followed the guides on the internet to try and figure it out, but none of them worked for me. I personally think this is on par with shooting yourself in your own foot.
I agree. Installing mplayer is a pain. However, totem-xine is quite usable also and is easier to install: ‘apt-get install totem-xine w32codecs’
Ubuntu had only one release! It’s perfectly normal everything isn’t working right from start. Also, we DON’T need reviews saying someone didn’t notice it wasn’t windows, we wan’t to know how well something worked on someone comp…
For myself, Ubuntu does well the job. I haven’t tried everything, but I am able to listen to music through XMMS, use OOo, go on the web and play games. Thus, I am satisfacted.
I have a spare PC in the living room for when people come over. My personal computer is in my room and I’d rather not have people going in there just to “check their email”. It ususally runs a customized version of Windows XP. People use it just fine. Sometimes they ask where an application is, but other wise I just end up cleaning off the random applications they install after they’re gone.
I’ve also installed Ubuntu on there just to see how people liked it. As far as I noticed from people coming over it was about the same thing as on the tweaked windows I was running – “Whats this”, “Where is IE”, “Oh ok”. The only real difference was that no one really installed those random applications they needed at the moment. I think it was because they didn’t know how to install programs or didn’t know of the Ubuntu-equivalent application. However they still used the computer just fine.
I’ve run a few other experiments and made a few surprising discoveries:
For instance yesterday, rather than going to a grocery store called Publix we went to a Win Dixie. The test subject, my sister, seemed non-plused and still managed to find the milk, bread, and produce sections. Not once did she even show any uncertaintly piloting the Win Dixie shopping cart. Therefore I think Win Dixie is a safe substitution for Publix as well.
There was another preliminary test I performed using my dog. She has a clay water bowl with her name on it. Its a decent water bowl and has a pretty good user interface. However I wanted to see if should could adapt to another water bowl in case she ever had to. So I grabbed another random bowl from the cabinet and taped on a white piece of paper saying “KDE”. Oddly enough my dog had no problems drinking water from this bowl either.
So I’ve come to the conclusion that if someone needs to get something done, they’ll find a way to do it with the tools at hand. However these tests really have no intrinsic link to finding what a person’s “tool of choice” will be.
Now Octavian Belafonte, what are your predictions? Dr. Eric Schmidt PHD has done an impressive job. You have done some impressive cutting and pasting. Please share your enlightenment with the mass’.
What are my predictions? I predict that 15 years from now there will be neo-dingbats re-hashing the same tired arguments over and over again. Only this time it will be how GNU VoiceRecognition or GNU HolographicGUI is poised to take over all home users’ computers. They’ll say that everyone will take full advantage if UNIX’s “open systems” philosophy. They’ll wrongly take credit for today’s computer innovations (like the way you are crediting UNIX with the concept of multi-user systems). They’ll point to the 4-5% market share and make some vague un-testable statements on how it is ready to take off “any day now”.
It’s clear that you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about, missed the whole point of my post, and are floundering way out of your depth. Why don’t you put your UNIX manual down, and take some time to learn some history. UNIX did *not* invent multi-user systems. UNIX did *not* invent computer networking. UNIX did *not* invent the Internet.
Well, the first multiuser OS was CTSS, on which MULTICS was closely based. Then UNICS, an early single user version of UNIX was quite similar to and heavily based upon the experiences of MULTICS. When UNICS was made multiuser it was renamed UNIX. So no, it wasn’t the first, but it was close, and based upon those that were.
And you’re right, UNIX engineers didn’t invent networks either, they’d been around in some form since radar networks in the 40’s, I believe. But in 1969 the first major computer network was created by ARPANET. Again, this was right around the time that UNIX was in early development, so while they didn’t invent it, they were involved as they were writing the first highly portable operating system right at this time when so many exciting things were happening.
Nobody invented the internet, it just sort of occured out of universal necessity and interest as networking technology became capable. But it surely wouldn’t exist as it does today if it weren’t for UNIX, and VMS too I imagine.
I must agree with some of these posts. My mother, whom was afraid to insert a CD without me there, nearly went ballistic when I changed her browser from IE to Firefox. The same thing happened with MS Office to Open Office.
I even tried to make everything look like thier MS counterparts, but my mother still knew the difference.
I think it might have been the splash-screens.
Well, she’s back on IE and MS Office (my brother re-installed it for her) and now she’s complaining about how slow they are.
Some people are never happy.
BTW. I’m a Ubuntu user. This distro makes me proud to be South African.
I decided to give Ubuntu a try this weekend. (I’ve tried Slack, Mandrake, SuSE, Linspire, RH/Fedora, Lycoris, etc. — all with mostly troublesome results.)
Ubuntu puts them all to shame. Installation was a breeze (detected everything, including my wireless mouse/keyboard); installing the nvidia graphics driver was easy, once i found the instructions on the Ubuntu site; software installation is painless (synaptic).
I like Ubuntu. Easy to use, fast and stable.
Finally, a linux distro I can live with.
//So what you’re saying is that you wish women were stupider..//
Or at least “more stupid.”
no matter how hard you try to say linux is as easy, it’s not.
Windows has all sorts of apps that install an exe into a folder and you can simply click and open it. Most linux apps come in rpms that install in some weird place in the system (does not create shortcuts) and tarballs. software packaging like rpms are also not that common as tars.
Also, the toolbars don’t move around as easy like they do in IE and windows. I like the way i can hold down the mouse and drag toolbars. If linux had that I would deffinately switch for good since I’m already experienced in it and support it clearly.
Odd how the most simple strange things can change peoples minds about something, eh?
Well, I installed Firefox, Thunderbird, and OO.o on my parent’s computer and they don’t have any problems beyond a few initial transition issues, but that was all just learning the new software. It took some convincing with my dad, since Firefox remembered some form information despite disabling that feature. All I had to do was show him the Spybot logs and he was convinced.
Now they’re starting to hassle me about switching them to Linux. First I have to build them a new rig, since some Dell parts aren’t playing nice, but I’m torn between Ubuntu, Libranet, or a custom Arch install. I’m also considering Zen.
I have to disagree, once you understand the filesystem hierarchy it makes much more sense in Linux. Instead of having a single, decentralized folder with an app, rarely having any common structure; you have a constant, centralized structure for all apps. You get systemwide configs in /etc, executables in /bin or /sbin (or with the /usr or /usr/local prefix, depending on the level of distro integration), libraries go in /llb and /usr/lib, logs in /var/log, shared resources get stowed in /usr/share, and user specific configs go in ~/ as a dotfile.
I’ll admit, it tooks some getting used to, but now that I am, I’d never go back. It keeps things so simple because I always know where to look, and I finally feel like I’m in control of my filesystem. That’s one of the major things that first drove me from Windows, having to have an extra prefix and not being able to integrate into Windows’ own filestructure. Their VFS is getting better, but it still get’s in the way unless you use your computer exactly as they intended. Hiding many more directories by default and having quick access to the ‘show hidden’ option would do wonders.
still us users that compile apps from source and CVS will be way beyond the binary Osers