I've been using Ubuntu as my primary Operating System for six months (after maintaining dual-boot function for six months prior to that). And I participate in the pre-release (development) versions and feedback.
I think Ubuntu is really a breath of fresh air in terms of robustness, non-viral, free, expandable, no-built-in-redundancy software.
The commercial OS approach is to give you a product that the supplier will intentionally let get out of date - otherwise why would you bother purchasing their new product in a few years. But because Ubuntu is free, there is no need to dupe users in this way. Instead, your weekly updates really bring you the best from all of the diverse teams who are supporting the various open source software. You get full M$ Office functionality for free in OpenOffice. And when you want to try adding Photoshop-like functionality, you simply use a pull-down to install Scribus, and when you want to do text layout (a la Illustrator), you simply use a pull-down to install Inkscape, when you are ready for CAD, you simply try QCaD... With a proprietary approach, each such decision could cost you $300-900+, but with Linux, each is free, yet fully-functional and auto-updating.
This is an ideal platform for schools. The Guest account is DESIGNED to prevent the thing that causes most grief in schools, kiosks etc - average users messing with system setup files they should not be touching.
Portugal is rolling out 500,000 school laptops based on Linux, and Brazil 1,000,000 laptops based on Linux... while in Oz we argue between Feds and States on who will pay for all the licensing and support. With Linux, there is no individual backup/restore, you can just use a single 'disk image', as there are no licensing numbers etc particular to that PC... plus the OS is simply designed to allow use without abuse.
I beg to differ for a few of the points above, and a very neat email address - you must be the only professor in Harvard - but I digress.
I wonder if anyone actually likes the default Ubuntu colour scheme - to me, it feels dated and old. The two colours just clash, and it hasn't changed since at least Edgy I think.
I know you can change it to whatever you want, download new themes etc., but most people will judge it on first glances.
For the same reason some people think Windows 7 is Windows Vista R2, Ubuntu 8.10 still feels like Ubuntu 5.x R4 or whatever from first glances.
Can we please have a new lick of paint by default, or at the very least a nicer, brighter shade of grey? Oh, and new fonts too - the default GNOME font just doesn't look right, in the same way that Helvetica on OSX and Segoe in Vista does.
Here here! To me, Ubuntu looks out of date and as for the brown desktop!!! I applaud the ethos of this Linux distro but if it is to succeed in the developed world it has to look a lot more sophisticated than it currently does.
I completely agree that the free (non-proprietary) fonts are one area where Linux is a bit restricted.
In Linux, download "msttcorefonts" for compatibility. And when you change from Windows, or set-up dual-boot, one ought also copy the full range of fonts (including any you've downloaded etc) from your Windows volume to your Linux volume, so your documents look EXACTLY the same.
The two one-line commands is to use 'SuperUser DO' (sudo) to do the 'CoPy' (cp) followed by the WinXP source and the target directory (the respective Fonts directory for Linux). Only the True Type Fonts (*.ttf) need be copied.:
sudo cp /media/LaptopXP/WINDOWS/Fonts/*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice/
and
sudo cp /media/LaptopXP/WINDOWS/Fonts/*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/
[NB: The first ensures the fonts are in the OpenOffice list, while the second target is the general system fonts. Note that in above "LaptopXP" is the Windows volume name of my WinXP volume, and you'd need to insert whatever name was your own C: drive volume name there.]
And for those that don't like a terminal session, you can use the filer to locate those directories and copy the files if superuser... but by specifying the exact text you type in, it is actually easier for users to achieve the right result.
Of course if we teach our school kids with Open Source, they will have all their documents in the non-proprietary fonts, so we won't have the licensing issues of migrating M$ fonts to Linux etc.
I actually agree.
But the difference is that people are made to pay for Vista (which is an incomplete product) and then pay for its update R2 (i.e. Windows 7).
I can deal with dodgy colours (which I can actually change - tried to do it again in Vista - I still hate the "customise" option in that), given that I'm not paying Ubuntu to fix mistakes (of which there are far less) and the OS is complete from the outset, with minor updates (not major updates taking 2 years to finalise).
ubuntu is open source and most of the work including designing what the next release of the os will look like is done by the people who use it guys like you and me
so if you don't like the color scheme, instead of sitting behind your computer complaining about it, do something about it and join the Artwork Team at ubuntu design a better one
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See http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/alpha1
It helps to have the right topic... I guess its safe to say you personally haven't tried it yet? :P
In other news, Canonical is letting us brainstorm ideas on brainstorm.ubuntu.com, so anyone with good linux ideas should consider contributing.