Comments on: Why I Use and Promote Ubuntu Linux

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 04:49:54 +0000

Honestly, i don’t know why i am commenting. although OSS is something i have always been passionate about, I tend to be reserved about it on the internet, then preach it in public :). So when i read about Ubuntu, my favorite distribution in terms of availability and general access for basic users (though i myself am i poor power user, can’t afford good hardware), I tend to print out whatever i read, and use it to challenge myself or others to arguments. This, i am pleased to say, is one of those printouts :D Keep up the amazing work, Sir, and i commend you on your writing. I look forward to the next thing you write about Linux in General. Until then,

Faithfully nerdy,
Phil

By: Ankit

Ankit — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:43:34 +0000

Ubuntu distros as a whole is good for new people switching on to Linux, but keeping in mind different Linux distros are build keeping the different needs of people in general while fedora/RedHat/CentOS focus more on corporate they even provide good interface for non-commercial users, fedora in general. Different distros have there contributions and specially of Red Hat as mentioned above by Rahul about the “Nouveau open source driver for Nvidia”. Not only this Linux is more of freedom as you mention in your post, which is really helpful for programmers around the world. So according to me which distro”s suites you is best decided by you only, just don”t start comparing amongst them because each has its separate features and advantage.

By: Links 16/10/2009: Asterisk Gets IBM Support, OpenOffice.org 3.2 Beta Released, Uruguay Students All to Use GNU/Linux | Boycott Novell

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:15:10 +0000

[...] Why I Use and Promote Ubuntu Linux Free and open source software is not held back by a lack of coding prowess. If anything, many pieces of proprietary software have a long way to go before they can compete with the technical accomplishments of their open source counterparts. [...]

By: Roy Schestowitz (schestowitz) 's status on Friday, 16-Oct-09 22:29:10 UTC - Identi.ca

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:29:19 +0000

[...] http://www.tannerhelland.com/ubuntu-linux/why-i-use-and-promote-ubuntu-linux/ a few seconds ago from kdemicroblog [...]

By: LinuxLover

LinuxLover — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:36:06 +0000

I think it is you and the communities like Fedora that ignore the reality that users want their systems to work and work well, first and foremost. I can’t argue that open source hasn’t actually made better drivers, in some cases, than even proprietary ones. I have far more control over my Epson printer than I do in Windows with the proprietary driver, for instance.

However, when it comes to things like the nVidia drivers, the userbase simply wants their 3D to work. nVidia has been very good about providing the drivers for a long time. They work, and they work very well. I don’t see the point in circumventing their driver. The open source solution to 3D video has been a dismal disappointment.

We’ve been pushing for years for hardware manufacturers to support Linux, and now users are pushing to go back the other way? This seems ridiculous…

Many users want to mix proprietary software and OSS. There’s a huge calling for Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXPress… These are apps, despite there being pretty good OSS offerings like Gimp, Inkscape, and Scribus respectively, that people have pointed to being a possible game changer for OSS and Linux. Its these familiar apps that hold people back from switching.

By: Rahul Sundaram

Rahul Sundaram — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:57:30 +0000

Fedora and Red Hat’s principled stand on Free and open source software has helped bring so much to the community

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Red_Hat_contributions

It is just the long term pragmatic thing we focus on instead of short term pragmatism that hurts the community in the longer run. Red Hat is sponsoring the development of Nouveau open source driver for Nvidia instead of directing users to the proprietary driver. This will immediately benefit the Free software ecosystem and not just in five years. You can disagree but you cannot ignore reality.

By: Tanner

Tanner — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:38:42 +0000

Thanks for the comment, linuxlover – and you’re absolutely right. I mistakenly implied that ALL desktop OSes have stagnated, when I meant to target only proprietary OSes. I have added the word “proprietary” to the statement, which I hope makes my point clear. :)

By: LinuxLover

LinuxLover — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:31:18 +0000

Bingo! I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m not a new user, but I prefer Linux Mint, anyway…

By: LinuxLover

LinuxLover — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:40:33 +0000

Okay, first off, I agree with the idealism vs. pragmatism argument. Linux should be usable, first and foremost.

Second, what do you mean stagnation? Is KDE 4 stagnation? Is the upcoming Gnome 3 stagnation? Is LXDE and XFCE stagnation? Is the decreased lag time between new hardware and drivers stagnation? Is upcoming OpenCL support stagnation? Where is this stagnation you speak of?

In the last 10 years, we’ve moved from the, mostly, purchase retail package distros, or limited freebie distros, to excellent and free distros across the board. We’ve moved to community distros that have their community of users at heart, first and foremost. We’ve moved away from armwrestling money out of the users hands through poorly designed revenue models to community involved development, bug testing, art design, support, spinoff projects, etc.

In other words, Linux has heavily evolved…

By: Michelan

Michelan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:01:52 +0000

In terms of new user friendless, Linux Mint is doing a better job than Ubuntu.

In terms of good old geekiness, Debian is stronger.

So Ubuntu is caught in the middle :D