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Canonical's business model?Canonical's business model?Posted Aug 20, 2008 22:57 UTC (Wed) by ofeeley (guest, #36105)In reply to: Canonical's business model? by Cato Parent article: In defense of Ubuntu
The great thing is that things mostly 'just work' - Flash, multimedia codecs, Java, Well, as regards the Java part you can thank Red Hat for hiring the developers that worked on Iced Tea and the FSF for starting GNU Classpath. As regards the other stuff you can explain to your elderly relative that the proprietary, closed-source Flash on Linux doesn't always work properly and may be responsible for exposing him to vulnerabilities. Also, how is /you/ setting up your relative's box an example of Ubuntu being "easier" for ordinary users? You could probably just as easily set up a Debian, Mandriva, OpenSuSE or Fedora box and trivially install non-Free software. The interesting thing is whether the Free/Open software ecosystem will be able to evolve so that there is no need for dependence on closed-source or patent-encumbered stuff, or whether the cheaters in the population will cannibalize the common resources and then cause a population crash.
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Canonical's business model? Posted Aug 21, 2008 21:13 UTC (Thu) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link] It's great that Red Hat has put so much effort into Ice Tea, and we are all thankful for the GNU projects. It's also great that Ubuntu has put so much effort into usability. As for Flash, I know it doesn't work perfectly, but what does in computers? Being able to use YouTube and BBC iPlayer is a big benefit compared to the cost. Setting up a PC is very different to using it - most Windows users simply turn the PC on which has many apps pre-installed, but I didn't want to buy a Dell box with Ubuntu (didn't have the spec I wanted), so I installed it myself. In fact I have always configured extra applications on the Windows box for this relative, so what I'm doing is really not much different. I'm sure I could have used another distro, and have used many others in the past - I just happen to like Ubuntu and I'm confident that it will be particularly easy to use, whereas I can't say that for the other distros. A rising tide really does lift all boats - clearly Ubuntu needs to do more about working with upstream, but it has done an enormous amount for Linux simply by making Linux easier to use for the average person.
Canonical's business model? Posted Aug 22, 2008 1:10 UTC (Fri) by ofeeley (guest, #36105) [Link] Again, where's the usability? The only things you pointed to the last time were the results of Red Hat hackers' work on Java and then some dodgy Flash stuff and media codecs. The latter are just as available in Fedora or Gentoo or whatever as they are in Ubuntu for those that want that stuff. I've used Ubuntu fairly recently (not out of choice) and am not blown away by any usability differences between it and any of the other current major distros. I again invite you to point to some metric so that this is not merely a yes-it-is-no-it-isnt exchange. Otherwise you may as well merely shorten your post to "I have no problem with proprietary software and patented codecs and I like the Ubuntu wallpaper."
Canonical's business model? Posted Aug 22, 2008 1:22 UTC (Fri) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link] it's lots of little things, the fact that the installer doesn't need to ask you a million questions spread out over an hours time, but asks you a couple questions up front and then goes and does it's thing is one of them. individually they are trivial, but togeather they make it easier for people who don't already know where to go for everything. you don't see the difference becouse you are already familiar with the tools and just go to the right place. but if you were to setup two identical machines with different distros and give them to people unfamiliar with linux, the _experiance_ (note, experiance, not speculation) that people have is that Ubuntu generates less frustration and fewer questions than the other distros. you don't see it? ok, you don't. nobody is trying to force you to use ubuntu, you are free to use the distro of your choice. just do us all a favor and stop bad-mouthing the distro that others choose just becouse it's not the one you like?
Canonical's business model? Posted Aug 22, 2008 6:08 UTC (Fri) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link] I don't have the time or energy to defend my choice of Ubuntu any further - feel free to use the distro you prefer. Maybe it would be good to spend more time improving and evangelising that distro rather than criticising Ubuntu?
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