@John: I am a big advocate of Linux and agree with you that many simply do not know any alternative.
I personally do run - against all odds - my Workstation on Ubuntu in a nearly Windows-only company. Nobody, neither in IT nor in management is ever considering Linux (and Mac). And I had a similar situation at another company last year. In both cases there are product decisions done that make it very hard for me as a Linux user (ranging from IE-only web-apps - yes, still done in Microsoft-brainwashed environments - to other windows-only apps). None of the internal installation and setup documentations do ever contain information for Linux users. Similar situation when it comes to VPN clients used at different clients. Only with a lot of begging they try to get me a Linux client (if available). I got a new co-worker in august and got him to install Ubuntu after some driver-troubles when installing Windows on his company laptop. Guess what: He migrated back to Windows as he noticed a whole bunch of workarounds he needed to do. It started with the fact that he as a support-guy needs to use a IE-only trouble ticket system. Attempts with IE under Wine/Playonlinux) failed because of stability issues. Not to tell about some TeamViewer glitches on Linux (extremely annoying when TeamViewer is one of the only remote-support tools that work on Linux and you either pay for it when using it for the daily job). Apart from that I had a few issues on my workstation myself that have nothing to do with the Windows environment, I have to cope with: I had lock-up and reboot issues after switching to 12.04 (several different reasons - see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/993187 just for example). So far everything solved with tweaking, manual updates and hand-work. Most annoying: The current kernel status is not stable (not only for me) and so I currently use 12.04 with the manually installed 3.5.0-18 kernel. But this means, I need to manually upgrade to newer versions with security updates. :-( - Stuff I cannot put onto the shoulders of the "normal" user. - BTW: Most major distros these days have problems - be it stability issues with changing desktop environments or "early-adopter" style run to newer technologies when finally older ones got stable enough (nearly every month I read about some planned change - I already worry about what will be after change to wayland...). Compiz is also such a thing - finally quite stable (for me personally since about september or october) I hear that they want to throw it out for the sake of something else. So - by now - status for me is: a) I finally (after a lot of extra analyses, bug reporting, testing etc) got - again - a very stable system with Ubuntu 12.04 + kernel 3.5.0-18. And this although I use a Canonical-certified machine! Unfortunately with some manual udpates that now mean I don't get newer versions automatically through normal update channel. - However, at least I am ok. b) I currently do not try to convince other people to Linux/Ubuntu because they will blame me if some windows-only crappy thing does not work or some shitty windows-only file format is sent to them and they can't cope with it. If somebody really wants to have Linux, I will help of course, but so far I am quite fine by telling people, that I don't fix their Windows machines. Lost some "friends" - but only those I don't care about after noticing the reason why they keep their contact with me. But - to fix Bug 1 from current point of view: 1. Things must work out-of-the-box again (we had this status already but IMHO currently somehow lost) and Ubuntu must be rock-solid and stable again. My current experience in comparison with Windows 2008r2 over the last months is: Far more lock-ups/freezes and accidential reboots than on Windows Servers I need to work on. Far more RDP connection drops (remmina still crashing at least once a day on my machine). 2. Before doing marketing for Linux/Ubuntu, marketing for open standards is required - I mean open protocols and open file formats that can be handled on all platforms. In the ideal world it should be irrelevant which OS you are using. To real success of Linux/Ubuntu there need to be less barriers. Regards, Martin. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu 4 dz, which is subscribed to the bug report. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1 Title: Microsoft has a majority market share Status in Club Distro: Confirmed Status in Computer Science Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in LibreOffice Productivity Suite: New Status in dylan.NET.Reflection: Invalid Status in dylan.NET: Invalid Status in EasyPeasy Overview: Invalid Status in Ichthux - Linux for Christians: Invalid Status in JAK LINUX: Invalid Status in LibreOffice: In Progress Status in The Linux Kernel: New Status in The Linux Mint Distribution: In Progress Status in The Linux OS Project: In Progress Status in The Metacity Window Manager: In Progress Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite: In Progress Status in Tabuntu: Invalid Status in A simple player to online TV streaming: Invalid Status in Tv-Player: Invalid Status in Ubuntu Malaysia LoCo Team Meta Project: In Progress Status in Ubuntu: In Progress Status in Arch Linux: Confirmed Status in Baltix GNU/Linux: Invalid Status in “linux” package in Debian: In Progress Status in Fluxbuntu: The Lightweight, Productive, Agile OS: Confirmed Status in openSUSE: In Progress Status in Tilix Linux: New Bug description: Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. This is a bug which Ubuntu and other projects are meant to fix. As the philosophy of the Ubuntu Project states, "Our work is driven by a belief that software should be free and accessible to all." "Ubuntu software is free. Always was, always will be. Free software gives everyone the freedom to use it however they want and share with whoever they like. This freedom has huge benefits. At one end of the spectrum it enables the Ubuntu community to grow and share its collective experience and expertise to continually improve all things Ubuntu. At the other, we are able to give access to essential software for those who couldn’t otherwise afford it – an advantage that’s keenly felt by individuals and organisations all over the world." * http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/our-philosophy Non-free software leaves users at the mercy of the software owner and concentrates control over the technology which powers our society into the hands of a few. Additionally, proprietary software stifles innovation, maintains artificial scarcities, and enables malicious anti-features such as DRM, surveillance, and other monopolistic practices. This bug is widely evident in the PC industry. Steps to repeat: 1. Visit a local PC store. 2. Attempt to buy a machine without any proprietary software. What happens: Almost always, a majority of PCs for sale have Microsoft Windows pre- installed. In the rare cases that they come with a GNU/Linux operating system or no operating system at all, the drivers and BIOS may be proprietary. What should happen: A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software. * http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html * http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines * http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/clubdistro/+bug/1/+subscriptions _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~algeriatul Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~algeriatul More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
