Commitment cost is pretty much zero for any Windows user now that Wubi exists.
The setup cost is still fairly big though: 1. (Potentially High) Ensure ability to access desired files. 2. (Low) You need to install the actual operating system. 3. (Potentially High) Configure applications and install other needed/desired applications. 4. Troubleshoot any problems that may arise. The costs of installation and configuration can be further reduced via several methods: 1. Redundancy removal --Ubuntu's setup utility requires a time zone. --Evolution's configuration wizard requires a time zone. 2. Integration --Locations under the calendar applet requires a latitude/longitude from which time zone can be derived and weather reports can be delivered. --A face browser icon and a buddy icon are similar concepts (Pidgin could come with an option to use the face browser icon as the buddy icon). 3. Include packages which without would inhibit basic use --Include VPN packages with network manager by default. I have an external hard drive which I use to backup all documents, photos, audio, and video. This resolves the issue of having access to the stuff I need. Since it's a FAT fs, however, there can be some filename issues. Most average users wouldn't be able to grasp this. To reduce setup costs, as well as the cost of coordinating with a Windows partition, I'm using GMail, Google Calendar, and FoxMarks. Google Calendar support in Evolution, unfortunately, is superficial. I've installed GCalDaemon to work around this problem. Exchange support in Evolution also failed to meet my needs last semester. This is a fine example of troubleshooting, especially since Evolution is advertised as supporting Google Calendar. I generally install the networkmanager-vpnc package, the adobe-flash package, and the sun-java package. The differences between GCJ and the Sun Java package, as well as the difference between Gnash and Adobe Flash, are not well presented. Other common uses: Do I follow any newsgroups? Then I install Pan. Do I follow RSS feeds? Then I install Liferea. Do I chat on IRC? Then I install X-Chat. Do I edit audio or video? Then I install some apps to do that. ...Of course IRC is supported by Pidgin, but it's not as nice as X-Chat. It also somewhat bugs me that X-Chat isn't installed by default because I use X-Chat way more than I use Transmission. -Packages for playback of DVDs and proprietary codecs often cause bugs and the differences aren't well-presented among packages. -Hardware support is reasonable, but could improve more. I have to fool around with my microphone and my touchpad moves the cursor too slowly (troubleshooting). Of course I find myself having to install fewer third party drivers using a fresh install of Ubuntu than I do with Windows. In terms of overall quality, the only thing that isn't competitive imo, is OOo when competing with Microsoft Office. Meanwhile, Eclipse is probably the closest competitor with Visual Studio, but it's pretty much on the same level as OOo in terms of organization. Evolution is less buggy than Outlook 2003, though I haven't tried Outlook 2007, just as the latest version of Eclipse, which has not been kept current in the Ubuntu repositories, is less buggy than, at the least, Visual Basic Express 2008 (haven't used much else in the Windows environment lately). New users generally face the most problems if their hardware isn't fully supported, or if they can't find software roughly equivalent to what they used in their previous environment. Differences in how functionality is expressed is often (but not too often) difficult to grasp. I've also seen a lot of confusion with third party drivers for Windows and OS/X packaged with hardware. Some users will just assume it won't work with Ubuntu. One big pet peeve I have is when applications have options which only work if you install more packages (ex. SpamAssassin in Evolution, OCR in XSane). Anything that's presented as an option in an application installed by default shouldn't require installing other applications to take advantage of that option. And that's pretty much my basic analysis of Ubuntu. On Mon, 2009-01-12 at 21:59 -0500, Kevin Thorley wrote: > On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 12:08 PM, chris yarger <[email protected]> wrote: > > so what are we doing about it ? > > > > Here is a thought... we are making it harder for ourselves when we > bash Windows/Microsoft. Many, many people are comfortable with the > Windows environment. And despite all of the reasons that people give > for hating it, it does work quite well for many people. I am writing > this from a WindowsXP machine that has gone almost 3 years without any > issues at all. I don't think I've seen a blue screen since installing > XP on this box. I have had no issues (knock on wood) with viruses or > worms. Other than games, I run just about all open source software on > it (Firefox, OpenOffice, GIMP, etc). But the Linux community insists > that M$ Windoze is junk. For the average person running Windows, I > think this creates two problems. First, they don't see a huge problem > with their computer, so they figure we're a bunch of freaks. Second, > if we bash the thing they are comfortable with they may be hesitant to > try Linux. If its that different, they may say, how will they adjust > to it? > > So, what to do? Throw away the holier than thou attitudes and present > Linux for what it is, a free, open alternative. Not something that is > "better", or "for smarter people", but an alternative. I have set > several people up with Linux in the past few years. I was honest > about it from day one. I told them that there may be things that > don't work as well, or aren't as easily accomplished as on Windows, > but it is free and open, and they should give it a shot. And now, a > couple years later, they are happily using it. Granted, the main > things they use it for are surfing the web and viewing pictures from > their digital cameras, but it works great for that. I got a phone > call from one of the people the other day asking about installing a > printer. He thought it was going to be painful. To the contrary, he > plugged it in, Linux recognized it, and he was off. For him, Linux is > working great, partially because the expectations were properly set. > > At the moment, Linux is not a viable solution for all Windows users, > though it has made much progress in the past few years. The challenge > for us is to find the people who it will work for and present it as an > alternative. Honestly evaluate if it will be successful for them, and > if it will be, help them install it and give them a hand when problems > pop up. Its my honest belief that the Linux community can be its own > worst enemy when we bash the thing that people know and are > comfortable with, and come across as elitists. > > Kevin > > P.S. My comments about bashing windows and elitism are in reference > to the comments in that blog, not people on this list. I would never > accuse any list dwellers of anything other than being wonderful human > beings :)
