On 14/09/11 14:45, Craig Sanders wrote: [snip]
something that doesn't quite work. Ubuntu have gone a long way towards trying to integrate the work of third-party binary drivers into a system which normal users can cope with, but stuff is still miles away from being reliably usable on 99% of modern systems :(
you exaggerate.
if you mostly want to run MS Windows programs (like games), then it's a PITA. most programs work OK in wine (sometimes even better than they do in real windows) but there's too much stuffing around for it to be a viable option for non-technical users.
if all you want to do is basic office type apps (wp, ssheet, etc) and web browsing on pretty nearly *ANY* desktop PC, then a linux based system Just Plain Works. And does so *many* times better, with far less stuffing around and PITA geekery (i.e. sysadmin type stuff that ordinary users shouldn't have to fuck around with) than Windows would on the same hardware.
support for laptop-specific stuff (graphics switching, etc) on linux is still problematic. If you choose your laptop carefully, it works great. But if you just buy one without researching it thoroughly, you'll probably be disappointed.
Most people I know who aren't serious techies just have laptops. I have gone through quite a lot of laptops too. NONE of them have managed to work out-of-the-box properly with Linux. Usual suspects are the wifi or suspend not working, but if it's not that, it's something else like sound or accelerated video. Seriously, I've suggested people try Ubuntu out, and they're technical enough to make a bootable USB stick or CDROM and boot off it.. but once they boot up and have no network access, they're stuck. You can't download drivers or search on forums, and this particular market segment doesn't have secondary PCs to use. Likewise, they're not people who went out to buy a laptop specifically for Linux - they just bought something to use, and later thought they'd give this Linux thing a whirl.. And then they inevitably receive a document that doesn't open properly in Abiword, I mean OpenOffice, I mean LibreOffice. And bi-directional audio in Skype doesn't work. And flash runs like a dog. And they can't get their iPod to sync with whichever MP3 suite is being shipped with the distro today. I'm not saying it's not possible to get all these things to work eventually, with some compromises -- but it's ridiculous to expect regular people to jump through the hoops to do so, when their system already comes with a working Windows or OSX install. -T PS. Please don't get me wrong - I think all the projects mentioned above are doing well. I'm just saying that we're still not there yet for getting random people to use it -- unless you happen to like becoming their on-call support person for the rest of your life :)