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84 Comments
- trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -3/+33My Grandmother Uses Ubuntu, which she installed herself ( OK I had to set the BIOS to boot from CD, so shoot me ). So yes, can your Grandmother use Windows, without it dying from viruses in ~3 minutes?
- xose, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18That's a nice idea. Many people are pushed back for the lack of multimedia support out-of-the-box. It's discouraging for a complete Linux newbie to write a lot of commands just to get their MP3s and vids to work.
AFAIK, they're legally unable to distribute those codecs on CDs and DVDs, but they can do it from the net. Maybe adding a option at the end of the installation to download and install the codecs, warning about the legal issues? If they have Windows, they should be able to install them. - trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18"KillerKiwi - If the user has xp installed then could not some 'legal issue' software be safely install? For instance MS Fonts, Mp3 codecs? As these things are licensed under windows xp?"
Can anyone comment on whether this is true, as media support out of the box has been a long sought after objective but has been hindered by legal issues ( basically U.S. copyright laws suck ). Also would it also be legal to give the option of installing w32codecs since they know the user already has a copy of Windows? - skubiszm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I never understood why this is such a problem. Out of the box, a clean install of windows and you can't play dvd's, divx, xvid, oggs, etc. You can play mp3's, but a lot of people download a third party application for this as well, like winamp.
Why do they all the sudden demand so much more from linux? - davidirock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15If he didn't set the bios to boot from a cd his grandma couldn't install any cd based os. So it's not an inherent linux problem.
- Yez70, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16You're missing the point.
If Linux ever wants to become mainstream and really gain on Microsoft, it must offer at least what Windows does, not just do it better. It can't just be the OS for geeks. - soyahz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11there is a few (not completely legal) scripts already with nice gui's even that do just that, install media codecs and dvdcss etc... easyubuntu and automatix
- whiterajah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11This is an awesome idea. The file migration, admittedly, is no big deal, but being able to move old e-mail messages and settings would be pretty cool.
- psylence, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Screw the circus, I'd go to a hospital first
- davidirock, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11New idea, shell scripts that install all the no no media support. Yes, No?!?!?!
- erimar77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7It's better than scanned bar napkins..
- gh02t, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I agree, WINE works well, but not well enough. I want all my windows goodies to play nice with all my Linux goodies. I know this is a big one, but thats what it will take to get a big shift to Linux, either that or Windows Genuine Advantage alienating enough people...
- inkubux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6because if X fails to start you run it in ncurse ? just a tought
- nads2000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7That's sort of true. Anyone adventurous enough to install an operating system, could probably move over their data. But you could also say, anyone adventorous enough to install an OS can configure xorg.conf. So in that sense, this is just another annoying hurdle to remove out of the way. The fewer hurdles, the more likely an average person is to succeed. Although I agree with the overall sentiment, that for the average linux user today, this will just be nice, but not neccessary.
- pabster, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9No, the "killer app" would be a migration tool that installs your Windows programs and games - and they all actually work and run properly!
Moving documents, pictures, music, et al isn't too terribly difficult and all but the most clueless can handle it. - bayonetblaha, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Well, people must find it interesting or they wouldn't be digging it.
- nkassi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Well in general people will respond more to Ubuntu articles because it's the new cool kid on the block. More actual desktop run Ubuntu than any other distro. Most digg readers that respond to these post are Linux users and most prefer to use ubuntu. Gentoo is nice (I ran it for 3 years) but Ubuntu is currently the distribution that understands the needs of users best. (This my personal opinion of course)
Nic
P.S. Not trying to get some fame but I'm glad that after I suggesting it in on the wiki people like the idea of the migration tool. It proves that the Ubuntu dev care a lot about the community and the normal users. - salmonmoose, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Why do they all the sudden demand so much more from linux?"
One of the biggest sells for linux is that it ships with a bunch of applications, however without the codecs these applications don't work as they should, leaving no real benifit over Windows. - srg13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It says "If the user checks the Administrator Account checkbox, the account will be added to sudoers."
- mgsloan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Actually, its pretty realistic - its like what firefox did with importing IE settings, only on a larger scale. I remember checking out a project for ubuntu that was working on doing this a while ago (like months to a year ago), they are probably one and the same.
This would indeed be a killer app, especially if it worked on the live-cd. Have a desktop icon - "import settings and files", and it'd move the selected ones onto the ramdisk. Well, maybe not. The live cd uses lots of mem as is. Would be an effective conversion technique though. Even if it was just firefox bookmarks on the live cd. You could surf your favorite sites while it installs on your hard drive. - skankin231, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The people at SymphonyOS have been working on this same thing. Perhaps a collaboration would be wise.
http://symphonyos.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5there's something called GIMP, and I'm sure there are plenty of open-source flash programs for Linux. I think you have no idea the vast majority of stuff available for linux.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6administrator is not root.
- inkubux, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You missed the point there. they are not becoming root on their linux machine, they are copying data from the Windows Administrator account which is used by 95% of the non techies buddy (oooh good oooh goood, were in 2006 and people still do that mistake of running computers with full privilege). What comes in my mind is will the assistan actually convert offices and other msformat files to linux format or just migrate it?
- frem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Because it's quicker to sketch out a nice looking ASCII image then a nice looking graphical image. The folks behind Firefox and Gnome do this also.
- bayonetblaha, on 10/12/2007, -8/+12Why can't it just be the OS for geeks?
- vannyx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6for mainstream wifi must work with at least 70 percent of the store bought cards. Ease of installing software and packages should stop telling you that it needs dependency and instead tell you yo udont have it and where to find it.
- jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Okay we are totally a rare breed but how about a migration tool for us OS X users?
- psylence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3tgone: Your fatal assumption is that all Linux developers/distributions want to compete with Windows. Only a slim few specific "Desktop" distributions even concern themselves with such nonsense.
Sane ones want to be good on their own terms, and if as they progress they take some Windows users with them? So much the better. - alx1507, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_Assistant
"Migration Assistant is a utility by Apple Computer that imports users, applications, settings, various files and volumes to a new Macintosh computer from a (presumably) older one. It is found in"
I think it works cross platiform? maybe not? - 1coreduo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The problem is HW manufacturers not opening up the specs. Linux community always have to work their ways (reverse engineering in most cases) after the HW have been released.
If the Linux community had the same info begin with -> no more problems with drivers etc ... - gh02t, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5OK, I see a potential problem... It mentions that the files will be copied to the UnionFS before formatting. What happens when you run out of RAM, highly likely with stuff like videos and photos.
- JoshHendo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I have got both Flash and Photoshop Elements working under Wine, so I can tell you that it is possible :). Look in the Wine App DB, that has a list of apps that work well under Wine.
- nkassi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3At least people who consider moving to Linux won't lose their emails. I work as a sysadmin/computer support person and the one most important thing in people computer is there emails. They will kill you if the hard drive dies and the emails are gone. (luckily most have there emails saved on the network san we have.)
Nic - lagartoflojo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@srg13
Well, if you bought Photoshop for US$650, buying Pixel for US$32 is nothing....
Because you DID pay for Photoshop, right? - wmansir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Actually installing a new version of Windows does keep documents, settings and even most programs on 95% of home PCs, those running a previous version of Windows.
But I guess your right, it's only fair that Linux doesn't promote migration from Windows, since Windows doesn't do vise versa. Do you work for MS? - Kruncher, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4What is with all this "grandmother" stuff? She wouldn't be installing Linux or even Windows in the first place. Her computer came with Windows on it. There is no reason for her to change (except to keep her safe from malware).
- jcidiotashram, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i used to copy the codecs from the C drive (i.e., windows installation) manually and populate the codec folder in linux when i wanted mplayer to work. it worked for me. i'm not saying that it is illegal. but heck i paid for it when i got the dvd drive along with the codec.
- srg13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If you're used to Photoshop, and you want a native application, then you might like Pixel (http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12 ). I've heard that it's good. It costs US$32 though.
- 1coreduo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Portland project, anyone?
- bcp1551, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Very true, fragmentation is the fatal flaw of Linux... It is similar to the way in which the fatal flaw of democratic societies is too many ideas freely expressed, causing fragmentation of vision. The only efficient and effective way to improve society or software is through authoritarian leadership and concentration of decision making. As we all know from history any undertaking without a centralized controlling authoritarian leadership is doomed to failure. If only Linux could come under the complete control of a strong leader, then it could possibly be as successful as North Korea.
- mgsloan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think you missed the point of making linux more userfriendly by adding this. And anyway, its not so much organization. There's also the hurdles of mounting the windows hard drive, permisions stuff, etc.
Eventually, you won't really need to know any bash to use linux as your main OS. Currently its basically required for totally replacing windows functionality.
And anyway, this is more than just documents - migrating bookmarks, mail and such can be a pain in the ass. I just recently set up a shared partition where settings for some of my favorite programs are shared between windows and ubuntu - namely, firefox and gaim. It wasn't too hard, but it did require a bit of research on how the programs locate their config files. I've also got the majority of my home folder stashed on the shared partition, so docs are shared. (the shared partition is mounted within home/username).
Perhaps a setup like this could be configured for dual-boot situations. It would require good ntfs write though, and would probably screw up in a few cases. - spuggy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Well first off, by far, the majority of people buy prebuilt computers from your HP, Dell, and Gateways of the world, which do come with the mainstream functionality (read: DVD support--I'm sorry, Ogg is no where near mainstream, and Divx, while popular with people who download their movies illegally, doesn't really fit on the radar for the common user).
Frankly, the migration tool would be nice, but the only way Linux will ever hit the mainstream is if a manufactuer starts prebuilding systems with it along with some tangible benefit. With the cost of XP being relatively cheap for the OEM version, to most people, why are they going to bother using something that doesn't run the same programs as their friends, family, work, etc. - strcmp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_application
"A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is a computer program that is so useful or desirable that people will buy a particular piece of computer hardware, gaming console, and/or an operating system simply to run that program."
It looks nice, but I don't see many people switching to Ubuntu just to run this. - salmonmoose, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"there's something called GIMP, and I'm sure there are plenty of open-source flash programs for Linux. I think you have no idea the vast majority of stuff available for linux."
I think you have no idea how far most of these applications fall behind the standards required for production work. GIMP is fine for small web-based images, however it falls flat on it's face when dealing with print resolution images. There is a reason linux isn't being adopted for workstation use in multimedia. - craigtheguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Actually these tools exist and will import XP settings in to Mac OS X. Probably only works with Windows and is one-way.
Also, Apple provides a system migration tool but it's from one Mac to another. - Baum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2With package management I think installing software on Linux is easier than on Windows or Mac (although the .dmg file are pretty cool). Want to install Firefox? Open up Synaptic/YaST/etc., click on Firefox, and click on the install button or type in "aptitude install firefox", etc. from the terminal. You don't need to search sites for whatever program you want to install, it's right in the repositories. If it's not in the repositories (which is a rare occasion for me), it's not hard to install it manually, although maybe not as easy as Windows/Mac installs for some.
- 1coreduo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm fedora user, but ubuntu == Linux => I like to comment, probably fits to other distro users also
- Cleeq, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's awesome, that would definitely help getting people to see the light that is Linux
- Ryuuzaki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's good, but I hope it's optional and also that they don't force users to migrate to a specific program like evolution, so the choice of, say, thunderbird (which I use at work, quite nice) is possible.
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