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Ubuntu Linux Is an Ideal Windows Replacement

linuxinsider.com — Having been raised on DOS and the early generations of Windows, I rediscovered that sense of excitement in a pure computing experience when I first tried other Linux versions over the years. However, they required a steep learning curve and caused too much frustration with setup and obscure command-line options. Not so with Ubuntu Linux.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 4, 2006

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  • schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -6/+40> "Ubuntu Linux Is an Ideal Windows Replacement"

    s/Ubuntu/Any/
  • central183, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28-sorry, I just had to look that one up in Urban Dic:

    Asshattery;

    1. The act of displaying properties or characteristics of an asshat. This includes but is not limited to wearing your ass for a hat or saying/commiting an act that causes the audience in presence to become dumber.
  • c0r3file, on 10/12/2007, -3/+27I like eating fried chicken, but not every night.

    I like Ubuntu, but every day on Digg's front page?

  • bigtomrodney, on 10/12/2007, -5/+26This just in -
    WarpFox types with CapsLock on, attempt to look smart fails.
  • felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -11/+27Ubuntu? Linux? What's that? I've been reading Digg for a long time, and I've never seen any stories about this.

    Can anyone tell me if Linux is good or bad? I sure wish someone had an opinion.
  • Shadowman, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21Except for the free CD none of this is specific to Ubuntu. There are many distros that make ideal Windows replacements.
  • inajeep, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10It's not quite there yet. The wireless card issue is the first warning flag. When the method of getting Ubuntu to recognize a common wireless card requires more time than it takes to install the OS in the first place, it's not ready for general public consumption. Telling a normal everyday user to figure out when type of chip set is in their wireless card isn't an answer. Once Ubuntu/Linux get's it hardware detection and driver loading act together, then it's ready. A 2nd flag? Application naming. If a person is trying to install software, and he or she see's a list of acronyms from the governments worst PCP haze, then the customer will quietly turn off the PC and find a nice quiet corner to hide in. 3rd flag. Application install. Have a non-Linux user try to install an application. Most can't.

    Once these issues are resolved then you will find the everyday user with no or little linux expereince start installing it. I want to replace all my Windows machine but can't because of the software I want to run does not have an equivalent on Linux.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13I'm not anti Linux at all but until i am able to install a Linux OS on my laptop and have it recognize and install my wireless adapter by its self I'm sticking with my crap hole of windows
  • dknighton, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Yeah...we know. Hardly a day goes by when some article shows up on the homepage telling us that Ubuntu is is a great alternative to Windows. I think Ubuntu is great, and I use it myself. But how many ways must we re-hash the same damn story?
  • CraigB12, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I think thats, yeah... definitly, definitly the version number
  • adspigot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Windows "Alternative" Not replacement, there is a huge difference.
  • c0r3file, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@webbsk

    I don't want to hide all UNIX/Linux news. I don't even want to hide all Ubuntu news. I just want less of the "Hey everyone! I just found out about Ubuntu!" threads making it to the front page daily; it just means we see less of other good stories people are submitting.
  • ZPWeeks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Why is this being dugg down? I know people are mad at Novell, but a lot of people have a lot more luck with Suse for hardware (YaST kicks ass and it works with a lot more laptop hardware).
    I use Ubuntu and Vista right now, but I'm interested to see what openSuse brings in 10.2. Also, SLED is a VERY viable Windows replacement in the corporate world, which is a huge part of the real M$ stronghold.
  • kremvax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Then I tried installing a few things to enhance my desktop in gnome"

    So it installed easily and was working great until you tried to "enhance" it?

    So with the default, workin-just-fine install, how many hours did you spend looking for a video driver? (and for which card) Or were you just talking out of your ear?

    You mention that you couldn't run MS Visual Studio on it. Why would you use linux to write Windows-only code in a Windows-only language for Windows-only exection on a linux platform? What did you expect?


  • zumpiez, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13I'm glad that Linuxinider has determined this.
  • betterth, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9@Krevmax

    Way to alienate and insult all the mommies and daddies who make (and play) video games for a living.
  • kremvax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4And no new windows users ever need help?

    Or have technical problems?

    Technical support for windows is an industry that employs tens of thousands worldwide, and is a popular pastime for the whole family. If they ever fixed all the bugs in that thing, it'd be a shock to the whole economy.
  • mayh3m, on 10/12/2007, -8/+12Can I use Unbuntu... yes
    Can we digg.com users use it... yes

    Could a non semi computer savy person use it... absolutely not.

    I hate to upset all you Penguin humpers out there but Linux desktop software still has an extremely loooonnnng way to go before dad calls me on the phone and asks me how to tar a file.

  • Naradar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I hate these goddamn linux articles. It's like a vegetarian telling me not to eat meat. It's just somebody's biased opinion.

    Here's another biased opinion to refute this article: Ubuntu would not be an "ideal replacement" for 90% of Windows users. Who cares if it install easily? Windows comes preinstalled. Who cares if it's free? Windows works great, its easy, and plus it has a much larger software support. For Ubuntu to be truly successful it must be clear as night and day that Ubuntu has much more to offer. RIght now I don't see it.
  • greatblackowl, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I agree totally. Though there are some well-trumpeted advantages of Ubuntu over windows (i.e. more secure, more stable, more compatible, FREE), and though Ubuntu works wonderfully, when it ceases to work (i.e., when you want to install something and it [usually] does not go 100% smoothly), new users are forced to go on scavenger hunts that can last for hours just to figure out what the hell's going wrong and what they need to do to fix that. Double clicking on any .exe install file or extracting from an archive and then installing is so much easier on windows.

    It'll be a great alternative to windows once the average user does not have to invoke the konsole to complete an everyday task (like installing a program)
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've messed around with several versions of red hat and even though I like red hat better Ubuntu is crazy, what other flavor of linux can you just slap a cd into any old laptop and install, partition to dual boot almost blindfolded. No drivers vs nodules issues ,, it's insane, really,, Although I never tried the new debian I suspect it must have been similar to this, by all the ranting I used to hear.
  • Stonekeeper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I installed XP on a laptop today. It didn't detect my wireless adapter so had to go to dell's site to find it. It offered my around 30 options so then i had to find the serial of the laptop to determine the right drivers. Got that then found that the drivers were a 90M download. I don't know why people say windows just works. It doesn't.
  • sworoc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Somebody is running, trying to catch up to the band wagon a half mile ahead of him.....

    why submit this article, if they haven't read about it yet, they probably won't for a long time. I guess it was just so that people could argue about whether or not linux is ready....again.
  • kremvax, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4As long as your burning program can burn a proper generic iso to disc, then there should be no troubles.

  • Derrekito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree! All I use atm is Linux, it it's annoying even me! But seriously Ubuntu is not the perfect windows replacement, not until wine gets direct x perfect and hopefully soon directx 10 support. Until then the PC I bought for X-mas will probably run windows... not to mention I need those drivers for all my Razer products!
  • MeatBiProduct, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I dunno why the redhat comment is getting buried but its true.

    I've used Ubuntu briefly and Redhat for years. Fedora Core 6 is vastly superior to the desktop or server releases of Ubuntu.

    saying that I had to compile ATI drivers and wireless drivers to get everything working optimal. Still have lots of problems with Firefox 2 crashing though.

    IMO Redhat has the best straight forward techincal documentation and the most complete package for the desktop and server.
  • heavyal, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7If your whole world revolves around having a killer graphics card then you are more likely a gamer and Linux I will grant you is not likely to fill your needs (yet). However if, like so many of us, you just need to get your work done in a fast, friendly and secure environment then Ubuntu could be a great fit.
  • TKardinal, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I'm a Windows guy, have been for 15 years, and I have Ubuntu running on one of my older laptops. It does about 90% of what I want without much difficulty, but there's still that 10% that I want it to do (still working on WPA wireless) and there's still the thousands of hardware pieces out there that lack Linux drivers.

    Windows is still, in my opinion, a superior OS, but I do appreciate Ubuntu for being very easy to install, very easy to use, and very quick and stable. If I had to do it all again, I would probably set my mom up with Ubuntu rather than XP.
  • truck87bp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@p51doo7

    Get with the program, Simple Package management with Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu... get all the free stuff you need without the terminal...go look... http://www.debianadmin.com/simple-package-management-with-synaptic-package-manager-in-ubuntu.html

    AND, Automatic updates are also automatic for everything you added. The only thing you will have to use the terminal window for is new beta stuff. The same rules apply to beta for windows or Linux, use at your own risk, these may damage you sys.
  • ucg1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, I'm a big fan of Linux and its distros, but I'm never gone around and told everyone to switch to Linux. If you're tech savvy enough and curious, give it a fair try and see what its all about. It's different enough that you're going to have to learn a few new ways of doing things. It's not for everyone however and can understand if someone choses not to use it.

    Windows, however, is such a piece of crap that its not worth using unless you have to. Non-techies should get a Mac. Techies should try both Linux and OS X.
  • colklink, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've tried to use all of the different distro cd's to replace windows. They are all far inferior in my opinion since you can't actually see through them.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6LOL@warpfox

    Even though I dislike the "it's already been posted" nazi's the satire, was beautiful in an artistic way,.
  • Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5the lack of WPA, not to mention WPA2 support is a 100% deal-killer for me. The state of wireless on Linux sucks BIG TIME. I've got a Ubuntu install in one of my Parallels VMs, and it is fun to play with, but no way would I ever install it as a main/host OS, especially on a laptop, until it had some more real-world features.
  • chaimpot0k, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Come get me once Ubuntu can play Company of Heroes and fully supports SLI
  • prammy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@daven

    I used both Ubuntu and Fedora core side by side and didn't really find one to be better than the other. Both are easy to set up, both have a great support community through their forums and irc channel.
  • Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It is the same even if your mac doesn't have an intel processor. You just need to burn the version for the processor you want to run it on.
  • shaungc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Seriously, if you're going to bash Linux, come up with something that's actually true. There are lots of reasons people don't like Linux, lots of legitimate reasons. But vid card drivers? Are you serious? 'apt-get install nvidia-glx' 'nvidia-glx-config enable' too hard for you? I feel for ya man, I really do.
  • artificialgrey, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6The long term support of Dapper is probably a better choice for those migrating from Windows, as they won't have to upgrade to the next version in 6 months time.
  • macewan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I just added a new Samsung printer to a windows machine & it took me 30 minutes to grab the driver and work through the painful install process of Windows XP.

    My wife has installed the same Samsung when she ran SuSE 9 & it took very little time.
  • webbsk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8I'm admit that I'm not thrilled that Ubuntu has become synonymous with Linux around digg (especially since there are so many other good distros out there).

    But I will say this: if you don't want to read about stories praising Linux/Ubuntu, click the link "Add and Remove Topics" to the left of this column and then uncheck the box "Unix/Linux" under the Technology section.

    The only thing worse than the millionth story about Linux/Ubuntu is the billionth comment bitching about it.
  • betterth, on 10/12/2007, -8/+11I personally dislike Ubuntu, albeit less than some other distros. I'm forced to use Ubuntu on a daily basis in class, as they wish to emulate real-world corporate programming conditions or something.

    It's the little things that bother me. That, when I open a file, it defaults to the base level directory, not remembering the last directory I was in. That may seem small, but when you have to navigate to another drive, then around six folders deep to get to my folder on the network, than another folder or two to get to my files, it becomes very, very frustrating.

    I've always found the lack of software support very frustrating as well. I don't want to have to fight and search and work to make software install and run. I had Mandriva for a while and getting any new software was just a pain.

    And hell, if I get frustrated with it, being a power user, God only knows what the normal user will feel like.
  • thepaul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have installed Ubuntu on my Dell computer and I'm amazed at the ease by which all the hardware was found. I can listen to music through the speakers, I can play CD's and DVD through the combo drive and my wireless card worked right away.

    There was no messing around with anything. I had wondered if I would be able to go online through the wireless card and it worked perfectly.

    Another amazing part of Ubuntu is how economically it is with the hard drive. While windows fills the hard drive, this OS takes only a few gigs.

    I don't think I will return to Windows ever.
  • thewump, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I am ASTOUNDED but you'll have to read to the end of this comment to really see why.

    I'm writing this comment using Firefox on ubuntu.. Not so astounding, although it was great that I could install my favorite Firefox plugins.. but that's not it.

    On my HP laptop, ubuntu found the wireless network driver, and connected to my network - that is astounding, but there is more.

    I needed a friends email address, so I cranked up GAIM and IMed another of my friends noticing that GAIM supports all the IM standards.. that's not it.

    I cranked up Evolution Mail, and was going to just connect to one of my POP accounts to send him something then saw HOLY CRAP! This thing connects to exchange servers.. so I set that up and was ASTOUNDED to not only see it sync with all my folders, but pull up all my contacts, and my calander.. but people.. THAT IS NOT IT..

    The reason why I am astounded by ubuntu is because I HAVE NOT INSTALLED IT YET. I created the install CD, booted from it, and RAN UBUNTU from the CD.. That is UNBE-F**KIN-LIEVABLE! I have completely and uterly crushed my belief that linux can't replace my Windows desktop by creating a mirror of my environment and I'm running the environment off the CD.

    Now THAT is astounding.

    Keith
  • barkyfarkel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow, I have Ubuntu 6.10 on my old AMD 1000 with a Jetway mobo and 40 gig HD. I installed Automatix2 this morning. This is way too kewl. Plugged in 2 different scanners, installed no software or drivers and both scanners worked. Funny, this old scanner wouldn't work with any windows OS anymore ( 98SE to xp), thought it was toast. HP and Windows made me feel that it was broken....no support and drivers didn't work either. (bastards) DRM thing probably...

    I have about 16 hours of time invested on Ubuntu and as a hard-core win guy, I'm very, very impressed. The only thing I can't get to work is the microphone. I noticed that gaim or the rest of the chatware don't have voice, only Skype. If Linux has major problems with microphones, then they should just say so, so we don't waste time trying to make it work.

    As for the rest of the package, Ubuntu is awesome. Plays DVD movies after I found 1 file to download and install. Way Kewl !!!!...actually excited to dig in.
  • Shigun, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I use Linux (and OSX, and Windows), I'm all for Linux getting more exposure and whatnot, but DAMN, can we please stop with the "Ubuntu is THE thing to push Linux forward." I've heard it already. I see it usually 2-3 times a week on digg. Don't. Care. Anymore.
  • HCviolence, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It's not that I hate Linux(I love Debian). But it seems like every day we see another "I switched from Windows to Ubuntu and now my life is great" stories and it's starting to get real stale.
    No digg.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2something I never got was why you can order as many cd's as you can in the mail for free, but they are shipped from France,, whaa,, I understand the theory behind the name Ubuntu,, and have seen the "test videos" of Nelson Mandela ect,,,
  • Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5@radink: After your comment in another recent Linux thread about how "Microsoft gives you the freedom to do anything you want on a computer".....I just can't look at any of your other comments without completely falling out of my chair laughing.

    Thank you for making my day that much better.
  • CoolGui, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Boondoolge

    Out of the box, WPA2 it difficult to setup and use... but you can install Network Manager via the Add/Remove function and it works better than windows as far as connecting to wired/wireless networks, as long as you don't need a connection before you login. :)
  • chutz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I have been using WPA2 on Linux for months now, and setting it up was absurdly easy with NetworkManager. Not sure what you mean saying it's not supported.
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