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life after Windows....
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...s-1653198.html
Linux is free, easy-to-use and is shedding its geeky image, thanks to fans who prefer it to Microsoft's mighty operating systems. But is it for everyone? Jamie Merrill asks four rookies to put it to the test Wednesday, 25 March 2009 Once it was fair to say that Linux was the preserve of small coterie of computer nerds typing away in their parents' basements and spare rooms. This is no longer so, however, as the free and easy-to-use operating system with a reputation for rock-solid reliability is coming out of the shadows. It's shaking off its geeky reputation by getting some computing street cred as a fast web browsing and music platform. Andrew Miller, technology journalist and founder of thinkabouttech.com is a self-avowed Linux devotee and typical of its supporters. "For 97 per cent of computer users, Linux is perfect. Nowadays pretty much everyone is living in the cloud – with all of our data storage based online – and Linux offers you absolutely everything you need. For work, you have OpenOffice, for music you have Spotify and for instant messaging you have Pigeon. So it's not just a case of it being as good as Windows, because for a large majority of things Linux is actually better," he says. "If you talk to a lot of Windows users and ask them what they use, they say, 'I'm using Firefox and OpenOffice,' and if you boot up, say, Linux Ubuntu, a community-developed, Linux-based operating system created for laptops, desktops and servers, both those tools are there, so it's familiar territory, totally safe and free. So the question should 'why not use Linux?'". Related articles * Why are games so expensive? Miller isn't alone in his enthusiasm. A recent survey of IT professionals showed that in the midst of recession, free open-source software such as Linux is gaining in popularity, especially with small business users. And while still dwarfed by Microsoft, Linux is holding its own in the netbook stakes, with some estimates suggesting that the system is running on more than 10 per cent of all models. Linux's popularity isn't confined to bloggers, netbook users and software aficionados. In the past few years Ubuntu – one of Linux's most popular versions – has been adopted as the operating system of choice by institutions as varied as Google, Amazon, the French National Assembly and paramilitary police force, the entire South Korean government, DreamWorks film studio and the government of Mexico City. Later this year, the Vietnamese government will be the latest to ditch Microsoft in favour of a Linux-based operating system for all its computers The battle between Linux and Windows has been raging for almost as long as there have been motherboards and wysiwig monitors, and even now, Linux is still light years away from even beginning to challenge Microsoft's software hegemony. But some computer experts are starting to suggest Linux has reached a "critical mass" and that its day has come. So tech-savvy bloggers and IT professionals may be increasingly convinced of the virtues of Linux, but what about the average Windows user? To put Linux to the test, we set up four novices – from computer whizzes to self-confessed Luddities – with a new Toshiba netbook running the latest version of Linux Ubuntu to find out what they thought. Merryl Lawrenson, 56 Community nurse from Ashford, Kent I wouldn't say that I'm a big computer user as I generally only use them for work. However, I do some quite complicated tasks at work like writing on patients' records, so reliability is important to me. The word processor and spreadsheet were all very similar to what I've used before as our home laptop runs the same version of OpenOffice. Menus were straightforward and the icons were very clear and easy to use. The layout was also very clear, so perhaps Ubuntu is a little easier for somebody like me when compared with a machine running hundreds of programs on Windows. One gripe was that the red cross to close pages and programs was stuck away in a corner, but on the whole it all worked quite intuitively. Especially as it's free, I'd give serious thought to adopting Ubuntu if I were in the market to buy a new computer. Tony Messenger, 55 Music technician from Farningham, Kent I'm a music technician, so should know my stuff, but to be honest I really struggled with all the multimedia software that came as standard with Ubuntu. For the life of me, I couldn't get any of the sound or video elements to work online. I couldn't get it to play WAV files, I couldn't get it to play MP3s and it wouldn't play animated GIFs. I can only assume you have to download all the individual codecs [A computer program that lets you stream multimedia content] for each sound or video you want to run, which is a real pain. Nowadays, you need a good half a dozen or so codecs just to browse the internet and it didn't seem to come with any of these as standard. This defeats the whole point of using Ubuntu as a fast web browser if you have to spend ages setting it up and finding all the codecs, and would almost certainly pose problems for a computer novice. Don't get me wrong; I'm not a Windows devotee and the rest of the built-in software and menu systems seemed fine, but once you've worked on a system, any rival has to excel to be worth switching over to. Ubuntu and Linux generally seem to be the domain of the real computer geeks out there. Everyone that I know who uses Linux tends to be a computer nerd or work in the industry. They enjoy playing around with the system and I don't know if they actually do any work – whereas I'm interested in actually getting things done. Tim Blake, 23 Teaching assistant from Codicote, Hertfordshire I'm a pretty dedicated Windows user so I wasn't necessarily expecting great things from Linux, but my first impressions were very good. I expected to struggle navigating the menu system, but found it pretty functional and easy to use. All the information and programs were easy to access and the layout was fairly intuitive. It also seemed fairly robust when it comes to viruses and surfing the web. Internet safety is always a concern, so that's certainly a good feature. Personally, I'd prefer something a little more complex which allows me a greater choice of software. It might be great for an older generation of computer users who just want to browse the web easily and safely. I'm training to be a teacher and am on a tight budget at the moment, so free software should be really attractive to me, but I'm just too heavily reliant on Microsoft Office and Windows to consider switching operating systems. I use Word and PowerPoint on a regular basis, both on my laptop and on machines at school, so it doesn't make any sense to switch to a system which won't run those programs. So I don't think Bill Gates and co need to worry about losing my custom just yet. Androulla Polydorou, 26 Sales manager from Greenwich, London The first thing that struck me about Ubuntu was the interface. It's just so bright, breezy and user-friendly. Everyone who's seen me using it has been very impressed and has wanted to have a go. I had a few problems at first, such as finding the right icon to turn up the volume. I think perhaps I'm so used to Windows that I'm not used to searching around for icons. I don't have wireless internet and while I'm OK with computers I had to give in and ask my computer whizz partner for help after 40 minutes of trying to get a connection. That could have been more straightforward. Overall, I found Ubuntu pretty simple to use and a nice change from Windows. It booted up very quickly and was speedy online. It had versions of all the basic programs, such as a word processor, as well as a really good selection of games. The Toshiba I tested it on had an inbuilt camera, so I played around with the photo-editing software, which was impressive. Being able to alter colour and lighting and move things about and erase things was really cool for someone like me who has no experience of photo editing but wants to have fun with their pictures I wouldn't necessarily trust Ubuntu for work, as I wouldn't want to find I couldn't do everything I wanted to do. But as another system on my laptop to browse and listen to music I'd think about adopting it. |
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life after Windows....
On Mar 25, 12:06*pm, "Sam O'Var" wrote:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...h/features/is-... Linux is free, easy-to-use and is shedding its geeky image, thanks to fans who prefer it to Microsoft's mighty operating systems. But is it for everyone? Jamie Merrill asks four rookies to put it to the test Wednesday, 25 March 2009 Once it was fair to say that Linux was the preserve of small coterie of computer nerds typing away in their parents' basements and spare rooms. This is no longer so, however, as the free and easy-to-use operating system with a reputation for rock-solid reliability is coming out of the shadows. It's shaking off its geeky reputation by getting some computing street cred as a fast web browsing and music platform. Andrew Miller, technology journalist and founder of thinkabouttech.com is a self-avowed Linux devotee and typical of its supporters. "For 97 per cent of computer users, Linux is perfect. Nowadays pretty much everyone is living in the cloud – with all of our data storage based online – and Linux offers you absolutely everything you need. For work, you have OpenOffice, for music you have Spotify and for instant messaging you have Pigeon. So it's not just a case of it being as good as Windows, because for a large majority of things Linux is actually better," he says. "If you talk to a lot of Windows users and ask them what they use, they say, 'I'm using Firefox and OpenOffice,' and if you boot up, say, Linux Ubuntu, a community-developed, Linux-based operating system created for laptops, desktops and servers, both those tools are there, so it's familiar territory, totally safe and free. So the question should 'why not use Linux?'". Related articles * * * Why are games so expensive? Miller isn't alone in his enthusiasm. A recent survey of IT professionals showed that in the midst of recession, free open-source software such as Linux is gaining in popularity, especially with small business users. And while still dwarfed by Microsoft, Linux is holding its own in the netbook stakes, with some estimates suggesting that the system is running on more than 10 per cent of all models. Linux's popularity isn't confined to bloggers, netbook users and software aficionados. In the past few years Ubuntu – one of Linux's most popular versions – has been adopted as the operating system of choice by institutions as varied as Google, Amazon, the French National Assembly and paramilitary police force, the entire South Korean government, DreamWorks film studio and the government of Mexico City. Later this year, the Vietnamese government will be the latest to ditch Microsoft in favour of a Linux-based operating system for all its computers The battle between Linux and Windows has been raging for almost as long as there have been motherboards and wysiwig monitors, and even now, Linux is still light years away from even beginning to challenge Microsoft's software hegemony. But some computer experts are starting to suggest Linux has reached a "critical mass" and that its day has come. So tech-savvy bloggers and IT professionals may be increasingly convinced of the virtues of Linux, but what about the average Windows user? To put Linux to the test, we set up four novices – from computer whizzes to self-confessed Luddities – with a new Toshiba netbook running the latest version of Linux Ubuntu to find out what they thought. Merryl Lawrenson, 56 Community nurse from Ashford, Kent I wouldn't say that I'm a big computer user as I generally only use them for work. However, I do some quite complicated tasks at work like writing on patients' records, so reliability is important to me. The word processor and spreadsheet were all very similar to what I've used before as our home laptop runs the same version of OpenOffice. Menus were straightforward and the icons were very clear and easy to use. The layout was also very clear, so perhaps Ubuntu is a little easier for somebody like me when compared with a machine running hundreds of programs on Windows. One gripe was that the red cross to close pages and programs was stuck away in a corner, but on the whole it all worked quite intuitively. Especially as it's free, I'd give serious thought to adopting Ubuntu if I were in the market to buy a new computer. Tony Messenger, 55 Music technician from Farningham, Kent I'm a music technician, so should know my stuff, but to be honest I really struggled with all the multimedia software that came as standard with Ubuntu. For the life of me, I couldn't get any of the sound or video elements to work online. I couldn't get it to play WAV files, I couldn't get it to play MP3s and it wouldn't play animated GIFs. I can only assume you have to download all the individual codecs [A computer program that lets you stream multimedia content] for each sound or video you want to run, which is a real pain. Nowadays, you need a good half a dozen or so codecs just to browse the internet and it didn't seem to come with any of these as standard. This defeats the whole point of using Ubuntu as a fast web browser if you have to spend ages setting it up and finding all the codecs, and would almost certainly pose problems for a computer novice. Don't get me wrong; I'm not a Windows devotee and the rest of the built-in software and menu systems seemed fine, but once you've worked on a system, any rival has to excel to be worth switching over to. Ubuntu and Linux generally seem to be the domain of the real computer geeks out there. Everyone that I know who uses Linux tends to be a computer nerd or work in the industry. They enjoy playing around with the system and I don't know if they actually do any work – whereas I'm interested in actually getting things done. Tim Blake, 23 Teaching assistant from Codicote, Hertfordshire I'm a pretty dedicated Windows user so I wasn't necessarily expecting great things from Linux, but my first impressions were very good. I expected to struggle navigating the menu system, but found it pretty functional and easy to use. All the information and programs were easy to access and the layout was fairly intuitive. It also seemed fairly robust when it comes to viruses and surfing the web. Internet safety is always a concern, so that's certainly a good feature. Personally, I'd prefer something a little more complex which allows me a greater choice of software. It might be great for an older generation of computer users who just want to browse the web easily and safely. I'm training to be a teacher and am on a tight budget at the moment, so free software should be really attractive to me, but I'm just too heavily reliant on Microsoft Office and Windows to consider switching operating systems. I use Word and PowerPoint on a regular basis, both on my laptop and on machines at school, so it doesn't make any sense to switch to a system which won't run those programs. So I don't think Bill Gates and co need to worry about losing my custom just yet. Androulla Polydorou, 26 Sales manager from Greenwich, London The first thing that struck me about Ubuntu was the interface. It's just so bright, breezy and user-friendly. Everyone who's seen me using it has been very impressed and has wanted to have a go. I had a few problems at first, such as finding the right icon to turn up the volume. I think perhaps I'm so used to Windows that I'm not used to searching around for icons. I don't have wireless internet and while I'm OK with computers I had to give in and ask my computer whizz partner for help after 40 minutes of trying to get a connection. That could have been more straightforward. Overall, I found Ubuntu pretty simple to use and a nice change from Windows. It booted up very quickly and was speedy online. It had versions of all the basic programs, such as a word processor, as well as a really good selection of games. The Toshiba I tested it on had an inbuilt camera, so I played around with the photo-editing software, which was impressive. Being able to alter colour and lighting and move things about and erase things was really cool for someone like me who has no experience of photo editing but wants to have fun with their pictures I wouldn't necessarily trust Ubuntu for work, as I wouldn't want to find I couldn't do everything I wanted to do. But as another system on my laptop to browse and listen to music I'd think about adopting it. |
#3
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life after Windows....
On Mar 25, 10:08*pm, Kcoc Syawedis wrote:
On Mar 25, 12:06*pm, "Sam O'Var" wrote: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...h/features/is-... Linux is free, easy-to-use and is shedding its geeky image, thanks to fans who prefer it to Microsoft's mighty operating systems. But is it for everyone? Jamie Merrill asks four rookies to put it to the test Wednesday, 25 March 2009 Once it was fair to say that Linux was the preserve of small coterie of computer nerds typing away in their parents' basements and spare rooms. This is no longer so, however, as the free and easy-to-use operating system with a reputation for rock-solid reliability is coming out of the shadows. It's shaking off its geeky reputation by getting some computing street cred as a fast web browsing and music platform. Andrew Miller, technology journalist and founder of thinkabouttech.com is a self-avowed Linux devotee and typical of its supporters. "For 97 per cent of computer users, Linux is perfect. Nowadays pretty much everyone is living in the cloud – with all of our data storage based online – and Linux offers you absolutely everything you need. For work, you have OpenOffice, for music you have Spotify and for instant messaging you have Pigeon. So it's not just a case of it being as good as Windows, because for a large majority of things Linux is actually better," he says. "If you talk to a lot of Windows users and ask them what they use, they say, 'I'm using Firefox and OpenOffice,' and if you boot up, say, Linux Ubuntu, a community-developed, Linux-based operating system created for laptops, desktops and servers, both those tools are there, so it's familiar territory, totally safe and free. So the question should 'why not use Linux?'". Related articles * * * Why are games so expensive? Miller isn't alone in his enthusiasm. A recent survey of IT professionals showed that in the midst of recession, free open-source software such as Linux is gaining in popularity, especially with small business users. And while still dwarfed by Microsoft, Linux is holding its own in the netbook stakes, with some estimates suggesting that the system is running on more than 10 per cent of all models. Linux's popularity isn't confined to bloggers, netbook users and software aficionados. In the past few years Ubuntu – one of Linux's most popular versions – has been adopted as the operating system of choice by institutions as varied as Google, Amazon, the French National Assembly and paramilitary police force, the entire South Korean government, DreamWorks film studio and the government of Mexico City. Later this year, the Vietnamese government will be the latest to ditch Microsoft in favour of a Linux-based operating system for all its computers The battle between Linux and Windows has been raging for almost as long as there have been motherboards and wysiwig monitors, and even now, Linux is still light years away from even beginning to challenge Microsoft's software hegemony. But some computer experts are starting to suggest Linux has reached a "critical mass" and that its day has come. So tech-savvy bloggers and IT professionals may be increasingly convinced of the virtues of Linux, but what about the average Windows user? To put Linux to the test, we set up four novices – from computer whizzes to self-confessed Luddities – with a new Toshiba netbook running the latest version of Linux Ubuntu to find out what they thought. Merryl Lawrenson, 56 Community nurse from Ashford, Kent I wouldn't say that I'm a big computer user as I generally only use them for work. However, I do some quite complicated tasks at work like writing on patients' records, so reliability is important to me. The word processor and spreadsheet were all very similar to what I've used before as our home laptop runs the same version of OpenOffice. Menus were straightforward and the icons were very clear and easy to use. The layout was also very clear, so perhaps Ubuntu is a little easier for somebody like me when compared with a machine running hundreds of programs on Windows. One gripe was that the red cross to close pages and programs was stuck away in a corner, but on the whole it all worked quite intuitively. Especially as it's free, I'd give serious thought to adopting Ubuntu if I were in the market to buy a new computer. Tony Messenger, 55 Music technician from Farningham, Kent I'm a music technician, so should know my stuff, but to be honest I really struggled with all the multimedia software that came as standard with Ubuntu. For the life of me, I couldn't get any of the sound or video elements to work online. I couldn't get it to play WAV files, I couldn't get it to play MP3s and it wouldn't play animated GIFs. I can only assume you have to download all the individual codecs [A computer program that lets you stream multimedia content] for each sound or video you want to run, which is a real pain. Nowadays, you need a good half a dozen or so codecs just to browse the internet and it didn't seem to come with any of these as standard. This defeats the whole point of using Ubuntu as a fast web browser if you have to spend ages setting it up and finding all the codecs, and would almost certainly pose problems for a computer novice. Don't get me wrong; I'm not a Windows devotee and the rest of the built-in software and menu systems seemed fine, but once you've worked on a system, any rival has to excel to be worth switching over to. Ubuntu and Linux generally seem to be the domain of the real computer geeks out there. Everyone that I know who uses Linux tends to be a computer nerd or work in the industry. They enjoy playing around with the system and I don't know if they actually do any work – whereas I'm interested in actually getting things done. Tim Blake, 23 Teaching assistant from Codicote, Hertfordshire I'm a pretty dedicated Windows user so I wasn't necessarily expecting great things from Linux, but my first impressions were very good. I expected to struggle navigating the menu system, but found it pretty functional and easy to use. All the information and programs were easy to access and the layout was fairly intuitive. It also seemed fairly robust when it comes to viruses and surfing the web. Internet safety is always a concern, so that's certainly a good feature. Personally, I'd prefer something a little more complex which allows me a greater choice of software. It might be great for an older generation of computer users who just want to browse the web easily and safely. I'm training to be a teacher and am on a tight budget at the moment, so free software should be really attractive to me, but I'm just too heavily reliant on Microsoft Office and Windows to consider switching operating systems. I use Word and PowerPoint on a regular basis, both on my laptop and on machines at school, so it doesn't make any sense to switch to a system which won't run those programs. So I don't think Bill Gates and co need to worry about losing my custom just yet. Androulla Polydorou, 26 Sales manager from Greenwich, London The first thing that struck me about Ubuntu was the interface. It's just so bright, breezy and user-friendly. Everyone who's seen me using it has been very impressed and has wanted to have a go. I had a few problems at first, such as finding the right icon to turn up the volume. I think perhaps I'm so used to Windows that I'm not used to searching around for icons. I don't have wireless internet and while I'm OK with computers I had to give in and ask my computer whizz partner for help after 40 minutes of trying to get a connection. That could have been more straightforward. Overall, I found Ubuntu pretty simple to use and a nice change from Windows. It booted up very quickly and was speedy online. It had versions of all the basic programs, such as a word processor, as well as a really good selection of games. The Toshiba I tested it on had an inbuilt camera, so I played around with the photo-editing software, which was impressive. Being able to alter colour and lighting and move things about and erase things was really cool for someone like me who has no experience of photo editing but wants to have fun with their pictures I wouldn't necessarily trust Ubuntu for work, as I wouldn't want to find I couldn't do everything I wanted to do. But as another system on my laptop to browse and listen to music I'd think about adopting it. ubuntu is nice and a bit safer than windows straight out of the box. |
#4
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life after Windows....
"Sam O'Var" wrote in message ... Andrew Miller, technology journalist and founder of thinkabouttech.com is a self-avowed Linux devotee and typical of its supporters. "For 97 per cent of computer users, Linux is perfect. Nowadays pretty much everyone is living in the cloud – with all of our data storage based online – ------------------------ Oh no we're bloody not. Not with British ISPs being prepared to give everyone including the local authority access to anything they ask for if they think you're trying to beat a parking ticket. The major advantage of using Linux is security. -- William Black I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach Time for tea. |
#5
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life after Windows....
"Martin" wrote in message news On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:40:05 -0000, "William Black" wrote: "Sam O'Var" wrote in message ... Andrew Miller, technology journalist and founder of thinkabouttech.com is a self-avowed Linux devotee and typical of its supporters. "For 97 per cent of computer users, Linux is perfect. Nowadays pretty much everyone is living in the cloud - with all of our data storage based online - ------------------------ Oh no we're bloody not. Not with British ISPs being prepared to give everyone including the local authority access to anything they ask for if they think you're trying to beat a parking ticket. The major advantage of using Linux is security. The disadvantages are numerous. Subscribe to any Linux newsgroup and watch the "experts" struggling with it. Right now I'm running two computers, Ubuntu on the new one and W98 SP2 on an elderly Dell, with a KVM switch and a teeny weenie Samba server running 2x 500Gig disks in RAID 1 for backup storage. The whole lot would cost less than £800 new. It's remarkably efficient and easy to install and run. -- William Black I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach Time for tea. |
#6
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life after Windows....
Kcoc Syawedis wrote:
I'm a music technician, so should know my stuff, but to be honest I really struggled with all the multimedia software that came as standard with Ubuntu. For the life of me, I couldn't get any of the sound or video elements to work online. I couldn't get it to play WAV files, I couldn't get it to play MP3s and it wouldn't play animated GIFs. I can only assume you have to download all the individual codecs [A computer program that lets you stream multimedia content] for each sound or video you want to run, which is a real pain. Nowadays, you need a good half a dozen or so codecs just to browse the internet and it didn't seem to come with any of these as standard. He couldn't get it to play WAVs and MP3s? What's the matter with him? |
#7
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life after Windows....
Relevant.Search.Result wrote:
SNIPPED ubuntu is nice and a bit safer than windows straight out of the box. You managed to post JUST one line but felt you had to leave all that I've snipped away. Well done.now **** off the adults are talking:-)) |
#8
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life after Windows....
"White Spirit" wrote in message ... He couldn't get it to play WAVs and MP3s? What's the matter with him? They're both proprietary formats. You won't get players with the distro if it's strictly Open Source Probably couldn't work out how to run the download... -- William Black I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach Time for tea. |
#9
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life after Windows....
William Black wrote:
"White Spirit" wrote in message ... He couldn't get it to play WAVs and MP3s? What's the matter with him? They're both proprietary formats. You won't get players with the distro if it's strictly Open Source MP3 is not proprietary. IIRC, Ubuntu comes with MP3 software. It's not difficult to download xmms anyway - it's in the repository. To be fair, Ubuntu is not always the best choice for beginners given that it can be quite restrictive and buggy. It's not hard to look on Google to find simple instructions to get what you need, but there are better distros for the beginner. For people who aren't beginners, there is Arch/Arch64 |
#10
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life after Windows....
John Bennett wrote:
Relevant.Search.Result wrote: SNIPPED ubuntu is nice and a bit safer than windows straight out of the box. You managed to post JUST one line but felt you had to leave all that I've snipped away. Well done.now **** off the adults are talking:-)) you forgot to set a random followup. |
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