Ubuntu Changing Again

iggy8n

So, I'm still at 10.10 - Maverick Meerkat. I know that 11.04 has been released and I didn't like the new environment. so I just got rid of it. I also know that 12.04 is coming pretty soon and it will force us old Gnome users to go to the new mac-like, smartphone-compatible interface. It looks like we will have to adjust to the changes that we are being forced to accept if we want to have the latest/fastest operating system.

Since I don't have any cell-phones out here because they don't work - no tower in the vicinity - I don't have any interest in joining the 21st century (by paying for those minutes) and am happy with my landline telephone. The last public phone in the closest town will be removed because it's not profitable any more. Apparently you just have to have a cell-phone in this day and age.

So, I checked to see what's new in the Ubuntu world and I see that 11.10 wasn't that effective an update. It caused a lot of bugs and blue screens or lost mice until you find your way to Firefox which does provide mouse control, etc. I suppose I will have to make the jump to the newer operating system eventually because the cloud is coming and we'll all use the screen and touch control like the smartphones already do. So, the desktop is slowly pushed into the landfill because there's a lot of smartphones needed to be sold. Does anyone feel this way? Am I the only one left with a landline and a number of desktops that work fine for me? My game-playing son still needs the fast computer with the big screen to play the games. I'm supporting his wishes along with my enjoyment of watching TV episodes on Hulu and Netflix movies thru my desktop. I suppose there will be a smartphone ap that will plug into the net via wi-fi and transfer the video to the flat screen. But, do I need to buy all these little gadgets to do what I can do today without them?

Is this all a marketing conspiracy to sell stuff or is there a real improvement that I'm just missing?

cyclo

Planned obsolescence at a higher rate... nothing is designed to be repairable nowadays including most consumer electronics like dvd players, TV sets, etc. If it breaks down it is often cheaper to throw it out and buy something new. A new smartphone is good for 3 years tops then you have to throw it away and upgrade. It doesn't help that most have no serviceable parts either and many have built-in batteries which will refuse to charge sooner or later.

When it comes to desktop PCs though, I still have 2 PCs with Core 2 Duos which are still perfectly usable. I just had to upgrade them recently to Windows 7. I have seen a lot of negative feedback regarding the latest Ubuntu UI... it seems you now have no choice to go back to the old and familiar Gnome interface. I have mentioned this before but this is one reason why I decided to abandon Linux on the desktop long time ago... all these upgrading every 6 or so months. Although you can delay the upgrade, ultimately you will be left with no patches. I even stopped running Linux on VMs... for me it was no longer worth the hassle. I read even Linus has moved on to a different UI... KDE?

ManofGod

It it is no longer a viable netbook platform either. I sort of liked 11.04 because the programs would go full screen edge to edge. 11.10 runs very slow on my netbook though. I have ubuntu just because I sometimes need to service a linux formatted harddrive or even OSX formatted.

iggy8n

ManofGod

Iggy, I can run Windows 7 Pro on the netbook quite quickly for what it is. (The OS itself does not run slow at all.) However, Ubuntu 11.10 was slow as molasses well 11.04 run quite good. Also, Ubuntu will not boot off my laptop with the dual onboard/discrete graphics at all. Also, $99 for an OS is not expensive at all in my opinion and you can get a family 3 pack for something like $149 when not on sale. Sorry, but free is not better in this case and you get what you pay for in my opinion.

Now, feel free of course to use what you want and be happy with it. I have tried consistently to use linux for 15 years and never could get it to work as stable or compatible as windows does for me. (Windows 98 was not so stable but it was far more compatible.) I personally also enjoy my Windows Phone 7.5 based smart phone that I just picked up about 3 weeks ago. (T-Mobile is less expensive so I could afford that.)

Oh, and if you buy a prebuilt machine, the OS is essentially free considering the cost of the machine overall. (Not that I would suggest doing so, I enjoy building my own desktop machines as well.) Linux was not compromised by needing to be compatible with a netbook, that was actually one of it markets and it essentially failed at that.

iggy8n

Cngevpxhaqrefpber

iggy8n

Cngevpxhaqrefpber

I think Linux could have a real chance if you had another company like Apple (whose OS X is based on a BSD kernel) that stepped up and built a desktop-oriented OS on top of the Linux kernel with the intention of making money off of the OS, in one form or another -- not necessarily directly.

Sure you have Ubuntu and the parent company Canonical or whatever, but I think they've got the same general Linux/GNU community mindset which is holding Linux back from realizing its full potential. The mindset is sort of like, it must be free and open, and anyone who uses the code must keep it open, and that's all that really matters... that's fine and all I guess, but there needs to be more than that if you want things to go to the next level.

As I've said before, I think Google would be one good choice to be "that company". Look at what they've done with Android...

cyclo

iggy8n

cyclo

Iggy8n, re-read my last paragraph... Google is using Linux on its Android OS for smartphones. What I am also saying is Google does make money off it by mining their users... based on how they use their phones (through locations services, ads that popup in apps, etc.). You seem fixated on Microsoft but any big corporation strives to make a profit whether on the back of Linux or some other OS based off it.

iggy8n

cyclo

iggy8n

cyclo