Alan Pope wrote: > Hi Tony, > > On Wed, 2007-06-20 at 22:41 +0100, Tony Travis wrote: >> Have you ever upgraded Windows? >> Or MacOS? >> >> Believe me, Debian/Ubuntu is much, much easier to upgrade! > > A very good point. I think often we take for granted some of the > features of Linux (specifically Ubuntu) that are just light years ahead > of Windows. > > * Software installs. A straightforward way to install, remove and > upgrade individual packages and their dependants. Something Windows > doesn't have and never has. > > * Release upgrades. As Tony points out, Windows upgrades are pretty > painful. A significant number of applications break after an upgrade, at > least comparable with the issues reported by Norman. Note it's just not > possible to boot an XP kernel on Vista to resolve a "scanner not > working" issue as he had. > > Worth noting that as a result of it upgrading well, and because Ubuntu > runs on lower spec hardware, people are _more_ likely to upgrade than > under Windows where the hardware requirements go up tremendously with > each release. The vast majority of Windows users never upgrade their > operating systems so when they move to Ubuntu and complain when > something breaks in an upgrade, they often don't have a comparison under > Windows because they've never done it. > > * Fast installs. Installing Ubuntu is way faster than Windows. Even > installing from a recovery CD is painfully slow. Some suggest as a > counter argument that "nobody ever installs windows" (due to it being > pre-installed) which is of course incorrect. Many Windows users > reinstall their desktops repeatedly during the life of one computer, > often due to malware infestations, viruses and general system slowness. > > * Upgrades of _all_ software in one go. I recently _had_ to install XP > (to apply a BIOS update) and once the product recovery CD had done it's > work (which incidently took around 4 times longer than an Ubuntu install > on the same host - and installed one 5th of the amount of data/apps) > there were applications shouting at me to update them. With Ubuntu you > just have one little icon to worry about - the update icon on the task > bar. > > * Flexible installs. With Ubuntu you can take a backup of your /home, > and a list of packages you have installed and can reinstall (or install > a new version) and get back to a running system very easily. I did this > recently. I plugged a USB hard disk into my ubuntu laptop, booted to > recovery mode and copied the entire /home onto the drive. I wiped the > internal disk, installed XP (as detailed above) and then copied my /home > back from the USB drive. All my data, settings and preferences were > retained. > > * Moving disks to another machine. I recently had a motherboard failure > in my wifes old computer. I just yanked the IDE hard disk out and put it > in another computer. I only had to reconfigure the (different make and > model) of video card - _no_ reboot required - and it Just Worked. > > And all of this is without even mentioning the fact that it's free and > open! How marvellous is that!? Let's try to remember some of these > fantastic innovations when we draw comparisons with other operating > systems.
Nicely put! I totally agree. However, in 'marketing' Ubuntu I am aware of some people who use a friend or family member for windows help, but would not have this if the used Ubuntu. Hopefully time will change things. I try to target my advocacy more to the FOFM for this reason, because they will influence five others. Groups and forums are my FOFM! -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
