On 16 Jul 2009, at 22:28, LeeGroups <mailgro...@varga.co.uk> wrote: > >> People do want a work out of the box machine, and Ubuntu isnt totally >> out of the box, it does need other bits and pieces added, and >> unless you >> know that, it doesnt work how most people are used to having a >> machine >> work. Unless you spend a lot of time reading through the pages and >> pages >> of the Ubuntu wiki, you wouldnt know that there are extra >> repositories >> that you need, to get certain things that you have already >> installed on >> a Windows machine. I went for months before I got shown about >> medibuntu. >> The forum helps in some respects but you get told on there, read the >> wiki, or plough through searches on the forum, and then come back and >> ask, if you cant get it to work. >> >> I wanted to try get connected apart from my network at home through >> wireless, you cannot do that without knowing how to use the terminal, >> dongles from any of the main mobile carriers, wont work, just by >> plugging it in, so no wireless outside of the house. I had to get >> told >> about Bluetooth and Joiku spot, but Joiku spot wouldnt work with my >> 8.04 >> version, but it does now. >> >> Each upgrade, could essentially cause the computer not to work. I >> went >> from partitioning on 8.04 working to upgrading to 8.10, and not >> working. >> My only visit to the London Lug and two people working on the machine >> couldnt get it to work, froze the minute it got to the log in screen, >> uninstalled the installed from a different cd, not a chance, then >> 9.10 >> came along, and it works again, but without a lot of the desktop >> extras. >> Its the graphics card its not good enough. I have to thank Michael >> Fletcher for spending quite a lot of time on the phone and pc to pc >> working with it to get it to work. Same with adding Ubuntu onto my >> netbook, it came with Linux lite, that took a while, and a lot of >> work >> to get it how it is now. Thanks to Michael again. >> >> There is something to Ubuntu not being a contender like Windows and >> Mac, >> so many people take their Linux machines back, because they cant >> get it >> to connect to their internet connection, and that is before you even >> start with everything else. When I got my little netbook from the >> shop, >> they warned me, you do realise it most likely wont work, keep the >> receipt. This particular shop no longer stocks this netbook with >> Linux, >> because they had so many bought back. >> >> > I see what you're saying, but to balance the viewpoint, many people > (esp. when talking about Linux) seem to gloss over a lot of Windows > failings. > > Windows "just works out of the box". Well kind of, once you've > installed > an office suite, and some antivirus, antimalware, a codec pack in case > you're not using MS approved codecs, a pile of drivers (for your > printer, scanner, 3G dongle, graphics tablet), a better browser and > mail > client. > > Then (like my sister last week) you spend £30 on a game (Sims 3) and > it > doesn't run (keeps crashing). The handbooks says "update your > drivers", > but as Sims 3 didn't come with a driver CD (like the > printer/scanner/graphics table) you're lost and call your bro. He digs > out the right page on the HP website, writes large email detailing > what > to do. This doesn't work, Sims 3 still crashes. This time the unpaid > tech support gets the drivers direct from Intel, this doesn't work > either as the laptop is whining that the existing drivers have been > 'specially modified by the manufacturer to improve performance on this > computer' and won't let the Intel drivers install. Another large email > detailing uninstalling the drivers, rebooting, installing the Intel > drivers, etc. This fixes the issue, but leaves the screen set to a > whacky resolution, another email later, the Sims finally works. > > I'd like to say this kind of thing is uncommon, but if you're 'unpaid > tech support' you see an awful lot of it, if you're paid tech support, > you'll see this kind of thing daily. So - 'works out of the box' I > wouldn't exactly say it does. I've been using Windows professionally > since V2.0 demo came out... and it hasn't exactly been bed of roses... > > Lee
I'd have to agree wth the out of the box thing for Windows - half of my time is spent gettin drivers etc for each PC that we set up. Waste of time I tell you, especially when the customer elects to have no antivirus, and downloads 1 torrent loaded with malware that puts their computer back once again into the dark ages. The worst thing is that they don't often understand what the problem is and how to stop it - "everyone uses that site" "it's been running for years" and "it's my kid(s)" are the most common excuses i've heard. The only saviour I suppose is the Universal Driver Disks that some people create (and also driverpacks.net I think is the address for my favourite one). They contain a massive amount of drivers that can be sourced either during installation of Windows or afterwards. Anyway, </rant over>. Back to my holiday! Oh last thing - we've had a massive amount of computers brought in because of Sims 3. 80% are due to insufficient RAM (we usually whack it up to 2 or 3 gig depending on the OS) but 20% is probably driver based I'd say. James -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
