Ubuntu 8.04 Released… so what
I have been waiting to get my hands on this release of Ubuntu. I got up this morning and went to the Ubuntu site.
This Site is Temporarily Unavailable
It was that way until the afternoon. At the rate my download is going, the 700 MB file should be ready tomorrow when I get up. I will install it tomorrow and have the weekend to mess around with it. Most people downloading it will probably do the same. In a month, all of us will still be using what we were using yesterday.
I have never understood all the bickering over operating systems. I remember a Slashdot article from last month where someone asked the only important question that should be asked.
What does (another OS) do that (my OS) doesn’t do?
Fill those names in with whatever you like. The list of features unique to one operating system is short.
I run them all. I have to have access to the same programs my students use and my online students can choose to run any operating system. Mainly they run Windows, but some run OS X. I have yet to have a student that uses Linux as a desktop OS either at home or at school.
Just for the record, I have never purchased an operating system. I use what comes on my computers. My main OS right now is Windows Vista. I run Home Premium on my desktop and Ultimate on my laptop. My MAC has 10.4 and my iPod Touch runs some version of OS X. The rest of the family runs XP Pro. We all use IE as our main browser. All the machines have the free version of AVG anti-virus except for my machines. I don’t run anti-virus software on my personal machines. We don’t run anti-spyware software on any of our computers.
We don’t have spyware and have never had a virus. I have been using a computer for twenty years and I have never had a virus.
Here are most of the things we do on the computers in our house:
- Browse web pages and read email
- Create and organize documents, spreadsheets and presentations
- Create and query databases
- Schedule work and family activities
- Draw pictures
- Manipulate photographs
- Digitize and watch videos
- Create and listen to audio files
- Play games
I am back to the question that no one ever asks. What OS can’t do these things?
Until someone creates an OS that has useful functionality that no other OS has, we will all probably continue to use what we have. That’s why the version of Ubuntu I’m downloading right now won’t change much.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:32 am
I’ve used the desktop edition in the past and ended up going back to XP. Although the server edition has worked wonders for me as I’m using an Ubuntu flavor for a proxy server, web server, MySQL server, etc. With the latest release the server edition plays nice with Active Directory which should help streamline my proxy server in my district a little better. Although linux on the desktop sounds nice it reaps far more benefits in the server world.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:14 am
You are paying for Windows and you are getting little for your money. You get what MS decides to give you and not what you need or want. They want your money, but not your opinion.
If it is XP that you are using then you are using an old OS. It is the plain vanilla of OSes. You get no choice of desktop manager, no multiple desktops, no desktop effects and you can configure very little of it to better meet the way you work.
Linux is all about choice. You can choose from several different desktop managers, you can tailor it to suit the way you work instead of having to work the way MS determined almost 10 years ago when it designed XP. If there are features that you want then you can choose a different distro now or can work with developers and make suggestions about what to include in new releases.
Since Vista was released Ubuntu has released three new versions and in that same time period MS with all of its money and resources has not even been able to get SP1 to work properly.
Speaking of Vista, maybe you haven’t heard, but it is a dog. It is resource hungry and performance lacking even on new systems. It is so bad that MS is losing market share for the first time in its history. It lost 5% to Apple in the last year and its profits are declining each quarter. MS is so worried that they are fast tracking Windows 7 their next OS. The only good thing about Vista it seems is that it will have a short shelf life.
If the OS is doing its job it should be transparent. It should let you work without being in your face. With Windows you need to to constantly update and reboot. You need to run all kinds of programs in the background that compete for resources and for your attention just so that it can keep on functioning.
In Linux you do not need to run any anti-virus, anti-trojan, or anti-malware programs at all. You do not have to worry about active-X exploits or anything contaminating your system. It recently defeated a fully patched version of Vista and OS/X in head to head security competition by hackers. You do not ever need to defragment the hard drive or clean the registry. when it updates it never nags you to re-boot. You can run it for years without ever having to re-boot the computer.
Linux is not perfect, but if you are dissing another OS you had best know what you are talking about.
If you are happy with Windows that is fine. There was no need to knock Ubuntu without having any reason. Your attention seeking behavior has only succeeded drawing attention to your ignorance about Ubuntu.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
@LinuxCanuck – I think you prove my point. No where in your lengthy diatribe is one feature of Linux mentioned that isn’t available in Vista, XP or OS X.
May 11th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
ubuntu simply rocks……………..windows sucks ……………….it’s slow ……….expensive……………….insecure………………ubuntu has everything windows has & more!particularly hardy heron is unbeatble!
May 25th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
How do you know that you’ve never had a virus or spyware if you haven’t run a virus or spyware scanner? I thought i never had a virus in my 15 years of using PCs, but I found out that hard way that i had… and man was i pissed off. it took me weeks to rid the thing of it.
But hey, Ignorance is bliss…
June 9th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Ubuntu 8.04 is the best i’ve downloaded it since 1 hour and i get red of Windows also since 1 hour!!! Ubuntu RoCk!!!