Oh Windows 7, is there anyone who doesn’t like you, other than John Biggs? In an interview, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and head MF in charge of popular Linux distro Ubuntu, had many nice things to say about the newest OS on the block. He says it’ll bring a new kind of competition to the table.
Microsoft has been pushing Windows on low-end PC makers by giving away XP licenses, but once 7 comes out that will seem a little ridiculous, especially considering how well 7 is likely to work with the light hardware. So later in 2009 there will actually be a value proposition in choosing Ubuntu to power a line of netbooks — at the moment XP is simply more recognizable and better-supported, and doesn’t cost much either.
But Shuttleworth had more than shop talk for 7:
They’ve put concerted attention on the user experience with the shell. I think it’s going to be a great product, and every indication is we will see it in the market sooner rather than later.
It’s like a whale praising a harpoon!
If only the Linux fanboys were as level-headed as he seems to be.
Oh, the memories, I got my puny little paws on almost every beta of Vista (back when it was called “Longhorn”) and marveled at the marvel it was. With high hopes i ordered a laptop that came with Vista Home Premium (from the Toshiba A135 series).
It was a disappointment to say the least. It was Vista’s fault? Well, the same make and model preinstalled with Windows XP ran circles around my laptop. Add to that the fact that it’s really depressing watch your laptop crap it’s pants for no other reason than just doing what it was supposed to do.
So then I took the decision (some 6 months after getting it) to reinstall from Restore CDs provided by the manufacturer… It was even worse. It didn’t last more than one month on my hard drive.
I then tried OSX (pretty Tiger!) but obviously the OS wasn’t designed to work with this hardware (the fans don’t turn on and it could potentially fry the laptop)… All in all a nice experiment.
I could either shell out the $150 bucks they ask around here for a Retail XP Home (yup, no pretty multimedia functions like my friend’s laptop) or go the Linux way.
I tried some distro’s, I tried Fedora when it was 7 and ended up using Ubuntu was 8.04.
Ubuntu Linux 8.04 did not come with several headaches (damn this onBoard Audio) but i could solve all issues by following some steps on a forum.
No hiccups since then. So you see, I want my laptop to work… I don’t care for the laptop brand nor the OS it uses. Vista didn’t let me. Linux is Free (also as in zero paid for it).
Your mileage will vary, but, had this happen to you, your opinion on Vista might have been radically different.
7? Maybe, but now i will approach Microsoft products more carefully. Lesson learned.
You are tiresome.
i was a linux fanboy very soon after i decided i was sick of XP and couldnt afford vista (not that it would run on the hardware i had at the time), i used ubuntu from 7.04 to 9.04, the other week i decided, why not put windows 7 in a VM with the same stats as my old hardware, it actually ran well except for the lack of aero, so i dual booted it and now i run it as my sole OS, microsoft finally redeemed themselves in my eyes
It has nothing to do with being level headed, if he thinks the product is good then its his opinion. As for me I’m running the beta and is Vista all over again, wait and see. People tend to think that some how MS is doing a good thing. No customers are just getting screwed out of their hard earned money nothing else. One quick question, Did you buy Vista? If so will you pay an additional $150 -$200 or will you just pirate the darn thing.
As for me I was one of those suckers who bought Vista and MS wont see my money again and since I got Ubuntu running on all my PCs I don’t see that changing. But it is a good thing you like it and are willing to pay for it. Now MS can keep giving consumers more garbage. I can’t wait to see peoples reaction when they say windows 7 is here that will be X dollars, Hah Hah Hah. And no this has nothing to do with being cheap, just being level headed!
If you think this is Vista all over again then you have never used Vista or havent used 7 yet. There is a light years difference in performance, UI, compatability etc.. between the two.
In my opinion you are an absolute bold-faced liar and a fanboy, which makes your opinion worthless.
Computers are all different. Especially lately since everything that said “Vista compatible” could barely run it. I threw it on my XP box and found it about as slow as Vista. No duh. But I also found no performance upgrade on my former-Vista laptop. Huh.
So stop drinking the Kool-aid for a second and wonder, maybe, there may just be people who are not having a good time with Win7. It just might be happening, folks.
Well, the praise is at least a *little* tongue in cheek, don’tcha think? “Giving away XP licenses… will seem a little ridiculous” and “XP is more recognizable and better supported”, along with “later in 2009 there will actually be a value proposition in choosing Ubuntu to power a line of netbooks”.
So it’s more like a whale praising a more expensive, less effective harpoon. Darned right!
Honestly, I don’t think it will do anything competition-wise to Ubuntu. Free always beats cheap, every time. But most of us using Ubuntu are doing so for numerous reasons other than “free” and will not likely be swayed back to Windows because “it’s better than before” or “9 out of 10 geeks prefer it”. I haven’t tried it, don’t care to. I feel a bff post coming on…
But it’s hard for a company putting out netbooks to choose ubuntu over xp when xp is free. After all, xp has the better brand at this point. But in a few months xp is going to be old hat and ubuntu will be the only free real option.
Devin. Do you guys know how long will Microsoft keep activating Windows XP? It would be pretty inconvenient for businesses if they buy now XP and later they have to “upgrade” to 7 because they had to reinstall the OS…
Some businesses that I know of use virtual machines. That way if the system gets messed up they just restore the VM and there you go!
Scoble doesn’t like it, which means will be all ok.
“It’s like a whale praising a harpoon!”
I disagree with that point of view. It’s more like a tiger praising a lion. They are both masters of their domain. Just of a different breed.
But it’s hard for a company putting out netbooks to choose ubuntu over xp when xp is free. After all, xp has the better brand at this point. But in a few months xp is going to be old hat and ubuntu will be the only free real option.
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I used Ubuntu 9.04 for about 1 weeks before i decided to go back to windows 7 (RTM is released, pirated FTW!). I was having a really bad time with teh terminal, i’m one of those people who just want things to be easy.. a click here, a click there, and BAM! it’s done. I hate having to type in so many damn commands to do something that can take me a few clicks in windows..
It’s my opinion, but when Ubuntu decides to be somewhat like windows; Not obligated to use the terminal, then i’ll be more than happy to use it. But the whole typing in terminal just spoils all my fun =/
I am currently using win 7 and it sux, my Matshita BD-120 UJ or whateva it is Blu-ray combo drive will not burn properly even after a fresh install, when I open a new tab in IE8 it crashes sometimes and I get random freezing.
I have done many fresh installs to no avail. Every one is running around saying how good windows 7 is but I assure you it isn’t.
I am downloading Ubuntu 9.04 now and going to see how it goes on my laptop. If it goes well, I will use it over Windows and may keep the windows there as a dual boot setup coz I’m a dev and I need Visual Studio 2008 oh and Games. If I didn’t need games I would just run a VM from within Ubuntu.
Yall gunna be dissapointed with 7 mark my words.
The Hdawg Prophet.
I’m using windows 7 right now, i’ve been using it for a while now.. since the RTM was released. I don’t have any issues.. freezing nor burning blue-ray disks..
You’ll like Ubuntu though.. it’s great when it comes to working on laptops and desktops that aren’t fast. Ubuntu is a great OS, i dual-boot.. but i always see myself more in windows than in Ubuntu because of every time i need to use the terminal.. i just run ^_^
“when I open a new tab in IE8 it crashes sometimes and I get random freezing.”
You are lying or you have serious hardware problems :)
I love W7, but you’re so closed-mind in your hippie world that you don’t want to face it’s great. And it cost 30 bucks for students. Anyway i’ve got it free from msdn
You’re so close-minded that when someone says it’s not working, you automatically assume it’s not the OS fault. The funny part is that you called HIM a close-minded, when in fact you didn’t even try to see what happened and just said it was his fault. You are a shame to windows users, because of users like you, we’re considered dumb in the world of OS’s.
I could not disagree more. For linux users like you have an image as poor and disreputable, it is shameful for you.
It is absolutely ridiculous that users who call themselves “experts” and “free” ruin the image of Linux as making “mini-campaigns” such as closed-minded idiots who refuse or accept any credit for other companies as Microsoft. Even great personalities of linux (ignoring the idiot of Richard Stallman, who calls himself an activist and hippie) have called for sanity and ultimately to stop being so stupid and ruin their own image. All of you who walk crowded forums were for geeks, are but a drag on linux as they would for any other system. The real heavyweights don’t have opinions so infantile, just appreciate one or the other technology for the benefits of each.
I am not closed-minded, I do business so I am quite the opposite, and that is why I use Windows extensively and am able to say that if this person’s problem was NOT the OS.
I use Ubuntu 9.04. It turns on when I want to and it shuts down when I want to – windows has to update virus checkers when it starts up slowing everything and it has to install updates when it shuts down . Ubuntu just works and that is all I care about. Google were on the news tonight and said (basically) that the user wants to get on the internet and do stuff as quick as possible and they hinted that the OS is (almost) outdated and gets in the way of the users wishes. I am one of those users – turn it on – do stuff – turn it off. I am not interested in anything else and I value my bandwidth to use for stuff I want to do rather than downloading patches for mostly obscure security concerns. I am a fanboy of minimum hassle and I will flap in the breeze of the least resistance to my wishes.
I like both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04, nothing wrong with that at all.
Both are great OS options.
I started my career as developer with windows and was loyal to it for 6 years. I loved WinXp and Windows but started hating Windows for pushing Vista forcefully to innocent people in this world. Now I am against Windows and will continue to be for my life. Windows always used marketing and money power to push any crap they had and vista was one of it.
I wanted to buy a laptop so went to few stores and came to know that in this world no manufactures sells laptops without Windows Vista. When I expressed my concern about vista then they simply gave me option to buy a laptop with Vista Business ( 200$ extra ) so that I can downgrade to Xp. And since I did get any options I had to buy a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista installed on it. It sucked BIG time and annoyed me to a limit where I decided to downgrade to Xp. That was not smooth either since the Sony guys did not distribute Xp driver CD and the XP drivers had much less features than Vista.
Out of all my frustration i tried Ubuntu 9.04 and thats it, my frustration was over. It worked like a dream and outperformed Xp and crapy Vista many times. I do agree that Linux world still lags in ready hardware support as the manufactures do not provide any driver CD’s. I also loved idea of all free, so I not have to install demo softwares anymore. Life is much happier after I switched to Ubuntu..