A View Of The Future?
Apr 24th, 2008 by Don Ray
Today was a day of contrasts. Microsoft posted a drop in earnings of 11% because of a major drop in software sales. I think this stage has been posturing for some time now. You can only put out bloated and over priced software, while missing target dates for so long before it starts catching up with you.
Microsoft’s failings have been a tremendous boon for Apple, which has been taking advantage of this opportunity and has increased its sales. Apple has a very good software product, but I still believe that the hardware is over priced. Apple missed it’s target date for the release of its latest OS, but it certainly came closer to hitting it’s date with a more stable product than Microsoft did.
Meanwhile, UBUNTU released its latest release, today, on its target date. It is starting to capture the attention of more and more people. The price, for a system that is more secure than MS Vista and coupled with a wide range of software that will satisfy the needs of most people, is $0.00. For countries like Panama, a move to Linux is something worth considering.
I plan to take a look at Ubuntu 8.04, but will most likely do as I have done in the past and not adopt it until several months after the release date. I just last month upgraded to Kubuntu 7.1 for example. Anyway, the point to this is aimed at folks who want to try out Linux, but whose only experience is Windows. First, don’t rush out and download the latest cutting edge distribution of anything. There are always problems with every new release. Already there are reports of folks having problems with Firefox 3, and it appears to be almost as hard to get rid of it as it is getting rid of Internet Explorer on Windows. So noobies, stick with an older, proven release until you learn your way around Linux. Better yet, make friends with a Linux geek, and ask for help. There are also a few folks out here (I am one) who will put together a turn-key Linux system with everything working, for those who are just fed up with the demands of trying to keep a Windows box virus free and working well.
I do agree that this should be a great opportunity for other and better OSes to make a dent in Microsoft’s monopoly.
Henry
Don Ray — All is not rosy on hitting deadlines in the Ubuntu camp. Version 6.04 morphed to 6.06 (two months later than originally planned). This is still much better than Microsoft’s delivery slippages.
Henry — I guess since I’ve been running Linux for 7 years now and Ubuntu since 5.04, I don’t need to worry too much about going ahead to 8.04 now.
I also have a cadre of fellow geeks on IRC and you and Don Ray here to help me over the rough spots. 
I’ve always been a slow and steady adopter, but I may go ahead and install 8.04 in the next few days.
Let us know how it works for you, Tuxi. I’m downloading it right now so I can test it on a spare computer, but will almost surely wait at least for the Kubuntu release before upgrading. I don’t care for Gnome all that much.
I was trying to remember when I first installed Mandrake Linux on a dual boot system. It was a 450 MHz IBM Aptiva with Win 98. I’m pretty sure that was in 2000. Anyway, I stopped dual booting about 6 years ago, and my primary computer has Windows under VMWare only because I need it to access my bank account. I’m getting ready to change banks because any bank stupid enough to use a Windows only system can’t be trusted with my money.
I have downloaded both the kubuntu (KDE 3.5.9) and kubuntu-alternate (KDE4) isos for Hardy Heron. I’m just now starting an in-place upgrade of my Gnome VM. More on this later.
I have got KDE 3.5.9 running on the test box and it seems to be running fine. I have UBUNTU downloaded, but haven’t installed it. I may try it under Virtualbox.
I’ve decided to document my experience with upgrading to (k)Ubuntu 8.04 on my blog. Here’s the permalink: http://tuxi.ripabe.net/?p=94
I am sure several of us will follow your progress.