For the past two weeks I have been using Ubuntu 7.10 on my desktop PC. I used to install Linux distributions frequently to see which distros were better. But that was a few years ago. When I bought a new PC I decided to jump into the world of Linux once again and see what all the buzz is regarding Ubuntu. I downloaded the 64 bit version of Ubuntu so that I could benefit from my new AMD 64 bit hardware and got it burned to a CD and was ready to go. I rebooted the system and was greeted by the Ubuntu logo as expected.
Installation was quick, I guess it took maybe 10 minutes for the OS to be installed and rebooted. Compared to an installation of Windows, this is quite impressive.
My first thought about Ubuntu was. “Wow. It recognized my wireless card.” I was connected to my secure wireless network within a few seconds of booting up. I opened Firefox and was on the web checking my email and utilizing the PC for just about everything that I needed it to do. OpenOffice was also installed automatically so I had a full Office Suite at my fingertips as well. I opened up Evolution and configured my email accounts with ease. Evolution connected to my work Exchange server and my personal email’s IMAP server with no difficulty. Evolution even synchronized with my Exchange Calendar at work. Very nice.
Now it was time to get the printer working. But after a few attempts it was clear that Ubuntu simply did not want to see my network printer. This was very frustrating. My Mac OSX system connects easily with my Brother Laserjet via my network print server without problems, so I figured Ubuntu would be able to do this as well. But for some reason Ubuntu doesn’t even see that particular network device. I have chalked this issue up to my somewhat strange hardware configuration with a dated printer and an obscure network print server. So, I moved on…
The next stop was Eye Candy. I kept seeing all of these amazing videos of Ubuntu performing some really cool window transition effects. I knew I had to have these as well. Vista has eye candy, so I wanted to see how easy it would be for Ubuntu to look better than… well…. a dated system. I found that Ubuntu 7.10 has something called Compiz installed by default and you can turn on desktop effects to get some cool effects. This was easy to enable and was found quickly in the menu system. However, it didn’t give me the options that I expected. I had wobbly windows and that was cool, but I wanted the ‘Cube’, and windows burning out of view when you minimize them. The things I kept seeing in the videos. To accomplish this I had to delve into the terminal. Note: This could be done with the synaptic package manager but it wasn’t obvious that a package was missing to allow settings to be changed. Now this annoys the heck out of me. I absolutely can’t stand having to go to a terminal session to accomplish something. I feel that this is very backwards. I know the terminal is ‘powerful’ but it feels like going back to the days of DOS. Regardless of my frustration with the terminal I followed some directions I found in posts from the Ubuntu discussion forums and was able to get the advanced settings enabled by running a few commands. And WOW!, the Eye Candy is absolutely amazing. There are more options for various effects than I could ever describe here. It truly makes Vista seem like it has a dated interface. However, I don’t get why the advanced settings are not available right out of the box, but once enabled the GUI that Ubuntu uses is absolutely amazing.
So, I have Eye Candy and now it is time to install some other programs. I noticed that Skype has a Linux version of their program so I downloaded it and followed some cryptic commands I found in the Ubuntu discussion forums to be performed in the terminal and got it working relatively quickly. Nice. I then noticed that flash was not installing in Firefox 2 64 bit. Frustrating. So I found some help on the Ubuntu discussion forums and got a 32 bit version of Firefox installed in my 64 bit Ubuntu with Flash and Java and I was all set and ready to go. Again this involved a bunch of commands in the terminal to accomplish this. I installed some other native Linux applications, some from the Add/Remove menu in Ubuntu and some from downloads and then using terminal commands to install them. The Add/Remove system in Ubuntu works very well, and helps you easily install tons of various software applications. And all of the software in it is legally free! However, needing to use the terminal for applications not found in the Ubuntu repositories is very annoying.
So at this point I have a system that I am really starting to like. It looks great and does everything I want it to do. I have had a few headaches regarding the terminal, but I have followed directions from other Ubuntu users and have succeeded at getting software installed. This still left me with a computer that couldn’t print so I ended up sharing the printer on my MAC and then Ubuntu was able to connect to it through the shared printer on the MAC. Not the ideal installation, but since my MAC is always on this works fine for me right now.
So – now I finally get around to answering the question I posed in the title of this blog entry. Is Ubuntu ready for the mainstream? I want to answer this with some clarification. Ubuntu 7.10 is my main Operating System at home. I enjoy it and won’t be using Vista or Windows XP as my main system any longer. I have made the switch to Ubuntu. I feel that Linux has come far enough that it is very usable for me. However, I do not feel that Ubuntu or any other Linux distro that I have ever used is ready for the masses. Why? Because no one should ever need to go into the terminal to install something, ever. I can not be any more emphatic about this. Until the Linux purists, or elites or whatever other name they may call themselves, understand this, Linux will never become mainstream. Linux will remain a toy for geeks, not a tool for the masses. I understand issues with vendors not making their software easy to install, or providing installation files for a particular distribution, or hardware simply not working because a company won’t provide drivers. I understand these issues. But a GUI needs to be created to guide users through compiling a program that they want to install and have all dependencies get resolved automatically behind the scenes. We can’t expect companies to make a Linux version for every distribution out there, but we can expect the installation process to be easy for the end user. Users want to download and click for installation. Not download, open terminal, and then find terminal commands from the Ubuntu forums and cross your fingers that you don’t run into an error while compiling. A GUI should be available for typical things that currently involve opening the terminal. Installing software that you download is certainly one of these scenarios. I do not want to get rid of the terminal, but if you need to open the terminal to accomplish typical operations, then in my opinion, something is lacking.
On the positive side the Ubuntu discussion forums are an amazing resource with helpful people. I found the overall mood there very positive and open to newbies. Linux in the past seemed to have communities of people that hated newbies and refused to help or simply wanted to prove their IQ with a bunch of techno babble that only a MIT student could understand. The Ubuntu discussion forums are very welcoming and helpful.
I believe that Ubuntu is moving in the right direction and with a 6 month release cycle I anticipate great strides within the next couple of years. In my opinion, Microsoft should be very concerned about Linux now. Linux is getting more mature and looks like it will be maturing far faster than Windows. Maybe Microsoft should stop re-inventing their OS and simply create their own brand of Linux to sell to the masses?
It looks like you have been trying Linux for long time .
But u have no clue how to remove and add application in Ubuntu
( Debian ).
{Why? Because no one should ever need to go into the terminal to install something, ever }
Usually on the net people usually tell u how to remove and add application through terminal because it is more idiot-proof .
Then there is add remove in Ubuntu application menu it helps u to add remove complete application.
In the end there is Big daddy of all syntactics in system-administration well it does everything and anything u can imagine .
All the terminal operation can be done by the GUI.
Well before dishing about something please Google about it. Linux/Ubuntu in no way is perfect but application add and remove is generation ahead of windows well it is difficult to compare it with macos x but at least in installing part which is downloading and upgrading it is still better.
As for terminal you are right Microsoft must be crazy that they are
reintroducing it Windows server 2008.
Hmm …
… the printer is a real problem!
But:
– choosing 64bit does not really make sense unless you have more than 3 GB or RAM. Just adds hassle ..
– Skype installation for me was like: download the Ubuntu 7.04 .deb package and double click it ( 32 bit )
– if you want ultra custom flashy 3D effects you have to put some effort in it. No OS should provide something as complex as the compiz settings manager by default ( which can be installed via synaptic btw )
nakul – Synaptic is nice, but it can’t be used to compile an application that a 64 bit .deb hasn’t already been created for. There is still no GUI for installing an application unless you are installing a .deb created for your particular distribution. And since there are over 120 different debian based distributions we can’t expect software makers to actually create .debs for each distro and test them. So a solution needs to come from the ground up so that an application can be compiled from source and all the user does is download and click to accomplish this task.
And I know I can remove an application via synaptic but if the application you want to install isn’t in the repositories then synaptic has no way to install it. Synaptic is simply a GUI for the apt-get process. This is great for applications already compiled for your particular distro and are in your repository sources. It still does not address the idea that users want to download and click to install, and not download and compile to install. There are tons of applications without .deb installers for Ubuntu and there are tons with them that are found easily in Add/Remove or Synaptic. Linux is far from being leagues ahead of windows regarding software installation. It is far behind, this is actually the only area that I feel Linux is lagging in. For software to be installed with any ease in Linux it requires repositories to be maintained by someone, so it is always a game of catch up, and is a continual struggle for distros to keep their software libraries up to date. Ubuntu is doing well with this, but you can often find a more up-to-date version of something outside of the repositories, and there will always be applications that won’t be found in the repositories.
Windows Server 2008 – This is a server and not a desktop environment for non-techies. Windows Server should have powerful terminal commands, because it is for system admins. This is not an apples to apples comparison by any means. The typical user in a desktop environment should never need to use the terminal to complete a simple task, like installing an application, in my opinion. And I guarantee that the ‘terminal’ in windows server 2008 will not be utilized to install software. They currently have a much easier method for doing this. And I know that those .exe files are already compiled to run properly on a specific windows version. But since Linux is so divided among hundreds of distributions Linux doesn’t have the benefit of there being only a couple of different versions that need to be compiled for users. So Linux needs to find a way to resolve this. And I don’t believe that the best solution is for huge repositories to be managed by each distribution, which is the current solution being used. There seriously needs to be an easy installation/compile method through a GUI that will allow end users to install software as easily as clicking on the file.
Sepp – I had to install the 32bit version of Skype into my 64 bit system since there is no compiled 64 bit .deb for Ubuntu at this time, so the installation is a bit more involved. You can find some great posts on the Ubuntu forums about it. There is a 32 bit .deb which is probably a breeze to install in 32 bit Ubuntu.
And I believe that if Compiz is installed and made active when you click to use the advanced effects this should also enable the advanced effects settings menu. This should never be enabled by default because you need really good hardware to use these effects, but to have ‘advanced effects’ but then not have the ‘menu’ available seems like a mistake to me, and that is what Ubuntu 7.10 has done. Compiz is installed by default for all Ubuntu 7.10 users whether they enable them or not.
See, most of your problems were 64bit related. Which is not really needed for 98% of all people.
And compiz only works if your GFX card supports it. I just wont run otherwise.
I understand than many of my issues are related to using 64 bit, and I am not concerned about that. My issue is that there was no GUI to help resolve the issues that I had. Utilizing a terminal session to install software is fine for me, but it isn’t fine for 99% of computer users, and because of this I do not believe that Linux is ready for the masses. And if you find a new application written for Linux and there is no 32 bit .deb file you would find yourself in the same boat as I am with 64 bit Ubuntu. The terminal is very powerful, but it is not for the typical user, so it shouldn’t need to be used for a typical process like installing software or configuring hardware settings.
I understand that compiz only works if you graphics card has GFX support. My only issue (rather minor) is that although compiz is installed the advanced settings menu (compiz manager) is not. It makes far more sense to also have the compiz manager installed so that when the user enables the advanced effects that they can make changes to those effects without needing to try and figure out what they need to install so that they can have those effects.
> Because no one should ever need to go into the terminal
> to install something, ever
Sorry, I disagree. If for no other reason than this means that everyone must provide *buntu packages or the *buntu teams must be very busy packaging everything out there. Ubuntu is not the only Linux, you know.
lefty.crupps – I believe this is the very point I made. There are a lot of different Linux distributions so it is not practical by any means for someone to make a package for each and every distribution. This is why there needs to be a simple GUI interface for click and install that will compile the application and grab any needed dependencies behind the scenes. The current solution is for each distribution to maintain repositories of applications that work for their distribution. Ubuntu is doing a great job with this with a ton of applications available for easy installation. However, this is not a practical long term approach. The repositories will continue to get bigger and each application will have revisions, so it will always be a never ending game of catch up. It would be far more practical for users to download the application from the vendor and compile it on their own without needing to be an expert. A GUI interface for this and a process for grabing dependencies required for the compile to be successful makes far more sense. Users are very familiar with installing software on either Windows or OS X, so download and click or download and drag are considered ‘easy’ methods of installation. For the typical user the terminal is non-intuitive, and will turn them away from Linux very quickly. I honestly do not believe that Linux can become mainstream until this happens.
I should make it more clear on my site, my mistake, but concerning the instructions to install ‘compizconfig-settings-manager’ you should be able to simply click the link in the instructions and a graphical utility will ask if you want to install it.
This is done via a system called ‘apturl’, which recognizes package names and installs them apt via a url. This was introduced in Ubuntu 7.10. I have tried to use those links throughout the Ubuntu Tutorials site, but unless you’re familiar with them I suppose they may not be recognized..
Christer – Thanks for this info. The terminal command to get this working is rather simple and isn’t a huge deal. I am just surprised that since compiz is installed that the compiz-manager is not. It took a bit of google searching and running through a lot of discussion forum posts before I learned that I simply needed to install the compiz-manager package. Your tutorial is excellent and got all of the bells and whistles of compiz into my hands. Thank you for your tutorial.
you’re in this weeks newsletter 🙂
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue85
hi jeff,
the problem with compiz fussion, is that it’s still beta.
Most of the plugins are still in development.
if you create a “bad combination” that’s not supported by your graphics card, than it will give you a blank screen that could be permanent every time you log in. thus, u would need to uninstall compiz by going to the terminal in safe graphics mode.
In the times of beryl i fiddled too much with the settings and broke it… now is more robust, but still not perfect. They haven’t even reached v1.0 so thats to be expected and that’s why that tool is not included by default.
Windows Vista only has a few effects. While compiz has dozens and dozens of combinations which could break on unsupported hardware. Ubuntu only includes (like vista) effects known to work.
Am sure they will include a more fail-safe utility in the future. “Ubuntu-tweak” is now including a simpler tool for this (but is not finished).
http://getdeb.net/app/Ubuntu+Tweak
so don’t get mad at the ubuntu devs. It’s not their fault, they’re just safe guarding the most novice users and avoid potential problems for them.
and about the software install from source thing there are a few proyects around (like software compilation with a GUI, instead of the terminal)
also, zero-install looks promising (but not perfect either):
http://0install.net/
also giving out ideas is one thing (it’s not the fist time i see your exact same ideas commented), you also need to get involved as much as possible in these proyects (even if it’s not coding)
anyway nice blog, i would like to hear from you more in the future 🙂
oh, these 2 threads might give you some insight for auto compiling tools:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=358123
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=271107&highlight=kompile
anyway a better solution to uniting all distros is this:
Openlina !
some youtube videos and articles around
it’s either Openlina, zeroinstall or Ubuntu fully dominates the Desktop linux world (.debs would be the norm).
anyway openlina will come in first than the 2 other options.
Manny – Thanks for letting me know this blog post is in this weeks Ubuntu Newsletter. I am really surprised.
Thanks for the additional information regarding compiz. This helps explain why the advanced settings are not installed by default. I didn’t realize compiz was still in beta and still has some significant issues on some users hardware. Knowing this I realize I was too critical regarding it not being in the default install.
I am also glad to hear that there are others that have made similar comments as mine and that there are projects out there working on solutions. And I will check out zero-install, I hadn’t run across this project before. And you are correct that simply discussing something doesn’t solve the problems, and that getting involved in a solution is a much better approach.
Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Open Lina looks like a really nice solution. I wonder if there will be any performance issues since applications will be run in a second layer on top of the OS.
I was unfamiliar with this project before your comment. 🙂 Thanks for the info.
@Jeff
um yes, openlina may have a performance hit on old hardware, but should not be too different as that of Java virtual machine.
they’re really aiming high, they want linux software not only to work on all distros equally, they also want it to run in windows and mac… and they seem to be getting it right 😀
It will be an interesting proyect.
Also, CNR.com will be a multidistro friendly software download client.
If you use, for example, Ubuntu at home and fedora at work, you will be able to get the same software and versions installed on both machines without much fuss. It’s still beta but is coming along 😉
the world of FOSS is very exciting and makes stuff like that possible.
the future is very bright, you never know what cool proyects pops up next.
Am really glad i could had been of some help 🙂
Manny – I used to use CNR.com when I was helping beta test for Lindows/Linspire. It was a move in the right direction, but it still involves a centralized location that needs to be maintained, which doesn’t seem very sustainable as a long term solution. But it certainly makes software easy to install. I saw that CNR has a 32-bit version for Ubuntu currently, but they are still developing the 64-bit CNR client. I couldn’t find any potential release dates for a 64-bit client either, in fact it seems as though CNR won’t provide any estimates which is rather frustrating on the user side. I had also heard that Kevin Carmony believes that Michael Robertson’s Linspire and Freespire projects will be ending soon, which makes me wonder if CNR.com would fold as well if this happens.
um, even if the linspire proyect ends, CNR.com will stick around since it doesn’t actually depends directly on linspire. They’re making CNR part of their business for distribution of commercial software and free services. It might become the biggest software portal linux related
>”It was a move in the right direction, but it still involves a centralized location that needs to be maintained, which doesn
I hope CNR sticks around, it just seems like a ghost town over on their discussion forums. And after reading Kevin Carmony’s blog it has made me wonder if Mr. Robertson is just going to watch as his Linux companies crumble.