In the 80's I worked as a programmer and got familiar with SCO Unix and Digital Unix. Working with Unix was complicated, endless command lines and everything needed to learn by heart. My first engagement with Unix was not a success. Actually, I disliked it.
Recenly, I have re-evaluated my opinions about Unix and especially about Ubuntu Linux.
Ubuntu - an African word, meaning "humanity to others" or "I am what I am because of who we all are"
What is so impressive about Ubuntu:
- Smooth installation (really!)
- Graphical user interface (mimics Windows and OS X, can be customised in detail by downloading GNOME Art). Kubuntu includes a user-friendly KDE-desktop.
- Documentation (User's guide)
- Based on Linux (All Finns are so proud of Linus Torvalds :-)
- Massive, voluntary development effort around the globe. Enthusiastic, helpful user community.
- Speed, especially in server use
- UPDATE: LAMP (Linux) Apache MySql PHP installation is a breeze, it was also easy to install Tomcat, Ruby on Rails and OpenLaszlo. Graphical Add-on tools like MySQL Administrator were a bit tricky. With server software, a proper understanding of data security is needed with Ubuntu. I leave that part to experts.
- Synaptics Package Manager --> you do not need to download, unzip and install your software from command line any more.
- OpenOffice, included in the pack.
- Let's see what artists and musicians will say about Ubuntu Studio, when it is ready
- It is free, at least most of the distributions.
- Using open source can be part of organisation's business strategy (please, take a look at Brian Behlendorf's article and Brian Fitzgerald's Open Source 2.0 paper (the draft, the actual one).
- Update: For an organisation, it's a bit tricky to choose the Linux camp these days: Novell with SUSE Linux just made a deal with Microsoft, Red Hat is the original corporate Linux support provider and Ubuntu's commercial support is handled by Canonical. There is an interesting debate going on: Ubuntu vs. Red Hat , Novell SUSE vs. Red Hat.
For individuals and companies, Ubuntu is really a choice. Ubuntu even supports various smart phones and accessories through USB, Bluetooth and WLAN.
I don't see many reasons why you should get/update the resource-hungry and expensive Microsoft Windows Vista. Usability reasons through pen use, perhaps? Tablet PCs are the opportunity for Microsoft and for vendors like HP, Toshiba and Lenovo. (Did you know that HP "forgot" their best invention, TC 1X00 Tablet PC?) Note: Windows Vista's pen support is extensive, BUT it currently supports handwriting recognition only in English, in Chinese and in Korean. Am I the only one missing support in German, in Finnish, In Russian (Cyrillic) and in Swedish :-)
Hey, there is still Apple Macintosh, running BSD Unix in the background. Fast and sleek, even in the iPhone! If Ubuntu wants to conquer desktops, it should stop imitating Windows and OS X and .... create a look and feel of it's own :-)
Relocated: Thanks to Tere (Vadén) my colleague and famous open source philosopher. I am also grateful to Timo (Väliharju), Tuomas (Lehtinen) and Kaisa (Huunonen) from Mediamaisteri Ltd, for advancing my business understanding of open source software.
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