I played around with Ubuntu this weekend and I have been really impressed by everything, but I know many people still want to use a Windows desktop. So I thought I would give you ten reasons why you shouldn’t use Ubuntu so when your Ubuntu-loving friends tell you about it you can be armed with some reasons why you would rather use Windows.
- You Don’t Try Before You Buy – We all want to believe all the propaganda from people selling us something we don’t need. So why would you want to be able to test-drive an operating system via liveCD before you install it. Tell ‘em you don’t need any guarantees either, you’ll take it as-is, sight unseen.
- Installation of Software is Too Easy – With Ubuntu you only have to click on the Synaptic and click check boxes to add software. Then hit Apply. You probably will feel gypped when you have to go searching for software, unzip it, quite everything else you are running, and then install an .exe. Then when you are done run Windows Update (of course only using Internet Explorer) just to make sure everything is up to date.
- Too Few Viruses/Too much security – Virus scanners give you a warm fuzzy feeling, they can also keep your computer from performing as fast as possible. Slowing down your performance keeps people’s expectations of you low. Without spy-ware and viruses slowing you down it’s a nuisance plus once you are logged in it’s not going to crash or be wiped out by viruses. Plus if you got too much work done you might get promoted or a raise. That would be a real pain trying to figure out how to spend the extra money.
- No Expensive Office Suites – You know you like to pay $400+ dollars for Microsoft Office Professional. OpenOffice.org must be some kind of communist plot. Why save that money for your kids college or support education initiatives in the third-world when you can help fund Bill Gates’ humble lifestyle.
- Optional Purchase Option – If an operating system is free it can’t be that good. You want to go through an activation process to make sure it’s a genuine operating system. That activation is a convenience put in place to make you feel more secure. You should be proud to volunteer your personal information and then be forced into an upgrade cycle that milks you out of hundreds of dollars every couple years. It makes perfect sense.
- Too many Free Applications to Choose From - Why would you want choices you think it better just to be told what to do? You should browse the Microsoft catalog first, then go to your local Best Buy for an office suite, image editors, and other document authoring software. If you are tempted to chose one package over the other on your own ask the burnout sales guy who was smoking weed behind the dumpster an hour ago for his opinion. Why would you want to use Scribus, Nvu, GIMP, OpenOffice that can be downloaded for free when you drive your gas guzzling SUV to the store add some CO2 to the global warning, maybe even run down an endangered species in route.
- Too Well Documented – You hate it when you can find easy-to-understand, search-able documentation. [I wanted to find out how to troubleshoot my wireless card so I went and looked at the http://help.ubuntu.com and there was at least three easy-to-read up-to-date documents to help me.] I know I really wanted to call someone named John who was being exploited in a third world country, have him read a script about how he would help me and watch him fail miserably then have him wish me a very good day as my system was in worse condition than before we started talking.
- Excellent Free No Wait Technical Support – Speaking of support, why should I want to go to #Ubuntu on IRC where 1300 Ubuntu users are hanging out and offering their time to answer questions for free. It’s much more fun waiting on hold to hear John read his support script.
John (in an accent that is so thick you can hardly make out the words): Hello, this is John, "How may I be helping you."
You: My desktop isn’t displaying anything but a error message
John: I am sorry to hear that, what seems to be the problem.
You: My screen is displaying an error message.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: I just did.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: Really, why? I just rebooted.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: Can you just tell me problem that might cause that error?
John (long pause): Please hold I must get my supervisor….
You: What’s his name?
John: Frank
You: What’s his real name?
John:….Pradnesh - Too many Interface Choices - I know you like the choices in Windows you can buy many versions of Vista with slightly more functionality at much greater prices. When you use Ubuntu, you have too many choices. You have the option of using Ubuntu with the Gnome desktop environment, if you hate that you can use Kbuntu using the QT-based KDE environment. What if you work in an office don’t you want the same operating system that is used by third graders in their schools. After all let’s start children while they are young authoring painfully ineffective slide decks on PowerPoint. Why would you want them to use a custom version for schools like Edubuntu . It should be a law that you need a fast state of the art computer, why would you want an operating system that doesn’t require at least a gig of RAM and a wicked fast video card. In fact Ubuntu users with modest machines use Xbuntu to keep the resource requirements low. Once again you shouldn’t be allowed to compute if you can’t afford the latest and greatest computer. Computing is a privilege and poor people shouldn’t be allowed to access the Internet.
- Too Much Eye Candy - You don’t want any cool eye-candy like rotating desktops transparency, woobly windows, and more. Why risk someone calling you a show-off when you start demonstrating your fancy desktop. Keep your profile low with Windows Vista, it looks just like everyone else’s desktop.
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Haha I enjoyed that. Well done!
hah, thats nice, I enjoyed a lot on this article.
Ok, I’ll bite…
> 1. You Don’t Try Before You Buy
Fairly valid point. But to their credit, Microsoft does offer free betas. And I’d argue that those who don’t care about betas (or know they exist [most Windows users]) really don’t care about “try before you buy” OSs.
> 2. Installation of Software is Too Easy
Synaptic is nice. However, the default repositories do not have everything, maybe only 50% of what’s needed. Another 40% has to be obtained through adding repositories manually, which isn’t very user-friendly. Not to mention, most normal users (i.e. those who’d like to try Ubuntu in place of Windows) don’t know/care what a “repository” really is. The last 10%, a user has to search for it, untar it, solve dependencies, and possibly even compile it. Solving dependencies on Windows hardly ever happens, and Windows programs never have to be compiled.
As for ease-of-use, Synaptic wins over Windows installers, but not by much. The whole Next->Next->Agree->Next->Next->Next->Finish thing isn’t as annoying as people lead it to be, but since Synaptic gets rid of that, it has a slight upper hand. However, it is much easier to get things configured during Windows installation than it is to dig around .config files. So the Next->Next is a necessary evil in some cases.
Lastly, with Vista, the user isn’t forced into IE for Windows Updates, so that’s a moot point. And I’d argue that Windows Update is just as easy (if not easier) than Synaptic’s update (for system updates, not individual software updates).
> 3. Too Few Viruses/Too much security
Legit point #1.
> 4. No Expensive Office Suites
Another moot point. OO.o is just as available on Windows as it is on Ubuntu. Also, there’s Google Docs for the online user.
> 5. Optional Purchase Option
The whole “genuine” thing is merely for Microsoft’s security, not the users’; they have a product to sell and they want to deter theft, there’s nothing wrong with their intent. Also, the activation process is not bad, in fact, it’s automatic.
As for personal information, I’ve never, not once, given any personal information to Microsoft, so I have no idea what point is being made here.
Also, I’ve never been forced to upgrade my system. I have the choice of Windows 3.1 as well as Windows 7. If an OS doesn’t offer anything special, there’s no reason to upgrade – this goes for purchased and free OSs, alike.
> 6. Too many Free Applications to Choose From
First, the service at retail chains has nothing to do with Windows or Ubuntu. The entire retail chain can be avoided anyway since nearly all (if not all) software is available for download directly from the manufacturer.
All four of the software packages you specifically mentioned are freely available for Windows. There are also plenty of free alternatives for most Windows programs; coincidentally, most of them are also developed by the *nix community (I, personally, find that slightly amusing).
> 7. Too Well Documented
Windows is just as documented. And I would not say that Ubuntu is significantly better or worsely documented. True, there is more documentation out there for *nix, but that’s because *nix systems are not as out-of-the-box-ready as Windows (they’re close, but not yet).
> 8. Excellent Free No Wait Technical Support
What you call “Technical Support” for Windows is not the same as what you’re calling “Technical Support” for Ubuntu. True, Microsoft tech support is outsourced to some remote part of India; it should be avoided. However, you shouldn’t compare that to the IRC, blogs, and forums you call tech support for Ubuntu. To be fair, there are just as many blogs and forums for Windows problems as there are for Ubuntu problems. A Google search is just as easy for either OS (easier for Windows, I’ve always found).
> 9. Too many Interface Choices
Legit point #2.
> 10. [b]Too Much Eye Candy[/b]
Legit point #3. However, I’d argue that Vista Aero is closer to perfect than Compiz-Fusion (although neither are very close at all). From personal experience, I’ve never had an issue with Aero, although I’ve had multiple non-trivial problems with C-F.
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I’ve never read your blog before, and I’ll probably never read it again (other than to check for replies to this message). I honestly hope that you meant to bring up these weak points not only in jest to Windows, but also in jest to the *nix evangelist. If you are seriously attempting to promote *nix, please stop, there are MUCH better resources than your blog.
I say all of this as an avid *nix user and supporter, so I’m not being biased. It just really bugs me when these weak, unsupported, overly-used, underly-understood “points” are brought up.
-IHBT?
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