http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/[http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/06/david-pogues-iphone-musical-sing-a-long/]]]>Sep 14th 2007 6:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 8:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
Ubuntu 7 already does some things, like make it easy to use proprietary drivers. So my ATI graphics card worked right out of the box. That's the way to go and frankly the only way that is acceptable for the general public. Does my aunt even know what kind of graphics card is in her machine? Let alone that there are proprietary drivers for it? What drivers are? No, no, and no.

Ubuntu is on the right path, but not quite there yet. Mossy isn't even so much an Apple fanboy as a "things-working" fanboy. ]]>Sep 14th 2007 9:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
He must really hate Uber-buntu if he recommended both!]]>Sep 14th 2007 9:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 11:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 15th 2007 12:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 15th 2007 2:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 7:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
True, Ubuntu is missing alot of thirdparty fatware that breaks everything else...]]>Sep 14th 2007 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
Rebooting my computer is less of a hassle than installing programs on Ubuntu.]]>Sep 14th 2007 7:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 7:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 8:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
People are used to popping a CD in or visiting a website and clicking "Download Now" without being dependent upon someone building a specific package for their distribution of Linux to gloss over a glaring flawed Linux software model of everyone developing each component independently.]]>Sep 14th 2007 9:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
You do realize that the ability to use Ubuntu is dependent on how able you are to use something called a 'search engine'? It's a marvelous invention really, especially since it finds things that are well documented.]]>Sep 21st 2007 9:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
then we have mosberg saying, it doesn't "just work", I could even play an mp3 without downloading the codecs for it.

seems like a very honest opinion and review from him. good OS, but not for mainstream users.]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
He made it sound like a 'codec' is something extremely complicated and only Linux needs. Anything playing MP3 will have an MP3 decoder, its just that when you pay $200 for Windows some of that money goes to paying the license fee.

HOWEVER, installing the MP3 codec ain't that complicated. I did it just by getting it through apt, but I think if you open Add/Remove programs and type in MP3 its just there and you can click install.

Mouse sensitivity: you go System -> Preferences -> Mouse -> Motion and all settings for sensitivity and acceleration are there. No different to going into the Windows control panel.


I admit that it isn't completely polished, but he picked out the strangest things to have a niggle at. If I wanted to run down Linux I would say about (despite there being a huge range of apps) there are still some programs without Linux equivalents, graphics cards can be a bum to set up, and flash is difficult to install on 64-bit distros. Those are the kind of more important picky bits, not that you have to click one extra time to access the mouse settings.


Basically, Linux ain't perfect but he chose the weirdest things to complain about (including issues which don't exist) when there are plenty more problems with switching.]]>Sep 14th 2007 6:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
Hes kind of clueless though.. codecs are needed on all platforms.]]>Sep 14th 2007 6:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 7:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
it's clear things are unclear, otherwise he would not have noted them. there are people that type email address's into web address bars, and don't understand the difference between internet explorer and firefox. I know, I support these people. my paretns and my friends parents.

the beauty of open source is that bugs can be fixed, and additions made.

Instead of attacking mossburg, perhaps the correct approach upon recieving criticism is to take that criticism and fix what's been criticized, or at least make it more clear via a short cut or pretty lil icon.

in the end it's actually easier to simply fix something then it is to argue with people and tell them it's not broken in the first place.]]>Sep 14th 2007 7:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/and the "lack of codecs" name one distro that comes with proprietory codecs installed? you will get sued if you ship them pre-installed, thats why you can EASILY apt-get them, hell, totem even says "sorry, found no codec for it mate, want me to download it for you?" If people are too lazy to click "yes" and let it download gstreamer then they should just return the pc.]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
a) there would be some confused folks.
b) those folks would be annoyed
c) those folks would just get a different mp3 player.

I get what you're saying, but you need to be able to look at both sides. simply saying someones lazy is not a valid response, its an excuse for the product]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 7:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
a) that just plain sucks

In Firefox that comes with Ubuntu, you just go to your sites, if you need to upgrade click upgrade, thats it.

The OS doesn't have to reboot, the browser (may) shutdown and restart, BUT all your active web pages and tabs are restored instantly. Now thats why Ubuntu is slick! Because the OS upgrades just as seemlessly.

Doesn't it seem like everytime you reboot on Windows after a 'spontanous security patch is installed' that it takes longer, and longer, and longer for Windows to restart? Wake up people!]]>Sep 14th 2007 7:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 7:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
That pretty much says they want to get on MySpace and open email. I think Ubuntu is good enough for that.]]>Sep 14th 2007 8:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 10:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/I installed Ubuntu about a month ago on my old Dell 700m, and I think I finally have it all set up. Installation was definitely easy for me, but it couldn't play MP3's out of the box, playing any movie files resulted in "black screen" playback, and when it finally worked it wouldn't work in fullscreen mode.

One month later, I think Ubuntu is the best computing experience available today - as long as you don't intend to play games. Once you get it all set up, it can't be beat. The community is extremely helpful and patient with new users, and it's really cool being able to do things like flipping four desktops around in a 3D cube. Windows users shit their pants when they see me do that in my lectures.

He didn't really say he didn't like Ubuntu, he just didn't recommend it for the "average user", which I think is a fair statement.]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/a) Open Source ATI Drivers
b) Unreal 3
c) Valve recently opened a position for someone to port windows games to Linux. Linux steam would be the grail. Not a certainty, but interesting and hope inspiring.]]>Sep 14th 2007 7:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Now, the codecs issue, it WAS more difficult in 6.10 (it told me which package to download from the Applications-Add/Remove menu),
but in 7.04, it was just a matter of opening a file using a patented codec and it would ask me if I wanted to install it. Just a couple clicks ant it was business as usual. Video worked perfectly, as did all the games I tried (which aren't many (Neverwinter Nights was one of them), since this laptop is just awful for any kind of 3d apps, but it still manages to provide a pleasant experience with the 3d desktop and eyecandy turned on).

Please excuse any weirdness in my post, but I'm not a native speaker, AND am mainly self-taught, playing computer games and by reading (and most of that from the internet)]]>Sep 14th 2007 8:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
The question is, can Valve get DRM to work within Linux? If not, I can't see Valve selling new games that way.

The other thing Valve could do with Linux compatibility is to improve the tools Valve licenses to other developers. Valve makes tools to help with multithreaded game development. Maybe one of Valve's customers wants to make a game that supports Linux.]]>Sep 14th 2007 9:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
As for iPod connectivity, I understand iTunes is compatible with Windows and Mac, not Linux. As soon as Apple wants to make iTunes compatible with Linux, iTunes will be compatible with Linux. The ball is not in Canonical's (Ubuntu's) court on that matter.

All in all, Ubuntu is far less "bloated" than Windows (esp. Vista), and you can change that however you like. I personally prefer to not have extraneous, arguably useful processes running in the background, consuming ~1Gb of RAM (Vista requires 1Gb of RAM to run, or so I heard).

My 0.02 cents worth anyway...]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 5:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
open terminal and type

sudo apt-get install vlc

after that you can play almost any video in VLC. Installing many programs is this simple. Yes the basic user it is still to complicated to do some things but it's mostly because they are use to the ways of windows, some unbuntu things are not that much harder and once you get it working it runs nicely. ]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/
It's simple when you don't have to read a manual.]]>Sep 14th 2007 5:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/walt-mossberg-gives-ubuntu-the-cold-shoulder/Sep 14th 2007 6:01PM