Over the last few years, various figures have been put forth as measures of Ubuntu’s desktop market share, with some sources contradicting themselves and most sources contradicting the other ones. Below, we take a look at different attempts to put a number on Ubuntu’s popularity, and explore the various shortcomings and ambiguities involved in all […]
There’s no question that Ubuntu dominates the desktop-Linux world. With commanding market share and a huge user community, it’s by far the most well supported and documented open-source platform in the desktop world. On servers, however, the situation is different–and Canonical needs to address it if it wants to become a real player in the […]
Kernel mode setting will be enabled by default for Intel-based video cards on Ubuntu 9.10, set to be released in October. I recently played around with this new feature on a Karmic Koala live CD, and share my results below. Put simply, kernel mode setting means the Linux kernel, instead of an X11 video driver, […]
One of the greatest problems hindering desktop Linux is its diversity. With 800+ distributions, dozens of user interfaces and lots of different applications that do the same things, it’s no secret that the Linux world is convoluted for developers and users. But if Mark Shuttleworth has his way, the free-software community might become a little […]
Many writers, including WorksWithU’s Joe Panttieri, have suggested that Google’s recently announced Chrome OS is bad news for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions struggling to establish a foothold on the desktop, especially in the netbook market. While only time will tell how this development will really pan out, I’m not so convinced it will be […]
The Ubuntu Technical Board recently sanctioned continued use of Mono, the legally ambiguous open-source implementation of Microsoft’s C# programming language, as a component of the default software stack on Ubuntu releases. At the risk of complicating Ubuntu’s strategy for the corporate market, this move positions the operating system to take a tough stance against patent trolls, which should serve as an example for weaker-kneed Linux distributions. Here’s why.
Ubuntu developers recently announced a new system that will make it easier to brand third-party applications with Ubuntu imagery in Ubuntu 9.10. While decorating the desktop with benign images of a Koala may not hurt anything, Ubuntu should be careful not to take the branding too far. Here’s why. In his announcement of the package […]
Ubuntu developers recently announced their intention to fix a number of minor but noticeable usability bugs, which they’ve termed “Paper Cuts,” in time for the release of Ubuntu 9.10 next October. This is a huge step in the right direction for Ubuntu, and reflects the kind of usability-oriented thinking that is central to making it […]
Like many multinational corporations, Microsoft has embraced social networking as a means of making customers feel like participants, not just end users, in a Microsoft community. When it comes to community-building, however, Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle against the open-source world, which was built around social networking before it was called social networking. From […]
Improving boot time has been a focus of Ubuntu developers in recent releases, with the goal of a ten-second startup set for Ubuntu 10.4. To test progress thus far, I compared boot performance for Ubuntu 8.04, 9.04 and 9.10. Below are the results, which demonstrate the impressive strides that have been made thus far towards […]
After several years of trying to find a good note-taking solution, I’ve finally settled on a local installation of MediaWiki on my Ubuntu laptop for managing information relevant to my academic and personal pursuits. Below, I outline my experiences with the software, and explain why the ease of deploying it and similar packages on Ubuntu is one of the platform’s greatest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, strengths.
With an alpha version of Google’s Chrome web browser recently released, I’ve been using it on Ubuntu for a few days. Below are some thoughts on the new browser and its ability to improve the Ubuntu experience. Before delving into an evaluation of Chrome for Linux, however, I should point out that the version […]
The drive to create faster, cooler, and more energy-efficient CPUs has led to a diversification of processor architectures recently, with the venerable x86 facing competition it hasn’t seen in years. If this trend continues, it will assure Ubuntu and other Linux distributions a substantial advantage over Microsoft, which so far has announced no plans to […]
The old debate about lack of standardization among different Linux platforms flared up on Slashdot this weekend. It’s a complicated topic, with complex arguments both for and against greater consolidation among Linux programming interfaces and distributions. It’s also something that would be a nonissue if developers could find the courage to declare certain subsets of […]
Rumor has it that Microsoft has arbitrarily limited its definition of “netbook” to machines with screens smaller than 10.2 inches. This move is presumably intended to force more consumers to pay for the full version of Windows 7, rather than buying the less expensive (and less usable) “Starter” or “Home Basic” editions. But this strategy […]
Unlike proprietary platforms, Ubuntu allows end users to interact directly with developers through Launchpad’s bug-reporting system. In some cases, this approach allows bugs to be discovered and resolved quickly. In most situations, however, open bug tracking is a fiasco that Ubuntu would be better off without. Here’s why.
For the release of Jaunty, the Ubuntu developers decided to disable the control-alt-backspace shortcut for killing the graphical X session. This move prompted a lot of complaining from advanced users. Although I personally sympathize with these people, their grievances reflect the all-too-common tendency of a minority of geeky users to rise up in arms about […]
Linux.com, which was taken over recently by the Linux Foundation and received a major overhaul, has gone live. The site has a slicker look and contains a lot of useful information targeted at experienced Linux users. Unfortunately, like the old Linux.com, the site is not a very intuitive resource for beginners. As I wrote a […]
The poor experience of many users upgrading to Jaunty has prompted calls for a less ambitious Ubuntu release cycle (for examples, see the comments on my recent post about video-driver problems). Instead of pushing out an updated version of Ubuntu with a new feature set every six months, some have argued, developers should issue new […]
Mark Shuttleworth made some interesting comments recently about the role of the Wine compatibility layer in fostering the migration of Windows users to Ubuntu. Shuttleworth views Wine, and binary compatibility with Windows applications in general, as a distraction from the real goal of making the free-software world “thrive on its own rules,” not those borrowed from the proprietary ecosystem. I disagree. Here’s why.
