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Posts in 2008 November 12
How Ubuntu Lost Its Credibility and the Road to Regaining It
If Ubuntu announced that a radically new theme would be included in Ubuntu 9.04, would you believe them? After promising exactly that in 8.04 and again in 8.10 without ever delivering, I would not. What if they promised to ship a perfectly stable and bug-free release for the next LTS? I might sort of believe it, but I would be skeptical, after what happened with Hardy Heron. What if they told you the next release would be so exciting you would have to upgrade the second it came out? Once again, I would be skeptical. The thing is, I still use Ubuntu on my computer with absolutly no intention of switching. So why am I so skeptical of Ubuntu’s ability to do anything? Four words: over promise, under deliver.
I admit that Ubuntu is in a really difficult situation. Being under the level of scrutiny that Ubuntu is under and not getting some negative press would be almost impossible. Still, Ubuntu has not had the best track record for the past couple of releases.
Back when Ubuntu 8.04 came out, it was widely criticized for including beta and early-release software in a Long Term Support Release. Though Ubuntu 8.10 seems to have been received better, I am not the least bit impressed with the choice to leave one of the most highly anticipated features, the ability to easily have an encrypted “Private” directory, out. If you want to use it, you have to install it yourself. Perhaps the biggest problem, though, is the art. For a long time, people have wanted a new theme for Ubuntu. In 8.04 a radical new theme was promised. Unfortunately, it never came. Instead it was delayed until Ubuntu 8.10. Guess what, it never came. All of these seem to be cases where Ubuntu over promised, bit off more than they could chew, and fell just a little short.
The good news is that I think a single great release could put these problems in the past. The biggest priority has to be new artwork. It has been promised for so long, it needs to happen. Next, a really great release would have to be rock solid. No beta software and minimal bugs are a must. Finally, something new and exciting would have to be included. I realize that you can’t introduce much without also introducing bugs, but a great release would need something to make people really want to upgrade, even if it were something simple. I believe that if this happened, Ubuntu would quickly regain people’s confidence. Let me be clear, Ubuntu is a great distribution, but I feel that it needs to do a better job of delivering on its promises.
A Review of Ubuntu on the Dell XPS M1530
As I have written about before, I recently purchased an XPS M1530 from Dell, pre-installed with Ubuntu, of course. It has now been quite a while since I got the machine, but I am glad I waited to review it.
In this review I am going to focus mostly on the software, since other posts have already covered the hardware. Before I begin on the software, though, I would like to mention a few things about the hardware. First, there is a Windows key. Enough said. Second, There is a special media key next to the power button. As far as I can tell it does nothing but display a splash screen and then boot Ubuntu. Likewise, the WiFi identification button on the side also appears to do nothing. Third, one of the things I was surprised by is how much the material on the back of the computer picks up fingerprints. Luckily, it is also very easy to clean.
As far as the software goes, I would love to be able to say everything works perfectly out of the box, but, unfortunately, it does not work that way. Out of the box, I had the following problems:
- The built-in microphone did not work.
- The eject button only worked after unmounting the CD/DVD manually.
- Accidentally hitting the touchpad while typing kept moving the mouse around.
- The second headphone jack did not work.
While all of these problems (except for the second headphone port not working, which I have still not fixed) were easy to resolve with the help of this page, they should have been solved before the computer left the factory. Really, that just about sums up the software. Other than these issues, it is just basically Ubuntu.
I have been very happy with my M1530, but I am still a little disappointed in Dell for not offering a better out-of-the-box experience. Still, it is hard to fault them for being the only one even trying.
If you have ever bought a machine pre-installed with Linux (either from Dell or another smaller vendor), what has your experience been?