The BBC takes on Linux

Posted at 2:31am on Sunday October 25th 2009

A few days ago, a BBC journalist was on air saying that Ubuntu was "a whole sort of little community of enthusiasts building operating systems for absolutely nothing." Since then, as you can imagine, he's had some angry emails from Linux users, so Canonical sent him over a laptop with Karmic Koala Netbook Remix installed.

The result, sadly, isn't great for Linux, but there's a lot we can learn from the results of the test.

The bad news:

Linux took 40 seconds to boot. Yes, that's faster than the 55 seconds Windows 7 took to boot (and on a faster laptop, too), but, still, 40 seconds is pathetic.
The background was "offensively brown" - something people have been telling Canonical for years.
The writer "struggled to see other machines and devices on my network."
Audacity was "more complex to get hold of"
He gave up trying to use Spotify, because it required Wine.
It wasn't immediately apparent that clicking on the Ubuntu logo took him back to the desktop.
A Canonical advisor had to come over and install a few extra things for him, including Flash, but still he "struggled to work out how I would organise photos, music and video."
Ubuntu "would not make my computing life any simpler and more pleasurable than it is now."

He brings up some really important points. And part of our problem is that many users will say, "he's wrong; he's a newbie; it doesn't matter what he thinks." But we'd like to respectfully disagree: if the mainstream press are trying Linux and simply can't get along with it, then we've got a serious problem.

UNR itself is pretty esay to use, but it should come as no surprise that he didn't find it immediately obvious that clicking on the Ubuntu logo takes you back to the desktop. If you've ever used UNR, you'll know that Ubuntu logo is pretty small and gets lost when other apps are running. Given the market this distro is being aimed at - users who get Linux with a new netbook, and are almost certainly new to UNR - surely Canonical really needs some sort of start up "Welcome to UNR" wizard to point out a few things to help get people going?

Again, given the target market, why doesn't UNR bundle all sorts of extra codecs and plug-ins as standard? We don't know of any reason why Ubuntu couldn't have pre-installed Flash on this netbook. Adobe's licensing certainly allows it, and the free equivalent of Flash - Gnash - just isn't up to the job yet. The BBC journalist - Rory Cellan-Jones - is an experienced computer user who, as his job, tries all sorts of interesting new hardware and software all the time. Far from being a computer first-timer, he's actually not far off being a power user.

As for Audacity being hard to get hold of, this doesn't seem too surprising. Yes, we know and love Synaptic, but it must be a terrifying experience for folks who just want to install some software. Sadly, Ubuntu is taking a huge step backwards in Karmic with Software Centre, so we really don't see this getting any better in the near future.

However, there is one thing we strongly disagree with: we don't think it's difficult to organise photos, music and videos with Linux. First, please remember that Windows 7 drops several key programs from Windows, including Mail, Messenger, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery. These are some pretty fundamental tools that don't come installed as standard: you need to download and install Windows Live Essentials to get them, which is several hundred megabytes.

Out of the box, Ubuntu Netbook Remix comes with F-Spot for organising photos, Brasero for writing DVDs, Rhythmbox for playing music, Empathy for internet chat, and more. You get all this out of the box. No special internet downloads required. No hoops to jump through. And yet these are apparently harder than the Windows equivalents? Perhaps so, but, we'd argue, only because they are different - any Windows user has spent years figuring out how to get Windows just how they like it, so no matter what Linux does (short of cloning Windows byte-by-byte) it will be different and thus "harder."

Keep in mind, folks, that MS actually puts adverts into Windows Live Messenger, but even with that kind of clutter we're still apparently falling behind in usability. What do you think? Are these apps genuinely hard to use, or is there just a learning curve? Are packages still too hard to install? Should common plugins be installed as standard when we're targeting Linux newbies? Send in your thoughts below.

Read the BBC article here

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Your comments

News Flash Eh?

LisaO (not verified) - December 26, 2009 @ 4:43pm

I seem to remember having to learn a lot about Windows years ago. Everything wasn't always easy with that either.

Why couldn't a typical Ubuntu install show a notice about NonFree software like Flash, Java Runtimes, etc. and allow the user to choose right then if they wish to install them. I would guess that most folks want them and also wish to use mp3 format as well as rar / unrar and a few other things.

It might make things a lot easier for those just trying Ubuntu for the first time.

It took me a good year to be comfortable enough with Ubuntu to totally remove windows from my systems. I've found there's nothing I was doing in Windows that I can't now do in Ubuntu at least as easily.

Many of my friends have tried Ubuntu after seeing that I can do everything I need with it but they give up because they don't understand about Non-Free software that's pretty much needed to do the things they're used to.

Some truth here....

wirlarra (not verified) - December 29, 2009 @ 9:43pm

I have been using linux (SUSE) for some years. I just bought a Samsung N140 that came pre loaded with W7.

After booting I was browsing, replying to net mail, watching flash clips straight away. I had a choice about photo, music and video viewing and chose to download my fav apps for those tasks.

This guy had problems doing stuff that with Ubuntu then KK has problems.

Feedback is a gift.

not stupid, lazy!

C3L3ST0 (not verified) - January 3, 2010 @ 12:40am

if you try out another operating system, you can not expect you know everything from the start and that it won´t satisfy you at the first moment. Buuuuuut....he is so stupid to tell it on air. for me as ubuntu user a clear satement for his stupidity. simply stupid! Linux is for free, man! Windows costs around 100 €, if you buy the basic premium version. The laptop costs money, but linux itself is free, better, more stabil and community developed; 4 advantages! what do you say now, dear BBC journalist. i hope you know that mac is not like other distros like ubuntu. it costs money and may have similiar things, but that was it.

Free operating systems are the future. windows may be good for some progis like photoshop and some other usefull things, but again, linux is for free. all the unis are working with linux and they contribute in developing it, maybe it be ubuntu or fedora or opensuse or whatever.

linux reached 1% usage in PCs worlwide in 2009 and this is not just a short phenomenon. Ubuntu is the easiest system to get aquainted with Linux. there are also some ubuntu copies with the same desktop like windows, but for me that is too near to vista and co and really just a help for windows user wanting to change to linux, to a free OS.

Overall, Linux is like Windows, you need to learn new terminal-commands, you need to learn the way of linux and not the way of windows; it is different and if somebody wants to pay, cause he can not get along with linux and instead use windows or mac (again, mac is kind of linux, but not free), so be it and do not be so negative. even hollywood is using linux and is helping developing it by spending money, so the movie productions are cheaper for them. i think you get my point, i could write pages...

cheers

ok, maybe both!

C3L3ST0 (not verified) - January 3, 2010 @ 1:15am

freedom of choice! take Linux Mint. there you have also proprietary plugins like flash preinstalled! of if people gave it to him, tell them! What douches!

Ubuntu is dead simple

Linuxsince1997 (not verified) - February 9, 2010 @ 1:52pm

Ubuntu just works. Clean simple interfaces are fine.Software is political never forget that.

Ubuntu is crap, Linuxmint is

tsimon (not verified) - February 26, 2010 @ 8:09am

Ubuntu is crap, Linuxmint is what I would recommend to some one who knew nothing about linux. Personally Sabayon :)

Keyboard King

Farcalled (not verified) - September 9, 2010 @ 4:04am

I have used Ubuntu since it was born. I have also used all the Windows varieties since the beginning of time. I have never used a Mac, nor do I intend to, but that relates to my lifetime vow not to give any of my money to Steve Jobs.

I have just dumped my Ubuntu installation because, after all these years, I can't use it efficiently and without thinking. Every working session turns into a computer research session.

Problems
The "file system" is completely illogical and impossible to remember. I still don't know where my programs are stored.

Finding and installing
I have never succeeded in finding an app with Symantic mainly because I haven't a clue what hides behind the geeky names. Who could guess that F-Spot has some thing to do with photo's?

Having found an application elsewhere (using Windows), I still don't know how to install it. Searching the web for instructions gets me going, so after about ten minutes typing and retyping gobbledegook in a terminal (a good name be the way, after using this device one is nearly "terminal") the thing installs but, now here's the rub, no one knows where it's gone or how to start it! In the mean time I should have been working.

I have dozens of interesting bits of software installed that I can't find. This is why the chap that started all this didn't want to install Wine. Quite right too!

The system needs a complete rethink. Get rid of the file system or at least hide it from the user. Why do I have to see all this pointless file listing when the only thing I need is my data and my applications? No, I do not wish to know that, kindly leave the stage!

Rename all the applications giving them transparent names. Dump all applications with user interfaces like F-Spot or Samba (which latter, apparently, has no user interface whatsoever. One wonders who let such a thing into the operating system).

Bundle all commonly used plug-ins on delivery.

Write a proper interactive "how to"

Stop attacking people using Windows, they get a lot of work done!

Very Important

Anonymous Penguin (not verified) - September 20, 2010 @ 1:39pm

This review is honest, in the past using Microsoft xp and vista they definatly have the end users at heart. Many many people want Microsoft and this BBC Reporter is correct.

I have been using linux now for 5 years as well as Microsoft and Linux is awesome and better to me although it would be nice to have some of the simple things, like deleting and adding simple off of the menu, getting DVD's to work with ease, and many more.

Remember the end user very important. All this free software and people cant figure out to use it. Encryption is a pain when it comes to linux. Encrypting a folder should be a right click and password. That would be useful.

I totally agree with this review, if you don't think it matters then you really are not aware of affect the media can have. Linux simplified