24 October 2007

Funk That (Gutsy) Gibbon

Like half the world and their dog, I have upgraded my Ubuntu box to Gutsy Gibbon. Many things have been written about this (the finest probably being this utterly quintessential masterpiece by Rupert Goodwins - geek writing at its finest), but one point that hasn't really been hammered home enough, in my opinion, is the fact that the upgrade required precisely three clicks (in my case - YMMV).

Think about it. For "other" operating system, you not only have *pay* to upgrade, but you have to stick in discs and god knows what. With Ubuntu, you just issue your peremptory command "upgrade", and Ubuntu toddles off to the right repositories, and does it. Automatically. I mean, how much easier can it be?

I'm sure that once people experience this they will never go back to those "other" operating systems. And that's not even taking into account the similarly trivial way in which you can install tens of thousands of new programs with the same single click command.

So, just how good does Ubuntu have to get before people see the (brown) light?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My Gutsy Gibbon install is awaiting the weekend ... it is a fresh install since I bought a new, OS less machine.

One trend I have noticed is of a lot of people who might have bought Linux machines in the past, just getting Macbook Pros. I still can't make up my mind on that one, since I have always felt that Apple gets a free ride for its historically restrictive policies

Glyn Moody said...

And not just historically.

Enjoy that Gibbon....

Eats Wombats said...

Perhaps there is hope. I posted on Microsoft's impending pain and traffic has tripled over the previous record!

The EU story is depressing and further confirmation, if any were needed, of the need for Ubuntu.

Glyn Moody said...

True: at least Ubuntu seems to be coming on strongly now.