Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th Feb 2007 23:04 UTC, submitted by Dolores Parker
Yesterday, Linspire and Canonical issued a joint announcement that Linspire would begin to base its distributions on Ubuntu rather than Debian, and that Ubuntu users would be able to use CNR to install proprietary applications and drivers, starting with the Fiesty Fawn release. Linspire is just the latest distro to switch from Debian to Ubuntu, though it may be the highest-profile distribution to do so. Are other distros in talks with Canonical? Steve George, Canonical's director of support and services, says that Canonical is in talks with other vendors, and says, "I think you'll see some announcements next week about other people using us as a platform."
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Member since:
2005-12-31
> From my personal experiences of introducing Linux to new users,
> Ubuntu is anything but attractive to the "average user."
It depends. The average user wants things to "just work". If you take average users who are satisfied with Windows as an example, then you'll have a hard time convincing them of Linux. Things don't "just work" there: There are hardware issues, software that doesn't run on it, etc. Linux doesn't offer anything to users who are entirely satisfied, and hence even Ubuntu isn't attractive to them.
On the other hand, if you take users who are unsatisfied with Windows, and enough so to justify an effort to improve their situation, then Ubuntu may serve their purpose. As said, Ubuntu has its problems, but for users that have bigger problems on Windows, it's a reasonable choice.
A certain danger to Linux lies in the Mac, as Apple does a lot of things right too, especially concerning the average user. I know that many people in the F/OSS crowd don't like this, but Apple *does* make good decisions, and it would help the F/OSS people much better if they accept that fact and follow their example (and that does NOT mean giving up their ideals). The Ubuntu/Linspire deal may be a crucial step in that direction.