Ubuntu Lucid LTS vs Win7 I Was Just Thinking That

I used to be Just Thinking That…
Michel de Montaigne I Ain't
Ubuntu Lucid LTS vs Win7
May 5, 2010 in Geek | Tags: geek, linux,Windows 7 Home Basic Key, ubuntu, windows

This weekend I installed both Windows 7 and Ubuntu Lucid Lynx LTS on separate machines. The comparisons and the relative strengths surprised me, so I thought I’d share. This isn’t a fan post for either, just comparison.
Why?
I’ve been using various flavours of Linux on my mobile devices for a long time now. Currently Jolicloud on my Atom-based eeepc and –before this weekend– CrunchBang on the laptop. I was running Windows XP on the desktop because I need at least one Windows machine (it’s what my Hoeg Computing customers use) and because of Apple.
Apple be damned. I loved my iPod Touch and couldn’t honestly find something better than iTunes for the business of syncing apps and podcasts. But I finally felt sick of Apple deciding what I can and can’t put on my hardware, that I bought with my money. Especially the dumb Flash embargo. And if they can’t even be arsed to make a Linux iTunes when they make a Windows one, then I figured I’d rather make-do, and replace the thing if I have to. (I won’t run iTunes in WINE).
When I’ve used Linux on the desktop I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve long been convinced that the threshold where the pros outweigh the cons for everyday home users was approaching. But I have been since around 2000. And yet that tipping point kept just beyond reach. Two things may have changed that though – the arrival of Shuttleworth/Canonical/Ubuntu, and Windows Vista. Canonical have poured money into Linux while maintaining, even strengthening the community. Vista proved every flaw in a non-iterating, monolithic, monopoly-owned OS, then charged users through the nose to buy it, and again to be free of it.
Installation Media
Ubuntu failed spectacularly here, but MS ‘support’ did a good job of equalising things.
I bought my Win7 disc image through my workplace, where I’m also a student, on an education license. When I tried to install the license key wasn’t accepted. So I emailed MS to ask for help. They emailed back to say that my license key wasn’t being accepted because I had cookies turned off in my browser. (Yes, I know. I’ll even give you a moment to read that again. That’s actually what they wrote. Go on – re-read it and try not to choke on your coffee… Done? Right.) This got sorted, as I’ll explain below, but it nearly led to me not bothering.
Ubuntu’s media problem is pretty appalling: the cd image doesn’t fit on a cd. Nor will it boot properly from dvd. This is a known issue and such a trivial thing to fix that I think they’re crazed for not doing so. Just removing a few packages or even writing it as a ‘dvd image’ would fix the issue. Instead new users who haven’t the technical competence to write a bootable USB stick and configure BIOS to boot from it are just going to give up. Considering that what’s to follow after installation is so good, this is just stupid,PC History, stupid, stupid.
If you’re already a virtual monopoly, limited availability of media’s not too bad. If you’re trying to get people to try your OS for the first time it’s a potential disaster.
Installation
Like all wannabe-geeks I install a lot of Linux distros, but it’s been a long time since I installed Windows. Well, apart from the annual re-install of a broken XP. I was in for a real shock.
Windows installation hasn’t moved on in a decade. No live media to try the OS,Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Key, no pretty ways of picking localisation, or typing boxes to test keyboard layout. It was *painful*. Not least there was was the aforementioned key issue. My version was an upgrade. But it turns out you can’t boot Win7 from a machine with no OS or Linux on it, then insert previous Windows discs to prove you own them. No – you have to install the older OS first even though Win7 will format the disc and over-write. If not, it just rejects the license key. I don’t pretend to undesrstand this dumbness. In fact it’s a retrograde step from Win XP and things didn’t get better once installed.
Once installed Win 7 behaved exactly like Linux distros of 7 years ago. No drivers for my sound or wireless cards. Video resolution problems. The wireless problem is so intractable I’ve given up for a month or two.
Ubuntu installation by contrast was as you’d expect for 2010. Live cd, so a chance to check everything would work. Found my hardware instantly and could work all of it, including drivers for my potent gfx card. Having tested all the features and liked it, I just clicked the desktop icon to install. The installer has the proper localisation and keyboard-checking options. It’s pretty, it’s fast, it makes Win7 look like a dinosaur.
Strengths
Windows 7 is amazingly lighweight, in a good way. When the laptop arrived it had Vista on it and could barely run. Since then I’ve had various lightweight distros on it, like #! And X/Lubuntu. I used to be dreading having new Windows on there, but it’s fine. Windows 7 seems prety intelligent about resource use. When you consider it’s fairly attractive and backwardly compatible by around a decade too,Office Professional Plus 2010 Sale, it’s impressive.
Ubuntu Lucid has too much good stuff to list. Social media integration is brilliant,Office 2007 Ultimate, cloud storage is built in, the repositories are stuffed with more cool software than I could ever use. I could pick a thousand things. But my favourite has to be the GNOME/Compiz eye candy. There’s no point me waxing lyrical about it – just google ‘compiz eye candy’ or ‘compiz cube’ or something. And then using the cube got me into using workspaces properly.
And the price. Ubuntu is free.
Support
I think we’ve already demonstrated what Windows support is like. The interaction above seems amazing, but it’s what I’ve come to expect over the years, on the rare occasions I have to deal with MS. Nice people, but not technically great. And too political for me – like when they once told a client of mine his Windows XP problem was caused by his SUSE dual-boot. It wasn’t.
I had to ask 2 questions about Ubuntu, so used the support forums. I got several instant responses, from people who really knew their stuff. What’s more,Office 2007 Enterprise, a year’s 24/7 phone support from Canonical costs the same as my student-license home-basic copy of Win7.
Conclusions
Win7 can’t be entirely discounted. It’s as good as some Linux distros. It makes Vista look like an insane junkyard. It makes XP look solid and well-developed, but dated. It’s friendly. But it didn’t work out of the box and it’s too tricky to bother fixing entirely. Ubuntu’s the better OS by quite some margin. Familiarity is keeping Win7 in the game.
If people could remember the difficulty hump they went over when they first adopted Windows, or if more people get to try an Ubuntu machine, Windows is really screwed.
Just as I predicted annually since 2001.