Switch to Ubuntu

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Remember those “Switch” adverts from Apple? The format was simple but innovative: A recent Mac convert stood against a white background and explained to the camera why they’d switched from Windows to Mac. A jaunty jazz tune played in the background. It was all “very Apple”.

The most famous participant was Ellen Feiss (pictured), who inspired a series of online fan clubs. In her advert, she passionately complained that her Windows computer went “beep beep beep” before trashing her work.

Well, the Switch is happening all over again. But this time people are switching away from Mac and onto Ubuntu.

The most surprising convert is Cory Doctorow, sci-fi author, digital rights activist and Boingboing.net blogger. This man loves Apple so much he has an Apple logo tattooed on his arm. Yet he’s switching to Ubuntu.

His reasons are the same as those of Mark Pilgrim, who my colleague Jason mentioned yesterday. Cory is fed-up of Apple’s wholehearted lovefest with digital rights management technologies and he’s annoyed at the way Apple forces proprietary file formats down its users’ throats.

Apple once embraced open source and was one of the brightest hopes for the future. I got tired of seeing how many members of the OS community had switched to Apple Macs, yet still claimed to be passionate open source advocates.

So what’s changed?

Put simply, Apple isn’t as friendly towards open source as it once was. It has closed off the open source Darwin kernel, for example, describing the project as being in “in flux”. It had a spat with the Konqueror developers, from whom it took code for its Safari web browser, yet to whom it wasn’t particularly friendly when passing back changes it had made (to be fair, Apple’s engineers eventually fixed this problem).

However, in the view of some, Apple isn’t acting like a upstanding member of the OS community. It’s showing a little too much self interest. In fact, it’s showing a hell of a lot of self interest. While it’s sticking to the word of open source legal agreements, it’s showing a complete disregard for the principles and ethics of open source.

Add into this mix Apple’s love of DRM and proprietary file format technologies, plus the fact that the Intel chips in modern Macs show that they’re nothing more than stylish but expensive PC clones, and that old Apple magic starts to gurgle away down the drain.

1. 1. Rodney says:
      Jul 1, 01:02 am
      
      

      http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,54202-1.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1

      Cory appears to have not an Apple tat, but a “Sad Mac” tat.

      
      
2. 1. daedal says:
      Jul 1, 01:06 am
      
      

      Interesting article. It’s understandable that people are switching to Ubuntu; Apple has been pulling off some pretty weird dance moves and are finnaly seeing some ripples.

      
      
3. 1. Nathan Nutter says:
      Jul 1, 01:56 am
      
      

      If open source can’t thrive on people’s self interest then it will fail. The principles and ethics of open source are not what keep it afloat, its pragmatic values, choice and economics, are what make it powerful.

      
      
4. 1. Deacon Nikolai says:
      Jul 1, 02:06 am
      
      

      That is why I have Ubuntu double booting on my Macs too. I love Ubuntu, but it is not quite ready to replace Mac OS X. However I do hope that day can come!

      
      
5. 1. Gregor J. Rothfuss says:
      Jul 1, 02:11 am
      
      

      Apple has never been a real open source citizen. Read a former Darwin developer’s perspective:

      http://opendarwin.org/~bbraun/darwin_lessons.html

      
      
6. 1. jhay says:
      Jul 1, 02:15 am
      
      

      To think here I am dreaming of owning my own Mac computer someday. Still, I’m glad to have moved to Ubuntu a year ago.

      
      
7. 1. Chip Daiger says:
      Jul 1, 02:16 am
      
      

      People: While I admire the work of Ubuntu, it still doesn’t “just work” with the devices and programs I want to work with. I run Kubuntu and Xp on my MacBook (thru Parallels) and they work great. It’s just when I have work to do, I use OSX.

      Not a fanboy. I have been very os agnostic (ran OS/2 when it was superior to win 3.1). Just calling them like I see them. And I see OSX as the best consumer OS on the market.

      
      
8. 1. spreeter1 says:
      Jul 1, 02:44 am
      
      

      “However, in the view of some, Apple isn’t acting like a upstanding member of the OS community. It’s showing a little too much self interest. In fact, it’s showing a hell of a lot of self interest. While it’s sticking to the word of open source legal agreements, it’s showing a complete disregard for the principles and ethics of open source.”

      What is this? A little too much self-interest? How can a public company be criticized of too much self-interest (barring illegal actions, obviously)? What exactly are the “principles and ethics” of open source? License agreements exist to establish what Apple (or anybody) can do with the software. If the software shouldn’t be used by Apple, why isn’t the license copyleft?

      
      
9. 1. Brian says:
      Jul 1, 02:54 am
      
      

      This article is a joke. I spent 3 hours trying to get Ubuntu running on my Latitude D620. Why would anyone in their right mind switch from a Mac to Unbuntu? Wow, two high profile bloggers switched. Big deal.

      Lets see some numbers. Besides these two nerds, how many other people are flocking away from Apple computers for Unbuntu? Not many at all, I’m sure.

      I bet any money that these two guys switch back in less than a year. Any money.

      
      
10. 1. Suds says:
       Jul 1, 02:57 am
       
       

       So you’re angry because Apple isn’t opening up its software for every man and his dog to play with?

       I mean come on, they want to make money; and they make decisions based on how that affects mac and software sales. Why would they want to comply with the open-source community if they felt it would affect their profit margins?

       Sometimes people are just too naive for their own good.

       P.S. I still have a problem with DRM though.

       
       
11. 1. acid says:
       Jul 1, 03:08 am
       
       

       I would like to see a company pull the music involvement and agreements with record and video labels, and not use DRM. Do you think Apple would have the gust they do with the iTunes if not for DRM?

       Your crazy.

       
       
12. 1. Ric Steinberger says:
       Jul 1, 03:10 am
       
       

       There are really good reasons to move from Windows to Mac. But for most people, there are less reasons to move from either to Ubuntu. Don’t get me wrong: I love Linux, and Ubuntu is one of the very best distros I’ve worked with. But most computer owners want to be able to walk into a Best Buy, or CompUSA, or Circuit City, or similar, and buy a printer, or digital camera that is supported by the manufacturer on the OS they use. And that’s Windows or Mac. It’s not Ubuntu, or any Linux. And the reality is that very few folks, no matter how easy Ubuntu is made to download, install and use want an OS that no hardware vendors support. Furthermore, most computer users are not Digg-ers, not /.-ers, i.e., not very tech savvy. Getting them to Linux will take a lot of hand-holding, and there’s no one to do that. So: until there is a “sizeable” number of Linux users, hardware vendors won’t support it, and until hardware vendors support it, Linux will remain (mostly) a techie OS. Sorry – I wish it were different. I don’t like paying high prices for Apple, but that’s reality, at least for now.

       
       
13. 1. Sam Kennedy says:
       Jul 1, 03:17 am
       
       

       This article is complete nonsense.

       a. Apple’s self-interest? How about my self-interest? Linux is a complete joke on the desktop. I use it on servers, but really, the ease of use of Mac OS X on the desktop is definitely worthwhile.

       b. It is silly to claim that participation in the open source movement can, might, or even more insanely somehow ethically must, conflict with an entity’s “self-interest”. People or companies don’t do things against their self-interest. Duh. That’s why it’s called self-interest… and to claim that they should, to uphold your poorly-articulated and vague “ethics” is also silly, and will do nothing but convince the wary that the open source world is filled with zealots who aren’t grounded in reality.

       c. Exactly how is it any harder to use open formats on a Mac than on Linux? The latest time I used Linux, my free and libre access to information (my music) was much more under attack by ALSA having an error opening /dev/somecrap, than by the FairPlay encryption used by the iTunes Music Store that I never use.

       
       
14. 1. Sanjiv says:
       Jul 1, 04:08 am
       
       

       I use Macs (desktop and laptop) and Ubuntu (for my servers) together, and I dont see myself switching totally to Ubuntu. I find them both very good to use, in those specific domains. By forcing polarized choices in such discussions, we lose sight that there might be better compromise optima that accommodate different yet highly compatible operating systems.

       
       
15. 1. LFT says:
       Jul 1, 04:08 am
       
       

       Great article. Not every Mac user is going to like Ubuntu at this stage, but it is good to see some high-profile Mac-users already making the switch.

       I think this is only the beginning…

       
       
16. 1. shishira says:
       Jul 1, 04:42 am
       
       

       The default Ubuntu comes with Gnome which for me was not much fun . . . but Kubuntu is a tottaly different story. Have 2 Acid2 test passed browsers running on Kubuntu Konqueror and Opera.

       
       
17. 1. Twiggy says:
       Jul 1, 05:02 am
       
       

       YAY UBUNTU!!! Just got my shipment of 6.01 cd’s in the mail today… cant wait to go convert yon non ubuntu’ers.

       
       
18. 1. Greg says:
       Jul 1, 05:08 am
       
       

       You know, this article is retarded. Sorry Linux fanboys/girls, but Linux is not ready for the desktop for 95% of the public. A couple comparisons to illustrate:

       1) MS Office vs. OpenOffice:
       Microsoft Office is the defacto standard in business. This is what people know, it comes on every PC made. It also, works and works well. OpenOffice on the other hand was not much better than notepad.exe on windows as far as I was concerned. I used it for a quarter at college under both Ubuntu (never could get video and sound to work at all) and under MacOS X and I have to say that, while I don’t remember the Ubuntu experience that much, OpenOffice on the Mac (MacOS X) sucked the sweat off a dead mans balls. I had a whole paper that printed out in italic because for some reason OpenOffice will not under any circumstance even show italics on my venerable Pismo G3. Unacceptable. I switched back to MS Office and never had a problem.

       2) Photoshop vs. Gimp:
       Do I neven need to go here? Gimp is crap compared to photoshop. While there are some neat plug-ins for Gimp, it has about 90% to go before it even compares to Photoshop.

       3) No point in continuing, there are so many things that are egregiously wrong with any Linux/BSD that unless you are a techie (I could have written my paper in ‘vi’ easier than in OpenOffice), Linux just simply is not ready. Aditionally, people want to be able to call their hardware vendor for support. That’s not going to happen with Linux. The best way for Linux to make any significant inroad into the general population is if all the fanboys put their own agenda’s aside and come up with some unified kickass distribution. How many different linux distributions are there? Which one do I choose? Why that one? who supports it?

       Sorry, Linux on the deskop is a joke

       
       
19. 1. 5r43 says:
       Jul 1, 11:32 am
       
       

       I have to say, the author of this article has really hit a nerve on Apple fans…Boo hoo. Big deal. They left for Linux. Everyone leaves one thing for another for THEIR reasons, NOT YOURS. ie: It doesn’t meet their needs, requirements, or even their beliefs.

       It doesn’t mean there’s gonna be a mass population of Apple users leaving. You Apple nuts should remember that, before you blindly post your nonsense.

       Fine, Linux is not quite ready yet, but from my experience, its about 60% to 70% there.

       And what shame…You Apple fans should know better. This is a Pro-opensource site…What do you twits expect? They have articles kissing Apple’s butt? You folks are JUST AS CLUELESS as Windows users.

       Take for example, the poster above, “Greg”. You can tell this person is a Mac fan. Totally defensive with unconstructive rambling.

       (1) He could not get video or sound working under Ubuntu. And yet, I got them both working under Arch, Debian, OpenSUSE, Fedora Core, PCLinuxOS, and even Slackware. This was on a laptop with only 1 yr of Linux experience under my belt…And I’m still learning the interesting things about open-source.

       And what’s this nonsense about OpenOffice vs MS Office? I’ve used it for 3 of the 4 years in my Degree. Not a single issue. OpenOffice SHITS on MS Office when it comes to 300 page reports I have to write. It doesn’t throw a spas on me. (crash, lose saved file, etc, etc).

       (2) Nonsense talking. What crap? Where did you pull 90% from? You’re talking out of your butt because you’re angry that someone has decided to leave YOUR beloved Apple.

       (3) You sir, are a MORON. OSX uses BSD as some of its fundamental code! Apple slaps on a pretty GUI and cleans up the roughness, and you think its a brand new thing from the ground up! Man, I should start a business…To trick gulliable morons like yourself while earning MILLIONS!

       And the reasons why hardware is NOT supported well in Linux is because it doesn’t help hardware manufacturers make money like Windows or Apple does.

       If software doesn’t make people buy hardware, then why bother? They will come up with any and every excuse to avoid supporting Linux as much as possible. With every release of a new Windows, it gets people buying new hardware. With every copy of OSX, you need to buy “Apple Only” hardware…Think about it, genius.

       You call Linux a joke, how about you look at Apple itself.

       (1) Criticise Mr Jobs in print material that are on Apple Store shelves, and he’ll have them pulled. Control Freak incident 1.

       (2) Release news about upcoming Apple products…Get ready to face Apple lawyers. Control Freak incident 2.

       (3) MacBook Pro. Assemblers at Apple are not even educated enough to put a THIN layer of thermal grease! LOL! Even they are clueless as their customers!

       They put a whole shitload! Its so badm that it causes thermal issues, triggers off the fan more often…Result? Noise.

       (4) Apple…Once they have your money, they’ll use every excuse not to be responsible or deny anything going wrong.

       (a) Fan on Apple notebook comes on too often? Response: “That’s normal”...Reality? See point (3).

       (b) Apple notebook (white ones) start to produce stains on the palm-rests…Apple first blames users. Then a week or so later, they admit to being a possible issue with the material they have chosen!

       (5) Security. Apple uses the “Security through obscurity” approach. The idea is to give the developer enough time to write a patch for a security problem, since they’re not disclosing anything. The problem is, they get lazy, and a hacker needs to threaten them by releasing details, to get them to fix the issue! (Microsoft is the worst offender, but Apple seems to be following their footsteps in this regard)...SHAME.

       (6) Windows Users = Apple Users = CLUELESS. That’s right. Both class of users aren’t taught anything about basic security or have no idea WTF to do when something DOES NOT work.

       
       
20. 1. Benjamin Huot says:
       Jul 2, 11:30 am
       
       

       Well maybe I am the only one, but I use both. As far as compatibility is concerned, you can get computers pre-installed with Linux on them – just go to Linspire.com and look for Linspire computers. I have had mine for almost a year and had no problems. Actually I am very happy with both. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. Apple is really good with audio and video while Linux is very good at low cost applications and configurability. I even use mostly open source application on OS X. I think highly of anything not Microsoft. I never have to worry about malware. I think that Linux is there in terms of applications for most people, but still has a few more years to go on ease of use. I still recommend Mac minis to people who are buying a new computer. The new Macs will be able to run Linux anyway.

       
       
21. 1. James Turnbull says:
       Jul 2, 10:15 pm
       
       

       5r43 – I am both an open source author, a Powerbook-owner and an IT professional. I write about open source, particularly Linux, but I wouldn’t use Linux as my primary desktop quite yet – because 60% to 70% ‘almost there’ simply isn’t good enough. I use OSX because it’s got a solid BSD pedigree and is an excellent, user-friendly interface. It also runs on good hardware with which I’ve never had a problem.

       I found most of your arguments fairly defensive and somewhat flawed.

       1) 60% to 70% is useless in a corporate environment. The volume of Help Desk calls from a ‘60% there’ solution is enormous – I’ve seen them. The cost-benefit for open source has always been cheaper license cost – it’s going to be a while before cheaper support costs can also be claimed. And if support costs outweigh savings from licenses? Well then the ROI on open source disappears. The same equation works for most SMB and individual use too – I won’t use a tool that costs me more time in running it than the money I save by not having to buy licenses.

       2. He could not get video or sound working under Ubuntu. And yet, I got them both working under Arch, Debian, OpenSUSE, Fedora Core, PCLinuxOS, and even Slackware.

       Well done on getting it working. However, 1 years Linux experience and I assume some IT experience is more than 99% of users have. Hence which solution will they chose? One like a Mac or PC where generally things work first time or one where they have to fiddle – often breaking more than they fix?

       3. And the reasons why hardware is NOT supported well in Linux is because it doesn’t help hardware manufacturers make money like Windows or Apple does.

       Well exactly and hence for many people moving to a Linux desktop doesn’t make sense because they find it hard to understand what hardware is supported. The prime example is wireless cards – the number of users I come across who discover they need NDISwrapper to get their ‘Windows-only’ wireless card working is huge. Most times I find they simply go and buy a new card. That is definitely not a good ROI.

       Overall, I get the impression you don’t understand the key drivers behind the potential success for open source OS and tools. If Linux wants to become a viable desktop alternative then it needs to be cost-effective. It’s all about the dollars – at the moment Linux is still that ‘60% there’ hobbyist solution for a lot of applications. Until the ROI is clear and easy to articulate then mocking and insulting people for not wanting to implement a less than ideal solution is juvenile and does more harm than good.

       
       
22. 1. Ord says:
       Jul 3, 11:47 am
       
       

       I also switched from OSX to Ubuntu. All in all it’s been quite a revealing journey. I had heard from years that “Linux on the desktop is a joke” but I fear that those saying this haven’t tried the latest Ubuntu.

       OSX has several critical useability problems:

       1/ You have to go websites to install software. Don’t talk to me about ‘Fink’ in OSX/Darwin, it’s a joke. In Ubuntu a ton of software is available from a handy software browser called ‘synaptic’. Just read about it in the description and click Install.

       2/ OSX doesn’t have a decent uninstaller. This is one are OSX is really behind. OSX systems are generally a real mess, with duplicate ‘libraries’ all over the place. I really like the way Ubuntu has a core set of files that every program uses. It uses hardly any diskspace compared to OSX or XP and allows me to cleanly UNINSTALL programs, completely and utterly removing them from my system.

       3/ OSX doesn’t have virtual desktops out of the box!! It’s 2006 for God’s Sakes! DesktopManager is simply poor in comparison and really it should be installed for free. It’s now critical to my productivity.

       4/ The Finder SUCKS. Enough said. OSX is a very click-heavy environment compared to Ubuntu, and I am an experienced OSX user – using it since it’s first day on the market.

       5/ OSX is sluggish. Sad but true, it just doesn’t have the zing of Ubuntu on the same machine.

       6/ OSX is everyone’s computer. While sounding like a compliment at first, one thing that switchers from OSX to Ubuntu notice is that their computer is finally theirs again! You can grow into it, making it your ‘home’ by theming it if you like, learning how it works, if you care or just otherwise changing preferences that maybe do not match a Grand Unified Field Theory of useability.

       7/ Whatever happened to a helpful community? The Ubuntu community rocks! I thought I was getting into some sort of weird cult at first, but then I simply noticed it was just their default. The Ubuntu forums are amazing.

       Tips: Before installing Ubuntu, test it works with your hardware. Download the ‘LiveCD’ installer from http://ubuntu.com, and boot it up on your machine. Don’t worry it won’t install anything. Check the internet, play a sound etc. 19/20 cases this should work out-of-the-box. If it does, you’re in luck. Click the “Install Me” icon on the desktop. 8 or so clicks later you’ll be installed.

       If you’ve got a wireless card with a Broadcom Chipset, prepare to do some homework. If you’ve got a Pentium ‘M’ (or Centrino) wireless will work out of the box. Broadcom users, this will likely be your only difficulty with an Ubuntu Dapper install.

       If you don’t want to install Ubuntu buy a laptop or minipc from System76 or HP or numerous other vendors.

       Once installed head over to Easy Ubuntu
       This GUI script will install Skype, support for every movie codec you’ll want to play, setup 3D support for your graphics card (needed for games like Unreal Tournament, Doom3, Quake4 and 3d modeling environments like Maya or Blender.)

       Just as you can with Windows or OSX, Ubuntu has a paid support service. While I haven’t used it this may suit those of you switching to Ubuntu in businesses, as many are these days.

       Enjoy!

       
       
23. 1. wwt says:
       Jul 8, 03:02 pm
       
       

       Gack, restless finger syndrome…

       Apple is one of the most proprietary companies in history. I don’t see how anyone could have ever reasonably expected them to play nice in the OSS sandbox.

       I like Apple products, but they have never cottoned to users “thinking different”. The best example is the GUI. How easy does Apple make it for users to express their inividuality by modding the look and feel of the OS? Compare that to Linux where the freedom is unlimited. Even Windows (with hacks) allows users to radically reshape the GUI.

       
       
24. 1. Petro Verkhogliad says:
       Jul 10, 01:08 pm
       
       

       Ahh.. OS wars.

       I used Gentoo for about 4 years before I bought a PowerBook. For the duration of those 4 years I ran Gentoo on two different laptops, a ThinkPad and a Tecra. Both worked great once everything was configured to my liking. The only issue is that it took time to configure everything. From time to time there where things that I had to reconfigure.

       At the same time, I’ve only tried Ubuntu twice. Both times I couldn’t get the Citrix ICA client running. Unfortunatelly, I need that thing. And for some reason, Ubuntu doens’t make it easy to install it.

       On the Mac side. Things are a little different in terms of usage. But it works just as well as any of my Linux laptops used to.

       I’ve read Mark Pilgrim’s reasons for switching to Ubuntu. There is nothing special in there. This crashed and ate this. That crashed and ate that. I think the software crashes are going to happen no matter which OS you use. If OS X is not good enough for him, I am glad he found something else that works. I not planning to switch from OS X to Linux just because Mark or someone else did. I didn’t use Linux just because RMS says it is the “right” thing to do. I didn’t buy a Mac because Steve told me to. I use whatever allows me to be productive and happier. That is all there is to it.

       
       
25. 1. tom says:
       Oct 29, 12:49 pm
       
       

       ubuntu and mac needs to realize that a computer is only as good as what you can do with it. there would be massive migrations if there were more robust programs so that one can totally leave windoze. often there is no equivalent program that is as good as the windows counterpart.

       
       
26. 1. mdsmedia says:
       Nov 25, 03:11 am
       
       

       Tom, you may not find a program equivalent to your windows favourite, but you will generally find something in Linux which will fit the bill.

       OpenOffice might not be as polished as Office for example, but then Office won’t do A LOT of things that OpenOffice will do. You can’t export to PDF from Office for example. OpenOffice is cross-platform. Try opening an open document in Office. Then try opening a .doc in OpenOffice. See the difference?

       The GIMP is not the equivalent of Photoshop, but (and I’ve never used Photoshop) it’s not about one program doing everything another does. There are other Open Source programs which will do the things that the Gimp doesn’t.

       One thing that a lot of users try to do is to compare one program with another and criticize an OS on that basis. They compare the cost of say Windows or OSX to Linux, then they compare the programs available on each without factoring in the cost of those programs. Office is not free. OpenOffice is. Photoshop is FAR from free. The Gimp is free.

       Comparing OpenOffice to Notepad (no, Tom I’m not saying you did…it was an earlier post) just goes to show you either never used OpenOffice or you’re a MS fanboy. Take your pick.

       As for Linux/Ubuntu being for techies, I’m an accountant, have never worked in IT and I’m far from being an expert in computers. I got annoyed with XP and tried out Ubuntu. I’ve never looked back. It’s seriously not that hard. If you’re willing to try.

       
       
27. 1. Christer Edwards says:
       Feb 24, 02:20 pm
       
       

       I switched to Ubuntu nearly two years ago and pulled my wife in with me. She was very patient with the switch and learned to love it along side me.

       When I recently bought her an iMac for christmas she expressed how much she missed using Ubuntu. How ‘bout that :)

       
       
28. 1. LipSync says:
       Nov 18, 08:57 am
       
       

       I have noticed that there are some people that believe that there are some things that OSX can do better, than Ubuntu. This would be true, if one uses the very basics of Ubuntu, totally ignoring command line features.

       If people were to dig a little deeper, and get to know Ubuntu a little more, they would fast begin to realise, that even many years ago, she was a sexy lass indeed! The difference is, she was more command line based, than GUI driven.

       It seems that people are afraid of a little mind exercise these days. Either that, or they are innocently ignorant to it.

       Alas, Ubuntu has come along way. Gutsy Gibbon has arrived and OSX drowned in the early stages of Feisty in my opinion. Anybody that has not switched as yet, should consider it, after studying it closely.

       Ubuntu is not for everybody, of course. But I dare say, that she will slip between the covers and seduce most people, containing the slightest imagination.

       Cheers,

       LipSync.