Walt Mossberg, you are one of my favorite technology reporters, and so I’m particularly disappointed by your article
“Linux’s Free System Is Now Easier to Use, But Not for Everyone“.

My first disappointment is the timing of the article. September 27th Ubuntu will have a beta release of their next version with Ubuntu 7.10 scheduled for release October 18th.

I don’t think you would write an article about the experience of Windows XP a month before Windows Vista, nor Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) now with Leopard… somewhere in our future.

My next disappointment is you leaning on the term user: mainstream, nontechie users; average users; vast majority of computer users; average Ubuntu users, and mainstream, nontechnical users. You used the term 10 times in the article (+1 quoting Dell), and I think excessively.

Couldn’t you just write that you don’t think Linux is ready for most people. Oh, that is pretty much how the title of the article reads, but that message is lost in the article — likely because the article is largely you asking the Linux zealots not to come after you.

To most people I recommend Mac OS X, because I think that’s pragmatic, but I would definitely recommend Ubuntu over Vista to most people, also for pragmatic reasons. I use Vista everyday on a Dell Dimension E520 that it came pre-installed on. It may someday soon be the best Windows yet Walt, but as I told Don Dodge “It will be, but not likely until a couple of service packs from now.”

“People are having variety in their experiences with Windows Vista.” Zipkin, what does that mean?

How is this for a variety in my experience, I tried to delete a small file on the desktop and that was flushing much too long, so I tried to cancel and that hung:

Trying to force that to quit in Task Manager caused Windows to shutdown.

Internet Explorer 7 regularly crashes and unlike Firefox it doesn’t save any of the tabs and windows I had open, nor more importantly any of the content I was editing in those tabs.

On two occasions IE7 has started opening the same window over and over again until I had to shutdown the computer, and I definitely wasn’t on a malware site.

Are the very regular updates requiring reboots making it better? A little I think.

About those updates, who do I have to thank for the experience that has trained me to put the computer to sleep:

and then when there is an update required:

That is a great help in losing work as I quickly go to shutdown the computer when I’m running out the door, or exhausted and off to bed. No warning, just closes all of the applications and shuts down.

Do I have to wait for a first “service pack”? We’ll be waiting a long while yet. “Microsoft finally came clean yesterday and said it will release Windows Vista SP1 in the first quarter of 2008.”

Notice how no one is claiming any more that Windows is the best operating system. As Windows plays catch up, there is a lot of opportunity for Linux and Mac OS!

Walt, I notice that the problems you describe are all getting Ubuntu setup. That’s the next reason I’m disappointment with the article, though it mimics my own experience with Vista on this Dell computer.

My description of problems with Vista are all ongoing problems, and the problems I have had setting up Vista far exceed the ones I have setting up the current Ubuntu 7.04 or the ones you describe in your article.

The best part of Ubuntu is that once you set it up, you won’t ever have to worry about it again and you will automatically be kept update to date with the latest security and features. In the other hand, setup is Ubuntu’s achilles.

All of the problems you describing having are issues that need to be addressed.

Did you try solving the problems? Are you going to give Ubuntu a real chance and use it for two weeks? (That is what Steve Jobs asked for with the iPhone on screen keyboard, and that was a very minor change compared to a whole OS.) You can at least give it that, or are you going to assume that it will leave you wading through online forums or finding complex workarounds?

You will actually find solutions in plain English to all of your problems and assistance from a diverse and talented community for free.

But it isn’t really free is it? Everything has a cost, to someone.

My last disappointment is with your assertion:

But open source is a two-edged sword. While it draws on smart developers from many places, nobody is ultimately responsible for the quality of the product, and open-source developers often have an imperfect feel for how average people use software. A European company called Canonical is the “commercial sponsor” of Ubuntu and provides support. But it’s largely focused on corporate and techie users. Average Ubuntu users are likely to have to wade through online forums, often written in technical language, to get help.

There are real people ultimately responsible for the quality Ubuntu and many open source products.

Your article unfortunately reinforces the fear that there is no accountability available when choosing open source products. Your research should have found that open source products are often backed by companies that have commercial motivation in the success of the products, and offer equivalent support and customization as any company selling propriety products. ie there is professional quality open source software without the lock in.

The irony is I don’t know any “mainstream, nontechie users” that have ever directly received support from Microsoft, and those people have already paid Microsoft hundreds of dollars for the product.

I think for most people Ubuntu will have a smaller cost than Vista.