The Apple press release from last June includes:

… Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. …

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

Although QA people love this attention to what we are passionate about, conventional wisdom in the software world is that a major release with few new features is suicide, but there are factors working in Apple’s favor.

I don’t find the current version (no snow) Leopard v10.5 to be unstable or buggy, but I know other people have problems with it. There are a lot of user interface (UI) inconsistencies in Leopard among the various Apple applications. I’m interested to see if Snow Leopard sports a more consistent and usable experience.

Apple is selling this upgrade for only $29 US, when their major releases normally sell for $129 US. At $29 Apple customers won’t be looking for much to think they have got a good deal.

Apple’s main competitor Microsoft has created this opportunity. Microsoft Windows costs close to $300. And although Mac OS X only runs on Apple hardware, people’s frustration with Vista’s bugginess and instability has led people to specifically look for a computing experience that address this.

People are hopeful for Windows 7, but it won’t be available until at least a month after Snow Leopard ships. We can expect Windows 7 to have a lot of customer untested technology compared to Mac OS X which looks to be is a very incremental release.

Performance (and polish) is a feature. “Ultimately that feeling of control translates to happiness in everyone. In order to increase the happiness in the world, we all have to keep working on this. Ultimately that feeling of control translates to happiness in everyone. In order to increase the happiness in the world, we all have to keep working on this.”, my boss Matt Mullenweg, Velocity 09 Conference Presentation.

Because Apple builds both the software and the hardware, they can release their next generation of computers to immediately take advantage of the upgraded 64-bit stack, OpenCL for graphic card processing, and GCD multi-core processing throughout Mac OS X.

If Snow Leopard is well executed and well received, it will help people be more confident on computers and expect more from their software. It will be a good day for QA geeks.

Cameron Field twittered “Anyone know how to install WordPress on a Microsoft Office Live hosted site/domain?”

Intrigued by what “Microsoft Office Live” is, I google it and go to smallbusiness.officelive.com, but instead of finding out what it is, I was rudely redirected to http://home.officelive.com/Misc/CompatibleShell.aspx?linkId=UnsupportedBrowser and greeted with

To use Microsoft Office Live, your computer must meet one of the following requirements:

* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7, running on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista. You can download Internet Explorer from the Windows Internet Explorer page.

* Firefox 2.0, running on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later. You can download Firefox 2.0 from the Firefox download page.

So, not only is the site checking what browser I’m running, but what operating system I’m running the browser on. Maybe there is a legitimate technical reason why this site doesn’t work for Firefox running on Ubuntu, but that would surprise me as I can’t imagine why integration with Mac OS X could work without any easy solution also for Linux.

Assuming there is a technical reason, the saddest part is the missed opportunity of at least giving me information about the site.

I’m filing this one Optimized Under.

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.

Thursday Update: Yes, it seems that it was temporary!

I was already in a bad mood because of a combination of personal challenges and work-related quandaries from the day before, and then while working this morning my laptop shut down suddenly and in a manner I hadn’t seen before.

When I tried to start it back up I get 2 beeps, and the only text on the screen is Fan error. Wait a second something smells bad, like burnt plastic. Wow, the bottom of the laptop is hot.

The floor falls away and me on my chair plummet with the crumbling room falling on top of me.

It is almost embarrassing how bad I feel with the sudden loss of my Ubuntu Linux running laptop, but it is my trusty hammer. The hammer I have grown attached to; the one I know best.

I shouldn’t be surprised that it has failed me:

• I have been flushing more of my time on the Dell desktop running Windows Vista lately.
• I have been thinking about what parts of Windows and Mac OS I find much more productive than my Ubuntu experience.
• Recommending Apple Mac to some people!

Its feelings were probably hurt!

The laptop is out of warranty. I always recommend people get extended warranties on mobile or expensive hardware. This laptop does not because it was purchased by Flock in the US, and I bought it off them when I left.

First, although it seems likely that the fan is fried because I can’t hear it when I start the computer and the smell is worse in that area of the case, I still look to see if I have misdiagnosed the problem.

Error messages – ThinkPad General:

Fan error: Fan

Not very useful.

For a different ThinkPad model, I found that error could be caused by a problem with a bad battery. So I removed both the batteries and tried with just A/C. Same symptom.

While searching I discovered a great ThinkPad forum called thinkpads.com Support Community — you know you are using a good product when there is a community freely helping each other.

So I think my original diagnosis is correct. Burnt out fan. It is a mechanical part almost always on, and like the hard drive it will fail.

Lets see how I can get this fixed. I’m not encouraged that it’s the start of a long weekend.

Thankfully, I know a lot of good sys admins, and the best PC hardware person I know is my friend Aaron Greengrass.

He quickly found me a link to the schematic with part #, and the IBM/Lenovo contact information:

IBM hardware, software, and systems support
1-800-IBM-SERV
(1-800-426-7378)

And from there a support technician guided me to find a local business partner:

1. http://www.ibm.com/ca/
2. Learn about
3. IBM Business Partners
4. Find a Business Partner
5. Find a PC Warranty Service Provider

Six results for Victoria.

The first two I call I get voice mail before noon — yup, it’s a long weekend.

The third one, NexInnovations, the answering service says to call a 1-800. I speak to someone back east who says there is local service, but no “walk ins” I would have to courier it or otherwise ship it.

Next, I call Microserve Business Computers and the receptionist connects me right away and the person I spoke to was helpful, but they don’t carry an inventory of parts (shipped by air only a day or two) and turn around time is at least a week, and service is at $85/hr.

The reality of not having my laptop for at least a week sinks in, and my priority becomes setting up a full work environment on my desktop PC — yes, I will leave the OS as Windows Vista.

That $85/hr quote immediately reminded of what Daniel Lackey recently wrote “It’s a bit like cars. You simply HAVE to know the simple mechanics behind a car, and a bit of knowledge and experience with the car yourself before you take it in to a shop” before he went on a total car tangent.

When I was searching on all of those sites and forums about ThinkPads and “Fan error” I found out that people consider replacing the fan fairly easy and included in the response to most hardware questions is a link to the HMM, the Hardware Maintenance Manual.

This is another reason why the ThinkPad is a great family of products, manuals.

The next step is taking apart the laptop. Confirming the smelly part is the fan, and ordering that part.

I will let you know how it goes. My thoughts are also with my colleague Mark Riley who is also having his own severe computing problems.