Converting One Person At The Time

On Sunday I installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 AMD on my friends laptop, an Acer.  I won’t go into detail how easy the installation and tweaking was.  I was done within an hour.  I have been trying to convince Jacques since he got his laptop in 2007 to try Ubuntu.  He finally asked me to do it last week, I think he was tired of me bugging him.

Before I did his upgrade to an operating system that works out of the box and is very secure and looks great, I had been wanting to update my Dell Vostro laptop’s BIOS and I had to this from a bootable DOS disk since the BIOS is only available as an .exe file.  I decided that I would create a DOS bootable USB stick.  I found a few how to’s on how to do this from a linux based computer.  Nothing I tried worked.  I took the decision that in October when I would upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10, I would either install XP and have a dual boot or install XP just for updating the BIOS then format the hard drive and install Ibex.

With Jacques laptop at home I had another option to update the BIOS.  I removed both hard drives from the two laptops, placed Jacques’ HD in my Vostro 1500 and installed the BIOS updates from XP.  It worked.  It took less time than trying to create a bootable DOS USB stick.  I think that I’ll create a USB with XP that is bootable with my eeePC just in case there are more updates to the BIOS.  Problem solving is my forte.

Microsoft Fires Seinfeld?

The new Microsoft ad was aired yesterday.  They have gotten rid of Jerry Seinfeld and they are going after Apple.  You can judge for yourself.

I wear glasses, I wear jeans, I have a ring, I blog, I shave, I have one ring, I am connected to a billion people world wide, I’m a PC and I am a human being, I use linux for human being, I use Ubuntu.  I am not a stereotype.

What is the point they are trying to push across?  All the attributes they mention in this latest commercial can be said of Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD users.  Even none computers users.  It seems to me that they are afraid of losing their consumer base and they are trying to convince them not to leave for a better system.

I wonder if they will go after Linux?  I guess we will have to wait.

Shuttleworth: Ubuntu As Pretty As Apple In Two Years

With Mark Shuttleworth’s commitment to have Ubuntu out do Apple within two years (see Information Week article, see Mark Shuttleworth blog), he proves to us that he doesn’t have cold feet.  He has decided not to thread in the kiddies pool, instead he is jumping in with both feet in the deep end.  I applaud this since I can’t tell enough people about the virtues of Ubuntu and Linux in general,  I do try though.

I hope we, the present users of Ubuntu, will be happy with the results because we have supported Ubuntu since almost the begining (In my case two years ago yesterday), we have invest so much time getting everything right on our computers while using Ubuntu.  I am sure we will be getting more Ubuntu users and we will lose some.  I guess that is the nature of the beast.

Second Seinfeld Microsoft Ad

Here is the second Microsoft commercial featuring Seinfeld and Gates:

So is it trying to sell me Vista or teach me how to live off of strangers?  I am not sure.  I laughed, I cried, I installed Ubuntu on another computer.  I guess the commercial is not working.  Well maybe it is, because I promote Linux (especially Ubuntu) to everybody that dares to talk with me about computers and right now I am writing about Microsoft.  The commercial must have something subliminal in it.

p.s. I actually laughed watching this commercial because of the absurdity of the situation.

p.p.s I wonder if what they are using on the sons computer, that Bill says will never come out, is a Linux Operating System that he does not want to compete against or us to use?

Mark Shuttleworth Having Cold Feet?

While surfing the net I read this article from The Register which states that Mark Shuttleworth is “nervous of encouraging people to substitute Windows for Linux”.  My first impression was What?  Why?  Must be a typo or he must have been misquoted.  I hope so, because if the main financial contributor behind Ubuntu does not believe in it, how should we the end users feel?  If Bill Gates did not believe in Windows he would not have made that silly commercial with Jerry Seinfeld.

Maybe it is just a ploy to get the developers to work harder at getting the Ubuntu Desktop as good as possible.  I just don’t know.

Have You Seen The New Microsoft Ad?

What do you think of Seinfeld & Gates commercial for shoes, or is it for Microsoft?  I’m not sure after seeing it.  I find it hilarious but will it convince people to switch to Vista?  I don’t think so.

Maybe Canonical should hire Micheal Richards to plug Ubuntu…  Maybe not.

Ubuntu Has To Become Boring To Succeed

I took a break from blogging last month, in fact I took a break from using computers other than work and simple Internet surfing.  Last week I “fixed” a friends computer that was infected by a rogue virus.  Of course that computer has XP as the operating system.  While I was scanning and removing the virus’s from that computer I was thinking of how we could get Ubuntu as the most used operating system.  We can tell everybody the advantages of an open source OS for one reason or another this is not enough.  Most computer users do not want their OS to change.  They want it to be the same all the time, that is why Windows Vista is failing to capture the hearts of Windows users.

I think that if Ubuntu wants to succeed as a Desktop OS for everybody, there should be a everything works version that is released every two years.  This new version would be the least cutting edge of the family with only security updates.  The LTS version for the commercial users still continues to come out every two years, but not the same year as the new Ubuntu.  The October releases (X.10) for advanced users (make this one bleeding edge).  I think that it might work.  For Ubuntu to succeed as a mass market desktop it has to be “dummied” down.

I will be posting again at a regular pace again.