UbuntuCat

No one has hard numbers, of course, but based on how much it’s talked about on the web, Ubuntu appears to be the most popular Linux distribution for home use (as opposed to for servers). Every tech news article about Linux mentions Ubuntu and will often recommend Ubuntu to new users. Many YouTube videos about how to do something on Linux will feature Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the top distro on DistroWatch (again, just meaning there’s a lot of interest in it—not necessarily that the largest number of Linux users are choosing it over other distros).

How did this come to pass? Seriously. I was there… not from the very start but from very close to the beginning. The very first release was Ubuntu 4.10, nicknamed Warty Warthog. I started with the next release, Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog). My first experience with Ubuntu was not the best. The CD froze up part way through the installation, which led me to use Mepis for a month instead. But I came back to Ubuntu. Why?

On the surface, to a new user, Ubuntu would seem like a bad choice.

• It doesn’t come with popular proprietary software.
• It doesn’t have additional CDs (meaning, for software installation, you probably need a broadband connection).
• Its documentation Wiki (especially at the time I started using it, less so now) is a mess.

I figured in 2005 that distros like Mepis and Linspire would thrive and be at the forefront of bringing Linux to ex-Windows power users, if not “the masses.” After all, in Ubuntu, I couldn’t (in Hoary) edit the applications menu, get numlock to stick, install Nvidia drivers, or add software repositories without resorting to the command-line, which was a very daunting thing for me to use when I first started on Linux. The word terminal was a scary word to see. In retrospect, I don’t know why I was so scared of it, but I was. And, yet, only a month after using Mepis, I moved to Ubuntu and stuck with it for three years. No, it didn’t come with Flash, Java, Nvidia drivers, Skype, Adobe Reader, or MP3 playback. It just had something.

The amazing thing is that even back when Ubuntu was barely functional (no easy-codec-installation or restricted-drivers-manager or Ubiquity installer) it was getting buzz. What got it off the ground? As far as I can tell, these are what Ubuntu had going for it:

• Unlike giants Red Hat and Novell, Canonical was targeting home users first with its catchy (if slightly misleading) “Linux for Human Beings” slogan. Servers were secondary.
• Unlike homebrews Mepis and PCLinuxOS, though, Ubuntu had the backing of some serious money (Mark Shuttleworth’s).
• The free CDs worldwide (including shipping) is a nice gimmick that set Ubuntu apart, even if a lot of those CDs were given away to people who later threw them in the trash.
• The Ubuntu Forums is a good compromise in that it has knowledgeable users but is generally free of the elitism and noob-disdain of other, more difficult distros’ forums. As a matter of fact, this was one of the major deciding factors for me. Much as I liked Mepis and much as their forums were friendly, they just didn’t have enough knowledgeable users to support me in all my questions. The Gentoo forums were far too intimidating for me.
• I think this goes along with the forums being less intimidating, but associating the Ubuntu “Humanity Towards Others” philosophy with the distro seemed to give it a purpose and a flavor beyond mere technology.
• The lack of confusing options really helps new users. You don’t have to know what KDE and Gnome are or choose what applications to install or which of five text editors to use. Ubuntu picks one application per task as default. If you want to switch to different applications later, that’s up to you when you’re more familiar with Linux programs.
• Even though the Wiki isn’t the strongest representative of this, the Ubuntu documentation is pretty easy to follow. When I started with Hoary, the Ubuntu Guide was the best around, and since then a series of screenshot-heavy and video tutorials have sprung up to help new users who feel lost.

I’m a little conflicted on the single CD nature of Ubuntu. Even though I think not having additional CDs hurts the idea of Linux for Human Beings (since it really assumes users have a broadband connection or never want to install new software), I also found the multiple-CD distros confusing when I was a new user. I didn’t think of Mandriva as the first CD for installing the operating system and the second and third for only additional software. I thought I needed all three to install Mandriva. So I steered clear of Debian, definitely, which I think had fourteen CDs at the time.

I am quite proud of the Ubuntu developers’ work. Even though I have minor complaints, I like what I’m seeing: more point-and-click options, less need for the terminal, prettier artwork, easy codec installation. Yes, there are bugs. There will always be bugs. But Ubuntu is a solid distro with a large userbase to support and welcome you if you want to come. It was a dark horse rising up and now appears to be the de facto distro for new users.

If you’re too lazy to install the proprietary codecs yourself, though, you can use a Ubuntu variant like Linux Mint, which includes them by default.

Geek Warning: If you don’t use Linux or Ubuntu, a lot of this will sound like gobbledygook.

As much as possible, I wanted to give the Asus Eee PC’s default operating system (a tweaked Xandros Linux) a chance. If I were another user (my mom, for example), it would be sufficient—good even. And that’s how Asus wanted it. The simple interface is meant to be like a kiosk or appliance.

So I gave the simple interface a God’s honest try for a little less than a week and already started tweaking it. I took away simple mode. I changed the IceWM theme, replaced Konqueror with Thunar, added in various keyboard shortcuts. I used Xandros for almost a month and then got fed up with it. The fact of the matter is that it works well for what it is, an internet appliance. I want more than that, though. I got frustrated with the fact that FAT32 was read-only in Konqueror but read/write in the terminal (I tried just about everything—believe me), and I didn’t like how you can’t get sudo to require a password (no, editing the /etc/sudoers file doesn’t help).

Despite reported problems with Ubuntu on the Eee, I decided to take the plunge yesterday. Bottom line: Ubuntu itself is smooth, but the documentation for it is rocky. First of all, for Ubuntu 8.04 specifically on the Eee (as opposed to Ubuntu 7.10), the documentation is scant. But even some of that is out of date. Here are the three main pages I was able to find on Ubuntu for the Eee:
The EeeUser Wiki
The Ubuntu WIki
The Ubuntu Eee Website.

If you’re planning to install Ubuntu 8.04 on your Eee, I would say take those pages with a whole shaker of salt. If you believe those pages, on a default installation, the screen resolution will be off, your computer won’t shut down, you have to do something special to get rid of the battery warning, you have to unplug the battery to get ethernet working, volume hotkeys work, madwifi is the best way to get wireless working, and certain config file tweaks will get boot time faster.

None of that is true. Here’s what really happened.

First of all, lacking an external CD-ROM drive and not really wanting to buy one, I sucked it up and followed these instructions for installing Ubuntu to a USB stick. My choices for “USB stick” were a bit limiting. First, I tried to do it with a partition on my external hard drive, and that didn’t work, for some reason. Next, I tried to do it on an actual USB stick, but then I realized it was only 512 MB (not enough to fit Ubuntu on). So finally, I tried my 2 GB Sansa Clip—which worked out perfectly. Under ordinary circumstances, the invincible/invisible Sandisk firmware would be annoying, but its invincibility in this case is great. Once I copied Ubuntu’s Desktop CD to my Sansa Clip, I was still able to listen to music and all my settings and favorite radio stations were preserved—so now I have Ubuntu live “CD” that also doubles as a portable music player. So I used my Sansa Clip to boot into a live Ubuntu session on the Eee and backed up my Xandros Eee to an external hard drive using the dd command (sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/media/disk/eeexandros.img), and I installed Ubuntu.

First of all, I was amazed at how much stuff worked right away. I didn’t have to install the 915resolution package to get the screen resolution correct. The little up-and-down scroll on the trackpad worked. Desktop Effects were on and working without having to do anything (I promptly turned them off—I prefer metacity). Sound worked. The brightness hotkeys worked. I did notice that (considering I have 1 GB of RAM on my Eee) the live session took a really long time to load up… even though it was snappy once loaded up. That first part with the little dots after vmlinuz took at least two minutes.

So I erased all four Xandros partitions and made one 4-GB ext2 partition with no swap. Then I installed Ubuntu on it and rebooted. The reboot took a really long time. With Xandros, I was used to getting to a working desktop within 30 seconds of pressing the power button. Ubuntu took about a minute and a half. That was to be expected, though.

What wasn’t to be expected was how difficult wireless was to set up. First of all, pretty much all guides for Ubuntu on the Eee tell you to install build-essential and compile madwifi drivers to get wireless. They tell you all you need to do is reboot and wireless should be working. Not so on my Eee. The only thing I could do to get wireless working was to use ndiswrapper.

Also, there are various tweaks to get the boot time faster. I’ve tried all of them, and I swear the boot time is slower now. One of the tweaks can’t even be done—it refers to files that don’t exist (the one where you move some files in /etc/rc.2 somewhere).

I can’t get the sound hotkeys to work, and aumix has no effect on the volume, but with a quick test I did against my wife’s Macbook Pro, Skype Beta seems to work just fine (again, the Wikis are wrong—they say the microphone doesn’t work without some config file tweak).

I may reinstall just to get a fresh start and not bother with any of those boot-time tweaks. Is it worth all this trouble? I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll go back to Xandros eventually, but as someone who’s used Ubuntu for the past three years, I have to at least give Ubuntu on the Eee an honest shot. My guess is that by Ubuntu 8.10, the Ubuntu developers will have made Ubuntu a bit more polished for the Eee.

If you have followed tech news closely at all within the last ten years, you’ve probably heard the phrase year of the Linux desktop before. This is the year that Linux makes a breakthrough with home users, and suddenly Microsoft’s dominant market share comes toppling down. I believe people have been proclaiming various years as the year of the Linux desktop since as early as 1998 (possibly even earlier).

Sometimes the writers will say the current year will be the year of the Linux desktop. Sometimes they’ll be a little more conservative and say some year a few years from now will be the year of the Linux desktop. For example, if I were one of these writers, I would either write 2008 will be the year of the Linux desktop! or with the progress we’re saying right now in 2008, it’s likely that by 2011, we’ll see the year of the Linux desktop.

Did we see the year of the Linux desktop? Nope. That, at least, I think most of us Linux aficionados can agree on. But some naysayers go a step further. Through a leap in logic, they decide that the fact that none of these previous predictions have come true precludes the possibility of a future prediction coming true. In other words, the extrapolation goes something like this: Oh, come on. For years, people have been saying such-and-such year is the year of the Linux desktop, and it’s never come. It’s never going to come. Microsoft will always be on top. Just deal with it.

I would contend that we have no way of knowing whether that year will ever come or not. Just think of the fable “The boy who cried wolf.” In it, the boy tells the village that a wolf is coming. The village gets all up in a panic and then realizes the boy was lying. He cries wolf a second time, and a second time the village is in a panic and realizes the boy was lying again. The third time he cries wolf, there really is a wolf, but no one in the village believes him any more. That’s what’s happening with this whole YOTLD business. These writers who keep proclaiming that some year is the YOTLD are losing their credibility every time the year doesn’t come. But it also means that it’s possible the year might come, and no one will believe the writer who really does get it right.

So I guess it boils down to two things: 1. If you’re a writer who wants to proclaim that such-and-such year is the YOTLD, don’t even bother. Even if you’re right, no one will believe you anyway, as people have been saying that for years. 2. If you one of those people who thinks the YOTLD will never come, you have to come up with other reasons than “They’ve been saying that for years.” After all, I could say every year that I’m going to die that year, and I may be wrong most of the time, but one year I am going to be right. Whether I say it’s going to happen or not has no bearing on the actual outcome or occurrence.

I’m just beginning now to read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, which talks about the moment when there’s a huge sociological change (crime rates dropping, fashion trends being adopted, new technology going mainstream), and it’s made me change my mind on Linux adoption. I used to think the growth of consumer Linux would be gradual and stay gradual indefinitely, but there is a tipping point, and if we get to that point (maybe about 15%), there will be a huge flood of new users. I’m not going to speculate on what year that might be, but it clearly happened for cell phones (as Gladwell points out) in 1998, and it also happened for iPods in 2003, and Firefox in 2005. It won’t necessarily mean the end of Windows’ dominance on the home user’s computer, but it could mean a lot more third-party support for Linux—the kind that Macs currently enjoy.

Which year will be the YOTLD? No one knows. There very well still could be one, and it would probably be a year and not a decade.

I’m an open source advocate who has been using Ubuntu for the past three years and just bought my first Linux-preinstalled computer (with Xandros instead of Ubuntu, but that’s okay), but I hate it when people hype up Linux to Windows users. I’m not talking about Linux for embedded devices or Linux for web servers. I’m talking about Linux for home users—what some call “Desktop Linux” (although the demographic seems to include laptop users as well).

Hyping up Linux is counterproductive. I’m an active member of the Ubuntu Forums and have seen too many “I’m going back to Windows” threads started by disgruntled potential migrants from Windows who were oversold on Linux by these “let’s hype up Linux” articles and blogs. Shame on the bloggers/writers. If you want to migrate people over to Linux successfully, you should be honest about the pros and cons, appreciate the good points Windows has to offer, and concede the difficulties people may face during migration.

The most important point to hammer home to potential new users is that Linux is not a drop-in replacement for Windows. Sadly, it is usually only after potential migrants get disgruntled that the Linux users say, “Yeah, Linux isn’t Windows!” Well, if you’d said that in the first place, people wouldn’t have had their unrealistic expectations shattered. They would have just stuck with Windows as they should have.

I’ve collected below a list of links to articles and blogs that overhype Linux (shame on them). The one (ironically enough) entitled “Why Linux is Better” happens to be one of few that admit Linux may not be a good choice for a number of situations, but it throws that in as a P.S. below a lot of hype at the top.

Our Linux Top 10 Reasons
Why Linux is Better
10 Reasons Why Linux Ubuntu is Better than Windows
Ubuntu - an amazing alternative to Windows
Switching From Windows To Linux
Everything About Linux
Ubuntu! An alternative to Windows and Mac
Linux Friday: Reasons To Switch To Ubuntu (Or Any Linux Distribution)
Why Use Linux?
With Vista’s View Getting Dimmer, Should You Give Linux A Chance?

You won’t have to read through all those links to get the impression that Linux (and Ubuntu in particular) is the best thing since sliced bread or vanilla ice cream. Linux for home users is a choice many people don’t know they have, and they should be made aware of that choice, but they shouldn’t have that choice shoved down their throats or made out to be the unambiguously “best” choice.

I humbly offer my own write-up to potential migrants. It was written a long time ago, but I think it still holds kernels of truth, even as Ubuntu has become more polished over the years: Is Ubuntu for You?

Don’t believe the hype. Explore your options cautiously, be skeptical of any article or blog that appears one-sided, and come to Linux with an open mind. If you follow that advice, whether you stay with Windows or end up moving to Linux, you won’t regret anything. (I’ve left out mention of Mac users here, because most of these overhype-Linux write-ups target Windows users.)

Taking a break from the Eee love to give some love to ICDSoft. Even though there are web hosts out there who appear to give better deals (”unlimited bandwidth,” for example), I’ve found ICDSoft an absolute pleasure to work with over the years.

The uptime is almost 100%, the customer service is friendly and prompt (never have to wait more than a minute for a response to a question), and they every now and then surprise you with a major upgrade (at no additional cost).

Just this week they migrated my Psychocats server (I didn’t even see any interruption in service during the migration) and multiplied my bandwidth limit tenfold. They’ve also moved to Debian, which they said will provide more stability (and everything I’ve heard from the Linux community is that Debian is rock-solid).

Very exciting, and just in time for the release of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), when I’m sure my site will get hammered by eager new Ubuntu users. Thanks, ICDSoft!

Since the Linux model isn’t sold in stores, and the Windows model is supposed to arrive about now but reports are mixed about its actual availability at Best Buy (brick and mortar, anyway), I’m starting up a little section here devoted especially to the Eee, because I feel this is where computers are headed.

If you’ve been reading technology news the past two years, you know that the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop, the Intel Classmate PC, and the Macbook Air have been a lot of the exciting developments in the area of home computing and/or education. Computer use recently has grown more and more dependent on the internet. These days, with Firefox (or another web browser), you can do your taxes, organize photos, listen to music, share documents, shop, connect with friends and family, get directions, buy concert tickets… you get the point (and so do computer manufacturers). The traveling internet appliance has arrived and are even starting to earn the nickname netbook.

Well, I’ve been eyeing these “netbooks” for a while now, and the Macbook Air is just too far out of my price range, and I’d been hearing good things about the Eee for months (the fact that it has Linux preinstalled on it didn’t hurt for me either as a selling point). After reading literally hundreds of reviews of it (blogs, videos, user comments, tech news articles), I took the plunge and got myself a Xandros-preloaded Eee PC, and I don’t regret it. More details later, but for now just know that it is cute, visually stunning, and does what it’s supposed to (email, web browsing, web camming, Skype, IM, word processing, time-wasting games, music management, photo editing) and in a very, very small package.

There are a lot of stereotypes about Linux users as socially awkward too-long-bearded 30-somethings living in their parents’ basements hacking illegally into government servers and indulging in “free” software that’s really pirated software. After all, isn’t that why Linux users use filesharing programs like Frostwire or visit sites like PirateBay?

The truth is that many open source advocates are against software piracy because piracy of proprietary software hurts open source adoption, and if you use open source software, there’s no reason to pirate. I know people who are dependent on Adobe Photoshop, and so when they can’t afford Adobe Photoshop, they pirate it. Same deal with Microsoft Office. Well, there’s never a time I can’t afford GIMP or OpenOffice. They offer freedom and they are cost-free.

Bill Gates may not always be ethical (or pretty to look at—sorry, but it’s true!), but he is a savvy businessperson if nothing else, and here are some of his insights into piracy:

From Gates, Buffett a bit bearish (2 July, 1998):

Gates shed some light on his own hard-nosed business philosophy. “Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don’t pay for the software,” he said. “Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”

and from How Microsoft conquered China (17 July, 2007):

Today Gates openly concedes that tolerating piracy turned out to be Microsoft’s best long-term strategy. That’s why Windows is used on an estimated 90% of China’s 120 million PCs. “It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not,” Gates says.

There you have it from the man himself. Who should be (and probably are) against piracy more than anybody? The Linux and open source people.

I don’t like arguments about whether or not Linux is “ready for the desktop,” because I think that phrase is basically meaningless. What I have always contended about Linux, since I started using it in 2005, however, is that Linux preinstalled and properly configured is perfectly fine for most home users’ basic needs: web browser, email client, music, photos, and word processing. Before Asus’ Eee PC, there was little to support that contention. Now, though, the people speak.

Right now on Amazon, there are 124 reviews for the Asus Eee PC. Of those, 89 are 5-star reviews, 27 are 4-star reviews, 5 are 3-star reviews, 2 are 2-star reviews, and 1 is a 1-star review.

While I don’t agree with Asus’ choice of Xandros for its base Linux distribution (mainly because of its limited software repositories—many of even the positive reviews complained about the difficulty involved in adding more basic software), I have to say they have really made Linux user-friendly to the uninitiated.

Some of the reviews are clearly from Windows power users who intended from the very beginning to wipe out Linux and install Windows XP, and others are clearly from Linux veterans who bought the ultra-mobile PC because it had Linux on it. But many of the reviews are from people who had no idea what to expect from Linux and were pleasantly surprised. Here are some of those relevant excerpts (the bolded bits are for the extra lazy among you who don’t need context):

Great Product! The perfect little carry along computer. I wasn’t too savy with Linux at the beginning. But now I’m all about it. This pretty much handles anything you throw at it, but you may need to tweak it here and there (Linux that is). I recommend jacking up the RAM. Oh and this Eee is a Chick Magnet! Seriously. Walk into Starbucks and this thing sells itself…

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I am thoroughly delighted with this product. It is everything their claims say, completely easy to use and does everything I could ask. Writing a doctoral thesis or editing a full length movie would be difficult but everything that a basic computer would do is right here plus portability, etc. I have been bragging about it to everyone who will hold still. The instruction book could stand an index, but most tasks are intuitive anyway. Just began using the built in Skype…what a deal! Everyone should have this rather than one with dozens of applications that will never be used, at 2 or 3 times the price. Was a little concerned about Linux (I am not a computer geek) but no problems at all.

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With the size, all the different bright colors, and the low cost, I thought this Eee PC might be more gadgit than a usable tool. I was completely wrong.

The Linux software loaded on the Eee PC has a look of a child’s game, but it’s actually powerful and well put together. It can read and save in MS Word and Excel. I was very surprised.

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I titled this review as a great second laptop because I really don’t think it would be enough if it were someone’s only computer. There are some great things that you can do with this, but definitely not everything most people would enjoy. It’s difficult to download new programs and the system is designed to be used for simple applications. I am not much of a techie and I have never used a Linux OS before, so maybe there are things that I just don’t know how to do, but for only $400, it’s a great way to get online, listen to some of your music (with a SD card) and take notes. As long as you don’t need a full computer, this laptop is perfect.

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starts in 30 seconds, on the net in a minute. as i keep everything in the cloud, the 4gb ssd is plenty. took about a week to get the hang of the somewhat cramped keyboard, but once i got it it’s no big deal. fits in the outer pocket of my coat, but now that it’s warming up i use the bag. two novels, pens, notebook, smokes, and the eeepc fits perfectly well. shuts down in 10 seconds toss it in the bag and am out of there. haven’t bothered with the xp, tried a couple of things with linux that i found on the net and they worked fine. all in all it’s light enough to be there when you need it.

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I love this little gadget. It does most of what I need it to do. I have a full-sized windows laptop as well but it is a nuisance to tote around the house. This does the trick nicely for e-mail, surfing, and yahoo messenger. Having no Linux experience whatsoever, I was pleasantly surprised to have this running out of the box in less than 10 minutes.

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I gave this as a gift, and despite the cons, the recipient is extremely happy and satisfied with it. I felt the ability to switch to Windows XP would be a nice fallback plan in case the Linux OS and apps weren’t satisfactory. Since the OS and apps are more satisfactory than Windows, switching to Windows is no longer a consideration.

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Honestly, this is an AMAZING product.
It is small, cute, light, and easy to carry, and use.

I found the Linux operating system pretty easy and yeah, it OPENS my Windows Microsoft office files.

I have no problem at all going wireless.

I like it and I recommend it to everyone.

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The laptop itself is built very well. The linux OS it came with is enough for the regular user, but was too limited for me. I installed XP and love the eee even more now. It is fairly powerful for its size and has enough processing power to run any office app. I have had no problems with the laptop so far, it has not frozen on me once. The eee pc also has a big following online, so one can get help from forums fairly easy. This was a big help in installing windows XP.

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I purchased the Asus Eee laptop from amazon about two weeks ago and have been using it on a daily basis. Now understand that I am not an expert in computers and have never used Linux before. After powering up this little thing, I was able to be on the web and use many of its programs in no time.

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After a quick search, I found step by step instructions for downloading and enabling the “advanced” desktop. I’ve never used linux before (advanced Mac/PC user), and I was a bit intimidated, but was able to follow instructions, and the “advanced” desktop is just like XP, only quicker! I definitely recommend that any user intent on having XP put the advanced linux desktop on it for a few days first. Also, the 2G does not have java plug-in installed. That was another quick 5 minute install. I believe that the 4G Surf model has the advanced desktop and java plug-in installed, you just need to enable the desktop mode.

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I purchased this machine as a travel pc and have to admit that it’s a fun little pc to use. The start up is quick - really quick. We needed quick directions. Got them in less than 3 minutes. The other laptop and desktop were still booting up. I was wary of Linux operating system having never used it, but it is so user friendly. It’s just like windows - only different icons. I connected it to my home and office network in a snap. In less than 10 minutes I was browsing the web. I thought the small 7″ screen would not allow full screen view and scrolling, but it does. I have only had a few sites where I have to horizontal scroll but i can live with that.

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I was a bit apprehensive about the OS, since I have never had a linux machine, but it is super easy to use and very intuitive. Whew.

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This is a very user friendly laptop (Targeted after all for your children and older adults). I was never a huge Linux fan but the version that they installed here is at par with xp, even surpasses it because of the tabbed interface that is similar to Firefox. You do not even need to read the manual or be an expert on Linux to figure the thing out. It is a great starter laptop, and at the same time a great secondary laptop for the road warrior or student.

Even though Asus is now starting to sell some Eee PCs with Windows XP preinstalled, I admire their bold move to put a less-popular operating system on a revolutionary new product, and I’m glad to see it having such commercial success. Maybe I’ll pick one of these up when the second-generation models come out.

Who would have ever thought I’d be comparing Trader Joe’s to Ubuntu?

Well, in recent years, a lot of the grocery stores in our neighborhood have been closing down, so Trader Joe’s is one of the few still around. When my wife and I started shopping there originally, we made a regular habit of shopping at both Trader Joe’s (which touts itself as a unique grocery store) and regular grocery stores. As time went on, we found ourselves shopping more and more at Trader Joe’s and less and less at regular grocery stores. I found myself giving up Breyer’s ice cream for mochi ice cream. I found myself giving up Yoplait for Trader Joe’s yogurt. I found myself giving up Fresh Step for Space cat litter. Now, practically our entire grocery list can be found at Trader Joe’s. I still rely on a regular grocery store for Cheerios, tortillas, and Thomas’ English Muffins; the Joe’s O’s, Joe’s tortillas, and Joe’s English muffins just don’t cut it in my book… right now, but maybe that’ll change.

The same happened when I moved from Windows to Ubuntu. Initially, I dual-booted with WIndows for iTunes. Eventually, I weaned myself off iTunes and on to Rhythmbox. I gave up my iPod for an iAudio. I gave up the iTunes music store for actual CDs. My wife, who migrated from Windows to Mac found herself using more and more Mac applications. Initially, she was using Firefox and Thunderbird, but they both kept crashing, and she gradually moved from open source applications to Apple proprietary applications. Now she uses Safari and Mail. She’s even moved from Cyberduck to Transmit.

Whether it’s a grocery store or an operating system, the place you visit most or the system you boot into can often move you in a certain direction. It’s easy to get assimilated and hard to “serve two masters.”

Quite frequently on the Ubuntu Forums, someone will make a suggestion that Ubuntu (and/or Linux distros in general) adopt a feature or approach that Windows has to handling a task. Inevitably, someone else will counter that Linux is not Windows and then link to the appropriately titled article “Linux is not Windows.”

The problem is that logically (and I believe the author of the article in question would agree) it doesn’t make sense to say that just because Linux is not Windows that Linux should never under any circumstance adopt features or approaches that Windows has to user interfaces. After all, desktop Linux already does share some features in common with Windows:

• Alt-Tabbing to switch between windows, bringing minimized windows to the front.
• Allowing maximizing of windows.
• Generally closing applications once the last window of the application is closed.
• Having Alt-F4 be the shortcut to closing a window.
• Having a menu like the Start menu that allows you to access programs and documents.

The list could go on and on, but these are all features and approaches to user interfaces that Windows and Linux distros have in common that Mac OS X does not. It’s not a question of originality. I don’t really care if Windows copied *nix systems or vice versa. The point is that the two sets of operating systems can and do have some things in common.

To be sensible human beings (and not fanatics), we have to avoid two extremes. I’ll be the first to tell people that Ubuntu (and/or Linux at large) should not be a Windows clone. But we should not make Linux in every respect the antithesis of Windows either, nor can we. The best approach to creating a usable operating system is the adoption of the best of several approaches. If Windows does something right, then Ubuntu should have no problem adopting that approach. If Windows does something wrong, then Ubuntu should avoid adopting that approach. Ubuntu fanatics, please understand, though, that I love Ubuntu a lot, too. Yet, somehow, I’m able to recognize that Windows does some things that Ubuntu should also do. Package management in Ubuntu is a great way to install software—perhaps something Windows could learn from Ubuntu. Previewing photos before you upload them in a web browser is a basic expectation that many desktop users have‐perhaps something Ubuntu could learn from Windows.

Linux is not Windows. We get it. We get it already. But Linux can learn from Windows occasionally, and that would not be a “free software sin.”