Comment 394 for bug 1

Ricket Said:

This makes me laugh.
Until Ubuntu is as easy to set up, use, and as stable as Windows, as well as universally-supported, Ubuntu will never replace Windows.
Chances of that happening in the near future? Slim.

Hello Ricket

I have set up several windows machines recently, not out of choice. From getting from an XP disc to a fully patched system with all miscellaneous drivers installed and productivity software installed typically takes 2-3 hours. If you replace a motherboard on an XP machine, you need to re-install. If you change a motherboard, you often either need to buy a new license for £95 or hassle a license out of Microsoft.

On the other hand, you can swap a hard drive with Ubuntu installed between machines / change motherboards without having to re-install etc. If you need to re-install from scratch, takes 23 minutes INCLUDING a whole selection of productivity software.

In terms of support, I wouldn't say that any operating system has universal support. More different programs currently run on windows than Ubuntu, that is true. However, most people who use computers will find software on Ubuntu which does what they need.

In terms of stability, Windows is much more stable than it used to be, but ignoring problems exchanging hardware and malware compromises etc which more seriously impact windows reliability than Linux, still appears to me far less stable than Linux. Of the 6 machines I administer, which work very hard delivering web applications and database to thousands of users, the average uptime amongst them is 6 months - that is without trying to maintain uptimes or being bothered about reboots.

In terms of hardware support, as manufacturers become increasingly aware of the Linux customer base, they will begin to ensure Linux compatibility before release, not as an afterthought. Life is relatively easy for Apple who don;t have to worry much about hardware compatibility, as Apple mostly chooses the hardware ther OS runs on.