Comment 248 for bug 1

Well, here in het Netherlands it is also a major bug. I'm a student at a Business ICT education and almost everyone uses Windows over here. A few of my fellow classmates received Ubuntu CD's from me and tried it and were very satisfied with it. I'm all out of CD's so I already ordered some Ubuntu and Kubuntu CD's ;)) The problem for most of them is usability. They al want an out of the box, perfect performing operating system. The biggest problem we had with our laptops was wireless internet support, it's just one point that should be made easier. I know it's a driver problem but we will have to force hardware manufacturers to write drivers for other operating systems.

Besides of that we have to use windows software, our teachers force us for example to make database designs with the windows program Dezign. If we can't, we have to use Microsoft Visio. It's a great problem for me to promote Ubuntu at our school and the teachers want to know nothing about Linux. We need good replacements for those programs that can change the opinions at the schools. If the user is still dependant on a program, it will never switch to linux.

We also have to use programs like Word ofcourse, the .doc format is not that great but it's the only thing we can use. When I use open-office and send a file to a classmate, there are still some compatibility problems between the 2 programs. Open fileformats should fix that problem.

Another big problem is games, alot of people at my study like to play games and still have windows installed because of that. Force the game-companies to support linux or invent a way to easily run them on Ubuntu. Alot of my classmates want to change operating systems because they get crazy from maintaining Windows but they won't because of the hard- and software support.

I think that if you have the gamers using ubuntu and people in the working area, alot of people will switch.

Another thing, the GUI of the operating system is very important. Most people don't want to use the terminal, make it easier for them and maybe add some gimmicks. Make instant desktop search standard. People like those things. With XGL/Compiz and Beryl some big steps are made, if they get more complete and professional it gets more attractive for people to switch, but it must be easier. Take the example of Mac OSX, looks beautiful and easy to use, better than Windows, but people are still dependant on certain hard and software, and that's why not everyone is switching. If it is possible, combine great looks with usability and good hard- and software support.

Another thing, marketing. Get people to know about Ubuntu. Give free CD's with computer magazines and let them write articles about it. Individual users, promote linux with beginning computer users and install Ubuntu at peoples computers. There are a lot of ways to promote Ubuntu and the community can start with it.

Well, this was my story and I hope someone can do something with my opinion.