Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

Doing deals with OEMs actually <i>seems</i> like a better strategy today than it was even just a few years ago when Canonical did their original deal with Dell.<p>For one thing, Ubuntu has (for better or worse) made significant progress toward their UI vision. Unity has been polarizing, but many users (especially the "normal" people who are likely to buy an Inspiron or similar) seem to like it.<p>Even more importantly, a significant number of users today (in any case, more than there were back then) basically only care about having a web browser installed. This means they are less likely to care about having MS Windows (FF and Chrome run on all three "major" platforms).

The latest Ubuntu desktop is absolutely stunningly beautiful. The first time I saw it couldn't tell if it was an improved Windows 8 or some new release of Mac OS X. The fact is I think this may have a shot with the masses.<p>If the latest rumors of EA being in talks with Ubuntu are true, then if massively successful games start appearing for the platform, it may well signify a turning point for desktop Linux.<p>Here's hoping widespread desktop Linux finally becomes a reality. Well deserved for the amazing work Ubuntu has put into it.

I'm not sure it's a great idea to distribute Ubuntu too widely in its current state. It's not fit for end users. Yesterday I had to fix my third broken Ubuntu installation in a year or so and it's always for the same reason: Failed upgrades. Upgrades leaving the system in an unbootable state has to be an extremely rare event and it's not.<p>How can this be fixed? I think the entire package management system has to be based on a more robust transactional infrastructure. Unless the user confirms the success of an upgrade, the system has to be rolled back to its original state. If the system doesn't boot, it must boot straight into the old system version on the next reboot.<p>Upgrades should not be something that anyone hesitates to do, but I know Ubuntu users who'd rather install new software on a separate computer instead of upgrading the fragile Ubuntu installation. The close coupling of application versions to OS versions is the main reason for that. The sources.list concept is just too complicated for most people.

Here's the big question on my mind: why can I not go on Amazon right now and buy an Ubuntu laptop? There is one I have seen (and I have searched for a while), where someone is reselling used laptops with Ubuntu installed.<p>There are so many device makers out there trying to replicate the feel of a MacBook Pro with Windows. Seems like it would be easier with Ubuntu. The success of Apple sprang mostly from marketing and differentiation, it could happen to Ubuntu with a little motivation.

<i>As far as when Ubuntu will be back at Best Buy here in the United States, or "When at Best Buy down the road?" Kenyon said, "We're working on it and I'm confident we're going to get there."</i><p>A better question is whether Best Buy will still be selling computers or anything at all down the road.<p>I'm happy Ubuntu is starting to gain this type of traction, but it needs two things to really make the leap:<p>1) Mass market game compatibility. The mainstream computer user needs office tools, a browser, email, music, video, and games. Games are the only absentee from Ubuntu. Some major upgrades to Wine could solve this.<p>2) A mobile strategy There's definitely been attempts to put Ubuntu on mobile devices, but nothing concrete from Canonical. If they had been more forward thinking, they could have been Android instead of Android being Android.<p>Finally, I'd personally like to see a lite version of the latest Ubuntu releases. The reason I got into Ubuntu in the first place was to bring new life to my old hardware. Unity doesnt work at all on old hardware, and the fallback is not as good as the old Gnome 2 experience. I'm still running 10.10 on a number of machines because it was my favorite release.

&#62; Canonical will be opening their first Beijing office this year<p>&#62; At more than 200 Dell stores in China, there is Ubuntu branding present and Dell China employees knowledgeable about Ubuntu Linux.<p>One of the things I noticed when I went to download Precise Pangolin is that there's a "Chinese Ubuntu" link featured prominently at the bottom of the page[0]. It looks like they've made China a primary target market, since the vast majority of Windows users there are running pirated copies and cannot afford to pay for a legitimate copy.<p>0: <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/download" rel="nofollow">http://www.ubuntu.com/download</a>

i'd rather pay an ubuntu tax than a microsoft tax so i really look forward to buying a new machine with the option of ubuntu even if it costs a little more.<p>but my main concern will be the those who buy an ubuntu machine and then expect to run ms office or other windows only piece of software on it. i will be getting those calls. thankfully most of the home users aren't as dependent on windows only apps anymore.

Even if I have moved away from Ubuntu, if mass users adopt it, I will be happy. And I think they are doing a great job at purposefully" bloating" their platform to accommodate newbies.<p>The skills I have on Linux only become more valuable as the user base grows.

If these figures are legit, then this is pretty cool news for the open source / Linux community; however, wonder what real user #'s look like since this "...count also obviously doesn't count those that install Ubuntu manually or obtain Ubuntu installations via other means," which seems to be the way that most folks currently get Ubuntu. Either way, hope the trend continues so, at the very least, consumers come to realize there is an alternative to Windows (besides Mac of course).

I don't believe the figures until after they've been sold. The demand for Ubuntu is pretty much non-existent outside the technology enthusiast arena. Ubuntu is just not as polished as Windows either.<p>OEMs also know there's an easy way out if they don't sell - chuck windows on them and shift them out through clearance sales.<p>This is all marketoid speil from their marketing VP at the moment.

<i>...when I talk with OEMs and others about Linux pre-loads, I commonly [sic] here a "significant percentage" of these Linux pre-loaded systems usually get wiped by their customers and replaced with pirated copies of Windows -- especially in the Asian markets, where customers are just going after the Linux PCs due to the lower sales cost.</i><p>Can anyone confirm this?

About time. In many countries there are laptops that come with "FreeDos", which is rather pointless. If they aren't going to use Windows, why not just use a great Linux distro like Ubuntu?<p>Sure Microsoft might not like that, but unless Microsoft is <i>paying</i> them to not allow Linux on their laptops (which I think would be illegal), then who cares?

My honest first thought: hasn't Ubuntu's share of the Linux market been dropping since their introduction of the universally-reviled, highly unintuitive Unity UI? I tried out 12.04 a couple months ago, tried to use it for a few weeks, and very enthusiastically retreated back to CentOS.

What percentage of PCs ship with FreeDOS? And how's that indicator of the popularity of the FreeDOS system?<p>Most of Ubuntu preinstalls won't even live to boot. A shame really.

So 2012 is the year of linux on the desktop?

Upvote to Ubuntu. Downvote to the tremendous amount of ads on phoronix.

&#62;<i>Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs</i><p>To be formatted and have (pirated?) Windows installed.<p>We saw the same story unfold with those Walmart Linux PC et al...

Yup, I knew that 2012 would the year when Linux on the Desktop finally took off. Gartner Hype curve blah blah blah.