Where Ubuntu Fits Between Apple, Microsoft
The past 48 hours have been filled with drama for me. My MacBook Pro died on March 15, forcing me to scramble for help from Apple while I shifted all of my blogging and business efforts over to a System76’s Pangolin Performance laptop running Ubuntu. The experience reminded me: Ubuntu fills a growing niche where (A) Apple won’t compete on price and (B) Microsoft hasn’t competed on quality.
First, a big apology and a big thank you to System76 President Carl Richell. He was kind enough to lend me a Pangolin Performance system to review several months ago. I should have returned it by now, but thank goodness I hadn’t because the system is a gem. Carl: The system is now in the mail back to you.
Now, back to my horror story — which had a happy ending. My MacBook Pro’s hard drive died March 15. Fortunately, I had backed up all my data and I also have an Apple Care service agreement that offers free support from the Apple Genius Bar, located in Apple Stores. My local Apple Store completely repaired the system (including complete software recovery) on March 16 — within 24 hours of the failure.
Juggling Ubuntu and Mac OS X
On a typical day, I jump between my MacBook Pro (blogging on MSPmentor and The VAR Guy) and a range of Ubuntu desktops and notebooks (while blogging on WorksWithU).
But when the MacBook died, I switched full-time over to System76’s notebook running Ubuntu and plowed ahead with blogging. I’m playing catch up in some areas — including a few contributor blogs that need to hit this site.
Still, the Ubuntu system performed like a dream.
How Apple and Ubuntu Can Both Win
Looking ahead, I see a clear opportunity for Ubuntu to be a preferred alternative to Windows notebooks, while Apple remains a higher-end choice for digital content creators.
I have to be brutally honest: I love my MacBook Pro, Apple’s customer support and Apple’s digital editing tools (iLife, iMovie, GarageBand, etc). If there are intuitive, reliable, open source alternatives to those Apple applications I’m all ears. But even if you show me those open source tools, I suspect I’ll stick with Apple’s options because they are so darn intuitive and yes, even fun to use.
Still, Apple plays at the higher end of the market, and Apple products carry a premium price tag. I can’t imagine buying a bunch of MacBook Pros for general business users.
Moreover, I can’t recommend Windows systems at the moment because the industry is stuck in purgatory — between Windows Vista and Windows 7.
As a result, Ubuntu continues to fill a niche where (A) Apple can’t compete on price and (B) Microsoft can’t compete on quality. Ubuntu remains a solid, predictable, reliable choice on a growing number of desktops, notebooks and netbooks. Assuming Canonical doesn’t mess up Ubuntu 9.04’s delivery (Jaunty Jackalope) in April, this should be a banner year for Ubuntu’s continued desktop growth.
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Having just purchased a Mac Mini, my first Mac is sometime, I will continue to use Ubuntu on my eee pc 1000 when I travel. But I may not. I may just buy a Mac Book or an Apple netbook if one comes out later. The fit and finish of the Mac hardware and software is just outstanding. I can get Ubuntu working pretty well on some older desktops and laptops but they never look or work as good as a Mac with Apple software.
PC’s are generally low end machines that the hardware makers hope you replace every few years as Microsoft issues their next crappy operating system. I will never spend my money for a windows pc.
That leaves Ubuntu as a fallback just in case. Good second choice but not a first choice. I think the Ubuntu distribution is very good and the community is outstanding but it is much closer to being hobby ware than commercial grade software.
Mikey: Have you ever purchased a system designed for Ubuntu — such as something from System76 or ZaReason?
I’m not the type of person who has extra time to do installs/customization on my own, so I prefer buying a preinstall from PC makers that specialize in Ubuntu. Wonder if you’d consider that route as well.
As you already know, I’m a big Apple fan. And their service/support has transformed me into a customer for life.
Mikey: I have to disagree with calling Ubuntu hobbyware. I think as an OS its on par with about anything, but I do agree the applications in many respects may be lacking, but they are catching up.
Linux is definitely NOT hobby ware and it IS commercial grade. What it may not be for many is CONSUMER grade.
Personally I don’t use my computers in any way that makes me miss my old PPC powerbook. I don’t use my computer in an Apple’esque kind of way (I don’t use appls “iLife, iMovie, GarageBand, etc”). If I have spare time, I write code…. and for these purposes Linux rocks.
I’ll give it to Apple for making superb hardware, but I like to buy bits and pieces to make and maintain my own desktops. I don’t want to subscribe to the entire Apple consumer experience that Apple requires.
Of course, this is my personal experience and I understand that Ubuntu doesn’t work as a full time desktop OS as well for others as it does for me.
Apple is great .. if you hate freedom that is
As a creative-type, I’ve debated picking kitting out my office with Apple hardware, but in the end I keep coming back to the fact that it’s so proprietary. I don’t feel comfortable providing yet more affirmation to Apple’s marketing team that “creative-type” means “high-end consumer,” and doing limited software support for friends with Macs has made me appreciate the whole libre thing even more.
So, my latest addition is a Dell Ubuntu laptop, and for my “relatively” high-end graphics needs (2D/3D illustration, animation, compositing, video editing, etc.) Ubuntu has been great. The catch is that you have to learn your tools (and their quirks) well, but I usually like to study out my tools anyway. My next machine will likely be from System76, ZaReason, or Eight Virtues. Dell is good, but I’d like to support vendors who are a bit…smaller.
I work with people who like to send Photoshop files back and forth, so I went to the trouble of installing Windows in a VM with CS3. THAT is one area where I’d like to use Mac OS, in a VM. Possible? Not sure.
Linux desktop is most definitely hobbyware.
Don’t confuse the desktop with the server.
Endolith: Are you suggesting Ubuntu can’t make the leap to servers?
All: Anybody know of open source, Ubuntu-compatible applications that are alternatives to Apple iMovie and GarageBand.
Joe: LMMS is a good substitute for Garageband, in my experience. Here’s a recent LMMS project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DVxfxEvIWQ
For typical iMovie stuff you might try Kdenlive…I use Blender and Cinelerra a lot for effects and advanced editing/compositing, and avidemux and mencoder for format conversion, adding subtitles, de-interlacing, etc.
Ubuntu is the most overrated distro ever put out. It’s not nearly as good as its fanbois portray it to be — certainly not moreso than many other distros. Its “success” is all the result hype and fanboi “marketing”.
Nice of you to show us how much you really support Linux, by 1) owning and preferentially using an Apple Mac, and 2) getting back to it as quick as you could.
@Mikey
quote:That leaves Ubuntu as a fallback just in case. Good second choice but not a first choice. I think the Ubuntu distribution is very good and the community is outstanding but it is much closer to being hobby ware than commercial grade software.
You really don’t know what you are talking about. I use Macs, Windows PCs and Linux PCs (Not necessarily Ubuntu). Linux is definitely not as you call it hobby ware, nor is Open Source software in general, unless you consider the likes of Google with their huge Linux based data centres hobbiests.
If I have to choose between Mac, Windows or any mainstream version of Linux (Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, OpenSuSe, Mepis) I’d choose Linux everytime, for it’s stability, security and access to applications for everything I want. I’d recommend dual boot Linux/Windows to gamers, but I can’t think of any good reason to use a Mac.
Apple is proprietary and dumbed down just like Windows. Our business has run completely on Linux for quite some time.
We have no artificial need to run expensive software.
I know it may not make much sense to you, Joe P., but to many creative folks, like me (and Marc above) Apple is just too proprietary. I love their products and the excellent end-to-end quality of Mac OS X. But even in the cases where Apple bests Ubuntu (which are becoming fewer), I still cannot bring myself to support the corporation.
I hope that someday you’ll realize that Apple products are like a lovely garden. No matter how enchanting, if it’s walled in, it can become a prison.
–Ben in Seattle
I don’t know about kdenlive, but the other video editing software Marc mentioned is heavy duty stuff used by professionals. For something simple like stitching your family vacation together from a DV cam, try one of the smaller movie editors like “kino”.
–Ben in Seattle
Endolith, you haven’t got a clue about what you’re saying. Linux is not hobby ware. It depends what your needs are. I’m a scientist and do all my work in Linux computers, in fact, the whole division works with Linux. It seems it is the OS of choice for computer scientists, physicists, statisticians, computational biologists (like myself), etc. In fact, now that I remember, people like Pixar do all their rendering stuff with Linux …, well maybe their hobby is making good movies …
Dyco: I think you hit on a good point. Linux works best for some, it doesn’t for others
I love using it just for web browsing, email, and also for audio recording. Seems like this is where Linux software does sometimes get into a little bit of a pickle, great software for the simple and complex things but those middle ground things aren’t always there.
Thanks to all for providing those open source alternatives to iMovie, GarageBand, etc. I’m going to give them a look this weekend.
Can’t tell you the number of times an Ubuntu LiveCD has saved me from losing everything when the OS crapped out on me.
Of course, now I use Ubuntu on the home server, desktop and laptop and haven’t had to use it in this way since!
I’ve often looked at replacement systems to come with Windows in case Linux doesn’t work well and I need a “fall-back”. Now Linux *IS* my fall-back and I am much more confident at getting a Dell (Mini 9?) or System76 machine with Linux installed, especially if they include the codecs and all drivers!
For anyone that says Ubuntu or for that matter Linux is hobbyware they have never really used it. I have been using *nix since the early 90’s exclusively and I can tell you that I have no reason to even look at a Windows machine. As for Mac OS X and everyone singing its’ praises you do realize that it is a *nix as well. OS X is based heavily on the BSD kernel which is Unix. Not only that but OS X has a terminal just like Linux and can also run a X-Server and compile open source programs to run on it as well. SURPRISE!
I gotta agree with Francois.
Its good but its not THAT good as hype makes it seem. Suse and Mandriva have been doing user friendly for years and desktops like Gnome and KDE dictate more the feel than icons and wallpapers can. You dont love the Ubuntu desktop top, you like the GNome desktop that Canonical has modified which is barely discernible from other distros.
And then you have the Mint’s and PCLinuxOS who take the user thing one step beyond their predecessors.
I’ve been running KDE4.1 and 4.2 distros on a couple of machines for the past few months and you cant tell a Mandriva2009 from a Kubuntu8.10 (which is still by the way not a top 5 KDE after running it on 3 different machines)
Im not saying its not a heck of a good OS though, just not as superior as the vocal fans make it seem it be. Yes, the Ubuntu Live CD is nice but so are all of them (Puppy and DSL are still the kings because of their size-footprint). Of course, the vocal ones are the ones you read so joe windows sees this and goes “Hmm, it must be better than others, thats the only one I hear about.” sort of like a selfperpetuating myth.
But then again, Im a Gentoo guy so what do I know about usability?!?!!!
@Robert Heron
Ubuntu has had a meteoric rise in popularity because they focused on the things normal users found important. Ubuntu became popular because they focused on making their distro *very* easy to use – especially with their hardware support, all the extra drivers they shipped with. This was when Ubuntu first came out.
Other distros were playing catchup there while Ubuntu was enjoying huge success. Things have levelled out a bit now.
Having said that, I still find that Ubuntu will configure everything for me better than the other distros I’ve tried.
I don’t think Ubuntu is bothering to win over customers who think of it as hobbyware. There are tons of other people who need computers to do simple tasks, “just work”, not break down, and not cost a fortune or have a mantra of style and fashion associated with… checking your facebook or chatting with a friend.
My Pangolin is going on 4 years old. I must of bought one of the first. It is still a great system and hasn’t given me any problems at all. I am getting the itch to get a new laptop but my wife says truthfully that the one I have still does the job quite well. It runs Hardy right now. If you want a Linux laptop, System76 is an excellent choice. Their hardware is very good and the technical support is excellent. I suspect that when it is time to retire this Pangolin I will be back to System76. Also they make desktops. But I usually build those myself.