Ubuntu here, Ubuntu there...

Submitted by Gustavo on Fri, 2007-08-03 09:00.

Posts: 335
Joined: 2006-09-11

Hello, everyone.

Don't you think we talk a lot about Ubuntu on GGL? We mention Ubuntu on every single webpage (except for the main page).

Most of these occurrences are not necessary, IMHO. I'm not against Ubuntu -- Kubuntu is actually my preferred distro and it's the one I recommend everybody to install. I think we don't have to mention Ubuntu so often, though.

I believe the whole GGL website should be generic, this is, distro-independent; only two sections should talk about specific distributions: "Choose a distribution" and "GNU/Linux Screenshots"... And we should of course keep Ubuntu as our preferred distribution.

What do you think?

Cheers.

Gustavo Narea.
What's GNU/Linux? Why not Windows? Find it out at GetGNULinux.org.

Fri, 2007-08-03 10:04 I agree, it should be

tbuitenh

Posts: 1059
Joined: 2005-12-21

I agree, it should be promoting GNU/Linux in general, not just or mostly Ubuntu. If a distribution more worthy of recommendation ever appears, it should not be necessary to hunt for the word "Ubuntu" on the whole site, changing the page of recommended distros should be enough.

CAN I HAS FIXD CAPSLOK KEE PLZ?

Fri, 2007-08-03 10:18 I also agree. To be honest

libervisco

Posts: 3856
Joined: 2006-05-04

I also agree. To be honest it is lately becoming a sort of a habit to mention Ubuntu every time I, for example, talk about user friendly distros, cause I use it, know it and feel most confident recommending it to people because I can help them with it (and it's quite easy to help with it considering it's quite easy).

But there are others which are increasingly as easy to use. Some say there are those even better than Ubuntu in some ways regarding user friendliness.

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Fri, 2007-08-03 11:01 Since I use Fedora on my

reptiler

Posts: 763
Joined: 2006-03-28

Since I use Fedora on my notebook I have to say that it's also a really user-friendly distro. I have to admit that I didn't try Ubuntu yet, but I think that Fedora might be as user-friendly as Ubuntu, plus that it's completely free software and even comes with SELinux by default, which is great for paranoid people like me. Wink alt

Edit: Forgot to mention my opinion about the topic, though it should be clear already. I also think that it's better to be more generic, although Ubuntu somehow has the status of being "the" GNU/Linux at this time.

Fri, 2007-08-03 11:40 Once Fedora is installed,

Gustavo

Posts: 335
Joined: 2006-09-11

Once Fedora is installed, it's beginner-friendly (probably as user friendly as Ubuntu); but I think it's not easy for a newcomer to install (because of the technical questions the installer asks).

Cheers!

Gustavo Narea.
What's GNU/Linux? Why not Windows? Find it out at GetGNULinux.org.

Fri, 2007-08-03 13:42 Where exactly is the

ariadacapo

Posts: 562
Joined: 2006-07-13

Where exactly is the linking to Ubuntu superfluous? I can only see the "Linux" and the "From Windows to Linux" pages.

My reasoning here is that very few people visit the entire site and go on the path:
Homepage --> Linux --> [Linux subsections] --> Windows --> [Windows subsections] --> Switch to Linux --> All StL subsections.
There are several "landing pages", esp homepage, Linux FAQ, Linux, "From Windows to Linux" and others. And then the travel paths are very diverse.
The idea is that visitors that only are willing to give 30 seconds to us can still go away having heard of the main distro out there.
Of course it's really hard to know what people think when browsing and where they are clicking.

What I would really not want is a visitor leaving GGL to start hunting for a distribution. I believe it is our role to be general about GNU/Linux, but make sure none of our visitors ends up with a Lindows or some other half-proprietary, unfriendly, or messy distribution. We are helping users when we "make a choice" for them. (see perhaps this video). Nobody in the wide public wants a (obviously difficult) choice of 450 distros.

I can certainly perceive the annoyance that everybody sees Ubuntu everywhere, and seeing that this one distribution has eaten most of the market. But I believe having only 3 leaders is a necessity if we want to reach out to the big field.

So generally I am reluctant to be more "neutral". Again which are the exact locations which are troublesome?

I apologize in advance that I often need lots of time to reply to posts - thanks for your patience!
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Mon, 2007-08-06 08:34 ariadacapo wrote:The idea

Gustavo

Posts: 335
Joined: 2006-09-11

ariadacapo wrote:

The idea is that visitors that only are willing to give 30 seconds to us can still go away having heard of the main distro out there.

Then I think it's really worthing mentioning Ubuntu in the beginning, but I think we don't have to mention Ubuntu so often later on. I would even agree to put more emphasis on Ubuntu in the beginning.

ariadacapo wrote:

So generally I am reluctant to be more "neutral". Again which are the exact locations which are troublesome?

For example:

Distributions such as Ubuntu thus include such components to improve hardware compatibility. I guess "The major distributions thus include such components to improve hardware compatibility" would be more accurate.
Happily, because these freedoms matter a lot, it's possible to run popular GNU/Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu) on Mac computers.

I think Ubuntu is absolutely dispensable in those phrases.

Cheers.

Gustavo Narea.
What's GNU/Linux? Why not Windows? Find it out at GetGNULinux.org.

Tue, 2007-08-07 01:58 I agree with Gustavo about

libervisco

Posts: 3856
Joined: 2006-05-04

I agree with Gustavo about these two sentences at least.

Btw, Olivier, that video you linked to is quite entertaining and interesting. I suppose that those who know how to navigate the choices (because they like choosing within that particular field) are in a way responsible for helping other people (who are not in the field) to choose, or to choose for them. In other words, we as Free Software enthusiasts really should, rather than expecting them to face the full variety of choice of distributions, just choose for themselves what we according to our own experience believe is best for them. This way we are helping them in every way possible (as that video suggests, sparing them the frustration and yet still helping them switch to a better way of using their computer).

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