08 May 2010 ~ 0 Comments

My mom uses Linux

Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid Lynx” was just released and this marks the one and a half year anniversary of my mom running Ubuntu on her home computer. I know what you are thinking, wow, she must be very tech savvy. Actually it’s the exact opposite. My mom doesn’t know the difference between Microsoft Word and Microsoft Windows, and believe it or not that’s why Ubuntu is such a great OS for her.

Ubuntu and the iPad share some common ideas. They are simple, they come with the essential programs to get stuff done right out of the box, and you don’t have to worry about viruses or extra junk that slow things down. What’s great about Ubuntu is that it’s free, you don’t need to buy new hardware for it, and it has some neat things that OS X and Windows don’t have. For example, there is an option for any window to always float on top, so that it can’t be covered by another window. This means a video, or chat window will always be seen and you can “work” on something else at the same time.

There are some caveats to using Linux though. Not everything works perfectly on it. Flash sucks on Linux. You know how bad flash sucks on OS X? well it’s much worse on Linux. Hulu works, but any embedded video will just freeze the browser. Want to use tweetdeck, which is built on adobe air, well that is going to be very slow as well. Want to watch Netflix instant streaming? it’s not supported, and there is no work around that I have found.

Lucid Lynx solves one of the problems I mentioned before. Ubuntu is building into the OS everything you need to be up and running from the install. In this version Twitter and Facebook is built right into the OS with a program called Gwibber-

The panel that shows chat and broadcast accounts. Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr are integrated.

With every release Ubuntu is becoming more usable without having to go into another operating system for home use. For Mother’s Day instead of just taking her out to dinner and buying her flowers, give her another gift and install Lucid Lynx on her computer. She’ll love it.

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