There’s been huge buzz about Canonical and Ubuntu as of late, and I must say that I’m pretty impressed.  Mark Shuttleworth is emerging as a charismatic leader worthy to lead Ubuntu to battle, the blogosphere is going crazy, and Ubuntu is well on its way to hitting retail shelves.  I think that even though Ubuntu is a great product and operating system, it’s still not going to be enough as of yet – namely because of the lack of mainstream awareness.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia…_NASA.jpg

I realize that Canonical might not have the financial resources that Apple or Microsoft does, so I guess we can count the example of iPod ads out of the picture (I still feel that those iPod ads with dancing silhouettes are a huge factor in how they sold so well).  Still, if Ubuntu somehow manages to find their way to the front page of a huge mainstream newspaper or the main story on CNN, I’m sure that they would have reached many consumers that otherwise would never have heard of it.  Now, I’m not saying that Canonical has to work out a publicity stunt, but perhaps Shuttleworth could do a presentation or press conference that finds its way to G4 or something (start small, think big, right?).

Ubuntu is ready for mainstream, but we have to ask ourselves, is mainstream ready for Ubuntu?  Have a look at the success of Apple, the lack of general dissatisfaction and consumer reaction with Vista (not to say I personally don’t like Vista – I think it’s fine), and I think you’ll know the answer.

Choosing a reliable, stable, and yet sensational operating system nowadays is hard work. There’s the alternative of paying a high premium for Apple’s Macintosh just for OS X Leopard; alas, for the budget consumer, there really is only two options: Windows or Linux. Team Windows is alluring in the sense that it can run on all PC’s, provide a genuine GUI experience without prior knowledge of coding, and is relatively affordable to purchase. On the other side of the court, we have Team Linux, the team with a content penguin for a mascot. While Linux is known for its ability to be indefinitely customized via commands and code, it is the very same ability that turns mainstream users off. Rather, it’s the required knowledge in coding and commands.

I’m no Linux fanatic – in fact, I had tried Ubuntu 7.04 on a virtual PC before. It was unimpressive – there were problems connecting to the Internet, and worse yet: the standard-aspect resolution didn’t fit the widescreen display on my laptop. For crying out loud, I couldn’t even figure out how to install Flash or those Windows fonts because the bloody tutorials gave me some code I couldn’t understand.

However, lately, I’ve been thinking of switching back to Ubuntu for a variety of reasons:

• I needed a new environment to get away from my formal work where I could perform some research – on anything and everything, from holistic learning to customizing Ubuntu.
• I wasn’t pleased when Vista’s Aero – which does look pretty, in my opinion – was turned off by Java to revert to Vista’s Basic theme. Sorry, I’m picky.
• I wanted to try Ubuntu to take advantage of the open-source liberty: free, both price-wise and limit-wise.
  
• My Co-op supervisor encouraged me to cultivate my interest in open-source technology – which I did, a bit too much. I had discovered Ubuntu 8.04 was released; this release was apparently a major one that finally featured a display manager and simple installation.

I took the jump – and I reaped the rewards. No driver installation – everything just works. I know this must be weird to hear, because typically OS X or Windows would convey such an image, as opposed to Linux. In the following series of posts, I will show you what I absolutely love about Ubuntu – but also, why I can’t uninstall Windows Vista yet.

1. Download & Installation of Ubuntu 8.04
2. The major issue: command knowledge and why you don’t need it to use Ubuntu.
3. GUI: ordinarily simple, but can be pushed to look much smoother and more modern.
4. Work: a lack of fonts, but otherwise online documents and Open Office make up for it.
5. Play: iPod Connection? Tons of free games – amongst my favourites are Gnotris.
6. Customization: Hack ubuntu, please.
7. Support: community support works!
8. Try it in reality, not virtually – it doesn’t do it justice and takes away from the Ubuntu experience.

Here’s some motivation to get you moving; a screenshot of the beautiful Ubuntu. Its visual effects are actually somewhat reminiscent of those of Mac OS X’s – speaking of which, is actually based on Linux FreeBSD, another UNIX-like operating system. Take that.

Download it here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download