Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
With something like Ubuntu, you install the operating system and your computer is usually ready to go: there are no additional drivers to install and the basic applications are there.
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Only if your install disk is newer than your hardware. If the hardware is newer, they probably won't be drivers that the installer can identify. It
might be able to find them online (assuming, of course, it's not the network card drivers that are missing).
Mind you, unless you're using an old install disk, they do seem to keep things very up to date.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
If you want additional software, there's a nice package manager to show you what's available. The package manager also does it's job in a consistent manner and with minimal interaction.
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It's been years since I messed with a desktop distro. But even in Ubuntu server, apt-get from the command line is prety simple. Usually. If you understand what you're trying to install. (Kerberos confused the hell out of me for a while.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
Even Windows 8 is nowhere near as simple, never mind Windows XP and earlier.
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Again, it depends on the disk you're using. I've been doing Win7 upgrades from XP lately, on Dell hardware that is a few years old. So far, there's been, I think, one computer that I had to go to Dell's web site to get a driver for, out of several dozen installs. And that's not with Dell install disks, that's with the OEM disk from Microsoft. How much simpler can it get than "boot to the install disk, put in a couple of pieces if information, and come back in half an hour and it's ready to use"? Because, in all seriousness, that's my experience. The Win8 beta I played with was exactly the same. I haven't yet had my Ubuntu install disk put
itself in to the CD drive, nor read my mind from several feet away for that I wanted to use for machine name, user name, password, and so on. Maybe that's a feature of the desktop version? (Yes, I'm being snarky, but seriously, unless you've got hardware newer than the install disk,
on either OS, it's pretty automated.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
Recent versions of Mac OS X are better in most respects, but most users will still find themselves tracking down software that's not in the Mac App Store.
Now I understand that things aren't always that simple in Ubuntu-land, but Canonical does a good job of making it that simple for most users.
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The one spot that Windows is easier, for the average person, than Windows, is when the installer can't find, or install, a hardware driver.
If it's available, a Windows installer will be a .exe or .msi file you download from somebody's web site, and run like any other program with (probably poorly written) instructions on-screen and (more often than not) correct defaults. Just keep hitting Next, and odds are, you'll get it installed. That has not been my experience with manually installing hardware drivers in Linux of any flavor. Mind you, I haven't had to do so in years, though, as they do keep the installers current on drivers.