Ubuntu 9.04 kicks Windows 7′s ass! #tech #ubuntu #windows7
A few days ago I posted about my disasterous experiences installing Windows 7 RC on my TabletPC. Then I promised I’d try the same expereiment with the latst Ubuntu distro and report back. Here’s that report.
The title of this post has probably let the cat out of the bag. I am amazed at the difference in the installation experience bewteen Ubuntu and Windows 7 on the same hardware. The Windows 7 installer acted as if MSFT had no idea what a Tablet PC was. It couldn’t find drivers for most of the hardware, having to download them from the net once I’d found a wired LAN connection. It couldn’t figure out what to do with the screen resolution so defaulted to VGA.. VGA!!! This is 2009!!! When was the last time anybody saw a monitor that only did standard VGA resolutions?? Most kids today have never even seen a standard VGA monitor. They are a computing “Myth” along with punched cards and magnetic tape! I digress. Then worst of its sins, Windows 7 couldn’t even recognize the TabletPC’s digitizer! There are only two models in use – The Wacom and the FinePoint.. TWO… Not like they had millions of options for this one!
So enough about Windows 7. You can read the whole post if you want more detials on its incompetance.
Yesterday I decided it was time to find out what the Open Source world could do for my TabletPC. I downloaded the latest Ubuntu build (9.04), burned a CD (yes, a CD, no bloat-ware DVD needs here) and set about what I expected to be, an “engineering” experience. Man was I wrong! The Linux installers of old are gone. Ubuntu booted quickly from CD with a GUI installer that immediately got to work. It identified the partitions on my disc. Figured out that Windows was already installed and suggested that I might like to repartition the disc to allow both Ubuntu and Windows to co-exist. Wonder what the Windows 7 installer would have done if Ubuntu had been there first? I chose to blow away Windows and take the whole disc for my new install. Revenge is sweet!
Within 20 minutes the machine rebooted and up came the Ubuntu logo. 20 seconds later I was listening to the soothing wood chimes that are Ubuntu’s audible trademark and was presented with my desktop. Of note here is that yes! Ubuntu was able to detect and use my sound card first try! Score one for Ubuntu over Windows 7!
The next thing I noticed was that not only was the track pad on my TabletPC working but somehow Ubuntu had turned it into a multi-touch device. Single finger gestures worked as they always have. Using two fingers at once allowed me to scroll through web pages just like on my trusty MacBook. Score 2 for Ubuntu!
Next I realized that my desktop was the right shape and size. I didn’t need to futs with properties or go on the video driver hunt from hell. It was just working! I did dig into the display properties just out of curiosity and found that not only could I make the fonts look 10x better by adjusting the subpixel smoothing & hinting (richi are you listening?) but I could also enable “Extra” desktop visual effects. This is where you really have to ask questions about the competance of MSFT’s engineers. If Ubuntu 9.04 can offer me window animations with alpha channel blending on an Intel GMA900 GPU then why does Windows Require bleeding edge video hardware to do the same thing? Score 3 for Ubuntu!
I tought I’d check to see if there were any updates for this build. Clicking the WiFi logo in the task bar opened a window showing all the SSIDs in my area. Yup! The WiFi was working without the need to first connect to a wired LAN port to let Ubuntu search for drivers. It already had them and the network was running just fine! Score 4 for Ubuntu.
Updates applied, I realized that the system had not needed to be rebooted! This I expect from my Macs but it’s rare to patch the OS on Windows without needing a reboot. Score 5 for Ubuntu.
Lastly I checked the digitizer. No luck there I’m afraid. The Gateway CX2618 that I’m using has a Finepoint digitizer. So far drivers are only commonly available for the Wacom units. There are discussions on many forums about how to get the Finepoint working but I haven’t had time to look into it. So as Windows 7 couldn’t find the digitizer either we’ll call this one a tie.
So let’s recap
Sound – Ubuntu 1 – Windows 0
Multitouch – Ubuntu 1 – Windows 0
Video – Ubuntu 1 – Windows 0
WiFi – Ubuntu 1 – Windows 0
Updates – Ubuntu 1 – Windows 0
Tablet – Ubuntu 0 – Windows 0
Grand total – Ubuntu 5 – Windows 0
I think the results speak for themselves. As I mentioned in my previous post I still have some morbid curiosity about the “next” version of Windows. Maybe it’s because I once worked at MSFT, maybe it’s because I got all excited when I first saw Windows 1.0 and compared it to DOS, realizing how powerful a windowed enviroment was going to be. I don’t know the reason but I still hold my breath each time Redmond kicks another interation of Windows out of the door as deep down I’m hoping I’ll be impressed. I’m fast coming to the realization that those days are over. Microsoft has lost its way. It’s forgotten what “Innovation” really is and instead is left nursing a bunch of bad decisions, refusing to let go of baggage that is dragging it down.
When a small company like Canonical can provide a better out-of-the-box user experience with freeware on a device that was spec’d by MSFT than Redmond can with its shiny new multi-billion dollar spawn then you know something is very wrong in Washington state. Not only does Ubuntu beat Windows 7 on the basics of getting the machine runing but it offers a similar UI experience on legacy machines that MSFT can only support on the very latest hardware.
Some of my buddies take pride in the struggles they have to go throught to get Windows into a usable state. They’ll spend weeks if not months reinstalling, trying this driver over that, tweaking the registry, and on, and on. Then after all that effort will turn around say “Look! I told you it works… What’s your problem?”. Well my problem is that I don’t want to have to battle to get my computers working. I don’t want to spend weeks messing with the OS so I can get something I can use. I just want computers to work so that I can do the fun stuff. This is why I switched to a Mac and now this is why I’ll be using Ubuntu as my “other” OS from mow on.
Ta ta Redmond…
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