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There is no indication whatsoever that Ubuntu will be able to reach "average joe", and building a product for audience you can't reach is pretty pointless. The

There is no indication whatsoever that Ubuntu will be able to reach "average joe", and building a product for audience you can't reach is pretty pointless. The only audience really using Ubuntu is one consisting of coders and geeks. There's a famous russian chinese saying: When a rhino stares at the moon - he is wasting his spleen flowers.

jiggy2011 15y ago
I agree, if they had taken advantage of the fact that their competitors are spending lots of resources on simpler OSs for tablets etc and concentrated on providing the best Power User experience out there and spent the time they spent on Unity building really useful software I think there would be more of a business model for them.
- guard-of-terra 15y ago
  I can't contemplate how on earth they might reach tablets either. (Not ones hand-made for 125$, obviously, that one ran Windows anyway).
  - jiggy2011 15y ago
    They have 3 options I think. 1) Get people to jailbreak their tablets and install it. Fair enough but it will be very niche and more of a novelty, will never reach critical mass to get useful commercial apps. Will probably get picked by Chinese manufacturers who will resell cheap tablets with Ubuntu re-themed to look as much like iOS as possible, probably called iBuntu or something. 2) Make deals with manufacturers and produce mass market tablets, they will have to compete head on with android and I'm not sure what their USP would be here. They would either need 100% android compatibility or would need to magic allot of app developers out of thin air. 3) Go exclusively for niche markets, for example selling to car manufacturers developing bespoke in-car entertainment systems. This would be a whole new business strategy for them and would basically remove the need for the "ubuntu project" as it exists today.
    - guard-of-terra 15y ago
      None of these options make what they do now viable.
rsheridan6 15y ago
They did (sort of) reach a mass audience through Dell's Ubuntu laptop program in 2007. It didn't quite work out then because Ubuntu wasn't ready (I owned one, it was not ready for prime time). It still isn't, but it's closer. If it was ready, then avoiding the Windows tax would be a good enough reason for retailers to push Ubuntu.
- guard-of-terra 15y ago
  Sadly, PC makers offset the Windows tax by installing crapware in it. It makes harder for Canonical to gain advantage.
- flomo 15y ago
  The issue with pushing Linux onto unwitting users is many don't understand it's incompatible with their Win32 software and end up returning the computer. Therefore Dell had to put up a big "here be dragons" page in front of the Ubuntu systems. If this were to actually work, they would need some sort of huge mass marketing campaign which convinced people they actually want or need Linux on their computer, which is very unlikely. Defining your audience as people who want to save the 5% cost of a Windows license cost from their already cheapass PC is never going to amount to much.
  - rsheridan6 15y ago
    Your point is valid, but it's becoming less so. The web is taking over more and more of what used to be desktop territory, and the OS is becoming a device driver for the internet. There are plenty of people now who just need something that will run a web browser (granted, there are also still plenty who have to have MS Office or whatever). The more cheapass the PC, the more of a difference the Windows Tax makes. $50 out of $1000 is only 5%, but $50 out of a $115 Walmart computer[1] is pretty substantial (not that Walmart is likely to be paying that much for a Windows license, but at the low end a little bit of money makes a big difference). [1] http://www.walmart.com/ip/IBM-40GB-8183/16880171 http://www.walmart.com/ip/IBM-40GB-8183/16880171
    - 15y ago

jiggy2011 15y ago

I agree, if they had taken advantage of the fact that their competitors are spending lots of resources on simpler OSs for tablets etc and concentrated on providing the best Power User experience out there and spent the time they spent on Unity building really useful software I think there would be more of a business model for them.

guard-of-terra 15y ago
I can't contemplate how on earth they might reach tablets either. (Not ones hand-made for 125$, obviously, that one ran Windows anyway).
- jiggy2011 15y ago
  They have 3 options I think. 1) Get people to jailbreak their tablets and install it. Fair enough but it will be very niche and more of a novelty, will never reach critical mass to get useful commercial apps. Will probably get picked by Chinese manufacturers who will resell cheap tablets with Ubuntu re-themed to look as much like iOS as possible, probably called iBuntu or something. 2) Make deals with manufacturers and produce mass market tablets, they will have to compete head on with android and I'm not sure what their USP would be here. They would either need 100% android compatibility or would need to magic allot of app developers out of thin air. 3) Go exclusively for niche markets, for example selling to car manufacturers developing bespoke in-car entertainment systems. This would be a whole new business strategy for them and would basically remove the need for the "ubuntu project" as it exists today.
  - guard-of-terra 15y ago
    None of these options make what they do now viable.

rsheridan6 15y ago

They did (sort of) reach a mass audience through Dell's Ubuntu laptop program in 2007. It didn't quite work out then because Ubuntu wasn't ready (I owned one, it was not ready for prime time). It still isn't, but it's closer. If it was ready, then avoiding the Windows tax would be a good enough reason for retailers to push Ubuntu.

guard-of-terra 15y ago
Sadly, PC makers offset the Windows tax by installing crapware in it. It makes harder for Canonical to gain advantage.
flomo 15y ago
The issue with pushing Linux onto unwitting users is many don't understand it's incompatible with their Win32 software and end up returning the computer. Therefore Dell had to put up a big "here be dragons" page in front of the Ubuntu systems. If this were to actually work, they would need some sort of huge mass marketing campaign which convinced people they actually want or need Linux on their computer, which is very unlikely. Defining your audience as people who want to save the 5% cost of a Windows license cost from their already cheapass PC is never going to amount to much.
- rsheridan6 15y ago
  Your point is valid, but it's becoming less so. The web is taking over more and more of what used to be desktop territory, and the OS is becoming a device driver for the internet. There are plenty of people now who just need something that will run a web browser (granted, there are also still plenty who have to have MS Office or whatever). The more cheapass the PC, the more of a difference the Windows Tax makes. $50 out of $1000 is only 5%, but $50 out of a $115 Walmart computer[1] is pretty substantial (not that Walmart is likely to be paying that much for a Windows license, but at the low end a little bit of money makes a big difference). [1] http://www.walmart.com/ip/IBM-40GB-8183/16880171 http://www.walmart.com/ip/IBM-40GB-8183/16880171
  - 15y ago