Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
It’s just too bad if you want to use iTunes or
QuickBooks. There are alternatives, although it’s somewhat of a problem
if you’re an iPod owner and your accountant is a QuickBooks fanatic. If
you really need those programs, there’s always the Windows dual-boot
option.
However, let’s face it. The real market that
Canonical/Ubuntu is trying to attract is Windows users. This is the
same market that Apple is trying to win over, lately with a somewhat
greater degree of success.
The first questions a longstanding Windows user with an average level
of technical knowledge (which is generally not that high) is likely to
ask when confronted with the Hardy Heron UI is where are my Microsoft
Office documents and is there any way I can access them? Where are my
MP3 files? Why doesn’t the movie player, that comes packaged with this
distribution, play my DVDs?
Having been through this before, I know there is a way to do all those
things. The problem is that, despite all of the years that Ubuntu has
been under development and refinement, Hardy Heron still doesn’t
address the needs of the average user it is trying to win away from
Windows. The answers to all the above questions and more should be
front and centre – not hidden away in some Ubuntu forum or Wiki.
Would it be too much to ask of Ubuntu for it to engage a new user with
say a question like “Are you a Windows user? If so, click here with
instructions on how to access your files and get up and running
quickly.” Is there a possibility that such engagement instead of
presenting the new Windows user of Ubuntu with a Spartan screen might
increase the take-up rate significantly? What about if the process was
automatic and a Windows folder simply appeared on the desktop?
From what I’ve seen so far, Hardy Heron appears to be the most
advanced, compatible, robust and hardy Ubuntu distribution to date.
Unfortunately, for most Windows users it will still just appear to be
too hard.
David Bass
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