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Re: [LUG] Ubuntu and freedom?

 
On Thu, 2006-12-07 at 10:52 +0000, Mark Jose wrote: 
Neither of those commonly issued devices will work "out of the box" within a 
GNU/Linux system - even those which are including "non-free" drivers. 
A couple of weeks ago, I had two people who were very interested in moving to 
Ubuntu from Windows. They both reported back to me that their USB modems did 
not work.
I gave a copy of Ubuntu to a friend who liked it on my laptop and liked the principles behind GNU/Linux. His free usb modem did not work and I passed on to him the advice from this list to get a router for around £25. He has saved up for one (not on a high wage) as he realised the firewall was good, though he had been prepared to sort out the driver issue himself. He also has to solve the printer problem! Without having checked with him, I an only assume it was one of the Windows printers also mentioned in an earlier post.

We seem to be in a position where the ease of installation and use of the current range of distros is such that a typical Windows user can easily move over if everything worked first time. I was able to demonstrate Kubuntu to a small group during my recent Honey Show and I think I helped someone who has tried the (slow) Live CD. Once everything works and with a bit of experience, the new user can branch out, perhaps after finding out about Lists and philosophy and so on, and maybe thinking about a fidderent distro, but even there, there is a lot to learn. In my case, I have done very little in command mode and stop if (like with Gnucash) my distribution (Ubuntu) cannot install it or when OOo cannot export a xhtml file. At the moment I am exploring the mysteries of Konqueror, which is fabulous so far, but gives me a lot to learn.

I will get around to explaining the two problems with ubuntu soon. When I get around to my tax return, I definitely will ask.
-- 
james kilty http://www.kilty.demon.co.uk/

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