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As a followup to an earlier blog post at Ubuntu's blog about why those on Windows 7 should upgrade to Ubuntu, the same blog has a post about how to actually do it.
A few days ago, Rhys Davies wrote a timely article, titled Why you should upgrade to Ubuntu. In it, he outlined a high-level overview of what the end of support of Windows 7 signifies for the typical user, the consideration – and advantages – of migrating to Ubuntu as an alternative, and the basic steps one should undertake to achieve this.
We'd like to expand on this idea. We will provide a series of detailed, step-by-step tutorials that should help less tech-savvy Windows 7 users migrate from their old operating system to Ubuntu. We will start with considerations for the move, with emphasis on applications and data backup. Then, we will follow up with the installation of the new operating system, and finally cover the Ubuntu desktop tour, post-install configuration and setup.
The upcoming Long Term Support (LTS) release will have not just the usual five years of regular support but an optional additional five years for those that decide to pay. That would be 10 years starting from April, 2020.
Previously:
Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on a Dell XPS 13 (2018)
How to Create a Custom Ubuntu ISO with Cubic (2018)
Debian vs. Ubuntu: What's the Difference? (2017)
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:45PM (27 children)
Microsoft hasn't been allowed to force OEMs to carry only Windows for a couple of decades. But WalMart, Dell, etc. have tried to sell linux boxes, and it doesn't work. People want a computer that runs their software. All their software. Their peripherals. All their peripherals, and not with reduced functionality.
People want to be able to buy a program and KNOW it will work. And they don't want to have to fart around with crappy free open source versions that don't do what they want.
Remember Loki Games? They tried to make a go of it selling linux versions of Windows games, but even though they were officially blessed by the game manufacturers, they couldn't make a go of it. Can't really sell into a market that wants and expects everything for free.
You get what you pay for.
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by canopic jug on Thursday January 30 2020, @05:24PM (9 children)
In contrast, a counter example is that Asus did a netbook with GNU/Linux pre-sintalled with great success. The Asus EEE netbooks were quite popular and well liked, even if under-powered. The problem occured with the reaction from M$ to the spike in sales of the GNU/Linux-based EEEs. M$ leaned heavily on Asus and got them to stop producing the GNU/Linux edition of the EEE leaving the windoze version on the shelves. The windoze version was quite sluggish and unusable, resulting in disatisfaction and more than a few returns. However, with the help of the tech journals beholden on M$ advertising money, they spun the stopped production as "not selling", implying lack of popularity rather than a cessation of production. Then they had, with the same guilty parties, spun the returns of the windoze-based units by not mentioning the OS and implying that it was the GNU/Linux editions. Then these misdirections got repeated and rephrased into lies and the lies repeated until the original stats have become quite hidden.
I've seen people perfectly happy to use Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and other easy-to-use desktop distros without knowing or caring that what they had is based on Linux. Really. People don't care, they'll take what's on the shelf, especially if it guarantees them a malware-free experience. But again the risk is not just the OEM lock-in or the file format lock-in but the upcoming data file and data lock-in via the "cloud".
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @06:26PM (7 children)
The EEE was never a success. It sold for a while, for people who couldn't afford a laptop, but laptop prices crashed, and it was cheaper to buy a real laptop than an EEE.
I've seen two in the wild, and neither was actually being used. It was carried around as a sort of talisman to shout "see how cool I am I have a netbook."
So using the EEE PC as an example is like using the Titanic as an example of a large oceanliner - doomed shortly out of the dock.
In 2010 Ubuntu was #1 on distrowatch. It's dropped pretty much continuously to #5, with a 10% share, mostly due to inertia. It's most certainly not the "distro of choice" any more. Shuttleworth's mismanagement assured it would languish, like the dark knight in Monty Python - "It's only a flesh wound." It's dying. It just takes a long time to die when you used to be #1. But it will join UbuntuTV, UbuntuPhone, Ubuntu Personal Cloud, Ubuntu Music Store (wtf were they thinking), Kubuntu (which used to be a top level project but lost its paid staff), etc.
For the vast majority of Windows 7 users, Ubuntu is the downgrade from hell. There's no reason they can't just stick with their current OS, even if it's not supported. It still works, and Microsoft is not legally allowed to disable it remotely.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @05:50AM (6 children)
Lies like this do not add to your credibility, Barbara. I was a great success, until Microsoft smothered the baby in the crib. How much are they paying you to propagate such lies and untruths, Barbara? Why are you so, um, evil?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @05:41PM (5 children)
Anonymous poster - check
Pushing a conspiracy theory - check
Claiming that Microsoft killed the EEE when it was in fact killed by the huge crash in laptop prices - check
When laptops with twice the ram and a 15" screen suddenly were selling for less than an EEE, the game was over. I saw laptop prices drop by half over the space of a single season, and with better specs on top. An oversupply of RAM chips and CPUs and LCD screens and the need for manufacturers to clear out older laptop drives as capacity doubled overnight meant that a machine that couldn't run most software properly was doomed.
It got a bit of a life extension by switching CPUs and operating systems in 2008, but by then it was starting to get seriously noncompetitive. After all, why buy a toy laptop when you can buy a real one for a few bucks more?
Like I said, the only people I saw with one (all two of them) never used them for any sort of work. Too damn small. Toys. And no wonder. By then, 800x480 or 1024x600 was a ridiculously small screen resolution.
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(Score: 2) by toddestan on Saturday February 01 2020, @06:51AM (4 children)
Microsoft sort-of killed them by offering free or a very low cost version of Windows. At first it was Windows XP, and then Windows 7 "Starter Edition". But in order to qualify to use these versions of Windows the specifications couldn't exceed certain limits. Which is why all the netbooks were essentially identical. Same processors, same screen sizes and resolutions, same max memory, same storage, and so forth. Of course, the Linux versions were basically "take the Windows version but put Linux on it", so the Linux ones - while not under the same restrictions, ended up suffering from this too. There were a few exceptions, including higher-end versions on the Windows side too that had to run the "Home" version, but the volumes were low and it didn't take much added cost to push them into cheap notebook territory. While I don't consider them a replacement, I'm sure tablets ate away at their sales too. And finally Microsoft never really updated their license restrictions meant the netbooks all stayed the same for years with the same weak processors, low ram, and garbage screens until they weren't competitive at all anymore. And that was the end of the netbook fad.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 01 2020, @03:37PM (3 children)
Windows XP was a full version available to any retail computer builder at a discount from various distributors. Don't no where you got your information from. And it was never free. You could get a refund from Microsoft on the pre-installed OEM version that came with computers from Dell, Best Buy, etc. by providing proof that you refused the license agreement on initial boot-up.
The netbooks were underpowered because they were designed to be as cheap as possible. Had nothing to do with Microsoft. They weren't even designed to be laptop replacements, never mind desktop replacements. These (the EEE nettop) were based on the OLPC computer that was a disaster. What a waste of money. They didn't figure on the rapid collapse of prices for computer hardware, so what looked very appealing at first was seen as a total ripoff at the end.
The netbooks were all identical because they were all shooting for the same price point and aimed at the same buyers. No conspiracy here. No evil machinations. Just the workings of the marketplace. You're not going to put $600 worth of hardware into a machine that sells for $200.
Windows starter edition - did anyone ever buy that? By then computers were so cheap in comparison to historic prices that nobody but a total idiot would buy something that couldn't run regular Windows. You'd actually have to look pretty hard to find something that couldn't run full windows. Most retailers wouldn't even carry it because the hardware was too cheap to make any money on.
The Vista "Home" edition was in he same class as the regular XP before it. Run as many programs as you wanted, with as much ram and cpu as you wanted. Just missing some advanced features that home and small office users wouldn't use anyway.
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(Score: 2) by toddestan on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:33PM (2 children)
Maybe you pay more attention to Microsoft and their licensing before spewing out bullshit. Microsoft generally will not license new versions of their "Home" operating systems once version+1 is out. That's why, once Vista came out, excluding old stock, all new non-business oriented PC's came with Vista. Microsoft allows "Pro" versions to be downgraded, which is why all new Windows XP computers in the Vista era all came with Windows XP Professional (excluding netbooks). Exact same story with Windows 7 - no more new Windows 7 Home PC's after Windows 8 came out, all the new PC's with Windows 7 were running Windows 7 Professional
This presented a problem with the netbooks became popular - they were too weak to really run Vista acceptably, and while the OEMs could load Windows XP Pro on them, the cost would have killed whatever meager margins the OEMs were making on the things. Seeing cheap, Linux-based netbooks as a possible threat, in order to get Windows into the netbook market Microsoft decided to allow OEMs to once again license XP Home to put on netbooks. In order to keep the OEMs from also putting XP Home onto other new PC's where Microsoft was pushing Vista hard, Microsoft stuck a bunch of restrictions on what could be sold with XP Home. Hence the reason why all the netbooks ended up having basically the same specifications. The OEMs wanted to be able to offer both a Windows version too, and since Linux didn't have any restrictions it just got stuck with the same specs as the Windows version.
The same story with "Starter" edition. I don't know if you could actually buy it retail - all the places I ever saw it was on cheap netbooks or very low end laptops where it was preloaded. I don't remember if it was ever really "free" to OEMs, but Microsoft did have a deal where it was at least very cheap if the machine didn't exceed certain specifications. Which once again made all the netbooks basically all the same. Microsoft never really showed any interest in ever updating those specifications, so either intentionally or out of ineptitude this held back the netbooks until they were not really competitive anymore. The netbook market probably would have ended up dying anyway, but who knows.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 01 2020, @10:02PM (1 child)
Never said they'd re-license anything. However, activation remained even after the next version was out.
As well, there are cracks for avoiding activation for all versions of windows that require it, so if you have a legit version, just use it. And versions that never had activation, use to your hearts content - the full retail versions were never sold with the proviso of being used only on the original hardware because they weren't sold with hardware. So, the hardware dies, install on newer hardware without violating the license.
Microsoft tried to retroactively close this loophole by claiming after the fact that you couldn't do that, but the license doesn't say that.
There is nothing to prevent me from installing Win3.11 or Win95 on newer hardware - they're both full retail versions. I think I have a copy of XP that's also a full retail version. The OEM versions came with more restrictions, which is why they were cheaper.
Of course, the newer stuff is restricted as heck, but who cares? Not the users.
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(Score: 2) by toddestan on Sunday February 02 2020, @07:56PM
We were talking netbooks and OEMs here. Once version+1 of Windows is out, Microsoft usually will not license old versions of their "Home" Windows to OEMs. That's why Microsoft suddenly allowing XP Home to be installed on netbooks well into the Vista era was so unusual, and effectively allowed them to dictate what and was not a netbook.
Of course if you already have an existing Windows license, Microsoft will still let you (re-)activate. And if you can find new-old stock of old versions of Windows, Microsoft allows those to activate too.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday February 07 2020, @01:19AM
I was delighted with my EEEPC running Linux.
It was the first EEEPC that required no proprietary drivers.
So I bought it and installed the Linux of my choice.
Ironically, it had Windows preinstalled. The first EEEPC that was ideal for Linux had Windows preinstalled.
I used it with Linux.
Windows was still handy for the once in a blue moon I needed Windows software. For example, to buy books for my non-wifi-enabled Kobo. Adobe Digital Editions did not run on linux, even though the Kobo did.
I now have a new, much higher-powered laptop, bought a year or two ago. It runs even better, but I still use the old EEEPC when I leave home with a computer. It is much smaller and lighter, easier to carry and easier to fit on a coffee shop table. Revision control keeps important files in sync.
Nowadays, the firefox browser seems to know how to download adobe-encrypted books.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @06:01PM (4 children)
I have never heard of loki games, but I have heard of Steam. Steam makes a lot of money selling Linux games.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @06:52PM (1 child)
The takeaway here is that one third of 1% of home users run linux. So much for the year of linux on the desktop.
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(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday January 31 2020, @02:35PM
There remains to be seen how useful is having THE POSSIBILITY to switch to linux if Microsoft tries to drive Steam out of the market with some copycat store. Both for steam and for the guys publishing on steam.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @07:34AM (1 child)
Of course you have not! The main point of political power is the ability to control the past!
Loki Games was a short lived company, porting games to linux. Their major sin was showing that it was possible. They closed shortly after the principal investor started covering payroll with a credit card, which then bounced. If you know anything about Loki, outside of the Marvel Universe, this makes perfect sense. Fear, Uncertainty, and Default. Microsoft will kill you. And your family, and you pets, especially your dog, but even your hamster. And your Linux games.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday February 07 2020, @01:22AM
Outside of the Marvel universe, there's actual Scandinavian mythology, where, unlike Marvel's, Loki got his balls tied to a goat.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @06:02PM (9 children)
Is that true? Or did they get out of it because it wasn't profitable enough for them to bother with? It is also hard to compare then to now because Walmart and others have come around to the Amazon model where they become a shopping portal for third-party vendors. They still have a Linux section in their computer section, but if you go there you get a lot of low priced computers, all with Win10 installed and all sold by third-parties.
Dell is still in the Linux business. At work we've purchased probably six of their Linux-installed ruggedized laptops in the last year. I'm sure they don't sell many of them to the general population (it also has been hard to find them on their web site), but they sell enough that they maintain products for it.
I do remember Loki, but I don't remember what happened to them. If I had to guess, I would think it had more to do with platforms like Steam taking away their customer base than a consumer expectation that everything should be free.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @06:45PM (7 children)
If you were using linux at the time, you were most likely very aware of the spectacular failure of the original WalMart Linux PC. People on tech sites first went crazy over the idea of a dirt cheap computer running linux (the rest of the world didn't give a shit, and still don't) - "This will be the year of linux on the desktop." They turned equally vicious when it failed because people couldn't run their programs on it, saying it was obvious that it was going to be a failure.
May people didn't care - they said "screw this" and wiped it and installed Windows, so they ended up with a dirt cheap Windows PC with absolutely shit performance, but you couldn't beat the price.
The rest returned them for refunds.
Loki came out with SimCity 3 for Linux. It wasn't badly done - but most people running linux at the time already had a spare PC running windows with a legit copy of SimCity 3, so why bother buying a second copy to run under linux?
They died in 2002, so it's ancient history in terms of the computer age.
Dell does its best to hide linux options. It's really a niche product. Not something the average consumer would ever want - not even a dual boot, handy as that could be as an option for a Windows machine.
As a recovery option, linux has its uses for even regular users, but not as a sole daily driver OS. Maybe we should admit this?
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @07:55PM (1 child)
I disagree here because the predominant daily driver for people is stuff that linux has always done well for decades: generic desktop web browsing and light office work. That is even more so true now that most major software has decided to go to the cloud and become web browser based.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @02:12AM
And yet people aren't wiping out Windows and OSX and installing linux. Ever support linux for friends you installed it for? It's a relief when they re-install Windows.
That's the reality. Something that does 90% of what users want to do isn't competitive with something that does 100% of what those same users want to do.
It's like toilet paper. If it only gets rid of 90% of shit, leaving you to deal with the 10% that breaks through onto your hand, it's a 100% total failure.
You can't give away 90% "good enough" to anyone who already has 100%.
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by DECbot on Thursday January 30 2020, @08:54PM (4 children)
I was just looking at the Dell website today. To find the linux computers, look for "Products" → "Laptops" → "For Work." Then on the filters, select "Ubuntu Linux" under "OS Selection." You will find Dell's linux solutions here because their linux target market is full-time developers using linux for work.
Though if you really want to be a pedant, in either "For Work" or "For Home" to find the linux offering, select "Chrome OS" because that runs the linux kernel. This is the decade of Linux.... linux on a chromebook or android phone.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @01:09AM (3 children)
A locked down version of linux that people never even see, continually data mined by google, is NOT "the decade of linux." It's the decade of spyware.
And Android is absolute shit, with very short support cycles contributing to e-waste. After my Android died, one of my sisters lent me an iPhone 6. Made in 2014, it still got a couple of security updates in December. Most Android phones are lucky to get 2 years. That's all mine got.
And the amount of malware on Google Play is unreal. So much for "linux is secure."
It's just not worth bothering with any more. If you want something with long term support, your choices are Microsoft and Apple. If you don't want to be spied on, then your only choice is Apple.
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(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday January 31 2020, @06:10AM (1 child)
Bull-fucking_shit! Are you not aware, my dear and porphorous barbara, that for any linux user, there are multiple and excessive tools to detect any and all kinds of skullduggery by the major players? We can actually see the keyloggers of Microsoft, the non-acknowledged tracking of the Apple. Your only point is that you are incompetent when it comes to networked computers. I was prone to be sympathetic to you, what with the snow and the perverts, but this suggests that you are not who you are, if you ever were, and from now on, I will either ignore you, or down mod you on sight. Lying has consequences. Deal with them.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @05:53PM
All computers connected to the internet are tracked. That's just a fact of life. Even linux behind a VPN.
The only thing to do is take reasonable precautions. Don't use Windows. Don't use Android. Remove all google apps from an iPhone. Turn off GPS. Turn off bluetooth. Don't use social media. Don't use Google. Don't use Youtube. don't use ANY mapping software. Use tracking blockers. Don't install any social media. Don't install any games.
And don't leave your home computer physically connected online (or even turned on) when you're not using it. And don't turn on bluetooth or gps on your phone, or wifi except when you actually need it.
It's not hard, and it helps, but I am under no illusion that anyone walking around with a radio transceiver in their pocket or purse that isn't in a Faraday cage can't be tracked and tied directly to the owner.
But I trust Apple not to sell the profile of my email contents to over 1,000 advertisers. Or Microsoft to insert ads into my emails (that was one dumb move on their part, but such is life, we saw it coming, we know they want everyone to switch to a subscription model for all their software including operating systems, and require an always-on internet connection. They even admitted it back in the XP days, but most people are quick to forget).
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(Score: 1) by DECbot on Friday January 31 2020, @06:43AM
Linux was always just the kernel. RMS famously made that clear with the whole GNU/Linux thing. The free software movement had decades to make the desktop suitable for the year of the Linux desktop. It didn't. Along came Google and in their infinite benevolent malice and they showed the world the OS Emacs could have been with their launch of chrome OS. Likewise Android was to show the phone OEMs how to make a Linux phone and the geeks what a pocket computer was best for, personal media consumption and hyper targeted ads--in everyone's pocket. The decision to not support a device was always for the OEMs to decide.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday January 31 2020, @07:35AM
No.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @07:58PM (1 child)
fuck you. those walmart shopping slaves thought they were buying a windows computer or didn't understand that using linox meant "their" programs wouldn't work. It is not a reflection of the quality of linox. also who knows what distro walmart had preinstalled. many times it's some highly obscure distro noone uses, including linox users. you talk a lot of shit.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @08:45PM
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