On 11 May 2010 13:46, Oleg Goldshmidt <p...@goldshmidt.org> wrote: > I am not an Ubuntu user, but this thread seems to me a good > opportunity to find out on the cheap whether certain preconceptions > have a reason. > > Somehow I got an idea in my head (marketing must work, probably in > mysterious ways) that Ubuntu is a distro explicitly designed for every > non-techie Tom, Dick, and Harry and their respective housewives, and > the point is to dispel the impression that "Linux is for geeks". This > may be correct or not. >
This in fact the case. Grandma loves Ubuntu, finally she has a computer that she can use (Windows was way too complicated). > If this is the case, and given that the OP is trying to choose a > platform for developers, can anyone say anything regarding Ubuntu's > quality as a *development* platform? Is it just the same as any other > distro? Is its choice and/or support for development tools > better/worse? Is there any advantage or disadvantage to Ubuntu > compared to XYZ distro specifically for developers? > > I can imagine a mindset including "99% of our target market don't care > about compilers or linkers, so let's shove development tools somewhere > into 'extras' and not even offer to install them out of the box, let's > not update them as often as, say, browsers or email apps or multitouch > drivers, etc.". I am not saying this is Ubuntu's mindset. I don't > know, and I'll be happy to hear opinions. > That _is_ exactly the mindset. You will need to install some things before you can even compile software, this page will illustrate that: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompilingEasyHowTo -- Dotan Cohen http://bido.com http://what-is-what.com _______________________________________________ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
