Someone needs to start a similar project with Ubuntu. Things are clearly getting a bit desperate for them (or so it seems) . If a good number of quality developers finds a good arrangement whereby they can donate a few hours of their time every week to significantly improving it, some real changes could be created.
There are definitely a lot of people who are not happy with the way that Apple has been acting as of late. What if we were to select one (1) laptop model and work on making Ubuntu on it a seamless experience?
This. I started to get involved in Debian a few years ago (though I'm a long-time user) and this is really really interesting work. There are a lot of packages with too little workforce where you can go through a list of dozens or hundreds of bugs.
alrs is true ; in most cases your work is automatically replicated to Ubuntu (where the package-maintainer relationship is less strong than in Debian. Most packages don't have a dedicated maintainer there).
And everyone can do it ; no sign-up or complicated process required. You just have to find a sponsor for your packages which is just a fancy name for "every code needs review". Debian is often described as bureaucratic but most of the processes are very sane.
Well, wherever the help is needed. My point is that if we can get a large number of skilled developers involved in improving the code behind Ubuntu through a small weekly commitment, that could really solve a lot of the existing issues.
I don't think there's any actual indication that Ubuntu is in trouble. Sure there is grumbling on the internet when they change UI, but that's pretty par for the course.
There is 100% hardware compatibility on many laptops already, I'm not sure that that is the problem.
Canonical need to be more profitable, indeed they're probably not or barely profitable yet. They seem to have two ways of increasing profit a) monetising their existing desktop user base and b) Getting more desktop users so that more businesses become comfortable with it and buy business support.
> There is 100% hardware compatibility on many laptops already, I'm not sure that that is the problem.
Then what is the problem exactly? Every time Ubuntu comes up, people ask if it is fully hardware compatible. Is that just a branding issue, where people think Ubuntu isn't hardware compatible with most modern laptops?
Hardware compatibility is a problem, having a group of people all targeting one particular laptop to fix is worthwhile but isn't a great way to fix it. There are various laptops that can be pointed to if you're persuading someone buying a new laptop to install ubuntu (though which is poorly documented).
There are multiple problems, the main one is that windows is known, comes "free" and already installed when you buy a computer, is less of a risk and is good enough. Most people will know a "computer guy" who can help them with windows or be comfortable that they can pay someone otherwise.
Software is a bigger problem in some ways than hardware now (though the web is fixing this), note the effort Ubuntu are putting into the software centre, allowing paid for apps, proposing to relax the restrictions to get new software into Ubuntu, running app competitions and so forth.
Selling operating systems isn't easy, look at how long apple have toiled in the wilderness and they have linked hardware, loads of good will via ipod/iphone, billions in the bank and have managed to climb to something like 5%-10% market share.
There are definitely a lot of people who are not happy with the way that Apple has been acting as of late. What if we were to select one (1) laptop model and work on making Ubuntu on it a seamless experience?