Ubuntu’s Priorities Are Messed Up

Try searching for a 14 inch ultrabook for Ubuntu. Yeah good luck. There’s Dell and System76. I’m sorry but the System76 machines look like shit. The Dell would seem to be a good choice but the thing is it’s the same price a macbook. Why take a chance on some one off machine when you can buy a macbook? That’s what I don’t get and that’s my by far biggest rant of Ubuntu. Instead of pushing official hardware they’re focusing on cellphones. Instead of having a store where I could bloody have a selection of laptops to choose from they leave it up to the nerd to figure it out. If Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) had a selection of official everything worked laptops that looked good but priced to compete then I’d buy one and that’s why Ubuntu or any other Linux distro is having a hard time in the consumer market. They don’t have an official machine!!!

I’m talking about a $500 no compromise Ubuntu (Nexus like) laptop. Something that showcases Ubuntu and is guaranteed to work between LTS versions. High res, thin, long battery life, great keyboard and for the sake of god have palm detection work on the trackpad.

You see Ubuntu in order for your convergence strategy to work out you need people buying into your ecosystem. I see that you’re trying but your software center is an ugly hard to use excuse for an application store. Hire a designer. Now. Then on top of that I can’t buy official hardware. Why do you think the mac is doing better year over year with billions of dollars of profit? Because I can buy a laptop with the operating system on it that I want. I don’t have to fuck with anything or cross my fingers to hope that everything out of the box works. If I want a Ubuntu laptop I should be able to go to your store and buy one. I shouldn’t have to read endless forum posts and believe what the person on the other end has to say is right (or even telling the truth).

I have little faith in the fact that Ubuntu on phones is going to work. Since the launch of the Ubuntu store I haven’t seen too much progress there. Maybe the apps are cool but the store is so ugly and hard to navigate that I just don’t bother. I stick with my usual apps like filezilla and don’t add anymore. The only way that Ubuntu for phones is going to work is the apps. So far Ubuntu is forgetting that fact and hope that they’ll have better fortune than Windows phone had, but I don’t believe so. While you’re barely entering in the phone market, the industry is moving onto smart watches. You’re already behind.

The most important part and where I think Canonical is missing the boat is by not selling hardware direct. This has been one of the biggest mistakes. Relying on hardware vendors to support you. Look at how well the chromebooks are doing in the market. these are 200 – 250 dollar web machines. All you would need to do is up the sd storage from 16gb to say 64 and increase the resolution on the screen. Raise the price to $500 bucks and bam you’ll have a winner. But no, for some reason you’ve got no common sense that would let a consumer like me have a no hassle way of buying a machine with your operating system on it for a damn steal of a price.

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