Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

hahahaha :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Article, also watch the video

http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9667184



Follow up, watch the video too

http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9682258


LOL:rolleyes:

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

What a dumbass.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

http://addins.wkowtv.com/blogs/behindthenews/

LOL the news guy posted a blog about it

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

"The young woman also contacted 27 News to report she's being harassed on her Facebook account by Ubuntu users."

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

A) Ubuntu fanboys suck. They tend to be mindless monsters with no sense of common sense.
B) It's already been determined that she's just using this as some dumb excuse to drop out of college.
C) The woman is a ditz. ;)
D) Dell sucks. Linux Rocks.
E) I rest my case. ;)

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

I love this the article got 1000 times more hits then there main page.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

I think that says more about Dell owners than Ubuntu.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Ya know... I totally understand how that happened - and it is quite ridiculous that she could have solved all her problems with a 2 second google search (friends house, library, whatever).. but I still do feel sorry for the poor girl.

The guys that harassed her and the news that badly aren't doing Linux or Ubuntu any favors. It just feeds the stereotype that all Linux users are elitist a**holes that rule through intimidation and arrogance.

Forums like iTT wouldn't exist if that were true.. but that's the message that gets sent. Yes, the news story was frustrating because the tone of it was done in such a way as to make it sound that the OS couldn't do what she asked.. so the story could have used a re-write to point out that all this was, in fact, a user error. (both while ordering the PC, and while operating it)... but it doesn't make her evil, stupid, unworthy of a college degree.. and certainly not the crap she got on facebook.

I had to laugh at the guys blog.. he actually was quite right most of the time. I know I'm no saint.. I can be a jerk sometimes, and I've pulled the "Did you search?" card a couple times... but tracking people down and harassing them, name-calling, etc.. is just unnecessary. An email to the reporters merely pointing their flaws; namely: Ubuntu can very easily edit/create/modify Word documents, and the CD to connect to the internet was unnecessary... I can understand. An email screaming they are all idiots unworthy of living is just nonsense and unhelpful to both them, and the community they are so passionate about.

I love my Linux... I despise and hate everything Microsoft... but that doesn't mean I need to flaunt superiority to everyone I meet.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

I'm a proponent of Ubuntu, not because I think it's the only or even the best thing out there, but because it has done an excellent job compared to most distros of going mainstream and creating a product that can stand side by side with windows and mac os when it comes to usability. Sure, plenty of other distros are very close and some are undoubtedly better, but few are as well supported.

Regardless, the problem here isn't Ubuntu, Ubuntu fanboys, or Dell, it's the user.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

I just loved how they said Ubuntu like it was a sinful word. And they said it looks like Windows. Gnome does not look like windows...

Im pretty sure if she called Verizon and said she used Ubuntu, they would have helped her. I am betting that:

A) She tried to use WiFi without a wireless router. (lots of people do this)
B) Bought the laptop with Ubuntu because it was cheaper.
C) Wanted to generate media attention.

My grandmother, who is ok with computers, could use Ubuntu without really knowing the difference. She just clicked the fox.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

You mean this isn't an elitist forum? Well hell, I'm outta here!

Regards,
Omega

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Well, good riddance, cuz we're too l33t for you anyway. ;)

(Sometimes, when it seems everyone's being elite, the only way to be really elite is to change the spec to an unsigned type, be square, and shoot for the underflow!)
It works, until your neighbor turns on encryption!

Also: if that was the problem, she must not have had the latest Ubuntu; I hear it has zealous autoconfig.
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/zealous_autoconfig.png

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

I find this situation frustrating for two reasons. Firstly, "personal attacks" aside, the station did present Ubuntu in an unreasonably negative light. They treated it as if the girl in question deserved to be pitied by all for having to deal with such a horrible, unusable system, when all she wanted was to go to College. I'll grant you that the situation was unfortunate, and I wouldn't have wanted to be her, but they put it rather harshly. Ubuntu isn't for everyone, and admittedly lots of people would be confused by such a thing as the Verizon CD not working. However, without implying any insult in the statement, that is ignorance on the part of the user. It's not her fault - for example, if you had used Linux, with a package management system all your life, you might justifiably wonder "what the heck is a 'setup.exe'?". That said, neither is it Ubuntu's fault for being different. As a side note, I do find it strange that someone would /accidentally/ buy a Linux-based Dell computer... they're not as prominent as the Windows computers, and (from what I've seen) the fact that they come with Linux is well-explained. Heck, Dell isn't pushing them -- the info page on Ubuntu has a "Dell recommends Windows Vista" at the top!
My second annoyance is for the idiots that wrote all the hatemail. They were being idiots, and that's all there is to it. Likely, the journalists there don't spend enough time on the Internet, or they'd know to Not Feed the Trolls. That said, there was no excuse for what they did. But in the non-excusing, I also take issue with the way the letters were presented. If you read the blog page, the guy who wrote the article is quite rude, and not realistic; at one point he says that the nasty letters were the minority, and then he proceeds to make it sound like every Ubuntu user is a jerk.
The whole situation makes me sick: an unhappy user, bad press, and a bunch of Trolls making it into the mainstream news...

The one thing I found funny was how (in the first video) they stressed how hard it was (apparently) to pronounce Ubuntu, while saying it properly... and then proceeded to completely mis-pronounce it in the second video XD

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Here's my favorite slashdot Q & A about the Verizon CD:

slashdot user 1: What's the replacement for VZAccess?

slashdot user 2: 192.168.0.1:80

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

You know, thinking about it, there are a lot of problems with her scenario:

A) Why did she not test the laptop BEFORE signing up for classes?
B) Why did she not enroll in normal classes?
C) Why could she not use a free public computer?
D) Why did she not drop the classes?
E) How did she order the computer online in the first place?

It makes no sense... mostly because Dell specifically says "Windows Programs will not work with Ubuntu, but there is alternative software," and "Ubuntu is NOT recommended for the average user"

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Nevermind...

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Agreed... College Admission FAIL!

***

This should be part of a standard pre-admission test for all undergrads. :)

I mean, why waste education resources on a rock?

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Wow. This is incredible. Are you sure this is not a hoax?

I am in our company's customer service department, and I used to be on the helpline myself some years ago. I had all kinds of eerie calls that made me bang my forehead against my desk, but this girl beats it all - this girl and, above all, the journalists who did the story.

It is true that it's an easy mistake for a noob to try to make windows-CDs run on Ubuntu. But: What would a normal person with a healthy brain do after it fails? Read what's printed on the CD or the cover? Maybe it says "Windows 2000/XP/Vista required" or so. Also, one would probably call the support hotline (the provider's hotline, of course) and ask them for help. Thats what consumers do, normally. That's what our customers do.

Same with the MATC-"requirement" of MS Word. They said they don't require Word at all; besides, she would have managed to save documents as some version of Word. Only thing she should have done is call and ask those people.
Instead, it seems all she did was call Dell and complain that she got what she ordered and didn't return it when she had a chance to do so.

People cannot be so dumb and reach this age without running into cars and trees - natural selection and stuff, you know.
I'll tell you what happened:

She ordered th Ubuntu version because it's cheaper. Then her younger brother barked at her because he couldn't install the games he got from his classmates. Now she needed to make up a story to get the Windows version, which didn't work... To put extra pressure on Dell, she asked her ex-boyfriend to get the story on TV. Maybe Dell would react then?
I'm sure that's the whole truth.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

I've actually met several people that were that baffled by Linux. Some people seriously don't understand that there is different OS's.. or even what an OS is. Their friends are able to do this, this way, why can't they??? Yes, anyone, including grandmothers can be TAUGHT linux - but the people who are the kind of people that know "Click here, click here, double click this, type here" people, having no idea what they just did, just knowing that gets them into the app they want - Those people are not likely to be able to FIGURE OUT linux by themselves.

I'm positive she ordered the Ubuntu because it was cheaper and she was trying to save money. She had no idea what ubuntu was; she just assumed it was the "cheap" option of normal winblows.

I fault her for not doing an iota of research when it looked different, and wouldn't run her disk, and for contacting a news agency to complain instead of a support department. That was simply a "look at me; I'm on TV" moment.

Anyone with even a basic knowledge of computers could have figured out the problems she had.

All this considered though.. doesn't give some people the right to act high and mighty and flame both her and the channel. That's just childish.

At my Current Job I deal with people (and these people work the US gubbernment mind you) that are the kinds of people that if we push out a piece of software, and during the newer version install it removes the desktop icon, for whatever reason, there are dozens of people that call us and scream that we "uninstalled their software". After 20 minutes of "WTF?" .. you have them click on Start->Programs and hear on the other side of the phone they go "OH THERE IT IS!" and proceed to hang up on you.

And yes... some of these are college graduates. College, quite honestly, doesn't mean jack in the way of IQ.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

[QUOTE=Thesandlord;257978]...B) Bought the laptop with Ubuntu because it was cheaper....

I think you got that right. However, that is NOT a crime.

bun

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Well said! I've been discussing that in length at my site recently. I disdain fanboys. I try to avoid any fanboyism myself on the things I'm passionate about. You can be passionate without being a fanboy, and some people don't realize that. So in the end, my thoughts are, "Be passionate about whatever you believe in. Just never, ever be a fanboy."

Definition: Fanboy

An individual with an unbounded passionate belief in something on which they have no proper knowledge, understanding, and/or reason for why they believe in said object, other than it's "cool", it's "the best", or some other vague reason.

I think the best way to be passionate about what you believe in, but avoid being a fanboy comes from, interestingly enough, Christian witnessing guidelines.

1. Be prepared to give an answer for what you believe in. IE, if someone asks you why you believe in it, don't give them some trite answer. Give them a good, quality, informed answer.
2. Be polite. Don't rant and rave and act like an animal. (or inversely, like an idiot)
3. Talk on the level of the individual. If you discover that you're either talking above or below them, adjust your speech so you're either on, or as close to the same level they are.

Trust me, these three simple tips work wonders when dealing with people new to Linux. :) Heck, I ought to know. I teach enough of them. ;)
My experience with Ubuntu hasn't been that great. However, I've had great luck with Linux Mint, a stepchild of Ubuntu (they seem to have fixed many of the issues I had with Ubuntu), and most of the new users I've introduced to it just adore it.

But to each his own. Just because I don't like Ubuntu doesn't mean it won't work for others. The only thing I hate are the raving fanboys. ;)

Benson: LOL. Awesome comic! :D

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Agreed. My mother and brother use it extensively and, after a time of using it, no longer prefer Windows. (My brother uses Windows on his laptop to play WoW.. but even that runs fine on his Linux box lately too.. he's pondering dumping Windows altogether lately.) My sister wishes she could, after trying it out, but her laptop's a damned Acer with a really crooked ACPI that makes a lot of things broken under Linux. Otherwise, she seemed to take to it easily when she tried it on a Live CD.

Come on, folks.. how hard is Ubuntu/Kubuntu to use, reeeeally? :)

Mind you--I barely have had to aid them. Only on a very rare moment, and usually not a usability problem (usually if there's a crash or a compatibility problem... same thing users would do in Windows if they ran into problems--they call the geek in the family).

I often boggle that they're allowed to drive cars and vote. ;)

Bring back the Atari vs Commodore vs Apple wars, man! Come on! Those were FUN! :D

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

Ah, I miss those days. Atari and Apples never had a chance against Commodores and Amigas. Anyhow...

I find it ridiculous the overzealous did more damage to Ubuntu by harassing the girl and calling her names. Who wants to be a part of a community that does that?

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

apple still create a fair share of flames with its products, just check out the iphone related threads...

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

This woman must be extremely computer illiterate (I know many people I'd consider to be computer illiterate, none of them match up to this...) or looking for attention.

I personally love Ubuntu. Having always used windows, I decided to get into linux. A friend of mine who's an avid fan of Debian suggested Ubuntu to start off with, then move into other distro's once I got the hang of it.. I'm glad I did so. Despite how much many linux fan trash talk it for various reasons (mostly I've heard that it's just generally not as good because of its ease...) it's a great distro for those moving away from windows for the first time. Jumping into other distro's would just be mean.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

This may be more of what I have been seeing a lot of lately...
Call it a kind of blind faith in technology.

Apparently the pace of technology has exceeded the ability of some to understand it thoroughly. This includes Doctors, Lawyers and people with advanced degrees. It is easier, and less time consuming to just blindly accept that the little box does "x" when you push button "y" than to admit a short coming in understanding and actually do something about it... like learn. :)

Unfortunately as the pace of technological development accelerates, the percentage of people who chose "blind faith" as a way to go through life will also increase.

Re: Ubuntu causes woman to drop out of college
 

makes one wonder if not sir clarke was right after all...