[members at lugog] Introduction

[Sean Miller]

On 21 November 2010 22:27, john lewis <johnlewis at hantslug.org.uk> wrote:>
> I have (almost) never used my computer for playing games and rarely
> watch anything from youtube and never have I even wanted to view
> on-demand TV movies, so I certainly do not fit into the category
> that perhaps Ubuntu intends to serve.

Whilst that is true, I think that when we consider the viability of
Ubuntu, GNU/Linux or whatever we want to focus on we should be looking
at trends in the use of computers and I have noticed that since the
advent of broadband internet the multimedia aspects of the desktop
have become more and more important, in fact to the extent where now
if I miss something on TV (for instance the excellent "Turn Back Time
- The High Street" which was filmed in Shepton Mallet over the summer
(9pm Tuesdays BBC1)) I simply go to the BBC iPlayer and watch it
there, with little degredation in picture quality from if I'd watched
it on my TV.

With Google about to release an "operating system" that is, to all
intents and purposes, a thin client browser there is a feeling in many
circles that within 5 years the concept of "the isolated unconnected
home computer" will be gone, and the laptop/desktop or whatever will
merely be "a window on the world".... if Linux wishes to remain
anything other than some sort of "retro amusement", harking back to
the glory days of the 90s when "my computer" really was MY computer,
it does have to embrace the concept of being an extension to a huge
network of connected media and that means that Youtube, iPlayer etc.
should work as well as in Windows, if not (ideally) better!

As for gaming, doesn't really interest me on a laptop so can't
comment.  If I wanted games I'd probably buy a box specifically built
for it (ie. Nintendo, XBOX or whatever)... but, again, it matters to
some people and I'd assume (though I am no expert) that whatever is
good for games would help in the media aspect as detailed above, so
both go hand-in-hand.

Sean