The next version of the world's most popular desktop Linux operating system (that's Ubuntu, for those of you playing dumb) will come with less software
Wordpad has had docx support for a while. Microsoft is killing Wordpad to push people to office online, but that’s a common Office file format that you can open out of the box.
macOS is the one that has come with office suites and tons of other tools for ages, and honestly it’s better for it. The problem with Ubuntu is that most of the suites canonical can redistribute aren’t that great in comparison with the competition.
The DVD argument is weird IMO, who’s still using physical DVD drives to install operating systems in 2023? Most laptops and computers can’t even take DVDs anymore. Flash storage is dirt cheap, so the only reasonable limitation is the end uer’s internet connection.
What Ubuntu could (should?) do is default to a full install from the internet. Offline installers are nice and all, but they’re out of date the moment you download them and you’re going to download half the OS again the moment the software updater gets triggered after the first boot. May as well package a minimal system and install whatever is necessary on the fly. That would also allow the user to make a choice of preinstalled tooling (“minimal”, “standard”, “fully featured”) rather than assuming everyone wants to download LibreOffice.
I’m pretty sure Ubuntu remains the king of Linux distro because everything is still made to work on Ubuntu by default. Most commercial packages and drivers come in “Ubuntu”, “Fedora”, and “figure it out yourself” form. Trying to download Discord will get you a .deb regardless of the platform you’re using and so does Visual Studio Code. Canonical may be starving Ubuntu with their silly decisions, but Ubuntu remains very popular among the masses.
Wordpad has had docx support for a while. Microsoft is killing Wordpad to push people to office online, but that’s a common Office file format that you can open out of the box.
macOS is the one that has come with office suites and tons of other tools for ages, and honestly it’s better for it. The problem with Ubuntu is that most of the suites canonical can redistribute aren’t that great in comparison with the competition.
The DVD argument is weird IMO, who’s still using physical DVD drives to install operating systems in 2023? Most laptops and computers can’t even take DVDs anymore. Flash storage is dirt cheap, so the only reasonable limitation is the end uer’s internet connection.
What Ubuntu could (should?) do is default to a full install from the internet. Offline installers are nice and all, but they’re out of date the moment you download them and you’re going to download half the OS again the moment the software updater gets triggered after the first boot. May as well package a minimal system and install whatever is necessary on the fly. That would also allow the user to make a choice of preinstalled tooling (“minimal”, “standard”, “fully featured”) rather than assuming everyone wants to download LibreOffice.
I’m pretty sure Ubuntu remains the king of Linux distro because everything is still made to work on Ubuntu by default. Most commercial packages and drivers come in “Ubuntu”, “Fedora”, and “figure it out yourself” form. Trying to download Discord will get you a .deb regardless of the platform you’re using and so does Visual Studio Code. Canonical may be starving Ubuntu with their silly decisions, but Ubuntu remains very popular among the masses.