US woman says Ubuntu can't access internet

[Osiris]

An American woman has told a TV station in Madison, Wisconsin that something called Ubuntu prevented her from joining online classes at her local technical college.
According to WKOW TV, Abbie Schubert recently ordered a Dell laptop, expecting "your classic bread-and-butter computer." But when she unboxed the $1,100 machine that arrived, she didn't find bread and butter. She found Ubuntu.
WKOW TV called Ubuntu "an operating system for your computer similar to Windows that runs off the Linux system."
"It's been a mess," Schubert said. "I regret ordering the computer."
She had never heard of Ubuntu. So she called Dell. Dell said there was still time to replace her Ubuntu. Then Dell told her not to. "The person I was talking to said Ubuntu was great, college students loved it, it was compatible with everything I needed," she explained.
So she kept Ubuntu, then decided that Ubuntu doesn't always work like Windows. Her Verizon internet wouldn't load. She couldn't install Microsoft Word. And she said without Word and the internet, she couldn't take online classes at Milwaukee Area Technical College.
So she dropped out of the college's fall and spring semesters.
Then Dell said it was too late for bread and butter.
"I'm extremely frustrated," Schubert said. "I wanted to get back to school, but I needed a computer to be able to do that."
Yes, that's fall and spring semesters. At Milwaukee Area Technical College.

US woman says Ubuntu can't access internet ? The Register

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Simple answer. She HAS a computer. If she is too outright stupid to figure out that those CD's your ISP gives you aren't NECESSARY and that you can set up Internet without them just fine, that Word documents can be opened in OpenOffice (which is ALREADY INSTALLED), and that Dell knows what they're talking about here...maybe she shouldn't be in college in the first place. College level implies you have to be at least slightly smart. Also, college isn't just about knowledge, at a college level I would expect her to have the ability to try to find answers to her problem rather than just give up without a try. If she were to use, say, Google, she would find out that yes, her system is compatible...not college ready in my opinion.

Anyways, if she honestly needed Word, Word runs in WINE...no excuse to drop classes over it. She could've installed Windows too, that takes what, an hour at most.

 

[Jorsoft]

If she's too stupid to have ordered Ubuntu instead of Word in the first place she's too dumb for computers. You choose everything on Dell's site, how hard is it to click the Windows check box? And she could have changed this at any time but decided not to, apparently for a long time, as she skipped both fall and spring semesters and blamed it on her computer instead of her own stupidity.

The reporter's apparently simple, too. No grasp of anything computer-related whatsoever.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

If she is at a technical school... Then I am sure there computer administrator or classes could have "fixed" her computer so she could go online, some people = completely retarded.

 

[Jayce]

I agree with the above statements.

To get to college, you have to present that you have at least some form of logic and common sense.

Non was exhibited here.

I can understand her frustration with Ubuntu when she expects Windows XP or Vista, but she took this over the edge 10 times over. She quit college because she can't figure out how to connect to the internet? She could have had the exact same problems with Windows too! In fact, I often run across computers that are more troublesome to get working with Windows than Ubuntu. It's a two way street in both scenarios and is completely situation dependent.

Nonetheless, seeing what kind of action she took to fix the minor issues here... I just... no sympathy here.

She needs to check herself back into elementary school and start over.

 

[Jayce]

Verizon says it will dispatch a technician to try to assist her accessing the internet without using the Windows-only installation disk.

This made me laugh.

Let's think about this.

"Windows-only" install disk...
Ubuntu = Operating System like Windows, but different.
Let's repeat... Windows-only... Ubuntu... similar but... DIFFERENT...


DA DUURU DUURUD AJAD

 

[Jorsoft]

 

[Kharn]

Jesus that's gona replace that fat midget in my nightmares....

I think people need more education on alternative OS's, OEM's an other providers need to make there services more compatible and train there tech support better.

 

[KSoD]

Read this earlier. Couldnt respond cause nothing you can say or do will ever reach the epic stupidness of her for saying it and the Register for putting it up.

No wonders why i never use that site for a source. Some of the stuff they have is only to get hits. Case in point. This article.

 

[carnageX]

All that can be said, IMO.