US woman says Ubuntu can't access internet

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 on her doorstep, 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 her 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 Madison 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 Madison Area Technical College. ®