After reading yet another “why Linux is not ready for the desktop” article/discussion, I decided that, as someone who uses Linux exclusively at home, its about time I wrote my response to the attitudes expressed. I have been using Linux since January 1999 (Red Hat 5.2 off of a cover disc).Editorial Notice: All opinions are those of the author and not necessarily those of osnews.com
Preamble
Initially when I got it installed, it was a case of WTF do I do now, but the more I looked at both the system and the underlying philosophy the more I liked it. This was after around 10 years of using various varieties of DOS/windows ups to NT4, gradually getting more and more frustrated at what windows would not allow me to do.
Linux was a breath of fresh air.
Fast Forward to the present.
I currently use a base of RH9 o what is classed as “low end hardware, (K6/2 500 256Mb, 6Gb HD), with cutting-edge cvs stuff (gnome, abiword, gnumeric, evolution, epiphany).
This probably marks me out as a geek,BUT, I also work in an office environment in the DB analysis field. Also when I do install a stock RH, I normally keep it stock for a few days to see what its like.
To get with the program, I hear SO many times, “you have to drop down to the command line to do basic stuff in Linux” – lets get real, I consider myself to be a very competent Linux user (not a guru or a geek), and this is what I do at the command prompt, usually because its quicker with the appropriate GUI replacements.
| file operations (ls,cp,mv) | nautilus |
| rpm operations (install, remove, query) | GUI |
| compiling | N/A |
| perl scripting | N/A |
| user/system admin | Full set of GUI tools under system menu |
| ftp (ncftp) | gftp |
Apart from compiling/scripting, if I wished to use my system in the “windows” way, I would not need to drop down to the GUI.
For comparison this is what I normally do at the GUI level
Setup printing, networking
CD burning/ripping (nautilus-cd/ sound-juicer)
web-browsing (epiphany)
mail (evolution)
editing text files (gedit)
creating .doc files (abiword/OO)
edit/create spreadsheets (gnumeric)
The fact is that for most anything that a “windows user” ie: someone accustomed to the windows way of working, for 95% plus of hardware/software stuff, you never need to go to the cli on a modern distro.
What can’t I do out of the box easily that a win/office-pro user would expect
Some multimedia issues (normally to do with propriety plugins/drivers)
decent GUI DB frontend ala Access/paradox – this is a major issue I accept, but does not affect most users)
the occasional broken web-site with broken JS does not load (by design – ie they block non ie)
Games – could not care less personally.
What cant I do out of the box easily on windows that I expect from any Linux box.?
perl
decent shell
decent help system
multiple workspaces
horrible fonts
CONTROL
automatic setup of 90% of hardware
easy access to sys/net logs
(please note I am comparing stock Downloaded RH9 to windows and office pro)
To tell the truth most of what I do on the PC is EASIER to do on a Linux box, than to do on a more expensive windows setup.
Finally a few comments on software installation
Despite the various complaints about software installation on Linux – I have always found software installation on Linux a lot easier, than on windows. Sure sometimes it can be annoying that gee_whiz_app_by_I_have _an_ego can cause problems with obscure libraries, but most of the time, if your system is anywhere near current, problems do not arise.
And the same issues arise on win boxen, from the neccessity of loading a service pack (which may break your system) through missing DLLs to applications corrupting DLL’s.
Also what I love about RPM’s is that a simple command tells you exactly what is installed on yor system in contrast to windows programs.
About the Author:
I am a Linux/windows user with a distinct preference for Linux. Other interests include Isaac Asimove and other sci-fi and the Clash.
Read this:
http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/switchsuccess.html
(Shame that article never got linked here though..)
and determine if linux is ready for your desktop.
No one can tell you that without going through the steps of identifying what linux can and cannot offer (related to your hardware for instance) and what it is that you need to have a fully functional system — one that fulfills your needs, not those of some other user that then comments that it’s fine for him and so should be fine for you.
I only use Linux at home. Our Windows cannot handle the devices I have all around the house. Once when a client came in (before the Lindows upgrade) the temperature was set to -5 C confusing the signal from the bluetooth device on his jacket.
At Microsoft we are using Windows 2003 Servers to play doom. All developement is done on Linux. Why do you think our exes are so stable lately?
i said ..
what you mentioned, is not a fact.
it just story, there is no technical desktop change.
so technically, i have no reason move to linux.
—
i don’t want hurt anybody, but my linux experience fear me again..
Great post! Very sensible and devoid of unnecessary zealotry.
And for those who think X is bloated because of its network abilities: if you don’t use them, they won’t take up memory and CPU cycles! Personally I think the latest versions of X are fine, and I love being able to turn any old Pentium 166 into a thin client running off of my newest server with XDMCP. Three people can be logged in at once and enjoy great performance (as long as one of them isn’t playing RTCW… 🙂
This is one of the things MS does right. In fact, it has never been an issue for windows users.
The font rendering on Linux is just UGLY. Yes, I know the Bitstream Vera fonts, still not as good as MS’s Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New.
I just can’t stand religous guys who even try to convince everybody that Linux shortcomings are ACTUALLY GOOD. Zealots.
“”Linux has very few viruses in part because there aren’t as many users, but mostly because its naturally more secure. Linux teaches you not to run as root.
If you dont run as root, you cant get a virus. Windows encourages you to run as Administrator. “” -Contrasutra
Hmm, and I suppose that the various package managers/installers never ask you to supply the root password to install these apps?
The user might not be running as root, it doesn’t prevent them letting some other app run with root permissions by mistake. The Linux viruses of the future will be spread the same way as the Windows viruses of the present, by relying on the lack of knowledge of home users.
This has been said and I’m just gona say it again, although the boffins try to deny it Linux has short commings which are going to be very hard to address:
1. Multimedia – Soz to the linux fans but directx beats everything linux has to offer as for the various emulators and native ports out there, i choose to avoid them for some very basic reasons: Perofrmance, Why not just play ’em on Windows?
2. Development – VS.Net (Not 2003 the original works fine) is an excellent development suite which makes a laughting stock of everything Linux has to offer it is in short much more than the Linux development environments which seem to be nothing but a gloated text editor, with the ability to compile apps from a menu added. Then if its free stuff you want the .NET sdk is a free download, borland makes a command line version of there excellent compiler available, gcc is available for Windows in various flavours, activestate has an excellent freely avaliable perl distro availabel for download from there website if ur into that sorta thing, pyhons freely avialabel on windows, as is Java I’m able to run the latest version of the JDK + Eclipse for a brillaint freely avaliable development environment, most of this is of course avlable for Linux and has the added bonus that it comes packaged with most distro’s instead of having to download it, however VS.Net is what makes me love windows for development so much.
3. Plug and play, i plug my device in windows detects it searches its driver database for the appropriate driver if its found it automatically installs it (I dont have to click a signle button, its just done), if not windows prompts me for the driver CD which will of course have been included with the prodect and installation goes smovely from there, sorry linux may have more drivers come with the base installation however windows has by far the greater driver support, it was at lest 5 months after I purchased my radeon 9000 that Linux finally got driver support, not there fault but the reality is it doesn’t matter whos fault it is, its an annoyance which exsists on the linux desktop. although to be fair most of my hardware works with linux, BTW i also think linux has a better TCP/IP stack than window seems to run slightly faster.
4. Security, In this catogory Linux is ahead of windows, by default it has a more secure ‘culture’ about it however I still have to run as root/have root privalleges to install software just like on windows, reality is the on linux i run as a user on windows i run as an administrator, i won’t go into the ammount of viruses on windows although i will say it is a well known fact that many home virus scares are just STUPID users blaming soemthing else when there system goes wrong.
5. Office productivity suites, i think the fact that OpenOffice the premer office suite on linux is a project established with the aim of creating an MS Office clone sees it all, MS Office continues to set the bar in office productivity, nothing to debate here really the best the Linux fanatics have been able to come up with is OpenOffice can read MS Office files, wow! (note sarcasim).
6. Software installation, certainly linux software installation has the package manager, but so what great its a package manager i can uninstall/reinstall any windows app i want from the Add Remove Programs menu, on windwos i download a program which takes me through the installation steps and get my system configured exactly as i need it all automatically if i want i cant customize what parts i install (i haven’t seen that using rpms/whatever u call the debian things), linux users may respond to this by saying that u can compile the app urself sorry no game that loses u points not gains them in my books, on windows i dont have to worry about dependinces either its all there with the default windows installation or as DLL’s included with the app, linux on the other hand i do have to worry about dependinces which *CAN* be an annoyance, i found it was an annoyance under mandrake 9, redhat 9 is goo though, lastly its best we discuss debains central app system which is great i give debian full credit for that, however the various ftp netowrks and pages linke zdnet provide central program repositories for windows and i dont have to touch the command line.
In conclusion i think linux can’t challenge windows, untill the fans accept that it has some BIG flaws and i still have to spend a long time getting things working under linux which just work under windows.
Linux is getting more popular day by day. Just wait for the day where vendors start coming up with Linux drivers on the CD along with Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/??/??/../.. drivers. One should appreciate the people who spend lot of time and energy to write drivers to those devices, most of the time the OEMs do not provide specifications properly because of the M$ backlash. Linux is the way to GO!!!
Soz to the linux fans but directx beats everything linux has to offer as for the various emulators and native ports out there, i choose to avoid them for some very basic reasons: Perofrmance, Why not just play ’em on Windows?
I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but if it’s playing movie files, you should know that MPlayer/Xine with Windows codecs actually provides better performance than Windows. (Yes, I’m talking about Sorenson QuickTime movies, as well as .asf, .wmv, etc.)
Development – VS.Net
.Net is a failure. Microsoft has admitted as much by pulling nearly all references to it from its marketing material.
MS Office continues to set the bar in office productivity, nothing to debate here really the best the Linux fanatics have been able to come up with is OpenOffice can read MS Office files, wow! (note sarcasim).
Reading MS Office files is essential for any Office replacement. But there is one definite advantage of using Star/OpenOffice over MS Office: price. But if you can’t live without MS Office, you can always use it in Linux with Crossover Office.
linux on the other hand i do have to worry about dependinces which *CAN* be an annoyance, i found it was an annoyance under mandrake 9, redhat 9 is goo though, lastly its best we discuss debains central app system which is great i give debian full credit for that, however the various ftp netowrks and pages linke zdnet provide central program repositories for windows and i dont have to touch the command line.
With tools such as URPMI or RedCarpet dependencies are resolved automatically. Installation of programs is easier and faster than in Windows. You do not have to touch the command line as there are graphical tools available. And there are big software repositories you can use with those programs, they’re just not on ZDNet…
OK, I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the web lately about Linux/Windows (mainly because there’s not much to do at work during summer). And there’s one thing that bugs me a lot. People seems to think that Linux includes only Debian, RedHat, Mandrake and SuSE. Which in my opinion, are by far the worst Linux distributions EVER. Those distros only tries to copy Windows in making it as easy as possible for the user.
It’s about time people try other distros. Or *BSD. Sure some aren’t as easy, but you gotta keep in mind, you all had to learn how to use Windows in the past. I personally run Gentoo, and it’s easy to manage, it’s well developped. The user base is really friendly, and it has the best package manager. They took the BSD port system and made it better.
As for Linux being ready or not. Who really cares? Most people using Linux don’t play games, and all the good games are playable with WineX, and crashes a lot less than in Windows XP(I know because I tried them under both OS).
The only thing that Linux lacks for now, IMO, is some specific software in a few fields ie. music, multimedia. But then again, if you’re in that those fields, you probably have a Mac anyway.
my 2 cents
> I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but if it’s playing movie files, you should know that MPlayer/Xine with Windows codecs actually provides better performance than Windows. (Yes, I’m talking about Sorenson QuickTime movies, as well as .asf, .wmv, etc.) <
I was talking about games, Which there are far far far more of on windows and they peroform better thanks to directx and better driver support, much better than when run on an emulation under linux and they have the advantage of just working
, BTW. i should have been more clear about what i meant however i did make the post at 4:00am cut me a little slack.
> .Net is a failure. Microsoft has admitted as much by pulling nearly all references to it from its marketing material. <
.NET may or may not be a failure I dont care, the fact that microsoft is rewritting many system components to be used from .NET in Longhorn suggests otherwise (More likely they’ve just realised that putting .NET at the end of everything has just confused everyone (and sounds stupid), you yourself provided the perfect example assuming that VS.NET must be just for .NET development), either way I don’t care I was talking about C++ in VS (Note: I removed .NET just to make you happy) and I stick by what I said VS is far supperior to anything Linux has to offer.
> Reading MS Office files is essential for any Office replacement. But there is one definite advantage of using Star/OpenOffice over MS Office: price. But if you can’t live without MS Office, you can always use it in Linux with Crossover Office. <
Of course reading MS Office files is an essential step however it certainly doesn’t make OpenOffice and similar in anyway supperior to MS Office, which has a wonderful workflow, as for crossover office I’m sorry I don’t see the point of spending more on a comercial product to run Office on Linux when it runs on Windows and naturally doesn’t have to worry about the emulation layer
.
> With tools such as URPMI or RedCarpet dependencies are resolved automatically. Installation of programs is easier and faster than in Windows. You do not have to touch the command line as there are graphical tools available. And there are big software repositories you can use with those programs, they’re just not on ZDNet… <
Firstly I’ve installed programs in Windows and Linux its not faster on Linux, secondly I use the package managers which come with my distro of choice (Mandrake/Redhat) and I have experinced dependincy problems on Mandrake, I have never experienced that on Windows I just double click on it and its installed, thirdly of course there software repositories for Linux its just the Windows ones are much much bigger simply because there are more programs written for Windows, I was pointing this out because many Linux fans seem to think the only way to get software on Windows is off a comercial CD, if you looked the amount of freely avalable software for Windows on the internet outnumbers the amount avalable for Linux (Not counting Shareware programs or anything)
> Linux is getting more popular day by day. Just wait for the day where vendors start coming up with Linux drivers on the CD along with Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/??/??/../.. drivers. One should appreciate the people who spend lot of time and energy to write drivers to those devices, most of the time the OEMs do not provide specifications properly because of the M$ backlash. Linux is the way to GO!!! <
The amount of market share Linux has does not warrant the money spent on developing drivers for it, as for the Linux marketshare growing, its only growing in the Server side of things really were this sorta thing doesn’t matter so much, however this is a debate about the viability of Linux for the desktop PC more so its a debate about the viability of Linux to be run on the average users desktop, most average user’s haven’t heard of Linux if they have they have no idea what it is, your average user buys a PC with windows + MS office preinstalled on it and doesn’t have to worry about it again, reality is the only people who Linux is attracting is the techo’s (I.E. people who are reading this….) who don’t make up a large market share and even the techos are split from memory figures show linux has about 0.3% market penetration, of course your message is mostly anti microsoft crap which to me is just silly its an OS for F******S sake. BTW I certainly appreciate the people who spend there time writting drivers for Linux as I do all the people who take tehre time out to contribute to open source projects however that doesn’t mean i should deny the reality that Linux is lagging badly behind windows in this area.
My OS isn’t a brand its a tool, to use something simply because thats what everyone says is cool is foolish and would make me no better than a brand following blond bimbo (not that some guys don’t do the same thing), therefore I chose Windows it works when I want it to as I want it to without me having to worry about it, BTW I’m sick to death of this desktop crap aren’t you? why not move onto something relevant like discussing how to make Linux better, then a person like me will see a real need to switch
.
I was talking about games, Which there are far far far more of on windows and they peroform better thanks to directx and better driver support, much better than when run on an emulation under linux and they have the advantage of just working
Okay. Personnally, as a Game Designer, I mostly play on consoles. Games are usually less buggy (because they are developed on controlled platforms) and of better quality (higher budgets in general, lousy games are – in theory – not accepted by manufacturers).
The only games that suck on consoles (as opposed to PCs) are First-Person Shooters and Real-Time Strategies. As it happens, FPS is a genre where Linux shines: RTCW (including Enemy Territory), Unreal Tournament 2K3 and Quake 3 are all available Native on Linux. Other games, like Counter-Strike (my personal favorite) run extremely smoothly with WineX. They install smoothly (even more so now with the Point2Play installer). They “just work,” to use your words – and they should, since most of the “work” is done by the video card, not the CPU or the application layer (remember, Wine is NOT emulation).
Of course reading MS Office files is an essential step however it certainly doesn’t make OpenOffice and similar in anyway supperior to MS Office, which has a wonderful workflow,
Not sure what you mean by workflow, but OpenOffice does have an important advantage on MS Office: price. Not only is it free, but future upgrades will be free as well.
as for crossover office I’m sorry I don’t see the point of spending more on a comercial product to run Office on Linux when it runs on Windows and naturally doesn’t have to worry about the emulation layer
Considering that Crossover Office will also let you run Quicken, Quickbooks, Photoshop, Lotus Notes, IE, and so on, it’s a pretty good investment if you already own the Windows apps. And, considering the fact that Crossover Office costs LESS than a brand-new Windows License, you’re not actually spending more.
Oh, and you don’t have to worry the “emulation layer” (which is not emulation at all). It just works. Flawlessly. The only little thing that nags me is that soft links (i.e. aliases for files and directories) in Linux FS are not recognized by apps running under Crossover Office – though the next (free if you’ve bought it) upgrade will perhaps solve that! Other than that it is flawless…and actually more stable than some of the “Office on Windows” experiences I’ve been through!
I use the package managers which come with my distro of choice (Mandrake/Redhat) and I have experinced dependincy problems on Mandrake, I have never experienced that on Windows
Do you run a “cookerized” (i.e. modified) distro? You shouldn’t have any dependency problems with the Software Installer unless you’ve installed a buggy beta of URPMI. I have yet to run into a single dependency problem with the Mandrake 9.1 version of the Software Installer. I have, on the other hand, experienced “DLL hell” on Windows quite a few times (though admittedly not since Windows ME).
from memory figures show linux has about 0.3% market penetration
That figure is way inaccurate. It was spread by FUDders last year but has since been proven an utter lie. Linux penetration is more into the 3-5% range (still low, but climbing).
as for the Linux marketshare growing, its only growing in the Server side of things
Inaccurate. It’s growing faster on the server side of things, but it’s still growing on the desktop side (at an admittedly slower pace).
BTW I’m sick to death of this desktop crap aren’t you?
Nobody’s forcing you to participate in these discussions! 😉
Archiesteel is so right. And on the server, linux/unix has a bigger share for internet servers i.e. web/dns/ftp.
After what happened in January, I’m sure a lot of sys admins decided to move their MsSql servers to more stable and secure MySQL servers. Face it, if you need stable, high availability and secure servers, don’t run Windows. You will need to patch it all the time with security patches (and as we’ve seen, even Microsoft suffered from SQL Slammer).
I have nothing against Windows, I use it at work, althought it behaves oddly sometimes, it works most of time. But when you’re used to Linux, it’s just not comparable.
Jebus, you should use other distros than RedHat/Mandrake, and you would see what linux is really about.