Breaking Down Barriers to Linux Desktop Adoption 821
Jane Walker writes to tell us that in a recent interview with SearchOpenSource.com Jono Bacon takes a look at why some of the reasons people give for not switching to Linux might not stand up under closer scrutiny. From the article: "For example, they fault Linux OpenOffice desktops for not having all the features in Microsoft Windows Office, even though few actually use all of the Microsoft stuff. So, in essence, they're saying they want desktops cluttered with unnecessary features."
Um...Incompatibilities? (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's also not forget hardware issues. Yes, there have been major strides since I first experimented with Red Hat 5.2, but the fact that I couldn't get my non-winmodem or sound card to work under the OS turned me off from using it for some time.
There gets a point where it's not so much of lethargy as it is a hassle to deal with and *still* not being able to do everything you need/like to do on your computer.
OSS's lack of concentration (Score:2, Interesting)
I think a lot of the problems with OSS stem from one issue, the fact that the developers are very out of touch with the average user. I'll give you an example:
I have been striving to use all open source or free software on my latest windows machine. I found that winamp had become problemsome for multiple reasons, and that I disliked windows media player 9 for certain reasons as well. So for video playback, I've attempted to use VLC (something I'm still trying to play with). Now, VLC seems all-in-all like a great player. However, it lacks very basic features that every single other player has.
One of these is a draggable on screen display so you can seek while you play full-screen video. While this may not be the most important item on the geek list, it's definitely important to an average person. We've grown accustomed to seeing a drag bar pop up when we move the cursor down to the bottom of the screen, and it's simply not there.
Another one, at least in windows, is the lack of reasonable playlist support. Not only does "play all" not work from windows explorer (which I honestly could say I wouldn't even expect as it is a multi-platform software project), but the playlist in general is buggy. About 50% of the time, when it goes from one video file to another, the program completely dumps and commits some type of illegal operation.
At the same time, VLC has plenty of options not in regular players that all work perfectly fine. This just goes to show me that the talent and the effort is there, but the priorities are out of line with the audience. They could fix the issues, but they'd rather work on geeky features like "background mode" instead.
I've noticed this with Linux as well. There is definitely more support for some really neat little gadgets, but then base functionality may not even work without a lot of tweaking. Not to mention, installing applications on Linux is something an average unknowledgable computer could even conceivably do without a manual or someone instructing them.
I understand that Linux and OSS is hobbyist stuff, that's why I love it. But being built by a hobbyist is a double-edged sword, you have to realize that if you are coding based on your own priorities, that your priorities might often be out of line with the average user. Which is fine if you don't want to convert everyone.
Some key applications missing (Score:1, Interesting)
and nothing could be used to seamlessly read, write, and show AutoCAD dwg files.
We need the equivalent of OpenOffice in the CAD world.
Re:Another reason people don't switch... (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually the commoditization of hardware is *precisely* what is going to drive the adoption of Linux in the long run. The price of Windows wasn't such a big deal back when the computer that you really wanted was $2000, but as the price of a computer continues to drop and the margins on hardware continue to get smaller and smaller eventually hardware manufacturers are going to look at cutting the amount that they spend per machine on software.
You'll notice that I didn't mention anything about consumers, and that's important. Joe Sixpack isn't going to decide to switch to Windows. OEM manufacturers like Dell and HP are going to become interested in "marketing" Linux computers. Not only would Linux drastically reduce the manufacturer's software costs, but it would also give the OEM far more leeway to customize the PC to their specifications. Instead of Microsoft making billion dollar deals to decide what goes on the default Windows install Dell and HP could sell desktop space directly.
That line has already been crossed for servers, and pretty much every tier-two and tier-three hardware vendor also has Linux only promotional desktop computers. It's really only a matter of time.
Re:It's a nice sounding excuse. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Is the lack of drivers... (Score:3, Interesting)
Say No To Win Annual Data Loss / Reinstall Feature (Score:1, Interesting)
my dad, who thinks computers are way to complex - even windows - asked me about installing linux on his home box. i will be doing that next time i visit him.
Re:Is the lack of drivers... (Score:3, Interesting)
This last week I did a massive hardware upgrade of two of my home machines, which required a from-scratch reinstall of Windows and Suse. I lost count of how many times I had to reboot with Windows - not just from the endless security updates and upgrades from Microsoft, but because I had to download the latest drivers for most of my equipment, install them, and *they* wanted to reboot as well.
Hours upon hours of acquiring drivers off the internet, downloading them, installing them, rebooting the goddamned machine, and tweaking the fuckers according to various FAQs. Oh joy.
Suse Linux, on the other hand, need ONE reboot - and that's after downloading some 150 patches (automagically), not to mention installing all of my favorite software. Funny, I ended up picking up ONE driver from the manufacturer for each machine, both of which were for the video cards. Not that the cards didn't work without the drivers (they did just fine), but simply because it was recommended in case the driver that came with Suse ran into problems.
I haven't even gotten around to installing my various pieces of Windows software yet. I decided to defer *that* nightmare for another day (or two, or three, since my Linux is up and running and already has all of my apps installed).
Why do I even have a Windows partition? For a) games, and b) Photoshop. And if the games came with a non-WINE linux install I'd toss Windows altogether and put behind me the driver hunt-install-endless reboot nightmare forever.
Anyone who says that Windows is easier to install than a modern version of Linux is a jackass.
Max
Re:Is the lack of drivers... (Score:3, Interesting)
If everything must 'Just Work (TM)', then you should not even need to install drivers on your system.
For this to work, one needs to be able to design an OS that can take into account the set of all hardware that exists and will ever exist, and to accomodate for that you should have a (very) limited set of hardware interfaces together with a limited set of protocols for each of these.
Of course, USB comes very close to this ideal. However, protocols depend upon their application area, and for every kind of functionality, you need some additions (eg. wireless LAN vs. Ethernet LAN).
I do think, however, that it is entirely possible to build a Linux desktop which can accomodate many types of users.
I have created a Linux system for my father, consisting of Debian with KDE.
He can mail, surf, uses QCad and OpenOffice, and I am able to do remote troubleshooting and repair.
For scanning we still use his old 100 Mhz Pentium system with Windows 98 and Ultr@VNC. That is because he has an old parallel port scanner, and also a SCSI slide scanner (the SCSI card is ISA). He is very satisfied with this system.
We even added a webcam once, but the GNOME application which connected to it was unstable and tended to crash.
I do not need to reinstall/repair his system every so often, which was the case when he ran Windows. This makes it possible for us to concentrate on finding out and learning functionality.
Every six months or so, I provide him with an update of Debian unstable (after I tested it) so that his system expands in functionality.
I added an account for my brother too, so that he can surf and check his email on Yahoo. He did not have any questions or problems at all.
I am fairly confident that I can apply this to other people also (a colleague of my wife has mentioned his interest).
Things which now have gotten better in Debian unstable vs. Debian 3.1 functionality : mostly that KDE now supports USB Mass Storage devices out of the box with hal and DBUS. That is the most basic reason that I need to upgrade my fathers system, he gets more and more requests to exchange things via memory stick.
Other things that I need to check out : printing from QCad and GIMP I still haven't tackled on his system (it works for me) and activation of sound on his desktop (but I haven't done that for myself either, mostly because I do not really need sound functionality on my systems).
What we need (and what I have planned, now only find time) is a public requirements specification on what the basic functionality of a desktop must be and how this can be filled in on most popular distro's.
Part of this public requirements should also be about adding new hardware, after a desktop has been configured and used. This should lead to public recommendations about what brands of hardware to choose.
Another part should also be a list of available software in stores and what alternatives there exist for them.
This must lead to a public integrator manual which should contain easy steps to configure a chosen distribution to the required functionality.
I stress that one of the main points should be that these documents should be public, easily reachable and easily readable, to make it clear to hardware and software companies which do not make it easy to use their products on Linux are not mentioned and to make it feel to them that they are not mentioned.
This manual should be usable by the less-than-average geek, which can then support his family and acquaintances, and make recommendations on hard- and software to use.
I think that the main barrier to adoption is just the lack of local, simple, easy to remember and easy to find knowledge for the average computer enthusiast who normally supports his neighbourhood.