Journal tepples's Journal: Five Blockers to Linux 21
Conventional wisdom holds that at least the following five problems block the adoption of Free operating environments such as GNU/Linux on home computers. What steps have GNU/Linux advocates begun to take in order to fix these?
- The only consistency among graphical applications for GNU/Linux is that they consistently ignore the GUIdelines of their desktop environment.
- Best Buy carries no peripherals with a penguin on the front of the box. A penguin would indicate that the IHV has chosen to include working Linux drivers on the disc bundled with the hardware. "Print out your distribution's hardware compatibility list and carry it into the store" does not easily apply to gifts from relatives.
- Best Buy carries virtually no recent release proprietary 3D games designed for GNU/Linux, other than those few M-rated first-person shooters that include a Linux client binary on the CD alongside the Windows binary. Parents may find M-rated games unacceptable, or players may prefer MMORPGs or tactical simulations.
- Best Buy carries no recent release proprietary educational games designed for GNU/Linux. People buy computers to run Reader Rabbit.
- GNU/Linux lacks a DVD Video player application licensed by DVD Forum and DVD CCA.
RE: Number 5 (Score:2)
Re: Number 5 (Score:1)
So, an officially licensed player isn't a show-stopper, because the other players work.
But no commercial GNU/Linux distributor is going to distribute possibly patent-infringing MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital decoders, and no commercial American GNU/Linux distributor will risk its ass by distributing software comparable to DeCSS. Now you're getting into installing apps from outside the distribution, which runs directly into the "consistency" argument. So perhaps number 5 is redundant, restating number 1.
Re: Number 5 (Score:2)
I'm not sure I agree that UI inconsistancy is keeping Linux (or BSD) off the desktop, because Windows and MacOS programs aren't all consistant, hell even Official Programs aren
Lindows.com will sell you a legit player (Score:2)
That said, most users aren't savy enough to hunt down the software for dvd play back on the net. Even if they are, xine's deinterlacers suck (except in the 1.0 pre releases, but I'm sorry to say those are buggy as heck and hard to use) and mplayer is a command line app with a man page. Linux needs a good,
Re:Lindows.com will sell you a legit player (Score:2)
Re:Lindows.com will sell you a legit player (Score:2)
Number 1 (Score:1)
The kernel doesn't make binary-only drivers easy (Score:1)
A one-click tool to recompile the kernel with new drivers would help.
Re:The kernel doesn't make binary-only drivers eas (Score:1)
Why couldn't binary-only drivers run in userspace, talking to a sort of GPL'd HAL in the kernel? I seem to recall some commercial solution to do this.
Re:The kernel doesn't make binary-only drivers eas (Score:2)
You forgot modems (Score:1)
I mean yes you can make a fair number work under linux but this is not a job for the novice
Not if you have 100% Pure Broadband(tm) (Score:1)
About %80 of the modems sold in commodity hardware are winmodems......
That was Numbuh Two. Besides, what percent of the new home computer sales are going to households that get dial-up instead of broadband?
Re:You forgot modems (Score:2)
#2 (Score:2)
There are bigger issues than that- (Score:2)
There's a reason Windows 3.1 made such a headway, it allowed the average person to use a *standard* GUI to accomplish many tasks.
Linux cannot do this. Sure, many (and I do mean many) GUIs exist, but many imporant tasks *must* be done from the command line.
There's the #1 barrier to home adoption of Linux. Arcane, obscure CLI-driven software.
Fix *that*, and then you start worrying about
Like fix which? (Score:1)
Would you please list the tasks that Windows 3.1's GUI allowed but GNU/Linux's GUIs do not?
Re:Like fix which? (Score:2)
Now if you want to compare linux now with windows then, it's hardly fair, but even windows 3.1 has an edge in *standard user interface* and *keyboard commands* (things like alt-c and alt-v will copy and paste no matter what program you are in. Things like that linux *still* cannot do (many linux software bits don't obey such rules)
Re:Like fix which? (Score:1)
Given the time frame (1993) I'm certain a great many things (like driver install for one)
1993? Give Linux a break; MS-DOS had a 10-year head start. And how did one install CD-ROM drivers back then? Wasn't it with MSCDEX options in the config.sys and autoexec.bat? Or did some versions of Windows 3.1 (other than the one that came on my machine) come with a GUI for setting those options?
Now if you want to compare linux now with windows then, it's hardly fair
You're the one who suggested comparing it t
Re:Like fix which? (Score:3, Insightful)
Forget about BestBuy, CircuitCity, CompUSA, etc. That's small issues. Fix the big, huge, show stoppers and THEN get back to me.
(also, for what it's worth, I had a GUI installer for my CD-ROM drivers (Nakamichi quad disk changer), just as I had for my video card (Orchid Farenheit), my modem (US Robotics).
Even those items that had to be installed under DOS (a CLI) had a nice file called "install.exe" or "setup.exe".
One went from the C:\ and typed "install.exe" (or "
Re:There are bigger issues than that- (Score:1)
The median home user doesn't want enlightenment as much as she wants to get work done now.