Linux on the Desktop: Not Happening
Cees explains why he gave up on Linux on the desktop:
As I wrote, I switched from Linux on the desktop (after almost 10 years!) back to Windows XP. I just was fed up with having to dig around for device drivers and support software for my camera, my scanner, my game pad, my iPod, my phone, my printer, etcetera. That I couldn’t get a 16 bit workflow done under Linux was the breaker. I left Windows XP on my laptop, installed shareware on it, and never looked back.
One of the regulars on the IRC channel made the same point this morning - it's just too much work. If you use Windows or Mac, things "just work" when you plug them in. Sure, you can often get them to work on Linux (eventually) - but in the meantime, how much time have you spent?
That kind of fiddling just isn't interesting for most people - because most people aren't entertained by trawling Google results for device driver information. Sure, Windows has flaws - more than I can count. But it's a lot closer to being a consumer friendly device than Linux is, or ever will be. The dirty secret is that it takes money to write drivers for the huge variety of peripherals on the market - and while Apple and MS have the resources to do that, the open source community just doesn't. Free development just doesn't support that kind of thing, unless it happens to bite a developer with the right knowledge. That's a thin reed to base your hopes on, and it's the one that Linux on the desktop advocates have been counting on.
On the server? Sure, I much prefer Linux. Like cees, I can see it being useful in a locked down corporate environment as well (although, to be honest, I'd go Mac there first). In the general consumer space? Not happening.
Comments
Linux
[Tom Sattler] December 13, 2005 16:25:19.000
<respectfulDisagreement>
As an example, I will use myself, today. We got a used Sony Playstation from my wife's sister's son who moved on to a "bigger and better". So we had to go online to playstation.com and download the manual to figure out how in heck we can get this to work. So my wife tried to open the pdf file on her laptop, and her laptop (running XP) froze. So I tried to open the pdf, and I was told my version of Acrobat was not able to load the file, and I needed to upgrade. Fine. I tried to upgrade, and I was told my version of Windows 2000 was not compatible with the new version of Acrobat so it would not install. Exasperated, I shut down Windows and rebooted into Fedora Core 3. Opened the PDF viewer, hit "print", and 24 pages later, I had a beautiful Playstation document.
Was it easier to do under Windows? Who knows? It was not doable at all under Windows.
And your point about the open source community writing drivers is no longer correct. Much of the time, the drivers we use over on Linux are provided by the vendors. Especially the video card vendors, who know a big chunk of their users are Linux users. The more people who use Linux, the more incentive the hardware companies have to produce drivers for it. This problem will get smaller, not bigger.
I like Linux on the desktop because I'm used to it. People with Windows like it (or at least tolerate it) because they're used to it. Mac users are used to it. It's all about what you're used to, and comfortable with. Windows users go download shareware, and I go to sourceforge. Again, it's all what you're comfortable doing.
</respectfulDisagreement>
pre-installed Linux boxes
[Lex Spoon] December 13, 2005 16:28:30.000
You are comparing pre-installed Windows boxes with self-installed Linux boxes. If you buy a bunch of parts, plug them together, and try to install Windows on them, you will have the same problems you and Cees write about with doing the same for Linux. If you buy a pre-installed Lindows box, you surely would have just as easy of a time as you do with Windows or a Mac.
There are two simple ways to have an easy-use Linux box. Either buy a pre-installed Lindows box (www.lindows.com), or buy a well-known computer like Thinkpads and follow the advice from websites like www.thinkwiki.org . Linux only takes a lot of time if you want to be a tinkerer.
I could go into more detail, but will leave it at that. The return for running Linux is significant. In addition for having an excellent hacking machine, Linux means that you are confident that your computer is working for you. Jim's recent posts about the Sony CD DRM nonsense makes me very glad to be using Linux. My computer simply doesn't run their junky software at all, certainly not outside of an isolated sandbox. Why should it?
But we could go on about this for days. How long until someone says the obvious? Linux, in the end, is only good for boring stuff like getting work done. MS Windows is vital for accessing all the good games
Maybe back in the day...
[Jared Richardson] December 13, 2005 18:33:45.939
I'll take the opportunity to point out how far linux has come in the last few years.
More here... in a short blog entry
Linux on my homebrew PC
[Carl Gundel] December 13, 2005 20:38:31.133
Just as an anecdote, I recently decided to run Linux on an old PC that I bought from a workmate. This 450MHz AMD machine is made from odds and ends. I installed a copy of Lindows 4.5 (a debian distro). Everything just worked. So, maybe this is a hit or miss thing, but I got a hit. :-)
driver disagreement
[Kyle Hayes] December 14, 2005 0:05:24.768
I would like to point out that neither Microsoft nor Apple write the majority of the drivers that ship with their operating systems. I am not sure where this incorrect information comes from, but it does seems to be commonly believed. The device makers write the drivers in the large majority of the cases. Only where you have core things like IDE or SATA drivers does Microsoft provide something. Even there, you often get a driver disk with a motherboard (or can download something from the web) with "better" drivers on it. When you buy a prepackaged machine, e.g. from Dell, you will often find that it is not possible to reload Windows with the exact drivers that you had orginally. Sometimes there is a special version of Windows. Sometimes there is yet another special CD with the extra/new/"better" drivers on it.
Microsoft and Apple bundle drivers, they do not generally write them.
Linux has two problems here. First, the hardware manufacturers do not really want to write Linux drivers. There are insufficient hardware sales for them to really care. Second, most do not want to make their drivers open source. Closed source drivers will always be second-class citizens on Linux. If or when hardware sales to Linux users become large enough, the hardware manufacturers will provide drivers. The video card industry is one where Linux users have sufficient buying power to generate at least some support on the part of the hardware manufacturers.
This is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Over the past ten years, the balance is slowly shifting toward Linux. As hardware standardizes (USB, SATA, PCCard etc.), it becomes easier for open source drivers to compete with the commercial drivers in other operating systems. For example, a basic USB storage driver can allow you to copy pictures on and off most digital cameras. One driver, a lot of hardware. Microsoft, perhaps ironically, is probably due most of the credit for forcing the hardware makers to adhere to standards.
My wife uses Linux and loves it
[Stephen Pair] December 14, 2005 10:11:07.629
Here's a counter argument...yes, we all just want our little doodads to plug in and just work, but we're not representative of the average user, we're geeks. My wife has been running Suse for over a year now and simply loves it. She uses Firefox and Thunderbird. Why does she love it? Because when she used Windows, the computer was constantly getting infected with viruses (and I was constantly having to clean up the mess). Bottom line, when Windows was on the computer, the machine didn't work half the time and it was completely frustrating for her. Does she care that she can't plug a scanner, camera or iPod into it? No. She wasn't doing those things when it ran Windows and she's not doing them now.
Your wife is an outlier
[ James Robertson] December 14, 2005 10:45:19.753
Comment by James Robertson
Every non-technical person I know is plugging cameras, iPods (etc., etc.) into their PC's. Cameras and video cameras especially, and I'll wish anyone good luck getting a new digital camera/video camera working with a Linux system. if you think people aren't using that stuff, you aren't paying attention :)
Paying attention...
[Tom Sattler] December 14, 2005 12:00:01.686
I'm paying attention. I bought a Canon A510 digital camera over the summer. I plugged it into my USB port under Fedora Core 3, and it works. I did not (repeat, NOT) have to download or install any drivers or software in order to make it work. It just works.
Now, it could be that I was fortunate that I bought a camera that *just happened* to be one of the handful of cameras that are supported under Linux. It's also possible that I bought a camera that *just happened* to be one of the majority of cameras that are supported under Linux. Who knows? And who cares? My camera works, and it was seamless. Also painless. I didn't have to reboot once. ;-)
As long as you go check www.linuxhardware.org before making a purchase, you'll be fine. In the case of a printer, go to www.linuxprinting.org. If you buy the hardware first, then try to make it work, you deserve your fate. Whatever that fate might be.