A odd feeling...
A odd feeling started creeping up on me a few months ago... A feeling that I was wrong. Wrong for 10+ years. Wrong in the fact that I thought was on the right side of the operating system wars. Wrong in preaching in forums that "righteous path" of open source. Well maybe not wrong in promoting open source, but maybe not all "high and mighty" in doing so.
This "high and mighty" feeling is what brought the "wrongness" to my attention. Most Linux users know the feeling. Looking at a fellow classmates laptop running windows then looking back at your laptop running debian then thinking to your self. "I am clearly smarter than him!" Whether smarter is the technical ability required to set up Linux or the fact that you think your system is safer or promotes the egalitarian ideal of free software. All of us Linux users have been there.
But are we really all that great for using it? Proclaiming Linux's absolute power over windows? That everyone should run linux. From your grandmother down to your sister?
It all sorta hit me.
As I was obsessed with ubuntu, I had downloaded the latest beta. It was perfect! Everything was clearly laid out, no program clutter that plagues my other favorite linux (redhat/fedora), it was stable, quick, and worked with all my hardware. Except for downloading a few codecs and changing the default crap-colored brown theme, I was set.
But then... I thought, this is as good as it is going to get. This is the most feature full ready to use Linux yet, and it was running on me desktop. This OS clearly wasn't going to take the world, certainly isn't going to take down windows. There is no support for windows applications, no REAL games, no really easy tools for photos, music, or video. At least compared to Mac/PC side of things. As great and user friendly as ubuntu is, can it really get any better and address those problems??
No!!! It's certainly not ubuntu's fault or any other linuxes (linuxi?) fault. Linux as a desktop os is just not meant to be. On the Business side... Imagine if a large data processing company decided to switch to linux, thousands of employee would need to be retrained. OO.org Is similar to MS Office, but not exact so it would require retraining... Sometimes we forget that everyday people (non-techies) cannot pick up things as quickly as we can. The simplest change will require retraining with these people. Add on hiring new linux staff (the three guys that run the servers wont cut it) to the cost of training and companies are looking at the not so "free" side of linux. Imagine the millions of companies across the world taking that risk.... yeah right
On the home front.... brand PC makers are not going to sell linux PCs in stores, because EVERYTHING runs on windows. Companies are not going to put themselves in the situation where "you bought this machine here and none of the software we sell here will run on it."
Its like selling a CD player that doesn't play cds to lay people.
Overall I have a new perspective on the whole windows vs. linux thing. All the windows bashing and chest pumping we do is just screaming in the dark. For all the processors processing and the hard drives crunching, linux is a drop in the bucket.
The community has too lofty of goals, but that isn't a bad thing in and of itself. Its when the community begins to not be able to smell its own shit that it turns rotten. I look at the comments on digg, slashdot and other sites in a new light now. Most linux promoters just sound stupid. Clearly not thinking for themselves "WINDOWS BAD LINUX GOOD". Applies to every situation for them.
I think these types of people began to creep into the community when linux became easier to use. They were not back there in '96 compiling the kernel over and over again to get the sound or whatever hardware wasn't running at the moment to work.
The linux community has become like the Mac community, a sort of technical elitism that distorts the real truth and REAL possibilities of open source. Too many cheerleaders and not enough informed individuals thinking for themselves.
This "high and mighty" feeling is what brought the "wrongness" to my attention. Most Linux users know the feeling. Looking at a fellow classmates laptop running windows then looking back at your laptop running debian then thinking to your self. "I am clearly smarter than him!" Whether smarter is the technical ability required to set up Linux or the fact that you think your system is safer or promotes the egalitarian ideal of free software. All of us Linux users have been there.
But are we really all that great for using it? Proclaiming Linux's absolute power over windows? That everyone should run linux. From your grandmother down to your sister?
It all sorta hit me.
As I was obsessed with ubuntu, I had downloaded the latest beta. It was perfect! Everything was clearly laid out, no program clutter that plagues my other favorite linux (redhat/fedora), it was stable, quick, and worked with all my hardware. Except for downloading a few codecs and changing the default crap-colored brown theme, I was set.
But then... I thought, this is as good as it is going to get. This is the most feature full ready to use Linux yet, and it was running on me desktop. This OS clearly wasn't going to take the world, certainly isn't going to take down windows. There is no support for windows applications, no REAL games, no really easy tools for photos, music, or video. At least compared to Mac/PC side of things. As great and user friendly as ubuntu is, can it really get any better and address those problems??
No!!! It's certainly not ubuntu's fault or any other linuxes (linuxi?) fault. Linux as a desktop os is just not meant to be. On the Business side... Imagine if a large data processing company decided to switch to linux, thousands of employee would need to be retrained. OO.org Is similar to MS Office, but not exact so it would require retraining... Sometimes we forget that everyday people (non-techies) cannot pick up things as quickly as we can. The simplest change will require retraining with these people. Add on hiring new linux staff (the three guys that run the servers wont cut it) to the cost of training and companies are looking at the not so "free" side of linux. Imagine the millions of companies across the world taking that risk.... yeah right
On the home front.... brand PC makers are not going to sell linux PCs in stores, because EVERYTHING runs on windows. Companies are not going to put themselves in the situation where "you bought this machine here and none of the software we sell here will run on it."
Its like selling a CD player that doesn't play cds to lay people.
Overall I have a new perspective on the whole windows vs. linux thing. All the windows bashing and chest pumping we do is just screaming in the dark. For all the processors processing and the hard drives crunching, linux is a drop in the bucket.
The community has too lofty of goals, but that isn't a bad thing in and of itself. Its when the community begins to not be able to smell its own shit that it turns rotten. I look at the comments on digg, slashdot and other sites in a new light now. Most linux promoters just sound stupid. Clearly not thinking for themselves "WINDOWS BAD LINUX GOOD". Applies to every situation for them.
I think these types of people began to creep into the community when linux became easier to use. They were not back there in '96 compiling the kernel over and over again to get the sound or whatever hardware wasn't running at the moment to work.
The linux community has become like the Mac community, a sort of technical elitism that distorts the real truth and REAL possibilities of open source. Too many cheerleaders and not enough informed individuals thinking for themselves.
posted by GreyGhost at 10:00 AM
7 Comments:
It is pretty apparent from your descriptions in the post that you infact are a windows user, not a former linux user. I am working on a write up of all the things linux can do, it's a work in progress but you can check it out at http://www.wasazombie.com. Don't be afraid of something new, embrace it.
I've been using linux since 1996, and still use it on servers today in my work place. You missed the whole point of the article, the point was how linux will NEVER be a mainstream desktop OS. but i suppose its hard for a cheerleader to read and UNDERSTAND a article without the knee jerk "WINDOWS BAD LINUX GOOD" reaction.
I am just giving an object analysis, based on the terminology and grammar used, that it is unlikely you have used any linux variant since 1996, and probably not currently. Is it good enough for the one laptop per child? yes. Is it good enough for most offices? yes. Does it play counterstrike natively? no.
If the above critera defines "Will NEVER be a mainstream desktop OS", maybe you need to step back and evaluate your statement.
thank you again for proving my point again, i didnt know grammer indicates an OS use. Im posting this from Dapper, but must be using my windows grammer pardon me.
"Fine for most offices.."
Obviously since your such a good cheerleader, I'd like to see a migration plan from you on how a large corporation in america will migrate all its desktop users to linux. Let's see the logistics of it, the cost of it, the REAL world side of things. other than a list of apps that kinda do the same thing on linux. or how the one laptop per child thing is going to somehow level the playing field.
I guess all I am saying is it is, at this point, not defined wether or not Linux will succeed on the desktop. Technology is still evolving very rapidly, and Microsoft is not assured victory.
I am not looking to start a fight on the internet, just saying "hey, there's room for two here". As for migration, it depends what the task is. Many places now have internal systems using web interfaces, and in those situations linux would provide a great alternative. Likewise, if the MS Word format is used exclusively linux can do that too, just drop it in.
Most file servers use Samba already (I speak from University of Michigan experience, obviously this may differ), and I actually have no qualms about keeping an active directory server up (configuration and using an AD server is 10x than any linux equivalent at this point).
With respect to the desktop though, if you are running into problems that are frustrating, feel free to send me an email at: thisdying__removeforspam__dream@gmail.com and I can try and solve any issues for you
This post is inaccurate in many ways.
Linux supports Windows applications via Wine.
Games aren't holding up Linux; geek PC gamers will happily dual boot. Games aren't really an issue for most people. This problem is getting fixed, BTW.
There are a number of tools for photos, music and video, assuming you don't use web tools which most people do.
OpenOffice doesn't require retraining as it is very similar to Office.
My father runs Linux and he is a computer noob; I set it up for him. You'd be amazed how many people just need web browsing, simple Office, IM, a few applets. Linux meets those needs perfectly.
The weirdest thing is that you assume that Linux won't get better. That is silly; it gets better every day. Linux is at the beginning of an inflection point; it is already growing in big double-digits on the desktop. You will look back on your comments and 5 years and realize how wrong you were. It wouldn't surprise me if Linux was at majority marketshare in 5 years. Don't forget Google didn't exist 8 years ago. This is the 21st century, things move fast.
@ mindwarp. I'm not having any "frustrating" problems with linux. Get off your high horse, you look stupid up there. It's the view of "He isnt a linux cheerleader, therefor there is something wrong with him or he's not getting it" that mostly makes you look stupid.
and Samba running on a college network is nothing new or any proof what so ever that linux is succeding on the DESKTOP, Now Servers, thats another story.
@ anonymous what about non "geek" PC gamers? and Wine is nothing that should be relied on in the corporate world, yeah it can run Photoshop 7 and windows notepad stable but beyond that and with the wine off shoots, you have severe limits in multimedia and software you have to tip - toe around so it doesnt break.
If your dual booting for games, or have very limited apps (or stable apps) that you need to run via Wine, why not just run windows? it honestly sounds alot like your doing alot of unnessary work running linux and configuring Wine.
How is linux going to improve??? I cant see it, at least of the desktop side taking over windows. Because of the barriers mentioned in my article.
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