2008: Linux’s year on the desktop...?

As people have already pointed out its much quicker and simpler to get a working Ubuntu install, than to get a working xp/vista install, ive got countless different driver cds that i need to dig out and install before i have sound/network etc if i loose one then im buggered (in the case of network drivers). The major distro's have come along way in which they will actively find drivers (ati/nvidia wireless etc) and install them in one click, ive not come across one wired network card that hasnt worked straight away.

The only gripe is, is when something doesnt work out of the box (which is becoming more rare) it becomes a big steep learning curve however that is changing very quickly, its been a long time since ive compiled drivers into a kernel.


My only setback is when it comes to games :(
 
D.P. said:
Why would an advanced user want to ever bother with a GUI. Slow and awkward.
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Because even advanced users like the option to use a GUI to configure things and IMO it is usually quicker to use a GUI to configure things - e.g. chose screen res from a dropdown menu rather than editing a file.
 
Linux is good but I use windows simply because it works with everything, no messing about with setting files to get the simplest things to work (like having multiple apps be able to use the sound at the same time), and for games. I can't see linux becoming the "dominating OS", maybe on PDAs/mini laptops like the EEE pc but not on normal computers, linux will probably never be able to compete with windows on the usable-ness.
 
Based on my experience with Vista and Fedora on my new machine at the weekend it could well be, Vista needed both a driver install and a static IP before it could get on the network, unlike Fedora. If I can get Wine or XP in a VM going then I can see myself only booting Vista for the latest games :).
 
IMO linux is way away from the Desktop mainstream. I spent a week or so trying to get Kubuntu to update properly and eventually gave up and installed RedHat, it still took a load of inet searching and some Qs on here to get the network to play properly because it defaults to having IPv6 turned on whereas the real world still uses IPv4. The enable IPv6 checkbox was unchecked but i still had to edit a config file. This kind of idealistic dogma will always hold Linux back. The people who code it want to do things right as they see it. The coders at MS are the back end of a marketing machine that couldn't give two hoots how something "should" be done. They want to shift more boxes and they'll do that with more sparkle and easier interaction.

Hardware manufacturers will always create drivers for the platform that sells the most copies and while Linux is at a vey small % share of the market they won't care. Devices like OLPC or EEPC work great because there is a single target platform and all the issues are ironed out in advance of sale the same applies for NAS devices / Routers / Telephones etc.

I think the achievement of Linux is huge so far. If you sit back and consider how many devices are running it at the moment; it's gone mainstream already but it doesn't have a sparkly logo and a massive advertising machine behind it.

Also, in a world where money is regarded as such an important possession the fact that it's free is held against it by some people. I couldn't convince my next door neighbour to use AVG as she believes that something that is free isn't as good as something that costs £60. While that attitude is ubiquitous in the community you'll have people proudly displaying the windows logo and regarding the Linux crowd as tree-hugging hippies with no sense of the importance of a designer label.

Russell
 
Dj_Jestar said:
1. Tried Ubuntu or other user friendly distro? I can tell you haven't.
2. Driver support is there, where the hardware vendors have either provided drivers, or have provided tech specs for others to make the drivers.
3. MS have not released details of their doc/excel/access encryption, ergo it's a bit difficult for anyone but MS to release software that is fully compatible with MS Office.
4. You do realise that drivers compile when you install them with windows?
5. So you never need to reboot your windows box when updating GFX drivers? Yeah right.
6. HP already provide Linux as their first choice for their outsourcing. IBM also provide it as an option, but the whole corporate vs domestic has little to do with this subject. If one does it, the other will too. In either order.
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1. Ubunutu Install didn't even complete on my box that had a working CentOS running on it prior to the install.

2. My High Point RAID5 required me to manually compile the driver for the kernel. If I update the Kernel then needed to redo the driver as no longer read my Highpoint RAID5 array. 4. When my driver compile in Windows, I go next, next, next click to restart etc, not find out kernel version, install kernel-devel for that version, tell to build the driver then install the driver. It does it in the background where I don't care how it does it as long as it does it.

3. This is my point. There is a lot of MS Office format out there, right or wrong it needs to be accessible, if MS doesn't let people have the format spec then you are going to have to convert the files over.

5. I have to reboot when I upgrade drivers, I have no problem with that, I just expect to be able to go next, next, next reboot, it is all mouse clicks and real easy. I don't have to expect to drop into a different mode to do this. There are 3rd party repositories for CentOS that will do this for you but you have to go into config files, tell yum about the repository etc

6. Average Joe Public will use at home what they use at work as is what they are familar with. With the otherway round I know a linux person who wanted to use Linux at work as familar with and told to stop wasting there time, as they weren't going to test the systems with anything other then the corporate standard. He couldn't access the Word or Excel files, or Visio, the Exchange Server didn't have IMAP enabled so no mail other then via OWA

Linux definitely has a place in computing and it is brilliant work that the people who develop linux do. I use Linux myself in the form of CentOS as a base OS for VMWare Servers.

I also use Linux in the form of Check Point SPLAT daily and have used this to convert many people away from running Windows OS as the platform for there Check Point firewall. I could do this because the Linux is hidden from you.

Install CD into drive and reboot
Say yes to install
Select Network Interface
Set IP address, subnet mask and gateway
Select to enable HTTPS web front end or not
Wait for install to complete

Need to upgrade the version

Install CD
On Keyboard login
type
patch add cd
answer simple questions job done

You forget that it is linux you are using

Get Desktop Linux to be that easy and it stands a chance!
 
My 2 cents, and for what it's worth I normally stay away from what always turns into a windows vs linux thread. The idea that Windows will be less dominant is spot on, however define less dominant? 10% 20% 30 % ? try 2 or 3% at most. I've used linux in a server enviroment since i was 16, thats a good 12 years, and as a server OS it IMO kicks M$ in the butt, however for my desktop, at home, i must've tried every distro going at one stage or another, and had various degrees of success, some don't boot because X doesn't like the latest gfx card, some don't like certain sata controllers etc. See a pattern here? Linux, in itself is perfectly capable of being put together in such a way that my 6 year old nephew could login browse the net and watch CBeebies, however, until and here's the main problem UNTIL the major hardware vendors like creative, nvidia, ati (amd) and a multitude of network chip makers start to support linux more openly and create driver sets that do not require silly amounts of terminal use and activity, let alone kernel recompiles (and this is more than possible) then i'm afraid linux will never accomplish it's goals of becoming a free user friendly desktop from idiot upwards user levels. Take just 1 example of a situation i am currently in, i installed Ubuntu 7.10 2 days ago on the desktop PC, a reasonably well spec'd mid range gaming pc, knowing that when i get to installing my XFI it wont work, creative will not issue a working driver, or the src code to create a working driver, the current 64 bit beta is so flakey it's not even worth the download. So sadly, despite the success of linux in the last 12 months, there will be a point when it hits the wall, Microsoft throw money at the vendors 1 way or another, linux distro companies don't, sad but true, it's all down to money, meanwhile i'm left with using my on board sound which isn't to bad :D

Just my thoughts, not bashing M$ for the sake of it, oh and i do use Vista for gaming on the other drive, i need my daily dose of UT3 and COD4 as much as the next guy / gal :)
 
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Im in a good position to answer this as I have recently moved to Kubuntu on my laptop.
Its come a long way, but is not there yet. I stuck the disk in, installed and everything worked straight away and I connected my camera and all pictures downloaded with no effort - impressive!
BUT, over the last couple of weeks, there have been moments where I have been tearing my hair out in frustration trying to do things that took 3 mins in windows.
Some of it is just the learning curve involved in moving to another OS, Im sure that if I had stuck OS X on, I d say the same.
Movie codecs, file splitting, dvd problems to name a few as well as hotmail access, exchange, and not being able to sync my mobile properly (WM6) have cooled the initial WOW factor.
Take the hotmail issue, there are thunderbird plugins, but for some people it doesnt work and the forum advice is to move to an earlier plugin version until it works, 6 versions back, and I still have the same error and have given up - that is a big usability problem imho...
Not to mention compiling programs and the makefile barfs with an error message that you do not have a clue what to do about it, even after googling.

Linus IS good, I like the open source mentality, but it is a hell of a learning curve from MS and as long as MS is the dominant OS, then linux will have problems.

For basic tasks it is great, but for any specialist niches, then be prepared for some pain..
 
it's pure fantasy to believe linux is a realistic threat to MS on the desktop.

i love linux but let's face it, as soon as something goes wrong which it inevitably does in linux sooner or later you're average user cracks it because they can't fix the problem or have no desire to learn the guts of linux and ends up back in the comfortable arms of windows.

power users OS for now and forseeable future imo.
 
Linux won't be big on the traditional PC for a while, if at all.

It will however be master of the small form factor PCs/mobiles if Asus/Google have anything to do with it. Since they are both fairly new markets (relative to the PC market) no one dominates like Microsoft does, and using Linux means they have a free flexible and lightweight base to start with.
 
Typical example from my experience a few days ago

Installed Gusty on my laptop, everything was fine apart from the wireless, no surprise there.

So i start to look around the web for solutions, approximately 5 hours later, 2 reinstalls, ndiswrapper failures and possibly nearing a hundred terminal commands, it turns out the problem is with the wireless switch on the laptop which is software enabled despite it being turned on in the bios. Now fujitsu only support the software in windows and the only solution is to use some hack from a peice of acer software.

I appreciate the free software philosophy, but while problem such as that exist it will never become mainstream. The average user would give about 5 minutes of their time in sorting the problem before failing and turning to windows.
 
I actualy think Linux will creep into business use long before it dominates home use. There are many businesses using standardised hardware who need a highly managed system where only a small number of applications are needed.

Think of a call centre with 100s of identical PCs. That's the sort of environment where I can see Linux cropping up.

Too many home users want a name they can trust, whizzy graphics and support for the sort of software you get next to the tills in petrol stations.
 
good points on both sides, my experience is that ubuntu works fine for most hardware out there. where it scores highly for me is as a server is that its a much better 64bit os than the equivalent ms stuff. hotmail on an alternative os or browser...well that's a whole anti-trust issue in itself. the microsoft website doesn't really play ball with other browsers for christs sake, how's hotmail gonna play ball? where I find linux winning is in th elower powered stuff, your older laptops etc. I have an old lappy PIII650 and believe me xp sucks so much on it it's not worth bothering with. ubuntu/kubuntu however plays nicely, and makes it worth holding on to for a bit longer. vista is a pile of pants, my niece had to have her laptop upgraded to 2gig just to be able to get decent vista performance, that's just obscene bad programming....windows live messenger needs 320+ meg to start!
 
hotmail access, exchange, and not being able to sync my mobile properly (WM6) have cooled the initial WOW factor. Take the hotmail issue, there are thunderbird plugins
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Perfect examples of Microsoft's lack of interoperability. :(
 
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