Linux Isn't for the Desktop, Yet
Posted by Matt Johnson | 2007-07-20 00:48:01
All over the internet you read about how ubuntu, kubuntu, edubuntu, xubuntu, urmomuntu, and all the rest are going to be the desktop OS of choice very soon. Yeah right.
Linux will never make it to the mainstream desktop in its current state for several reasons.
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Linux Is Not Windows
Whenever a noobie Linux user points out how easy something is in Windows compared to Linux, he usually receives the "Linux is NOT Windows" response. Well, duh.
At least 90% of American's are used to Windows. They know how it works, where things are located, how to configure programs, etc. Unless Linux can mirror that (Gnome, KDE are far from it), there is just no way Linux will catch on. Nobody likes change, the benefits of using Linux certainly don't outweigh the time (money) it would take to learn how to use that operating system. Linux needs to feel likes Windows.
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No Good Software
Can you use industry standard software on Linux? Are you going to catch a professional photographer using GIMP instead of Photoshop? Will you see a cheif executive officer using Open Office to compose documents? What about gamers? How are they going to get their fix? How is your adventurous father-in-law going to lookup topographical maps for his hiking trips? Linux gurus are proud to bring up Wine, the cure all. As cool as wine is, it doesn't work with all the programs Windows users covet. Wine is good for the Linux user who just needs to run some Windows apps, but nothing really mission critical.
What about all that free software that you can get with just the type of
sudo apt-get install? I hate to break it to ya, but most of it is crap; Low end clones of their Windows counterparts.For Linux to be taken seriously, it needs support from "evil" 3rd party proprietary software companies. And to get that support, they need to fix the rest of the problems with the Linux OS.
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Limited Hardware Support
Same issues with software. Ubuntu didn't support (very well) my photo printer. It didn't like my sound card, and had some nasty fights with my GPU. Did Windows XP have any problems? Nope. Do you think casual users are going to put up with that? Nope.
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Command Line, Text File Editing and Configuration
Do you think a casual computer user has ever had to use cmd in Windows? Do you think they have had to edit 250 line long text files to configure their programs? Do you think they want to? Until Linux and its superduber free software programs come with decent GUIs for configuration, casual users will not use it.
While the problems with Linux aren't all that numerous, they are pretty big things for the Linux community to overcome. If they'd stop focusing on anti-Microsoft propaganda, and did some really smart things, they could have a desktop worthly OS