Picking Up the Desktop Slack

Michael J. Jordan, Linux Online Staff

December 5, 2006

A version of Vista for "business customers" (whatever that means) came out last week and along with it, we're getting a barrage of 'what's the matter with Linux on the desktop' commentary. The truth is that this 'always a bridesmaid but never a bride' routine is getting a bit old.

Is Linux gaining momentum among with general public? The numbers speak for themselves. It isn't.

I assume, too, that a lot of people are fed up with Windows, but not so fed up that they actually leave it for Linux. Even if they do, they go running back to Windows just like an abused spouse. Generally, these are the people who "try" Linux and then talk about how bad it is.

Take this quote I found on a Metafilter thread commenting on the launch of Vista:

"I'm not saying that Linux on the desktop is completely useless. I'm just saying that it's unlikely that the large majority of people will take linux seriously as a desktop option anytime soon... And yes, I have tried running linux on the desktop. My memories mainly consist of kernel recompiles, limited hardware support, and spending 5 hours to find some stupid number I had to change in a 3000-line configuration file in /etc."

That '3000 configuration file' line cracks the Windows fanboys right up. We Linux fans just roll our eyes. This is the typical Linux nay-sayer. The kind who tried it once, probably in 1999 and had a bad experience. Me? I'm never going to try that Linux again. It's out of my comfort zone. I'll stick with the thousands of viruses. At least Bill gives my money to charity.

To me, it isn't that desktop Linux is lacking. I just think there what isn't lacking are people like the author of the aforementioned observations. Now how do we attract them to Linux?

The desktop landscape may look bleak, but that doesn't mean it will be that way forever. There are some things we could do to improve the situation. Here are a few suggestions that I humbly make:

• Get Dell and the other PC purveyors to pre-install Linux.
  In my opinion, the 'Linux is hard to install' argument has always been stupid. How many Windows users have actually installed Windows? One in one-thousand? Dell does it for you. We need Dell to do it for us. And no half-assed efforts either. Can't we get ODSL and some of these other open-source think tanks to lend us a hand with this? If some of the people in charge over there got on the phone to some of these OEMs and talked up Linux, I might actually begin to think they do serve a purpose.
• Combine GNOME and KDE.
  Having the two leading Linux GUIs still mostly at odds with each other is pointless and stupid - almost as pointless as having *two* leading Linux GUIs in the first place. I'd like to see some project leaders suppress their egos for the good of desktop Linux. I'd like to see them take the plunge and issue a press release saying: GNOME and KDE have combined to become 'GDE' or 'KNOME'. To be able to show someone what 'Linux looks like' would go a long way to convince people to use it. I'm all for freedom of choice, but it plays better at the supermarket than on the desktop.
• Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora need to be more popular.
  Linux popularity problems have little to do with the oft talked about 'dearth of applications', which is mainly a canard. It has more to do with little annoyances. I have been using Linux since 1998 and I have gotten over most of the hurdles that Linux has put in the way of my productivity and enjoyment. One problem, however, has not been solved. Linux has poor multimedia support. If you want to see a Linux advocate blush and stammer, ask him or her about how he would rate Linux for a seamless web experience. How's Flash support? How's audio and video codec support? I'd rather not answer. And there's no reason it should be like this. The open source world has a great alternative - the Ogg formats. The problem is, we need to get the big content providers to start using them.

Of course, the desktop quest is a complicated matter. There is a fair amount of human psychology involved, but there are things that we can do, as a community, to speed up adoption. These are a few, in my opinion, that may help us pick up the slack.

Michael J. Jordan is the webmaster of Linux Online. He can be reached at Michael.Jordan**AT**linux.org