Should We Listen to Walt Mossberg?

by Michael J. Jordan, Managing Editor

September 14, 2007

Walter Mossberg, an influential tech columnist who writes primarily for the Wall Street Journal, wrote a piece the other day in which he said that Linux still wasn't ready for mainstream users. Linux enthusiasts like myself see a piece like this from such a high-profile columnist as a tremendous setback for our work. For me, Mossberg is the equivalent of Robert Parker in the world of wine. Since I live in a wine producing region, I hear a lot of complaints about Parker. Many people think he has too much control over what wine makers do. They say that is criteria for wine has involved into the only criteria that counts and a rating from his famous wine newsletter can make or break a wine. The vintners that I talk to often bemoan the fact that he has come to have so much influence over the wine-making industry. That say that his palate has become the standard for wine and the industry has become impoverished because of this. So, when Mossberg says, as he did the other day, that Linux is not ready for the average "mainstream" user, it's a lot like Robert Parker giving the thumbs down to your favorite Bordeaux.

Mossberg always makes it clear that he writes for the tech-averse computer user - that is, the "mainstream" user. As a Linux enthusiast, I believe people use the term "mainstream" as a codeword for "Microsoft Windows". That is to say, since 90% or more of the world computers run some form of Microsoft Windows, then something that isn't Windows isn't mainstream. That's the idea I got out of Mr. Mossberg's column the other day. And when I first read it, it got my Linux-loving dander up, though I couldn't dismiss it as your typical FUD piece. I am familiar with Mr. Mossberg and I have read his columns and he's quite a bit more intelligent and most certainly more sincere than FUD purveyors like Rob Enderle.

Shortly after, I found another page with Mossberg explaining his piece in a video clip, and my irritation went away after viewing it. In the clip, you can see that he is truly interested in Linux and he states that he will be watching it in the future. One thing that I particular liked about his commentary - and something which no other mainstream tech pundits ever do - is that he seemed to imply that the virus and spyware situation on Windows was getting to be a terrible cross to bear for the Windows user and that Linux would cure that particular ill. Unfortunately, the crux of his commentary was that he felt there were little annoyances involved with using Linux and that those were still too much for him, and by extension - the mainstream user, to put up with.

I will say, that despite my respect for Mossberg, a lot of his complaints are the typical, vague oft-repeated observations based on an imperfect understanding about what Linux is and how a Linux distribution works.

One of the complaints he repeats is that Linux application developers don't "get" how to make user-friendly stuff. Again, we Linux supporters need to point out that since everybody thinks Windows is the "standard" and Linux is not Windows, Linux shouldn't be expected to work like Windows. Actually, it's easy to make a counter argument to that kind of thinking. I have used Mac OS X quite a lot and I have used Windows XP occasionally (I mostly try to avoid it, however). There are things designed into the GUI of Mac OS X that absolutely annoy me. But isn't Mac OS X supposed to have had the most "scientific" design of any user interface? Perhaps. But in the end, that's not the point. If you're forced to use something you don't normally use, the differences annoy you. Ask anybody who's rented a car, for example. So is it that Linux developers don't understand end users or that Mr. Mossberg and the "mainstream" is annoyed by something they're not used to?

Mr. Mossberg had several complaints about the version he was using (Ubuntu), but the one that really needs clarification is the audio and video situation. Linux can't play MP3s and DVDs out of the box and again, this is apparently a deal breaker for "mainstream" users. At the risk of sounding like a nit-picker, I need to point out that Windows XP won't play DVDs out of the box either. Playing a DVD requires purchasing software because, like the situation with MP3, a royalty must be paid to the organization that controls the DVD format. Apple seems to have paid for the right to ship DVD playing software with Mac OS X. I don't know whether or not you can play a DVD out of the box on the new Windows Vista.

To explain the reason why you can't play MP3s and DVDs out of the box on Ubuntu, the version that Mossberg writes about, goes beyond the scope of this piece. But the short answer is that it's not legal in many countries to do it. It is fairly easy, however, for a relative newcomer to Ubuntu to get his or her computer to play MP3 files. When you do enable MP3 support in Ubuntu, however, you will be warned that what you're doing is not legal in a lot of places. Whether this would really make a difference to most people, I tend to doubt. This is a bit like having a 20-year-old girlfriend and breaking up with her because she can't get into your favorite bar. What's stopping you from buying a bottle of wine and inviting her for dinner at your place until she turns 21?

Most responsible Linux advocates recommend using Ogg Vorbis instead of MP3. Ogg Vorbis is a non-patented sound codec that's free to use by anyone. To boot, in most benchmarks, it beats MP3 for quality. Why more people don't use it has always been a mystery to me. Its "sister" codec, Ogg Theora, used for encoding video, is not as far advanced in development as Vorbis, but its good enough for general use. If more content producers used these free codecs, we won't have to talk about this lack of audio/video support for much longer.

I was encouraged, in the end, after watching Mr. Mossberg explain his point of view. By the way, I watched him in Flash video, which, though not Free Software, is supported out of the box. Just a few short years ago, Linux was still being dismissed outright by pundits with his scope of readership. Now, it seems like with just a little more education, we'll have the "mainstream" with us.

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