Posted on 08/16/2014 7:22:36 AM PDT by ShadowAce
In the world of consumer electronics, if you don't give the buyer what they want, they'll go elsewhere. We've recently witnessed this with the Firefox browser. The consumer wanted a faster, less-bloated piece of software, and the developers went in the other direction. In the end, the users migrated to Chrome or Chromium.
Linux needs to gaze deep into their crystal ball, watch carefully the final fallout of that browser war, and heed this bit of advice:
If you don't give them what they want, they'll leave.
Another great illustration of this backfiring is Windows 8. The consumer didn't want that interface. Microsoft, however, wanted it because it was necessary to begin the drive to all things Surface. This same scenario could have been applied to Canonical and Ubuntu Unity -- however, their goal wasn't geared singularly and specifically towards tablets (so, the interface was still highly functional and intuitive on the desktop).
For the longest time, it seemed like Linux developers and designers were gearing everything they did toward themselves. They took the "eat your own dog food" too far. In that, they forgot one very important thing:
Without new users, their "base" would only ever belong to them.
In other words, the choir had not only been preached to, it was the one doing the preaching. Let me give you three examples to hit this point home.
Finally, Linux needs to take a page from the good ol' Book Of Jobs and figure out how to convince the consumer that what they truly need is Linux. In their businesses and in their homes -- everyone can benefit from using Linux. Honestly, how can the open-source community not pull that off? Linux already has the perfect built-in buzzwords: Stability, reliability, security, cloud, free -- plus Linux is already in the hands of an overwhelming amount of users (they just don't know it). It's now time to let them know. If you use Android or Chromebooks, you use (in one form or another) Linux.
Knowing just what the consumer wants has always been a bit of a stumbling block for the Linux community. And I get that -- so much of the development of Linux happens because a developer has a particular need. This means development is targeted to a "micro-niche." It's time, however, for the Linux development community to think globally. "What does the average user need, and how do we give it to them?" Let me offer up the most basic of primers.
The average user needs:
That's pretty much it. With those four points in mind, it should be easy to take a foundation of Linux and create exactly what the user wants. Google did it... certainly the Linux community can build on what Google has done and create something even better. Mix that in with AD integration, give it an Exchange/Outlook or cloud-based groupware set of tools, and something very special will happen -- people will buy it.
Linux is for computers. For those who need computers to, you know, compute, linux is fine. The consumer doesn’t need a computer. They need a media delivery device.
One major problem with trying to get Linux converts is the confusion from the various ‘distros’. There are some 2 dozen to select from.
Most general users are not that interested in delving into all of the various flavors of Linux. Windows is bad enough with 3 or 4 different versions at each release.
Half-a-decade ago I tried out several versions of Linux distros. Some would not recognize the widescreen monitor. Some would not recognize the PC-TV card. Some would not recognize the printer. I lost enough software and hardware switching from Win98 to XP and again from XP to Win7.
I play with Linux. I use Windows.
When I traveled a lot, I did use Puppy on my personal laptop since it booted so quickly. Now the personal laptop stays at home (traveling with two laptops wasn’t fun) and I use a tablet for my personal travel device.
Just a "Yet another conspiracy theory!"
Linux already dominates the server market. It gives us back end developers what we want. It has no serious competition.
If you used windows XP ,try Lubuntu ,very little difference between the 2 ,well Lubuntu is 10 times faster and all the software is FREE and when Lubuntu updates it updates all software installed when windows just updates itself .Download the ISO of Lubuntu ,burn it to a CD/DVD and boot computer from it to try it out ,it will not install it unless you pick install
Distrowatch.com for all your Linux needs . Youtube also has TONS of reviews of all linux OS and it will also show you how to use if you get confused D’oh
“the majority of people aren’t and aren’t really interested in in having to spend a great deal of time re-programing a niche system so that it will run the software they need.”
What software are you referring to? I have been running Ubuntu on a 10 year old laptop for several years and it has all the software one could possibly want. Plus, I don’t need to search the internet to find drivers for any device I can plug into it, try that with windows. Under Linux, plug it in and it works, no drama.
The average home user wouldn't even know what Linux is, much less know about any lawsuits over it.
I have it running well on a dog of an Atom processor Netbook with 1 gig of memory. YouTube would stutter on Windows Crippled (Starter). Smooth on Lubuntu.
Sums it up - when they get away from the need to use the command prompt to "tweak" things, they will have my full attention.
Ubuntu Linux works great on a desktop and on certain laptops, like Dell Latitude E6400. I agree: for most non-tech users it may be harder to use, but only because it’s not familiar and doesn’t have a commercial presence. The Linux operating system is superior to Windows.
In a word, No.
Linux is not a unified group working to a common goal. In my industry, manufacturing, software developers are not going to recompile or support different OSs. The computer ans OS is the least expensive part of the system I need and saving a couple hundred bucks for a free distro that no one supports is not practical. For consumers google, apple, and Microshaft have a huge foundation and hardware manufacturing. I don’t see any linux distros with the ability to compete, or the desire.
There are post on this thread and all kinds of post on Linx help sites of people looking for help with trying to get Linux devises, take a look around.
The only computer people who you can resonable compare Apple Connoisseurs are Linux geeks. And face it if you aren’t a member of one group or the other you don’t understand them at all. Reminds me of a guy I knew who went around buying up BataMax tapes, because he was sure that it would comeback because it was a superior system and product. ;-)
I work in the medical industry. We have a mixed shop with well over 1000 Windows servers and well over 700 Linux servers--if you count clusters as one server.
We standardized on Red Hat as they do support Linux--though we only need to call them (maybe) once per year. Our Linux servers perform better than the Windows servers. We have fewer people supporting the Linux servers for a few reasons--we can do more than the average Windows admin, and the Linux servers do not need as much maintenance as the average Windows server.
In our case, Linux is very practical.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.