Posted on 07/12/2018 6:56:39 AM PDT by ShadowAce
First, I want to be absolutely clear about something. I have been a full time Linux on the desktop user for well over a decade. It has been and will always be my preferred platform for desktop and server usage. It does just what I need and I appreciate that.
All of that said however, the "masses" haven't gravitated towards Linux for their desktop usage like I had hoped. In this article, I'm going to explore the reasons why I think this has happened.
1) Linux isn't pre-installed - No matter how much we may debate it, having Windows pre-installed on PCs means that's what people are likely to end up using. In order for someone to move over to Linux on the desktop, there must be a clear reason to do so. There is the problem. The only time I've personally seen users make the switch over to Linux from Windows comes down to frustration with Windows or a desire to advance their skills into an IT field.
My own Linux story, for example, was a mixture of the two examples above. First off, I was just done with Windows. I had already been dabbling with Linux at the time I completely switched, but I become disenfranchised with the Microsoft way of doing things. So for me, the switch to Linux was based out of frustration.
Had I not experienced any frustrations with Windows, I might not have ever thought to jump ship over to an alternative. Even when I built my own PCs myself, the OS offered at computer stores was Windows only. This is a huge hurdle for Linux adoption on the desktop.
2) Linux freedom vs convenience - It's been my experience that people expect a user experience that's consistent and convenience. How one defines this depends on the individual user. For some, it's a matter of familiarity or perceived dependability. For more advanced PC users, a consistent convenience may mean a preferred workflow or specific applications.
The greater takeaway is that when people are aware of other operating systems, they will usually stick with that they've used the longest. This presents a problem when getting people to try Linux. When using a desktop platform for a long time, you develop habits and expectations that don't lend themselves well to change.
3) Linux lacks legacy software - Expanding on the idea of convenience, another challenge is enticing those who have legacy applications only found on Windows. Even if we consider suggesting Linux-specific software alternatives, we're expecting users to change existing workflows. I've found most people to be resistant to this. Not because one type of application is better or worse than another. After all, this is a matter of personal perspective. No, the real issue is that users have existing workflows, file types and overall application expectations. Switching away from this doesn't always go all that well.
4) Linux networking isn't for the faint of heart - Networking in Linux is reliable, however, it's reliant on understanding the differences between Windows and Linux networking. In Linux, both Samba and NFS file sharing is conf file based. And while it's not difficult to learn, it's not going to be as straightforward as you might find with Windows.
On the flip side, connecting to the network itself is incredibly simple. Wired or wireless, modern Linux distros handle connecting to a network in a seamless manner. But it's unfortunate that even with the most newbie friendly distros, you need to drop to a command prompt to create a Samba password or edit a conf file for an NFS share.
5) Linux video card support is tricky - From a basic perspective, graphics card support works just fine in Linux. However, things become a bit muddled when you bundle in Wayland vs X. Two different display server options mean different benefits and downsides when choosing one vs another. Some distros use Wayland as the default, which means some X reliant applications won't work.
Then there are the laptops with shared graphics. Laptops with NVIDIA/Intel graphics tend to be the biggest challenges with some Linux distros. I've found this to be one of the most common issues facing newer Linux users. Granted, graphics switching has gotten a lot better over the years. But it's still distro dependent and sometimes upgrades can throw new issues into the mix.
Last, there is the issue of choosing the right driver type. In some distros, a FoSS friendly driver is set by default. But in other distros, a proprietary option is the default. On the surface this doesn't seem like an issue, but it does add to some confusion.
6) Linux PulseAudio sound server is confusing - Linux audio is actually pretty good. However, the PulseAudio sound server sitting on top of the audio architecture is out of touch and out of sync. The fact that I can adjust the volume with PulseAudio yet if the sound device is muted in alsamixer it must be dealt with at the alsamixer level blows my mind. If you're going to layer a sound server on top of ALSA, make darn sure it syncs up its adjustments between sound server and architecture.
Making matters worse is the fact that most popular desktop environments don't fully take advantage of what PulseAudio has to offer. Most desktops lack Recording and Playback tabs in the volume control settings. When you launch a Hangouts session or play music, you might wish to route said audio to different playback devices. With most distros, this requires you to use padevchooser.
7) Linux lacks triple A gaming titles - Linux gaming has come a long way. Thanks to Valve, GoG.com and others, Linux gaming has evolved tremendously in recent years. The title availability and desire from developers to include Linux in their operating support has been fantastic. That said, there is still a lot of improvement to be had with Linux gaming.
I'm not sure what the solution is to get more game developers on board with porting games to Linux, but for now I think we'll have to continue voting with our wallets. Sadly, I continue to see Linux users justifying their "need" for Windows games and thus, dual-booting their operating systems. This is a cop out and frustrates me more than anything. No one needs Windows gaming, it's a choice, not a requirement for sustaining life.
8) Linux desktop environments - As much as I love the choice presented with Linux on the desktop, I can understand how some people might feel overwhelmed. It can be challenging to select a specific distro based on a desktop environment. So being able to choose and discover new desktop environments is exciting. It can absolutely be confusing for some newcomers.
The reason for this is most people are coming from the limited world of Windows or OS X. You have a release and that's what you get. There is no choice, unless you wish to use an older release of those proprietary OS'.
9) Linux distros vary in quality - Most popular Linux distros are fantastic. Unfortunately there are distros that are less than fantastic. Some of them are downright bad. Without labeling some and leaving out others, suffice it to say that it's not enough to merely choose a distro based on popularity.
My advice is to look at distros with a strong backing. Whether or not this is a strong community backing or corporate backing depends on what you're looking for.
10) Linux is overshadowed by ChromeOS - ChromeOS is an incredibly limited OS yet has gained in popularity thanks to cheap, easy to use laptops and its deep integration into Google services. Sadly, printing and scanning remains a joke with this OS. Yes, it's doable...but not without jumping through hoops. Despite this, ChromeOS is based on Gentoo Linux and perhaps this is as close Linux will get to being a mainstream desktop OS.
Windows 10 is pre-loaded on a machine. The configuring is part of the install.
We have truly *pre-installed* Unix VM’s. All you do it bring them up and start working. You don’t have to do anything to make them work.
“Big software makers won’t write software for an architecture that changes on a frequent basis with no standards.”
I agree. Until they do, Linux is useless to me.
No one needs Windows gaming, it’s a choice, not a requirement for sustaining life.
Problem with Linux is that the rules of open source dictate that standards cannot be made and enforced. IOW, those standards, are not going to happen.
Android is an example of what happens when a company picks up Linux and does enforce standards. That turned out rather well, but Android OS doesn’t have every random programmer who had an idea pop into his brain able to change the OS with his own updates.
Linux is just too fragmented to be used in a desktop OS capacity. As a server, some of the enterprise products like Red Hat are pretty slick...but you’ll note that that is another situation where someone picked up Linux and enforced some standards.
Virtually every distribution of Linux pulls its’ baseline kernel source code from Redhat SE Linux which was sponsored and created and continues to be sponsored and supported by the National Security Agency.
I retired after 33 years in the IT business. I refused to work with Microsoft the entire time. I worked on every flavour of UNIX (including Linux). I retired at the age of 57.
Every shop that I worked in that used Microsoft on the back-end failed. The only people who used Microsoft on the Desktop were people who could accomplish their jobs with COTS ( Commercial off The Shelf) software that had little to no complexity. Every attempt to use Microsoft for projects of substance failed.
I could go on and on about the Governments POSIX mandate and its’ influence ( all bad ) on the course of the computer industry, but I won’t because opinions are like (A) holes. Everyone has one and they all stink. I’m gonna go stun my beeber, shoot a moose and check back in after I take a shower. ;)
Interesting point. I used to be a UNIX admin back in the day and always thought of the kernel as being the OS. For a while all we had was the command line interface. Then we got Motif and Xwindows. I never considered that as part of the OS. I always just thought of that as a GUI to the OS.
Windows seems to have clouded all this. By calling their Windows system as OS they expanded the definition of OS. Now it was no longer just about supporting the basic operations and maintenance of the computer. Now the OS included all of the interfaces to the peripherals and to the user. I believe they even put File Explorer at the core of their OS even though that's really just a GUI file picking tool. Then they were even going to put Internet Explorer at the core of their OS. Thank heavens they were prevented from doing that or the hackers would be ruling the world as we speak.
You say kernel, I say OS. You say OS, I say OS plus GUI.
Maybe it would have worked out better for everyone if each computer came pre-installed with and optimized OS (you say kernel) and customers chose their own preferred GUI.
Oh wait GUI was UI and is now UE.
I can't keep up.
I suppose I wrote the post in a confusing way that allowed it to be misinterpreted. The laptop has no difficulties running Windows and performs very well in every way. I have been running computers with Radeon Graphics cards for nearly 20 years and have never felt that they have “poor driver support and second rate hardware”. If they did I assume that this line of products would not have survived for as long as they have.
Many Radeon products do have Linux support, but no one that I am aware of has managed to get Linux builds fully functional on my newest laptop. At some point someone probably will. I would actually be happy to set up a fully functional Windows 7 build dual booting on it.
I misunderstood then.
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I agree with you that in general NVidia video cards have better support than Radeon. This applies to both gaming and the 3-D design applications that I use. As an example... if you look over the following chart less than half of the ATI cards listed are supported by autodesk software but nearly all of the NVidia cards are supported: http://download.autodesk.com/us/revit/revit_graphics_hardware_-_graphics_hardware_list_final.html
I forgot to mention that the “customers” are lazy. And kind of stupid, too.
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