The question : “Is Linux Finally Ready For Desktops?” can be answered by two simpler questions:
1) Is Linux easy enough that my Grandmother use it?
2) Can I replace every single windows program with a Linux program or run it under wine or a similar, compatible program?
After many years of using multiple Linux distributions from Slackware to Red hat, Mandrake (Mandriva) to K/Ubuntu, DSL to Fedora, I have never been satisfied with any Linux distribution for day to day usage. Not there was anything wrong with most of them. but none were good enough to replace my windows system as a primary OS. Slackware’s package system sucked (even though it is one of the fastest, most modular distributions, even if it isn’t up to date – Slackware 11 still uses a 2.4.33.3 kernel by default), and Red hat and Mandriva, well, I just don’t like them enough for daily use. Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) came the closest, until I tried to upgrade to edgy, and my whole Linux system got FUBARed. K/Ubuntu edgy was unstable to say the least.
Ubuntu 7.04 however, is a different story.
It’s as stable as Ubuntu 6.06, fast, hasn’t crashed on me (except for one time, see below), comes with a migration tool built into the installer, and is easier to install than it predecessors. The new version comes with KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) extensions and Compiz built in, and is easier to use. It has an updated version of Open Office, and the package manager is even smoother than before.
So why do I still have a windows partition?
1. One reason is games. wine and Cedega just don’t cut it. Seriously. Cedega works for a lot of games, but not all of them, and requires a reinstall of all the games that do work.
Attempting to run Supreme Commander caused my system to hang, and I had to reboot.
I was able to get Red Alert 2 working, but you have to replace the games .exe file to a cracked version for it to work, otherwise all units blow up after 30 seconds (and I have the original discs in the drives, so it’s kind of annoying) but it’s still better than it was a few years ago.
Running Cedega with effects (Compiz/beryl) enabled also causes the performance to be unbearably slow. Granted, I wouldn’t call my system cutting edge, but considering the fact that the cursor is locked in the Cedega window when running a program, so no effects are being rendered, I would have expected a smaller performance loss
2. The migration tool is good, but it isn’t good enough. My documents weren’t moved over, and neither were my emails and e-mail settings (Thunderbird 1.5) and bookmarks, skins and extensions (Firefox 2.0).
In all fairness, writing a Linux migration tool that ignores open source products but copies setting from Microsoft ones, seems kind of dumb to me. I had to copy over my profiles manually, and edit the profiles.ini file. It’s not too difficult, but I wouldn’t expect or require a novice user to do.
3. NTFS is automatically set to read only, and cannot be changed, no matter what I tried (unlike 6.06 where I could r/w to any NTFS partition thus making my life much easier)
4. Another problem is that support for many formats (video and audio codecs like mp3 and mpeg4, and compression formats like RAR) aren’t installed automatically with the system. Although i can understand the reason why Caonical don’t install non FOSS automatically (i.e just open source or freeware), as :
Canonical’s mission is to realize the potential of free software in the lives of individuals and organizations.
but making the system easier to use buy automatically installing the codecs will do just that, by making it accessible to more users.
5. The last thing that I think holds potential users back is mucking around in the CLI (terminal). for some reason (in my opinion it’s because of Hollywood “Hacker” movies) some novice users think that opening a terminal and typing a command (say ping 127.0.0.1) or a few random letters can cause you computer to fry, global warming to accelerate, rabid monkeys and nuclear waste to rain out of the sky and Satan rising from hell to enslave humanity.
OK, so maybe I’ve exaggerated just a teeny tiny bit ;), but users who have used a GUI for most of their compute experience are very uncomfortable when faced with a command line. It confuses them and scares them away. True, running nohup cd /; rm -rf * > /dev/null 2>&1 & as a superuser (and then pressing ctrl+d) will completely erase any and every file you have your harddrive. But most users never rarely work as su, and the chance of ever doing something like this accidentally are 1 to a bazillion
In summary
1) Can my Grandmother use Linux?
The answer is yes. Ubuntu is simple, easy to use, stable, and it looks good. As for regular office work, multimedia and internet browsing it is, in my opinion, easier to use than windows. Installation of software via the add/remove program is excellent.
2) Can I replace every single windows program with a Linux program or run it under wine or a similar, compatible program?
Definitely not. Photoshop, games, and other tools can’t run without a decent amount of tinkering and/or products from Codeweavers/Transgameing. and even when they do they still need workarounds most of the time. a easy to use Gui for wine on Ubuntu, with a wizard for importation of native dll files from a (legal) windows CD or partition, would definitely help.
So, keep your windows partition if you play games. If you need to run windows programs dual-boot or, if you have a multicore PC, with Virtualization extensions try a VM.
Good post with little fluff and I enjoyed reading a straight, matter of fact, evaluation of your linux experiences. I’ve been using Xandros Business Edition 3.0 and now using Xandros Professional 4 . There are many versions and it seems like they all have some issues in common that make them all a little less complete than we’d like them. My biggest problem with Windows is the way they have forced me to verify, activate and reactivate there software. It’s gotten too much to deal with and I think MS should stop and find another way of doing all of it. If one pays for the legal rights to use their software, they shouldn’t be forced to prove it’s theirs especially when it’s done on my time, at my expense. Sorry, but these issues have forced me to other OS’s which makes me say MS is MS’s worst enemy.
I dissagree… my grandmother could not use ubuntu….just FYI, I have ubuntu 7 on my desktop… and there is no way my grandmother could figure out how to install software on it.
Good article, very true about games. Although I find for what I do gimp and inkscape are plenty. The only thing for me is games. So on my laptop where I don’t really play games (aside from some frozen bubble and stud poker) I only have Ubuntu, on my Desktop though I have sunk to using both.
Could my grandmother use Ubuntu, quite possibly, my Mother in law uses it occasionally and loves the differences.
intrepi, IMHO, as you said, the hassle of microsoft’s activation and anti copyright mechanisms and the treatment of Joe consumer as a criminal or thief is one of the reasons that people are driven to switch to Linux or other operating systems.
David, I disagree. I think that with a easy to use guide to Ubuntu, like the windows tutorial/tour, it should be accessible enough. that is of course if mediabuntu and universe repositorys are enabled, and the same with file formats like rar and codecs. and i don’t expect grandma to open up a terminal and to apt-get programs, im talking about useing synaptic as seen as add/remove programs :)
Morgan, the gimp imho is great, but most people are used to working with or are trained in working with Photoshop. with that said, if moving from Photoshop to gimp you might want to try http://plasticbugs.com/?p=241
I have now migrated all my home machines to Suse 10.2 and Mandriva (I will settle on one or the other soon).
The next step is for Lexmark, Cannon, and HP to get of their lazy backsides and produce full-featured drivers for printers. It is a disgrace that printer manufacturers can tell you what OS to use!
Hi Bob,
i agree, lack of support from hardware manufacturers is a major thorn in Linux’s backside. I do however know that there is a FOSS system for HP printers on Linux. also may printers are supported by CUPS.
Another thing that you should keep in mind is that may printers are made generically.
we have a xerox work center PE 16 (unsupported by CUPS, or any driver from xerox) but, it turned out that it is identical to a a Samsung printer.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050912064001292
in the above link it is used on a mac running osx, but the same goes for linux. and the printer is being sold under the Xerox, Samsung and Lexmark names.
so google for your printer models nubers + linux+drivers and hope for the best. i have never had any problems with a hp 840c but it is natively supported by CUPS.
hope this helps :)
Oh yeah the Gimp is great, but it does come back to IBM’s baby duck syndrome. This is really what is holding back Linux. People have gotten so used to windows crashing and vulnerabilities and what-not they don’t think of an alternative.
Take a room full of people who have never touched a computer, and give half windows and half linux, teach them individually how to use it for 6months, then force them to switch, I guarantee all of them will complain.
see: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cranky50.html
Morgan: This is not necessarily true. I started out with Windows 95 when it first came out. From there I used Windows until not long after Beta versions of Vista were released. In that time I have come to the point where I can truthfully say I find Linux to be far easier to use than Windows.
Especially in printing.. generally when printing on Windows I cross my fingers and hope the computer doesn’t blow up..
As Elad says, some HP printers are supported by generic facilities and packages.
But only to the default resolution of ghostscript, probably 600 or 1200 dpi. I have an HP inkjet whose windows driver generates 9600×4800 dpi, ReT, and photo-quality printing. Despite HP’s own linux page describing support for this printer as “complete” it is only at 1200dpi.
Printers are sold on these enhanced features, and to do so only for one OS is at best lazy and at worst deceitful.
I still think that moving away from PDLs and putting all the smarts in the desktop computer was a way of printer manufactures selling you something you already own. If we had postscript 4 or PCL 12 (or something) in every printer by now they would be OS agnostic and it wouldn’t matter.