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February 28, 2006
Linux on the desktop
Geeks are still banging on about Linux on the desktop.
Linux, in case you didn't know, is an operating system just like Windows, or MAC OSX. You can install it it on your PC instead of Windows. Why would you want to do that? Well the main answer is a simple "To annoy Microsoft". But also Linux is free. Linux is infintely modifiable. Linux makes you look much cleverer than your Windows using loser buddies.
I'm a big fan of Linux, don't get me wrong. I rent a couple of servers and Linux is where I host this blog for example. But it's not, and will probably never be ready for everyday use on normal people's desktops. The reason is drivers. I've got a modern desktop PC at home. I am of course a geek myself, and installed Linux on it. 4 hours later and I still couldn't get the sound card to work. The Dell monitor I have is also a USB hub, but Linux doesn't see it. My wireless USB network adaptor didn't even light up. I didn't even know where to start with my printer. And I'm supposed to be good at this stuff! Pity the poor housewife or plumber, with no computer training or time to tinker.
I reinstalled Windows, and it was playing me music before it had even finished the install. My monitor and printer came with driver CDs, and installed and were working properly in minutes. For most people, and this includes me, PCs are now a commodity tool. We just want them to work. We want to write documents and print them. We want to wirelessly browse the web. We want to, heaven forbid, buy a game or educational software for our kids. Linux makes this all very hard, and even impossible in some cases.
No, I'm happy for Linux to exist, but it's best on the server where security and reliability are king. When I talk to relatives who have managed to completely destroy their windows installations, the simple answer is a reinstall. They generally aren't that worried surprisingly about losing their data. They just want their web access back, and their games, and to be able to type new emails and letters. They do not want or need the pain of Linux - what's in it for them?
Their PCs come with Windows pre-installed with all the peripherals working or with simple CD install programs. They might not be getting the bleeding edge multi-threading nightly kernel patches Linux users crave, but they do actually get some work done instead of tinkering and fighting with the operating system.
Posted by se71 at February 28, 2006 09:23 AM
Comments
Which version of Linux were you trying to use? Your story doesn't sound typical to me. Last year I bought a new Dell PC and the first thing I did was to trash the Windows XP installation that it came with and install Linux (Fedora Core 4 to be precise).
And it all just worked. The wireless card worked, the soundcard worked, the monitor worked, the printer worked, my USB drives worked, my iRiver worked, my camera worked. It all just worked.
I'm not saying that there aren't problems with Linux on the desktop. But most problems I hear about these days are about specific applications not working. Some people want MSN Messenger rather than Gaim. Or Photoshop rather than the GIMP. Or they need to use web sites that insist on Internet Explorer.
I've been using Linux on the desktop for seven or eight years and for the last three years I've been using it exclusively on all my home machines. Your story sounded familiar. But it sounded like problems I had five years ago. I'm surprised to hear you still having them with a modern Linux distribution.
Posted by: Dave Cross ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://se71.org/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 28, 2006 10:25 AM
I was as surprised as you that it didn't work, after assurances that Linux was finally ready. I've been struggling with this for at least 7 or 8 years.
The PC is a Shuttle Zen ST62K
The OSs I tried were RedHat9 and Fedora Core 1 (or maybe 3, it was about this time last year)
I spent a lot of time messing with ALSA to try and get the sound going. I failed. I wanted this PC as an MP3 and DVD player for my living room amongst other things (it's really quiet), so I had to give up.
The point I maybe missed was that when things go wrong on Linux, or when hardware doesn't work, it's incredibly hard to fix without some tecnhical knowledge. Simply double-clicking on a new driver installation program is not an option. Manually editing config files, or copying files manually into some path in the /etc/.. tree, is hard. And users should not have to go into the terminal application, ever.
I think Gaim, Gimp and Openoffice are fine. I use Firefox exclusively on my Windows laptop and the only site I've had problems with recently has been a local estate agents. Even my bank works. It's not the software for me, it's the problems with drivers and hardware support. Every single piece of hardware you buy will have a Windows driver - can you say that for Linux?
I still have Linux on a partition on my PC, and even booted it on Sunday to have a look. Then I realised I had no chance of getting online without a very long network cable to my router upstairs, so went back to Windows.
Posted by: se71 at February 28, 2006 11:19 AM
Ok, well you can't really expect RH9 of FC3 to contain drivers for all of your most recent hardware. If you can get an internet connection then you can run "yum update" to get the most up to date kernel and drivers, but that still might not solve all of your problems.
If you ever feel like trying the experiment again then try it with the most up to date distribution that you can get. I'm sure you'll see a difference. I have no problems with FC4, but I've heard people get very excited about what Ubuntu can achieve.
Posted by: Dave Cross at February 28, 2006 12:12 PM
'yum update' - never heard of it. Why isn't it a default clickable icon on the Linux desktop? I've heard of ubuntu though, it's next on my list of distros to try.
I'll have another go soon probably, as my company year end is coming up, and I haven't bought any hardware this year :-)
Thanks for the advice, I've not completely given up.
Posted by: se71 at February 28, 2006 05:12 PM
"I feel your pain". I abandoned Linux on the desktop for the same reasons. Sound didn't work reliably, getting even a graphical desktop up was a pain, and forget about ever playing videos or having the laptop do crazy things like go to sleep when I close it and wake up when I open it. Nor was USB and Firewire supported at all well. In the end I realised that I'd spent so much time trying to get the basics working that I'd be better off buying a Mac, where everything Just Works. So I did, and I've not looked back. These days I still use Linux for a couple of my servers, but I have one Mac server, and I'm about to migrate everything from one of my Linux servers onto a Mac too.
Posted by: DrHyde at March 2, 2006 11:21 AM
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