Linux Users: Why So Serious?
Despite coming from a very rich and early history, linux OS consumer market share is less than 1% [1,2]; and the community more divided than ever. What are we doing wrong?
I think linux users as a community are not as helpful as everyone would like you to believe. We scare new linux adopters, and scoff at any suggestions that might seem “window-like”.
So what if I don’t explicitly mention that “linux” is actually a kernel?
I should rather call it GNU/Linux.
We should only use open-source software.
Propriety software are bad.
Don’t customize your desktop manager to look like Vista or OSX. If you do, you are an idiot.
You use Ubuntu, you must be newbie.
X window manager is better than Y window manager, KDE looks like windows; you should rather use windows.
We must acknowledge that linux has its fair share of problems; and must help the cross-over windows users experience to be as easy as possible. A linux user experience needs to be more than just security. Mark Shuttleworth recently stated that he wants “to make a concerted effort not just to catch Apple but to overtake the company in the quality of the desktop experience they deliver users.” This is not an impossible goal but the right direction linux should be heading towards. We should make the linux desktop user experience attractive enough for users to consider using linux. Microsoft is on the defensive with the many problems with vista and it’s previous versions of windows. While apple, despite being a very expensive computer system, gaining market share at the expense of Microsoft’s misfortune; Linux community failed to take advantage of the situation. ZDnet blog author Jeremy Allison made a very good argument last week, when he said: Linux Needs More Haters. To quote one of his sentence, “In the long run, we all need to become LinuxHaters in order to give our favorite software the tough love it needs to become as popular as I think it deserves to be.”
I couldn’t agree more. I think most linux users are too serious. Please discuss.
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I don’t think the problem lies within the community. You’re always going to have a fringe element that worry whether or not it should be called GNU/Linux or just Linux, bicker about desktop environments, if desktop effects(compiz) are of any value, whatever.
I read the article you linked to and to be honest, I don’t even know what Mark Shuttleworth is talking about in regards to Apple. There are a few reasons why I think there is a perception that Linux in general falls down compared to Apple and even Microsoft:
-Computers are appliances. To you and me, they’re a tool with almost limitless uses. To 98% of your consumer computer users(here on out referred to just as users) out there they’re appliances that are turned on, some work done, and then turned off. They’re microwaves with youtube and email.
-Accessibility is an issue. And by that I mean if you buy and Apple, you get OSX. If you buy anything else, you get Windows. That’s pretty much the standard even taking into account recent deals between Novell/Ubuntu and PC manufacturers. Users don’t understand the concept of an operating system, live CDs, or dual booting. And for the most part, they don’t even care about the OS.
-Users don’t care about the details such as licenses. It’s the larger issues that matter to them. Can I get my email? Can I get onto the internet? Can I use itunes? Can I take my word documents home with me and work on them? Until they can’t do those things, or something else which Linux can provide over the competitor, there’s no real reason to change systems. When it comes time to get new hardware, the user is back at the point above where they have a choice of Apple(OSX) or PC(Windows).
From a personal view, I believe Linux is very competitive with Apple and Windows on the desktop. Technical reasons, aside from maybe package management, are not why Linux trips up in the race with Apple and Microsoft. Accessibility to Linux, forced accessibility really, is where the separation is. Relationships with hardware manufacturers are a great start and must continue to occur and be strengthened. I believe getting Linux into the hands of every days users is the key for market growth. Desktop Linux is progressing just fine from a technical aspect; consumer uptake is something that companies who want to sell Linux or Linux services need to make happen.
For linux to grow more popular in the market software and gaming companies have to start developing applications for linux for users to be more attracted. I know people are interested in using ubuntu but when they ask me “Can I play this game?” “Can i run illustrator?” right away they get turned off and don’t won’t to bother with linux!
Also when a customer or user goes to futureshop or circuit city or best buy the only options they have is windows or mac. Recently I just heard ubuntu being sold in some best buy stores so we will see how that will start.
Basically linux is a very stable and light system but it lacks the applications.
Is there really anything wrong with Linux at all?
I will concede to Steve’s point that we need more effort in the
bridging of MS software on Linux. More effort should be put into
Wine to support that crossover better. It would help the overall
cause.
Only 1%? Thats doing pretty good. Look since 1991 to about
2003-04 all the development eyeballs have been on the server
environment. Linux was the realm of the back end. If you
wanted to use Linux as a desktop you were in uber geek territory
up until 2000. Somewhere around 2003 there were more
developer eyeballs on the desktop than server. That is an
important shift. So if you mark 2003 as the beginning mark for
Linux on the desktop we’ve been at it 5 years.
Now look at Apple and MS. To get to the market shares they
possess today they have been at it 25+ years. They got to where
they are by sheer dent of effort over a long period of time. And
we complain since we have only been at it 5 years. Patience
please!
One other observation. Think ASUS, Dell, HP. The eePC has
sparked a minor revolution in the sales of UMPCs. ASUS
estimates they will sell 5m units this year worldwide. All of them
running Linux! The UMPC market is estimated at 15m units. It
is expected that the majority of them will run Linux. That
ladies and gentlemen is mind boggling number for Linux. I would
go so far as to say that 2008 will see more Linux installed on
a single class of systems that has been installed since it was
conceived back in 1991!
Be patient. Microsoft was not built in a day. Neither will the
dominance of Linux.
i agree that to too many people, a computer is an appliance. But buying an ‘appliance’ with Linux preloaded will, for lack of a better term, ‘force’ the users to try Linux; once comfortable they will likely consider it when purchasing new hardware.
As ‘computer people’ part of our job is to get people to think about how to do a TASK (email, making images) rather than reliance on one single APPLICATION (Outlook, Illustrator). People used to understand this concept, and if we want computing to move forward at all, they need to do so again.
Page hit whore.
Make sweeping generalizations and watch the sheeple flock on over.
1/3 of black men 18-35 are in jail or in the system.
Therefore all black men are criminals. Discuss.
I met 3-4 developers at a conference in europe who are into the wife-swapping seen. Therefore all Linux developers are perverts.
I dont even know what this Linux community is that you talk about. People who work on the kernel have usually no contact with people who work on KDEgames, yet somehow they are bundled together.
its more like many communities working together.
Btw, one of the projects I work on gathers about a dozen developers wholive within 2hrs of each other to do a bugfest while others join us online.
We spent 48 hours writing code, fix bugs, tell the dirtiest of jokes, throw shrimp and salmon on the grill, drink fine chardonnay and smoke cuban cigars and BC bud.
Are all linux developers like us?
How the F would I know?
Linux user serious?
My mom is a fun loving woman, so is my aunt, my dad has a great sense of humor as does my father in law. My EEE toting sisters in law are ok but not hilarious. My best man Daniel tells the funniest jokes and my neighbor Tonyalways has a nice smile and kind word.
All those people in my life use Linux.
They are fun loving people.
As is my uncle Max who is a standup comic (PClinuxOS user)
From my experience, Linux users are a fun loving bunch but that is a PERSONAL opinion. Ill skip the traditional comparisons to orifices that we all have.
Ian said most of the smart stuff so Ill just tack on a Me Too to it.
Who is Rob Enderle?
I have been a linux proponent and heavy user for 5+ years…home and office…the home situation for linux is a total non-issue anymore as any of the top distro’s ( Ubuntu, Suse, etc.) are all good enough to completely replace windows, other than a few specific areas, such as the need to be careful in peripheral selections such as scanners and the like.
At the office however ( I have completely switched to linux in a windows environment) the use of windows specific network programs, office copiers and print driver issues have plagued me and I suspect would cause some real issues to a less dedicated “typical” work computer user. It seems that almost all peripherals offer complete support for the Windows and Mac users, but finding any type of widespread linux support is just a complete hassle.
Until this situation changes, I see very little chance that Linux will achieve any sort of meaningful advances in the general marketplace. I don’t think it’s a matter of Linux users being too serious, on the contrary, I think most Linux users are very open about their support and enthusiasm for Linux as a just “plain better” operating system.
Talking about Linux readiness for the desktop… Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10 alpha) is finally getting fonts looking right! In other words, in the view of “world domination”, “technologically superior” and other religious BS, in practice Linux so far has been a joke on the desktop.
Recently the was some discussion going around the blogs about the (miserable, from my POV) state of application installation on Linux from a user perspective. It attracted so much scum of a Linux zealot sort, it made me really ashamed as a Linux user. And the sad thing is that most developers do not seem to be able to perceive any conceptual difference between an application as a user sees it , and a package.
I agree. There’s a substantial number who consider Linux was perfected in 1998 and any changes from that are heresy.
A lot of that is driven by the long-time developers, e.g. GIMP UI, Nautilus tabs, URL launching from Gedit, copy / paste shortcut in Terminal, etc. All these things are regularly criticised / changes requested but the devs didn’t listen. That’s slowly changing.
Fortunately, Shuttleworth appears to have more of a clue and recognises that e.g. Ubuntu needs to be competitive with OS X (and the best of Windows) - not other Linux flavours.
Nobody knows that for sure. And that’s just the Desktop. Linux has about a
20% share of the mobile market and 75% to 80% of the web server market.
Some estimates also have the Desktop market share at 4% to 7%. It’s just to
hard to nail down the Desktop due to the fact that the largest portion is self
installs on machines that came with other OS’s. My ONE download of Ubuntu
8.04 has installed just shy of 20 computers already. How does one account
for that? I believe the numbers on market share are badly skewed.
i think linux dosent sell much because they don’t sell much computers with linux preinstalled.
if i could buy a linux computer for pretty cheap i would do it.
There are only a few that seem “blunt”. Not everyone out there is a hater. You can’t be. I have used so many operating systems growing up and right now. Some are text some are not.. Most do the same thing.
Closed source is fine with me.I do enjoy a lot of the closed source stuff. I don’t hate anyone for closing the source. I am sure I am not the only one.
Open source is better but I can understand not getting source code for something that I didn’t write.
1% of however many computers is still a lot of users. We don’t have to be on everything. We just have to be there.
Message to nicksals: asus, dell, ibm, hp, everex, msi, (so many others) sell computers and laptops with linux installed. It will most likely cost you more because there isn’t any offset commercial ware installed (the trash software many oem’s install) but don’t worry… it will most likely not cost to much more.
I really wanted to switch to Linux… but what ultimately put me off was the difficulty I encountered installing and removing applications and plug-ins.
I really like this article. It’s exactly what i feel about this whole windows-linux issue.
I spent several hours tonight trying to get both Flash and Java working properly (both were crashing Firefox) under Ubuntu. It’s issues like that that need to be addressed. Particularly the fact that they both worked fine after the initial install then randomly stopped working.
Worst part yet, the fix was equally random to the point where I was having flashbacks to troubleshooting Windows 3.1.
Oh yeah, and the “purist” mentality has to go as well. So what if NVidia is releasing closed-source drivers? At least they’re releasing them.
Finally…it’s not so much more games are needed (frankly, one of the things that got me to make the switch was buying a PS3 which is a more powerful machine than every computer in my place put together) but more casual games. When Linux runs Bejeweled natively, it’ll be ready for my mother’s computer.
I started using linux about a year and a half ago and i found the community very helpful. I learned a lot from reading and posting on forums and these days i barely have any “problems” that i need external help with. The windows and osx bashing however is very prevalent but i don’t see exactly how thats a bad thing, if people want to learn to use linux which is different from and more complicated than windows and osx then they have to move on and understand the differences and benefits that go with the drawbacks.
There’s worse: FreeBSD users.
ive been using ubuntu for a few months, and I would use it exclusivley but I cant. A lot of the help that I look for and ask the community comes back in code that I have to write in a terminal. I am no coder, and I hated remembering all my old ODS commands back in the day. If Linux was more user friendly (ie, I dont need to CODE to get what I need done)
I get a lot of flack from the Linux community for suggesting a more user friendly OS. Why does it have to be so elitist.
oops… thats “DOS” not ODS. :( I hate to code because my spelling is so bad that it takes me a few goes. :P
Listen dude… the linux “community” is a hell of a lot more likely to listen to anything you have to say if you learn to spell and use correct grammar.
For example:
You’re crazy.
Your pants are around your ankles.
We’re angry.
Were they covered in bacon?
Where are the steaks?
People are just comfortable with what they are familiar with. I’m primarily a Windows XP user (I “upgraded” back from XP) but I also own a Mac. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a Linux computer to try out, but learning the Mac lingo was hard enough for a lifelong Microsoft Whore like myself.
If it didn’t suck up system resources like crazy and lock up so frequently, I’d be perfectly happy with Windows and in order for me to switch to something else, I want to be able to relate to my Windows knowledge.
I’m a bit apprehensive about Linux for just the reasons mentioned above… it’s more complicated and completely different from Windows. Looking at the lingo just to get started, it looks like I’d pretty much have to relearn how to use a computer again.
Most professionals don’t have time to do that.
And when people in the forums pretty much insult you for asking how to do the Windows or OSX equivalent of something, it’s a HUGE turnoff because that’s how people approach things that are new… in terms of what they already know and have experienced.
The Linux community has long been against mass adoption of the O.S. Many of them are too busy looking down on Windows users to bother making the changes that are necessary to really compete in the Desktop O.S. market.
If you want the masses to adopt Linux as an O.S. Then give us point and click GUI’s. We don’t want to ever “have” to see a command line terminal if we don’t want to.
Give us stylish looks. Don’t stick us with butt ugly applications.
Don’t try to convince us that Linux is just so fantastic that it “just works” (it does, right up until your wireless card isn’t recognized, or there are issues with the video drivers. Then good-luck to the average computer user getting that fixed).
I don’t have anything against Linux its just that every person I have ever spoken to that is a Linux fan has been so arrogant and talked down every OS that isn’t Linux (quite frankly I’ve wanted to break their faces with how ridiculous they have been).
Obviously everyone isn’t like that but it has put me off considering it seriously because I just don’t want anything to do with people like that.
Having lots of desktops and distributions to choose from is pretty cool, I think.
It is not a problem to spell badly. (I do and that is because I am not English). Users use whats on the computer. If Linux comes on it, Linux is used. But after using linux on servers for 8 years. Going to the desktop was not easy. Things that comes easy on Windows is hard on Linux. But hard things in Windows, comes easy on Linux. What I meen is : if you try to use a SD card in Ubuntu, it is mounted read-only. If you find out what software to use to edit videos (LIVES or kino), you have to make IEE 1394 to work. And that is not easy. You have to go to the internet to find out what software to use. Often the software is in the distro, but it is old.
Since software is developing fast under Linux, it is younger than Windows in terms of desktop users, and developers are coming every day, new versions of software comes out more often than the distro.
and with all the pcakge formats out there, developers distribute software in tar.gz, and you must compile it your self, adding a menu item and so on.
I do not think that the abow is wrong. This is the way it is done in Linux.
If it is changed things will be more user friendly.
But do Linux distro developers want that? Do they want Linux on the desktop? Or is it more important to be a Linux user?
For some very clever people it is more important to make the “best OS out-there” than to make something that really works well. And it is more important to force freedom and openness than atract big development
organizations like Adobe and Pinnacle to the table. They will come when the user base grows. It is difficult to support so many package formats and distros, so the important thing wold be to select one or relase binaries and let the distros package them. some will work with colsed source others wont. should things be open or not? I think freedom is to decide for my self. If I want to share it I will, but if I don’t want to, I do not share it. For a normal user, it is not important at all. For a user
it is important if it is possible to do things, or not. If it works or not.
When you say no to a closed drier, and no open driver exists, then you say that it is not important for me that this hardware works. When an open driver exists it will work.
A lot of work goes into creating support for Linux, and users do not need to find cd’s and run installers to get things to work. But to get more basic things to work requires nolage about things normal users don’t care about. The community is split and when you split, someone can concore.
If Linux distros mean business , unite in packaging. Bring your forces together and create more. two tribes will be created, all open and free.
The other will take everything offered, closed or open. When better software than the closed becomes available, it will replace closed anyway.
should Microsoft and Apple split the market? I say yes,
Microsoft makes an OS, Apple does the same, you can package and
release your programs how you do it is your problem. If it is to hard for the end user to get it up and running. They wont use it.
go ahead and flame me, I don’t care. Bad language or not.
What I say is my own experience adn lake everyone elase I think what I
tink and I now I am right :)
this articles is :
blah blah blah blah blah, nothing new, nothing useless, just nothing, don’t worth to be written , to be read , to be commented (what do i am commenting it ?)
@KB, not all of us are elitist zealots. In fact I’d argue that a majority of us are pretty much OS agnostic. Or at least thats been my experience.
But that is the price we all pay I guess. I get a good sense that one of the biggest draws to Linux is most of us have already mastered Windows and it’s problems, and we need a new challenge, a new playground. That lends it’s self to an inflated sense of worth I think(for some). However for a self proclaimed “nerd” like me, it’s been a boon. I get to tinker with some really cool stuff at no cost to me(barring time). I have a dizzying array of software choices to try out and experiment with. I really have almost zero security worries aside from the ssh scripters out there(which is easy to stop).
Having said all that, I could make a laundry list of things I hate about it as an os. Wireless support, Xorg, package managers(all of them), etc.
Things should “just work” %100 of the time if we want to attract average users, you know, the ones that need a few simple directions without the hand holding.
A final note, not long ago I was discussing software licenses with my father and the GPL came up. I’m not sure where he got his information from but the gist was that somehow using GPL’d software meant you could only use GPL software and you’d be forever locked out of choosing anything else. Personally, I’m convinced his companies brilliant programmers relayed this to him. The same one’s who chose IE and activeX to interface with a $100K piece of equipment, which happens to be vital to ensuring your next flight to anywhere doesn’t land wheels up and upside down.
Well thats all then
There are fanboi’s everywhere. I’m sure you’d get the same if you asked questions about linux in a windows forum. Not that fanboyism is excusable, but it’s certainly predictable. Clever Trolls like Mr Enderle however, should be outed.
Personally I think we’d do better if we explained things to new adoptees in terms they understood, (namely windows) and had simple interfaces for complex programs. I think we need to ease new users into Linux, and the command line, and they themselves need to have more patience. There’s a good thread about not rewarding bad behaviour, “help me or I’m re-installing windows” on the ubuntu forums. Well worth a read.
That said I’m certain that if Ubuntu does ever overtake Apple in terms of user experience we’ll have people flocking to our door.
As for n00bs using ubuntu, I’ve been a UNIX administrator (Solaris) for the better part of 10 years, I use ubuntu. Why? Because for the most part, “it just works” regardless of what you put it on. Sure X could be more friendly, and wifi could use better support, but I’ve never had it fail on me yet.
I don’t think we can coerce people into using Linux, we just have to show them it’s better. Which is why I recommend that if you want to spur adoption, offer to install it for somebody, do it well. Make sure it replaces existing functionality, and then show them what’s changed. You’ll find you’ll get far less complaints that way.
I would never say that the linux community is not helpful…I recently battled with a wireless problem as a new linux user and all that I got was help and suggestions from ubuntuforums.org. If linux is to overtake Apple and Windows, it needs to streamline the installation process, drivers need to be made specifically for it to support our hardware, software needs to be compatible with it, and finally games need to run on it (I’m a gamer myself so I dual-boot…at the moment.
Not happy to learn that : I’m bad (using proprietary drivers), I’m a idiot (got a OSX like desktop) and I’m newb (running Ubuntu) … :(
But I think that :
- the Linux community is friendly enougth to “help the cross-over windows users experience to be as easy as possible” (they did it 3 years ago with my fedora core)
- beryl, compiz and others “make the linux desktop user experience attractive”
To my mind, the main problem is that there is too many pre-install windows computers.
I’ve been a PC user since early 1990, and remember fondly with MS DOS 6.0 came out (with the ever exciting DoubleSpace). I hated Windows 95, but eventually conceded defeat, and am now pretty happy with XP and a much simpler, stuff-just-works OS.
Even still, every few months, I get an urge to go tinkering, and install the latest linux distro that fills my fancy. Usually, everything goes pretty well through the installation, and I’m pretty giddy about the first couple of hours, and swear that I’m done with XP. But then I hit a wall… Perhaps I want to install an application or try to setup my dual monitors. Before you know it, I’m awash in a bevy of forums and command prompts and text editors, and after four or five hours of futile effort, I give up, and forsake Linux and go back to something that works.
My point is this: if you want Linux to succeed, you have to make it easy to use. I’m not saying get rid of the complexity, because it’s the complexity that makes it great. But make it so that I can do what I want it to do, and make it easy enough that I don’t have beat my head against my keyboard.
I still think that Linux, and OSS in general, suffers from design issues. The software, as good a work as it often is, is often made entirely by programmers. Their needs and views how a software should work are often very different from coders to the average user. It’s basically two different mindsets colliding. I honestly think that, if more work and ideas went into usability and intuitiveness (i.e. interface design), things could get really going. And it’s o.k to get ideas from or imitate closed source, and eventually make it better.
I completely agree.
The biggest reason why I don’t use Linux as my main desktop is because there’s still too much that I can’t do w/o going to the command line.
And then you do a google search on some error message and you don’t find anything that makes any sense, except to the hardcore/developer type.
Meanwhile if I need to make a change in Windows, most of the time a right click will get me to an options menu to change that. Or if I get an error message, I run into pages upon pages of other users who get that same message in Windows.
The Linux community isn’t very friendly to new users for that reason, and having 20 different versions that are “popular” isn’t helping anything. It just amplifies one problem that windows is having right now: too many derivations.
Overall there needs to be 2 camps of Linux users, the newbies and the hardcore. And there needs to be a place for newbies to go so we don’t intermingle with the hardcore guys that would look down their nose at you and flame you for trying to installing closed source stuff on an old version of Fedora or Ubuntu
I’ve gotten the impression that most OSS authors want to keep distance from the end user. They seem to dismiss all feedback that doesn’t include patches or in depth code discussion. “If you’re not a developer of my skill level, why should I listen to you?”
I wonder if the OSS world just has a problem with elitism.
Lets put the things this way.
Every time i`ve asked a friend of mine something about linux i was always pushed around, laugh about my no knowledge and always send to read help manuals, witch not always work or not always is write carefully for newbies.
My answer is: You suck and that`s bad my friend.
Two things will ensure the growth of the Linux desktop over and above the current 3% we see in Europe.
(1) Popular applications are both available and easily installable (whether via the Add/Remove in something like Ubuntu or downloadable from the web)
(2) Major desktop computer vendors and retail outlets ship with Linux pre-installed.
In an ideal world (1) would be solved by either or both of these two outcomes:
(a) The Linux Standard Base will evolve such that Linux, as a generic target, is attractive and productive for *both* free and non-free/proprietary software developers. This is a good move forward.
(b) Free software out-competes core proprietary productivity suites and as such is taught in schools as ‘industry standard’ software.
This is highly unlikely for the time being. People and their businesses are simply not going to move overnight from various productivity and creative suites to free-software alternatives. It’s highly likely that free software will never offer quite what these folk need (think Pro-Tools, Final Cut Pro, Logic Audio, Adobe suite, MS Exchange, Quickbooks, AutoCAD). Nonetheless change needs to occur here at the level of education now. Why do we allow publically funded schools to soley teach students in the use of proprietary software, software they absolutely cannot afford in an effort to complete their studies legally?
The problem of (2) is being solved already at the hardware vendor end. With the lackluster interest in Vista and stiff competition from Apple, there’s a desperate need to innovate in the desktop space for generic PC’s. There are already signs that turning to Linux is a tenable solution to remain competitive.
All said I don’t care too much if just 1 in 100 people in the west use Linux on their desktops. That’s by far a large enough community to keep Linux on the desktop moving at a decent pace while ensuring software I use, software I’m dependent on, continues to develop.
I’ve used it for 10 years as my desktop: if there was a desktop OS that sucked less, I’d certainly use it. Based on what my needs are Linux is a super OS. I am honest enough to recognise that given what Linux currently offers, it simply doesn’t cater for a great deal of people.
Sometimes folk bring me their personal computers to fix. They usually have spyware or virus infections that have crippled their box. Most of these I have tried to convince to move to Linux. Telling them about extra security, stability, etc.. Most don’t care. Like the earlier posters, a computer to them is an appliance. It is a magic box that they use an hour to two per day. I like linux because it lets me make the decision about how everything on it works, and how it all looks. It isn’t an appliance to me. It’s a way of life. But most people i fix windows computers for have never even changed the background image. Where we computer geeks think about our computers all the time, most people don’t want to. If i needed to buy a hammer, i only need to know it can pound in a nail. I am not a carpenter. A carpenter would have a much more rigid set of rules for what makes a good hammer. I like the diversity of Linux distros. I don’t think that we need 200 of them. But two of my computers at home run Ubuntu, two run Arch. Linux is different because of our ability to change what we want.
I think the biggest step to making Linux more at home on the desktop is to get wireless drivers wrapped up. Who wants a laptop these days that does not give them the wireless mobility that they are used to ? Games would be second place. A hard core gamer does not think of his computer system as an appliance.
I do not think that the community is not friendly and what friends tells us about nolage says more of friends than the question. Linux or Ubuntu that I use still has a way to go before things gets nice. And not to complicated. I find the community to be helpful and friendly. But for those how never find the forums to ask help, it is a problem to solve your problems. If internet surfing and creation of documents email and chat is your needs, then I think Linux will work just fine, and be more stable, but
what next, people goes to a store to ask what to use, and the store will sell them something.
If you get “slapped” in a forum for asking a question, I guess it is the same as bad service in a shop. You go somewhere else, to get your
stuff. Linux does not have a store, yet. But I think it will soon, in Asia and in South America things happens every day.
One interesting thing with the eee type computers, is that the geeks buy XP and the nobles get Linux, Whay? Is it because the geeks knows that the XP box has better specs, and removes XP and loads linux? Or do the geeks now about all the cool free software also available for XP and
installs that? While the noble sees whats on the Linux model, and whats on the XP model and decides to buy Linux because all they want to do is
pre-installed?
Nuke,
I somehow doubt that windows programmers are any less “elitist” When was the last time you had a suggestion implemented in windows?
I think there is an expectation that because OSS are ordinary humans, and don’t have a wall of PR flacks in front of them that somehow their very accessibility means they should take your suggestions seriously.
Most people writing code do so for their own enjoyment, excepting a few circumstances, they don’t even get paid. You get that code, and the program it creates for nothing, if you take part in the email lists for that project you may get more say, if you contribute code or a fix you get an even bigger say, if you really want control you’re always free to fork.
They may not be “friendly”, but those are the “rules of the road”
Failing that you could simply submit a bug report. Have you ever submitted a bug report to Microsoft? Linux is a community effort, you get more points for being an active participant in the community. If all you are is a consumer, then I can understand the frustration.
I just ran through the latest stable distros OpenSuse, Ubuntu, and Fedora. They all install much easier than XP Pro. Do you Linux fans understand that the Distros are more cutting edge, current, as well as suitable for older machines? So much potential.
Yet I wouldn’t recommend linux. I am appalled at the number of legitimate questions users (some new) ask and receive off topic, rude, or incorrect replies. Now this may be due to proficient linux users moving beyond the ‘help the new guy’ stage, leaving the field to wanna-be self proclaimed experts. Regardless it is the primary reason ‘linux’ will not fly.
Standing outside, looking into the community, it is bedlam.
I think one reason linux will never fly, is that many vendors do not have in-house people on operating systems. They distribute Windows. Licensing seams to be a question often coming up. Patented technologies that needs licensing to be distributed, but have bean implemented for Linux.
But only USA and a handful of others have software patents laws. So things can be distributed on Europe, Asia and South America without problems. But back to the OS part. Do computer vendors want to
create / deliver something else?
Want they do know is:
Make an image, with the install, compleat with drivers.
Add an old DVD player and burner software.
3 months of anti-virus from the lowest priced company.
That is what the user gets today. But could they do without
moving to a diffirent OS? Open Office exists for Windows. Lots of
free stuff exists for windows, but still the user gets what the user gets.
I’ve said it a million times over the past 10 years..
if GNOME and KDE persist on imitating other desktops, GNOME and KDE will ultimately fail. People know a flea market knock-off when they see it.
Appearance drives uptake. If you offer nothing unique, you offer nothing, period. The degree of reluctance of both projects over the past 10 years to embrace new ideas NOT related to either Microsoft’s or Apple’s work is absolutely staggering.
There’s an inherent hypocricy in saying “Windows sucks!”, and then devoting the next 10 years to mimicking it’s appearance and function.
These days, i’m thinking the situation is hopeless, since it’s too late for a third player to emerge, something violently !GNOME and !KDE, something distinct, and worth using. No such project would ever gain a foothold, else make those who’ve invested in a compounded 10 year failure feel uncomfortable sharing the stage.
I’m more interested in what’s post-Linux, where the lessons learned can be applied.
Until Linux advocates get the concepts of “teaching the newbs”, “read the man page”, “command-line oriented usability”, and other geek orientations thrown out of their head, Linux will not be popular. If a computer isn’t as reliable and easy to use as a car, it’s not a good computer. Cars are very complex. Most people never really get into under the hood. Computers are complex, but Apple and MS understand what’s in an end-user’s head: “I want to fill up the gas, turn a key, and move a steering wheel.” No more than that is wanted from a car.
So, if you have a computer, it needs to Connect to Printer, Email, Browse the Web, Upload Photos, and Not Break Down. Who gives a rip about the OS? A computer is a tool, and until Linux devs and advocates really understand that, they will never break into the tool-using, consumer, market.
“What are we doing wrong?”
Well, open source projects should be led by people with broad understanding of the target user groups, usability, and strategic awareness. In other words: anyone but not the people who are leading at this moment. Technical issues shouldn’t nearly even be on the lists. And the developers should plain obey when their silly pet projects are being killed, and transformed into parts of whole and integrated products. Removing legacy & bad projects would be essential for freeing up resources for the actually important projects. And also, KDE folks shouldn’t be let anywhere near the process of designing GUIs.
I am from a Developing Country. In my country most computers are assembled. It don’t come with any Operating System. When a person who goes to buy computer (for his son or daughter or for himself or his family or his work or some computer for his cyber), the shopkeeper at the time of buying installs Windows XP on all the computers. Neither the shopkeeper knows what is Linux nor the User. No body from this group knows what an operating system is. So how do you expect these people to Know something like Linux or Lienux. Software are pirated. In my case also I got Some CDs which I later knew is another Operating System when my teacher at Computer Class told there is something called RedHat and Linux. Then I tried to install Linux on my home computer by myself without Learning any installation book. And when I did i was left with a Black Screen with something like login:. I was afraid and I rebooted the compter and later when I again came came a beautiful mountain wallpaper and I said to myself wow. It was the days when my brother taught me what is computer and how do i change my wallpaer at windows. Now let’s focus to recent days. Now People have started talking about vista. If a person knows about Vista he is sure to know Mac. This means Mac is also becoming popular. But still most of the people prefer to install Windows XP on their computer. They still believe computer is the same only Price has come down. And something called vista is not for work. It is only to show off and so is other (Mac). People do care about Viruses. Having viruses on their computer won’t drive them to Linux. The first thing is Install antivirus and it don’t work format. Still there are many people who think you should format the computer before installing antivirus. And each time you don’t find your computer as before format the computer and install Windows XP(Pirated) and install all the softwares(Pirated) as before. All the students till class 10 install only these software. Microsoft Office, Power DVD, Nero, Winamp, Winrar comes default and sometimes flash and some antiviruses like Norton (May be any but all say Norton), AVG or some other. And what else do you expect. They are Games. When you don’t have internet connections at every home. Senior Members use computers only to run Microsoft Office if they have to do office work. Students in 10 to 12 classes use computers for some programming and that is turbo c or c++. The users which I have discussed above falls the Most Computer Users (I also mentioned Cybers etc and each and every Offices). Now remains the technical people, who use computers for more than above people did. E.g IT students, IT professionals. And catagories of this people ranges from IT system maintainers (hardware related e.g Networking, ISP, bank officer) and Programmers. Web page designers Use macromedia flash and dreamweaver. And due to easeness and customer requirement most of other programmers and companies are working on .NET. ASP.NET and C# at most. So we can count companies who provide Java based Solutions and still not whole. People from the IT community prefer to use Open Source tools but not Linux because they don’t have to. Why would anyone need Linux when they don’t need it. Or it is some extraordinary or extremely easy. Inspite of my 5 years Linux use. And some of other Linux Users are those who maintain Servers at and via ISPs to customers. Still due lack of Linux knowledges companies prefer to keep windows as mail server or router at offices. Linux requires highly sophisticates users like us. Nobody wants to come to Linux. And still you don’t find so much pages of Windows on Linux as of Linux itself (as an operating system description). This is because the community on internet is mostly composed of Linux Users. Because windows sofware are closed source and thus closed people. There is a big .NET user base on internet though. We Linux Users are talking to ourselves(one linux user to other linux user) and prompting other Linux Users to use Linux and saying how great Linux is. Still there are know such innovating and native packages on Linux that can keep some one on Linux. All the applications are just an alternative or port of applications that are found on Windows. So why would anyone want to run same application that he ran on windows on Linux. Why would anyone free his 6 to 8 GB space to install Linux for nothing. Why would anyone want to run only PHP on Linux when his other all applications run on Windows and so do PHP. Why do I have to run eclipse on Linux and not on Linux. If so Linux have no application that makes is more different or more usable than any other operating system. We have copied Unix and now are trying to more closer to Windows which is so big and popular. So how are we going to catch this. Let me tell you what I would want if I had enough money. I would want to buy a laptop. Earlier when laptops were costly many could not even think of them. Now with low costs everybody wants to buy it. And when windows vista is not so much successful many want to buy Mac. So what is the biggest market for Linux is the Laptop preinstalled with it. And that to happen it has to have User Interface more stunning and Usable than Macintosh. Not the sphere plugin of Compiz Fusion. There are lots of works to be done. Say only to compiz fusion. The distro like Ubuntu or Fedora should not provide all the freedom of customizing to user and give them which is so bad. All of the features and applications should be customized. There should be one best application not variety of them. With Laptop speed should be optimized. Open Office should start fast without the preload feature. Applications should not break and give errors. All the hard disk should load at boot. All the themes provided should be stunning. People should be able to launch application more easily then now. People don’t care about the format and Licence so openoffice document must at firsttime ask user at first time do you want to save your document in microsoft office format or native OO format. There should be one DVD writer. Not Gnome Baker and Gnome Default and user still needing K3b which even don’t author the DVD. So one application that does all the work user expects. No problem if it uses separate module of differnt command line tools. Many of you may say Ubuntu Intriped Ibex theme looks great. But I threw it in 5 minutes. It is not user friendly. And last but not the least there is no perfect IDE for Linux to develop it’s native applications
I have Ubuntu 8.4 installed on my computer, which I installed using WUBI. I believe there is a place for LINUX in the world, however it has to become more user friendly for more windows users to switch. As an example it took several hours, if not days just for me to figure out which application to download, through the “add/remove” application, so I could view videos. As far as getting help on line, through the forms, no one seems to want to speak in simple terms.
Also the operating system comes with firefox as the downloaded browser, however I have found Opera 9.5 much easier to use with Linux and this does not seem to be made very clear for new users.
Well anyway dispite the problems I encountered, in the beginning, I find myself using Ubuntu alot more that my XP os, that is installed on the same computer, and enjoy using it very much. I find it faster with less crash issues, but then again my computer needs are fairly simple, banking, e-mails, etc. No doubt the next computer I get will have Linux pre-installed.
I still had not completed all of Linux Stuff. One of the other reason is that since Linux was initially made for network by network people. They all thought of stuffs on those basis. So does comes the GUI. And Linux’s GUI is much slower than of Windows. The software installing complexity and the Licence issue e.t.c. Why would any one want to have Totem or Helix on the System when it won’t play your avi file. There are many applications on Linux(Ubunt) that are not worth being there. Slower on my 2GB Ram than Windows XP. If Linux has so much control over applications (I mean most come preinstalled or easily found) which over OS don’t have. I.e they are developed separately, then why don’t all the application don’t behave as it is of that OS. There could be a single Click-Click configuration suite for all the applications or the OS. Cant’ there be a GUI interface for all the text configuration that we do. If someone is going to do it, why do they don’t take any money for this. Why developers don’t concentrate on the interface. Why so many unusable application on the Package Manager. And most of all, why is there not a programming interface that is as easy as .NET and as powerful as C and as secure as Java. If Linux developers are so much capable then whey can’t they develop this. What should people install to liste music. Listen, Amarok, Totem, RhythmBox, Banshee, xmms, xmms2, VLC, mplayer, realplayer, ogle, kplayer, gmplayer, kmplayer, xineplayer, kaffeine. Why don’t each application develop separately. Which Linux distro should people use. Which language and ide should people use to develop application under linux. Why do python or gcc comes preinstalled with linux. Unless these questions are answered or solved it is worthless talking about the User interface and providing a consistent and more robust application on Linux
I work on Windows and OSX computers for a living. If you want more people to use it, you have to make it prettier. Xp was prettier than 2000 and Vista is prettier than XP. Also could you guys agree on a installer, so that people can just double click on the darn thing and install it.
Paul,
Surprisingly enough Ubuntu 8.04 (The Hardy Heron) does just that. My parents needed a new PC, I didn’t have time to install XP, as they needed it at short notice, so I installed Ubuntu. The only thing they asked for was Picasa, which I downloaded and installed. When I connected their camera it recognised it, opened it, and downloaded all the photos. The printer worked fine, but I couldn’t get the scanner to work, (HP all in one) They were already using Open Office, Firefox & Thunderbird, and they “just worked.”
Then the guy they got to build them a web site re-installed XP, as he didn’t understand Linux. Now XP blue screens on them. It takes me 5 hours to install XP. It’s never blue screened on me.
Jim,
What you’re looking for is called Wubi:
http://wubi-installer.org/
Most of you guys who state what Linux needs is (fill in the blank) seem blissfully unaware of apt-get and the repositories. It’s called Future Shock.
As far as those who complain about unfriendly Linux users on the support boards, I have been active on a number of boards, not just Linux and I can tell you why you got trashed.
First, you didn’t want to buy a pre-installed computer so you would get the correct hardware for Linux. In many cases, not all, you try to install a modern distro on an old PC100 machine, then whine it won’t work, and Linux isn’t ready, etc.
There was for several years on Desktop Linux a man who really mocked and trashed Linux and anyone stupid enough to use it. After several years of name calling and insults, it turned out he installed it on an old throw-away machine, and concluded his problems were caused by Linux defects.
The next issue is what happens when you guys go on a Linux board. After years of this, the old hands pretty well know what problems most newbies have, so they almost always have a knowledge base on every board.
At the top is almost always a sticky message, which refers to the knowledge base, and it plainly warns you in the heading to read it before posting. Someone took the time to type up information on almost everything newbies encounter.
Yet, you guys come on that message board, don’t bother to read the sticky, and ask a basic question. You expect someone to spend half an hour of his time typing in detailed instructions which are already typed in, rather than spend three minutes of your own time reading the sticky which points you to that information.
When they give you your well-deserved verbal thrashing, you run all over the place, telling everyone how arrogant and nasty Linux people are. After all you are really, really important and someone, some peon with nothing better to do, is supposed to spend that half an hour typing this in for you, personally. IF he doesn’t, then you think there is something wrong with HIM.
Since 1999, I have participated in Linux boards, and am always amazed at how helpful those guys are.
The honoured RMS has asperger’s syndrome, so give him a break for being a little extreme about his facts - or have you actually been told “no it’s GNU/LINUX!!!” by anyone else? ;)
A reporter in the newspaper I work for didn’t know about his disorder when she did a longer feature interview with him, and described him as an unbelievably annoying and a social disaster. When I told her he had asperger’s she literally smacked her forehead and said “of COURSE!”.
I consider myself an advanced end user - not a developer. I am comfortable with a command line, and over the years I have tried various flavours of linux and abandoned them all.
Yesterday I loaded hardy heron on my laptop. I spent hours figuring out how to get the the wifi working. Then a couple more to get the graphics card to recognize 2 monitors. Just setting up an imap port number in Evolution was a whole lot more difficult than it had to be. All is well now (I haven’t even looked at the printer and scanner) but Joe average won’t/can’t buy in until it’s a lot easier.
Personally, I think the Linux community is facing several problems, many of the potentially fatal, but most can be reduced to one thing:
Developers only develop things they care about.
We don’t need any more flashy apps that do the same things that a million other flashy apps do. We don’t need another kernel update that slightly improves some sub-system 80% of Linux users have never heard of. We certainly don’t need another Compiz plugin, another OS X like dock bar, or anything else that we already have 50 of.
We need near universal hardware support. We need a sound system that doesn’t have new users scratching their heads about what OSS, ALSA, aRts, ESD, and PulseAudio all are. We need GUIs that actually work the majority of the time and aren’t just poorly made front ends to command line tools.
We also need our community members to stop being jackasses and actually help new users because, believe it or not, but it’s harder to get into Linux now than it was 10 years ago. Back in the day it wasn’t hard to hit up Alta Vista and figure out how to configure your sound card, these days it’s major work for a new user to even figure out which sound system they have installed, then they have to wade through instructions made for various version of their sound server, many of which no longer apply, then when they make a post they either get someone answering a question they didn’t ask (which is great for people googleing for the same problem BTW) or telling them to RTFM.
1) KDE vs. Gnome, from a developer perspective, a mess bc you don’t have a standard way to develop applications.
2) 150 package managers, as a developer you need to package 500 times the same software.
3) Choices, choices and more choices. Some say it’s good, but the result is 150 choices, nothing standard.
4) Lack of industry software, I mean photoshop, autocad, flash and tons of other software, you get my point.
5) While it’s advancing, driver support SUCKS, for example, try getting wifi adapters to work without Ndiswrapper, etc.
I applaud Microsoft to achieve hegemony on those 5 points, they saw that was the most important thing, and that’s why there’s only 1% of linux desktops today.
DISCLAIMER: I have 2 machines, one debian server and the other an xp workstation.
To me the answers seem pretty straightforward.
If you look at the arenas where linux has made great progress it is in embedded apps and in servers. In embedded apps there is no user interface to speak of or it is very constrained to a limited functionality. In servers the user interface is not very important, as the users of the interface are likely command line guys anyway. The functionality is king in these apps.
In the consumer market there are 3 big factors: functionality, familiarity and usability. If a product is missing one of these the other two have to be tremendous to make up for it. For example: the iPhone and iPods do not have as many functions as their competitors, but the familiarity and usability are more than enough to make up for it.
Windows has a more balanced approach, with familiarity being the big seller.
Linux for consumers has good functionality, but it is unfamiliar both visually (and having many options for a window manager just makes that worse) and brandwise, and because the user interface development process has not been as focused as win and mac the user interface is a little bit of a hodgepodge of different philosophies. And to make it even worse, when you get off the beaten path a command line waits for you.
The command line is the consumers worst nightmare. There is a reason that when movies want to depict computers as being mysterious and intimidating, it always involves lots of scrolling text.
I am not sure what the solution is, because Linux’s strength and weakness are its huge development community.
Strong in carving up huge projects into little chunks that an army can attack. Weak in that with so many voices, hard to quantify problems like graphic design and user interfaces can actually become harder to solve.
Imitating Mac or Windows interface gets you a little closer in familiarity and usability, but as soon as you deviate from whatever you are imitating you piss off the user whose knowledge of what you are imitating just became useless. “Why not stick to the real thing?” they say.
When OSX came out Mac people were incensed because it was so unfamiliar, but they were won over because the new system was pretty well designed, and there were significant additions of functionality. In other words they were seduced by an additional good in the new system that the old did not have.
Besides saving $100 off the price of a computer what does Linux get you? What the consumer wants is a simple web/email/word processor/media viewer/media editor, and preferably the same one everyone else has, so they don’t feel like the odd one out or too stupid when something does not work. What does Linux offer that is strong enough to compensate for the unfamilarity and nonstandard user interface?
I have tried Ubuntu. I really enjoy it but I always go back to Windows because of one thing and one thing only. It is easy has all get out to install an application in windows. I download it and then click on the .exe file. Guess what, after that it runs. I won’t want to have to use a command line to install, open, or us to get apps to run.
Once a Linux distro has one button click installation along with one button click for a program to work, then a lot more people will use it.
I can’t see what the problem is, try download a .deb file and click it. voala! there u go, its exactly the same as a windows .exe file.
And im sorry to read this article. I dont thinkl that Linux has to chase OSX down, or MS for that part. I think linux has to find its own way.
I think that the general problem with linux is all the distros trying to do their own thing. Linux needs a standard base, although its been developed it still has a long way to go.
What really would be needed to start to reach the masses are more eeepc’s, which come, as they are, with linux(GNU/linux *nix what ever). that way, the computer is still an microwave with email. but they never wonder about teh OS. i think most ppl dont really care what it is running, as long as it microwaves the food and has email. As it is. like has been mentioned in these comments. The general masses just dont have any options, those that thing apple is sexy get a mac, the rest get PC cause those can be really cheap. and as we all know, when you buy a PC from bestbuy, or wherever the normal consumer gets his PC’s, they have windows. the sales man says “windows is very good for normal needs”, cause thats what he’s supposed to say, cause thats what the costumer wants to hear - what with the apparent lack of choice. Ofc he wants to hear that atleast the only choice isnt a bad choice.
So, we need Linux out into bestbuy(or whatever those stores are called). I went into my local bestbuy the other day(a store called Interdiscount in switzerland), asked if i could get a Box with (i) no windows installed or (ii) with linux installed. both were negative ofc, they even went so far as to say that there are no computers that come pre-installed with linux…
The Linux community is full with these respectless people. About 5% are really really helpful and not so preachy. These 5 % are the only reason why I even use Linux today. I wouldn’t even have started otherwise.
It is almost impossible to criticise Linux or even talk about the fact that almost no games are supported on Linux.
The typical linux fan will talk about unnecessary stuff that works better on Linux and use that as an argument against Windows as if that was anywhere near the same impact level as for example games or applications that don’t work on Linux.
I rather say Linux than GNU/Linux-based distributions. It is more simple and there is no way to misunderstand. Saying the name of a specific dist works as well. But too many Linux power users are too serious and they make it really boring to even belong to the community of linux users. I use Ubuntu on a virtual machine and I can’t even run a freaking linux dist without people talking crap about Ubuntu and how it looks like Windows Vista and how I should change dist. Why replace something that works for my needs?
I have tried other dists as well and I’m not impressed.
The Linux community should perhaps think twice before they insult Windows users, dual-boot users and anyone who uses an “inferior dist” if it really benefits their reputation. It makes them look stupid and turns them more and more into an isolated group of elitists who pat eachother on the back, and use WINE to emulate the OS they hate the most.
Why dislike Ubuntu? It is the flagship of Linux dists and probably the only dist that actually draws attention from Windows at all.
Your absolutely correct. I could not agree more. Richard Stallman disagrees with me on this. Pavs you and me need to work together. Check out http://www.ultumix.com and see what I’m all about. I’m trying to make it easier for Windows and Mac users to make the jump. Everyone hates what I’m doing except the Windows and Mac users that try the system. 90% of them (that I present it to) never switch back to anything else.
I’ve never heard of Ultumix but I might try it on my virtual machine when I have time. Maybe you should improve the website and cut down on the Windows hatred like http://www.mindblowingidea.com/DangerWindowsXP.html ?
I run Vista 64-bit business because I got it for free from my university. I like it more than XP to be honest, and I think it’s a good OS that no linux users should bash for no reason. It’s just as low as North Korea talking about censor issues in the US. It just doesn’t make any sense to throw shit when the “team” you are supporting is even worse. =D
I will remain a dual-boot user or perhaps only use linux dists on a virtual machine.
Oh and perhaps you should seperate the Jesus stuff from the software stuff. If you want a real breakthrough you have to make it look more serious than that. I would never involve my atheist views and make a Q&A section with questions that are way too easy to answer. Maybe that’s just me. Just my 2 cents.
I runa dual boot suse10.3 & the other OS, have another machine that runs DSL. I learned linux on Debian and use Knoppix and Blactrack livecds on a regular basis. All mí encounters with linux ended in the same and ever recurring problem: most stuff had to be done via the terminal. I agree w/ Doug, who says that for experienced users this is OK, but for widespread desktop use by everday users, the terminal needs to be COMPLETELY omitted from the running and installing of apps. The elitist/minimalist approach is plain nonsense if we are to see the popularity of linux rise in the near future; point’n'click gui has to be the way.
Another point I want make here is that the abundance of distros/GDEs is good if you know what you want and have a pretty good understanding of computers. For simple users it’s just plain cofusing and a major source of app compatibility issues. In windows you download, doubleclick and thats it. In linux however, you need to know what distro you use, the version of the distro, which GDE you use and how installation works under these circumstances. This is a putoff to everyone I ever tried to convert to using linux.
Sorry if I’m repeating posts, but I haven’t time to read all of them…
…and btw. Windows IS satan, don’t let yourselves be fooled into thinking otherwise ;)
Really whats needed is a company like microsoft that just sells linux and is interested in it for profit. Red hat and novell do this somewhat but it needs to be bigger and i suppose led by a better entrepreuner.
And what’s with all this ubuntu bashing? it’s why i use linux nowadays because it had the friendliest website when i was bored one day on the internet. Now i use sabayon on my laptop and vista on my desktop only cause with windows it’s easier to run most of my computer games. Ubuntu ’s got the right idea in presenting thier OS. Dell sells it with some of thier computers now and plus it’s very easy to get canonical to just send you a ready made disk without all the ISO download and burn that just stops some people immedietly
All distros oughta to send disks for free or for a small cost ready made and good to go and linux users take people to your computer and demo your OS to them. Especially with sabayon and the excellent looking beryl i get crowds of people wanting to know where to buy it and i tell them its free and hand out disks right then and there and then i teach them how to use it and where to find thier stuff. I set up new linux computers almost every day. Thats what a responsible linux user does. So go out there to a like an internet cafe and show off your distro and hand out disks thats how linux will gain popular acceptance. And for the richer and more enterprising of you start a computer shop and sell Dells and HP’s with linux on them and/or with a windows dual boot
I have tried so many times to get into linux (normally leaving a six month gap between tries) but i always fall over at the first hurdle as i have 3 components/hardware that will not run under it.
so unless i get much richer or there is more driver support with self installers the i guess i’m stuck with windows