Why Linux is not (yet) Ready for the Desktop

[Alessandro17]

As a semi-user of linux I personally think it is VERY ready for the desktop. I personally use it on several old computers as there not capable of running smothly under windows. We are seeing linux absoutly everywhere eg desktops (dell sell them with Ubuntu on them) on PS3's and servers, well at least on all of mine Yes there is lots of distros of linux but at the same time it gives us choice, and that could be key for certian setups! Even as a complete n00b like myself you pick it us as you go along learning, im playing with it and im always learning.

 

If you use your computer for basic tasks only, as your use of old computers, unable to run Windows, (not even Windows 2000?) suggests, almost every OS is ready for the desktop.

But if you need specific apps, only available, let's say, for Windows or OS X, then not every OS is ready for the desktop.

I won't even mention poor quality drivers, bugs, "lack of coordination", as user Maury84 suggests, or, worse, cavalier attitude towards users (I'll never forget the "who needs users" attitude by KDE4 developers).

 

With other words: are you a user or a "geek"?

If you are a user, meaning you need your computer for daily work, you are more likeky to choose Windows or OS X.

[jayzeekay]

I agree with most of the points. But I still love linux.

[darky25]

yes. that's the reason why I still dual boot with windows.

[Oczo]

I have Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) on two of my hard disks. I usually use it mainly when I am trying to figure out why Windows isn't working right. I don't have a problem with command lines, but some things just don't work (mainly because they are proprietary and have not been released to Linux). As an example, I still can't get samba to work correctly with my AirPort Extreme and network drive which has a FAT32 and HFS+ partition. I also could not get WPA2 to work with wireless. It is a good thing I am using this on my desktop which is directly connected to the AirPort Extreme, otherwise I would have Linux without internet, which wouldn't be terribly useful.

[sr2]

There is only a couple valid points. Like this:

Bad backwards compatability

and this:

No games

(There is certainly only a handful of big titles on Linux)

 

Everything else is a complete BS. Full stop.

[Alessandro17]

There is only a couple valid points.

 

Everything else is a complete BS. Full stop.

 

Really? What about these points:

 

5.1 Few software titles, inability to run familiar Windows software. (Some applications (which don't work in Wine) have zero Linux equivalents).

 

5.1.1 No equivalent of some hardcore Windows software like AutoCAD/3D Studio/Adobe Premier/Corel Painter/etc. Home and work users just won't bother installing Linux until they can work for real.

 

5.3 Incomplete or unstable drivers for some hardware. Problems setting up some hardware (like sound cards or TV tuners/Web Cameras).

 

5.3.1 A lot of WinPrinters do not have any Linux support (e.g. Lexmark models). An argument that user should buy a Linux compatible printer is silly since that way Linux won't ever gain even a traction of popularity. Why should I install an OS where my printer doesn't work?

 

5.3.2 A lot of web cameras still do not work at all in Linux.

 

5.4 It's impossible to watch Blue-Ray movies.

 

7. A galore of software bugs across all applications. Just look into KDE or Gnome bugzilla's - some bugs are now ten years old with over several dozens of duplicates and no one is working on them.

 

12. Bad security model: there's zero protection against keyboard keyloggers and against running malicious software (Linux is viruses free only due to its extremely low popularity). sudo is very easy to circumvent (social engineering). sudo still requires CLI (see clause 4.).

 

14. Enterprise level problems:

 

14.1 No software policies.

 

14.2 No standard way of software distribution.

 

Do not post just for the sake of increasing your post count.

[Beerkex'd]

I installed Linux Mint (it's based on Ubuntu) the other day. It was working fine, I downloaded all the available updates and rebooted. Everything was working.

 

Then I installed the closed-source NVidia driver. After rebooting, my desktop was in some sort of panning mode, the desktop resolution was higher than my actual display resolution. When I moved the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen I could pan the desktop around. This wasn't what I wanted.

I then opened the Nvidia driver control panel and setup my two monitors correctly with their native resolutions, and tried to save the configuration.

 

No go, can't write to x-org.cfg. "You don't have the required permissions". What the F**K is this? I need root privileges to change resolution??

 

After some googling I found out that I could sudo-s edit x-org.cfg and set everything by hand.

 

I thought it was ridiculous that I had to go through that just to change my display configuration.

 

Once I got it working, the secondary monitor was suddenly using the default Ubuntu look which looked kind of clumsy next to the primary display with Linux Mint theme. Before I installed the Nvidia driver it was fine??

[sr2]

Really? What about these points:

 

5.1 Few software titles, inability to run familiar Windows software. (Some applications (which don't work in Wine) have zero Linux equivalents).

Few software titles -- Debian repository has to disagree.

inability to run familiar Windows software -- What's the point of saying this if the next very thing he mentions is WINE?

 

5.1.1 No equivalent of some hardcore Windows software like AutoCAD/3D Studio/Adobe Premier/Corel Painter/etc. Home and work users just won't bother installing Linux until they can work for real.

AutoCAD -- There are quite a few CAD applications out there. I don't know about the quality of these apps, but, as a matter of fact, they do exist.

3D Studio -- If by saying "3D Studio" he means 3ds Max then I have these: Maya, Blender.

Adobe Premier -- Cinelerra, Kdenlive.

Corel Painter -- GIMP, Inkscape.

 

5.3 Incomplete or unstable drivers for some hardware. Problems setting up some hardware (like sound cards or TV tuners/Web Cameras).

I can do that too. Some hardware comes with buggy drivers and occasionally makes Windows to BSOD. That's, totally, Windows fault and dare you to blame manufacturer for that!

 

5.3.1 A lot of WinPrinters do not have any Linux support (e.g. Lexmark models). An argument that user should buy a Linux compatible printer is silly since that way Linux won't ever gain even a traction of popularity. Why should I install an OS where my printer doesn't work?

Pretty much the same as above.

 

5.4 It's impossible to watch Blue-Ray movies.

Certainly not impossible, but troublesome.

 

14.2 No standard way of software distribution.

I assume that he means cross-distribution compatibility between software packages. Yes, there's a problem, but solutions already do exist. You can let packagers do all the work for you, you can write a custom sh installer script, you can provide a tarball like Opera does, or you can use 3rd party installer.

 

7. A galore of software bugs across all applications. Just look into KDE or Gnome bugzilla's - some bugs are now ten years old with over several dozens of duplicates and no one is working on them.

 

12. Bad security model: there's zero protection against keyboard keyloggers and against running malicious software (Linux is viruses free only due to its extremely low popularity). sudo is very easy to circumvent (social engineering). sudo still requires CLI (see clause 4.).

 

14. Enterprise level problems:

 

14.1 No software policies.

The above points are pure WTF. Almost looks like someone took all the buzzwords they knew and threw them together to pretend to sound serious.

 

GNU/Linux is not perfect and I do admit that I hate some things about it, but I can't take this guy and his article seriously because what he produced is a cheesy write up of some MSFT fanboy.

[michael.su]

I recently installed Mint on an older desktop. I have to say, very impressive how easy to install and how well it runs on this limited resource computer. the only issues i'm having now is getting hardware acceleration working with the old TNT2 agp graphic's card. I haven't given up yet but ...it's been "resting" for a few days...lol

 

I also tried ubuntu as well on this machine and it ran a little slower so I went with Mint. I have to say...Linux has come a long way in just the few years I've been dabbling.

 

The default driver works great but I would like Hardware acceleration enabled to get the full experience.

 

This is the only thing that I find really difficult at this point.

[franky_402]

i like linux but dont think i could use it for everyday. Thats why multi-booting is the only way to go on a computer. i do however have one of my older laptops set up with backtrack only but it doesnt get used very often!!

[mushroomboy]

This is retarded, the only thing Mac has on Nix is Audio, and the only thing Win has on Nix is Audio/Games. Which overall I think Nix is coming a long very well with it's audio apps.

 

In my experiences Linux seems to have a more powerful core than Mac or Win, but the problem is people don't code extremely good software for it cause... Well cause it's free.

[Snerler]

I like the idea of Linux a lot more than I like the execution. My experience shows that free software can be simple to use, lightweight, and just gets a task done. In many cases I'd chose the open source software even if I could get the commercial stuff for free.

 

I can get over the lack of good software, the fonts, and the command line on Linux. I'd be happy if can use the internet, and install a few simple programs flawlessly. But I can't seem to be able to even do that without having to fix problems.

 

Most recently I messed around with Linux Mint 8 and I liked it. But then problems started happening. I downloaded the free flight sim game and the graphics were all garbled and the game was going at about 5 frames/second. Ok maybe that’s because my x1800xt video card driver was not the proprietary one. I tried to install the proprietary one but it was not very straight forward how to do this so I gave up since whatever I had seemed to have acceleration working already anyway. Then I installed Boxee which worked fine for a while. I installed all the updates to the OS and rebooted. Went to boxee and it just would not launch. (Maybe I had to reinstall it?) I then went to watch something on YouTube which worked fine until I went into full screen at which point the Flash plug-in crashed. Same thing happened on all browsers. The website where I watch TV in DIVX just didnt load, although apparently some workarounds exist. Not really what i would call a usable desktop.

 

I have used different distributions and each one had its own little problems.

I want to like Linux and I will try it again in some time. But I agree, linux is just not ready to be a desktop OS for most people.