Spend enough time on
digg,
reddit,
slashdot, and other similar sites reading
tech news and you'll no doubt will see a Linux vs. Windows battle in play (not
to mention PS3 vs. Xbox 360, Mac vs. Windows etc.). The ferocity of these
debates is amazing, often generating more comments than more real
issues, such as the war in Iraq (hell, they're just operating systems goddamn
it!). Supporters will tell you that Linux will take over the world when [insert
random event here] occurs, like when Vista is launched very soon. Why hasn't it
done so in the past? Will it in the
future?
I'll try to tackle
this as objectively as possible, but I'll admit I'm primarily a Windows user.
That said, I have tried multiple Linux distributions before (
Mandrake,
Corel,
Red Hat) and I've currently got
OpenSuSE 10.2 tri-booting on my computer with XP
and Vista, as well as
Ubuntu Dapper with
MythTV dual-booting with XP on my
HTPC, plus a Linux NAS (
Synology DS101) and a router (
Linksys WRT54G with
DD-WRT firmware). I believe in using the
right tool for the job, so I'm
planning on taking up Python to even out my programming skills.
Its also important to note that
this series of posts is not about fueling the debate - I'm over arguing over which one is better because most of the time there's no way of changing their views and it just becomes personal.
Before going any
further, its necessary to generalise and split up the world's computer users into groups. Below is a
diagram of my theory.
Linux has conquered
geeks, is slowly permeating through fixed-task (home) users as their geek
friends convert them without them knowing/caring, and slowly permeating through
fixed-task (business) through distributions like
SLED/SLES
and
Red Hat. However, it hasn't made much
of a dent in the largest and fastest growing market - the hobbyists.
Right now, Linux isn't really a viable alternative to Windows for most of these
people because Linux developers are not thinking like average consumers. In this series of posts (broken up so this post doesn't become too long),
I'll run through some things Linux can do and should do if they want to make their OS more prevalent in the consumer world from personal experience.
- Stop plastering the phrase
'open-source' everywhere and force-feeding everyone the open-source
philosophy. We don't bloody care. (I think there's a place for both open and
closed-source, but that's irrelevant here.) Tell us that because it is
open-source, its free, we can contribute ideas, and help make it better
(although this is not unique, but better facilitated) - that's fine. None
of this 'free as in beer, and as in speech' stuff everywhere - put it
aside on a special page.
- Ramp up improvements and
innovation. Create unique things. Improve existing things. Popularize it.
Do what Microsoft has done with XMLHttpRequest (AJAX) and Tablet PC, and the upcoming Windows Sideshow (example) and WPF
(example) technologies. Do what Apple
has done with iChat and iMovie, and the upcoming Time Machine and Core Animation in Leopard. Xgl & Beryl are a good start, as is the new KDE start menu, but there should be more
user-facing innovations.
- Stop bagging Windows about
its security. Hackers love it because of its wide-spread usage, and 3rd
party applications and social engineering contribute a lot too. If in a parallel
universe, Linux and Windows switched places, Linux wouldn't be much
better. Linux has exploits and patches now; they're just not mass reported by the tech and mainstream
media unlike Windows. Every one makes mistakes. So just keep
quietly releasing those patches - you already have a big advantage as the
repository system keeps other apps updated too.
- Xgl & beryl are great, and are way better than anything I've seen
on Vista and to a lesser degree, Mac OSX. But in terms of application UI design, its still very
boring. As media players are usually the showcase app, here's a comparison between the three main desktop OSs:
Gnome/KDE themes make this a bit better (getting new themes should be
easier btw), but the UI design in most applications is still back in the old
days. Make the UI beautiful, usable and unique to Linux. After all, to
capture this group of people apps need to be good-looking; features often come
second.
This isn't to say that all popular Windows apps are good looking -
you only have to look as far as MYOB to see that - must be one of the
ugliest ones ever; its still stuck in the Windows 3.1 days. Usability isn't much better.