Is Linux a Viable Platform or A Disruptive Force?
Put on your boxing gloves, this is going to get interesting!
17 years ago yesterday Linux was introduced to the world and during those years Linux has found a devoted and loyal following. It powers most of the web servers world wide and is the geek os of choice.
Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote
their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying
to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you
finding it frustrating when everything works on minix? No more all-
nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just
for you :-)
As I mentioned a month(?) ago, I’m working on a free version of a
minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers. It has finally reached the stage
where it’s even usable (though may not be depending on what you want),
and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution. It is
just version 0.02 (+1 (very small) patch already), but I’ve successfully
run bash/gcc/gnu-make/gnu-sed/compress etc under it.
Sources for this pet project of mine can be found at nic.funet.fi
(128.214.6.100) in the directory /pub/OS/Linux. The directory also
contains some README-file and a couple of binaries to work under linux
(bash, update and gcc, what more can you ask for :-). Full kernel
source is provided, as no minix code has been used. Library sources are
only partially free, so that cannot be distributed currently. The
system is able to compile “as-is” and has been known to work. Heh.
Sources to the binaries (bash and gcc) can be found at the same place in
/pub/gnu. [via]
But in 17 years you think an OS would move out of obscurity and more into the main stream. It’s kinda clear the public pines for Windows over any OS. Matter of fact MSI found that consumers return Linux PC’s 4 times higher than XP.
[MSI's CEO in an interview said] that their experience shows that netbooks with Linux are returned four times more often than those with Windows XP. This would indicate what others have already noted, many consumers pick up the cheaper systems and then realize that the Linux system is not what they are used to so they return it. If you recall Walmart discontinued the sale of the Linux-based gPC in stores earlier this year, probably for the same reason. [via]
Now, is Linux too advanced for the public to use and will be relegated to the innermost geek circle? Is Windows really better? Are people afraid to leave what they know? Is the MacOS more disruptive to the computer ecosystem then Linux? I’m interested to know what OS you back and what your feelings about Linux really are!
Yes, I think MacOS is more disruptive the ecosystem in the sense that many people who used it didn’t go back to windows afterward. In fact, I have yet to see someone do that. As for Linux, I have seen a few try it out and return to the old system after that (myself included).
I think the main problem is people are not used to the whole Open-Source software. The things I run into is compatibility. Mainly with Word, Excel, PPT…when you want to send someone something in that form. You want to make sure they can open it. Yes there is cross-over office but you have to know how to get it and install it. Linux make good server but don’t necessarily fit the desktop market yet. Mainly because M$ has made it almost impossible to co-exist with each other. It is always a battle to keep up compatibility with M$. I think the solution would be is come with Windows then dual boot linux. That way you can go either way.
I consider myself to be relatively geeky (work for a Digital Marketing Company, majored in Computer Science, enjoy programming…) but have never given Linux a chance. This is mainly because I have Windows at home, it’s not perfect, but it gets the job done when I need it to. I’m definitely interested in giving Linux a chance, but there seem to be so many options nowadays, that I wouldn’t even know which one to try… Any recommendations for a novice Linux user who is not a novice computer user?
I find that different operating systems have different places in my life. I use Windows at my desk work, because the applications I currently need rely on it. In my data center I have primarily Red Hat Linux and Sun Solaris, which are well suited to clustered computing and database work. I use OS X at home for my personal computing needs because it is incredibly easy, once you learn how it wants you to work. Finally, I use Linux for my home network devices, such as my router and NAS, due to the small OS footprint. I do believe that Windows or Linux can make for a great home desktop environment, but I feel that OS X is a much better blend of Unix power with an intuitive desktop. I can have iLife and a bash shell, and that makes me very happy.
I just filled this out:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?firsttime=true
It’s supposed to tell you what Linux OS you should use. It told me that I should check out OpenSuSE…
I’ve tried linux many many many times now and I always end up back in windows.
I find it a bit like a one night stand. It’s all new and exciting and (often) pretty. But in the end it’s too much hard work to enter into a long term relationship with it so you go back to what you know and love.
I don’t see things changing anytime soon. What it will need is good hardware support, fonts and MS office.
I’ve been using windows since as long as I’ve been using computers, so about 12 years or so. (Granted that’s not that long). I like windows, and I am farmilar with windows. I know how to use it, and configure it to my liking. All of my programs work, and have little to no issues. As a desktop workstation, windows is perfect.
I’ve been using Mac for a few years. I really got into it when the OSx86 scene came around, since then I have always had a spare hd with the latest version of OSX on it up and running. I find it really fun and interesting to get it working when it’s not supposed to.
However, the instability of that prevents me from using it as a true windows replacement. I have had many times when I accidentally broke my install and lost everything. (Learn to have multiple hds for your data).4 Why not buy a real mac then? I don’t have money for it, and windows does everything I need. Mac is just a hobby.
Linux is something I’ve been getting into more and more often, but for servers. I’ve been installing and running Debian on anything I can get my hands on for a few years now. Sure there are all sorts of fun interesting GUI stuff that Linux can do, but that’s all eyecandy to me. Linux is for servers. I have 2 Debian servers running constantly, one a web, and one a NAS. I’m working on a one as dhcp server, and another for a print server.
Linux lets you do all sorts of stuff much more easily (to a knowledgeable user) network wise.
I don’t really know if that answers your question, but that’s how I do things anyway; Windows for work, Mac for fun, Linux for backup
the key word here: compatibility. who wants to mess about with code and such just to get online or install an app? People want Windows Live Messenger. they want to click that blue icon for their internet, they want to be able to click “to Install click here” click a few more ok’s and it’s done.
I run a modified Ubuntu. I love it.
Rico: LinuxMint (http://www.linuxmint.com), it’s based in Ubuntu, and is the better distro for a beginner that I have seen.
I’m under the idea that linux itself is it’s own worse enemy with far too many flavours to choose from it make for a software development nightmare as you need to make sure that your apps will run on as many different distros as possible with minimal tweaking.
I tried using OS X for the first time a few months ago and did not like it one bit. particularly with Safari crashing after only 5 mins and upon reboot the system profiler crashed after only 20 seconds. This showed me a major design flaw in OS X itself. An application crash WILL crash the entire system and not just that application.
I love M$, always have brought out the most reliable designed OS and development environment for me. And now even after swithing to Vista (touched it for the first time 2 months ago) I’ve never seen an OS more smooth, stable and responsive in my life.
@Rico, I wouldn’t take that page too seriously, I just tried it and it suggested 5 distros for me, Mandriva,Kubuntu,OpenSUSE, Fedora or Debian. AKA the 5 core distros out there and each one is very different.
It takes knowing a friend to set you up or having the patience to mess with it yourself. And like Doug said, it’s too much work to just run apps. If a computer is just a black box that you use for the internet, word processing, and to play music, who cares?
@everyone
Linux is a viable source for personal computing, and one of my most powerful OS’s out there hands down. The problem with Linux as with all things, with great power comes great responsibility. Since you can literally do ANYTHING on a Linux box there is a hefty learning curve, once you round that curve it’s like having an epiphany. To discredit it as a valuable OS is ignorance. With the Ubuntu project you’re seeing someone take the bull by the horns and force organization down the throat of an Open Source project. This feels like the key missing force behind Linux that is very very needed.
Now the bottom line. I run a Mac, my Mom runs a Mac, my Dad runs a Mac, my Step Dad runs a Mac. I do NOT use Linux as my primary OS because of OS X. If not for OS X I would run a flavor of Linux (be it Redhat or Ubuntu) but since Macs take most of the good parts with 5% of the hassle it’s a wonderful match. I would NEVER put any of my family on a Linux machine, the headache of troubleshooting an x-config over the phone with someone who doesn’t understand VIM enough would make me hang myself… it would be… well down right terrifying. With that said you’d better thank your asses for the Open Source Movement and Linux because a lot of great software has come from it. Before I mentioned running a Mac has most of the good parts with 5% of the hassle, well the truth is with xCode and X11 installed it has all the good parts. I can run most any software via a Darwin port through X11 and such.
With that said… Long Live Tux!
Side note, all of our production and development servers at work are a flavor of Linux (SuSe, Redhat, Ubuntu, Gentoo) which is roughly 200 servers dealing out data to millions of users.
@RICO
get a Mac… install VMware fusion then download Ubuntu. Play with Linux… then realize you’re already basically on a flavor of it without any of the headache. You coming from a CompSci background I would def. say Abandon Windows and come to the Darkside, just don’t turn into a fanboy. ;)
I use nix as my primary OS. I do repair PC’s as a extra job and thus must know all Windows flavors and OSX. I run all of that in VMware so it does not corrupt my work machine. I am geeky but there are lots of people who know more than I do and I have no trouble using it as a total replacement. I am currently using Ubuntu and it gets easier to use with each release. I will admit that I even had netbsd on my amiga 3000.
I do have some customers who should use linux as they surf where they should not and get horrible malware from time to time. But linux is just not there yet for most users. Although more than half of my clients can barely run windows and vista looks different enough that I could see them swithcing to OSX> I state on my website that if people would use Macs I would not have much business.
My son and all his gamer buddies all switched to Macs when they left for college as they did not want to be using three different but similar programs to do things as is common on Windows. Linux is sort of that way as I have several types of the same program to accomplish some tasks.
But if you are not afraid go forth. Linux has everything you need. Open Office, Evolution, FireFox, RhythmBox (most excellent Itunes like software). I also run my thumbdrive with thunderbird using wine on linux. As I said before I am no command line king, but with the help on the net I do not have to be.