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OSDL's Review of Desktop Linux In 2006
derrida writes "The OSDL's Desktop Linux Working Group has published its first year-end report on the state of the overall desktop Linux ecosystem. The report provides insight into the year's key accomplishments in functionality, standards, applications, distributions, market penetration, and more. Of great interest is the Market Growth part. Quoting from there: 'Most observers believe that much of the growth will take place outside of the United States. "It will be in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries," said Gerry Riveros, Red Hat, "because of the price and because they aren't locked in yet."'"
You don't get a free pass with a comment like that. It's easy to look at what Congress has done here, and say, "boy, is the U.S. fucked." Unfortunately, we aren't alone. Europe is taking our shiny new copyright and patent crap and running with it (and making it even worse in some respects, if that's possible.) Furthermore, there's a lot of pressure being applied to bring other countries in line, pardon me, "harmonized", with certain unpleasant aspects U.S. IP law. We're all going down the tubes together: we're perhaps a couple of elbow joints ahead of everyone else, but not that's all. Too many powerful people around the world want control of their respective economies, and one way you do that is by manipulating and suppressing technological advancement.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
KDE in its current form is quite usable for most common purposes, and those abilities it doesn't have can probably be added as widespread adoption takes place. OpenOffice has its faults but it usually does the job. I would say at this point, it's not Linux as Linux that's the holdup. It's:
1. Legacy systems, documents, and most importantly user training in said systems and documents. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" rules when computers are the tool rather than the end goal in and of themselves, and it's hard to fault that logic. If you change your systems you're effectively "breaking" your employees in terms of their productivity, and fixing them is quite a job. It's only justified when the end benefits are worth the pain, and to be fair in most cases they probably aren't, at least in the short term. And we all know how good capitalism is at thinking long term.
2. Compatibility with the largest possible market segment. If your customers/suppliers insist on dealing in old formats (see #1) then it's rather hard to force them to change. And every minute spent dealing with such issues is one less spent on work related to producing something.
3. Costs of retraining your IT department and switching your software/machines. Yes it will take time - hardware support, IT helpdesk training, identifying and testing replacements for currently used apps, etc. Not painless at all.
I would say Linux was "ready for the desktop" several years ago, or at least as ready as Windows. KDE and Gnome are excellent systems for most users, once installed and configured properly. (That's what admins are for - work PCs are not normally maintained directly by users, regardless of OS.) Now the problem is revealed as being rather deeper than originally anticipated - it's not JUST Linux that's the problem, it's change period.
For home use, people want to play media and install thousands of commercial specialty packages, which are all written for Windows. More legacy software issues, with no budget or interest on the part of the people writing them (why target an uncertain platform populated by geeks who give stuff away?)
The problems aren't technological now - I would say they can be more accurately characterized as inertia. It's hard to give people reasons to switch from something that works, even when the new thing is BETTER than the current one. Linux, due to legal constraints as well as not quite 100% compatibility with things like Word formats, is not and probably CANNOT become (legally) a drop-in which is better in all cases.
Personally, I think the only hope for a massive switch to an open source OS is one where the software is written in such a fashion that it can be PROVEN (mathematically) to be secure/crash proof/what have you. Such a verifiable guarantee might gain enough interest/momentum to be worth the massive shifts that still have not taken place, but I am aware of no other lack in the marketplace severe enough to warrant it.
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
Europe is taking our shiny new copyright and patent crap and running with it. . .
It's called the Berne Convention Treaty. America was shoved into coming in line with it; and ran with it.
America's shiny new copyright and patent crap is firmly rooted in the monarchial grants of absolute right and trade guildism that America's founding fathers firmly rejected.
Too many powerful people around the world want control of their respective economies, and one way you do that is by manipulating and suppressing technological advancement.
And adoption of the Berne Convention Treaty was one of the first signs that America was heading down this path. We gave up being the industrial might driving the economy of the world for being a bunch of paper traders.
If they can manage to hold themselves together as a nation China wins. If not India wins. In any case, we lose as our bits of paper become worthless on the international market.
Jesus we used to make some good stuff.
KFG