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The Agony and Ecstasy Of Becoming a Linux OEM
jammag writes "An article at the site Datamation, entitled Becoming a Linux OEM: A Roadmap, talks about the challenges (and rewards) of selling hardware with Linux pre-installed — most likely a growth market in the years ahead. The interesting part is the description of how some smaller Linux OEMs have made it. The bottom line: surviving as a Linux OEM requires far more than making it as a Windows OEM. In particular, you have to make the systems idiot-proof for users who don't care a whit about what OS they're using."
It's still very much a niche market. Most users that know of Linux (and would buy a PC with it) prob either have enough experience with it to install, or want to try installing. The rest of users PROB don't care and are just buying one because it's (cheaper|a friend said to). But now as more and more companies (ok, from one or two to a half a dozen or so) are switching to completely Linux (Peugeot did), the market moves from being a niche to mainstream, but it's not quite there yet... Give it time, and these companies that are struggling will be on for a ride...
If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
As for the embedded world, they've had it made since the early days of SBC's running Linux in rom, Linksys WRT54G, and now Tivo's.
I dont want to sound like a FUD parrot, however as a businessman I would think that legality is a significant concern.
There are looming possibilities of "patent claims" and "copyright infringement" against linux and the components that various distributions include. As a Linux OEM, I would think that fact poses significant risk to your business. It only takes one weird case/judge/lobby such as the old JPG copyright scares, etc to potentially put you at legal risk.
Again I'm not saying such a thing would be justified, but the possibility of it...when it's your money on the line is scary.
"familiar" ... check
... believe it or not, for most people windows does just work. A lot of power users complain about the inflexibility of windows. Fair enough. Others complain about viruses, trojans, etc. because they are the idiots who open up junkmail offering them free shit. Fair enough. In between, though, there are millions of people who work fine in Windows. Like it or not. There is room for both Linux and Windows.
"just works"
Many of the problems that keep Linux from gaining a bigger slice of desktop market are known and could be solved. But the people who have the skills to solve these problems aren't interested in them. The standard response to "user" issues is: Well, why don't YOU write the patch / app / whatever.
But you see, most "average" users are not programmers, and don't want to be programmers. As long as the people with the programming skills required to address Linux usability issues show no interest in usability for the "average" user, Linux will stay where it is and Microsoft will own the consumer market regardless of how crappy their OS is, because Microsoft *does* make an attempt to address usability for the "average" user.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The main reason that Windows "just works" for the average user is because all of the hardware manufacturers design their hardware and drivers specifically to work for Windows. This article is basically saying that OEM's who install Linux on their systems have to work around the frustrations of getting their distribution to work with their hardware and to prepare it for other hardware which the user might install/use with their system. IMO this is an added frustration that Windows OEMs don't have to deal with because of Windows widespread adoption. However, as Linux continues to gain users and hardware manufacturers begin to recognize Linux as a dominant OS alternative the frustrations the Linux OEMs now have will disappear as compatibility for Linux is integrated into hardware and drivers.
Getting Linux onto the desktop requires a great deal more user interaction. I think though that Linux is getting there. Windows is not much easier to use than Linux, but it does need a lot more support from hardware vendors to get to the "just works" level.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Most people buy Windows because that is really the only choice. ....
Go to Best Buy and count how many programs you can buy for Windows. Now count how many for the Mac and then how many for Linux.
Go and look for a printer that says that it will work with Linux, WiFi card, Webcam,
This is from the end users stand point mind you.
One of the big problems for Linux is the lack of a stable binary driver interface. Even if you are going to make your drivers FOSS you can not just stick a cd in the box or post the driver on your website. The faithful will say that there is no need for the hardware manufacture to make a driver since they can just give out the specs. Well yes but then you have to wait for your driver to be included in the the kernel and then for them to be included in the distros.....
The hardware people all control of when the support will get to the end user that way. So even if a company creates a driver for a piece of hardware and makes it FOSS they may have to wait months before it becomes available as part of the kernel.
This isn't an issue for the embedded space or servers but it really is a pain for the average end user.
Yes there is a lot of really good free software that you can run on a Linux desktop but sometimes you just want to play Age of Empires, WOW, or buy that $10 set of card games at Best Buy.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Funny how the truth can get a troll rating.
I've seen this a lot, plenty of people for whom Windows "Just works", and for the reasons mentioned - mostly they don't go around downloading everything they see, and runing it, and trusting every email blindly. Add to that a good firewall router, and they are just as happy as clams.
Evil is right, there is room for both Windows and Linux out there, as well as several other OSes.
If Linux were more popular in the user community, how long do you think it would be before someone decided to email around a shell script that had some local privlege escalation code in it, and managed to work out a botnet from Linux boxes? Do you think the average user would be any more knowledgable that they've been hacked, than if they were using windows? Heck, even if the hack were on their account specifically, and only ran when they were logged on (many users only log off when they shut their computers off, at least for home machines).
Sure the hole would get fixed relatively quickly, but the hacked computers probably wouldn't. We'd have the same problem that we have in Windows.
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
But those people with the skills that you're talking about don't give a flying fuck about Linux ruling the desktop market. They have what works for them, and do it for the love of doing it.
Besides, in my opinion that kind of polish is the job of the distro makers to pull it all together. If some distro wants to take on Microsoft on the desktop, then they'll fund developers doing that work (as Canonical is doing with Ubuntu), so I don't really see a problem or a need to villify developers who've already given you a whole boatload of free software as lazy.
>...you have to make the systems idiot-proof for users who don't care a whit about what OS they're using...
More so, they should avoid being Linux snobs and stop using phrases such as "idiot proof" if they are really interested in growing.
You know, I read the thing twice. I didn't see any agony. I didn't see any ecstasy.
What I saw were a few fairly vague suggestions and one piece of advice (know your market) repeated over and over. There wasn't any real research. There weren't any statistics. I'm sure my second reading was a waste of time and electrons, and the more I think about it, the first one was too.
As someone else mentioned, there are still end-user problems regarding linux in the mass market. A user wants something that works. Especially John Q. Public, who doesn't give a darn what its running underneath. What he wants is the stuff he clicks on (in the OS or in the Web Browser or Application) to work. That means when you go to YouTube, the movie plays and the sound works. When he wastes time on a web games site, the games play. When he needs some software for some idiotic reason, its easily available, easy to install, and after he installs it he clicks on the icon and it works.
I've run Linux as an only OS in the past. 10 years ago, when I started doing that, there were many challenges to running it day to day, from corporate compatibility to application bugs. The reality for me is that many of those issues simply haven't been resolved yet.
When I think of the masses and Linux, I think about my family. I have a range of people there who span from retirees to teenagers. I don't think a single one is capable, or, perhaps more importantly, has any desire to switch. I don't think I could even convince my 20 something step daughter, who grew up with computers, to switch, even though she needs a cheap computer and Linux would let her get a fairly decent machine for very little.
In some ways, Linux strikes me as being 95% of the way there. The problem is, that last 5% may well be the most difficult part. The remaining issues are ones that will prevent mass adoption. For instance, I see the issue of video. The end user couldn't care less about Codecs. What they care about is the fact that when someone sends them a video file (most likely created in Windows), can they click on it and it plays with sound? As long as there are Window's proprietary video adn audio formats, that may be enough to keep a good portion of the userbase on Windows.
Not only that, but I can't imagine what support issues must be like. Even with good customer support, if you try to sell to anyone other than a geek or semi-geek, the phone support has to be pretty deep. Like my video playing example above, what happens when someone emails some inane audio clip and it won't play? What if Uncle Leonard needs to install drivers for a USB device?
Even for me, the thought of it to the masses is overwhelming. That final 5% is just a bear of a mountain to climb, and there isn't any easy way to get over it.
I also think the author of the article misses something in his targeting of customers. Remember, you've locked out so many segments of the customer base, who is left? Gamers are out, especially casual ones. Gramma and Grandpa are out, they won't switch to save their lives. Anyone who has some favorite Windows application is probably out, even if Wine supports it. Do you really think the average user is going to want to know how to get Wine running (even with top notch support?), let alone figure out how to upgrade it each time a new version comes out?
I'm sorry, I just don't see how this article addressed anything that anyone who has even thought about setting up a business shouldn't have thought about 2 minutes after they get the idea.
Bill
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Yeah, there's still a few kinks. But whereas Linux was for tinkerers and hobbyists in the late 90s, and around when RH8 came out it became simple for the experienced computer user, now I'd be willing to throw linux in for any intermediate computer user. That is to say, not ready for Grandma yet but a hell of a lot closer than it ever has been."
I certainly agree with your sentiment that Linux has become WAY simpler over the last few years. I'm not sure whether I'd go so far as to say Linux became simple for the experienced computer user in late 2002. It all depends on what you do. The hard part is not really using it, that's easy. Even Grandma can use it, once she's taught which buttons to click.
The hard part is getting your hardware configured, chasing drivers, and figuring out how to do everything you used to do in Windows, but in Linux. The more varied the stuff you do, the harder it is. That's something Grandma will never do, but it's something that a certain class of power user has always done.
Linux is at the point where a good portion of these users will be able to make it through an install and never look back. It's only going to get easier now.
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.