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Why Linux Is Not Yet Ready For the Desktop

Posted by timothy on from the choose-your-own-misadventure dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Every now and then a new- or old-media journalist tries to explain to everyone why Linux is not yet ready for the desktop. However all those men who graduated from their engineering universities years ago have only superficial knowledge about operating systems and their inner works. An unknown author from Russia has decided to draw up a list of technical reasons and limitations hampering Linux domination on the desktop." Some of the gripes listed here really resonate with me, having just moved to an early version of Ubuntu 9.10 on my main testing-stuff laptop; it's frustrating especially that while many seemingly more esoteric things work perfectly, sound now works only in part, and even that partial success took some fiddling.

10 of 1,365 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The desktop is dead by Corson · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've heard and read that mantra ten years ago. The future is not web-based because no large corporation will put/send/store their sensitive stuff (as in trade secrets) on any other corporation's web servers. Not even email. Ever.

  2. Sound and HDs... by purduephotog · · Score: 5, Informative

    It took almost 3 months to get the sound working on Ubuntu (TOS-link). Even to this day I'm scared that if I lose the system I'll lose the configuration- it required editing different accounts, adding new packages, modifying them in a non-standard fashion, adding options that weren't documented...

    Windows XP? Put it in and the sound comes out.

    I'll say the same thing about hard drives too- while the support is built in I still had to do some 20 commands to add, mount, locate, format, automount, edit the UUID manualy, fdisk....

    Nothing better to kill 2 hours of your precious life.

  3. Re:9.10? by TobascoKid · · Score: 4, Informative

    "I would think that it was released they should have it mostly working well."

    No, I would expect 9.04 to be mostly working well (which for me it almost does - the regression in the intel video card support is ticking me off though). 9.10 is at early alpha - I would expect it to not work very well at all. So the submitter's complaints about issues with 9.10 are unwarranted.

    --
    At some point, somewhere, the entire internet will be found to be illegal.
  4. Re:The desktop is dead by Wowsers · · Score: 4, Informative

    The future is web based.

    Is it? After a typical month I am near my download limit for the month, and all it is is web browsing, email, and some file transfers. What is a web based solution going to do to bandwidth usage?

    I've used Google docs for a quick project, and it has vastly cut and inflexible features compared to a spreadsheet installed on your machine.

    Web based is too inflexible. Just my opinion of course.

    --
    Take Nobody's Word For It.
  5. Re:The main reason by fbjon · · Score: 4, Informative
    There is always room for a contender with a price tag of zero and up. About TFA, I've switched to Ubuntu 9.04 myself from Windows XP. Here's my data point:
    • It's pretty close to desktop-itude, far more so than last year, but perhaps not out-of-the-box. Hence most real issues left are installation issues.
    • I still haven't found anything important that couldn't be configured via some GUI or other.
    • There ARE games for Linux: Wine works surprisingly well, but there should be an automatic way of getting the needed libraries for any particular app
    • OpenOffice load times: Draw and Calc start in 5 seconds, Writer in 6. It works fast under use as well. I used OO on Windows as well, and the Linux version beats it quite handily. I have no comparison with MSOffice, though.
    • It boots slower than a fresh Windows install, and about twice as fast as the actual real-life Windows install I had. It also shuts down faster.
    • KDE vs. Gnome needs to get more standardized, but I haven't been bitten by anything terrible yet.
    • Some sudo tasks require the command line. DO NOT FIX.

    Mind you, I've used linux here and there since the 1.3 kernel (slackware then), and I've tried out just about every version of Ubuntu. This is the first time it stays in use.

    Some things in TFA make me wonder though, like "Enterprise: no standard way of software distribution". How hard is it to set up a local repository(-ies), from where workstations get updates?

    Finally, the next time someone posts and article about Linux and the desktop, please be clear which desktop we're talking about. This article seems to talk about all of them at once.

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  6. Re:9.10? by rantingkitten · · Score: 4, Informative

    As an aside, the Intel driver thing was about to be a deal-breaker for me also, after two days of using 9.04. Then I thought there must be a way to load the 8.04 video drivers for it, and lo, there is!

    Give that a try. I bet it fixes your problem; it worked awesome for me.

    (I ran into an intractable network card issue with 9.04 though, which forced me to go back to 8.04 entirely, but at least this solved my video problem...)

    --
    mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
  7. Re:Games by AmaDaden · · Score: 4, Informative
    Not quite. That did cause some people to freak out but people started taking it seriously when they saw this job posting from Valve. http://www.valvesoftware.com/job-SenSoftEngineer.html

    From my link

    Port Windows-based games to the Linux platform.

    The problem is that at this point is been over a year and we have seen no progress. So it's hard to say if they are hard at work or gave up for now.

  8. 3G is cheap by emj · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Stockholm I pay $3-$9 per month for 3G, even with max data usage you wouldn't pay more than $360/year. Are you sure you're not using prices from 99?

    1. Re:3G is cheap by arth1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      US prices and coverage are truly that high.

      Verizon and Sprint have equal prices:
      If you stay under 5 GB per month, you pay $720 per year, plus multiple various fees and taxes[1].
      For 10 GB per month usage, you pay $3792 per year (plus plus).
      Add 20 cents for every text message and 25 cents for every picture sent *or* received.
      And a voice plan, if you need that.

      For that, you get a service that covers around 2% of the geographical area. I.e. if you stay near large cities or major highways, you will likely be covered, if not, forget it.
      Unlike in Europe, where coverage is measured geographically, in the US is measured as percentage of the population. Assuming that the population has zero mobility, live at work, and never ever go anywhere else.
      The coverage in the US today is on par with what it was in the early 90s in Europe.

      Heck, people over here still use pagers and cheques, and as recently as last year, you could still find prerecorded cassette tapes for sale in major stores. We're a 3rd world country, really. We just won't admit to it, because we live in a glass bauble and don't look outside.

      [1]: Quoting Sprint: Monthly charges exclude taxes, Sprint Surcharges [incl. USF charge of up to 11.3% (varies quarterly), Administrative Charge (up to $1.99/line/mo.), Regulatory Charge ($0.20/line/mo.) & state/local fees by area]. Sprint Surcharges are not taxes or gov't-required charges and are subject to change. Sprint chooses to collect Washington State B&O Fee of 0.471% of your monthly billed charges to recover its costs.

  9. Re:Games by Ravenscall · · Score: 5, Informative

    I would add that when I tried installing Ubuntu a month or so ago on the same laptop, it said my wi-fi card was working, but it would not work. It also would not let me install the proprietary nVidia driver. When I ran the nVidia installer, it broke X.

    --
    You say you want a revolution....