What Stops You from Using Linux?

[Dave A]

Something is wrong. The idea/s may be good, but it may be too early, not in the right time, not with the correct combinations or whatever.

Too many splinter groups.
Too much parallel, unconnected development.
No central control of conventions and hand-over points to ensure integration of diverse applications.
No big daddy setting the rules.

[twinscythe12332]

played around with linux when I was doing my cti course... the small course I did with it showed you how to do the whole gui thing, but also loved going into the command prompt and making you give arb commands. as much as I love having that extra X MB that my DVD drive may be taking, I'd prefer not to have to "mount" the drive every time i want to use it.

whereas with windows I don't need to go anywhere near the command prompt, lots of stuff works with it, and there isn't version xyz delta quadrant C sector 5. I don't have to choose between the numbers of different "distributions." redhat? ubuntu? is one better, is one worse? I've got a choice of home, professional, business, ultimate, etc with windows. sounds like an understandable scale.

guess it's the same sort of thing as why I moved to visual studio and .net from JAVA. better program for writing the programs, and I know that it'll work on the platform it was designed to work on.

edit:
bring the discs/whatever and the server home sometime dad and I'll take a look at it. Maybe I need to give linux a second chance.

[Karenwhe]

Too many splinter groups.
Too much parallel, unconnected development.
No central control of conventions and hand-over points to ensure integration of diverse applications.
No big daddy setting the rules.

I completely agree 1000%, but who does the last statement sound like? Maybe Microsoft? (I am so glad you said it, not me.)

This is just so funny, but also true. You see, that which you run away from is sometimes the only thing that can save you..... (save your market and up take, in this case).

[Norri]

Wow, this got heated pretty quick.

I believe things are changing a bit faster these days because giants like Google now have a vested interest in the uptake of Linux. Specifically...

- Picasa for Linux. This runs on WINE. So Google is happily contributing to the development of WINE so their own app works on Linux. Side-effect has been work done to get Photoshop CS2 working and something else I don't recall. Having Google contributing to the opensource world is so massive, I shouldn't have to explain it!

- More people on Linux == less people on Windows. Which generally equates to more people using Firefox. Which generally equates to more people using Google. It's a long run but Google's in it for the long run, so it could work.

- A side effect of their 20% rule. (20% of your time as a Google employee can be spent on personal projects). This is resulting in some more work being done on opensource projects.

I think Google + Ubuntu are the 2 main reasons why Linux will (over the next 10-20 years) becomes a SERIOUS threat to Windows. Why? Because you basically have GEEKS who have turned into BUSINESS PEOPLE so the crucial missing block of economics is being filled in.

There are countless problems with both Windows and Linux (and Mac) but the above is why I think Linux is going to become an option for the end-user. Not the MAIN option, necessarily. But an option. Where right now, it pretty much isn't.

[Debbiedle]

Something is wrong. The idea/s may be good, but it may be too early, not in the right time, not with the correct combinations or whatever.

I believe that you are correct when you say that right now may not be the right time, but if we don't start right now, we will fall behind. A quick check of my webstats showed me that 0,5% of all users used Linux in 2005. Today 3 years later 4.6% of all my visitors use Linux. That is considerable growth.

One would however expect the Linux growth to be faster considering that it is free, more stable and gives you additional flexibility as far as individual machine applications go. I suspect the reason the growth has not been phenomenal is because of the initial difficulty in use. The original Linux distros a couple of years ago were similar to programming in DOS and from scratch (for me that was). Today they are much more user friendly, in fact for some simple applications as easy as windows.

With perseverance and intent, however, most things come together, so I do not believe we will be flogging a dead horse. I think we need to clarify our intent and bring it into our curriculum. It is 2008 and I have for the first time come across a grade 2 kid being taught how to google something - internet research is finally part of the curriculum - why wait for 12 years before seeing the light with open source? Why not get ahead of the curve for a change?

How many man hours have you invested volunteering in open source projects to be so optimistic? and for how long have you been involved with open source community projects to speak with such confidence?
Maybe you invested far more than us and have far more experience and can show us the light.

Nope - can't show you the light - the windows vs linux debate is a raging debate all over the net and I doubt that the mere mortal I would be able to solve it in a single and simple swoop - but wait for my manic phase, I may rethink this comment!

I have been operating on the fringes of Linux for years Karen - about 5 or 6 now? Not in a formalised setting, as I am not a techno geek nor even remotely capable on OS implementation, but certainly looking at it from a business perspective (as a tool for my own business), also looking at it from the perspective of a SA citizen. I see it as an answer, or as a possible answer and maybe not now, but when then? I certainly don't see it as something we can discard off hand. I am also gratified to see that other leading European countries such as France are walking the route of removing Windows as their standard OS, does this include their schools, does anyone know?

Oh yes, I have also sat through the implementation of Linux on the various servers and work stations on our LAN and observed the challenges the IT team had. Some of them were big -ALL of them were overcome. One person in the team was 13 at the start of implementation. He was responsible for solving many of the problems. It's that GEEK button they have, I shall look for it and clone it!

[Karenwhe]

I think Google + Ubuntu are the 2 main reasons why Linux will (over the next 10-20 years) becomes a SERIOUS threat to Windows. Why? Because you basically have GEEKS who have turned into BUSINESS PEOPLE so the crucial missing block of economics is being filled in.

There I agree completely, give it that time and of course, it is a valid and very real possibility. Especially because both Google and Ubuntu are backed by serious money, deep pockets and business savvy to get it done.

[Dave A]

... but who does the last statement sound like? Maybe Microsoft?

The ultimate irony. And don't think for a moment Bill is not aware of it.

A quick check of my webstats showed me that 0,5% of all users used Linux in 2005. Today 3 years later 4.6% of all my visitors use Linux. That is considerable growth.

Debbie - what are you using to generate those stats. You might be including the bot count and internal visits. Here is a shot of the last 30 days worth of "real visitor" visits here using Google Analytics and Linux comes in at 0.76%



I also checked for the last 6 months - 0.80%

I believe things are changing a bit faster these days because giants like Google now have a vested interest in the uptake of Linux.

The big G is already being seen as the enemy in some quarters. It's funny in a way. We've got people cheering for Live to do better on search. We've got much the same people cheering for Google to do better on OS.

I can't see the inherent maverick nature of the Linux disciples letting Google be their lead dog.

[duncan drennan]

The Windows vs. Linux debate is all about a platform (OS), and most people don't care about the platform. The platform is really just a framework for applications which provide certain outcomes (the web is another platform). Very few people care about platforms (programmers mainly) and lots of people care about outcomes, which means that lots of people care about applications.

Most of the best open source applications run on all the OS'es available (e.g. Firefox), so that really makes the choice of OS for an average office worker irrelevant.

There is probably a relatively short list of things that most people think about,

• Can the OS run my applications?
• What is the cost?
• Is the OS cool enough for my community?
• Is it stable?

Cost is a mute point, as Windows "free" (it comes installed on just about every computer you buy). For desktop applications WinXP is just as stable as Linux (viruses could be the only thing to argue here). Cool depends on your community (any graphic designers using Windows or Linux? Nope, they all use Macs).

So arguing desktop OS is really misdirected, as most people care about applications (outcomes actually, but applications help them get there).

[Norri]

I can't see the inherent maverick nature of the Linux disciples letting Google be their lead dog.

Then you don't understand GPL. It has nothing to do with leading or following.

The licence basically forces anyone who modifies a piece of software covered by the licence, who then distributes that software, to distribute the changes under the same licence. Thereby allowing continuous (and unstoppable) progress.

There is no leader.

There are simply those who guide the process by investing in that PART of the process that serves them. In doing so, whether they like it or not, they serve the rest of the "system". The system being the opensource movement. That is the power of this movement. And it really is unstoppable. The proof in that pudding is in the very fact that people with money are investing in it. They've tried to ignore it for decades now, hoping it would die but that won't happen because the software itself has life (through the hands of its numerous creators).

[Debbiedle]

Debbie - what are you using to generate those stats.

Hi Dave - AW STATS from Hetzner. I hear you on the internal and therefore checked a second website that we run that targets the international market as opposed to my site that is geared toward South Africans
2005 = 0.8%
2008 = 5.1%

Then because I got on a roll, I looked at the stats on my kids site - SA target age 16 - 26
2005 - Nul
2008 = 4.5%