The technology community’s enthusiasm for Linux, at least outside of Redmond in the US, was once so fervent that to doubt its capacity for revolutionising the software industry was akin to blasphemy.
As the open-source operating system (OS) continually proved itself at the back-end, there was an air of inevitability that it might also manage to shake Microsoft’s strong-hold on the desktop. But in the half a decade since, Linux accounts for mere single-digit percentages of total desktop operating systems. Nonetheless, the OS continues to develop, and further shifts in market dynamics repeatedly beg the question: Will Linux ever win the hearts and minds of the average desktop user?
2006: A new hope
There are some significant barriers in the way of the adoption of Linux on the desktop. It has long been criticised for being too technical for the average user, having too many device driver complications and lacking IT admin capabilities such as managing multiple SOEs.
The most recent versions of desktop Linux, such as Novell’s new SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) and Ubuntu 6.06, have matured in leaps and bounds in terms of usability. So much so, according to Novell technical strategist Paul Kangro, that some of the functionality is in the league of what users might expect from the upcoming release of Microsoft’s new OS, Vista. The difference being: these Linux products are already available.
“Linux has become a lot easier to install and the usability on the desktop has improved out of site,” says Bill Gerannikos, proprietor of VG Computing, a small business that specialises in selling Linux-loaded desktop, server and laptop computers. “It’s far more polished all round.”
That said, Linux developers still have their work cut out in attempting to meet the standards set by their impossibly dominant rival. Often applications running on a Linux OS, for example, have completely different layout and menu schemes from each other, while users of any Microsoft applications tend to find navigation fairly standard across applications.
There are also continuing reports of problems with hardware drivers. While Novell claims that such bugs have been ironed out in its new offering, Geronnikos says that Linux users can expect to “still have trouble with the occasional sound card or video capture card”.
Linux also suffers from the fact that Microsoft’s Windows operating system, and to a lesser degree the Apple Mac OS, are used as yardsticks for how an operating system should look and feel. The Linux community continues to struggle with whether it should be mimicking Windows to attract new users, or conversely, re-invent the graphical user interface (GUI) altogether. “I tend to fall into the latter camp,” Gerannikos argues. “I think we need to develop something easier and ultimately superior than Windows in the long term.”
For its part, Novell is happy to borrow from the industry leader where it deems appropriate. “If you build a product that is completely alien to the normal user’s experience you are in trouble,” Kangro says. “To some degree it has to look, feel and operate like the typical user experience as well as having new and interesting features.”
“The Linux desktop has come a long way. You’re getting most of the tools you need at one-tenth the cost.”
Paul Kangro, NovellThe app trap
The functionality of the OS aside, the Linux community has another great burden to carry—that the vast majority of applications widely recognised and used by desktop users are still unavailable on Linux. Developers of the world’s most popular software applications have not seen enough penetration of Linux on the desktop to warrant porting their programs to it.
Novell’s own research, undertaken in a survey of 10,000 online users, suggest that Adobe’s Photoshop graphics tool and Dreamweaver development tool, Autodesk’s AutoCAD drawing tool and Apple’s iTunes music software are the most sought after applications that users would like to see ported to the Linux platform. Both Adobe and Apple refuse to speculate on any plans to port such apps to Linux.
Novell has had to make do with bundling alternative open-source applications that attempt to achieve the same functionality as these programs. But the lack of user familiarity with these tools, as opposed to their Windows-hosted cousins, is still a major impediment to Linux’s growth on the desktop. The marketing dollars that go into promoting the products of Adobe or Apple ensure that they remain virtual industry standards.
The Linux community can take heart in the fact that software giant IBM has at least come to the party, announcing in July that it would make its popular Lotus Notes corporate productivity software available on Linux.
Lotus Notes is a widely adopted tool in the enterprise, and IT managers at IBM shops tend to have already become familiar with Linux as a core technology. IBM’s move is seen as a mark of maturation for the operating system.
“We’re proving our commitment to Linux,” claimed IBM exec Arthur Fontaine on making the announcement. “And we’re really setting ourselves apart from our competition, because Linux is a platform Microsoft is not likely to ever support.”
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