Posted by Phrixus on Wed 12 Nov 08, 7:15 PM to Phrixus's blog.
For the brave and the stupid that have inadvertently stumbled upon a weblog about something technical, for those who when now told that are still reading, I will try and help you out a bit first.
Linux is something that you could use instead of Windows, it's an alternative operating system. There are a staunch bunch of linux advocates on the net so you know that it must be doing something right, but why doesn't everyone use it? Well it must also be getting things wrong.
That on it's own, wouldn't be particularly interesting if it wasn't for the fact that a lot of people are continually working hard to make it better and better.
As a relatively technical user of Windows I find myself increasingly flirting with the idea of using linux and hitting disappointment, but I can't help but see that it is growing and getting better.
I think a good layman's way of thinking about what I'm talking about is pretty clear. Most people have at least seen an Apple Mac. There are fancy posh stores with carefully designed tables and trendy looking people in them that will try and pimp you them.
Thing is, if you try and use a Mac it's all pretty and exceptionally intuitive. I think it puts Windows to shame quite frankly, it really is just better. I'm tired of the way Windows doesn't seem to innovate in a good way anymore. Vista just looked like a tarted up bloated version of XP to me. Now I certainly don't want to fork out a large amount of money for a Mac, but I do have a huge respect for something that is just simply better to use.
The idea is simple, could linux deliver this one day? Can linux seriously compete with Windows? Many linux advocates will claim that it already can. I'm not so quick to believe this.
I want a computer from the movies. I want it to load fast, recognise my voice, be completely fancy and very pretty. Most of all I want it to do everything. I also want it to do everything in a really easy way.
Now back to the real world.
I've just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my home machine and while initial impressions are very good, it's still uggly. So I think, perhaps I can simply go about fixing this.
The intuitive route takes me to System > Prefferences > Appearance and it seems that we might have a victory on our hands! However no, there is a very limited choice here and I don't fancy any of them. There is however an install button, so... time to hit the web.
A quick google on the web and I find GTK themes, whatever those are and I start plaing around with trying to install them. This is when I start hitting problems. Most things are not installing. I find themes that require other things to install, I manage to install those other things through Synaptic Package Manager (no that wasn't intuitive) but even then things are just not working properly.
Do I see help anywhere on how to install these things? No. I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall just as I have so many other times with trying linux in the past.
It's better, oh it's definitely better. I find the idea of linux getting good enough for mainstream use very exciting, but my experience is telling me it's just not there yet.
Sure you can knock up a web browser on it and an email program and give it to your folks and so long as they don't want to do anything unusual with it, I'm sure they'll be fine, but that is missing the point.
I want linux to win, I like the idea of Microsoft being seriously challenged, but I only see Apple doing that at the moment.
So I will keep on having a bash at it every so often. As a designer I love the way it doesn't force fonts into looking all the same (like windows does, it's called excessive font hinting). I like the way some of the things work. It's just right now there are some things that I want to do that are really hard work, and I ask myself...
Do I really want to spend a day figuring out how to do something that I could have spent earning money, or with friends or family, going out and having fun?
No... I don't.
I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Matthew
| 12 Nov 08, 7:49 PM MrTom UK, 8 yrs |
On a technical level, Linux could easily deliver it. The obstacles are not technical. What you are comparing is a product produced by a development team working full-time, with an overall plan that enforces consistency and usability standards, and one built up from separate bits and pieces written by enthusiasts - albeit very talented ones - in their spare time. (It is no accident that much open-source software originates from academia.) It's the other side of open-source software; it can be excellent, but when the developer gets fed up and moves on to something else, there is no-one to complain to. Ditto when it comes to installing stuff - the person who sorts out all the business of downloading, and resolving all the dependencies, is the user.
Informed Consent: accepting the unacceptable, tolerating the intolerable | |
| 12 Nov 08, 7:56 PM fred07 UK(MK), 4 yrs |
My ex helpfully installed a linux partition on my computer so I could do some stuff that windows simply couldn't do. However, as soon as he got the boot & I had to look after the linux side of my box, I discovered very quickly that you had to be a teccie with an understanding of how computers worked in order to make the linux side of things work. I quickly gave up as I had neither the time or inclination to spend days reading "Linux for Dummies" to get things moving, and have managed really quite well without.
Vista is as far as I'm concerned just a tarted up version of xp (to the point where I made a lot of it look like xp just so I could drive the bloody OS). There is a lot of freeware out there that will do most linuxy spangly stuff just as well, as long as you know where to look for it. I'm lucky as I have a good mate who I just email with a conundrum (such as "where can I get a free gantt chart maker"), and I generally get a sensible answer in minutes  | |
| 12 Nov 08, 8:49 PM Scribbles UK(RH), 4 yrs  |
I really couldn't care less about it being, as you say, "uggly". I'm married to a keen ambassador of the penguin (he wore Tux cufflinks to the wedding) and so I've been running Linux for nearly 10 years. Yes, I keep a little notebook by the keyboard to jot down the names of new applications, but I can work out how to type "man" to learn what's what in them. I use Iceweasel, Gajim, Evolution, Iceowl and Totem and I'm happy with all of them. Edited 12 Nov 08, 8:51 PM by Scribbles | |
| 12 Nov 08, 9:13 PM filthfromfingers UK(RG), 4 yrs |
If you want to play with Linux without many of the hassles like re-partitioning the machine or dealing with hardware then get hold of the VMWARE player and one of their appliances. Someone else has built it and installed most of the useful stuff.
It is also useful for browsing some of the more darker corners of the internet. Linux needs to be more user friendly - if you had attempted to look for support you would have come away badly burnt. Most Linux support forums and groups are not the most friendly of places and are the hang out of the geeks who know their product back to front. Unfortunately they are missing the inter-personal skills to communicate with non-technical people (ie anyone else who doesn't know Linux like they do). It has come on a long way, and one or two of the distributions are getting quite good. However I compare it with the level of Windows 3.1 - still too much technical stuff going on in the background. It will not be until there is a Windows 95 type change, Linux will continue to be niche. As for Apple, if Microsoft had the stranglehold over hardware that Apple do then Windows would probably come on leaps and bounds. Considering the number of combinations of hardware that you can have Windows does very well. S | |
| 12 Nov 08, 10:16 PM Jezzebelle UK, 10 yrs |
Dyed in the wool Mac user, had a PC laptop for a few months with vista; poor imitation of a Mac and highly difunctional was glad when I could go back to what I love. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jezzebelle/ | |
| 12 Nov 08, 10:30 PM Phrixus UK(ST), 5 yrs |
I'm quite familiar with Macs and while I don't use one I do believe OS X is the best operating system around today. This signature has been left blank intentionally. | |
| 12 Nov 08, 10:31 PM MsShania UK, 11 yrs |
That was so informative....now where's the chocolate |
