Update: I wrote a followup to Adrian’s new article here.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes over at ZDNet talks about the five things that the Linux community does not understand about the average computer user. While I agree with some of his points, I think his opinion is somewhat misdirected. I’ll take up his points one-by-one. Before I do that, however, I’d like to point out that I am an avid user of Linux — I have been using Linux for over ten years and I make my living programming on the Linux platform. This sets me apart from the average computer user, but I know a lot of people who are non-geeks, so I do have some idea about what the average user needs.
1 – On the whole, users aren’t all that dissatisfied with Windows
I agree with Mr. Hughes on this point. The Linux community makes a big deal about how Windows is infested with viruses and spyware, but the fact remains that 90% of computer users still manage to get their work done. With a little bit of education and the right software it is not hard to stay away from viruses and spyware. It is human nature to exaggerate the other side of the story to emphasize your own point and I believe that the Linux community is guilty of that. It is true that Linux isn’t affected by viruses and spyware, but the Linux community could emphasize other good things about Linux without trying to hard to beat down on Windows.
2 – Too many distros
This is a common refrain used against Linux and it is a gross misrepresentation. Sure, there are a lot of distros, but there is no need for the average user to be concerned about it. Most modern distros, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE and Linspire are quite similar to each other. If an average user is given any distro to start out with, they should have no trouble getting used to it. The problem of choice is only an issue if you have to install a distro on your own. Mr. Hughes compares the issue of multiple distros with the choice between different flavours of Windows Vista. If anything, making the choice for a Linux distro is easier than choosing a Vista flavour because you don’t miss out on any functionality and you don’t have to consider the price difference at all because all distros are free. Once pre-installed Linux becomes more common, this is not something that an average user will even have to worry about.
3 – People want certainty that hardware and software will work
Mr. Hughes correctly points out that there is very little hardware that is certified to work with Linux. However, Linux hardware support has been constantly improving and now most hardware works with Linux right out of the box. Plug in your digital camera and the photo management software opens up and lets you copy the photos. Plug in your iPod and the music jukebox comes up. Printers auto-configure themselves and webcams work right out of the box. Dell has stated that all hardware that they put into computers that come with Linux is certified to work. Other Linux hardware vendors such as Penguin Computing and System 76 also certify 100% hardware compatibility.
As far as software is concerned, there is a huge repository of open-source software available for all applications. There are some specialised areas that don’t Linux equivalent, but there is more than for the average user. What’s more is that all software is available for free and is easily installable from one source. You don’t have to go hunting for what you need — just browse through or search your package manager. If availability of software were an issue, you wouldn’t see Mac OS gaining market share. People are willing to find substitutes and most people will find what they need.
4 – As far as most people are concerned, the command line has gone the way of the dinosaur
This is a ridiculous claim that Mr. Hughes makes. Linux has a fully functional GUI and you don’t even have to resort to using using the command line. Not even the most hard-core Linux users claim that command line is the way to go for the average user. Command line has always been and will always be for the power user. I don’t see people extolling the virtues of the command line as a selling point for Linux.
5 – Linux is still too geeky
Put a Windows user in front of a Gnome or KDE environment and I’m willing to bet that they will be able to find their way around. It may take a little while, but eventually they’ll figure out what applications are available and what they need. The Gnome community has done extensive usability studies to simplify the interface for the average user. As an example, the menus refer to applications by their purpose and not just by their clever names (Liferea, anyone?). Mr. Hughes brings up the example of Ubuntu updates. I don’t see what is so complicated about the Ubuntu update manager. You are prompted that there updates available, you get a list of updates, you click “OK” and you install them. You don’t have to know what was updated if you don’t want to. It’s the same way with Windows and Mac OS X. As an added bonus, all software is updated through one simple update manager — every piece of software doesn’t have to have it’s own different way of updating itself.
So what will it take for Linux to be adopted? Here’s my theory: there is nothing that can be done to magically have Linux on every computer. Linux adoption will come at a gradual pace. As far as technology is concerned, Linux is already there (other than a few hairy issues such as graphics cards and wireless). What Linux needs is some serious marketing muscle from a big corporation. We have seen how Apple managed to improve its reach through intelligent marketing. Dell’s move is a small step in this direction. Canonical is working hard on the coolness factor. There is no magic pill, things will go slowly. We just have to live with it.
dcparris of lxer.com has written an excellent rebuttal to Adrian’s post. He reinforces some of the things that I said with a more colourful attitude.
“other than a few hairy issues such as graphics cards and wireless”
These are only two of the most important facets of my computing experience. Try again. You’re arguing that Linux is *not* too geeky?
I did not elaborate on the “hairy issues” of graphics cards and wireless because it would get into technical details. Graphics cards and wireless are a problem because of the lack of/limited support from the hardware manufacturers. There _is_ a subset of hardware that works well with Linux (namely NVidia graphics cards and non-Broadcom wireless chipsets). Now this is something that an average user should not have to know about. My point is that Dell will go to great lengths to ensure that all the hardware that the sell with Linux boxes will work properly. All current Linux hardware distributors do so already. There is nothing geeky that an average user has to do about it.
there is nothing more annoying than (1) getting a blank screen right after you are done install linux (e.g., try freespire and learn one hour later, after some frantic googling, that you need to manually add “xdriver=vesa” to the boot command line), or (2) finding out that there is no way to configure your wireless linksys card on linux with wpa-psk security. imho, more insight and less evangelism could help linux adoption.
i have tried kubuntu 6.10 for an old computer. it is a disaster. what most of you fail to realize is that MOST people do not want to relearn what they already know. command line installation is so 1980′s, i’ve forgotten how to use it. when the linux community comes up with an auto-installer that will eliminate the command line, then everyday pc users will start using the different linux distros.
Hi Larry,
The point I was trying to make in the post is that the complexity of the installation procedure is not important and not a fair comparison. Most Windows users never have to install Windows and I believe that if they had do, it wouldn’t be any easier than installing Linux. Ubuntu and Kubuntu and other modern distros have a nice GUI installer that works in most cases, though it may fall back to the command line if there are some hardware issues.
Hi Larry B,
i have installed most of the major Linux distos on several machines, i have never used the command line to install any one of them.
Hmm ok… So installing Linux has all this text-based screens asking me lots of questions I don’t understand. Now let’s try, for example, Windows Vista on a brand new machine… Phone call to a friend who tell me to, hmm, stick the DVD on the dvd-player, and turn on the computer… ok… Hmm what’s this? A Welcome message ok, a couple questions easilly understandable, cool, press Next, wait a few minutes… That’s it? It’s installed and working? Wow! That must be the ‘wow’ of Windows everyone is talking about…
Seriously, get a clue. Make Linux easier as that and THEN you can say bye-bye Windows. And I’m not talking about just the installation. It’s everything! Take the “update application”, for example. What the heck ‘lib-procshadow-whatever’ means? I just want to make my webcam work!
I make my living working with customers and business’ i am out in the public everyday and the public does not want to chase drivers and software, they also don’t want to learn the lingo that goes with Linux, they have a hard enough time with Mac and Windows stuff and i know that some Linux distros are nice and work just fine but until the Linux community can put together something the public can understand and use just as easily as a mac or windows without changing how they talk about it Linux will be on the fringes
I think what alot of people, especially those switching from a windows to a gnu/linux environment don’t understand is that it is a completely different and new computing environment. Just because someone has told them that linux is powerful and secure and even includes a gui and all the appropreiate software they will need does not mean that it is a applicable OS for them. For instance I would never give linux to my parents who dont know what a filesystem is, or are even confused by the “C drive”. Further more, how many windows users even know what compiling software means? Also despite what some linux evangelists will say, stuff does not just work. Be prepared to google extensively to solve the multitude of problems you will face. I think learning the shell is essential as well. For those people who say that everything can be accomplished in gnome/kde, this is simply not true. There are things that cannot be fixed without delving into the shell. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I view Linux as a power user OS. It is difficult to learn but once you have even somewhat of a handle on it the rewards can be very gratifying. For those of us who are willing to invest days,months,years of our time to maintain and learn this brilliant OS, kudos, but for the rest looking for something that simply does what they want most of the time I’d say stick with windows/mac.