JONTILLMAN.COM | part of the problem since 1976

The comments on my previous post about desktop Linux have gotten me thinking about what exactly desktop Linux needs in order to succeed. From where I sit, the big factors are:

• No Linux Distribution is built and marketed around the desktop. Sure, some distributions, such as SUSE Linux 10.1 OSS pretend to be, but in reality, they are still built around a set of philosophic principles that most end-users do not care about. If you want desktop converts, you are going to have to shut up about “restrictive software license” as an explanation why MP3s, Flash, PDFs, RealPlayer and Windows Media files do not work.
• The DVD Playback issue is not settled. Honestly, how do expect your average Joe to use your product when watching a movie on his laptop could make him a felon? I don’t know how this will shake out; either the ‘Betamax Defense’ will work, or some new tactic will have to be thought up, but I really believe that this one is a show-stopper.
• Drivers, Drivers, Drivers. If you are going to tout your product as a desktop replacement for Windows, then you are going to have to have as many driver options as Windows. No one wants to muck around with drivers just to get their network card working so that they can go read about what other hacks they need to get the rest of their hardware running. Excuses about not having access to specs from hardware vendors just don’t cut it here. If it doesn’t have drivers, and tons of them, and it can’t automatically detect and install more than 95% of the hardware out there, it isn’t a desktop operating system.
• Take a hint from Apple. No one is selling desktop Linux correctly. I don’t know what these folks have been smoking, but last time I looked, the large majority of people didn’t give a crap about freedom, cost-savings, or security update frequency when it came to their OS. All people care about is whether or not their computer comes with everything they need to turn it on and start playing on the web and emailing their friends. Everything else is lagniappe. If you can’t sell it as an easier way to get stuff done, or you can’t get Dell to sell it preinstalled on their machines, you won’t sell it.

There are probably other issues that I haven’t addressed, but from here, those are the biggies. Linux has a serious image problem - half of the desktop OS users don’t know what it is at all, and the other half think of it as too technical or “for experts and hackers”, regardless of whether or not they have ever used it.

Linux pundits have long talked about the technical merits of Linux, so much so that most people think of Linux as not being something they are capable of using, and as with most lifestyle and work-related options, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.