August 9, 1999
Can Linux Make It On The Desktop?
By Jason Levitt
Certainly, the lack of a broad suite of commercial-quality desktop applications makes Linux less
attractive to desktop users, and it seems unlikely that Microsoft will be porting its Office
applications suite to Linux during my lifetime. The lack of a standard GUI is a looming and
frustrating usability issue as well. While the various Linux systems employ a common
executable format and X-Window libraries, there are numerous window managers. "Choice," most
of the Open Source Forum participants would agree, is what Linux is all about. But this vast
array of GUI choices is often frustrating to end users. Things seem to be fleshing out in this
arena, though, as GNOME, a relatively recent and welcome addition to Linux, appeared in the most
recent distributions from Caldera and Red Hat. GNOME is one
of the better Unix desktops I've ever used, and the developers working on it appear determined to
ensure that it's free, open source, and includes many advanced developer features.
The Standard Base
Basic Installation Experience
Great strides have been made with the installation procedures, but there's still more work to be
done. I recently installed Red Hat Linux 6.0 on a pretty basic Dell PC, and, though I was impressed
that I didn't have to hand edit any text files, and that the installation program was pretty smart
about identifying my hardware, the installation procedure still required more knowledge than
you could expect of the average office worker.
The video installation dialog correctly identified my Matrox Millineum video hardware but
couldn't auto-configure the settings and ended up offering me a cryptic set of choices.
On the hard disk end of things, the Disk Druid installation program told me that my partition
table was corrupt and must be initialized on some partition that I couldn't identify. Meanwhile, I
had to figure out what it wanted when it asked for a "mount point" and understand what it meant
by a swap partition. Of course, I know what all this stuff means, but I shouldn't have to. I
suspect I was let off easy since my PC was fairly new and didn't have a SCSI adapter.
The View From Here
As a server platform, Linux has significant advantages over other choices. For some, "choice"
may be all they have to hear to buy into that Linux experience, but I think Linux has an uphill
battle to gain any kind of significant desktop user base.
inux ruled all two days of the recent Open Source Forum
(http://www.zdstudios.com/opensource) Conference in Austin, Texas, but in all the discussion of
developer tools, server software, and open source's ROI, there was little talk about Linux as a
desktop entity. In fact, none of the Linux pundits I talked to were convincing when they argued
that Linux, an open source Unix-like operating system that has been gaining ground in the back
offices of ISP's and Fortune 1000 companies, would ever make much headway as a desktop
operating system.
Another frustrating usability aspect is simply that the various Linux distributions offer
different add-on software and can tweak the source code of their operating systems, possibly
rendering them incompatible with other Linux versions. There is certainly no requirement that
Caldera or Red Hat include KDE (another popular GUI for Linux) and Gnome with their
distributions, nor that they even have to make sure that the same X Window libraries are
available. The result is that application portability could be threatened (e.g. my word processor
runs on Caldera Linux but not under Red Hat Linux). Fortunately, this problem seems to be
prominent on the must-fix agenda, as an entire Web site
is committed to the solution, and guidelines for a "Linux Standard Base," a standard set of Linux
operating system components, are expected to be finalized sometime this fall.
Usability, it seems, has only recently become an important aspect of Linux as it makes its way
to consumers in shrink-wrapped boxes such as those offered by Red Hat and Caldera .
Linux partisans are among the most reasonable sounding technology advocates that I know. Even
Jon "Maddog" Hall, executive director of Linux International, was quick to point out where Linux's
strengths and weaknesses lie, such as its lack of proven scalability using SMP (Symmetric
Multiprocessing), no integrated end-to-end E-commerce suite, and no high-availability support.
With the cost factors weighing heavily in favor of Linux users, proven reliability, and a steady
stream of corporate customers moving into the fold, it's only a matter of time before these
issues are resolved.
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