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April 27, 2009

Desktop Linux: Why it may have lost its chance

After 18 years, Linux is still struggling to gain a foothold on the business desktop. Could it be too late?

By Neil McAllister | InfoWorld
| Print | 18 comments|
55 Recommendations

It's time we faced it: The Year of the Linux Desktop, long foretold, isn't coming.

Year after year, breathless pundits announce that the open source OS is on the verge of a tipping point, a critical mass that will see businesses abandoning Windows in droves. And year after year, nothing happens. Is it too late for desktop Linux to matter?

[ See why desktop Linux makes a better successor to Windows XP for most business users than Windows Vista or 7 -- if only businesses would give it a chance. | Discover the eight questions to ask to see if you can adopt desktop Linux. ]

The issue isn't whether Linux is "ready for prime time." Modern desktop-centric Linux distributions -- including Mandriva, Novell Suse, Ubuntu, and Xandros -- have made impressive strides in aesthetics, usability, management, and hardware support. Major hardware manufacturers ship systems with Linux pre-installed, and Dell reports that customer satisfaction rates are just as high for the Linux models of its Inspiron Mini 9 netbooks as for the Windows models. Today's Linux really is reliable, polished, and full-featured enough for mainstream desktop use.

Even Microsoft admits it. After years of denial, the software giant's latest SEC filings acknowledge mounting competitive pressure from Linux, and not just in the datacenter. Addressing Microsoft investors in February, CEO Steve Ballmer went as far as to suggest that the open source OS could be a greater threat to Windows than Mac OS X. That same month, Microsoft began actively recruiting a director of open source desktop strategy, a position whose responsibilities will include "influencing multimillion dollar marketing campaigns."

Enterprises aren't buying the Linux promise, nor are vendors
Yet if Microsoft is willing to spend millions on desktop Linux, the enterprise plainly is not. Even given the backlash against Vista and uncertainty surrounding Windows 7, there has been no mass exodus. By Ballmer's own figures, the greatest threat to Windows remains unlicensed Windows, not Linux. In fact, according to research from Net Applications, Linux's market share has declined in recent months, despite the breakout success of low-cost Linux netbooks.

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Photog_7 27-Apr-09 6:55am
2 replies
The importance of commercial software support cannot be overstated. Until Adobe comes on board, desktop Linux will remain a dream. In the real world, only Linux enthusiasts think the GIMP is a good replacement for Photoshop. The GIMP runs in OS X and Windows, and it's free, so why do so many people choose the very expensive Photoshop over the GIMP? Because it's better! And when someone buys a camera, printer, scanner, GPS unit, or whatever, they want to be able to install all the applications that come with it on the CD. You can't do that with Linux, and you are likely to have to search for and manually install drivers or software to make it work at all (if you can find them). But I do believe if Adobe ever joined the Linux movement, Microsoft and Apple would be shaking in their boots.
dotty 19-May-09 4:10am
No, it is not because it's better at all. That may be the case, that may not be. There are a number of other factors that come into play, for example, advertising - especially word of mouth. Many believe that Photoshop is superior simply because you pay for it - free software can't be good, right? Wrong. Compare GIMP to Photoshop CS3 for example: there are few, if any, features that are not supported by GIMP (and those that aren't can be added using plugins). I personally didn't like GIMP at first, I preferred the Photoshop interface, mainly - but after a friend convinced me to not dismiss GIMP and learn how to use it properly, it did everything that Photoshop could. As for "the year of Linux", that won't be for some time now. I'm confident that it'll come - and I agree that if a big company like Adobe started developing for Linux a lot could happen. Windows has cost computing a lot in terms of viruses and general innovation - I'm sure that'll come to an end in the future.
Reeb22 7-Sep-09 1:00am
Dotty is absolutely right. I switched to GNU/Linux a few years ago and it took a little getting use to. MS Windows became such a pain it just wasn't worth using any more. The MS Windows XP everybody seems to like today forgets how much of a head ache it is. MS Windows 9x for instance only took one screen to configure a network whereas XP takes several. Wizards aren't always better and that was largely what XP brought us. Sure- the NT kernel helped stabilize things- but you still have viruses, spyware, and other hellish concerns. Ineffective anti-virus slowing the system down doesn't help either and lots of other bloat. GIMP does take getting use to. Once you get over the initial "OMG it looks different" anyway it satisfies your typical business needs. The marketing people may be a little disgusted as they can't stand having to pick up something new- but I can tell you it is just as effective at getting stuff done. Switching from Paint Shop Pro to Adobe Photo Shop was more of a challenge than switching from Paint Shop Pro to the GIMP. I tried to switch to Adobe Photo Shop and realized it wasn't worth the time and effort. No matter how much people think it is better- it isn't. Allot of open source software will do the majority of what you want it to and all of what you need it to. And in allot of cases it does everything you desire it to. Microsoft Office 2007 is a night mare. Microsoft cut features, ruined the interface, and it still doesn't support many of the features of OpenOffice and other open source office suites. For instance MS Office still doesn't support Adobe Flash or PDF out of the box.
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