I was somewhat amused to read Michael Gartenberg's comments that Linux is still not ready for the desktop. Please don't tell that to any of the people who last year logged in 40,000 times to the 28 Linux computer stations at our small town library and community center in Takoma Park, Maryland. These people are using a Linux solution called Userful, which puts up with robust use day in and day out.
What's most fascinating to me is that members of the public have no clue that they're not using Windows. They're able to load up their Microsoft Word files using OpenOffice, and save them back to disk automatically in MS Word format. They surf the web, check email, do instant messaging, view YouTube videos, visit their Facebook page, learn touch typing skills and lots more.
Our public library has been offering these Linux public stations for the past 3 years. People come up to me and ask, ?What does Linux look like?? and I answer them with a gentle smile, ?The computer you've been using for the past two hours is Linux.?
Kids love using the OpenOffice draw program to add speech bubbles (also called ?callouts?) to funny animal photos from the Internet. People edit their photos using The GIMP. Seniors write their memoirs on our computers. One woman who uses our computer center has 17 great grandchildren.
Before I started this job I had never seen Linux used widely in a desktop environment. A few years ago I might have agreed that Linux is not quite ready for the desktop. Today, though, I get a bit queasy when I hear people say that Linux is not ready for the desktop. Are they fully informed when they make such statements? Maybe Linux is not ready for their desktop, but it sure is ready for ours.
The blogger has been working to bridge the digital divide for 20 years in the Washington DC-area. He loves Macs, adores Linux and likes Windows. Reader responses welcome in the comments below or at philshapiroblogger@gmail.com
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Thank you for these well balanced thoughts of yours. My wife and I share a computer. It makes no difference whatsoever to her that we run Linux because for many tasks we used to use the same software in XP.
Our home computer runs Linux. My wife uses it for e-mail, word processing, web surfing, etc. My kids (10 and 7) use it for many things, including games, web surfing, and school work. I use it for all above uses, plus for organizing photos, music, video, mapping, and tele-commuting. My
7-year-old said yesterday that he likes Linux way better than the Windows computers used at school. I also use Linux on my desktop at work, and am typing this now on a Linux laptop. I would never go back to Windows!
I suppose it's a matter of perspective. I have a lot of gripes with Linux, especially in the realm of config files for things I'd like to be able to do simply and efficiently; and for, that matter, in the lack of uniformity in creating specs to organize / structure data in core settings files.
These things pale into comparison with the flaws I find in Windows, often within minutes of being subjected to a Windows installation. If I'm being picky, Linux isn't ready for my desktop...but it is far closer than Windows, and is moving closer every day, while Windows moves further away.
Mac OSX is a beautiful operating system; I wish they'd contribute more of their UI work back into BSD / Linux, though I think the open source counterparts are catching up (especially with the work that's gone into Beryl).
I think Phil's users will eventually begin to take powerful, stable computing tools for granted at their library; and then be disappointed with Windows afterwards :)
Well, of course there will always be work to do and there will allways be missing drivers and some other problems. And of course there are the specific programs that will run only under Windows (like games). But I think Linux is surpassing Windows if you look at the ease of use and many other aspects.
mckooiker.byethost5.com/blog/
I think linux is more than ready for Joe Public in daily usage.
However, the setup and configuration aspect is a different story. This is probably due to text based config files with varying standards in lieu of a centralised configuration mechanism.
Joe Public is scared by this sort of stuff however poweful it may be.
As an example, I've been using linux for well over 2 years now and at least 8 hours a day at work for the last year. Last week it took me 45 minutes to get a new LCD monitor setup and in native resolution with sensible colours... and I knew where to look!
It involved an Xorg upgrade, a graphics card driver upgrade and tinkering with several obscure X options to get it to work. It's a monitor FFS!
Unfortunately it's also unfeasible for most people to rely on their local techies to setup a linux machine for them because despite usage numbers if you go in to a computer shop with a linux box (at least in the UK) you get told "we dont do linux" 8 times out of 10
Wow. Good headline. Glad you told me. Now I need to go uninstall Linux from my 4 desktops, my moms desktop, my sisters desktop, etc.
Then, I'll be busy for a while installing Microsoft products to replace all this stuff we've been using for the last few years, unaware that it wasn't filling our needs.
BAAHHAAAHAAAHAAA.....
Thanks for this article. I've been using different Linux distributions since about 4 years ago. I have worked with Mandrake, Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Gentoo. I have in recent months tried to integrate my family to using Linux. I have a couple Ubuntu desktops (probably the easiest distribution to use) and haven't heard any complaints. I hope people will realize that they don't have to spend $400 on an operating system. Linux has fulfilled all our needs. Whenever I get my hands on an old computer I install Ubuntu on it and give it to people that I know can't afford a new computer but need something compatible.