Strangely the companies that use Linux in their product do not support Linux. For instance Amazon, who use Linux in the Kindle but the Kindle reader software runs on Windows and Mac!

Not true, far not. This will not change the Basic Problems on Linux.
Linux as it is at the Moment needs a complete Redesing from the Scratch
thats the Truth nothing more nothing less. I could start writing where the Problems begin but i think most readers here are aware of them anyway..

The Problem is that all Distros and Project developers try to modify their software to fit consumer needs and ship around many comon problems. but this wont make them away.. they get just worse with every additional software (abstraction) layer

even the most simple things like an fitting size of an window dont work properly at the moment.

and im not talking about the management in big envirements where you have to take controll over 5k workstations and more (softwaremanagement/usermanagement and more)
and im not talking about setting up and ldap directory..

Also theres a big need of consolidation of so many projects.
For example – theres no logical need of 3,4,5 Network management applications (WLAN, MOdem, Wired,..) for an Desktop
Instead of so many more or less working Applications would be nice to see one common Project / with Bundled manpower and know how to have one standard/linuxwide for this simple tray tool on all distros

same goes for many applications. even if there are 2 or 3 different applications fitting one need they have to use a common standard so other apps can work with all of them

heres the problem with \”open\” software – its so open that theres no standard layer or something everyone has to use – youve xxx ways to get your app working but unlike windows no common interface (like com or activex)

its time to combine the advantages of propitary software (with their strict standards and interfaces) with the advantages of open software – and – consolidate projects – specially those without finicial interrest (might be easier to find a common workground here)

For me Linux has 2 Main Problems. First its writting from technicals for technicals and now they try to fit it for consumer.
Second the ground basics (like directory structure, how to handle files and stuff…) are made 15 years ago based on much older unix systems… time to renew rethink reinvent

i think the hole linux community (inlcluding all big distros) have to work together for a *nix 2.0)
if somewhat like that ever happen windows will have a big problem within 5 years

And one thing everyone forget. Many people thing windows got that strong because of their marketing, or their usual blackmail of hgardware vendors or because they where the only one…
but a big factor was because they make it easy for developers to make anything – including autoinstaller and stuff…. that way windows software has grown like hell – consumer adoped these software – use it now for many years and dont wanna miss it if they change to linux..

if its possible to have such an dev infrastructure on linux – those consumer programms will grow on linux too and will help to bring consumer and busniness users to the linux world…

thats it nothing more…

that linux is running on their phone or dvd recorder doesnt matter.
whta matter is that people can do what they wanna do on their computer and that is much more that reading websites

Linux should be linux. It has better filesystems (and though those may be confusing for some, enough tools and wizards exist that people don\’t have to deal with them at a low level unless they like knowing what\’s under the hood)

It seems like so many others, someone has tried the flavor of the moment and found it wanting. ArkLinux in 2005 had some dynamite features and was very easy to use but it was crashy on the desktop apps (no lock-ups, though) Ubuntu is the most polished free software I have seen, with Mint and Peppermint versions quite facile. But there are plenty of problems if you are used to point-and-click Active Directories or Domain Controllers. On the other hand, some proprietary distros have those problems solved handily.

Mandriva\’s free edition isn\’t very compatible or usable by non-experts, but Mandriva One, Mandriva Power Pack, Mandriva Enterprise Server, Mandriva Directory Server (MDS), and Mandriva Pulse 2 are all slick and polished products, with very few warts (most of them are evident in Power Pack 64 bit on AMD machines). With the proprietary Fluendo, the multimedia capabilities exceed what is available on any flavor of windows. Pulse 2 is the premier software for managing heterogeneous networks with crabby, arrogant, jealous windows boxes connected to MACs, Unix, and Linux boxes.

Yeah, everywhere but the desktop, Linux is winning, and it doesn\’t need to change to be better than Windows on the desktop if it has a host of devices that are compatible with it. It is that \”application barrier to entry\” which Microsoft has fostered and played to exterminate competition.

Finally, I don\’t understand the comment about rethinking the filesystem. Linux has the Linux Standard Base and the File Hierarchical System which are revised as needed by the community. In the year 2000, htdocs were moved to /var, for example, and I can run linux using any of 100 supported filesystems from NEC DOS to FAT12 to HPFS/NTFS to AIX to Venix to Plan 9 to VMWARE VMFS to Amoeba to Linux LVM… And that\’s only on the low-level (as in partition types), not counting how one may use the logic-level filesystems like XFS, Ext3, Ext4, JFS, Reiserfs and so on and the software RAIDS on top of that. Maybe he thinks there are too many choices?

The filesystem consists of partition types, physical mid-structure, and a filesystem hierarchy on top of that. I am Puzzled why people think the logical structure of the hierarchy is really any different than any other. / is equivalent to \”Computer\”, and lower directories are as they should be, except the division of executables and their libraries is a little different. As far as installation and making things easy for developers, I am thrice as puzzled. I am a developer, and I strongly prefer Linux to Windows, but then I learned on Linux. The bells and whistles of most IDEs annoy me, though KWebDev is OK, but I like emacs with extensions for repository management and color-coding code and many color themes to prevent optic fatigue, and boredom, so the high-contrast screens of Visual Studio are more impediment than aid to me. Installers? Well, before InstallAnywhere, there might have been a point.

Supercomputers – total lock. Mainframes – locked. Servers – neck and neck with Windows, with Unix picking up the crumbs. Netbooks – a solid third. Phones – 10% and exploding, predicted my IDC and Gartner to be second only to Symbian by 2012 (and Nokia will be pushing MeeGo Linux as the official Symbian successor, featuring app compatibility to make the transition easier). Embedded – dominant.

What\’s left are desktops, tablets and game consoles. That\’s all.

After Microsoft\’s Win7 fail (on tablets), Apple is cleaning up. But the major tablet alternatives just hitting the market are all based on Linux – Android, MeeGo or webOS (maybe). It\’s a young market; we\’ll see.

On desktops, Windows continues its ultra-slow decline while Apple and Linux grow ever so slowly. Linux won\’t win here anytime soon, but if desktops continue to matter in a decade or two, it *might* play tortoise to Microsoft\’s hare. No need to concede anything.

Game consoles – well, that\’s the last bastion of the all-custom OS. But if you were designing a next-generation system, would you write a new OS from scratch or customize the dominant embedded OS that also happens to be free?

We got\’em surrounded, folks. Now finish strong, and remember: It\’s not about winning, it\’s about freedom for the computing masses. IMHO, at least. :-)

And no-one on the internet had a solution for ages unless you had a degree in computing, or were a developer.
And how many linux users, who were neither of the above, changed to windows, because it just works. Probably 1000\’s. Or changed because of complex other program glitches.
Why use linux when you can\’t get help from mainline computer companies eg HP, even though they wrote one f the few printer drivers. You can\’t get help from ISP\’s for routers or wireless broadband devices if you tell them your O/S is Linux, ie no help at all. If you\’re one of those c programmers, developers or your basic c nerd who wants to spend hours re-configuring linux till you get it right then that\’s fine. But what happens when this takes days as it often does to members of our user group? Looks like it off to windows for many more.
And who cares if linux is on lots of embedded devices all over the place. It doesn\’t matter. Whose going to try an root their device if it\’s a microwave, a fridge or a watch. Prob only those 1-2% who are c prog\’s, devel\’s, and nerds.
Others just want their phone to work.
Perhaps if you take your head out of the sand and check the real world, you\’ll help linux become more available to ordinary people instead of to .
computer programmers.
And wasn\’t it Google who developed the final product called android.

That crashing sound was your credibility hitting bottom. There\’s no such version.

So, now that we\’ve established that you haven\’t *tried* Linux yet, let me encourage you to pull a recent version from the Internet and give it a whirl. You\’ll be surprised!

The good news is that it\’s ridiculously easy to try.

First, it costs nothing. If you don\’t like the first version you try, just get another (and if Ubuntu doesn\’t float your boat, try Fedora, Mint, Novell, Puppy… we\’ve got nothing if not choice!). You don\’t need to return it or ask for a refund or anything. Amazing, no?

Second, you can install it in what us technical folk call \”dual boot\” mode, and reboot into your old Windows environment any time you want (but you have to install Windows first, as it unfortunately lacks this capability). Or you can install Ubuntu like any other Windows program (called \”wubi\” mode for obvious reasons), and if you don\’t like it, remove it like a Windows program, too! Or, if even *that* is too much commitment, just boot from a CD or thumbdrive and run it without the hard drive at all. You can even buy a thumbdrive with Linux already set up for you – just plug and go!
.
Yes, Linux *is* flexible. It\’s almost like magic after you\’ve lived with Windows for so long.

Third, you don\’t need a stack of driver CDs. The drivers are built in, and automatically configure. Plug in your thumbdrive, printer or camera, and off you go. It\’s pretty amazing, really.

Fourth, you won\’t need to search the Internet for basic applications. Ubuntu comes with office software, email, instant messenger, PDF reader / writer, photo and video editing software, etc. all pre-installed, and they support virtually all popular file formats out of the box. It doesn\’t *need* anti-virus. And it\’s completely free of the crapware that usually infests pre-installed Windows.

Fifth, you can add 10,000\’s of new programs from an app store called the Software Center. It\’s wizard-free – just click \”Install\” and the magic happens in the background. You can install several programs at once, and even keep using your computer while they install! Amazing, I know. And if you need a product not already in the Software Center, just download the file with the .deb extension from its website and double-click it – it installs automatically. (You remove software from the Software Center, too – not from a totally different location as on Windows. Very intuitive!)

Sixth and last, if you run into any problems, you needn\’t pay a tech support persons $35 to read a script of things you\’ve already tried. Just go to http://ubuntuforums.org, and try searching. If that doesn\’t turn up a solution (it does about 90% of the time for me), then leave a message. You\’ll be surprised at how friendly and helpful the people are there!

So, don\’t hesitate – actually give it a try! I think you\’ll find it to be as liberating as I have.

Have fun!

It wasn\’t LINUX (or should I say GNU/LINUX) that won its place in the data center and ISP shops – that honor belongs to RedHat and Wall St. for creating brand awareness, IBM with DB2 and Z/OS, Oracle and their RDBMS. These were the watershed moments for LINUX in the \”industrial\” space. Now google\’s Android is doing the same to the consumer space through appliances. Yes, there\’s Meego (Intel/Nokia), yes there\’s WebOS (Palm/HP), but they have no brand awareness. It has nothing to do with technical merit. Intel is, as I write this, porting Android to the x86 architecture. How does that bode for Meego?

THERE IS NO LINUX. Consumers couldn\’t care less. There is no FreeBSD – consumers couldn\’t care less. But THERE IS MAC OS X, and THERE IS ANDROID. Those of us inside the atrophying tech industry can be smug all we want\’ knowing its all LINUX/UNIX anyway, but don\’t resent the absence of any recognition. It will be our private satisfaction, and that\’s all. And yes, in the good old US of A, where a plumber or appliance repairman commands a superior hourly rate than a computer programmer, our beloved industry is atrophying. Thanks, Mr. Gates et al.

I have been a champion of, and contributor to the LINUX computer environment since 1993, and I still am. My greatest wish would be to see the requirement of all consumer PC LINUX distros to have a single, universal boot splash of TUX, and a default screen saver of TUX. Branding. Identity. LINUX may be in everything from a cigarette lighter to a transcontinental airline entertainment system but LINUX doesn\’t exist in the mind of the consumer because it has no identity there.

To make it simple, not many people know who Faroukh Bulsara is, but they\’ve heard of Freddie Mercury. They\’ve not heard of Reginald Dwight, but Elton John is a household name. And so LINUX is unknown, and RedHat (apologies SuSE, Mandriva and the plethora of other distros) and Android are already becoming (consumer) household names.
G.

Thus I check my email (Gmail, Hotmail or other web based email for sure. others I\’m not sure about) a lot faster than on Windows. Web surfing is faster and much more stable under Linux. The codecs come either installed or readily installable in Linux, so watching Video. listening to Audio, texting, IM, using Skype or other VOIP are more stable and much faster under Linux.

Linux applications can do a lot of the work I need to do, including document preparation, math, spreadsheets etc. Moreover, Linux is much much faster. I have a Pentium M machine that I upgraded to 2GB of Ram and it leaves my quad core Windows Vista machine with 8GB of Ram in the dust, really. Open office is as slow as Microsoft Office, but freezes much less and doesn\’t bother you with UAC issues.

So at this time about 75% of my work is done on Linux and the rest when I either need a Windows specific program or need to intereact with a Windows specific system. I have much fewer crashes, reinstalls, recovery installs, scans for registry errors or malware etc than I used to have and my less- stressed Windows systems work better, seemingly appreciating the free time to recover from when they are used.

One suggestion that I think would help would be to integrate Linux applications so they work well together. For instance, integrating Lyx, Scribus and Open Office writer so they can interoperate would blow the socks off Word plus Publisher plus some long document add in and actually be a superior solution. Doing this with an excel, power point and other application suites would make Linux a hard to beat cost/performance option where Linux could provide superior, not just me too, application combinations.

I suspect Microsloth hackers might be writing the new KDE 4 code. . . . either that or Windows stole the whole system for Windows 7. . . . . I don\’t know. . . . anyway,

we need people older than 25 to be promoting Linux. No, not tired people over 25, people who care about the reality of Freedom of the Desktop to help promote Linux. We need a really positive campaign to show the American public the wonder and grace of Linux.

The new drivers that keep showing up in the distros are really boosting the compatablility and variety of systems that we can use for Linux. It is getting easier to use wireless, new nVidia cards, new sound cards, and so forth.

We may eventually win the war against the proprietary \”Windows only\” machines.

But, we are only going to win over the public to the benefits and ease of use of Linux when we get together and make the whole thing more accessable to the average Joe who may not even know Linux machines exist. Most Windows slaves do not know about the freedom to use, reuse, and change the way things work, that they can share freely without guilt, and the total fun it is to run a computer that is capable of more than Windows bloated code ever allows.

They don\’t know they can have a machine that does not crash all the time. They don\’t know they can get more software (than the other systems have) that works so much better and is improved upon on a regular basis. They don\’t know that they can run their Linux flavor forever without logging in to the \”Company\” site to \”Activate\” it.

They don\’t know how easy the package managers are to use, that they can choose hundreds of programs and click the \’Apply\’ button and go make a sandwich and come back to a fully stocked ready to use computer without even rebooting.

They don\’t know they can have all this without headaches, without answering a shipload of silly questions for every single application they want to install. The package manager does all that for them, but they don\’t know what a package manager is because we don\’t bother to tell them in a friendly tone that makes them feel comfortable and want to know more about that glow we get when we talk about Linux.

They have no idea that they can configure the whole computer without having to learn a new and very foreign language called \’command line\’.

Do you all know how much the general public fears the command line?

Do you have any idea the terror that washes over them when they even think about the fact that they might have to run the system from a command prompt?

It\’s not their fault; DOS was wretched from the beginning, and some of us still remember. . . . DOS ruined it all for many us, Windows was a rescue when it first came out, when M$ first stole the GUI from Mac.

People have this idea because the forums and help sites always talk in \’command line\’ and no body tells them they can click the icon for the GUI based System Configuration and set the whole machine up to run just the way they like it in a few minutes and they won\’t even have to reboot.

People in the Windows slavery camps do not have the foggiest idea that they can run a computer all day, every day, for many days without ever rebooting, and the system\’s memory will NOT become clogged with junk and bad programming code and TSRs that force them to reboot all the time. They don\’t have to run a system with half its programs running uselessly in the \’tray\’ and no hope in sight for a better way.

I think it is time for the people who keep the kernel and the core systems running well and updated on a timely basis to keep improving the stability of the system and make it more powerful, more friendly, more GUI oriented, and ever more stable.

And the rest of us who love the penguin need to convince our friends, family members, and acquaintances that a better life is available and it is called Linux. Then we need to show them a machine that looks and feels nicer than a Winders box and does not get viruses all the time. A machine that is not constantly slowing down as time goes by, and doesn\’t have the flu, a cold, or a nagging virus all the time.

We need to help them see the beauty and wonder of a fine tuned machine and tell them about the various desktop managers like KDE, Gnome, LXDE, XFCE all give them more freedom than they have now. Then show them they can have more than one desktop to reduce clutter… anyway, that\’s my take on the issues.

I started with Linux in the mid 90s and gave up because it was way too hard to use… Now I love it and want to preach Linux everywhere I go!

Amen and good night, thank you for leaving this window open for me rant awhile…

Love,
Sonshine Penguin

I have a simple approach and my personal pick of desktop is Ubuntu. Apparently somewhere near 50% of current Linux desktop installs are Ubuntu.
For a business desktop it has everything required. Open office, Scribus, GIMP, GnuCash… The list goes on. Then you have Email, Collaboration, CRM, Web,ERP server software for practically all business processes.

From a business prospective “open source” has many advantages. If you have been involved in IT how many of us have been caught in the catch22 situation, I wonder if this rings any bells.
Your business model requires some small changes to the software you have. The vendor will not open there source to a third party. The vendor can not provide any assurances that modifications can be made. Also your jaw drops to the floor when you see the cost of modifications.
Its the usual start point of “Computer says No” and your business model starts to be bastardised by computer systems.
Open Source is just not an alternative system and software it is an alternative business model. If you make comparisons to current commercial offerings then you are missing the point.
I hope this is true as I am currently launching http://www.alllinux.co.uk to provide solutions to many of the problems I have seen with IT over the last twenty years.

Also if you are offering Open source solutions to business I would be very interested in any collaborative functions that may be beneficial. Please contact me if you think you are in a similar arena.

Many Thanks

Stuart

As I say, I am interested in business systems but if the above two are accomplished I can’t see any reason to pay licensing fee’s to Microsoft.

Stuart

Linux isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) a hard sell to consumers who just want to surf the web or run business apps. Linux already does productivity beautifully…and for free. What’s not to like?

I admit I’m overlooking the support aspect, but I believe OEMs would fall in line with support if the consumer demand for Linux was high enough.

Honestly, I’ve seen that statement reversed almost all of the time. El Cheapo Chipods work wonderfully under Linux. Knock-off webcams work like champs under Linux. Pathetic Chinese Chancho-branded mice work, like do Genius TV cards, Taiwanese unknown-branded wireless dongles, you know, every item works… unless it has a layer of DRM on top of it. And what manufacturers do put a layer of DRM on top of their products? Big names, like Sony, Philips or Apple. Chinese dual-SIM knock-off phones work wonderfully under Linux, better than any brand, I’d say.

Next time, when you want to buy hardware, turn your head away from the big names and buy El Cheapo. 99,9% of times it’s going to work in your Linux system.

Welcome to the world of the device. For years people wrongly believed that the desktop would encompass more and more ability and information, and that people would expand their knowledge to accommodate this ever growing machine. We were wrong.

Kids today care much less about the internet than we did. Sure they use it, but they aren’t mesmerized by it like we were. The have no desire to spend hours much less weeks or months learning how to do things on it. They just want some easy to use device that does exactly the thing that they need it to.. oh ya and facebook of course and maybe twitter and youtube.

A game machine plays games.. (and twitter and facebook) a phone makes phone calls texts, (and twitter and facebook). The TV does TV (and twitter and facebook).. you get the drift.

Within the next five years each home will begin to equip with one hard core machine that does things like heavy computational tasks, graphics, fileserving. They will have some powerful thin clients like their phone, TV.. etc., and no one will care what runs it, as long as they get to play their game, and get on facebook and twitter..

I have moved all my systems – business and home to Linux.Why?

- it works
- it free – why pay a predator like Msoft a fortune
- it’s not American so it doesn’t have 10,000 pages of legal threats
- it’s beautiful
- it’s mine and it’s contributory
- it’s shared – not a rich monopolists world domination
- it’s FUN – and the people who write, support, use it are fun too

It took me a while to become comfortable using Linux as, like most people, I had been conditioned by Msoft.

We should teach our kids and our friends how to use a PC/Tablet/Phone – not teach them how to use Windows.

If we want freedom (and this is dear to me) then lobby politicians, teachers, parents to clear the Msoft hegemony out of our education establishments.

And tell everyone just how much FUN Linux is.

Then they can make real choices.