Anything Goes Discussions

Update: 1/21/2007 – This blog entry was, without my permission, placed on a Linux support message board and Listserv. I, in no way asked for publicity of this entry.

It is a simple observation about what I see from a tech support position in an educational setting with average everyday users that happen to be teachers. This post, which was originally written December 22nd, 2006, has received a lot of interest since the posting on the SuSE forum. I ask that you remember that I did not place the link to this blog entry on the Open SuSE boards.

With that in mind, please read on…..

I’ve been using computers since my first years in college in the late 70’s. I learned how to use a teletype, punch cards, Fortran, COBOL, Basic. I’ve grown through a CoCo, Trash80, my home built computer through Unix, all the Mac System OS’s to OS X, DOS and Windows from the beginning. Today I use Linux, OS X and Windows for my work, with Windows as the main platform. I use OS X because we have 14 ibooks on a cart for students to use in reading and writing. I use Linux to troubleshoot and fix systems because of the great diagnostics on the three different Linux Live CD’s Distros I have. I also have one system with Red Hat on it and one with edubuntu on it.

The reason for all this history? I’ve used them all, I’m technically proficient in all of them and I still have to wonder about of all the Linux fanatics that say Linux is better than Windows. Linux will never make it to the mainstream user because it doesn’t make it easy for the average person to use it with applications that they want to use. Sorry, but the excuse that it’s more secure, that’s it’s meant for the techies don’t fly with the rants about how Microsoft is the big bad bully and Linux will never make it because of the monopolistic tendencies of Microsoft.

It has nothing to do with MS and everything to do with MS knowing that the end user is going to use the easiest product that has the most software written for it that installs easily. The quotes below reflect on this issue.

I have a confession to make. Sometimes, when I’m trying out an unfamiliar open source component, I cheat. Even if the software I’m working on will deploy to Linux I’ll sometimes develop it on Windows first.

Source: Open source on Windows — an unholy alliance? | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-07-06 | By Jon Udell

Unless an application is included with your Linux distribution of choice, installing that application on Linux is a nightmare compared to Windows.

Source: Ian Murdock’s Weblog – Software installation on Linux: Today, it sucks (part 1)

Until the open source community comes up with an installer that works with a double click that works across all Distros, then it will never make it to the mainstream.