More Linux love amid Vista’s woes – Is this the rise of the penguin?
By Erna Mahyuni
It’s been a bad PR week for Microsoft, what with the endless Vista-bashing. Now with the news Wal-Mart and Dell are making Linux-installed PCs available to the mass market, are we finally seeing the march of the Linux penguins onto our desktops?
Elwin Green’s observations in the Pittsburg Post Gazette on the Wal-Mart and Dell news are something to mull over:
"When the world’s largest retailer and the second largest computer maker both offer Linux-based PCs, maybe Linux isn’t just for geeks anymore."
Linux has steadily gained a cult following over the years; take actor/geek/blogger/writer Wil Wheaton, a firm fan of Ubuntu, and in the geek webcomic world of UserFriendly, the only one who loves Windows is their sneaky sales rep.
What’s the pull of Linux, despite its somewhat trickier learning curve. Well, Linus Torvalds told ITNews in a recent interview that the "real strength of Linux is not in any particular area, but in the flexibility." If you were to put Vista up against Linux in those terms, Vista just can’t quite compare.
Linux has come a long way since its beginnings. With the years, the choices users had with Linux have vastly expanded. Not only do you get to choose from a wide variety of distros, software emulation allows users to use their favourite Windows apps on Linux as well. But many find they don’t have to. With the emergence of excellent open-source tools like OpenOffice, GIMP, Audacity and the like, installing Vista for most users means not needing to install software – it’s all there with their install.
What I’d like to see is Linux being able to work better out of the box. My experience with installs sees my having to do a fair bit of tinkering to get things like DVD movies and MP3 playback to work. Mandriva and Ubuntu are great distros to start Linux newbies om but I would like to see better written documentation that talks to the average man-on-the-street and not just the all-grokked-out Linux lover.
And that’s the beauty of Linux – there is room to change, to embrace user-friendliness and accessibility. Vista is the way it came out of the box already and no security pack can fix all its current issues. The year ahead holds great potential for Linux growth in the desktop sector. Let’s hope the chance isn’t squandered.
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Stumble It!
November 27th, 2007
You say: “What I’d like to see is Linux being able to work better out of the box. My experience with installs sees my having to do a fair bit of tinkering to get things like DVD movies and MP3 playback to work.”
Linux and the FOSS community cannot change broken global IP laws, particularly the egregious US patent regimen.
Until such laws are changed to fit the new reality of our age, the mechanics of Linux and FOSS are incompatible with restricted access to patented codecs and laws like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).
That means, you will have to switch on the third-party repositories which store such ‘questionable’ codecs under freely redistributable Linux, and install them to make DVDs and MP3s work. In all, a 3 minute exercise under Ubunbtu.
If even that’s too much complexity for you, then I’m afraid our community can’t help you unless you help us change the aforementioned laws.
Peace.
November 27th, 2007
There are flavors of Linux that can be purchased with the codecs legally included. You can also purchase them from:
https://shop.fluendo.com/ legally.