What
is Holding Linux Back?
Ever
since I have made the switch to Linux I keep wondering
why it is not used more and more. I will try to make sense of
this topic, but it is just my speculation.
In
the professional world Linux is very widely use especially web servers
and secure areas. Apache is the web server software of choice
as approximately 2/3 of the websites you visit use Apache on a Linux
server. Where Linux is almost non-existent is in the home
computer market. Less than 1/2% of the homes have a PC
running Linux. Years ago the reason I thought was that Linux
was just for geeks.
One of the
reasons I believe is that Windows is so widespread in the
corporate desktop environment. People when they buy a
computer from the store see a familiar graphical environment.
Also the fact that Microsoft charges the large PC
manufacturers around $30 for a copy of XP or Vista instead of the
normal $200 they charge the average person.
There are some
good Microsoft applications like Microsoft Office that
every PC user has used. This familiarity is the reason that
some people will only use Windows. Here is a list of programs
that have a Windows version but no Linux version:
1.
Microsoft Office
2.
Adobe Photoshop
3. AOL
(a huge percentage of people online use AOL)
4.
Microsoft Visual Studio
5.
Intenet Explorer
6.
Microsoft Outlook
I can now rule
out software installation as the apt-get repositories
are very well populated with all kinds of excellent applications so the
user won't have to hunt too hard to find them.
Hardware drivers
are another sore spot for Linux. There are
many hardware vendors that make hardware for PCs. These
manufacturers will not author drivers for Linux however. The
outlook is better though. The major hardware makers like
Nvidia, ATI, Intel, AMD, Creative, VIA, Atheros, etc. support
Linux with drivers. Problem is that a lot of manufacturers
that don't support Linux also are pretty big hardware vendors like
Broadcom and winmodem chipsets.
Gaming is another
issue that needs to be investigated. With
the advent of DirecX for 3D acceleration and the apparent demise of
openGL Windows now rules the gaming roost. If a game is
written in openGL then the game should work with Linux assuming that it
has a proper openGL driver. Until game manufacturers start
making high profile games for Linux then Linux will still be well down
the chain in the gaming realm. I personally don't see
Microsoft open sourcing DirecX anytime soon.
Schools are
another place where Linux needs to gain a larger presence.
Apple and Microsoft each have a huge presence in the schools
so young people will be familiar with either Apple or Microsoft.
If you have ever
looked at Linux then you will see that there appear to
be countless flavors of Linux. There is only one Windows XP
and only one Mac OS X. Not only are there different Linux
distributions, but they all do things a little differently.
Linux also has different package manager from distribution to
distribution. A package for Red Hat will not work with a
package for Debian and some Debian packages will not work with
distributions based on Debian. It is a mess I agree.
Ubuntu has improved this with their own repositories with
thousands of applications. Linux does need standardization
and soon.
Too many of
Linux's tasks involve using what is called Command Line.
While there is some use for the command line it is regarded
as archaic and the more tech people will make light of it.
Linux needs to have a graphical solutions for all of the
mundane tasks that need to be done. This is the trend and it
is improving.
Where Linux is
gaining popularity is in Asia and Africa.
Since Linux is free and the applications are numerous it is
making more sense in countries where financial means are more scarce.
The way Linux is
going to gain more acceptance it through people
letting big corporations know that we want Linux.