Logging onto Linux

NET RESULTS: Dell's announcement last week that it will be shipping a select number of desktop systems and laptops with Linux as the main operating system is a notable, interesting development. However, don't expect to see a sudden consumer rush to buy those machines.

Why? Because, despite the enthusiasm of Linux devotees for this excellent operating system, it still sets the bar a bit too high for the average home user.

While there are numerous user-friendly versions of Linux available now that are well suited to a home-user environment (Dell chose the Ubuntu Linux version for its machines), the problem for most people isn't the immediate desktop environment, but how easy it is to do all the things we expect computers to be able to do using other devices.

In other words, few of us use a PC as just a standalone machine on a desk useful for, say, writing a few letters and reports and creating spreadsheets.

We expect our computers to be able to print those letters, we want them to send the reports and spreadsheets as attachments in e-mails using a modem and perhaps a router. We want to play games using joysticks or consoles; we want to attach speakers and webcams; we want our phone or hand-held organiser to sync with the PC.

That's where Linux has problems, still. To make all these things work with your computer, you need little software programs called drivers that enable the computer to recognise and then talk to the peripheral device.

Windows ships with thousands of drivers preinstalled to raise the likelihood of your peripheral being able to truly plug and play, like it claims on the box.

With Linux, users find themselves Googling their way across discussion forums in search of a needed driver. Searching for, and uploading, drivers to get your internet connection to work or to be able to use some of the features of your printer is not going to cut it for most users.

That said, Windows Vista users (the new version of Windows, launched in January) are having similar problems. Many hardware manufacturers either still don't have Vista drivers or are providing drivers with bugs.

This has been the case with some NVidia graphic cards which were advertised as "Vista-ready", but many features didn't work with the provided driver. A more advanced driver could be downloaded from the NVidia site, but was actually a beta version and glitchy. NVidia purchasers were threatening a class action lawsuit.

Such driver headaches give Windows users a little taste of the Linux world - but without the general support community on the net that exists for Linux. If you have a Linux issue, and post your issue to a board or two, you will get help, and generally very quickly. And in the case of drivers, the Linux core developer community has set up a programme as of January to directly approach hardware suppliers and work to provide Linux drivers, for free - something that was done anyway, but a more formalised approach can only help.

While all that may seem to argue in favour of Linux - and for many, generally the already-converted, it will - bear in mind that Windows will remain the more familiar and comfortable environment for most computer users and that most users simply will not venture outside that comfort zone (irrespective of security issues or driver glitches).

I mean, look at the situation with Apple's Mac computers. I use both PCs and Macs (and Linux) but prefer my Macs for a whole swathe of reasons. Macs live relatively seamlessly (and have for years) in a Windows world, outside of some software and games that I don't use anyway. I can buy the whole Microsoft Office suite for the Mac and any Mac can translate any Word document to readable form, even without Office.

Yet that quite low barrier is still enough of a jarring change that some people are not even willing to test drive a Mac.

Linux will be a much bigger jump for most computer users. PC manufacturers know that, which is why only two mainstream manufacturers will now offer Linux preinstalled for home users - Lenovo and Dell.

But look at it another way: a couple of very big PC makers now give home users the option of Linux pre-installed, removing the high barrier of having to install it yourself. That will convert some waverers to Linux users, and will help create further demand for better driver support and ever easier to use Linux environments.

That's good for Linux, good for computer users and creates ever more choice in the PC market.

Blog: www.techno-culture.com