You use a computer, and read blogs so you probably know a bit about computer and you probably know about Linux. Linux is great, robust and free OS. It runs almost all web servers and websites. Including google, wordpress and billions of others. Linux is very secure, robust, fast and hack proof. It makes great servers because servers are ran by experts. Without Linux the web would not exist as we know it.
Well for over a decade now they have been trying to make it popular for your desktop computer that you use every day as well. One of the best parts about Linux is that anyone with knowledge is free to change and customize it exactly how they see fit, and they have. Almost everything in Linux has at least 3 different programs that do the same thing, but they do it in different ways. People then pick and choose the different parts of Linux and combine them into a complete Operating System. They call this a distribution or distro. There are now 100’s of up to date distros, all with different ways of doing things and different followings. This has helped Linux in the past but in the world of mass merchandising it also has hurt Linux.
The problem is that when a company writes software to work on Linux they must assume things about how the computer is set up. Because there are 100’s of different ways to do this, and only a few million Linux users, they simply don’t bother. Companies that make drivers and hardware also don’t bother. The Linux people thus have to do all of it themselves. And, if they do it for one distro of Linux it probably will not work on many others. So the game makers, and the people who make the huge programs we need to function usually don’t bother making a Linux version. There is no Photoshop, QuickBooks, MSN or Yahoo chat with webcam, or robust video editing software in Linux because these are very complex and would usually be distro specific, and the userbase does not justify the cost.
The strength of Microsoft Windows was the fact that it was closed and controlled. People could not change the OS, all the rules from computer to computer were exactly the same. Because of this people could code for just ONE OS, that they knew would be supported and work for at least a decade. This is exactly what they did, 1000’s of companies started writing. Hardware makers could design one driver to work with the OS and everything was easy, because it was a standard platform, that was predictable. Windows was not the coolest, and it sure was not the most secure or robust, and they charged a huge price for it, but all of this was worth it because it was STANDARD. Nothing is more important than something being standard when it comes to business, and all the geeks need to learn this. McDonalds does not made the best burgers, but I have ate them in 5 different nations and they are all the same. When it is the same it is predictable, and you need that to get investors and make money flow. This is the main reason the Linux world still has less than 1% of desktop computers.
So now what? Well in a dream world someone with great power and clout would take all the best parts of Linux, get a ton of people behind him and release the ultimate distro of Linux. He would promise to not change it for at least 6 months and also promise that anything written for it will work for years on the newer versions. By creating a standard and unifying the Linux world programmers would start making software work on Linux and soon it would gain marketshare. It will be better and be free than windows, and soon takeover the world from the grasp of Microsoft.
Someone else, a tech billionaire named Mark Shuttleworth thought EXACTLY the same way, and he used his power and clout to do it. He calls it Ubuntu. He only release every 6 months, and he has static versions that are supported for two years or more. He then went much farther, he made a community around it. They have great free tech support with forums and chat. As well has many other great features and designs. My good friend Matthew Helmke is one of the leading Ubuntu experts and forum leaders and inspired me to try it out.
This OS has the chance to become huge. For over a year now Linux has been the top distro, and it growing faster than the rest of the Linux world put together. The standard it presents has already encouraged many companies to start writing software for Linux. Many large games are not tested on Ubuntu. If you use Linux, switch to Ubuntu, for the sake of the Linux world. Raising a unified standard is the only hope that Linux has at commercial success.
I hope this explanation of a very tech thing from a business perspective educated both the techs and the business people who usually don’t understand each other.
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Jason Dragon.
If your argument was correct then Debian Linux, which has been one of the top 3 Linux distro’s since the mid 1990’s and has a 1.5 year release schedule, would have long since taken over the desktop.
Thanks for the topic
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Karl, thanks for your comment. You bring up a good point, but I have a good answer for you. There is a huge difference between setting a standard and raising up a standard. Debian is great but they have done much less than Ubuntu in trying to get people to use their product and to make their product the standard.
Ubuntu sends people to make teamed with computer manufactures, they send out free disks, and stickers, they put the money up to have the fastest servers all over the world, they have spent millions in marketing and promoting their OS. I can not say that Debian has done the same.
This is much like the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray standard battle. Both were great, but the market could support only one. Toshiba saw that HD-DVD were loosing the battle and to encourage progress they withdrew from the market instead of fighting it out.
The companies that create commercial software, which is needed to function to make Linux successful, really will only support one standard.
Ubuntu is the most popular, and is pulling away from the rest of the pack. Many distros have already stopped production and backed Ubuntu.
I see it much like the race for the president. The party needs to back one person, and until they do the fight will only hurt the party.
In your third paragraph you mention that often companies won’t or cant bother to write drivers or software for Linux because they aren’t sure how a user will set it up, but that the user community will often do so.
I actually think this is one of the greatest strengths of Linux.
Honestly, most of us using the OS are doing so because we enjoy it. We justify ourselves with the very true arguments in Linux’s favor on topics of security, stability, flexibility, open and free access to the source code, and the legal freedom to do as we please with that source code. Those are great arguments, but we generally do it because for us, Linux makes using the computer fun again. We can change things as we wish, get the computer to do things that can’t be done with closed operating systems, and so on. Why is this a strength? Simple.
If every manufacturer of a given piece of hardware would release the specifications of that hardware to the public, there is an extremely strong chance that someone in the community will think to themselves, “I want to use that,” and will also have the ability to write a device driver for it. Someone else is likely to be able to look at that code and have an idea for improvement, either by adding a feature or stabilizing the current features in some way. This makes for a great opportunity for the hardware manufacturers who understand this process.
This is also how most software in Linux is written. Someone in the community has an idea of something they would like to do, and they write it. Others are free to suggest or code improvements or alternatives.
What Ubuntu is doing that I am so proud to be a part of is welcoming a new set of people into the community, people without the experience or expertise in the back end, behind the scenes coding aspects of computer use. Now, a new set of people have the same chance to have fun with their computers and be involved in the community, even if they are not able to write or improve programs. Most of the developers still do it for fun, and would continue without payment (as most already do now), but the community is thrilled to see more “average” people able to come an join in and benefit from what we believe is truly a superior platform for computer use.
The economics are secondary, but I think as time is passing businesses and corporations are discovering significant opportunities exist, as they allow their employees to be a part of the Linux community and contribute code in the same manner as other community members, thereby insuring that programs and drivers are written to do precisely what their specific business/corporate interests require, all the while adding overall value to the community as a whole and making it easier for others to contribute and see a good return on investment as well.
It is in this manner that Linux has taken over and now rules the server world, and there is the potential for this to happen with the desktop as well. Will it happen? Who knows? Either way, the Linux user and developer community will be found having a good time in the process. 🙂