Posted on 06/21/2012 11:51:15 AM PDT by ShadowAce
The recent hubbub over Linus Torvalds’ comments towards Nvidia as well as Nvidia’s response to those comments have once again brought up intense debates between Linux users and the rest of the computing pack. Reading the comments on Engadget or The Verge for these news articles, I realized that the general public has some misconceptions about Linux and its ecosystem. I use Linux distributions every single day both on my phone and on the desktop. When I read such comments, I find it kind of funny, but also kind of sad that the Linux that I use so routinely and productively is getting this sort of rap. So here, now, are five misconceptions I think I see most commonly on the Internet regarding Linux and its ecosystem.
I just wanted to get this one out of the way really quick. Linux is not an operating system. Instead, it is a kernel. It sits in between the hardware and the actual operating system (Linux distributions, as they are called) to enable all the userspace software to run smoothly and correctly.
The whole news about Torvalds’ Nvidia comments I mentioned earlier stemmed a bunch of comments on driver support in Linux from a ton of people. Neglecting the fact that most of the commenters didn’t actually see the talk in which Linus made his remarks and thusly assumed he was just saying Nvidia’s driver support on Linux was awful, most of the comments were pretty misinformed in general.
In regards to Nvidia, its proprietary drivers are actually pretty superb as far as performance goes. This is one of the things Engadget and The Verge participators were griping about, and rebutting that AMD’s graphics drivers are terrible. The truth is, AMD’s Catalyst drivers (its proprietary set) are also excellent and wonderful and masterful and all that. Its open source driver, dubbed “radeon” in the Linux kernel, works pretty well too, albeit with some 3D performance issues.
Apart from graphics, I’ve never had any real problem with other drivers. LockerGnome writer Ryan Pierson talked with me earlier and make the comment that he had struggles with a wireless card in one of his old notebook computers a few years ago. To be honest, those are edge cases, especially in this day and age. Wireless cards are fairly well supported (by the manufacturers, even) on Linux, especially if you have one of the mainstream brands (Broadcom, Intel, etc.), which you most likely are to have. As such, I can only assume that any driver issues that one person might encounter is either: a] user error, or b] a rare edge case, which means you shouldn’t go spouting off on a technology site to complain that Linux has terrible driver support if you can’t get your collection of silicon to work correctly.
I should note, however, that notebooks with Nvidia Optimus are a problem area — one that Linus was specifically targeting when he made his remarks. The issue with Optimus is that Nvidia has refused to support it on Linux in its proprietary driver, and it offers no support to the open source alternative, Nouveau, whose team is forced to reverse-engineer Nvidia cards in order to write the drivers. This lack of support on Linux can cause a variety of problems, from both GPUs (the integrated GPU as well as the Nvidia GPU) to run at the same time and waste battery life, to the worst case scenario of your laptop booting to a black screen of death, so to speak. This isn’t Linux’s fault, though, it’s Nvidia’s. The Linux community has been asking Nvidia to merely release the specifications behind its hardware so that the open source community at least has a good shot at writing working drivers. AMD has done this with its Radeon graphics line, even going so far as to committing employees to assist with the development of the open source driver. One last note if you’re reading this and you are affected by the Optimus issue on Linux: Try giving the Bumblebee project a look.
I have had this discussion with the other LockerGnome writers plenty of times, and we usually come to agree that the software available on Linux is definitely usable save for a few specific workflows. If you need a photo editor, use the GIMP or another alternative. If you want an office suite, there’s LibreOffice or you could even use Google Docs online. Linux has games, browsers, video editors, vector image editors, screencasters, instant messaging and IRC clients, development tools (oh boy, the development tools!), and so much more to offer if you’re simply willing to look around.
As I mentioned, there are a few areas where software on Linux can use some work. LockerGnome’s Ryan Pierson, in particular, wishes the video editing solutions on Linux were more competitive to the Windows and OS X market. Like I said, they exist, but they’re no Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier. When will the situation get better? It’ll have to wait for either: a] the developers of the open source alternatives to get more free time on their hands (unlikely) or b] for the commercial developers to pay more attention to Linux.
When will this attention arrive? I personally think the arrival of Valve’s Steam platform, Valve’s collection of games running on the Source engine, as well as Unity’s newly baked Linux support, will start the ball rolling. More games on Linux means gamers will start to see the platform as a useful, free alternative to Windows. As the desktop Linux market share increases as a result, more companies will consider developing ports of their software for Linux. It’s a snowball effect that I hope happens soon.
This was a fun one to read about on Engadget. Apparently, Linus’ “school project” that is Linux has failed to gain any market share for all the computers in the world whatsoever, and he should just give up and call it quits. What the ill-informed do not understand is that, quite frankly, Linux dominates computers everywhere. More than 90% of the world’s Top 500 supercomputers run a Linux-based operating system. Over half of all mobile smartphone devices now run Android, which is built on top of the Linux kernel. In addition, more than 60% of Web servers are running on a Linux distribution.
Only in the desktop space has Linux yet to leave its mark. Like I mentioned in the previous section, I expect the arrival of Steam, Source, and other gaming platforms to help boost Linux’s desktop market share considerably. Let’s hope so, anyway.
This one is kind of silly. Granted, I am a developer and have been using Linux for many, many years now (since I was ten years old, at least), but the ease of use of Linux distributions has improved drastically over the years. Ubuntu, specifically, has helped make desktop Linux usable enough for ordinary human beings, as per its motto. Like I said, the software is there, so all it takes is getting used to a slightly different desktop environment when switching from OS X or Windows. I dual boot Windows and Debian here, and I hardly ever touch Windows anymore; Linux distributions have come far enough to be my daily driver from here on out.
I think Linux distributions can be intimidating and scary. I get it, though; new and different things naturally repel most of us (I’m a certified creature of habit, I’ll have you know). Many people shrug Linux off as difficult to use because they haven’t spent the time with it that it really deserves. Spend a couple of days trying to get your workflow up and running on a Linux distribution and see how you like it. Perhaps then you’ll gain a different perspective.
I really liked Linux and it worked with every single piece of hardware attached to it without problems, until we bought a new HP printer about 3 months ago.
The printer works fine with my wife’s Windows 7 machine and even an older XP machine, but I can’t find drivers for it for Linux.
/johnny
I used to be a “computer nerd”. My problem with Linux is that it is not “standard”. And that is what the public needs. They need to be able to go to the store and buy their software and install it on their machine with a minimum of hassle.
I’m no fan of windows, but I tried ubuntu and found I had to be a much more “active” user of my machine than when using windows. I still fought it out (heck, I really tried to embrace OS2-Warp) but had too many OS2 flashbacks while trying to get it to work. I finally decided I had more important things to do with my time than micromanage my computer.
Windows is “mostly” install stuff and forget it.
I'm still on F15. I was going to upgrade to F17, but they delayed btrfs until F18, so I'll wait on that.
And to be pedantic, while OS X included XQuartz (X11.app, Apple’s version of X Window System), it most certainly is not the GUI in OS X.
In fact, Apple is dropping support for X11.app in Mountain Lion.
If number 5 is real - then you are required to stop using your Android phone NOW!
What’s a distro? What’s a kernel vs an OS? Even the language is different and that is no small thing unless the subject at hand is either your job or your hobby.
Since I’m in IT and use Windows, and windows works fine at home, I don’t really know why I would use Linux. Originally my motivation was to speed up my computers, but that is no longer an issue so my motivation evaporated, especially when I started encountering problems with Open Office.
And getting my wife to use it was like pulling teeth.
Until I find a compelling reason to switch from what I am currently doing, I’ve decided to move on.
Sounds like you prove my point about number five. ;-)
Hmm, looking at #5...
Linux is only for developers and computer “experts” (aka Linux distributions are too hard to use)
It looks like you're right. I used to be an Android fan and recommended it (in hindsight, dangerously) to everyone. Then Verizon got the iPhone and I haven't looked back. I feel sorry for recommending it to my coworker who, every time I'm in town and visit him, has figured out how to put 3 shortcuts to his contact list on the tray, delete his Phone shortcut, and have 4 weather widgets on his homescreen for Mountain View, CA. Not to mention about 30 new voicemails with no idea how to check them. Someday, I tell him, he'll have an upgrade and can get a smartphone designed for ordinary users.
What is humorous about this is that you are actually wrong about Linux not being “standard.” Linux implements the POSIX standard - Literally!
POSIX or “Portable Operating System Interface [for Unix]” is the name of a family of related standards specified by the IEEE.
I realize what you meant to imply, i.e. it doesn’t work like most people expect. Even that isn’t really true if you use most mainstream distributions. The programs & the GUI environment work the same general way as Windows does. There is a button you push to get a list of Applications - or perhaps a list of Application types, i.e. Internet/Office/etc. You click on one of these and it fires off the application in question.
Now - it may not have the same names for the applications you are used to performing a specific task, though some cross OS boundaries like FireFox & Thunderbird. If you want IE/Outlook/etc. You need to run Windows. There are other options.
What model and is it network attached or capable of being networked?
—If number 5 is real - then you are required to stop using your Android phone NOW!—
I’m an ex-T-mobile employee. When they pushed the new operating system to my Fender mytouch it killed my phone. I went to the store and did everything I could. They did everything they could. I called tech support and they did everything they could.
But since it was out of warranty (barely) I was stuck.
BTW, what it did was slow the phone down to be unusable. It was like using Vista on a pentium 1, literally, even when just trying to answer the phone.
It did the same thing to my wife’s fender but to a lesser degree. I now use both as “iPods” but even after stripping everything off mine I could, it’s almost not even useful for that. But I’m a cheapskate.
BTW, when I moved to KY where I have no internet access, I was going to use my new Galaxy S as a wifi hotspot in my home. It worked great the first month. I actually used uTorrent to download a nice 600 mb “book on tape”. Then it stopped working.
After five months and countless phone calls to support I gave up and went satellite. I was using the tower near a highway and they cut me off because the tower was really not there for people like me (way too few people actually live here). To this day I can’t send text messages with pictures from home. I have to be somewhere else. They’ve cut us off from that tower.
If I had my way, my wife and I would use nothing but old flip phones. But she needs texting for the kids and grandkids. And the way the plans are set up, there is not much difference in the price of the plans.
This is they year of Linux on the desktop! LOL
I used to be a certified RedHat admin. It expired over a decade ago.
I use Linux on a few servers, but our main software is Windows only, running on Windows servers. We have Windows desktops and all our employees are familiar with them.
I’ve played around with Linux over the years on desktops. Sometimes I could get it to load and sometimes not. Generally, I just couldn’t set aside the time to figure it out. When I got it to work, even as an admin, I had to hunt and peck around quite a bit just to do anything. Not insurmountable, but most users don’t want that kind of change at the same time they have to change the look and feel of every piece of software.
What I think would really be helpful, at least from a desktop perspective, is for the whole Linux desktop community to agree on a single standard desktop, and the closer to Windows look and feel the better. Offer every distro with this same desktop so that new users can always have the same look and feel no matter what distro they try.
The biggest complaint about Win 8 (at least from my perspective) is the changing interface. It’s a huge training and support challenge. At least if Linux had some sort of agreed-upon standard desktop, there would be a real impetus to use the Win 8 migration as a chance to migrate to Linux since you have to retrain everyone anyway.
In business, time is money. I’ve not come across a version of Linux yet that was worth the time to adopt for my users.
Also, and maybe this has changed, but it seems like mice in Linux never worked like Windows as far as moving around the screen. Every user I had test Linux complained about it. This seems like a small issue, but it’s actually a major obstacle to adoption. Perhaps that’s something that can be configured - I haven’t puttered around with Linux in a couple of years.
When “investing” in an OS or computing environment there are tradeoffs in terms of
- $$$ paid out (for both OS and apps)
- time paid out (for both OS and apps)
- payoff i.e. enjoyment or benefit of use
With linux your $ cost is minimal and approaches 0. Your time cost is fairly high no matter how smart or experienced you happen to be. Your enjoyment payoff is fairly large at least that’s true in my case.
Over the term of ownership time cost tends to go down while enjoyment tends to go op.
With Windoze and to some extent Mac the $ payout is substantial, the time payout is much less. The enjoyment factor is subjective but speaking personally neither is as high as linux and in the case of Windoze it seems that for many folks it’s a signed quantity meaning it can also take on negative values.
Assess your own situation, see where you want to be on this list of tradeoffs, then pick the platform (Or platforms because there is no need to be monogamous) that meet your needs the best.
Most modern mid-range and upwards PCs are capable of running Windows as a Virtual Machine guest on a Linux box.
There’s also wine, but I prefer the virtual solution. It’s more intuitive.
Also, VMware and VirtualBox both offer “seamless” integrated desktops so that the windows guest doesn’t have to execute in its own window, but rather has its own taskbar on the host desktop, or a taskbar integrated with the host’s.
Use WINE or create a VM and load Windows on it.
—What is humorous about this is that you are actually wrong about Linux not being “standard.”—
Yeah, I’m actually with you. I should have been more specific. I meant “accepted by the average non-computer-junkie as standard”. I used to be in hi fi and computer sales. I figured out a long time ago that when dealing with non-product-junkies, people want to spend as little mental energy as possible when using a product. It’s why most cars have automatic transmissions nowadays.
Come to think about it, the analogy may apply: Linux users are to windows users what stick shift drivers are to drivers of automatics.
I confess I gave up the stick shift when commuting in traffic on seattle freeways. Now that I’m in Kentucky and there is no such thing as traffic, I’m all over the stick shift because I WANT to be more involved in the control of the car.
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