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I browse a lot of forums related to Linux and occasionally I misstep and view some of the comments at places like Digg or Reddit. Many of these comments really need to be taken with a grain of salt and one type of viewpoint that often pops up is how negatively some distros are viewed by other Linux users.
The distro I’m referring to is Ubuntu. There are many people who look upon this popular distro most unfavorably for one reason or another. Now everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I’m OK with that, but I do have to take issue when some Linux “guru” knocks on another distro for being “too easy”.
First, what’s wrong with simplification? With so many people clamoring for a higher Linux user base, taking the mystery out of Linux is the key to a higher adoption rate. So when the Ubuntu devs take steps to make their distro one of the easiest to use and understand I don’t understand why some other users would try and ridicule this.
Here’s a hypothetical example: installing flash so you can view most online videos. I’m not really reaching here, but I’m positive that conversations between an experienced Linux user and a new one would go like this:
Noob: “Hey, I installed Ubuntu yesterday and just installed Flash so I could go to YouTube.”
Veteran: “Ha! You’re using Ubuntu! What a noob! Bet you had a hard time with Flash. The way to do it right is to hit ALT + F2 and then type in the command for your terminal. Once your terminal opens up then you have to type in ‘wget http://blah.blah.blah and download the package from Adobe. Then you need to unpack it with tar -xvzf and then cd into the new directory. But first you need to ls and grep the location of your browser plugins. Then cp the flash .so file to that directory. Do you understand how to do that, noob? How did you install Flash?”
Noob: “I clicked a button and it was done.”
Do you see what I mean? What is it with simplicity that gets some users tied up in knots?
In case you aren’t aware of it, in Ubuntu it is possible to install Flash by simply clicking a button. If you visit a web page that has Flash content and you don’t already have the plugin installed, a pop up window appears that offers you the choice of what plugin you wish to use. Choose the one you want and click a button. Nice and simple, just like installing Flash on IE in Windows.
I’m all for making Linux as user friendly as possible, and if that means turning software installations into “I clicked a button”, then I’m all for it. The average computer user doesn’t have a clue on what goes on in the background when software is installed, and I would say that most users don’t even care. They just want things to work without having to get all that technical.
The more steps that any Linux developer takes that make the overall Linux user’s experience easier are steps in the right direction. Take the technical mastery requirements from Linux and you’ll see the user base increase even faster.
Note: I did make up the entire dialogue in the hypothetical situation, but it is based on published viewpoints of others that I have seen. The instructions that the “veteran” gave may not be entirely accurate and I make no claims to it’s accuracy.
Click some of these circles and spread the news!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I love your piece here, here’s what I wrote to a “slackware” forum.. cause I was in a slackware irc room, and asked what i thought were legit questions, and i was almost ran out of the room and was typed to rude on forums… and a few even said. you should try ubuntu.. you arent “slack-ready” yet
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I help people in windows chatrooms.. cause 1. i’m really good with windows, and i’m an EXCELLENT googl’r too. I never say (when someone says they have this problem or or that crash blah blah blah in windows) “use linux” ..
Linux itself will NEVER be desktop of the year, and the year of the linux desktop will NEVER COME ..why do you ask? glad you asked..
for 1. windows has to satisfy EVERYONE and EVERYTHING(all hardware) , thats why so much can and has gone wrong with it , why its so easily targeted and so easily hacked, smacked, cracked and hi-jacked
2. Linux is a “CHOICE” the average person that “chooses” to use linux of any distro/variety, knows they are in for a NON-windows experience.. whether they chose a distro that JUST WORKS or one that they have to WORK just to make it WORK, is THEIR CHOICE.
my first distro was pclinuxos, an incredible distro, never crashed, very stable..,then ubuntu, ubuntu ultimate, mint, zenwalk(didnt like it), installed slackware, but wasnt “ready” for the work involved at that time, tried pcbsd, didnt like the “feel” of it, then back to ubuntu 64bit since pclinuxos2009 is not 64bit, and I like using all my ram, but seriously..(i mean isnt linux actually JUST A KERNEL?) the package manager, philosophy of the devs, and the lil perks and tweaks that come with it all are all just “window dressing” (pardon the word “window”)?
with over 500 choices for linux , itll NEVER EVER be the “YEAR” of the linux desktop, cause choice being linux’s BIGGEST strength, is also it’s even BIGGER weakness..
when people even bash people cause of their distro choice, this is an internal type strife thatll turn more people off of linux(this along with RTFM,go back to windoze, and try a kiddy distro), then all the malware,viruses,hi-jacks, bsods, registry and ID10t errors of windows itself.
in closing i say “Use what you can AFFORD, “CREATIVELY ACQUIRE” or figure out” and leave everyone else’s choices ALONE unless you are actually HELPING THEM use linux and respect the choice(S) they’ve made.
thank you
that was my .02 now i’m broke
There’s nothing wrong with simplicity. The Mac has thrived on it. There will always be a group of hardcore Linux users that think “if you’re too stupid to use Linux, then Linux isn’t for you.” That’s just crazy. Linux is an OS, and any OS can be made to be simple, and that’s a good thing. It’s silly to spend so much time setting up and maintaining your OS instead of just using your computer for the tasks that you need it to do.
I also agree with Brad. There will never be a year of the Linux desktop. I honestly think that the best Linux can ever hope to achieve on the desktop is about 10% unless something drastic happens. That drastic thing will be something based on Linux, but not really Linux – like Android. I’m not saying Android is gonna make a difference, but the scale of what will have to happen is like what Apple did to FreeBSD to create Mac OS X. It’s nothing like FreeBSD, but a carefully executed product that draws its strengths off of it, and makes it much easier for the consumer to digest.
@LinuxLover – I’m all for simplicity, whether it is in an OS or even my own blog design. If you ask me, the more complicated you make things, then the better chance there is that something will screw up.
As for the year of the Linux desktop thing…. that rallying chant seems to pop up twice a year, usually in April and October but I don’t see that happening for a long time, if ever. For “The Year of the Linux Desktop” to ever happen is going to take more than just the hard work from the Linux devs; it’s going to require 3rd party apps to port their software to Linux as well.
Good Post! You hit the spot. It is unfortunate that such attitude still exists in the Linux community, even after a lot of linux communities and forums request for refraining from such behaviour, and be kind to the new user.
> just like installing Flash on IE in Windows.
I don’t think that matching MSWindows’, ahem, ‘usability’ should ever be a desktop Linux goal.
Mark Shuttleworth did say that the goal is to be mac like or better. Well I like the simplicity of just clicking a button. Ease of use for the end user should be a goal of any OS, why should the end user have to work to get their computer to do stuff? For me, I use Ubuntu for day to day stuff and when I feel like getting down and dirty with Linux, I boot up my Arch Linux box.
Those same “gurus” should also stop using cars with ABS, electric windows & mirrors, air-condition, air-bags., because they’ll look noob compared to an F1 driver whose F1 car doesn’t have any of this.
I completely agree with you. Were it not for the simplicity of Ubuntu I would never have replaced Windows with Kubuntu last week.
I’m an experienced software engineer and I’ve been working with Linux since the early Red Hat days but only to create web or file servers (and on one occasion a proxy).
Last week I was facing my regular drive re-image to try to speed Windows XP back up when I suddenly though, “what do I do on my laptop that really requires Windows?”
I’ve played with the live distros that come on the cover of magazines and I downloaded the latest Kubuntu to try that out on my aging Sony Vaio (it’s about 3 years old now). It was a real eye-opener. Everything just worked out of the box (unlike Windows). Within half an hour I was installing Kubuntu and I’ve loved it ever since.
And here’s the weird thing – I love the responsiveness and usability of KDE so much that I’ve started taking my laptop into work to use instead of my desktop machine. WinXP just feels… clunky in comparison.
I suspect so-called Gurus’ attack distros such as Ubuntu because it’s changing the Linux domain into something more accessible for everyone – which means it’s no longer their own exclusive playground. Sad really.
Sorry, forgot to add…
I installed lots of software that I needed with the click of a button.
Truth is, I also used apt-get which was also ridiculously easy to use too (it configured as well as installed what I needed).
I even managed to install MS Internet Explorer 6 (for web-development reasons) with no problems at all. Great stuff. ^^