COMMENTARY--
Like SCO, I hold a Linux secret, but it won't be a secret for very long.
No, I'm not secretly a high-ranking officer in SCO, although I must admit my mortgage could probably use some of its share-price action right about now. For around three years now, on and off, I've had Linux secretly installed on my home PC.
Now, Linux itself isn't some kind of virus -- and thank you, Sobig.F, for filling my inbox with more than 2,000 copies of yourself this last week -- and I'm fully aware of how Linux got there, and indeed, why it's sitting idle. The reasons why it sits idle, however, do point to some ongoing issues for the Linux community that could probably do with addressing.
Every six months or so (on average) I'll hit an announcement of a new Linux distribution, either of one of the existing big-name players or a smaller distribution. I'll install it, begin to teach myself its intricacies, and then, invariably, something will go wrong. Nine times out of ten -- and I've never had anyone successfully explain to me why -- my mouse pointer will either vanish or simply cease responding. Sometimes both. Generally the tenth time it's either audio or networking that leaves me befuddled, which rather limits Linux's ongoing viability for my purposes.
Now, I'm willing to admit that Linux is still very much an enthusiast OS, and that there's a steep learning curve to overcome. It's a bit tricky, however, when the GUI that hand-holds new users simply decides to kill the mouse outright. And so the exciting new Linux installation sits gathering dust in a multi-boot system until I need the hard drive space. Six to twelve months later, the secret Linux dance repeats itself.
Now, I like the idea of Linux, although as a tech writer there's very little chance that I'll ever run a single-OS system; the need to test and work with a variety of OS software pretty much requires me to run at least one Microsoft OS at all times. If there was a simple way for me to run Mac OS X on my system (and I've pondered spot welding a Mac notebook to the side of my PC) I'd be in that too.
Now, I'm sure at this point that there are several goatee-growing zealots out there thinking "Oh, the poor iddle journalist can't get our superior OS to run. Boo-freaking-hoo!" That's something of an understandable attitude, given Linux's history, but it's not a terribly helpful one.
Various analysts have predicted everything up to and including the earth being demolished due to the actions of one errant Everest-sized butterfly, but among the more credible recent predictions has been Linux gradually taking more and more market share on the end-user desktop.
I can see that being appealing from a corporate standpoint. The install cost is virtually zero, and while there's retraining to be done, for the average user it's arguably only going to be as tough as learning Office and Windows in the first place. That's as long, however, as their mouse doesn't vanish or stop working, something that my experiences would seem to indicate is all too likely. Maybe I'm just unlucky, or all the penguins in the world have something against me. As an aside, I'm still waiting for the OS that adopts the Smurf as its icon, although I guess the licensing fees might be tricky.
I've met some Linux users who'd be appalled at this Linux-for-everyone scenario. Linux is apparently "their" OS, (*cough* *hack* */.* *cough* *hack*) and if you're not innately bright enough to work out how it all functions from the moment you splurted out of the womb, you don't deserve to be running it. I have a lot of time for tinkerers, being one myself in various forms, but little time for this kind of snobbery. Unless Linux wants to remain a niche product outside of the server arena, it could do with being easier to install, run and learn. With every new release there are new promises relating to ease of use and 'great' desktop features.
Maybe in six months I'll be doing the secret Linux dance one more time...
What do you think? Have you had a tricky time with Linux? Is Linux already easy, and is Alex an idiot? Is there one great distribution out there that he's missing out on? Should Linux remain the province of the elite? Let us know at edit@zdnet.com.au.
