Battleangel

Some old coot and Linux guru from the old days muses over, satirizes why people shouldn’t use Linux, makes fun of some very valid reasons why Linux hasn’t hit big. My personal favourite is this …

Reason number three: Linux doesn’t have enough applications

Really now. I mean, most Linux systems only come with secure Web browsers, like Firefox; e-mail clients, like Evolution; IM clients, like GAIM; office suites, like OpenOffice.org 2.0; Web page editors, like Nvu; and on, and on, and…

Microsoft, on the other hand, gives you Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, the most popular Web browser and e-mail client around — even though they do have a few little, teeny-weeny problems. Of course, Windows also has an IM-client, Windows Messenger, which, come to think of it, has also had some problems.

And, Microsoft also has Microsoft Office, which — oh wait, you don’t get that with the operating system, do you? You also don’t get a Web page editor either, do you?

Well, still, with Windows you get so many more choices of software, don’t you? Like Lotus 1-2… oh really? I didn’t know that. Or, WordPerfect… oh, pretty much dead too.

Still, so long as you want to run Microsoft programs at Microsoft prices, Windows is the operating system for you!

Has this guy ever heard of 3rd party applications? Linux users remains the peskiest type of tech people. I’ll move to a Unix platform the day I can have all my 3rd party Windows applications running natively, preferably compiled for the system. Not having to emulate them manually, run some sort of Citrix shell or find alternative software. Not to mention games.

Maybe it’s time to make Linux a bit more fluid and user-friendly. Even in the little details. How pages scroll, how icons blend, how boxes fade and how sounds play. It’s a bit like when you buy a new car. Nowadays you can be sure that the manufacturer has had an army of developers try out the seat, make sure the horn sounds just right, that the glove compartment opens up with the correct swinging action and a accompanying sound. Even that the car smells right. While it is trickery in short, this is where the Linux crowd misses out. No matter how nice they try to make the user experience, you can always tell they no sense of style.

And I’m saying this even though I detest corporations and really admire the open source ideals. I guess the bottom line is that had I not exclusively run pirated software for the last 15 years and been able to do so with very little effort (less that the effort of converting to a Unix base), I would have switched a long time ago. But considering the price of Linux is essentially zero or thereabout, it’s quite remarkable what a small following they have attracted.