Jim Lynch

Technology and Other Musings

Desktop Linux: The presstitutes strike again!

Every once in a while we hear that desktop Linux is dead and buried. A columnist at PC World recently pushed this hoary old chestnut in a column entitled “Desktop Linux: The Dream is Dead.”

Ugh.

I hate it when somebody regurgitates this stuff. It never changes, and it’s never fair or accurate to desktop Linux. Most of it is merely spin, lies, and distortions and it ought not to go unchallenged. We see these presstitutes pushing this crap over and over again.

Well let me tell you something, desktop Linux is alive and well, and it’s getting better and better.

I’ll tear apart Strohmeyer’s column in a minute, but there are a few other things I want to cover first.

Before I go any further, I want to encourage folks that are new to Linux to check out these helpful books on Amazon. They will help you understand what Linux has to offer and will let you get the most out of it.

Desktop Linux numbers: Who cares?

Whenever somebody starts bashing desktop Linux, they usually point out that it has 1% or whatever of the desktop market. So supposedly, 99% of computers don’t use desktop Linux. Um…yeah, right.

First of all, who knows what the exact number is? I don’t nor do I think that any of these columnists have a clue. It’s a number that gets bandied about, often with nothing substantive to back it up.

Second, who gives a damn if it is 1%? I sure don’t, and neither do many other Linux users. I don’t base my decisions about which operating system to use on what other people are doing. That’s like somebody being stupid enough to buy a house at the top of the housing bubble just because somebody they know also purchased a home.

Desktop Linux is available to anybody who decides to use it, whenever, wherever and however they want to use it. It’s always there, and it’s never going to go away, regardless of how much FUD is put out by the presstitutes in the media.

Apple & Internet Explorer: Why you shouldn’t write off Desktop Linux

Let’s forget what I said about numbers and look at Apple.

Remember back when Apple had 2% or whatever of the desktop market? All of these dingbat pundits were predicting that Apple was doomed! The company would never survive; Macs were a joke, etc. On and on and on it went, with each pundit spewing his or her inane blather with reckless abandon.

All of that turned out to be pure bunk. Apple is richer than ever and apparently has a higher market share than ever (around 10% or so last I heard) of the desktop. Apple should stand as an example to Linux users and to those who would denigrate Linux on the desktop.

The company, product or operating system that has smaller market share today can quickly balloon to a much higher market share in a relatively short period.

The reverse can also be true. Products that have a large share of a particular market can often fade relatively quickly given real competition. Remember when Internet Explorer had 95% of the browser market? Now look at it, it’s a pale echo of its former self and will probably never regain its former glory.

What happened to IE? Simple. Browser developers simply made better browsers while Microsoft sat on its lead and ceded market share to them. This is nothing new; it happens all the time in technology. So don’t be too sure that the operating systems of today that have a high market share will always retain it. Things change quickly and today’s top tech can soon become tomorrow’s forgotten trash.

Desktop Linux has real value

I write reviews of Linux distros all the time. Most of the distros I write about have enormous value in and of themselves. There’s a distro for everybody, no matter what their hardware is or what their preferences are. Spend some time over on DistroWatch, and you can undoubtedly find a distro that matches your individual or corporate needs.

Here’s a list of some great distro choices for the Linux desktop:

Ubuntu
Linux Mint
PCLinuxOS
Peppermint OS One
Kubuntu
Pinguy OS
openSUSE
Fedora
SimplyMEPIS

When you combine that with the gigantic amount of open source software that is available through them, you have a tremendous amount of desktop computing value.

And it’s all free.

Here are just a few of the great applications available with most distros or available via their software management tools:

GIMP
OpenOffice.org
Chromium
Transmission
XChat
F-Spot
Shotwell
Pitivi Video Editor
KMail
Amarok

That’s a very tiny handful of the thousands of free applications and games available for desktop Linux. You could spend hours installing apps on your favorite Linux distro and still not run out of software.

Strohmeyer’s silly column

Strohmeyer begins his column by claiming that Windows Vista was some missed opportunity for desktop Linux and that Windows 7 is somehow relevant as well. I have to file all of this in the “who cares?” category.

Sure, it would be nice if disaffected Windows users moved to Linux. But is that the real reason to pick Linux? Just because somebody doesn’t like Windows? What does that make Linux? The lesser of two evils?

That’s a very negative way of viewing Linux, and I think it lends suspicion to the rest of the column in a big way. Linux can stand on its own, and its positive virtues do not need to be compared to any version of Windows for Linux to look attractive to desktop users.

Windows itself is irrelevant to what desktop Linux has to offer.

He goes onto decry a “lack of content” and then mentions DVDs and Netflix as an example of this. Are you kidding me? The day of DVDs (and all other disc-based media) are quickly passing, at some point, they will be laughed about by all of us. Why should we worry about an old medium anyway? The answer is simple; we shouldn’t.

As far as Netflix goes, ditto. I’ve never used it and I never will. If that company is stupid enough to limit the operating systems it supports instead of using an open standard, then screw em’. They aren’t worth my dollar and I wouldn’t waste my time trying to use their trashy service in the first place.

He then brings up flash, of all things. As if flash is some black mark against Linux. I had to chuckle when I read that part of his column.

I wrote a column of my own a while back that spells out exactly how I feel about flash. It’s called “Why Flash Sucks,” and it points out why flash is such a pain in the ass. As far as flash’s lousy performance on Linux goes, that’s Adobe’s fault. They should fix it or stop making flash for Linux in the first place.

I will shed no tears if Adobe stops supporting flash on Linux. It sucks on Linux, it sucks on Windows, and it sucks on the Mac. Flash provides equal opportunity suckage to every operating system out there.

At one point he oddly suggests that the cloud is a threat to Linux. Um…hello! Hasn’t he used Peppermint OS One, Peppermint Ice, Jolicloud or any of the other cloud-oriented desktop distros?

The cloud is very well integrated into these distros, and I suspect we’ll see that continue in distros that currently don’t put much emphasis on the cloud at all. There is nothing to stop developers from absorbing the cloud into their desktop distros. Tools like Prism make it very easy for developers to bundle web-based applications into desktop Linux.

The other thing that’s silly about Strohmeyer’s take on the cloud is that he seems to think it’s some threat to desktop applications or that perhaps developers should cut back on desktop application development.

Why? Cloud-based apps work perfectly well side by side with desktop applications. One does not preclude the other. We can have the cloud and desktop applications in our Linux distros.

Strohmeyer goes on to mention that Linux developers should concentrate on mobile devices rather than the desktop. Um…why can’t they work on both at the same time? Does he believe that Linux developers are incapable of supporting mobile platforms and the desktop?

It strains the bounds of credibility when I read something so stupid. Yes, mobile devices are a significant opportunity for Linux (and other operating systems) but so what? Desktop Linux will still be there, and it will push forward, getting better and better (along with Linux used on mobile devices).

Success in the mobile device arena does not preclude success on the desktop.

Final thoughts about Desktop Linux

He goes on to take one last shot at Linux, saying that it doesn’t have a shot at “…Mac OS X, much less Windows.” So what? Since when did picking an operating system become all about a zero-sum competition between the various choices?

When I sit down at my computer, I use the operating system that works the best for me, and that offers what I need to do my work, surf the web, run applications, etc. I certainly don’t sit down and think about who has the highest market share and then use that operating system. Do you?

Unfortunately, this won’t be the last bit of Linux bashing we get from the presstitutes. Since many of them can’t find anything positive to write about, they use Linux bashing to fill up space and attract hits to their sites.

You might notice that I haven’t linked to Strohmeyer’s column. I find that this is the best way to deal with these kinds of columns. Take away the page hits and ad impressions, and you take away the motivation to write such drivel in the first place.

Desktop Linux is alive and well, and there’s nothing the presstitutes can do about it.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, you are welcome to buy me a coffee. Thank you in advance for your kindness and support.

Published by

Jim Lynch

12 responses to “Desktop Linux: The presstitutes strike again!”

  1. Golodh Avatar
    Golodh

    I’ve hesitated a little before replying, but here goes. To save time I’ll first state my points, and then the evidence

    (1) Linux desktop market share verifiably is and remains negligible (with reported figures of between 0.85% and 2.04%).

    (2) Linux market share matters because new attractive hardware and software developments come out for the market’s no. 1 first, and somewhat later (if at all) for all the others.

    (1) Linux desktop market share

    For data see e.g. here http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/66076 , here http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOperatingSystems.htm and here http://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpcustom=Linux

    These data are based on connections, so strictly speaking one can’t tell if the connecting machine is a desktop, a laptop, or a netbook. But those distinctions aren’t very relevant. Really mobile devices like iPads and Android are separated out, and the rest can be lumped together.

    The estimates (0.85% and 2.04%) differ, but that is normal in sample surveys, which all have a margin of error, and in no way invalidates the data. The point is that a percentage error of 1% doesn’t allow you to distinguish between a 0.85% share and 2.04% share, but definitely allows you to tell 1% from 10%.

    So Linux’s share of desktop/laptop machines remains negligible, and even (according to netmarketshare.com data, flatlines.

    (2) Linux market share matters

    One can either (like the author of the above article) take the position that remaining a total niche market product doesn’t matter. In that case all is well, because even nich market products have minimum viable userbases, and Linux seems to be above that threshold. Meaning its continued existence (as a niche market product) and further development is fairly secure.

    Due to the number of large companies that finance Linux development (Red Hat, IBM, Novell (Oracle), Intel, etc.; see http://www.linuxfoundation.org/sites/main/files/publications/whowriteslinux.pdf ) momentum in development and maintenance seems assured. Linux’s relevance in the server room seems assured, which is great. However, that does not mean much about Linux on the desktop.

    The sobering fact is that MS Windows retains a market share of 84% – 91% despite (a) costing money and bringing license hassles (b) being less secure, and (c) requiring somewhat more maintenance effort than Linux.

    The question is: why?

    My own view is that, as far as most end-users are concerned, this is because they can easily afford the cost (or they will happily make illegal installs whenever they feel like doing so), they don’t care overmuch about, security, MS Windows is what they are used to, they are -by and large- quite content with MS Windows.

    That last point ought to worry Linux users and developers. Clearly Linux does not have the advantage in end-user appeal that MS Windows has. Whilst continued development of window managers like KDE and Gnome steadily improves that particular aspect of Linux (to the point where it’s no longer much worse than MS Windows) it still lags in terms of and-user applications. Despite the availability of Open Office, Gimp, Firefox, and a slew of low-visibility specialty applications like Amarok.

    In addition the proliferation of dozens of fly-by-night distros (sometimes touted as an advantage) is reinforcing the image of Linux as a thoroughly fractured system. Linux has come a long way, but it really really isn’t there yet in terms of desktop relevance.

    And last but not least, a real handicap of Linux is its rowdy and flame-happy user-base. Just log in to a forum dedicated to some facet of Linux with the sole purpose of having your (often simple, if not stupid, and almost always under-researched) question answered quickly and knowledgeably and marvel at the contemptuous, hostile, abusive, unhelpful, dumb, and self-satisfied attitude of the posts. This isn’t a problem for large organisations who are used to budget for paid support in any event, but it is deadly to the adoption by individuals and small companies.

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    1. drachenchen Avatar
      drachenchen

      Golodh, sorry if you’ve been unlucky enough to stumble on a few bad apples in the Linux userbase, but my experience with them from the first has been that overall, they have been overwhelmingly polite, helpful, curious, problem solvers. They do, however, have different customs from Windows-land, which may have tripped you up. They do expect you to do your homework before bringing in a problem, which is reasonable, considering that many questions have already been asked, and answered, and problem solved. The forums are not full of paid support staff. They are full of people that are volunteering their time, some of whom are seriously high-powered devs, with real-world jobs, and little time, which is why the custom of doing your homework FIRST before posting came to be. Try the forums over at linuxquestions.org. They have been very helpful to me from the start.

      Windows encourages technological dependence. Linux encourages technological self-empowerment. Which means they expect you to work for it. They expect you to learn as you go. They are a lot like old-time hot-rodders that way.

      One other thing: I hope that you haven’t been pushing this sort of: “Windows is bigger than you, so you are insignificant.” stuff on Linux forums. That would be similar to going to a forum for people that had escaped abusive religions through embracing atheism, who were confirmed and comfortable and happy in their atheism, and telling them that MOST people have accepted Christ, and therefore, they didn’t matter. It might get you some rude responses.

      I suffered through the Windows 9X plague, and ME, and 2000, and XP, and finally gave up around 2005. A friend showed me Ubuntu, and I’ve barely looked back since. At the time, I was trying to learn 3D animation, and building websites. Linux had pro-quality applications to do everything I needed for free, whereas to get the same level of software, licensed, for Windows, would have cost me about as much as a cheap-but-new CAR.

      That was hard to argue with, especially remembering how many times Windows had simply crapped out on me, and LOST what I was working on. -Or how much time I had wasted trying to keep my system free of malware and viruses. -Or how much SLOWER Windows was to use, on any given hardware. Have I had problems using Linux? Of course! But every time I have found a solution, I have learned something, unlike trouble-shooting in Windows.

      -And a last observation: how ANYBODY could POSSIBLY complain about Linux desktop functionality, after recently wasting several hours trying to get things done in Windows 8, is totally, absolutely, beyond me.

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  2. tlmck1234 Avatar
    tlmck1234

    Very well said Jim! Bravo!

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  3. paul Avatar
    paul

    Presstitutes!!!

    That is PERFECT! I am SO envious that I didn’t think of that. Well, actually, I’m much more amused than envious. And I’m probably way behind on the clever names being used today, but that’s just me.

    You can add my voice to the chorus. IMHO the trends are becoming clearer all the time. The record-breaking processing times that the new London Stock Exchange is turning in will just add more energy to the adoption of Linux. Add the LHC to that, the most complex machine in the world, and the case for Linux becomes even more credible. More schools are realizing the advantages of FOSS. More people are using Firefox and OpenOffice. (Hopefully Oracle doesn’t mess OO up, now.)

    I’m certainly enjoying the stability and quality of all that is Linux and open source for 3 years now. And I never miss a chance to share that with others.

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  4. PehJota Avatar
    PehJota

    Great article. It’s a long stretch to tie a toe tag on a group of hundreds (perhaps thousands) of OS distributions with hundreds of thousands of software projects, hundreds of thousands of developers, millions of users, and the support of thousands of companies including several big name multimillion-dollar corporations.

    I have to wonder who Microsoft and these other FUD-flingers think they’re competing against. Do they not realize that much of the free and open-source software out there is written by volunteers? That the users themselves are the developers they try to put down? Moreover, if this “competitive” effort was put into actually making software that could compete, then maybe M$ would have stronger market share than it does–at least among users who want to be chained to software that doesn’t trust them.

    In response to the comment regarding Oracle and OpenOffice.org’s future, that’s why LibreOffice and its overseeing vendor-neutral Document Foundation have recently formed. In addition, their goals are to improve the OOo code base more quickly than the Sun/Oracle maintainers have done and to offer a more developer-friendly community. They already have support from some big name companies and are well on their way to surpassing OOo. They’re even throwing around ideas like switching from the clunky embedded multi-platform GUI toolkit to the more native and portable Qt framework and removing all Java dependencies. (http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Category:Development)

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  5. Larry Cafiero Avatar
    Larry Cafiero

    You nailed it, Jim — thanks for the insight! Also, just a thought: I think part of the “death of the desktop” mantra is from folks who want resources aimed away from FOSS development for the desktop and toward cloud/mobile FOSS development. It’s nothing but a hunch, but it seems that the most vociferous of the “dead desktop” proponents have a stake in something else, especially mobile.

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  6. Brian Masinick Avatar
    Brian Masinick

    What is “alive” and what is “dead”? The dream of being able to use whatever kind of system you want is “alive”, and it has been for many years, and continues to be “alive”. If there is anything that is “dead”, it is a false belief that any particular system is going to “take over” and completely dominate.

    It is clear that for consumers, the Windows based systems are the most widely available for traditional computer systems, so if we want to define things that way, sure, that is the way it has been and that is the way things continue to be.
    Even so, there are at least three major alternatives for those systems: Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and there are more alternatives than that. So if the dream is to have alternatives, we have had that since the eighties, when we had the choice of either MS/DOS, Windows, or Mac OS.

    Today, we have the alternative, not just in hardware, but in software as well. We have desktop systems, laptops, netbooks, smartphones, tablets, and various appliances. In software, we have Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, several varieties of BSD, and a number of virtual unknowns.

    MY own dream, when I started in this business, was to be a part of a change that had not yet emerged, and that was to make computer systems usable enough that the majority of people could use a computer – if they wanted to do so. That dream has definitely been realized. Even many senior citizens, who never touched a computer at all, more than likely, until well after retirement, now send pictures using Facebook and communicate using Email and text messages to their friends and loved ones. That was definitely not possible when I became a professional in 1979, much less when I first started regularly using computers in high school in 1973!

    Is Linux “the dream”? No, it isn’t, not for me, anyway, but it is part of the overall landscape that helps realize the dream, at least my dream. It provides me with an interesting environment that I can use and explore every day, it provides freedom from the status quo, it is usable, enough so that my children can readily use it (and they do). Even my former wife can use Linux and she has, though she finally got herself a Macbook instead because someone talked her into it.

    That was a choice, though, and it can be a good choice. To me, choice is one of those things that is an important component of “the dream”.

    Richard Stallman’s dream – HIS dream, was to create a complete system that is 100% free as in freedom, the way HE defines it. He has largely achieved HIS dream, because it is possible to run systems that have 100% of the software completely available in source code. The problem with that is the fact that what people use and what they are interested in keeps changing. Since that dream was formulated, wireless networks have come around. Some of those wireless networks have 100% free software available; some still do not. Visionaries back in the same era that Richard had his vision could see a day and a time when a common network would share voice, data, images, any kind of information that could be transmitted, either through wires or over broadcast media (radio, televison, telephone, cable, microwave, satellite, fiber, and more). We have a lot of that, but again, that is another moving target, and the free software communities work tirelessly every day to keep up with it.

    Do we have a live dream then, or is it “dead”? Well, my dream is alive, it definitely works for me. Richard’s dream is alive, he can definitely have a 100% free system, as he defines it. Is the “dream” 100% realized? Well again, that depends on what the dream is. Clearly many dreams are alive, and many new dreams are envisioned each and every day. I don’t see how you can call that dream “dead” when the original dreams are working and new dreams continue to evolve. For me, I consider that very much alive.

    As far as Linux and how it pertains to those dreams, again, I see it as being very much alive. It’s only when we talk about some mythical market and somehow thinking that one single approach will “dominate” that statements about Linux being “dead” – or any of these dreams being “dead” are brought up. To me, that’s the wrong argument, and I don’t buy it at all.

    I could care less what “dominates” as long as choices continue to abound. I’ve never seen more choices in both hardware and software than I see today, and I am more enthusiastic than ever about those choices. That’s not dead to me – whether we are talking about the desktop, the server, the cloud, mobile devices, whatever. Linux contributes considerably to the ecosystem in every one of these areas, and I don’t see that slowing down or stopping whatsoever.

    So our perception of being vibrant and alive or dead, a lost cause, or whatever someone cares to claim is simply that – the perception of some. The reality – reality means REAL, my friends, and reality is that we have more real choices than ever before. That’s a long way from being dead. Declining? I wouldn’t say that either. Just look at the evidence all around us. Choices abound. None of the choices have gone away, not Windows, not Mac, not Linux, not BSD, not desktops, not servers, not appliances, none of it. It is all very much with us, and every one of those spaces represent multi million dollar markets; several of them represent multi billion dollar markets! If that’s dead, well then someone else’s definition of dead does not match my definition!

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  7. W. Anderson Avatar
    W. Anderson

    I use the analogy of car popularity. There are more (quantity) Chevrolet Cavaliers and Chevy Impalas on the road – by a wide margin – than Honda Accords, but why would anyone who is not a moron chose the Chevy which has no where near the quality, reliability or retained value than the Honda.

    Nuf Said.

    These “presstitutes” also do not address the facts of The Gap, many “countries in Europe, Asia, South/Central America that are standardizing on Linux for education systems and government infrastructure.

    A pat answer from the presstitutes is they are not America and are stupid.

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  8. Behzad Avatar
    Behzad

    I am a desktop Linux user for a few years, and though I find myself in total agreement with some parts of your post, there are issues that I hold a different view point.

    I am a user of Netflix which thanks to them I cannot use their streaming service on my linux system, I use Hulu and every-time I watch something on it my laptop temperature rises so high that I wonder I am damaging my laptop by just watching a video on Hulu.

    On more serious stuff, OpenOffice falls way beyond Microsoft office, in terms of macros and vba support and handling large spreadsheets. Let aside the compatibility issues than are not few. There is no Professional Adobe Acrobat for linux systems or a software which brings the same tools for manipulating and annotating pdfs in linux.

    For sure not as much as performance, but yet “look” does matter, and gnome look is not good enough and KDE is too heavy and inefficient.

    This is not about whose fault this is. Is it linux’s fault or Adobe’s or Netflix or …?! That is a secondary issue. The main issue is that a linux power user should be able to use his system for whatever a Mac or Windows user can use, and if that is not the case that means linux is not suitable for desktop.

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  9. Homer Avatar
    Homer

    Heh. I remember reading the original FUD argument. Came with all the usual “I really love Linux”… But it’s dead, over, no good. The guy lost all credibility as soon as what he “loved” was not useful…. What a clown.

    Cash for comment is such a bad thing on the internet. Clearly he has no personal integrity.

    Linux can never die. In fact, every time I install it on a friend/colleague, family members PC at their request to save them from the hell that is Microsoft, I secretly grin and think “1 by 1, technology is getting back to where we were before MS screwed the industry senseless.”, my 1 by 1, plus the 30+ million other desktop linux users 1 by 1 and that tsunami of Windows exodus is well underway.

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  10. Aliff Avatar
    Aliff

    THAT GUY IS AN IDIOT!!!!!! XC

    jim,you were right about everything you said,i seen that article yesterday when it came to singapore.

    i read it and i felt angry and insulted since i was a linux-fantic since 2009.

    LINUX WILL STILL BE ON DESKTOPS FOR ALL TIME!!!!!

    (ps i hope that guy goes to hell for writing that in pc magazine)

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  11. Carling Avatar
    Carling

    What a hell of a excellent article, I enjoyed the pleasure reading every word of it.

    I also fire off emails to the presstitutes Journalists, and hit their blog page in reply to their articles. I give them the true facts with web links to prove the point, such has M$ being a top contributor to the Linux kernel, Linux Foundation members, Linux Federation website showing Linux is everywhere.

    It’s taken the sting out of their articles and quiets them down, when it proves to the public they are fools that don’t know what they are talking about, Thank you… Keep up the good work

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