Interview by Mark Golden on the general usability of Linux for the desktop



Mark's questions are italicized.

... I liked the OpenOffice word processor and spreadsheet (used in Xandros) in and of themselves, and I was able to port simple files back and forth between Word at work and Writer at home. But I couldn't open an Excel with lots of graphs, nor a Word document that tracked heavy changes. Even a moderately complicated Word document - an Oscar ballot - lost its page breaks and a bit of other formatting. And a simple Excel-to-Calc-to-Excel file lost upon return to Excel a formula inserted in Calc.

Do these kind of experiences surprise you? Could I solve these problems without the assistance of an IT professional? If so, would that be difficult and time-consuming?

Your experience does not surprise me. But I would have a couple of questions, such as, Did you only use the version of OOo received with the Xandros desktop? Do you happen to know the version of it? I'd suggest you try the same test only this time use OpenOffice.org taken from our site. We are at version 2.0.2 but I don't know what number Xandros is distributing or if they altered it or what fonts they use.

But say you do still encounter difficulties. We readily confess that there are occasional problems, especially in Calc and elsewhere Microsoft has used elements that prove difficult to accommodate, though these are much fewer in number with version 2.0.2. Some problems are due to simple issues, such as fonts, which one can usually easily replace. (The right font can make a huge difference to how a document is displayed.)

But to answer your questions: Yes, you could solve these and most other problems on your own. You probably wouldn't need a guide, but we have extensive information and guides that very likely address these and other problems, which as you observed, tend to concern a minority of documents. Would it be time consuming? Not especially, though it would depend on the document in question. Clearly, as a corporation moves to using the OpenDocument Format (ODF, which IBM's Workplace, Sun's StarOffice, and other applications running on Windows and LInux will use), these and other problems would disappear. The ODF is an open standard and has the effect of eliminating file incompatibilities among applications implementing it.

I suppose to rephrase my point, Linux is certainly an option but migrating to it does not mean that one must necessarily abandon Windows in a workplace environment. In fact, we urge companies and governments to migrate slowly and not to abandon Windows but rather include Linux (and Solaris and Mac OS X and BSD, etc.) progressively and in ways that acknowledge user needs and desires. Because OpenOffice.org runs on Windows as well as Linux (and a host of other platforms), it thus can serve as a bridge to more open--and standardized--office environment.

That last point is fairly important. Migrating to Linux and other free systems in the end means that one is migrating to a standards-based environment that will save a lot of money. It's not just because Linux is "free"; it is because remaining with a monoculture program--Microsoft--costs money, in exposure to viruses and worms, and in the dearth of competitive alternatives to the monopoly. With Linux, OpenSolaris, etc., and with open standards like the OpenDocument Format, which OpenOffice.org uses, a corporation is thus entering an environment where there are competing applications from which the CIO may choose without the fear that file formats would be incompatible--without the anxiety that a file would be unreadable by application B if it were originally created by application A.


As for Linux operating systems for the home desktop generally, could you point me to any data on global market penetration? (If not strictly for home use, then for desktops generally.)

I can't, at least not with any real accuracy. Martin FInk of HP long ago suggested it was almost impossible. I'd guess that various analyst groups have useful data on this, just from tracking companies. But it gets more complicated when you track national usage, especially in regions where piracy is common. One can also have Linux and Windows on the same computer or use Linux via Knoppix, which means via a CDROM or even USB drive. FWIW, OpenOffice.org is most popular among Windows users and we run on numerous platforms. Linux is but one of them.

Do you think "anybody," as is sometimes claimed, can easily make the transition from Windows to systems like Xandros, Linspire, Mandriva, Suse, Knoppix and Fedora?

Yes. "Anybody" usually uses but a fraction of her computer's potential. She composes letters, perhaps uses a spreadsheet, creates presentations, surfs the Internet, writes email messages. She and her family may also watch videos. All this Linux can do and do in ways that are often superior to Windows, for the user can do these things safely and without fear of random corruptions, crashes, or the other ills of code that poorly written black hat software is heir to. That said, some Linux distributions are easier to learn than others and there are incompatibilities between Linux/Windows/Mac OS X, but there has been a strong effort in the last couple of years to produce distributions that are as friendly to users as Mac OS X, which, of course, is based on a free version of Unix.

BTW, there have been fairly serious studies on this subject, as a lot of money is riding on it. The public sector in Europe, Africa, Asia is considering free/open software such as Linux and OpenOffice.org and so they have commissioned groups to study the migration. I can point you to some studies. The general opinion: Yes, everyman can migrate and often not even know that he is now using something other than the latest product from Redmond.


If not for everybody, what kinds of users do make good candidates for switching to Linux?

But it is for everybody. That said, not all programs a person likes or depends upon may be on Linux, just as not all programs on Windows are on Mac OS X. For some people, in short, it may be necessary to stick with Bill. But then I would strongly suggest that what is really needed here is not just free/open software (which implies a way in which things are made and distributed) but open standards, which determines the possibility of communication. What we have seen and what we are all tired of is the costly world of incompatibility. Open standards promise a world of free communication. But a standard is only really open if there are multiple implementations of it, not if a standards body decrees it. (A monopoly is still a monopoly if it is the only one selling a thing and dominating a market.)


Of the Linux distributions geared toward novices migrating from Windows is there a best distribution, or does that totally depend on the user's particular hardware?

This is really more for Linux users, but it really depends on what you want to do and how much support you want, etc. Right now, Ubuntu is very popular, and reportedly easy to use, but Debian is used throughout a large part of Asia, as is Red Hat and Fedora, and many swear by these; and of course, we have just learned of Novell's latest desktop offering (SuSE). Linspire and Xandros seek to make things easy for the user and largely succeed, I have been told, as does Mandriva, which like many of the above offers support and training, or so I learned from going to their and others' sites. As you can see, the market for Linux is large, and I've only mentioned some of the bigger distributions and skipped many of the smaller non-English distributions one finds outside the US and Canada. Choice is hardly missing, though if a user wishes to just dip her toe, the best option is for something that is easy to install (if not installed already) and for which there is support. She can always download OpenOffice.org afterward--and in fact, I would recommend that.


Prior to installing the various Linux versions, I tried to look into compatibility, but found almost no information, neither "yea" or "nay," for my computer's components and various peripherals,(a Sony Vaio desktop with 866-MHz Pentium III, Intel 815 video card, HP DVD-RW external drive, Epson Color Stylus C88, Fuji Finepix digital camera, etc.) Does that surprise you? Why is confirming compatibility so difficult for, as an example, Pentium III, which were sold by the tens of millions?

I confess I'm not a Linux user: I happen to use a Mac OS X machine and of course love it, though it too has its characteristics. When I started up my computer after purchase I didn't ask it, Do you support my printer? My camera? phone? can I hook up my tv to you? install a cdrom or dvd? send faxes? I just assumed it would and sometimes I was disappointed but usually not; often I was surprised and delighted it could do things I hadn't really thought of at the time. Do Windows users have to interrogate their computer for each and every peripheral and appliance? Gack.

So I just plunged in anyway. Some distributions got along with my computer better than others, but in general they all were able to handle basic computing like browsing the Net, e-mail, etc.

Of course.

But I had great difficulty with multi-media, like DVDs, online video, downloading my camera easily, and syncing my iPod Nano. Seems like if I stuck with the best distribution for my computer out of the box, it could still take me months to get my computer to do everything I want, and even then I'm not sure I'd be able to sync my iPod safely. Is this the experience you would expect for a non-technology professional?

I actually wouldn't know. For instance, my impression has been that unless you are using the latest Windows technology, many of your other gizmos won't work; and haven't many experienced the problem of not finding a driver for this or that thing? And if you have found it only to find that it may not really work as stated? So, you've come across something a little similar, but with a few exceptions. For one, some Linuxes are more complete than others. But more importantly, a lot of material on the net and in DVDs was designed to run on Windows and grudgingly on Mac OS X. (Windows Media Player, for instance, is no longer supported for Mac OS X. Does that mean that Macs are bad for multimedia usage? or that one should be steered clear of them?) Linux was orphaned for a very long time, which partly explains your problems: the file may not have been legible, most likely because licenses made it impossible to create a reader on Linux. That is changing quickly, both because over the years the technology has been reversed engineered, and because companies are realizing the number of people who use Linux and the potential market.

Let's engage in a thought experiment. Say that Linux is strongly advocated by a South Asian government. A clever company realizes it can make a lot of money by creating an iTunes for Linux, offering songs and videos for a fee. Perhaps Bollywood would go along. Very quickly, I am sure, you'd see the creation of excellent applications that could read not only these but other files, including those created for Windows media, and with little difficulties. Why? because the market would demand it: market economics 101.

Linux and other open source software is poised to sweep the world swiftly and brilliantly. Its sweep hinges on the establishment of markets of scale, and we are seeing this happen throughout the world, especially outside the US. This sweep will have several positive effects. One will be a likely standardization of file formats, which will vastly reduce the cost of incompatibility. Another will likely by the reduction of viruses that prey on poorly written code. (Remember when the 'net was safe neighbourhood to walk through?) And another will be the promotion of real creativity and innovation, not just the same old variations on the same melody, as the weight of monopoly will be removed and users and developers will be able to experiment with what they have and what they want to do.

Posted: Mon - May 15, 2006 at 07:09 PM          

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