Linux’s Curse

Preston Gralla’s comments on how Linux didn’t impress him too much really got me thinking. Preston didn’t bash Linux or try to argue that Linux was inferior to Windows – he just pointed out that he can already do everything he wanted to on Windows and didn’t have any problems with it, so why change? That’s Linux’s big problem. It’s biggest feature has always been stability and security. In other words, it’s biggest feature is that it doesn’t have Windows bugs. There’s a curse on depending on being better than your competitors by having fewer bugs though – eventually your competitor fixes their bugs. Lets assume for a moment that Linux is perfect software, it has no bugs, no security flaws, never has and never will. This is clearly not the case but lets work with the best case scenario for Linux. Windows starts out as barely usable because of all the bugs in it. There’s barely a single piece of functionality that isn’t affected by bugs and users constantly have to keep in mind how to work around bugs while they use the system. Again this has never been the case but it is the best case scenario for anyone competing with Windows. Now, what happens when the next version of Linux comes out? It has no bugs. Great! What happens when the next release of Windows comes out? It has fewer bugs. Most applications become more stable as they mature even if they add more features at the same time because in each release you typically add a few features (which are probably buggy) and fix a bunch of bugs in existing features. Windows certainly has become more stable over time, though there was that ME release which might have been a step backwards… So here’s the curse of Linux: even in the best of worlds, Linux’s biggest feature is eroding out from underneath it and will continue to do so until it is negligible. You simply can’t survive forever on a product that is better because it has fewer bugs – the competition will always catch up. You have to add features to differentiate yourself and they have to be innovative – really, truly, oh-my-gosh-that’s-awsome, I-never-would-have-thought-of-that innovative. Linux doesn’t have that kind of innovation from anything I’ve seen. Linux was created as a clone of UNIX and a Linux command line still looks and acts pretty much like every other UNIX out there. It has the same basic set of commands, similar programming APIs etc. Fortunately, desktop users don’t care about any of that. Unfortunately, Linux’s desktop environment doesn’t show any real innovation either. If I were to describe my Windows desktop when it first boots up I’d say something like:

A big blue space with a few icons on it that let me find files on my hard drives and the network along with a bar along the bottom of the screen that gives me status information about stuff that’s running and an ability to open new apps. In particular, there’s a menu that pops up from a button in the bottom left corner of the screen with a list of applications sorted into categories, then a series of icons that let me open my most commonly used applications, then a space for the currently open windows, then a space for status information icons and finally a clock. Now when I shove a Knoppix CD in and reboot, I’d say something like:

A big blue space with “3.4 Knoppix” and “LinuxTag” written on it plus some german text that I can’t read. There’s a bunch of icons on that big blue space that let me access the files on my hard drives and the network as well as a big bar along the bottom of the screen that lets me open applications, get status messages and switch virtual desktops. In particular there’s two menus that popup from buttons on the bar to let me run applications and those applications are sorted into different categories. Then there’s a series of buttons to let me open my most commonly used applications, then there’s a grid to let me switch virtual desktops, then a section to list the open windows, then a section for status update type icons and on the far right there’s a clock. I’m not making this up, I actually booted into Windows and described what I saw and then did the same for Knoppix. Both are pretty much exactly the default setup (Windows I’ve probably screwed with a little). Now think about a Solaris desktop (from before Gnome was integrated). It still has the bar down the bottom and many of the same features but it looks pretty radically different. My Mac is also radically different looking and has a very different set of features that are immediately available and obvious from just the blank desktop. There’s three major responses to this:

1. That’s deliberately done so users feel comfortable with the desktop immediately instead of having to relearn it.
2. The innovation is in the applications not a blank desktop.
3. Yes but with Linux you can choose a different window manager for a completely different look To arguement (1) I’d say that’s great but why isn’t there any innovation showing through? Virtual desktops are a cool idea, certainly innovative compared to windows (though it wasn’t actually a Linux innovation as far as I’m aware), it’s not particularly compelling though. I mean, I work in a multiple desktop style on Windows all the time – I minimize things when I’m not using them. At any one time the applications I’m using are on screen. Mac had a very innovative solution to desktop clutter, Exposé and it has a remarkable wow factor to go along with it (it’s also an incredibly good solution to the problem, at least on par with virtual desktops but with it’s own strengths and weaknesses). Basically, there needs to be something that makes people realize their running on Linux or there’s no point making the change. For argument two, what applications? The office suite is a clone of Microsoft Office, Mozilla has some cool innovations but it’s available for Windows so that’s no reason to switch, KMail looks like every other mail app out there (and from what I’ve seen of it acts like every other mail app too), The GIMP is a lousy version of Photoshop (definitely some innovation here but it’s not beneficial for the most part), XMMS is WinAmp. I can’t see a single application here that excites me. People are adding a Mac to their lives in droves because they’re excited about iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, Exposé, iChat and pretty much anything else that comes with a Mac and starts with

i. With Tiger people are excited about Spotlight, Dashboard and a bunch of other stuff. In the Windows world, people are excited about Longhorn and all the goodies it’s going to have. The fact that it’s so far away is ridiculous but there’s still a lot of buzz about it and it will most likely grow as Longhorn gets closer. What’s happening in the Linux world? OSCon is on at the moment but there’s no buzz. There’s very rarely buzz in the Linux world. There’s always a lot of complaining (Gnome’s spatial desktop thing seems to be the latest), there’s always a lot of advocates but the only buzz is about how more people are switching to Linux or about how Linux is opensource. To paraphrase Eddie Magquire – Show Me The Product! Finally, argument number 3 – yes you can choose another window manager for Linux and that’s all well and good, but all the major distributions default to KDE or Gnome and that’s where all the attention is being focused as well. People won’t discover the joy that is WindowMaker or the raw simplicity that is twm or whatever your favorite window manager is. Similarly they won’t come to discover all the hidden little cool stuff that is in various Linux applications because they’ll see no reason to investigate further. So should Linux focus on marketing and forget about building good products? Of course not, but Linux should definitely spend some time creating innovative solutions and things that people will get excited about when they first try Linux. Make the really cool stuff more obvious – put something exciting and useful on those welcome pages that every distribution seems to pop up instead of just basic information or technical FAQs and boring stuff. Knoppix pops up the system requirements talk about pointless – I’m already running it! For now though I’m rebooting into Windows where I can play City of Heros (don’t worry that’s about all I do with my Windows box, everything else is on my Mac).