Text and photographs copyright of Jim Shead.
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Text and photographs copyright of Jim Shead. |
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As a user of Microsoft Windows for many years (I remember upgrading to Windows 2.5) I was happy to pay for a system and for the many upgrades that improved the product and brought new facilities to me as a user. However in recent years Microsoft has adopted a policy that seems to be aimed at forcing users to buy more software without gaining any real increases in functions available.
I first noticed this when under Windows XP I found I could not open some old document files produced by earlier versions of MS Windows. A little research revealed that the answer to this problem was to buy a file converter program from Microsoft to cure a problem they had caused by not maintaining backwards compatibility with files produced by earlier versions of Microsoft Word.
It also seemed to me that Microsoft was not only refusing to support its own software once it was a few years old but was actively ensuring that old versions of their software packages were incompatible with the latest version of the operating system.
The final straw was when I bought a new PC with Visa installed and found I could not load any of my older MS applications, even though independently produced software over ten years old would load and run. Having spent thousands of pounds on Microsoft software over the years I was no longer prepared to throw good money after bad.
Having decided to abandon Microsoft the choice of alternative desktop operating system seemed to boil down to just two:
| Microsoft | Linux |
Wide range of commercial software available All manufacturers provide MS Windows drivers as standard Operating system and application software is expensive Software installation is simple but individual packages have to be bought and installed separately |
Wide range of free software available Many manufacturers don't provide Linux drivers but many open source drivers are available Most operating system and application software is free Software installation can be simple as most distributions of Linux come with many free applications. |
 | My ChoiceThe Ubuntu distribution of Linux |  |
Linux consists of a Kernel plus a whole variety of software for different applications. Some Linux systems are used as web servers or file servers and so don't need all the applications and interfaces that are seen as essential for a desktop computer. Also there are hundreds of different applications available, many of which have similar functions to each other and although it would be possible to pick your own individual applications for each task most people want a complete package of programs installed as a starting point, which can be changed latter if required.
This has led to the creation of Linux Distributions which bundle together the kernel and all the interfaces and applications that you would expect on your PC desktop (or on a web or file server if that is what you require) and deliver it to you on one CD or download. My first choice of distribution was Debian, which loaded easily enough but which seemed not to have all the drivers I needed for my scanner and a few other things. I was later told that the Ubuntu distribution, which is based on Debian, was a much more user friendly and up to date version of Linux, and so it proved to be.
I went down to Waterstones to get a book about Ubuntu and found a good one that also had a CD with the distribution of Linux included. I think this is a really good way of getting the software as I think most people would like a software manual and many of them come with a free CD. It doesn't really matter if it is the latest version or not because Ubuntu automatically checks for updates and will download new versions if required.
For more information see www.linux.co.uk and www.ubuntu.com.
Although Linux has graphical interfaces and is a more robust and secure operating system the MS Windows it still has some barriers to becoming a real rival to Microsoft in the eyes of many users. These are:-
Lack of support from many peripheral device manufactures in providing drivers for scanners, cameras and other attachable equipment.
The need to use the command line for some functions rather than the Graphical User Interface (GUI). Although this is only needed on comparatively rare occasions these are usually the occasions when users need the support of a GUI rather than having to master a set of not very user friendly commands.
There is a conception that Linux is for techno geeks, rather than the general computer user, and although the development of Ubuntu, the recently announced SimplicITy desktop and Linux ready personal computers has done something to counter this view, there is still more to be done.
What is needed to make Linux as popular as MS windows? It is certainly not price as Linux is free. Nor is it product design, security, flexibility or reliability - Linux wins in all these areas. Ease of use is still an issue for many and although this is an area being addressed by Ubuntu, and others in the Linux community, there is still some way to go. Some of the issues, such as the provision of drivers and the public view of Linux, depend on the size of the Linux community expanding and this in turn is hampered by these same problems.
Perhaps we may hope that Linux will become a serious competitor to Microsoft and that a community sharing development effort can beat a major corporation with a massive marketing budget. This may seem optimistic but consider the fate of the corporate computer giant of the 1950s to 1980s - IBM - brought low by a small start up company called Microsoft. The times they are a changing.
Text and photographs copyright of Jim Shead.