BOINK

On April 23, 2009, Canonical released Ubuntu 9.04, or “Jaunty Jackalope”.  The Linux community was abuzz with anticipation prior to this release, and for the most part, their expectations have been met with faster boot times, a more streamlined interface, and better hardware support out of the box.  I give the Linux community a great deal of respect, and sympathy, because Linux just can’t catch a break.  And the faithful Linux community continues to clench their worn and tired teeth on the short end of the stick.

Canonical has done a commendable job with Ubuntu.  Since October 2004, Canonical has maintained Ubuntu as a free-to-download Linux distribution that has made massive gains in useability and hardware support – two key areas where Linux has traditionally represented a rift between those casual users that expect their computer to “just work”, and those that prefer to stay up until 4am recompiling their kernels.

To be fair, I’ve tried Ubuntu several times since “Dapper Drake” (don’t remember the version, only the nickname), and I’ve had mixed success.  On some computers, it would install like clockwork with full hardware support.  On other machines, I would have problems with either the wifi or sound devices (more so than other hardware types).  This experience has improved with every new version, but was rarely 100% painless.

Unfortunately, over the years I’ve slowly drifted towards the side of the divide of those who want their computer to “just work” (actually I think that inclination was always secretly there).  And as painless as Ubuntu has become over the years, that painless experience is not “assured”, which in part keeps me away.  “Assurance” is the arena of Microsoft Windows’ and Apple Macintosh’s / OS X’s dominance.

The “assurance” of hardware support comes in large part through market share and therefore vendor recognition, which is the aspect of Linux which I mention above that can’t catch a break.  According to Berkeley Linux Users Group, Linux market share on the desktop has passed 1% for the first time in history.  But for an operating system that must work on the myriad of hardware that exists in the wild, market share is the key ingredient.  Think of all those laptops on which you’ve seen that unmistakable “designed for Windows” badge, and you’ll get the idea.  It means that all of the hardware inside the computer has a Windows driver available for it.  Hardware support remains one of the key drawbacks to Linux, as drivers for most hardware is written or adapted by the user community – often poorly or months after the hardware is released.  When’s the last time you saw a “designed for Linux” badge on a product?

Well, actually, if you’ve been paying attention in your local consumer electronics shop lately, assurance has recently emerged through the launch of netbooks.  Most of the major netbook manufacturers started with and continue to release versions of their netbooks with Linux pre-installed.  The limited utility and performance of netbooks has encouraged vendors to forego Windows due to its heavy CPU/RAM requirements in favour of the much lighter requirements of Linux.  The end user benefits by getting a fully functional netbook with smooth performance, and even lower cost (in theory) because the vendor hasn’t had to pay Microsoft for a Windows license.

The Linux community benefits from this “assured platform” with an opportunity to gain market share and support from hardware vendors.  Canonical / Ubuntu recognise this opportunity and seek to capitalise on it by applying the concept of “assured platform” in reverse.  With Jaunty, Canonical has provided a “netbook remix” version, complete with a list of supported netbooks.  The increase in adoption of netbooks plus the existence of an assured platform for Ubuntu and other flavours of Linux will theoretically drive its market share up, and increase the chance that more mainstream hardware vendors will begin to support the OS by offering Linux drivers.

By the way, Apple doesn’t have the same market share problem.  Their OS will always work on the hardware it was designed for – the Mac.  Their market share problem impacts their bottom line and their share price, but not hardware support.  I believe a large part of their success in recent years has to do with that simple fact – the Mac just works.  Apple’s main issue in earlier years, other than convincing the market that the Mac was relevant, was application availability (which may have contributed to the relevance issue).

Application availability remains Linux’s second major hurdle.  Linux advocates will argue that the plethora of open source software exceeds in quantity and often in quality software that is available on other platforms.  However true this might be, the brand recognition isn’t there, even in the more common software packages such as the GIMP and Open Office.  And these two packages don’t exactly win awards for user interface design.  In other words, as a new Linux user, the learning curve is steeper to find and learn new applications.  This has to change.

Apple addressed this challenge by writing their own software.  iTunes, iWork, iPhoto, iMovie, etc.  Stellar, “home user” stuff with unparalleled simplicity, functionality, and price.  Microsoft is trying to keep up, but making a slow go of it, with their bundle of Live applications currently under various stages of redesign (Movie Maker beta is practically useless at the moment).  To the best of my knowledge, no group in the Linux community is doing the same thing.  In fact, I challenge the Linux community to tackle this problem.

As much as I love recompiling my kernel at 4am, I’ve got better things to do.  And the majority of desktop computer users are in the same boat.  No matter how slick Ubuntu becomes, it will continue to have the issues of hardware support and application availability to battle against until the market share situation for Linux improves.  A bit of a catch-22, but not insurmountable given the track they’re currently on.  But Linux – even Jaunty Jackalope – is not a Windows or Mac killer yet.