The “Break it Down” Blog

About a year ago I started writing an article titled “Linux on the Desktop: 10 Years of Wasted Time”. I was trying to summarize why Linux does not compete on the desktop for the mainstream computer user. As a Linux user since RedHat 5.0, then a Gentoo user for years then a Mandrake user for 6 months then finally an Ubuntu user for years after that — I’ve been around the block. I’ve seen “This is finally the year of Linux on the desktop” no less than 6 times, about every 2 years or so to be exact. And I’ve seen, everytime, that claim get dashed by the same issues that plauged Linux 10 years and still plague it today.

In all my effort to write up this article to communicate to the readers why Linux will never succeed for the mainstream on the desktop, I found complete clarity in a single comment on Slashdot from this thread on DVD ripping.

This comment is from reader TheWanderingHermit and is as follows:

That could cause problems. VLC is crippled in the latest Ubuntu. While the VLC people blame Ubuntu on their mailing lists, it turns out that the FFMpeg library uses different names for some codes in their newer version — and on the latest Ubunut (Intrepid), that version of VLC doesn’t use the newer names.

I was on both mailing lists for a while (VLC, FFMpeg) and the latter admitted to changing the names but did have all the codecs available under Ubunut. The VLC people claim some of those codecs are not available under Ubuntu (even with extra repositories), but they’re there — just with different names.

Until Ubuntu gets this straightened out, anyone using Intrepid or following versions will have trouble with video codecs, including ripping DVDs and, in my case, trying to read files from my HD camcorder that were easily readable in Ubuntu Hardy, but which nobody was quite sure how to read (or what settings to use) in Intrepid.

After wasting several days of my life on this issue, I gave up, ordered an iMac, and since switching, have spent more time doing what I want on my computer and less time at the computer overall. I no longer have to spend time trying to make sure the tools taht are supposed to help me are set up properly or if I’m using the right settings.

It’s nice to have more time for real life than to be spending time adjusting my tools.

Just read the first 3 paragraphs of the post. It sums up in perfect clarity exactly why Linux will never succeed on the desktop in the mainstream. Obviously not in the literal sense, but in the broader sense.

Problems like these have always been the challenges that had to be overcome on Linux. It’s never an issue of reinstalling a driver or running through a wizard when a device doesn’t work — it’s usually a problem on par with incompatible libraries, requiring a rebuilt binary or potentially a new kernel module to support what you are doing.

On locked down hardware like netbooks, phones or other devices Linux can make a lot of sense, and be tuned out so specifically that you can provide “Restore” wizards that can get things back into a working state. Unfortunately in the world of desktops you fight battles like the one above and waste half your life on it.

Unfortunately the fact that Linux operates like this is a side effect of the operating system being driven by developers and not by business interests. If Linux were drive by business interests, there would be kernel releases once every 2 years and there would a driver compatibility layer a mile thick — technically appalling to all the hardcore devs that work on Linux, but all the users of Linux would know is that things “just work”.

While that has never happened until recently, with the adoption of Linux on more mobile devices I imagine we’ll see commercial entities like Canonical start driving stabilizing effects into the community and maybe in 10 more years we can talk about how this is “the year of Linux on the desktop”.