Linux and home users. Our last chance (Opinion)

Linux and home users

At this point in the game, after write more than XNUMX words about the presentation of a proprietary operating system, you probably want to ask me what part of LINUX Adictos I did not understand. I only need two more words to justify this series of articles; Satya Nadella.

Bill Gates created a market almost from scratch, Steve Jobs could sell almost anything with the apple logo to his audience, and the same goes for his successor Tim Cook. Instead, Satya Nadella worked on one of the few divisions of Microsoft in which the company was forced to fight equally with other competitorss for each point of market share. This is someone with the ability to know where the industry is going.

And, the open source world desperately needs someone like him.

The secret of our failure

Why did Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS, and Windows Phone fail? How did Apple get through three decades escaping bankruptcy until the iPod put it on the path to profitability? Why was it never the year of Linux on the desktop?

Last week, en the dialogue with the Wall Street Journal that we reproduced in another article, Nadella inadvertently answered all those questions. The answer to all of them is: applications.

Ubuntu Touch, FirefoxOS and Windows Phone did not have the native integration with Google services, neither WhatsApp nor Instagram. The Apple hardware worked as a whole with the Adobe software. Linux couldn't run Microsoft Office, nor the most popular games.

In the next war to dominate the mass consumer market, applications are weapons. But, the battlefield is going to be the hardware. Industry analyst Geoff Blaber defines the new scenario as a battle between the x86-based Windows PC and Apple's M1 with MacOS

Faced with an increased competitive threat from Apple's M1-based Macs, Microsoft is emphasizing its philosophy of openness and ecosystem connection by supporting Android apps and the Amazon app store. The contrast with Apple is increasingly sharp and offers customers a clear choice.

Until now, the focus of Linux in particular and open source in general has been to adapt to existing hardware. But, today the native equipment options are increasing and it would be a good time to promote open hardware. But to achieve this, it is necessary to understand that the principles do not sell, we need to create applications that people want to use.

Let me give an example. One can go vegan for the love of animals, health reasons, fashion, or pressure from a loved one. Almost no one does it because they prefer the taste of radishes to that of chocolate. Similarly, most people are not going to agree to give up features no matter how admirable the principles of free software may be. Our last chance to win over home users to the cause of free and open source software is to make better products (that is, more fun and useful)

Linux and home users. The battle we can win

In statements to other media, Nadella defines it better

No personal computing without personal decision
Personal computing requires choice. We need to nurture and grow our own will on computing itself. We want to remove the barriers to offer real options. We need to be able to choose the applications we run, the content we consume, and the people we connect with. Operating systems and devices must adapt to our needs, not the other way around.

Yesterday, Pablinux He told us that the Chinese distribution Deepin will allow to install Android applications. Interesting, but that's not the point.

It's not about being able to use Tik Tok on the Linux desktop, it's about selling phones, laptops, and PCs with open hardware.

Windows compatibility with Android will last until the market share of tablets, cloudboooks, phones and hybrid devices exceeds 50%. For something Microsoft offers generous options for developers to create native applications.

Are we going to let Microsoft use our principles, and, in many cases, our technologies to take over the home user market?

If we lose this battle it is our fault. We were never in a better position to give it.


14 comments, leave yours

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: AB Internet Networks 2008 SL
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.

  1.   oscar pradilla said

    Good post !!
    Linux is great (fractioned to the limit)
    There are GUIs on desktops that are better compared to the other Os.
    Apps and ecosystem is a problem that I have found to be able to make a more sustained migration over time, as a good PDF manager and editor… they are terrible

    1.    Victor Calvo said

      I have never personally had a problem with pdfs. Back when I used kde, okular and libreoffice they served me for everything I needed to do. Then with zathura as a viewer (practically the same as mupdf in functionality) and a little bit of pdftex I am served. I've never needed anything else

  2.   oscar roman said

    Interesting opinion. Despite all the years of low market share, Linux distributions have remained alive, and perhaps what motivates their slow growth is also their salvation from total disappearance: the super active presence of the community and decentralization. Even if there are gigantic crises and the companies that are now at the top go bankrupt, free software and open source will continue to move.

    In spite of everything, in the last decade there have been very interesting advances, thanks to the new web standards, Proton, the availability of the Internet, the exposure of people to Non-Windows environments. For Hardware 360 ​​(Spanish YouTuber), the one who is most at risk of losing market is Microsoft and to avoid this they will launch Windows 11.

  3.   July said

    Go ahead, at work I dedicate myself to programming and managing linux systems, and linux is my main environment, I have also evangelized several friends and rarely use windows at home for something other than playing games. I even put a linux mint on my wife on her pc and her laptop when she began to complain that they were slow (and I have gotten her used to it)

    The problem in my view is the enormous fragmentation suffered by gnu / linux. It might seem really cool to us to have 18 desktops, 5 init types, and 5 package management types, but it makes commercial software developers put their hands on their heads. No company wants to support more systems than strictly necessary but in Linux this is titanic. What distros are necessary? Ubuntu, Rhel, Debian, Suse, and Arch? Do we support Kde and such or do we stick to making it look good in gnome and give it to the rest? Compare with Windows 7+ and macOS 10.7+ for 2-3% of users, you will not have 90% of the variants of your program. On top of that, the potential users are few, which further reduces interest.

    This together with the few facilities to develop drivers (There is no standard ABI for drivers in linux, while in windows 10 you can load Xp drivers, a driver developed 15 years ago to see how it loads without recompiling or anything in linuz) they do that also the hardware manufacturers do not remove drivers, it is very good that almost everything comes standard with the kernel but what there is often does not reach the manufacturer's driver in characteristics.

    In my opinion, very sadly if after the change from w98 to Xp, from Xp to Vista and from 7 to 8, Linux did not prevail, the change from 10 to 11, unfortunately it will be more of the same. Only a small part of the people who cannot update to W11 will switch to linux, the majority will either buy another computer (and watch Apple here) or they will simply not update and stay with windows 10 until their pc burns.

  4.   Victor Calvo said

    I have never personally had a problem with pdfs. Back when I used kde, okular and libreoffice they served me for everything I needed to do. Then with zathura as a viewer (practically the same as mupdf in functionality) and a little bit of pdftex I am served. I've never needed anything else

  5.   qbz said

    The problem is the extensions of the applications, for example those that force you to use a console to open them or, failing that, chmod and sh, to say the least. The .deb and rpm packaging that causes conflicts between the libraries of different distributions, further promoting fragmentation. The problems of memory leaks, etc. Although there are software centers such as GNOME Software or Discover / Apper in KDE, etc., many have problems when wanting to install applications, such as the most common case of the GPG key, which for an advanced average user is not a problem, for the new user is the end.

    Nor can we forget the poor compatibility and integration that the XWAYLAND graphic composer has, especially with modern Nvidia gpu and screencasting applications, although this goes more for the developers of proprietary applications that do not program to make the integration to XWayland compatible. because it is too small a market, it also happens with other office suites such as adobe, Autodesk, freeware (cpu-z x example), obviously some alternatives tend to be better in my opinion, for example in linux a # inxi -Fxmz gives me more information detailed and precise than cpu-z, but freecad is more limited than Autocad and gimp, it cannot rub shoulders with Ps, nor does krita, however comfortable and intuitive it may be.

    I have been a linux user for years and I am still here because I love everything I can do on this system and I have managed to deal without problems with the alternatives in some special software, but I cannot ask that of everyone who comes to linux daily.

  6.   Angelus said

    Today we are trying to simplify things, everything is on a cell phone, most have little games for everything, nobody is going to work on Linux and even less, programming in Python, just some group of nerd who hack each other , they become revolutionaries of the keyboard and how many other bullshit, you can die or be a corpse with many principles but that nobody cares, the question is what people look for or use the most, look for mergers, see how the «enemy works », Getting capricious with humanity, no longer works, putting yourself in front of a tank was already today in reality, they pass you by, as Tsun tzu said, meet your enemy or die hahaha.

  7.   ronu said

    That is why the more companies jump on the bandwagon of the linux ecosystem and free software, the better. The positive that this is increasing every time, Linux gaming is at its best thanks to companies like Valve. The hardware also looks promising with companies like System76, Lenovo, Slimbook, etc. In other words, the success of the Linux desktop will depend on companies, paradoxical but true.

  8.   George M. said

    Linux is great, I love it and I do everything I can in it, including soon that I lead my software department I will push to develop on Linux, but let's be honest, the system is not for the end user and everything that is mentioned (Android , iOS, Windows, etc) is designing for them, not for nothing nowadays an expert in UI / UX is required within the workstations, Linux requires a philosophy in which the command line is no longer the first option of use, in order for it to aspire to be the system of the year, it needs the user to find it easy to use, accessible, it also requires a kind of program (environment, scheme, however you want to see it) in which developers can obtain economic benefits for its applications but it would be necessary to see how compatible this is with the ideal of open source and free software (I think they are opposed), personally I would not like it to be like the «popular» systems, I like it that way, behind the scenes and doingwhat the other systems cannot, although I would put to the point of discussion if this puts their existence at risk ...

  9.   Claudio Arazi said

    I have read the note and the comments, I must be the newest of all to get to Linux, just at the beginning of 2020, with a lot of fear for the change but urged by the times I made the decision and I am more than happy with having done it. I use Xubuntu, LibreOffice, Inkscape, Gimp Vlc, I have everything I need on a 10-12 year old machine, my HP printer works perfectly and I have no problem with pdfs. Won't you give me for some games? It's true, I don't feel much interest in them either, I play some things with my cell phone.
    I think that what most resistance presents to users is the fighting climate. Wouldn't it be better to demonstrate the ease of use of Linux for common users than to go around explaining the advantages of free software over proprietary software? I think that can be in the background, ordinary users need to solve our daily tasks, then you can delve into the subject. Another thing that confuses is the variety of desks, personally I would appreciate the fusion, that all the desks were one, light, practical, nice, easy to. Understand and with enough versatility to develop this or that task, something that neither Windows nor Mac propose, in addition to the invasion of privacy issues.
    I have never felt as productive as with Linux. Terminal seems like a great thing to me, I am not convinced by snaps. I never used multiple desks. Anyway, I don't want to go on any longer. I believe that we are not going to win users unless the discourse changes and / or a global economic crisis prevents users from switching hard and they are forced to try Linux.
    Thanks for the space and sorry for the length of the text.
    Successes

  10.   fanta said

    Good Morning. I have left an opinion on this article in today's video newscast: https://fediverse.tv/videos/watch/560efa40-dd2f-4ccc-a3f7-0c17657323d0

    Let's not forget that Microsoft ultimately has the market share that it has because it comes pre-installed on the computers that staff buy. Whether we like it or not, they have the figures on their desk that they have.

    Best regards.

  11.   manuel joseph said

    Linux has triumphed in servers because it is the natural evolution of Unixs (Solaris, Irix, AIX, SCO, etc.) to the current Red Hat Linux. This has been so for the business interest (the vast majority of contributions to the linux kernel come from companies). The issue of Linux on the desktop has gone in other directions since it has hardly interested companies and the desktop is a very different market from that of servers. Linux on the desktop will never paint anything due to the lack of interest from companies, although it could have a better future in some niche in specialized devices such as computers in cars.

  12.   crash bit said

    The only reason Linux isn't on many more machines is because Windows pre-installed it on all of them. And now nobody wants to change, out of laziness, habit or fear ...

    We are late and above all we do not realize that the problem was not reaching agreements with everyone and forcing all teams and brands to install Linux

  13.   Miguel said

    I've been using Linux for a whopping 14 years now, which excites me, but for me one of its soft spots is programs, neither libreoffice nor gimp nor frecad are up to par and that drives the user away. Another issue is fragmentation, too many desktops and Too many operating systems. The only hope I have is in Deepen, because if you program it to spread in China, we will have a long way to go. Let's not forget that there are more than 1000 million Chinese and if its use increases, the power of Linux will increase. .