Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 15 Oct 1998 11:13:43 -0400 | From | Dave <> | Subject | Re: Linux vs Microsoft |
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At 12:27 AM 10/15/98 +0200, billman@studbox.uni-stuttgart.de wrote: >Nowadays most of the distributions should be easy enough to install - the >trouble is, that most users don't know their hardware -
I hear this comment frequently regarding Linux. I think this points out what is, in my mind, the major weakness in Linux that keeps most non-technical users from trying to use it. If a non-technical user has to know more than he/she does about their computer in order to use a piece of software, most users will find another way to get the job done. An unreliable solution such as M$-Win will seem preferable to a reliable solution like Linux simply because the user will, in most cases, be able to get it to work, most of the time, with minimal help. And thats usually preferable to getting lots of help to have a more reliable system.
The big advantage that M$ has in this area is their vast database of hardware information and an installer that can usually identify and configure the OS installation without the user knowing much about whats in their box. Sure, it doesn't work all of the time. But it does work most of the time and thats good enough for most non-technical users.
Microsoft can easily collect configuration information from hardware vendors because of its dominant position in the marketplace. Linux distributors are at a major disadvantage. They don't have the size or resources to collect and put to use the vast amount of info that it would take to make Linux installation fool-proof. For something on this scale to happen in the Linux community the information will have to come from the community itself.
Maybe it would make sense to have an on-line database of configuration information that a Linux installation program would reference when setting up a new machine. All Linux users and distributors would then have access to the same data. As the database grows so does the ease of Linux installation.
As Linux developers and users create new configurations for new hardware, they would add their collected wisdom to the database such that install programs would be able to use the information to identify the same hardware in other systems and set up the OS as required. Given that the data is stored on-line, all install programs could have access to the latest and greatest configurations.
I am new to the Linux world so I don't know the true scope of a project like this but it sounds substantial. I could see there being a need for some kind of data collection program that could collect configuration information from a users new system and add it to the database. Of course information would also have to come from Linux developers too, especially driver developers.
There would be problems with keeping the database free of bogus information. Seems like this would be a real challenge in an environment where lots of developers and users can post configurations to the database. Maintaining a clean configuration database is easier to address for a big, centralized operation like M$. A lot harder to address for a loosely knit group of developers such as those working on Linux.
Maybe a voting scheme could work. The installer programs could look at the database and compare the various configurations for the hardware it sees on the local machine with the entries in the database. If there are more than one entry for the same hardware then the installer could choose the configuration that appears in the database most frequently. Maybe the installer could make the decision based on where the config came from. For example a config from a hardware vendor, or the author of the driver, may be thought of as more reliable than a config from an unknown user.
If Linux is to seriously compete with M$ on the desktop, something will have to be done in order to ease the burden of installation and configuration for the non-technical user community. No small task. Of course Linux was no small task either.
Just a few thoughts from someone new to Linux....
Dave
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