2008 State Of The Penguin Report - Part 1

Blog of helios is happy to publish their findings after over 1000 separate Linux installs. This will be the first part of a three part weekly series. We hope there is something for all of us to learn within.

I hear it coming before it's even asked.

"Who are you to give the state of Linux?"

In the course of the past two years, I've successfully built and operated a Linux-centered company. In this time, I've done in excess of 1100 individual Linux System installs. I've seen our sparkling successes, our failures and mostly, I've seen first-hand how new users react to Linux and what problems they have with it.

In this area, I believe I am qualified to make some observations and suggestions. And no, this is by no means a complete report on the State of Linux...it's simply my observations and suggestions, given the exposure I've had.

If in your opinion, that does not qualify me to write this article, you are kindly invited to amass this level of data and pass it along to the rest of us. There is no such thing as too much pertinent data. This report is based on the above-mentioned experiences and observations.

Unquestionably Entwined

The computer user and the operating system are melded into one, once he or she sits down at the machine. It is the user that makes an operating system successful or not. If you care to disagree, let's take a look at general public opinion concerning Vista. As unkind as it may seem to many of you, there are some stark realities we must face in going forward.

The "everyday" computer user doesn't "use" the computer at all in most cases. Fact is, if the computer is a moving automobile, the "everyday" user is simply a passenger in the front seat, twisting on radio knobs and fooling around with various switches on the dash board....and only the few switches and knobs he knows to fiddle with.

Let's be honest here.

Many computer users we deal with are functionally illiterate when it comes to their machines. They've learned to click this and click that by pure habit and with nothing that vaguely resembles an understanding what they are doing. I've witnessed these people get totally flustered when something as simple as a dialog window pops up in a different place than they expect it. Fact is, I had one person swear I had put a virus on her computer because she had inadvertently drug her panel to the side of the screen and couldn't understand the telephonic instructions on how to drag it back into place. Even the most inconsequential variant in their routine will screw them up.

These people aren't really even computer users...they are application users who tolerate the computer housing it for them.

Are we to shoulder the responsibility for computer users who refuse to learn anything beyond a handful of mouse clicks to get their jobs done?

Absolutely not. However let me illustrate how we can assist those who might show an inkling of interest in their new computing environment. There are some simple things we can do that will make a world of difference.

During the month of June this year, I presented this situation to 61 different New Linux Users. These were people for whom I was installing Linux and in the process of showing them how their machines worked. Having seen this situation before, I wanted to see how "normal" computer users handled this specific situation.

I opened a dialog box for them and asked each person to complete a task. Now, I knew ahead of time there was going to be a problem. See, the task I assigned them necessitated they click "Administrator Mode" in order to do it. In several Debian variants and at least three rpm distros, it often happened that when you clicked the link to open the dialog, the dialog box did open but the "Administrator Mode" button was concealed by a graphic that was not opened enough to see it.

No big deal, right? Just move your mouse down to the bottom of the box until you get the "spreader cursor" and drag it down...what's the big deal?

I assigned each person presented this "task", three minutes to complete it. Out of 61 people, 48 gave up in frustration, stating there was no way to become administrator.

In the box to the right, you can plainly see the "Administrator Mode" button but on several distros, that button is not visible until you physically extend the box with your mouse.


To many of us, this sounds like a silly little nit being picked but to almost 50 people, it became an issue of frustration. If we can clean up these seemingly small things, I believe we will find that the big issues will lessen quickly. Problems like this to the new user often results in a general report to their friends..."Linux Sucks".

The problem it seems, has been to get someone to just go in and fix it. Having been reported to 4 different distros, I am seeing this "short box" pop up in 3 of the distros as of this week. Mint it is good to note, seems to have fixed it.

It's All About The Tools Kid...

Habits are hard to break, especially when you've spent a great deal of time perfecting that habit. I suspect some of the tools our developers use in putting together the distros are no different. I've seen some phenomenal improvement in wireless performance this past year, and I don't use the word phenomenal with a casual bend. It honestly has been amazing to see the growth and improvement in driver support. However, in several distros, there is a failure that repeats itself with maddening regularity.

Much has been reported lately on the improvement of "Network-Manager". The mainstay of wireless tools has historically been problematic. While there have been improvements, we've noticed an almost religious failure of the app on the second upgrade of many distros. So ok...here it comes...

"I haven't had a bit of problem with it."

Congratulations. Thousands others have and it only takes about 5 minutes and a google page to see it plainly. If it is working for you in a mature install, consider yourself fortunate. We have tested it time and again and the second upgrade failure is constant.

Some distros have recognized the problem and just cut the use of Network-Manager out completely and opted for a little-known but superior alternative called "wicd". It is the first tool I implement when I install new distros that will require heavy wireless use. The problem is that many distros will not allow both tools to exist on the same install so you must uninstall network-manager in order to get wicd to work.

So far, I have yet to have wicd fail and I would encourage some of the distros that are getting complaints about Network-Manager to take a look at wicd. It has solved a lot of problems for us and it's good to see some distros using it out of the box. Still, Network-Manager has some of the more polished functions that we want in a manager such as this and I hope they get this issue dealt with. It's obvious that Kernel upgrades are more than likely the culprit...regardless, a "fix" would be both in order and welcomed. It promises to be a fantastic tool.

Oh, and a word about "Managers". Because I work primarily in KDE, many readers may not ever encounter the problems reported or discussed here. One of the tools I held great hope for was KnetworkManager. While it does have some "management" capabilities buried in the dialog links, I have yet to have it act as a connection tool for my wireless. It fairly sits there and does nothing after I've typed in the appropriate commands. While it serves as a great monitoring tool, it has failed us consistently as a method to connect to our wireless sources. Out of the box, it has failed to pick up a wireless connection 5 feet away.

One suggestion would be to not flood the menus with wireless tools. What I have witnessed new users do is to open synaptic or yum and install every wireless tool they can find in hopes of finding one that will work. Several distros include 3 or 4 of them by default anyway. After a while, the new user has no idea which one worked and which one didn't...they simply rely on the one that did work to remember the settings and connect on the next boot...which is often the case. Wifi Radar has also been a good tool to connect with when others have failed....but one tool should be able to do the job without having to fall back on others.

In next weeks segment, we are going to talk about the habits of the New Linux User and especially focus on our observations of them in the business environment. Linux has become such a drop-dead easy replacement for Windows, even Microsoft recognizes the problem and is even copying some of our features into their systems. There are some simple ways we can not only make it easier for everyone, we can teach people finally that a computer is not an appliance but a tool that needs maintenance as well as knowledge to work correctly.

All Righty Then...