I just stumbled upon “Who is killing desktop Linux?” on ZDNet.com. It was written by “An education IT veteran”. The author simply dismisses Linux on the desktop for higher education. He continues
“While one can download and install Linux and OpenOffice for free, you need to know HOW to do that. Few consumers are daring enough to do any thing more than stick a CD in a drive click OK when asked in order to install new software.
Unless you have the bandwidth and the patience to download hundreds of megabytes of data and the knowledge to burn bootable CDs, a copy of Linux will cost you $60. Granted, that’s for a feature-rich release of Linspire (http://linspire.com/) and includes an office suite but Linux is NOT ‘free’ unless you have the knowledge and the patience to install it from scratch. Very few consumers are even willing to do that with Windows.”
I mean no offense to the author but this view is simply old! Being in IT and education, he should have done some more research than cite that Linux can only be acquired either by downloading it for hours or buying it. Apparently, he has not heard of Ubuntu Linux, which has been getting a lot of press exposure for more than year. Ubuntu Linux is shipped for free, sponsored by a foundation! C’mon! Installing Ubuntu is a cinch – heck, you can even run it without installing, something that Windows cannot do. Is putting in a CD/DVD and booting up your machine more difficult than entering your Windows Activation Code?
He continues…
“Today, the consumer can walk into almost any retailer selling electronics and buy a computer with Windows (and usually MS Office) pre-installed — no muss, no fuss. Finding an Apple retailer is much more of a challenge but at least the consumer knows about Apple and can find a retailer if they are looking. How easy is it to find a Linux workstation retailer?”
This is where the millions of dollars big companies have pay off. Marketing is the name of the game. A huge chunk of what you pay for Microsoft’s OS is poured back to marketing. I agree with the author here that there are far less brick-and-mortar shops supporting Linux than Windows or Mac OS X.
“As Chris has alluded to, his time is worth more to him (and his employer, the school district) than the cost savings of him downloading a free (and unsupported) Linux distribution — making it work on a variety of, often outdated, hardware, and then distributing it across multiple machines with varying configurations.
Window’s ability to detect most major brands of hardware, and the willingness of most major component makers to provide Windows drivers greatly simplifies his job of installing Windows on as many machines as he wants.”
Again, whilst the Ubuntu package may take awhile to get to him, it still is free!
Linux has better support for old hardware than the state-of-the-art. As more and more hardware manufacturers release Linux-friendly drivers, it will not take long before it reaches the levels of Windows XP support.
Once Windows Vista is released, apart from paying for an additional license, try to run it on your outdated computers and we will see how much support you get!
In my Linux experience, Linux drivers fall short on non-standard peripherals and, as I have said, state-of-the-art components such as the new ATI and Nvidia graphic cards. However, Nvidia releases Linux drivers already, which is a good sign.
“And what about specialized software? In an educational setting (as in a business or industrial setting), dependence upon specific applications software plays a large role in the TCO equation. If introducing a new OS (or supporting multiple operating systems side-by-side), one must assess the costs associated with cross-platform compatibility. Most specialized software is available for both Windows and Macintosh — and many UNIX/Linux titles are easily ported (by vendors) to Windows (and now Macintosh) but the transition from Windows (or Macintosh) to UNIX/Linux is far less straightforward.”
Admittedly, there are highly specialized software that do not run on Linux. More often than not, open source alternatives are available. For instance, in the bio-informatics field, which is a fast emerging research field, most tools are available as open source!
I find the piece inaccurate in some points. I have been advocating both Mac and Linux in the university and the most obvious reason why Linux migration fails is the unwillingness of users to learn something new and better.
As for the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), outright license cost definitely lists Linux having the advantage and this does not only pertain to the OS but to the office suite as well. Add your anti-virus, etc. and your recurring costs increase. Maintainability on Linux is far easier IF you know what you are doing – the same way in Windows or Mac OS X. Try managing your Windows network when a virus strikes – believe me, it is a nightmare! Been there, done that!
Users will always be users! They will always make it difficult for IT managers to introduce change! This holds for any platform. 
Why do you think that we have the Bastard Operator From Hell? 
I’d recommend that the author please learn Linux inside-out first before firing up a salvo on why it will not be suitable for higher education.
Technorati Tags:linux,education
