Linux ready for the masses? I think not.

Ubuntu and Fedora does look great these days, the default install is pretty functional. Of course that assumes that you don't need or want 3d acceleration, the latest flash plugin's, mp3 support and a bunch of other multi-media and webby stuff.

It was entertaining to see a newish user making the move from Ubuntu to a Fedora based distro and seeing the amount trouble that it caused. The user wanted to install an accelerated driver. The choices were - Install from source? Use the packaging system? There's lots of choice which is great for a power user, but for the average joe who is just starting to use linux it can be a recipe for disaster.

Even so, gone are the days when installing the NVIDIA or ATI drivers was a thing that you did once and then never upgraded. Upgrading in the past meant that you would have needed to figure out which kernel versions you needed, which kernel headers you needed, which version of the x11/xorg driver modules you needed then you needed to figure out which NVIDIA or ATI package you needed. Or else you have gotten the classic "BSOD" when x11 would just fail to start up. Which is funny to see a typical Windows or Mac user just goes "WTF?"

These days most distro's package up all the correct and needed drivers to get 3d acceleration. So it's just a case of yum install DRIVER or apt-get install DRIVER or whatever your package manager commands are. I guess if you are in the know, you just install from a known repo and never deviate from it. If you did deviate, then you probably know what you are doing or else you are in lots of trouble.

Printing is also another bundle of fun in linux, but like the graphics side stuff, things have improved lot since I started using linux. Mind you, I use my Mac in work to admin linux servers and workstations. I do at times miss linux as a desktop for all it's worth, but I can live without it.

Memory debuggers and garbage collectors for C/C++
Posted Sat 16 Jul 2011 12:26:33 PM BST