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Why Has a Free Operating System not Eliminated Windows? Part V

May 25, 2011

As we have seen in this series, there are many answers to the question posed in the title – actual cost, availability of experts, hardware issues, compatibility and many others. In the first four parts we went over many of these in great detail so that you would be sure to understand why Windows is still winning the operating system (OS) ‘war’ in the public and/or corporate space. The Linux OS is just not created to be as easy or intuitive as the products coming from Microsoft. So, to learn even more of why it is this way, we can look into even more areas where Windows leads Linux in the computer industry and in the minds of most users.

Linux is often called an ‘open source’ OS. This means that the source code can be added to, subtracted from and generally customized in any way that you are familiar and knowledgeable about. They have said time and time again that this is one of the important differentiators from Microsoft and the Windows OS – no code is released to the public and it cannot be changed by the user in the same way Linux can. The idea behind this was to let anyone make necessary changes to their installation to allow them to set up their system in any way needed. The engineers and others who pushed this ideal would say that it leveled the playing field a bit, led to more collaboration, was a way to ‘share’ and spread that knowledge among the masses. In truth, this works great for very specific situations and it does a good job of giving a knowledgeable person the tools he or she needs to get the job done. That all sounds great, right? But, in practice, it did not work like that. When dealing with several thousand (or millions of) PCs, standardization is much more important. The person responsible for those computers needs to know that everyone has the same set of tools installed on the same OS; if not, managing them would be an ungainly experience which would lead to certain death – well, at least incredible levels of stress and confusion.

Of course, that open source model would often run afoul of the various egos involved in the development progress – one person would want one thing one way, and another would want to do it in a way he/she felt worked better. That would lead to even more complex problems when dealing with any related issue.

Even security is no longer better with Linux than Windows. The open source model once believed that due to the ability of engineers to create their own security configurations within Linux that it made the OS more secure than anything Windows could do. Well, much of that has changed and some of it was never true in the first place. Since the introduction from Microsoft of Windows Vista and Server 2008 – and, now, Windows 7 – security has been greatly improved in the Windows OS. It is much more secure and has the ability to integrate even more security should the user or IT manager desire it. There is no longer any deficit between Linux and Windows in this category – Windows has a solid defense against the threats it faces.

There is also the problem of just how technically advanced Linux is at present. There are way too many instances of versions of Linux being released with too many new features which have yet to be thoroughly tested. This is common with many Linux ‘flavors’ and it causes headaches in even the staunchest supporters of the OS. For instance, they release a new GUI (graphical user interface) long before its time and then encounter problem after problem and wonder why. It is simply that they care too much about new features and not enough about building in usability. Sure, it is the latest and greatest, but does it work? In some cases, Linux users would have to say no, it does not work for me. And they would not be alone. Since there is no big company behind the OS builds – at least not one which is responsible enough to have to deal with each customer as well as the media; their image is not subject to the manipulations of public image – there is no one there to be sure that what they produce can be used by the majority of their customers. Most just figure that the community will ‘figure it out.’ Unfortunately, for a home PC user or a corporate IT department, this is not worth the trouble. Better to go with what you know and load up Windows.

As we close in on the last of this series, we have already seen many good reasons why it is very unlikely that Linux will ever take a huge bite out of the Windows customer base. It is likely to remain very popular on embedded devices and in some server rooms, but it will never be found for sale with the latest business desktop machine. Nor is it likely to be found on many notebook PCs as these are often much more likely to be used in remote locations where top-notch technical support is unavailable; thus, you have to fix it yourself. Windows has been used by almost every single person to ever use a computer at least once, so, in general, users are much more likely to stick with what they understand and have used in the past – Windows.

For the final part, we will discuss the problem with getting support for Linux from the self-appointed gurus of the Linux world. I hope you are looking forward to Part VI!

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