A few days ago, I asked readers to give their wishes for Linux in 2008. (Realistic or not.) Thank you very much for all the thoughtful responses. I read through them all and came up with this list of the most popular/interesting ones.

1. Better hardware support and certification for Linux
2. A standardized and easy to use system for installing/uninstalling software
3. Get rid of the terminal and editing of text config files - perhaps “get rid of” is too strong, but make it hidden
4. A consistent and pleasing look and feel across the entire distro
5. An easy to use and powerful video editing application for Linux
6. More/commercial games available for Linux
7. Every program ported to Linux (I never said it had to be realistic.)

I would have liked to see some less standard ideas, but perhaps it is best that all the attention be put on the most important issues. I certainly agree that all of these would be great (well, I don’t care much about the games, but that’s just me.)

Thanks again for all the responses. If anyone has additional ideas/wishes for Linux, please put them in a comment. I am always interested.

Just a quick reminder:  Later today I will go through all the comments on “Our Linux Dream” and come up with a list of the most popular/interesting wishes. If you have not yet said what you want for Linux in 2008 (realistic or crazy), you still have a few hours, but you better get started.

This year Asus, Everex, and Dell have all introduced Linux-powered computers which received a lot of attention in the Linux community as well as in the mainstream media, but so far there is no evidence of any of these products bringing Linux to everyone. Both the gPC and the Dell Ubuntu computers were marketed, to the extent they were marketed at all, as running Linux and/or being inexpensive, neither of which is anything new to the PC market. As a result, neither has shown signs of success. That leaves the Eee PC as the only one to have had significant success so far, yet it has not shown any signs of spreading Linux. It may, and almost certainly is, too soon to really know if the Eee PC will bring Linux to the desktop, but it seems unlikely since the version of Linux the Eee runs is very minimal and the common uses of the Eee and other ultra mobile PCs are quite different from the common uses of standard desktop PCs. On the other hand, any exposure to the term Linux in a non-geeky way may help people to be more open-minded to Linux.

However well the Eee PC does, Linux is not going to suddenly be the most used OS for the desktop. I believe that a logical next step to ease people into Linux would be a set-top box that could browse the internet, edit office files, play media, and do almost anything a normal computer could. As media moves online, the market for an internet-connected set-top box will expand. Additionally, because technology is so much a part of everyone’s life, the ability to browse the web or work on a word document is very useful. Since Linux is free and requires minimal hardware, the box can be cheap enough so that more than just geeks will use it. Although most people would buy a box like this for the media playback capabilities, as long as the box also has the capabilities of a computer, users of the box will become familiar with the full Linux OS, even though they did not buy the box to be a computer.

A few days ago, this post, which argues that Ubuntu is becoming too synonymous with Linux, created some discussion in the Linux world. At first, I ignored the post, assuming that it was just a complaint about Ubuntu being talked about so much. Later, though, I read this response which argues that Linux should not be thought of as an OS at all. Instead, the post says, Ubuntu and all the various distros of Linux should each be considered separate OSs, and therefore talking about just Ubuntu and not Linux is fine. (Sorry if that was a bad summary, it is hard to describe an entire post in two sentences.)

Although I agree with the original post in that there is so much more to Linux than Ubuntu, it seems to me that the name “Linux” is holding Linux back. Right now, many people think of Linux as a geeky toy. If the name “Linux” is only used to talk about the foundation and specific distribution names are used to talk about the operating system, then people will no longer associate Linux with geeky, because they would just hear about the various distros, not about Linux. This is not to say that the Linux kernel is not important. Apple advertises that OS X is based on Unix to tech-savvy people, but people don’t talk about OS X as being Unix.

In addition, I don’t think that all the other distributions will be forgotten. Ubuntu may be the most talked about distribution, but as people become comfortable with Ubuntu, they will try out other distributions and find the one that is perfect for them.  If each distro develops its own identity there will not be a problem with saying Ubuntu and meaning all distros.

One of the most controversial points in my Our Linux Dream wish list was Microsoft Office for Linux. Just to clarify one more time, this is something I would like to happen, not something I think will happen. As I said, I don’t need Office and most geeks will not either. Thats fine, but not everyone is a geek. In order to attract more people to Linux (I could write a whole post on why more people using Linux is a good thing), Linux needs to offer as easy a switch as possible. For many people, that means having Office for Linux.

The most common response to this point is just make OpenOffice better. Even if we assume that OpenOffice is perfectly compatible with Office, Microsoft Office for Linux can still help. There are two things OpenOffice cannot do: be exactly the same as Office and be called Microsoft Office. While neither of those may seem important to you, both are important to less tech-savvy people, who don’t want to learn a new application or just don’t trust unfamiliar applications. In summary, the reason for Microsoft Office on Linux is marketing to the less tech-savvy.

Since there appears to be no news today, I decided to share something that happened to me today. I accompanied a friend on a trip to Office Depot to get a new power cord for a laptop (not mine.) My friend asked the sales person who found the power cord if it would be better just to get a new laptop, since the cord was so expensive. He turned the computer over, saw the XP license sticker, and replied that at least this laptop had XP, not Vista. Needless to say, I was quite surprised to hear a sales person implying that one should prefer XP to Vista. Of course, as we all know, there’s a better solution to this problem.

It appears that Canonical and the Kubuntu team have decided that, due to the delayed release of KDE 4, the upcoming release of Kubuntu, 8.04, will not be a long term support (LTS) release, as it would usually be. Periodically, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and other Ubuntu variants maintained by Canonical release a LTS release, which means that the release will be supported for 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server. Because KDE 4 will be released shortly before Kubuntu 8.04 is released, Kubuntu and Canonical are not comfortable giving the LTS tag to a release that incorporates KDE 4 this soon after its release. On the other hand, considering the amount of excitement around KDE 4, it seems like a mistake to not include KDE 4. The current solution, according to this announcement on the KDE mailing list, is to release two versions of Kubuntu 8.04, one with KDE 3.5 and the other with KDE 4. Apparently, neither will have the LTS release, though. Although this break from the standard schedule may cause some problems, considering the situation, I think the Kubuntu development team made the right choice.

Over 350,000 Eee PCs have been sold so far since the release in mid October, according to Tech Digest. This is already 50,000 over the original goal of 300,000 units sold by the end of 2007. This is a success for Linux in two ways. First, the success of the Eee PC shows other hardware manufacturers that there is a market for computers with Linux on them that is worth getting into. Second, the more people using Eee PCs, the more people who know what Linux is. And the more people who know what Linux is and do not associate it with “geek,” the better for desktop Linux adoption.

To put the 350,000 number in perspective, Dell is thought to have sold 40,000 Ubuntu PCs over a period of about 5 months, according to The Register. This is about 8,000 per month compared to about 175,000 Eee PCs per month. Granted, the two products are very different and the numbers are not precise, but the difference in sales is obvious. One explanation for this difference is that the cost savings of not using Windows on a $400 laptop is far more eye-catching than on a $1000+ computer.

In the coming year, I can guarantee that a lot will happen. What I want to know, though, is what you want to happen (related to Linux.) While everyone is making predictions for 2008, I decided to create a list of what I want to happen, not what I think will happen. Please leave a comment saying what you want to happen in 2008 (related in some way to Linux.) it does not have to be realistic at all, but it can be. Later this year, I will compile the most popular/interesting ones into a list. Here is what I want in 2008 as an example:

1. An easy way to tell if a piece of hardware is compatible with Linux - This could be a website or a “Certified for Linux” sticker on the box. I don’t care how it works, I just want it to work.
2. Microsoft Office for Linux - I don’t even use Office on Windows, but many people need perfect compatibility and, for those people and those who are just used to Office, being able to use Office on Linux natively could help them transition to Linux.
3. Great photo/video editing programs for Linux - They don’t have to be professional-grade software, but something for the casual to advanced user.
4. Legal codecs bundled with all/most distributions. - I don’t know how it would work, but I would love to have legal codecs bundled with most distros, not just commercial ones.
5. A fresh start on the desktop - I would like to see a group of people get together and forget how people use computers and start from scratch to come up with a completely new alternative to GNOME or KDE.

Tell me what you want for Linux in 2008, so I can create a big list of the most popular/interesting ideas at the end of the year!

I know I said that part 3 would be the end, but, as you can see, it was not. A lot of people made a lot of good comments (and a lot of spam, which has been deleted) on the three previous parts so I decided to quote some of those so people can see them/I can respond to them. With good comments, though, come long comments, so in most cases I only quoted a piece of the comment.

Paul Zarucki said:
“Another class of home users, and possibly some small businesses, creative professionals, etc., might be those that depend on a friendly neighbourhood “geek” for their tech support. Geeks like me, who have gone wholeheartedly over to FLOSS, have lost all interest in supporting Windows and don’t want to waste time learning how to fix problems that people have with it.”

True. I have nothing to add. This is somewhat similar to a word-of-mouth type of spreading, which I believe may be the main way Linux will spread.

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