Most Popular/Interesting Wishes for Linux in 2008
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.
- Better hardware support and certification for Linux
- A standardized and easy to use system for installing/uninstalling software
- Get rid of the terminal and editing of text config files - perhaps “get rid of” is too strong, but make it hidden
- A consistent and pleasing look and feel across the entire distro
- An easy to use and powerful video editing application for Linux
- More/commercial games available for Linux
- 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.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Text config files are A Good Thing. They allow a machine to be easily reconfigured offline.
What I think you want is to eliminate the requirement to use text config files by providing a nice user-interface to every configuration change.
January 1st, 2008 at 7:22 pm
[...] « Most Popular/Interesting Wishes for Linux in 2008 [...]
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’m not sure how you hide the terminal any more than it already is. Its not like it popus up as soon as you login. The only way you know its there is if you know what to do with it. Now if you mean make GUI alternatives for everything done via the terminal then thats a decent request. But I wold not take that power away from the skilled user.
I think app developers will eventually catch on when they realize that there is an OS out there where nothing is hidden and they can integrate their app down to its roots without fear of the OS maker taking their idea and using inside knowledge and integration to make their app better than yours.
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
My wish for Linux in 2008 (and Free/OSS in general) is for Governments, local & national, to use it where possible. They have a moral responsibility not to spend tax payers money where free solutions are available.
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I wonder how much energy was actually put into this list - some things on that list were mentioned once and other things were totally ignored. Meh, anyway…
1.) Better hardware support and certification for Linux
I can’t disagree more. Users need to break the mentality that a hardware manufacturer should dictate what that hardware should run on. Who goes to NewEgg and buys a video driver? They buy video CARDS and more specifically PCIe video cards. ANY computer that can install the PCIe device should RUN the PCIe device. We have the technical capability to make every device plug-and-play. It’s hardware manufacturers, who insist on secretly tethering users to SOFTWARE that needs to be viewed as problematic, not “Linux” for not detecting it.
2.) A standardized and easy to use system for installing/uninstalling software
We already have this it’s just that users aren’t used to doing it. COMPILING FROM SOURCE.
It’s the universal way (Yes, even on Windows!) of installing software. Blame the developers who refuse to follow the already here, already working method to install software.
3.) Get rid of the terminal and editing of text config files
How will us server administrators do stuff and still conserve bandwidth? I can’t imagine any system without command line functionality (I challenge you to find a system that doesn’t have it). I have, however, seen GNU/Linux systems that don’t require the use of it at all assuming the user is contented with what is presented to him or her.
4.) A consistent and pleasing look and feel across the entire distro
This is highly subjective since “pleasing” changes - I hate the color red and I actually LIKE the brown used on Ubuntu (it’s slowly become a god-aweful orange - which has red in it - over time). Users all have different tastes so rather than tell them what is appealing you should give them choice. Check out http://www.gnome-look.org/ or http://www.kde-look.org/ and download one of their THOUSANDS of drag-and-dropable themes to get the look YOU want. Finding and downloading the “pleasing look” takes longer than installing it, certainly.
Can’t find it? Free Software also gives you the possiblity TO create it. I have yet to find a consistant user interface ANYWHERE except the command line interface that looks pretty much the same on all OSes.
# An easy to use and powerful video editing application for Linux
# More/commercial games available for Linux
# Every program ported to Linux (I never said it had to be realistic.)
The rest of these things again, comes from the fact that many software developers believe they can only exist by victimizing their customers. If a software applications exists ANYWHERE, it can exist on GNU/Linux if you had the source code to it and it’s dependancies. Hell, you’d even be able to install it using the universal method mentioned above!
Windows is totally worthless without the user. By default, Windows has no games (unless perhaps Solitare) and no video editing software. It’s not a problem of the operating system that these things don’t exist, it’s a problem of the developers for arbitrarily binding users TO the operating system.
Until people grasp that, and make demands with their wallet, things won’t improve.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Leave the terminal and config files alone, please. My biggest wish for Linux is for the non-developer community to STOP demanding that Linux look and work the way Windows does. I don’t want to have a “registry” where all configuration settings go to get corrupted and lost.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Another wish would be cleaning up the audio mess. Pro-audio (Jack), MIDI (timidity, fluidsynth, AND quality soundfonts for them) should be installed and working together out of the box, along with pulseaudio.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I’d say the only thing I’d want working is audio mixing out of the box. The whole procedure of configuring for different stuff is mind twisting, something that would Just Work(tm) for everything and working simultaneously would be great. (’Working for everything’ might be a bit hard though considering some stubborn developers)
Oh.. and the occasional program here and there working without needing to run it in a guest OS.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Security built into the kernel, so that no programs or scripts can compromise the system. Stability of major Linux distributions before release as they are being compared & tested against MacOS & Windows.
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Have to agree with Kevin Dean in many regards (though not source compile, from the point of view of time & using CPU cycles). Linux has much better installers than for any other OS (apt-get, yum etc) beats having to navigate a minefield of bad freeware/malware, and installing software that is in the repostories cannot be easier or more sensible.
The other issues that you point out seem to reveal a lack of willingness to grasp the difficulties or fallacies of doing what you request. Many things (esp with regards to terminals) are done the way they are because doing them any other way is just plain stupid. I have fought many a mac OS and windows issue that arose from things that “Just work”, because things that just work usually are the first to go belly up, with no way of understanding why, or how to fix it.
Users are welcome to say what they want, but should stop feeling cheated when developers say “no, thats dumb/impossible/too hard/foolish”. Windows (esp 98/ME) is the result when you give the user what they want, with minimal regard for the actual structure and integrity of the system.
If you want app, or want one ported, maybe you have to remember that someone must shoulder that burden, and if you are not contributing, then that is one person less who may write or port that app, fix that bug or implement the feature you want.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Kevin Dean says “COMPILING FROM SOURCE”
Yeah but to be universally useful what we need is a GUI wrapper that does all the steps including downloading and installing missing or correct version libraries, and makes a deb, rpm, tgz for the installation step of all downloaded libraries and the application via the target package manager. This bypasses the need for a universal package manager.
Maybe the GUI wrapper could also include “alien” for installing packages from other formats.
Obviously some software using outdated libraries could break the system and some just won’t compile, so error messages suitable for non geeks would be mandatory.
As a lover of the shell for creating scripts to make applications that do what I want how I want. I don’t mind doing administration on the command line, (Midnight Commander is my favourite file manager and vi my text editor) but it would be nice to see a listing of all these commands with a synopsis and usage.
By using “xdialog” one could come up with something for the point and click user, although my preference would be to use my one bit of proprietary software, the script based Runtime Revolution IDE, to create a GUI window wrapper. My one wish list item - a FOSS version of this easy end user tool.
January 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
My biggest wish for Linux
Don’t ever let Linux become the same as Windows!!!
The Fun of Linux is all power and usability that’s right there for everyone who takes the time to learn just a bit. I’m not a sysadmin or a programmer just a simple, taught myself, user. I love my Shell and wouldn’t give it up for anyone!!
If you don’t like the way linux is then don’t use it.
Have Fun
January 6th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Yeah, leave the terminal and config files alone, or even better, make them better. These things are the essence of “linux” (although the system is so powerful it can be used to simulate dumber OSes), remove them and it’s not linux/unix anymore, and a damn lot less useful.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Seems some folks think what they see in MS windows is the way it should be done. You know MS would not stand to see that in Linux. The terminal is the most useful tool in any OS, including MS windows. I would pick a text config file over a registry file any day.
Linux does need a few things.
What Linux needs is as many Linux books on the library shelf as there are MS XP and Vista books. Linux needs to put live-CDs in books and magazines and mailboxes like AOL did. Linux needs to be the bottom line for every library, school and non-profit institution. Linux needs to stop the “digital divide” in poorer neighborhoods in America. MS windows is kind of common knowledge, Linux needs to be known better. People need to write articles, books and web pages about Linux applications, not just distros. People need to stop treating the 400+ distros of Linux like 400+ different and competing operating systems. They are all the same Linux.