The 2007 Desktop Linux Survey results are out and freedom still tops the list for those that are deploying Linux desktops. You have to do a little digging in the results to uncover this salient fact, but when asked about deploying one or more of the pre-installed Linux desktop/client products, the results were that 56.6% of the recipients believed that pre-installed Linux offerings did not meet their business requirements.

Now that several pre-installed Linux products are available, would your organization be likely to deploy one or more of these pre-installed Linux desktop/client products?

These responses definitely came from an “enterprise deployment” perspective. When IT decision makers and system administrators listed the issues with deploying pre-installed Linux offerings, they indicated that freedom trumps convenience. When deploying corporate desktop systems, the administrators want the freedom in defining settings and configuration options. The choice of Linux distribution is import as well. IT organizations do not want to be locked into the Linux distribution vendor that is pre-installed on the hardware they have selected.

On the flip side, 42.4% indicated that their organizations have been waiting for pre-installed Linux offerings and these offerings would meet their business requirements. These desktop Linux deployments take advantage of the integration testing, system management, and support that comes from pre-installed offerings with Linux distribution support. However, even with these desktop products the administrators will tweak configurations settings, define pre-loaded sets of applications, and set security and remote access policies (VPN) before deploying the clients. Freedom is still a huge factor in deploying and maintaining pre-installed Linux clients.

This survey was not directed to consumer users of pre-installed Linux desktop systems. When you move outside of the geek and developer circles, everything just has to work out of the box. Pre-installed Linux systems are very important to the consumer circles. They need to be able to power on the machine and be immediately able to play their mp3s, play their DVDs, browse the internet, use their office productivity tools, set up their printer, manage their photos, and download applications that are interesting to them. Most Linux distributions that are targeting the consumer markets support this level of turnkey operation. The latest one that I have tried with outstanding results is a Ubuntu-based distro called Linux Mint.

So who actually took this survey and were there any other interesting results?

The survey was sent out with a shotgun approach, but a profile of the recipients can be derived pretty closely from the responses. The typical respondent…

All the data from this survey is available and you may draw your own conclusions, but I have taken the liberty to draw a few conclusions myself.

For enterprise Linux deployments, all the critical applications are available on Linux platforms with the exception of some internally developed applications and some applications specific to business needs. The critical applications were no surprise and turned out to be:

For the Linux kernel community and Linux desktop community, the recipients requested that the following items be top priority:

The areas that have gone down significantly in the past two years in their “criticality” include printing (which used to always be at the top), audio/multimedia, fonts and document fidelity, and application packaging. The Linux Desktop community has done some incredible work in these areas.

I won’t use this entry to chronicle all the advancements in desktop distributions, pre-installed desktop offerings, application availability, application distribution capabilities, and mobile desktop advances this year. I will talk about these in another posting. However, the data from this survey clearly indicates that there is surging interest in desktop Linux. This was demonstrated by the huge response to the survey.

The survey results are freely available to anyone that wants to use or analyze them. Feel free to feed your closet urges to be an analyst of these survey results. We are all interested in being enlightened by differing opinions and perspectives.

Long live freedom!

How important are the following potential issues to your organization’s decision to migrate to Linux on the Desktop?

Missing driver support was the top response at 43.8%.

Where should the Linux desktop community focus their efforts in 2008 to speed the adoption Linux on the desktop?

62.5% of the respondents said that “Open source drivers for proprietary hardware” was the top priority.

The Linux community itself has made available over 200 driver writers and 10 project managers to help create device drivers. But they are asking the question, “Which drivers?”. A wiki has been set up to collect this driver information, and the list is growing.

The 2007 Desktop Linux survey does not yield the kind of detail that identifies specific drivers. In the desktop
community, the major devices that need open source drivers are the video drivers and the wireless drivers. In video space, ATI is getting there, but Nvidia is the big one. In wireless space, there there are several
chipsets that have no support or the support is flaky. As an example, I recently bought a cheap Airlink 101 USB wireless adapter at Frys. This adapter line had worked for me on Linux in the past (with the Orinoco
chipset), but the new adapters (AWLL3026) are not even recognized as USB devices. Not sure, but I believe the AWLL3026 uses a broadcom chipset.

The kernel community is asking, “Which drivers?” Let’s tell them.

While I am saying goodbye to some of you, I’m sure I will see many of you again in this relatively small community. I’m exploring a number of potentially exciting opportunities which would keep me squarely in the open source development community.

So…take time to enjoy the successes, eat green vegetables, and keep in touch (cherrypits@gmail.com)

John

Have your say on what desktop Linux really needs! Please Join us in the Third Annual Desktop Linux Survey, at:

www.linux-foundation.org/en/2007ClientSurvey

The survey will take only few minutes of your time, and your feedback is essential in helping us to focus our development efforts and accelerate the global adoption of Linux desktops and clients. For example, past surveys highlighted the need to address printing and wireless issues, so we set up focused workgroups and conferences to help developers and vendors work out common solutions to these requirements.

To encourage broad participation by companies, institutions, and individuals throughout the world, this year’s survey is available in Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

The survey is open from October 17 through November 30, 2007. Survey results will be made publicly available shortly after the close.

Thank you,

Linux Foundation
Desktop Linux Workgroup

So why are there detractors to Linspire’s re-emergence into the desktop limelight? Simple. Linspire’s primary market is consumer desktops and laptops. Consumers in this space expect to be able play commercial DVDs (which they purchased) on the DVD drive that came with their system (which they also purchased). They also expect to be able to listen to their library of mp3s and to use all the other multimedia capabilities that they have grown accustomed to. So here is the problem. Linspire pursues a two-pronged, commercial/community development path, supporting work around a free core Linux operating system and separately commercializing the software by adding support and additional proprietary components in its commercial release. Many open source purists have a real problem with this two-pronged approach.

Quite often, I am asked to help set up a desktop for a friend or family member. After convincing them that they should try an alternative to Windows, I install one of those free, easy to install distributions. But, I can’t just leave them at this point. If I did, they would be screaming all the way back to Windows. The next step is to install all the media capabilities that they will need, including the ability to play the DVDs that they own on the DVD drive that they own. Distros like Linspire will actually make my life much easier when it comes to making my friends happy with their new computers. Either the multimedia capabilities will work out of the box or they will only need to pay a small fee (for licenses) and use CNR to make their boat anchor into a multimedia PC.

In an ideal world, every media format would be open, all software would be completely free, and there would be no piracy. However, in the world we live in, Linspire is taking an approach that will meet the expectations of the average computer user. Purists will say the two-pronged approach will hinder the path to ultimate freedom and for completely open source solutions. I say that the real barrier to the use of Linux on the desktop is the lack of market share and the only way to gain market share is to meet the expectations of the average computer user. Once a critical mass of market share is attained, the goals of pure open source solutions will become much more possible.

After using the operating system for writing, Web surfing, graphic editing, movie watching and a few other tasks, it is easy to conclude that Linux can be an alternative to the major operating systems. But since common tasks like watching a movie or syncing an iPod require hunting for and installing extra software, Linux is best for technically savvy users or for people whose needs are so basic that they will never need anything other than the bundled software.

My only connection with this article is that when Larry Magid had difficulty playing a commercial DVD and getting his iPod to work, he came to me and we had a nice chat about the challenges in dealing with multimedia on an open and mostly free operating system. In discussions with my frends at commercial Linux distos, I discovered that no distro offers out-of-the-box support for commercial DVD playback yet. However, distros like Linspire and Ubuntu will provide DVD options via CNR technology where customers can purchase a DVD player, download and install with one-click. The CNR alpha is available now. For a small fee, users will be able to purchase and install a fully licensed commercial DVD player at the click of a mouse button. Xandros, for instance, has a relationship with a commercial DVD software vendor that runs on Linux and this software can be purchased via Xandros Networks.

The basic issue in playing commercial DVDs is DRM (digital rights management). On the DRM issue there really is no good answer for this as far as I know. MS and Apple have not licensed DRM technology to Linux vendors. MS has licenced WMV and WMA to several vendors and most distros can also provide this support. But the DRM component is excluded from Linux vendors offerings. So if the content is encrypted with Digital Rights Management it cannot be played on stock Linux systems.

Getting Larry’s iPod to sync was a piece of cake. Since I use Banshee and I was familiar with it, we simply downloaded Banshee and everything just worked. When the iPod was plugged in to the USB port, the device was recognized immediately and appeared as an icon on the desktop as well as in the application. Since I have simply ripped my CD collection, I did not have to deal with any encrypted media formats. The really cool thing about using my iPod on Linux was that I could load the contents of my iPod onto the fresh linux installation and synchronize the iPod in both directions. On Windows/MAC (with iTunes), you are limited to just synchronizing one way (PC to iPod). Besides just being cool, this bidirectional synchronization provides an easy way to backup the contents of your iPod anywhere that Linux is running!

If you are not currently a Linux user, you are probably cautious about leaving an operating system that you have used for years. At least you know how to work around all the warts. However, there are some really cool things about the Linux desktop that might make you change your mind about giving it a try. I’ll list just a few.

• It is free! As a wise philosopher once said, “Free is a very good price.” But the main advantage of zero cost is that it costs you nothing to give it a try. You can either run Linux from a live CD without impacting your current desktop at all, or you can install it on your disk right along with Windows. Ubuntu actually provides an option to resize the Windows stuff to make room for Linux. When you are done, you can boot either Windows or Linux. Pretty cool.
• Application installation is amazing. Has your Windows desktop ever crashed? When you re-installed Windows, you had to find all of those installation disks, installation instructions, and authentication codes to be able to rebuild your system. With Linux desktop systems, you simply go to the add/remove menu, select the applications that you were using, and go have a cup of coffee while everything installs itself. A side bonus is that you will be installing all the latest and greatest versions of these applications. AND…did I mention you have literally hundreds of applications to choose from in categories like Accessibility, Accessories, Education, Games, Graphics, Internet, Office, Programming, Etc.? Just exploring these applications will give you hours of entertainment.
• Application updates rock. This is as cool as installation. You are notified when when new versions of applications, tools, libraries, etc. are available (usually on a little icon on the toolbar). You can choose whether you want to stay with what you have or upgrade to the latest version. If, for some reason, you want to return to an older version, no problem. The package managers handle this as well.
• Regular upgrades are no-brainers. How long is it between major Windows releases? It can be anywhere between 3 and 7 years! The dynamic and open nature of the Linux operating system allows Linux distros to release new operating systems every year and usually with one or two minor releases during that timeframe. You don’t have to wait anymore for the latest and greatest in desktop computing.
• All the applications you generally need. Yes, I realize that you have probably grown accustomed to some of the applications that run on Windows. Did you know that many of them also run on Linux? For instance, Firefox (browser), Open Office (office suite), Thunderbird (mail client), Inkscape (scalable graphics editor), Picasa (photo manager), and Google Earth (maps/satelite) all run on Linux as well as Windows. And if you don’t find your favorite application on Linux, the chances are good that something equivalent or even better exists in those hundreds of freely available applications (mentioned earlier).
• Superior iPod support. I mentioned this one earlier, but the two-way synchronization as well as the drag/drop iPod loading is pretty cool and easy to use. It is definitely not true that you have run on Windows or MAC OS to take advantage of your iPod.
• Pre-installed Linux is becoming a reality! Many of you would just like to go to your local computer outlet and purchase a computer that already runs Linux. Keep your eyes open and you will see new pre-installed Linux products from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and who knows which other vendors will take the plunge.

Did I mention it was free? Larry agreed.

“There is the price: Linux is free, or nearly so.”

“Unlike Windows from Microsoft and OS X from Apple, Linux is not owned, updated or controlled by a single company. Thousands of developers around the world work on Linux, making improvements and issuing new versions several times a year. Because the core Linux software is open source, these developers have the right — some would say responsibility — to borrow from one another’s work, constantly looking for enhancements.”

The CGL v3.2 spec includes an 18-page overview document, along with seven PDF documents defining requirements for:

• Availability — Applies to the kernel, core libraries, and essential tools, with regard to single-system availability
• Serviceability — Defines tools and methods to manage, install, maintain, upgrade, and monitor
• Performance — Unique performance requirements of carrier-grade applications
• Clustering — Aimed at supporting clustered applications in a carrier-grade environment, as an effective way to achieve highly available services
• Standards — A reference for standards such as POSIX, IETF, and DMTF referred to in the CGL 3.2 functional requirements
• Hardware — Identifies important hardware building blocks, and the open source software needed to support it, as the industry migrates from proprietary platforms to COTS building blocks
• Security — Objectives and requirements aimed at analyzing and mitigating threats, and improving resiliency

It is also now possible for Linux vendors to register their products for compliance with Version 4.0 of the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) Requirements Definition Documents. The primary changes incorporated into CGL 4.0 are alignment with the SCOPE Alliance’s Carrier Grade Profile, and tighter requirements around compliance.

My radical answer to this problem, which might also solve some of the desktop adoption issues: Start with a single, common distro as the core for those hundreds of other distros. Something like Fedora or Ubuntu, which are already pretty common. What if Fedora were the basis for OpenSuSE and Ubuntu, for instance, and then those distros added their value *above* the basic capabilities that most ISV’s ported to? As we pointed out above, most of the desktop distros are given away for free anyway - there is no value add returned for all that investment in the desktop, typically. The real value is still being added above some basic/core level. Why not consolidate on a single base building block core and give up the rat race of adding negative value at great development cost to many independent distros, and focus on the value add above that line?

Gerrit, glad to see that you are spending a little time in desktop space. As initiative manager for the LF Desktop Linux workgroup, I have spent some time thinking in desktop space as well. You have a good handle on some of the major problems, especially the problems that ISVs have in porting applications to Linux. Your solution is also interesting, but it reminds me of the United Linux fad that we experienced a few years ago. You know, that might have worked if one of the flagship distros hadn’t bolted with the rest of the community.

Some of the blockers for mainstream Linux desktop usage are lack of legal codecs, hardware integration and certain types of basic functionality like software suspend not working reliably. This is not news, of course, but rather the typical gripes people have had for years.

While we have waited around for the Linux distros to solve these problems for their customers, this has not really been the case. Sure, there are the promises of CNR and other “easy” mechanisms to bring a Linux desktop to the point of “just working”. However, the landscape has changed over the last few months and now there are at least 4 companies producing general purpose computing platforms (desktops/laptops) with pre-installed Linux. These companies include Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Acer.

So what does it take to deliver a pre-installed product that consumers will buy? Can you take a popular distribution like Ubuntu and slap it on some hardware (that has the Linux driver support that is needed) and you are off and running? In a recent Wall Street Journal article, a popular pre-installed Linux product was tested by an “average” consumer. Out of the box, it was discovered that the user could not play mp3s, could not play DVDs, and the touchpad continually got in the way. When I read this, my heart sank because I figured that when an OEM produced a Linux-based product that they would handle the integration of codecs and usability capabilities that would “just work” and meet the expectations on consumer desktop users. MY expectation was that the OEM would add value to the integration of an operating system and hardware. Integration that is difficult for platform-independent distros to accomplish should be done by the OEMs that are actually delivering hardware to the market.

So what can the Linux community do? Now that OEM vendors have entered the ecosystem, it is vitally important that the OEM vendors participate in the Linux communities (kernel, system software, middleware, desktop, applications) so that OEMs can deliver real products that meet customer expectations with components that are actually mainlined (not one-offs for specific distros).

What strategy can OEMs take? I would suggest that OEMs target products for market niches, rather than throwing products out to the general computing markets. These products should be pre-configured with everything needed by that market niche. In some cases (like Tivo), the user may not even need to know they are running Linux. However, if a product is integrated for a specific set of tasks, such as multimedia and video editing and if the product “just worked”, the use of Linux would start to gain ground in traditional desktop markets.

“In the retail channel, sales to date this year show Office having a 96 percent dollar share and 98 percent dollar share in the commercial market.” It’s exactly that massive market share and the billions spent that explains why we have seen more interest in office alternatives in the past year.

Over the last few days, several very interesting announcements have indicated that the starting gun has sounded and the race has begun.

• IBM making the Lotus Symphony suite freely available. Lotus Symphony is made up of three applications–word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs–which IBM already ships as part of Lotus 8. The name Lotus Symphony is recycled; it was the name of a desktop spreadsheet application that Lotus offered in the early 1990s. In this renewed desktop software push, IBM is offering an “open” alternative to Microsoft’s proprietary Office product line. The software is based on the Eclipse open-source framework and natively supports the OpenDocument Format, or ODF, a standard document format derived from the OpenOffice open-source desktop suite.

  “It’s not about the document on the desktop anymore. It’s all about making information universally accessible and putting it to work on any platform and on the Web in highly flexible ways.”

• Free Anytime Collaboration. Those of us that have become dependent on free conference calls can now add a new addiction: free web-based web conferences. With Vyew, people can create VyewBooks to share, present, and interact with other people around all forms of content such as office files, pictures, audio and video. Tools to create new presentations are also included within the suite. Participants can also share their desktop view for live sharing of files, images, and Web sites.

  “Vyew isn’t just another WebEx or GotoMeeting where information is communicated in a canned one-to-many format. Vyew is an enterprise-class social computing platform where people can also create, share, and participate with rich content in a many-to-many relationship, both in real-time and asynchronously over time.”

• Google Presentations. Google Presentations is a decent free, Web-based solution for creating slide shows. The collaboration features are really the service’s strong point. Not only can other people collaborate on the same presentation, but when you are done, you can either share it via a public URL or present it to a group of people that you invite. This is really where Google gets it right. Google Presentations sports a subset of Powerpoint capabilities, but it will sure work for 95% of the presentations I do. Very cool.
• Yahoo grabs Zimbra. Zimbra developed a leading edge, Web 2.0 open source messaging and collaboration software suite, with email, calendar, document processing and a spreadsheet. Zimbra has a browser-based client and supports Windows, Apple, and Linux desktops, as well as Microsoft Outlook a variety of mobile devices. On the server side, Zimbra supports Red Hat, Mac, Ubuntu, SUSE and Fedora. Zimbra will be used to take Yahoo mail to new markets.

Any of these announcements by themselves would be significant, but the combination of these is really sounding the starting pistol for competition in the multi-billion dollar office productivity race. And this time around, it is not a one horse race.

Question: How is it possible to address all the technical comments in a document format that has already been implemented in Microsoft Office 2007 and is shipping or being pre-installed in millions of computers?

Even a casual observer would have to say that OOXML is not likely to change due to the outcome of the comment resolution meeting in February. Because the OOXML format is firmly entrenched in shipping Microsoft Office products, the most popular comment resolution statement is likely to be “it is a de-facto standard in shipping products”. Or…there will be promises made to make changes to a document format is already shipping in volume by the only market leader that could deliver products based on OOXML. If you think that OOXML will change in any significant way, I have some ocean view property in South Dakota that might be of interest to you.

Document management software vendors have made it clear that they do not want to support multiple open document formats. Document tool developers would like avoid the replicated work that comes with the support of multiple standards and they certainly do not want to suffer the pain and expense of document format incompatibilities and conversions.

Jeremy Allison, of SAMBA fame, recalled his experiences with CIFS and the standardization process in a blog entry called “The Definition of Insanity“. He warns that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” While we don’t know if this quote originated from Ben Franklin, Al Eistein, or Mark Twain, the message is clear. We can’t afford to casually go down the path of comment resolution with OOXML. The results will not be satisfying and innovation will suffer if a second open document format is standardized. In the end, users will suffer as they continually have to choose which document format to use and then find the tools that will reasonably convert the format they chose to the format they want to exchange.

The acceptance and adoption of a single open document format will lead to a golden age of document processing.