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Lack of gaming support was (and still is) in my opinion the main reason Linux didn't get properly accepted into the consumer sector. (every gamer had to keep Wi
by tdr 14y ago
Lack of gaming support was (and still is) in my opinion the main reason Linux didn't get properly accepted into the consumer sector. (every gamer had to keep Windows dual-boot )
Because of that there were problems with the drivers and snowballed to other areas.
- idleloops 14y agoAs well as: * Poor web browser (not an issue now) * Poor flash support (better than it has been) * No Microsoft Office (partially surmountable) * Video and sound configuration issues (sound is still hit and miss for me) * Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools * Lack of simple point and click system control panel And that you couldn't easily find consumer hardware pre-installed with a Linux desktop (which could have got around some of the driver issues.)
- soc88 14y agoAbout which year are you speaking exactly? 2005?
- nnnnni 14y agoMore like 2000.
- idleloops 14y agoI'm partially referring to 2012.
- idleloops 14y ago* Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools This one is just the nature of the beast of having disparate distributions. But the others hold true. There is progress don't get me wrong, but these are issues none the less.
- FreeFull 14y agoI thought SuSE had a simple control panel thing for many years now (unless they changed that)
- km3k 14y agoThey have, just like Ubuntu and others. I think that post is referring to things that have typically been seen as problems, not necessarily things that are still big problems.
- idleloops 14y agoI used Yast in 2000, and generally had a good experience with Suse. The distro won out for me, as I could configure Yast through an ncurses interface. You had to surrender some control to Yast, which was both a blessing and a curse. An issue is one of consistency across the distributions - which is partly the nature of the beast of Linux. And that's why I recommend a distro with a large community to a newcomer. That's not to say that the underlying tools aren't there, it's just the GUI tool chains are missing or could be better and more consistent.
- SquareWheel 14y agoMore than anything else, I'd just say that doing any task in Linux is a battle. Once you understand the system and configure things to your liking it is a dream, but as a new user you'll be spending hours in config files and searching Google, and users don't want that. This is Hacker News. Most of us know our way around a terminal. But real users don't, any real users drive the market.
- jiggy2011 14y agoThis is partly because the most popular distro (ubuntu) has some pretty stupid defaults. For example: Default install will not give you flash support or support for codecs like WMV. Default fonts are enormous If you have an Nvidia/ATI graphics card you will not get a proper driver unless you know how to specifically install it.
- gillianseed 14y agoWell, shipping codecs means they have to pay royalties, os'es like Windows and OSX bake that cost into their asking price, Ubuntu is free. Also the codes are likely only an apt-get away. Don't know about the fonts as I don't run Ubuntu. As for NVidia/ATI drivers, back when I was on Windows (many years ago) you pretty much had to install the drivers directly from the vendors in order to get decent performance as the ones shipped were awful and generally old, is that no the case anymore? Still, getting these driver are also just one apt-get away unless I'm mistaken?
- andrewfelix 14y agoThat and the lack of Adobe software. For me at least anyway.