In this article I thought it would be a good idea to discuss what Linux is and what is should be. This, of course, is based on many years of use and equally as many years as a member of the media, covering Linux and the open source community.

The societal history of Linux

Let’s face it…Linux has always been faced with a steep, uphill battle against a competition that has been deeply rooted and accepted in the court of public opinion. No matter how buggy and how prone to viruses and attacks the Windows operating system is, the public (en masse) uses Windows in one for or another. It’s familiar. It works. It’s everywhere. Linux, on the other hand, began by one person as a DIY (Do It Yourself) University project and blossomed into a communal phenomenon. But, for the most part, that DIY stigma never left the project. To this day I still hear people disclaim “Don’t you have to write your own drivers for that?” Maybe ten (or even 5)  years ago that was the case. But now not so much. Now, Linux just works. But the stigma is still there. Linux is still seen as best used in server rooms, rendering farms, clusters, and (now) clouds.

But there is a bigger issue at hand for Linux – than just the stigma of its past. With regards to society at large, on a grand-scheme scale, most people don’t even know what Linux is. So to the masses Linux would be completely foreign. And those are the people the Linux distributions should be focusing on.

There is an old saying “You’re preaching to the choir”. That saying goes a long way with regards to Linux and speaking to IT admins and tech-friendly audiences. It’s only when speaking to neophytes and the general public that the idea of Linux becomes unknown territory.

What Linux should be

Linux has reached a very important point in its history. Never before has this operating system been so user-friendly and ready for prime time. But it’s at this point that it has a built-in hurdle that constantly is tripping it up. That hurdle? Inability to market and focus on the new user. Although it would seem distributions like Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, and Linux Mint are geared perfectly for the new user, they seem to falter when it comes to helping out new users. Let me give you a couple of examples.

The first example is the dreaded mailing list. Yes, I belong to many a mailing list. I read them frequently, post some times, and always find something new. But when a new user comes into the fold the first thing they read is an assault on their noob-ness and their inability to RTFM or bottom post. Suffice it to say, the mailing lists are NOT new-user friendly.

Another example is the welcome screen – or lack thereof. You know when you first install Windows you get that Welcome screen that gives you links to documents on what to do or where to go? Most people just uncheck the box that sets the Open at start option so they never have to see this again. That window is pretty crucial to new users. Linux needs this. I have sent out a call to Ubuntu to create something just like that. Even though it is a bother to many users, it is a necessity to others. And think about it – having that simple greeting with useful information would go very far in bringing new users into the fold.

Recently I read (and wrote about) the news that Songbird is no longer supported in Linux. This was a sad bit of news because Songbird was the closest thing to iTunes that Linux had. Why does that matter? Because to many users iTunes is synonymous to music player. For many users, having an iTunes clone is a critical piece of a very large puzzle. Familiarity breeds new users, and in the case of Linux that is the single biggest obstacle to adoption. Familiarity.

I’ve written a lot of praise lately on where GNOME is taking the desktop (see my article A sneak peak at GNOME 3) and as much as I like what the GNOME developers are doing, I wonder if it is the right move. Yes I already use GNOME shell. I like it. I think it is where the PC desktop should be heading. But most users are so familiar with that task bar/start button/notification area that change will not be welcome. Fortunately for those users there is KDE. Unfortunately for Linux, most new users wouldn’t know KDE if it slapped them in /dev/null.

Because of this, that welcome screen is going to be crucial. When a user first install (or boots up) a Linux machine, they should be greeted by a welcome window that allows them to do things like:

• Choose the look/feel of their desktop.
• Set their username/login info.
• Set up their email account (make this optional of course).
• Point them to documentation.

What about you?

You are a integral component in the success of the Linux operating system. You – the community. Unlike most other operating systems, you have a say. You could contact the developers of a Linux distribution and say I have an idea! and that idea could actually find its way into the next release.

So here’s your chance to chime in. What do you think Linux needs to do to bring in more new users? What would you say to a team of developers of a distribution?

In this brief series (if two articles can be considered a series) I will help ease the migration from both Windows to Linux and Mac to Linux. Hopefully, upon reading these articles, you will have a good game plan so your migration (or your users migration) will be as seamless as possible.

Choose your distribution wisely

This is the real key for easy migration. There are a LOT of distributions out there, for just about every type of user and every type of use. There have been plenty of distributions that have attempted to mimic the look and feel of Windows as closely as possible (this was a very ’90s tactic). But ultimately it boils down to which distribution you choose that will help to make your migration simple. Most Windows users are going to want to stick to one of the major distributions (Ubuntu, Red Hat, SuSE) if for only one reason: support. With the major distributions you can actually have a phone number to call when you have a problem. Outside of that you are going to want to look for a distribution who’s goal is simplicity. One advantage that Ubuntu has over the other major is that it takes the root user out of the picture with the help of sudo.

Start using similar software before you migrate

Let’s face it, you spend a vast majority of your time working with applications, not operating systems. Because of that you can make the job of migration much, much easier by employing the applications you will use with the Linux operating system while you are working with Windows. You can install Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Scribus, The GIMP, and many other applications on Windows and get used to using them in a more familiar environment. By doing this you are removing one obstacle out of your way when the migration actually happens.

Check your hardware

One of the biggest issues that many people have had in the past is hardware incompatibility. Although this is slowly becoming an issue of the past, there are instances where a specific piece of hardware is supported. When you install the operating system, and find a particular piece of hardware is not supported your computing life has become infinitely more difficult. Before you actually do the migration make sure the hardware you plan to use will function as you expect. What you want to pay particular attention to are: Networking cards, video cards, sound cards. One of the best places to check is the Linux Drivers site.

Software installation

With the Windows operating system, installation is always nothing more than a double click of a file and then what sometimes seems like an endless amount of clicking the Next button. In Linux the process of installing software is more centralized. You often read in my articles about opening the Add/Remove Software tool. This is a fundamental change to the philosophy of Windows. Think of the Add/Remove Software tool as more a shopping center for software instead of a location to manage software already installed. Once you get beyond the Windows Add/Remove Software philosophy, installing software in Linux is a snap.

More than one way to…

One of the philosophies that originally drew me to Linux was that there is almost always more than one way to take care of a task in Linux. This is something that many Windows users struggle with at the beginning. With Windows there is generally one way to handle a task – the Windows way. With Linux there is always multiple ways to do something. This is often very confusing to the new user. This is especially made true when that new user goes to a mailing list for help and gets five different replies with five different ways to solve a single problem. Is everyone wrong? Is everyone right? In that situation the best thing to do would be read everyone’s solution and decide which one sounds like it would be the easiest for you to re-create. To this end, when going to a mailing list for Linux help, it is always best to be as specific as possible. Instead of saying “How do I do A?” you might say “How do I do A using a graphical tool in GNOME?” or “What is the easiest way to do A in KDE?”

Final thoughts

You might think these very generic lessons for migration, but to the new-to-Linux user they are lessons that can save a lot of time and a lot of headache. Do you have any migration tips for Windows-to-Linux users? If so, share them with your fellow Ghacks readers.