In the post immediately preceding this one, I discuss my views that Windows Vista, as hated as it is, won’t cause a flood of angry Windows XP users to join the noble Linux cause. There are a number of reasons for this, but two primarily: one, most users don’t care enough to switch operating systems for email, web browsing, and the like. Second, and most importantly, many of those who know of Linux aren’t convinced that things will be any better. Having used Linux for several years now, and having done my fair share of soul-searching (metaphorically speaking) on this matter, I have a couple of things that I feel need to be addressed before Linux can take on its competitors on the desktop.

First and foremost is, obviously, driver support. This has come a very long way since the beginning of the millennium, when hardware support was very much a “hope and pray” situation. However, a number of areas still lack satisfactory support. For example wireless drivers are still missing for some big-time chipsets, and with wireless networking quickly becoming extremely common in the home, this needs to be fixed quickly. Graphics cards are another example of an area where support is lagging behind Windows and OS X, though recent strides made by NVIDIA and ATi/AMD show that this void is beginning to be addressed.

Second, the Linux desktop is a bit of a mess. As a user with a fairly high amount of technical expertise, I understand why users enjoy using their favorite desktop environments. However, to the outside world, this comes off as a huge mess; most users are used to the GUI setups of Windows and OS X, where you have one GUI and to learn to live with it. On Linux, however, users can use KDE, GNOME, Xfce, Fluxbox, e16, e17, and a host of other desktop/window managers. This overwhelms many new users, and while choice is most certainly one of Linux’s greatest strengths, at the same time choice can work against it in areas where there are simply too many choices. So, Linux users, I firmly believe that was can conquer the Redmond Menace on the desktop, but we need to work at it a little harder. But it can be done, so let’s give ‘em hell.