The flaws page

[Jean Francois Martinez <jfm2@club-internet.fr>]

This is the page what IMHO is wrong with present distributions (if I
thought
everything was right I wouldn't be doing Indy).

Title: Flaws in the development model for Linux desktop distributions

Flaws in the development model for the Linux desktop distributions

Linux has enjoyed a fantastic success in the last year, however its
users have been hackers.  Another step is now needed: bringing Linux
to the desktop and to the common user.  This will require not only
easiness of use but a willingness to cope with the needs of those
unusual (in the Unix world) users.  Unfortunately the development
model of present distributions both free and commercial is not suited
to that new challenge.  A newer one is needed.

Commercial distributions

In the last years commercial distributions have made enormous progress
in the easiness of use field.  However a commercial company goal is to
make money and that sets two limits at their progress towards the desktop
and personal computer:

• Marketing driven features
• Money in Linux comes from server not desktop

Marketing driven features

A feature will be introduced according to its ability to generate
revenue not on its usefulness.  A pretty installer will get positive
reviews in the press and thus will get highest priority.  A feature
who only be noticed through day to day use will get medium priority.
Making the box robust to user mistakes is crucial in a system like
Linux where many users have to act as system administrators from thee
first day.  However user does not know when distribution fixes a
mistake he made who would have left him with an unusable machine had
not the distribution defused it.  Therefore those "invisible" features
get very low priority.

Money in Linux comes from server not desktop

Nowadays CD burners are standard equipment, ADSL allows to download
entire distributions and you can find Linux CDs even in the Ziff Davis
press.  That makes selling boxed distributions a far more difficult
proposition than in 1995 when it was difficult to get Linux without
buying a distro.  Therefore distribution vendors rely on support for
revenue.  But private users and even corporate users when application
is not critical can get very good support from the Net and supporting
a large number of users who pay small sums per incident (typical of
private users) requires a large infrastructure.  It is for critical
applications (ie servers) where companies will adopt a policy of "take
no chances" and will pay for support.  It is for such clients such
clients when Linux companies will be able to charge large sums to a
small number of customers.  Since the desktop and private user don't
pay the bills for Linux companies these will concentrate on the
server.  They could use the desktop to reach notoriety (eg Mandrake)
but sooner or later they will reorient towards the server.  Or die

Present non-commercial distributions

Non comercial distributions are not under pressure to make money and
thus we could expect from them to be the spearhead of Linux in the
desktop however it is not the case.  Slackware, Stampede, Debian
reputations are not precisely about easiness of installation and use.
Part of the problem arises from the fact that they were founded by
people who were "University Unix".  Therefore they gave little thought
to usability problems who are vital for those people who don't have a
teacher to soften the learning curve and a sysadmin caring for them.
Their founders were IT professionals or future professionals and
reading dozens of HOWTOs was natural to them so they forgot that
non-IT people have other priorities.  Finally they ended making their
distribution an end in itself and fulfilling its goals became more
important than contributing to Linux expansion.  "We don't care
about usability since we do't try to make a distribution for
beginners" is a sentence you hear frequently between activists
of non-commercail distributions.

Developers living in another world

A common problem to commercial and non-comercial distributions is the
people making them are different from their users and live in a
different world.  These are people with strong backgrounds in Unix
programming and system administration while Linux users are far more
diverse with many people being Windows or mainframe transfuges and
having different needs and tastes from those of the Unix people.
Environmental conditions are also at work for making distributions
miss their target.  Let's take an example from Mandrake, a
distribution who is exceptionally creative and close to its users,
however it falls very short for SMB (networking in Windows
environments): you don't get the PopUp messages sent by printer
servers to tell you your printing job is finished and the network
browser they ship works in laboratory conditions but not in real
world.  Why people with as much flair as Mandrake people have done a
so poor job?  Because they have never used Linux as a client in a
Windows centric company thus they don't know about printers who are
twenty meters from your office or about network browsers who don't
scale beyond tiny networks.  And other distributions are far worse.
That is why there is a need for a user-developed distribution: because
devlopers living in a Linux stronghold cannot understand  user's real
needs.

Conclusion: The need for another model

As long as distributions can pay the bills only by concentrating on
the server then significant progress on the desktop could only be made
by a free distribution.  The existing free distributions have an
aristocratic spirit who makes them unsuitable so a new one is needed.
It should be created in a spirit where developers pride doesn't arise
from building a cathedral-like distribution but in doing their utmost
for propagating Linux and helping people.  It should not be a
distribution where users passively wait for what developers build for
them but one where they take an active part in development.  Finally
it should not be developed exclusively by Unix people (whose
competency is still strongly needed), it should be developed by all
the people who compose the Linux mosaic: Unix people, mainframe people
and, shock, horror, people fresh from Windows.
That is what we try to do in Independence