Top five things Linux can learn from Microsoft

Top five things Linux can learn from Microsoft Jul. 20, 2006

Linux does a lot of things right -- open-source , security, reliability -- but it's far from perfect. In fact, Linux and its vendors could stand to learn a few things from Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft. Like what? Here's my list of the top five things that Linux could learn from Microsoft.

1. MSDN

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With Linux and open-source software , all the code is open, so any developer can leap right in and start working. That's grand, but what if you don't know where to start? What if you're not really sure, or perhaps not too sure, about what's the right way to program for a given project? What if you want to write something new and useful... but you discover three months into your project that you're duplicating work that's been done a dozen times over?

There are no easy-to-use guides on how to program successfully in open-source. To learn how to do it right, usually takes a couple of years of getting to know the lay of the free software landscape.

With Microsoft, however, there's the
Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). MSDN provides developers with help in writing applications using Microsoft products and programming tools. And, when I say help, I mean: Help.

There are well-written tutorials, best practices guides, the latest betas and production copies of operating systems and software, software development tools, code examples, online communities, endless articles on the nuts and bolts of Microsoft programming, and on and on. Best of all, it's all well-organized, so that you can easily learn what you need when you need to learn it.

MSDN isn't cheap, but for Microsoft developers it's worth every penny. Open-source sites like SourceForge are very handy, but they're more useful as project incubators than as educational sites. No, open source and Linux don't have anything to match MSDN.

2. Common Interface

Everyone has their own idea on how to build an interface. But, what users want is one common interface. They want to learn one way to do all their general tasks. The more you ask them to learn different ways to do the same thing, the more annoyed they get.

For the most part, Microsoft has stuck to evolving their interfaces. If you know Office 97, you can get along in Office 2003. And, once you have the hang of Windows 98SE, it won't take you that much time to pick up XP SP2.

In Linux, it can be a much bigger jump from one application to another, or from KDE to GNOME to Enlightenment .

Microsoft is getting to blow this one, though. The Office 12 interface is brand new, and many users see it as a major annoyance . At the same time, Linux is getting its act together, The Portland Project, a working group of all the major Linux desktop players, is helping develop not just common APIs (application programming interfaces), but common user interfaces as well.

By this time next year, Linux, and not Microsoft, may hold this advantage.

3. Common Format

Microsoft's office formats are proprietary, but by dent of sheer market pressure, they've become universal formats. Like the interfaces, the formats have kept changing, but it's usually possible to successfully import the older formats into the newer programs without losing any data.

The Open Document Format (ODF) offers a far better deal. It's a common format that anyone can use and anyone can read. The problem is that, even now, it doesn't have enough support. I'm looking forward to the day when all Linux and open-source applications can read and write to ODF.

Come that day, the format advantage will lie squarely with Linux and open-source programs.

4. Marketing

A major reason why Microsoft stays on top is that they've continued to pay hundreds of millions every year on marketing and advertising.

Look at almost any mainstream or technology magazine, and you'll see a Microsoft ad. Big city newspapers, ditto. Television, you betcha.

You could argue that some of that money has been badly spent. I mean what's with those dinosaurs in the office anyway? But, one way or the other, Microsoft is always in front of customers.

Don't ever sell that kind of saturation marketing short. It's why people drink Coke, buy Toyotas, still smoke cigarettes, and yes, run Windows.

And what do the Linux companies do in the way of advertising? Almost nothing.

Idiots.

For every ten, heck probably ever one hundred Microsoft ads, I see one Linux ad.

Why do you think Linux sites, like this one, Linux Today, and many others have Microsoft ads running on them? Because, Microsoft buys the ad space, and the Linux companies almost never do. It's that simple.

For a long time, Linux distributors have lived off the Linux news sites, yes, like this one, which report on every small Linux move. Guess what guys. That's great for building a niche. Congratulations, it worked. It also worked for the Amiga and OS/2, It sucks at growing a mass-market.

It's also beginning not to work. Oh, more people every month are reading our family of Linux publications. I'm sure that's true of the other Linux news sites. I remember, however, when the new generation of online news sites, like Slashdot, also carried all the big Linux news and a lot of the small stuff. Now, many big Linux stories don't even make Slashdot or Digg.

Why? Because while the total number of Linux users is still growing, it's no longer growing explosively. Linux is no longer the newest, most exciting kid on the block.

The Linux vendors can no longer count that their message about a new distribution or service being read by anyone except people who have already committed to Linux.

You want new customers? You want Microsoft's customers? Stop getting excited about placing -- oh wow -- a single-page, one-shot ad in the New York Times. Start spending the big bucks you need to get the Linux message, your message, in front of customers every day.

5. OEM Support

If I want to run a Windows desktop, I just buy a computer. No fuss, no muss.

Microsoft has had the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in its back-pocket for well over a decade. Enough is enough.

The Linux vendors must pull every string they can to get desktop Linux pre-installed. Sure, it's easy to install Xandros on a PC, but let's face facts: the vast majority of users will never install an operating system in their lives.

These users use what's in front of them, and that's that. For the Linux desktop to ever really take off, when someone turns on a computer, they have to see Linux boot up. It's that simple.

I continue to think that supporting the Linux desktop would be a major plus for any of the smaller OEMs. Once the HPs and Dells see that there's money to be made from the Linux desktop, they'll come on board, and then, and only then, can we start talking seriously about any so-called year of the Linux desktop.

A related problem is the eternal driver annoyance . Any piece of junk that comes down the road has a Windows driver. Even now, many peripherals don't have Linux support.

Yes, I know that with a little looking and a little system tinkering you can get most equipment to work. How many people really want to go to that much trouble? Not many.

When someone starts using Linux for the very first time, and a sound-board or a WiFi card or whatever doesn't work, do they think, "Boy, I wish those jerks would support Linux!" Or, do they think, "Jeeze, Linux must be broken, my automated filbert dicer doesn't work, and it always worked with Windows."

I'll tell you what they think: they think Linux is broken.

Linux may never have the universal hardware support that Windows gets, but its supporters have to try with all their might and influence to get as much open-source driver support as possible. Fortunately, some of the PC OEMs, like Dell , are now pushing their upstream suppliers to provide Linux drivers for their equipment. With more of this kind of support, we may finally see Linux come close to Microsoft.

Conclusion

If Linux, its distributors, partners and supporters, can learn all these lessons from Microsoft, the little Penguin-powered operating system will be a lot better off than it is today.

Just because many Linux fans hate Microsoft, doesn't mean we can't learn a lot from the Evil Empire. We can, and we should.


-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols