A consistently hot topic is Linux adoption–when it will reach a majority, what should be done to encourage it, and who should adopt it.

The first part is easy, it will be the year <insert name of upcoming year here>. The second part…I don’t really have a strong opinion on, because the third part is related but more important.

Andrew Min made the point, in his article “Why games are the key to Linux adoption”, that the people to convert to Linux are gamers. CNET agreed, and ArsTechnica just released a related and encouraging article. When I first read all that, I was like “Dude! That is so true! Excellent call!” But now that I’ve thought about it, I have one problem: The title’s too short–it should read “Why games are part of the key to Linux adoption”. Because as important a market share as gamers are, and as much as they would raise Linux’s profile, there’s a very important type of person left out:

Your common, technically inept, noob.

You know the type–uses a computer for emai (kindly provided by either AOL or their cable company), minor documents and maybe a bit of web surfing. No high-powered games. No business-critical apps. Just Outlook (/Express), Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. In short: perfect for Linux.

Time for some evidence.

Modern Linux (especially Ubuntu) is ridiculously simple. Burn the CD (which, as the hardest part, has the easy shortcuts of “buy one” or “order Ubuntu for free from ShipIt!”), boot off CD, follow easy graphical prompts, go and make a cup of tea while the installer formats your hard drive and copies several gigabytes onto it, come back, follow intuitive menu, launch required apps, done.

Anti-virus? No need. Spyware? Nonexistent. Routine system maintenance? Not necessary. Bloat? Nada.

Granted, OpenOffice.org (or Abiword) are not quite as powerful as MS Office. And sure, Evolution/Thunderbird aren’t quite as powerful as Outlook/Outlook Express. But for common tasks–who really cares? It’s not like soccer moms are writing research papers, or syncing with Exchange.

And I can personally guarantee that both the amount of tech support calls, and the number of “Honeeeeeeeey! Why did the computer just do that!?”s will decrease.

The one problem is that it’s new. And it requires learning something different. And if only geeks talk about it, you must need to be one to be able to “work it.” But if mainstream OEMs make enough pre-installed Linux boxes, and enough geeks convert their parents, Linux won’t be new, it’ll be “That thing with the funny African name that all the normal people use.”, handily replacing “What’s an operating system? Oh, well I don’t use a Mac.” And after it spreads a bit more, Windows will be “that expensive thing that gamers and business executives and weird people use on their computers. I’m glad I don’t have it–it seems like it keeps breaking for them.”

In case you don’t follow Digg (I congratulate you), this came up.
In short: Some random hackers figured out how to port Android onto a netbook, and it turns out that there was a folder in Android that had plans for “Mobile Internet Devices”–like netbooks–anyway.
This is pretty cool, but I’m left with one pessimistic thought:
What can Google add to a Linux distro that Canonical, Novell, RedHat or the general Linux community can’t?

Apps? Not really–unless you count Chrome, which is going to be ported to Linux anyway.

Quality? I can’t think of how…

The only thing I can come up with is publicity–if Google, the all-powerful, quite-famous Google starts marketing an OS, it’s going to put Linux in the spotlight, big time. Even if people don’t explicitly use a Google OS, it’ll raise awareness about Linux in general, and suddenly Ubuntu Bug #1 is looking a lot less problematic.

However, we’re all totally jumping the gun–basement hacking does not a mainstream OS make, which is the current situation.

…but basement hacking with some help from one of the largest tech companies in the world does. I’m excited.

The other day, I was playing Spider Solitaire on an XP box. To be honest, it was pretty fun. Then, I ran into a problem:

(OK, OK, I couldn’t resist the “Fail” in there, I’m sorry)

Now there’s two ways of looking at this. One is that I was too dumb to think ahead, and save enough cards to fill up all the spaces, and proceed to the next round.

The other way is to say “What the heck? What idiot would make a game with an impossible situtation like that!? One in which, if you do too well, you can’t win!?!?!”

Anarchist that I am, I picked the third way, which is: On a game designed to be simple, easy and fun–one that you’re not even supposed to take seriously, couldn’t somebody’ve had the grace to add the few extra lines of code which would go something like:

if active_cards < spaces

{

    fill_spaces_to_proceed = 0; //Disables the requirement to fill up all the spaces

}

OK, OK, I’m sure I’m oversimplifying it (and don’t even say a word about my C skills…or lack thereof). But the point remains–simple error-catching would’ve made me, a paying customer, a happier camper.

Just for fun, let’s contrast this to OpenSpider, a fictional open source clone of Spider Solitaire. If I discovered this bug while playing OpenSpider, I’d pop over to the developer’s website, and send a polite email saying that I really thought it’d be better if it was the other way. Better yet, if the guy had Bugzilla installed, I’d just file a bug.

What you’re probably thinking now is that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, and that it’s just a minor irritation in a very minor game (what’s more, I’ve been playing it for years, and this is the first time it’s happened to me). However, I think it serves as a good microcosm for one of the differences between free software and freeware.

With free software, the developers are legitimately interested in making a good product. I could expand on that a lot, but that’s really what it boils down to in this case.

With freeware, there’s always some kind of a catch. A lot of freeware is merely some kind of stunted trial version, and the developers are hoping you’ll spend some cashy money on the full/professional/etc. version. In other cases, like this one, freeware is a way of binding you to something. If Spider Solitaire was open source, there’d be a Linux/BSD/Mac/Solaris/… port in days. But since it’s proprietary, only Microsoft can have it, and only people who pay through the nose for Windows can play it.

Granted, Microsoft is doing a terrible job on providing free Windows-only perks. The few games, Notepad, Wordpad, Calculator…there are better open source versions (AisleRiot, gedit, gedit/OpenOffice, any one of a number of calculators…) If Microsoft was playing more aggressively, they’d include stuff like a dumbed-down version of MS Office–not a 60 day trial, but a fully working, limited-feature freeware version, to strengthen the chains between people and Windows. (Un)Fortunately, they’re too interested in the revenue they get from selling full version of Office to try such a stunt. Enter OpenOffice.

Now let’s take a look from the other side of the aisle–what if all Linux distros, and everything that came with them, were GNU/Linux-only freeware?

Some people would switch to GNU/Linux because of Firefox alone (OK, so maybe it’d be a dual-boot, but there’s no shame in that). Once you throw in OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Pidgin…the Ubuntu servers would go down with .iso downloads, and ShipIt would close up shop.

Now obviously that’s not happening–there’s enough open source zealots out there (for example: myself) to make sure it never does.

And that makes me feel a lot better about losing a Solitaire game.

Happy New Year!

To celebrate, I’ve compiled my top eight blog post (according to hits, not my opinion) to remind myself how the year went.

1. My Last Whine About Google Chrome: I really didn’t expect this to get number one–it’s just a little rant about all the fallacies Chrome should’ve fixed by now.
2. Chrome, Chrome, Chrome: This is my first (and non-ranting) review of Chrome, where I point out the “Five Usability Fails.”
3. An Open Letter to Hob–I mean, Microsoft: I’ve known for a while that I had problems with Microsoft–ergo my switch to Ubuntu. But once I saw what the other side had to offer, I realized how Windows could improve a lot through simple improvements, such as built-in workspaces, and the use of a journaling file system.
4. Word Procesors continued: OpenOffice.org Write vs. MS Word vs. Google Docs vs. Zoho Writer vs. Abiword: Yeah…this was one of my first posts, back when I didn’t know how to write or research. It’s just notes on my first impressions of a slew of word processors, and for whatever reasons StumbleUpon really liked it.
5. Schematic: Microsoft’s Problem: A pretty little picture that illustrates how Linux is gradually killing Microsoft. (And anything that includes three pictures of Tux in different outfits is sure to be a success )
6. Themes for GMail: A Ecstatic “Darnit!”: Why I love, and hate, GMail themes.
7. Another Open Letter to Microsoft: Number three let me vent my anger at an up-and-running Windows. This one let me vent my anger about the ridiculous installation process for Windows XP. Especially when compared to Ubuntu’s.
8. Browser Startups: A little speed test between the IE7, Firefox 3 and Chrome…with kind of unexpected results.

Hope you have a totally awesome 2009!