Thursday, May 31, 2007

Linux is too cute for business

I just read an article suggesting an explanation of why Linux/Unix has problem dominating the computing world. It is not a technical one, but rather, its culture and tool naming is not serious and therefore businesses do not consider it seriously.
In other words, the names are too cute.

And I agree.

For example, much of the free software of Linux comes from GNU, where it is a recursive acronym, which is "GNU is not Unix". I can call it FNU if I like, the G (and F) is never defined. Cute isn't it. Business users who don't know anything about the programs will just scratch their head.

Another example, the configuration tool is called YaST, "Yet Another Setup Tool". So the business people will ask is it a working tool or a toy? Microsoft would have called this intuitively as something like Configuration Tool.

I know some other strange names:
YACC is yet another "yet another" type of name, known as "yet another compiler compiler".
AWK is an awkwardly named little programming language named after the initials of the authors. AWKward indeed.

Modern programmers must know the modern MAKE tool known as ANT - Another Neat Tool. What sort of name is that?

Yet the cute names are the very culture of Unix.

The names perhaps explains why Linux never quite go to "mainstream". It is not likely the program names will ever change so that it can enter the business world more. Linux's very culture makes it unique. It also tends to be less crash prone than Microsoft OSes.

It used to take a lot of setup to get a Linux machine up and running: partition drive, LILO, and all that. However, it is getting easier now, depending on the setup programs that come with your distribution. And yes, it comes with a price tag too, much less than Microsoft though.

1 comment:

Alex Mak said...

There are at least 2 things wrong with Linux

1) No standard way to build GUI apps. GNOME? KDE? qt? All of these are very hard to use. There is no Visual Studio in Linux. I followed every step with the qt tutorial with kdevelop, yet my app behaves differently than what I expect. I have yet to figure out how to use the start menu thing in GNOME - how to add a shortcut??

2) XDMCP / VNC sucks. It's very hard to remote desktop on Linux. The docs available are very outdated. Remote Desktop in Windows 2000/2003 server is so easy to use.

Linux you have huge potentials. I waited 15 years for a reputable vendor like Dell to make it available to the people. I have yet to try ubuntu.