The hard truth about installing Linux

Having had a go at a few more Linux installations than the average newbie, I can say that Ubuntu is probably about as easy an install as it's going to get. Sure you can run into hardware driver issues but Ubuntu advocates are right when they say it's probably just as easy and maybe easier than installing Windows. However, at this point in time it needs to be.

The hard fact is that most computer users don't want to go through the pain of installing an operating system. They just want to turn on their computer and start using it.

Probably the single most important factor in the success in Windows, aside from Microsoft's marketing muscle, is that you can walk into a shop and buy a working Windows computer. What's more, you can be reasonably confident that the computer will work with a wider range of software and hardware than either a Linux computer or Apple Mac.

Within its own walled garden, a Mac can beat the pants of a Windows computer for ease of use, reliability and overall design elegance. However, most users still opt for a Windows computer because it allows them a wider choice of hardware and software.

Ubuntu, being a Linux distribution, is a more stable and secure operating system than Windows, not to mention free to download. Yet Windows still reigns supreme in terms of market share. Why?

As far as the Linux market is concerned, Ubuntu, like it or not is being increasingly touted by many as the most likely candidate to prise disaffected Windows users off the Microsoft teat. However, despite being easy to install, Ubuntu, like all Linux distributions, is in most cases not plug and play.

I know many Ubuntu users are going to be jumping up and down right now ready to flame me and tell me how they got Ubuntu to work with their hardware, peripherals and wireless network the very first time. However, I've been to your forum and seen how many haven't. And these are computer users who take the time out to visit a forum.

I also have no doubt that many Windows XP users who have attempted to upgrade to Vista using the boxed software are having similar problems. The Wall Street Journal technology writer Walter Mossberg confessed to being amazed at how many makers of Windows software and hardware have failed to update their products to work smoothly, or to work at all, with Vista.

Where I am going with this is that the key to the success of Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution in the consumer market is getting mainstream hardware manufacturers to release pre-installed plug and play versions of the operating system. Dell has already committed to making this happen and other hardware makers will be watching to see how it goes.

Like many computer users, I want to be able to walk in to a computer store and walk out with a working Linux computer, whether it be a Dell, HP, Acer or a white box. I want to take that computer home and be able to connect it to my printer, scanner and digital camera and have them recognised. If it's a laptop, I want to take that computer into a wireless hotspot, click on a view available networks icon and, provided I have the WEP key, be able to connect to the Internet.

I know all of that is a lot to ask but to be honest if Linux and its most popular distributions, like Ubuntu and Suse, is to gain more than a couple of percent market share on the desktop then that is what is necessary. Perhaps in order to make it happen, the funders of the most popular distributions should be spending as much of their budgets on selling the benefits of Linux to consumers and hardware vendors as on development. Microsoft certainly does.