08.07.12
Linux and Android FUD
Quite a mouthful
Summary: New examples of Android FUD and GNU/Linux FUD
THE RISE of Android has been a major headache to the Old Guard. So new FUD was generated, claiming Android to be something that it's not.
One newly identified pattern of FUD revolves around usability and as Jeff Hoogland puts it: “I caught this article on the news feed of my favorite Linux news site this morning and I must say it upsets me a lot. The too long/didn’t read version of this guy’s article is that Android is “usable” for most users, while he finds desktop Linux lacking in the usability department. He cites a number of reasons why the distribution he selected (Fedora) isn’t “usable” compared to Android. Honestly all of them are your normal anti-desktop Linux FUD and I am tired of it.
“Being nonchalant about the FUD would be unwise.”“Oh man – all your hardware doesn’t work with the distribution you are using, but your Android device works great? Let me guess – you bought a device with Android preinstalled. Your “Linux computer” on the other hand you installed yourself. You also didn’t research the hardware. You just expected Linux to work with every piece of hardware that exists. I’m not sure who told you Linux worked with 100% of hardware, but guess what? They lied. Linux works with a great deal of hardware, but not all of it. If you bought your own copy of Windows or OSX and tried to install it on non-supported hardware you better believe their parent companies would tell you to get supported hardware. Why are you treating Linux differently?”
And on it goes. People tend to forget that Linux has superb hardware support and it can deal with a huge number of configurations. Android limits choice (not to the extent Apple does), so it offers something which can be guaranteed to work. The same goes for software installation. Over at CNET we find the same old FUD wherein untrusted sources of installation get used to FUD Android (malware installed willingly by the user). Shame on CNET for Olympic-flavour garbage reporting. Android FUD will continue to spread as long as Android is a leader, not an underdog. Being nonchalant about the FUD would be unwise. █
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mcinsand said,
August 8, 2012 at 7:17 am
I tried to respond to this article yesterday, and kept getting kicked out. This type of article is frustrating because it is a rehash of the same old outdated Linux FUD. Yes, a decade or so ago, Linux did not support as broad of a range of hardware as Windows. Yes, until 5 or 6 years ago, you had to do a bit of checking before buying a wireless card. That was then. I’ve done a number of installs of both Linux and Windows over the past few years, and Windows is the OS that stinks for poor hardware support and being a pain to install. Okay, so the comparison might not be so clear with Slackware versus Windows 7; Slackware is much faster to install, but the tweaking might require equivalent or more expertise than Windows. As for the ‘buntu’s, Fedora, or Debian, Windows does not come anywhere close in terms of ease to install, install speed, hardware support, or (of course) reliability and security.
Forgive me if I repeat myself, two particular examples stand out as signs of how things have changed. 3-4 years ago, I was setting up Windows XP and Ubuntu on identical hardware. The Ubuntu install with a randomly-picked wireless card was done in a half hour, complete with all of the perfecbuntu add-ins. The XP install took all afternoon, and it would have taken longer, but I gave up on getting XP to work with the onboard audio; I punted by going to a local shop to purchase a PCI audio card.
More recently, about 6 months ago, a friend asked me to upgrade her Vista to Windows 7 on her laptop. The MS utility for checking Windows 7 compatibility gave a green light, and so began an ordeal that lasted all evening and into the night. I went to sleep while the upgrade was still chunking along. The next morning, all semi-sort of seemed to be okay. However, the computer kept BSOD’ing every 3-4 hours because of issues with the wireless driver (Atheros). I went so far as to completely remove the wireless driver, download the latest for the hardware from Atheros, and reinstall, but no change. She got fed up and asked if I would install what I use (Kubuntu). The install took a half hour, and the laptop hasn’t crashed since.
Windows is a steaming turd of an operating system, and it may have had an edge on Linux back in the ’90′s when it comes to useability. It may have had an edge a decade ago when it comes to wireless drivers. Those days are gone, though. Windows hardware support stinks. As for the Metro interface, it is like Ubuntu’s change to Unity, in that it is a test with a drastic change. However, you can’t just type ‘apt-get install ‘ to make a change.
Windows has become an epic phail, when it comes to competing on performance on any front. Claims to the contrary are simply outdated FUD.