https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2020 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2020 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Digital Service Providers
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • CHANNEL PARTNERS ONLINE
 Channel Futures

Open Source


Linux

Ten Years as Desktop Linux User: My Open Source World, Then and Now

  • Written by Christopher Tozzi
  • February 22, 2017

I've been a regular desktop Linux user for just about a decade now. What has changed in that time? Keep reading for a look back at all the ways that desktop Linux has become easier to use -- and those in which it has become more difficult -- over the past ten years.

I’ve been a regular desktop Linux user for just about a decade now. What has changed in that time? Keep reading for a look back at all the ways that desktop Linux has become easier to use — and those in which it has become more difficult — over the past ten years.

I installed Linux to my laptop for the first time in the summer of 2006. I started with SUSE, then moved onto Mandriva and finally settled on Fedora Core.

By early 2007 I was using Fedora full time. There was no more Windows partition on my laptop. When I ran into problems or incompatibilities with Linux, my options were to sink or swim. There was no Windows to revert back to.

A Decade of Improvement (Mostly)

Circa 2007, running Linux as a desktop operating system was tricky in most ways. Here’s a look at the biggest pain points, and how they have been resolved today…

Wireless connectivity

I owned two wireless cards in 2007 (and as a college student, I wasn’t in a position to invest in new ones): A pluggable USB device with some kind of RaLink chipset, and a built-in card with a Broadcom chipset. The RaLink device worked with ndiswrapper, a utility that let you use Windows drivers to control networking devices in Linux. But it would crash my entire PC periodically. I never figured that chip out fully. I have no idea if it would work better today.

Meanwhile, the Broadcom chip worked well, but only if you installed proprietary firmware that you “cut” out from a Windows system. This was not beginner-friendly work, and it took me a long time to figure it out. It also posed legal issues because the firmware was not licensed for use on Fedora.

Today, life is much easier for Broadcom owners. Free firmware is now available, and most Linux distributions come with tools that will extract it automatically. Plus, my laptop today has a wireless card with an Intel chipset, which performs excellently on Linux with absolutely no configuration required on my part.

Display

My laptop in 2007 had an Intel GPU, which worked very well out-of-the-box in Fedora. But I also had a desktop with an NVIDIA chip. It functioned by default, but only in a very primitive way. In order to get the NVIDIA chip to support graphical acceleration and decent screen resolution, you had to install a closed-source driver. That was easier said than done because to run the installation script, you had to stop your display entirely and work from a terminal.

In retrospect, the process was not very difficult for anyone with command-line experience. You just downloaded the script, made the file executable with chmod and ran it with a ./ command. But for a Linux neophyte like myself, it was a huge challenge. I suppose the work paid off, though, because it was a sort of baptism by fire in learning about the CLI.

A decade later, it has been years since I have had to install a display driver manually on Linux. Mostly that has been because all of the computers I have acquired since I began using Linux have Intel GPUs. But I gather that NVIDIA chips are now much better supported in Linux, thanks to open source driver projects like nouveau.

Office Software

I was impressed in 2007 by OpenOffice, the office software that came preinstalled with most Linux distributions. It more than met my needs at the time, which mostly involved writing mediocre history and English papers for my college courses. And I loved that it had a neat button for turning any type of document into a PDF file. My friends were jealous of that.

However, my relationship with OpenOffice and its descendant, LibreOffice (which I now use most of the time), has become rockier since 2007. Both platforms remain solid office suites. But my requirements for compatibility with Microsoft Office are much more strict today. I now write scholarly articles and books (not to mention mediocre blog posts). Every academic press with which I have ever worked expects files to be submitted in Word format, and I need to ensure that everything I see when working on a document is identical to what the editors will see when opening it in Word. For that reason, I keep Word on my Linux system and run it via Wine when I am working on a manuscript. I still use LibreOffice for writing less official documents, however.

PDF Readers

Working with PDF files is the one area that has perhaps become more challenging during my decade as a desktop Linux user.

Back in 2007, you could install a native version of Adobe Acrobat Reader on Linux. But Adobe stopped supporting Linux with Reader 9.

In general that’s not a problem. Open source PDF readers can display most PDF documents just fine. But occasionally, I need to work with special types of PDFs that, for whatever silly reason, are only compatible with Acrobat. (Here’s an example.) I have yet to find a good solution to this. Acrobat 9 installed on Ubuntu won’t let me make comments on PDF documents. I can’t get the Windows version of Acrobat 11 to work via Wine. As a workaround, I have to boot up a Windows virtual machine. I curse Adobe while I wait for the Windows virtual machine to boot, and long for the days when Acrobat Reader “just worked” on Linux.

Netflix

Last but not least there’s Netflix. The change here is pretty simple. Back in 2007, when Netflix streaming first debuted, it did not work with Linux at all.

Then, in 2012, it became possible to run Netflix on Linux using a special script that was not supported by Netflix. By 2014 Netflix officially supported Ubuntu. Today, the service “just works” for me in Chrome — which is good because Netflix is the only thing standing between me and the outrageous cost of cable.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Open Source

Related


  • Hottest Ticket in Town
    Channel Partners Virtual 2021 Is the Hottest Ticket in Town
    And that means any town, since it’s 100% online. Will you be there?
  • Build a Cloud
    IBM’s Hybrid Cloud Build Team Helps Partners ‘Like Never Before’
    Big Blue is betting big on hybrid cloud. Now it’s helping the channel bring those environments to life, fast.
  • Roll out
    Linux Security Provider Capsule8 Rolls Out First Partner Program
    The program will help Capsule8 build upon its existing market momentum.
  • Channel Chief
    EMC, Cisco Vet Named SoftIron Channel Chief
    SoftIron is a challenger in the data center appliances industry.

One comment

  1. Avatar Anonymous February 24, 2017 @ 4:58 pm
    Reply

    Great post! It’s exciting to
    Great post! It’s exciting to think about what the next ten years will bring!

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • IBM Names CEO of New Managed Services Spinoff
  • AWS Still Chasing JEDI, Blasts Trump Administration Again
  • AWS Partners Flooded with New Capabilities, Opportunities at re:Invent
  • Centreon Partners Get Access to Reinvented Partner Program

Galleries

View all

Channel Partners Virtual 2021 Is the Hottest Ticket in Town

February 26, 2021

Industry Perspectives

View all

The “Roaring 20s” Are Coming

February 25, 2021

Three Ways MSPs Can Improve Supply Chain Security

February 24, 2021

SASE: The Key to Mitigating Business Transformation Risk

February 22, 2021

Webinars

View all

A Partner’s Perspective on Channel Success in 2021

March 17, 2021

XDR and Why it Matters to MSPs

March 24, 2021

Top Security Trends Impacting Technology Security Providers In 2021

March 25, 2021

White Papers

View all

Ready To Add Cutting Edge IoT Solutions To Your Portfolio?

  • 1
February 25, 2021

What Is The Value Of Distribution For The Internet Of Things?

February 25, 2021

The Internet of Things (IoT): Where do You Begin?

  • 1
February 25, 2021

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Virtual

March 2, 2021 - March 4, 2021

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

November 1, 2021 - November 4, 2021

Videos and Fastchats

View all

FASTCHAT: How SOAR Eliminates Security Challenges and Elevates Service Provider Revenues

January 6, 2021

Happy Holidays from Channel Partners & Channel Futures!

December 21, 2020

FASTCHAT: How Old, Unpatched Technologies Are Creating New Security Threats for MSPs and Their Customers

December 3, 2020

Twitter

ChannelFutures

Amazon WorkSpaces @awscloud DaaS client will be available on @IGEL_Technology virtual endpoint client OS.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 26, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@VMware cutting more workers in California as part of ongoing #workforcerebalancing. #layoffs… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 26, 2021
ChannelFutures

#CPVirtual is March 2-4. It’s the hottest ticket in town — any town, since it’s 100% online — so make sure you have… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 26, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@datto, @ThreatLocker partner to streamline #MSP secure business operations. dlvr.it/RtYvJK https://t.co/nKGnwbblNO

February 26, 2021
ChannelFutures

Infographic: Why Partner with Sierra Wireless and GetWireless? dlvr.it/RtYh1m https://t.co/KcBFzXIx7l

February 26, 2021
ChannelFutures

Infographic: The Sierra Wireless Essential Series dlvr.it/RtYgxv https://t.co/CatxbRHzXr

February 26, 2021
ChannelFutures

#Threatprotection is no small matter for #MSSPs. Find out what vendors say you have to do this year to protect your… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 26, 2021
ChannelFutures

Cloud strategies and cybersecurity are key, and #COVID19 will have more impact than #Brexit on U.K. channel, says… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 26, 2021

MSSP Insider

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Channel Partners Online

Want more? Find more channel news and analysis on our sister site, Channel Partners.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Online
  • Channel Partners Events
  • MSP 501
  • MSSP Insider
  • IoT World Today
  • Webhostingtalk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X