Why Linux Won't Be A Popular OS Any Time Soon

Yesterday, I went out with a few friends for some billiards. Of course, since we're all nerds, we got to talking about open source software for 3 hours at Tim Hortons. This happens pretty much every time I'm in Toronto and hang out with these people. I love it. We play pool, drink coffee, and talk about technology. I enjoy having a group of friends that I can have these conversations with. :)

Anyway, yesterday we touched on the topic of Linux becoming a popular operating system for the masses. One friend thought that Linux was on it's way to become a popular OS for the average computer user. I disagree. Linux still has the image of an operating system made for experienced computer users. Until  they break this image, they will never be accessible to the average user. For example, look at troubleshooting in Linux. Google any common problem you might have in Linux, and the first page of results will all be cryptic command line tricks to get something to work. The language used is often way over the head of a lot of computer users. The average computer user will be intimidated by this. Until Linux changes this culture of just encouraging people to use command line to solve any problem, they're never going to become popular with average users.

So is this command line culture ever going to change? Maybe. But not anytime soon. A lot of members in the Linux community probably don't consider making GUIs on top of a few simple commands. Even though this is exactly what it would take to get people to use Linux more. I would argue that this community is not thinking about usability as much as they should be.

What do you guys think? Do you see this as a problem for Linux? Do you see it being solve any time soon?

Pet Peeve #582: Bad Documentation

At work, I've been using GWT, and for the most part I've really enjoyed it. Occasionally though, I get frustrated by some things. For example AutoBean, a JSON-to-Java object parser for GWT, has almost no documentation. The Google Code wiki page is literal one of the only pieces of documentation out there, and it's quite bare. :/

Today I had to parse JSON lists using AutoBean. Here is the only relevant statement I was able to find:

List and Set properties are encoded as JSON lists. For example, a List<Person> would be encoded as:

[ { "name" : "John Doe" } , { "name" : "Jim Smith" }]

No information on how to go the other. Not cool. I had to do a lot of experimenting to find out that AutoBean only accepts something like this right now:

{ people=[ { "name" : "John Doe" } , { "name" : "Jim Smith" }]}

Hopefully this will be improved for the next release.

Also, there were very few code examples online. Open source software can be really cool in that they provide a lot of really useful tools, but their lack of support is quite frustrating. This is not to say that all open source software has horrible documentation, but in my experience, it is usually worse than the Proprietary equivalents. Just take a look at MSDN vs Oracle's Java documentation. Thankfully, a co-worker helped me find a workaround that he had used in a different project.

Anyway, time to learn everything to there is to learn about Flash/AIR/ActionScript 3. Our J3WAO sprint ends tomorrow, and we still have a lot (all) of our development left to do. :P

Why Android Sucks

Check out this article talking about a well-known messaging issue with Android phones. Essentially, this bug can result in sending your text to the wrong contact. I've personally experienced this problem. Thankfully, I only texted Keyar instead of another friend about something generally unimportant("When are you coming over?"). I was quite confused when Keyar said, "Why did you ask me when I was coming over?" from the same room as me.

Really, Android?! You can't even get basic messaging working correctly? Really? How the hell did this slip through their QA? Not impressed. You can't release a program with a serious issue like this. To make things even worse, this bug has been a known issue in since July, and until yesterday(!) it was marked as a 'medium' priority fix! What the hell? Thankfully, it's now reassigned as a 'critical' priority bug. That only took 6 months. This certainly doesn't look very good on open source development.

I have no idea how Android is doing so well in sales with issues like this. A phone that can't reliably communicate is useless. I can only imagine how many problems this bug has caused for Android users everywhere.

Dear Google, be better.

End Of The Open-Source Curse?

Some of you might know that I have a history of bad luck with open source software. Some would say that it hates me. Open source software tends to fail in interesting ways for me. For instance, my last two installations of Ubuntu had lame driver issues. I seem to have a lot of problems with Android, too.

However, yesterday I installed Ubuntu without any problems! I didn't have to do any driver fiddling to get anything to work! I was quite happy. Perhaps my curse with open source software is over. Maybe it doesn't hate me anymore! :) What a way to welcome in the new year!

Speaking of which, happy new year everyone! I had a relaxed new year's party with Dani and Jesse. We enjoyed some wine and watched movies. It was a great night. You should check out Jesse's newly redesigned site. It looks quite pretty! :)

I am excited for all the interesting things this year. First, I have work starting on the 3rd with Karos Health. I am really excited to start working there, although I'm also quite nervous. I have never done web development on this scale before, so I think I will be learning a lot in my first couple weeks. My next school semester also seems pretty exciting. I am taking History of Mathematics with my favorite professor, Steven Furino. I have been looking forward to this class since first year. Yay!

Hopefully you all had a fun new year's party. Stay classy. :)