Predicting failure pattern for Linux

 

Most windows user are shy to give Linux a chance. The reason is, that they expect that something with the installation will fail. Failure means, that the graphics card isn't detected, that that hardware isn't able to connect to the internet and that the newly installed system won't boot anymore.

In spite of so much positive articles how wonderful Linux is, that fear of Windows users is right. Especially if they have bought recent hardware in a store the chance is high that all the Linux distributions won't work.

Or let me explain it the other way around: First assumption is that the electronics stores are selling brandnew laptops. Second assumption is, that especially computer experts are buying the latest hardware because they want the maximum performance and high quality LED screen. So the resulting situation is, that the user sits on an advanced computer but Linux won't work with this machine. The strength of Linux is, that it will run on older computers which were sold 2 years before.

This kind of mismatch can't be fixed by a single user. No matter if he is using Debian; Linux Mint or Arch Linux. The chance is high that the kernel won't recognize the chipset and the only one who can fix the problem is Linus torvalds in the upstream.

From a communication situation it is interesting to describe who feels in charge to fix the problems. Nobody feels responsible. The Linux distribution will argue, that it depends on the kernel to detect recent hardware. The kernel maintainer will argue, that the hardware is available for only 6 months which is too short to write a driver and the hardware vendor will argue, that the system was tested with Windows but not with Linux.

Instead of judging who is wrong in this game let us make a simple thought experiment. Suppose 100 randomly selected new laptops are choosen. How many of them will work with Linux? 10% or less. The rest will have major problems for wifi, gpu and SSDs. None of these problems can be fixed by changing a config file, but they have to do with writing new sourcecode in the upstream. This makes Linux a useless operating system for new computers. And this means if Windows are shy to give Linux a chance they are right. They are estimating that Linux won't boot and this will happen in the reality.