The Linux Desktop Experience In 2011

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The Linux desktop environment continues to make strides from release to release, and I am a believer that one day in the future we’ll all be using some kind of Linux or UNIX variant, mainly due to the reason that people don’t throw out computers as much as they used to.

For example, let’s say you have a three-year-old laptop and the hard drive craps out, so you buy another hard drive for it. Then you realize you don’t have a Windows installation disc. You have three choices at that point. Sell the laptop as-is with no OS, buy a Windows license so you can get the disc or use Linux. Being the laptop is in fine shape and you just spent cash on a hard drive, you’ll probably try Linux first before any other consideration.

Will Linux work? Yes, it will detect everything and all will run smoothly with just about any modern distribution. Even for your wireless card.

But will you like it? That’s where the user experience comes into play.

How is the Linux desktop experience in 2011? Pretty good, actually.

Although I’ll probably get some flak for this, I personally believe the distribution that gives you, the user, the best desktop environment is Linux Mint. It’s not because of capability, power or whatever technical reason you want to throw in there – it’s the experience.

Linux Mint looks professional. It takes design cues from both Windows and OS X and blends them together in a way that makes sense. Icons are big, colorful and friendly. Menus are laid out in a way that are conducive to getting things done in the most expedient way for the most part.

One thing I want to point out in particular with Linux Mint is that the fonts look correct. It is not the easiest thing to find a Linux distro where every font in every part of the environment looks proper. In some distros, fonts are either way too big or way too small, and some have this weird mish-mash of itty-bitty and overly-large with no happy medium. Linux Mint doesn’t have this problem anywhere. Big kudos to the designers for that.

Another thing I’m keen on is the Software Manager:

Screenshot-Software Manager

This is, by far, the easiest way to get software. Everything is categorized, and there’s also a search bar at top right to simply search for what you want. Installations all go through without a hitch, and as you can see there are literally over 30,000 packages to choose from.

What apps could you actually use?

Finding what you need to get on with your digital life isn’t really an issue, however there are few standards, so to speak, which more or less haven’t changed over the years.

(And yes it is true that for several of the apps listed below, many Linux distributions will come with them already bundled with a standard installation.)

The best office suite in Linux is still OpenOffice or LibreOffice. I personally prefer LibreOffice; it has better icons.

The best instant messenger is still Pidgin.

For webcam stuff, Cheese works very nicely; this is one of the few apps that you’ll only see in a Linux environment. For Windows users this means you can’t test it first without installing a Linux distro, but it’s so simple in operation that testing beforehand really isn’t required. Cheese is more or less like any other webcam software you’ve used. If for example you’ve used Logitech’s Webcam Software, you already know what to expect in Cheese.

Skype does in fact have a native Linux version. It’s beta, but it does exist.

For those of you that still use an email client, Mozilla Thunderbird is there as is Evolution. I personally prefer Thunderbird. Several other clients are available, but those two are probably the ones you’ll like best.

For video editing there’s several suites to choose from, but you probably want something simple that gets the job done quickly. Avidemux will suit here – and there’s also Mac and Windows versions. Awful name (pronounced ah-vee-deh-mucks or ay-vigh-dee-myoo or ay-vee-eye-deh-myoo?), but good app.

There are many browsers for a Linux desktop environment, but as far as the ones you already know and can operate with minimal fuss, there’s Firefox, Google Chrome and Chromium.

For IRC chatting, the tried-and-true X-Chat still rules the roost.

Image editing is handled by GIMP. It’s a bit unnerving at first because GIMP has a very specific way it ‘likes’ to do things, but once you’re used to it (which won’t take long) you’ll get along with it fine.

Photo management is handled by F-Spot. This is a very nicely done app, no question.

In the cloud-based department, Dropbox works very well in the Linux desktop environment.

Connecting hardware stuff

Printers: If you have a printer that just prints, CUPS has a very large database of printer drivers and should detect it without issue. However it’s still true that print/scan/fax types still only "sort of" work. It largely depends on what printer you have and how long it’s been on the market (so drivers could be written for it in a Linux environment).

Keyboards and Mice: Simpler is better here. Standard USB keyboards and mice will connect and operate without issue. However if you have something like a Microsoft wireless keyboard that requires special proprietary software just to work, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work 100% in a Linux environment. This isn’t to say it won’t work, because it will, but it’s unlikely all features will be enabled beyond basic keyboard functions.

Trackpads: This is specific to laptops. If you have a laptop that’s two years old or older, Linux should detect it properly and have all features of the trackpad enabled. If newer, it’s a crapshoot whether it will work correctly or not. Check the HCL first (example: Dell notebooks).

Wireless cards: Again, check the HCL.

Digital cameras: Most digital cameras and digital camcorders have very simple USB connectivity that should allow you to connect and download files from the device easily. Alternatively you can just pop out the card (most likely an SD card) and plug direct into your PC to get the data that way, assuming you have a slot for it.

If you had to switch, you’ll be in good shape

There’s a few other things I should mention:

The installation process is much better across the board

Several major distributions of Linux introduced majorly redesigned installers. For distributions like Mint you’re not going to see a bunch of ‘computery’ crap everywhere but rather a streamlined and very-pro looking installer. Not only it is pro-looking, but you can actually understand what’s going on.

Software installations and uninstallations are much easier

I mentioned this above with Mint’s software manager. Several distributions are following suit by making it much easier to get what you want by selecting a category, clicking the software you want, and it installs. You do the exact reverse to uninstall. Wax on.. wax off..

Software/OS updates are much easier to deal with

Even as little as 2 years ago there were several distributions where the auto-updater for software was just plain broken. That’s not the case anymore. Software updates download properly, install properly and let you get on with your business. Yes, sometimes an update is installed that requires a reboot, but that’s par for the course with any modern OS.

Stable apps – not just "apps for the sake of apps"

For a while, the Linux community boasted something to the effect of, "Yeah we know Windows can run X, but we have Y!" What they didn’t say is that Y sucked and was a crash-happy mess. Fortunately for the most part that isn’t the case anymore if you stick to the supported software packages (meaning not going ‘universal’). Using Mint as an example, as long as you remain within those 30,000+ apps, every single thing in there should run with no issues. Go outside that and you may enter crash-happy territory. It is in all honesty unlikely you would go outside the supported app list, because if you can’t locate what you want with 30,000+ apps to choose from, well..

Yes, you can use this and like it

Linux nerds are quick to say, "Everybody can use Linux." True. But using the environment compared to using it and liking it are two different things.

The Linux desktop experience now in 2011 is something people can actually use and like. It’s at a point where the apps you need are there. The environment now has proper font, color and menu treatment, meaning it actually looks like something you would buy. Yes, it’s that good.

Performance of a Linux environment has always been fast, but not necessarily stable. At this point the environment is stable enough to trust it for daily use. It is unlikely you would have to "kill" any app for getting stuck in a process/crashing/etc. like you had to a few years ago.

The only things in Linux that are crash-happy are what are known to be crash-happy. An example of this is your friend and mine, Adobe Flash. Flash is one of the very few things that will crash a Mac easily. It will also crash Linux easily. However this is not a fault of OS X, UNIX or Linux. Flash for whatever reason just doesn’t "like" those environments and as such bugs out. Your solution to this ever-present issue with Flash is to use a browser that loads tabs as different processes. In other words, use Chromium. If a tab with Flash bugs out, just close the tab and move on.

If you have a good working computer where you just don’t want to spend cash for a Windows license, Linux is there for you. If you tried it before but it ultimately left you frustrated to the point of uninstalling it, I’m relatively certain that won’t be the case this time around and you’ll like it much better – maybe even for keeps.

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Brother LC51M
I like your blog full of information thanks for sharing this to us
jdeb
I have to agree with you Rich about Mint being the best desktop environment. It clearly is the easiest and recognizes hardware the best. For the Windows user, this is the choice. I have been installing it with the Xfce desktop on all my budget builds. It gets Flash and NVIDIA correct out of the box. I have yet to see it fail a wireless card as well. This is what the average user want’s and it delivers. I personally use Slackware because it’s totally configurable but the majority of the people would not want this.

Rich
Mint is one of the very few that gets it right the first time. Xubuntu 11.04, which as you know uses Xfce, is great save for one thing – a ridiculously stupid OS X-like dock bar at the bottom installed by default in combination with panels. Yes, really. It’s like a tacked-on afterthought. Other than that the new Xubuntu graybird theme is super-cool all around, but the font consistency still doesn’t carry through the whole environment like Mint does.
Slackware definitely has tenure (since 1993), but I’m just used to the way Debian does things. Just a personal preference.

T2000kw
I agree with you about Linux Mint, with one exception. I use the LM Debian Edition and often, when letting it update the system and program files, it refuses to update because of what it calls a broken package. When using apt-get to get around this, it’s possible to mess up the installation. I locked my LMDE to Squeeze stable so that it won’t be updating so often and won’t be updating with packages that aren’t compatible with each other.
Either way, it’s great. If you don’t lock it to Debian stable, you just can close the updater when it complains and try again a week or so later. Or, you can update a few packages at a time until you get to the one that won’t update, and skip that one and get it a week or so later. Updates usually aren’t critical, and you can just update the critical and system stuff (level 1) if you want to.
There also is Linux Mint based on Ubuntu instead of Debian unstable. I prefer the Debian one. They both use Debian packages but I don’t like the way Ubuntu is headed with their default desktop, the way they’ve handled things in the last few years, and I have a few other issues with it also. Some of the developers left to go with other distributions when Shuttleworth forced upon them the decision to not use Gnome as the default desktop. I believe it had something to do with Gnome not caving in to his demands that they get in step with the 6 month release cycle like Ubuntu uses.
Donald
Jahmaal
Nice post! I agree with you on all points. I started using linux based OSes a few years ago and I definitely see huge improvements. I started with Ubuntu, but I am not using Arch Linux. I have tried Mint a while back but in the last 2 years I have not tried any other distro. My biggest issue with Ubuntu(and perhaps derivatives) is that whenever there was a major upgrade, the system would break. It ended up really buggy and a fresh install of the new version was necessary. The rolling release system that Arch Linux has is excellent, not to mention the system is always up to date. The app database is also huge – between the official repositories and the user maintained repository any linux app can be found(but the user repository can potentially run into that crash-happy app zone you mentioned). I would recommend Arch for anyone if it were not for the “advanced” configuration necessary. It took me about 2-3 hours to set my system up to a workable daily-use install and an extra hour or 2 to get the system working 100% as I would like it. This brings to attention the Arch-based Chakra Project which aims to address the “new to linux” problem. I would highly recommend giving it a try.
As for the desktop experience, I find it great. DE’s have gotten more intuitive, more user friendly, more pleasing to the eyes, and remains unbloated(While there are many ultra-light DE’s out there, I still find Gnome pretty light compared to say windows or KDE). My printer, touchpad(with multi-touch support), mouse, camera, and anything else I use(like the SD card slot) all work perfectly. Out of those the printer was the only thing that needed some configuration(through CUPS) but that can be said of any OS. My favorite part is the speed of it all. Anything from opening a folder with thousands of 3mb pictures, to starting HD videos happens lightning fast. When I try to start playing even low quality videos in windows with mplayer it seems to take about 3-4 seconds(and lets not start with WMP), while in Arch mplayer starts instantly. A few huge positives over Windows is that 1. You don’t have to worry about anything hijacking your system(*cough* Apple update *cough*) or adding anything unwantedly(like chrome trying to installing with skype or something) 2. Viruses. With unix permissions the user has to know if they are doing something to break their system(assuming they know where they are putting their password). This also means no running anti-virus and hence more resources for things you care about. 3. My computer is running only the software I told it to and only what it needs to run, keeping it light.
The only thing that does not work on linux(for me) is blu-ray playback on my laptop and it won’t be supported, as far as I know. The drive still works for everything else, though. Also I have not tested the HDMI port.
IMO the desktop experience has vastly improved but it is still hard to get the most out of your system without tinkering a bit. This means that the average user can have a system that does most(emails, skype, office tools, a couple games, media, etc.) of what they want, but they still have to get down and dirty to do everything they want. There is much room for improvement but now it is about on par with Windows(I find myself logging on to windows to use an app(usually a game) and switching back to Arch ASAP).

T2000kw
Linux Mint Debian Edition is a rolling release also. I locked it to Debian stable (squeeze) to keep the updates from causing any problems. Most of the time they didn’t cause any problems, but they did twice, and I didn’t like that.

Jahmaal
Ahh I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks. I might give it a try. Rolling release is so great it is now a pre-requisite for me. The only other distro that I know of that has a rolling release is Foresight Linux. There is one more that I can’t name at the moment.
I did have some issues with Gnome Shell but that was due to incompatabilities with other apps(mainly compiz)

Duncan Murimi
I have been using Ubuntu for the last4 years and i must say Linux has grown in leaps and bounds. I think in the next five years Linux will have increased its market share to more than 10%. I hope as they do this they will make using Linux out of the box, easier and also ship more new laptops/computers with linux preinstalled.